Featured & New Tasting Notes

This one is from Daylon R Thomas quite a while ago. Thank you! I had to open the packaging, so I trust this note is a little accurate.  It’s quite a unique scent to the dry leaf.  Much different than most black teas.  The light brew has flavors of cucumber, and I swear it’s not because of the abundance of cucumbers in the house right now…  None of them are cut open cucumbers anyway, creating a waft of cucumber scent in the house, so I do believe it’s the tea.  Second, I notice lychee and probably some other exotic fruits.  Then turning to peach. It’s a unique one!  I definitely wouldn’t lump this with Ruby 18 varietal (even though it is ACTUALLY stored in the same box as a Ruby and the leaves look fairly similar.)  The second steep was STRONG.  Possibly a bit too much, tasting more like a harsh, astringent, typical black tea… which leads me to realize I might be overdoing the steeps for these types of leaves on the second steep.  I will try to be gentler in the future…
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minutes

Cold Brew Sipdown (2653)!

Finally finishing off this older sample. It was a pretty average cold brew that sort of just tasted like straight peppermint so it was expectedly a little bit herbaceous with a soft menthol finish. Less crisp/cooling than other mint teas I’ve had and I’ve gotta assume that’s a mix of age, the fact it’s cut with a woodier tasting rooibos, and the origin of the peppermint itself.

I wish there was a smidge more sweetness and “cream” to sell the candy cane angle but still a refreshing peppermint blend name aside.

From Cameron B!  Thanks again!  I can’t complain about the lack of strength to this black tea!  It’s a kicker.  It tastes like a mix of Ceylon and Assam.  Might be TOO strong for afternoon… but I don’t think I have that problem.  Then there is a nice sweetness to it, with a maple flavor.  I definitely think this is more of a breakfast tea. I forgot there was green tea included here… I didn’t notice it.
Steep #1 // teabag for a mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

A customer at work got the last of Earl Gold Reserve this morning, in the original bag, so if he likes it, he knows where to go!

One of these days I’ll get around to taking notes on this tea.

As soon as I read Cameron B’s note for this one a while ago, I knew I wanted to try it.  So I was very happy Cameron made it available!  I am a sucker for candy cane teas, and this one sounded extra… I want to say lovingly… constructed as a blend.  It has so many extra elements to it:    Cocoa nibs AND shells?  mini marshmallows? Candy cane bits AND peppermint?  And I’m happy to report the flavor is just as great.  It’s almost like a candy cane ice cream, which is one of my favorite types of ice cream.  It’s both white chocolate/ vanilla flavored and also chocolate. Peppermint that is more dessert like than herbal. It’s a great balance all around. I just wish the marshmallows would melt more.  Very happy with this one!  
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons for a mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 minute steep

Probably it was Shae who sent me a few tea bags of this tea; but I just put them into my stash in the place which I don’t check often and how surprised I have been to see so many teas there, so neglected!
So, this was in closed zip-lock bag, so I took it out and brought to work. Because only flavoured black tea I have there is Earl Grey (from Czech company), which isn’t very good in fact; and I don’t want to have huge stash in the office as I am not sure how long I will stay there (I may work in different office, not company — at least for now). I just looked and see this is caffeine-free blend. It’s not flavoured black tea? :O

I digressed greatly from the tea I haven’t even started writing about…
Well, honestly it surprised me how sweet it is. Not in a bad way, however I thought it is definitely more sour.
But it’s fine and definitely easy drinkable, in easy preparation method so I don’t have to take care too much, which is definitely a virtue for me in those stressful work days from early hours.

Not tasting much of the cake either recently; the pastry flavour is a little bit missing, but yes, I will finish my small stash of this fast.

Shae and others who joined me in the TTB last time I took part, thank you. And also thank you Devon that I actually could try that and I was really sure I need it to have with me. Now I have… and maybe I am not that much impressed anymore, but still, I like it. No tossing out.

2024 Sipdown Challenge | August | A calming tea

Logging a second “calming tea” for this month’s challenge, because why not?! This one was a gift from a fellow intern who brought me some teas from Leaf & Petal in Virginia. Their website lists Vida pour Tea as the source, so!

Anyway, this one does what it says on the tin (er, pouch). It’s quite delicate, all things considered, with the lavender and rose hitting first, followed by a little bit of vanilla holding up the end. Super soothing and a lovely little wind-down tea.

2024 sipdown count: 28

This is the other tea my friends Rahel & Kees gave me as a present when we saw each other (we had seen Rahel “only” ;-) 6 years ago, but Kees I hadn´t seen for 30 years!!!) 10 days ago.
Also black tea based (Rahel & Kees surely knew what I like!) with added sea buckthorn and juniper…which gives a fresh aromatic touch to the tea, both dry as steeped. As I prepared my cuppa in a glass mug, I could also enjoy the really nice dark cupper colour of the steeped tea.

Lot 1308 from Spring 2024

It feels like the strength and power in this tea was expertly sealed into each leaf.

It’s a fun one. So savory, sweet and viscous. Clean, buoyant and coating. Masculine. Cool medicinal. No weak hay/straw white tea notes. Tannins do not stand out at all.

Tobacco, wintergreen, bay leaf and black cardamom mingle with a fresh vegetable stew. Don’t wrinkle your nose. Give it a try.

