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C is for…Cola Crush

Had this iced in honour of the day. Not much new to say about it.

Sipdown (206)

C is for…Caramel Corn

I’m enjoying this one. It looked a bit like a Genmaicha on a black tea base but the apple in it really sweetens everything up. It’s also got a lot of caramel notes which is giving me the caramel corn vibes it’s supposed to – just caramel corn with a lot of apple.

ETA: If this cools, even a little, it starts getting astringent, which really detracts from it as a whole. That’s sad because at its hottest, too hot to drink really, it was nice.

C is for…Cotton Candy

This one is so popular and I’m always disappointed by it. I actually really like the DAVIDsTEA version of Cotton Candy because that feel more accurate to me. This is more fruity sugar water. Like someone took Berry sugar crystals and dumped them into my cup…with one waxy piece of fruit. It’s fine but I definitely prefer other Cotton Candy teas to this – probably for the best since Necessiteas is such a pain to get ahold of.

Sipdown (207)

C is for…Candied Orange

I don’t like this. While it’s definitely orange, it’s pithy and bitter and not for me.

Salted Caramel Sweet Cream Cold Foam Sipdown (208)

B is for…Butterbeer

Check out the pics of all the “B” teas here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRAY5sQhdcF/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This is my 6000th TASTING NOTE!

I tried to think of a fun tea to have for this note but then I realized I would rather have another B tea and one that would make a good latte. I also realized I had one “B” tea that would make a good latte AND was caffeine free and as my 8th cup of the day, that seemed like a good call. It also ended up being a surprise sipdown, which was nice. That makes 4 sipdowns for today alone. Yay!

As for this tea, it made for a nice latte. I found this tended to be much more root beer than butterbeer to me. Today, with the salted caramel from the cream, it was slightly more butterbeer than it had been in the past. However, it also was a touch peppery from the honeybush base. It was good but I always found myself wanting more of the actual butterbeer flavor and less of the base/root beer. I don’t think I would get this one again – unless I forgot I had it before and add it to an order as I rushed to beat the selling out of the Necessitea’s entire stock.

Iced Tea Sipdown (209)

B is for…Blueberry Blast

I didn’t have high hopes for this for whatever reason but it’s very light and has a nice berry flavour. Not really memorable but not bad.

B is for…Blooming Rose Black Tea and a mini battle of the rose teas with TWG Tea’s Bains de Rose, which you can see here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/420611

As mentioned in my note for Bains de Rose, this isn’t just a plain rose tea, as I originally thought. It also has cardamom, pistachio, almond and saffron. That makes it cloudier than the TWG tea and harder to compare.

I don’t get rose immediately because the other flavours are stronger. I do get the drying floral note at the end of the sip that the TWG tea had, but not as strongly. I also think the TWG tea rose flavouring was better but it was minimal and hard to pick out from the bitterness of the base. This overall is a better tea because while the base is floral and drying, the spice covers that up mostly. So I am getting a lot of cardamom. I don’t get much nuttiness or rose though and that’s disappointing. That means I like this better but that doesn’t mean I necessarily like it much.

Sipdown (210)

B is for…Bains de Rose and a mini battle of the rose teas with Vahdam’s Blooming Rose. Check out that note here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/420612

Thank you Roswell Strange for sending a sample of this to me! It was super pretty and loaded with roses but the first cup I had must have used all that leaf because this last little bit was just black tea. Figured I should mention that just in case it factors into the taste of this as a rose tea.

Lookswise, this particular tea is much clearer than the Blooming Rose. That could be because Blooming Rose has some other ingredients that could cloud the liquid.

Taste wise, this is super astringent. Like the rose that I do taste is good but it’s covered up mostly by a drying floral astringency. Is that age? Is that because this is the last of my sample? Is that the tea itself? I don’t know but I don’t like it. I see potential but that bitterness is hard to get past. Not a good start in the battle of rose teas.

B is for…Blueberry Lavender Angel Food Cake

This came in this month’s Dessert by Deb sub box. More and more I know I won’t like a lavender tea. Doesn’t mean I can just immediately toss it into my swap box. You never know when you may find the perfect lavender tea. So, I decided let’s get it over with – I will try it and pass it along if I am not loving it…which I am not. I get a touch of blueberry, no angel food cake, and a whole lot of lavender. Not the best review but for me, it is hard to get past the soapiness to really taste anything else.

B is for…Black Peach

This tea was sent to me as part of a tea care package for me to feature on the Sororitea Sister’s instagram. It was actually a really cute gift idea. Check out my unboxing of it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ1w0JuBQRz/and my pic of the gift set here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ18lfjBIXb/

I grabbed the tea cup to use for a tea pic with another “B” tea but realized maybe I should break out the tea that came with the cup instead.

Nothing about this tea is particularly interesting. It’s called Black Peach and it tastes how you would expect – like peach…on a black tea base. It’s a tiny bit astringent. And the peach is definitely in that fuzzy peach category as opposed to being true-to-the-fruit. Overall, nothing wrong with it but nothing noteworthy either.