Billy Strings — Long Journey Home

Brought back to me from Greece by one of my local tea drinking buddies. She had a cup of it while traveling and loved it.
The tea leaves remind me of dried sage with big, fuzzy leaves and a green/grey color. I have used just a pinch of the leaves in my infuser and it is enough for a steep or two.
Packaging recommended 100C for 5-10. I went with 5 minutes. The tea is light brown in color. Very herbaceous, as expected, with an earthy flavor. There is a very slight sweetness but I enjoy it more with a smidge of honey.

Your sleepiest guy reporting for duty.

The color of this tea is so deep, dark, and rich that, paired with the warm spices and a touch of astringency, it exudes red wine and makes pinning down the flavors just a little more difficult. All of that and the fact that I am, in fact, bad at it, but I also find it interesting how divided the reviews on this tea are when it comes to the profile. What we can all agree on seems to be that it is very dark.

The fruitiness is most pronounced in the aroma of the dry leaves and has me dancing between strawberry and apple, but clove infused with the sweetness of cinnamon emerges as the prevailing flavor of the steep. That will have to satisfy us, as the exact ingredients appear to be a guarded secret and picking through the leaves isn’t the most forthcoming occupation to this end. The weather is a little warm still to fully appreciate this one but I am sure it will have its time.

This was popped into a end of season gift to me from one a family I work with. I had another variety from this company and wasn’t super impressed. This one I liked more. There’s a sweet honey scent to it as I popped the bag into my mug. It has a good peach flavor and is very sweet. The tea itself even has the color of a honeyed peach, which I’m sure is a coincidence and not by design. I could see this doing really well over ice as well.
Perhaps I drank it at the wrong time of day… the tag on the tea bag says it’s blended especially for twilight sunsets.

Totally forgot about the (unnecissary) butterfly pea flower in this blend until I started steeping the mug and it turned an unpleasant watery blue/green colour. Really adds nothing of value to the tea. Taste wise it was nice, though! Mostly a very generic floral flavour from the many different elements in the blend that mix together into a soft, pleasant sour of potpourri vibe. The jasmine does come through maybe a little more strongly. Anyway, I was craving floral and soothing and this tea did deliver on that pretty well even if the cup was pretty light.

When I say this is one of the best that I’ve ever had I am saying a lot. I drink mine plain. And I’ve tried a ton of matcha from many different companies. Mandarcha is an amazing company. If you are ever in Kyoto make sure to put it on your Must Do List. It is there that I discovered this matcha. I fell in love with the incredible aroma. Something I can’t quite put into words but after visiting a matcha milling facility in Nara I’ve realized that matcha literally smells like matcha. Sure you could say creamy, a bit vegetal, with some unique marine hints but this is just the smell of high-quality, fresh matcha. And the coloring is divine. A gorgeous green. I feel so melancholy seeing the last of the powder going into my chawan. T_T. It’s available online but just not the same as purchasing it in-store. Oh, so creamy. The texture is absolutely amazing. The powder stays suspended fabulously. This pairs well with Ghibli’s music.

As I was poking through my tea boxes and shelves mumbling about wanting a black tea for breakfast, my daughter who lives with us poked her head around the corner and asked if I would like a fruity black tea? Now I was intrigued.

She had bought it as a “after your biopsy results” gift but the results came early and by phone and the tea wasn’t here yet, so when she heard, she went out and bought me candles and chocolate instead.

The results were that I have invasive breast cancer recurrence, so it was called the “I’m sorry it is cancer” present instead of the “yay, it’s not cancer!” present. How sweet! <3

The tea came in a few days later as expected, and she held on to it until the right moment, which was today!

I have had this on my wishlist for a while, mostly because of the reviews from CameronB and Michelle. They were spot on in their descriptions.

The base is not super strong, the sage blends almost seamlessly with it and rounds out a full savory note, and the raspberry is light but not artificial tasting. I expected the raspberry to be a little stronger but I think it evokes a national park much more at this level. Overall, I think the balance is achieving exactly what they hoped when they blended it.

I think this is going to be a stellar fall tea, and quite suitable for afternoons as well as mornings.

This tastes mostly like clove along with the brisk black tea. It’s not amazing or nuanced, but not bad with sugar and milk. The clove leaves my tongue tingling. I shared this with my partner who agreed there was too much clove. You can taste a bit of other spice, but not much.

Another from Cameron B!  Thanks again!  Lupicia never fails — the scent of the leaf here was very faint, but of course steeping it, the Lupicia magic happens and it’s full red apple!  Also a hint of champagne.  So good.  (And of course, Lupicia also has a fantastic GREEN apple flavor…)

Thanks very much, Cameron B!  I had this one a few days ago, so… here comes a short note.  I always thought this one sounded interesting and unique.  An odd mix of ingredients to represent ‘cereal’.  There is only a hint of sweetness in the first steep and then the second steep gets really REALLY medicinal tasting, or like something way too strongly plant-like.  A plant in a field.  Mustard? Something very yellow. hmm… It’s VERY odd the difference between the two steeps.  But either one, I wouldn’t call caramel cereal flavored.

A lovely tea with plenty of bitterness without being overpowering. It also has a thick, creamy mouthfeel, herbal aromas (thyme flowers), and juicy fruity flavours. These include hints of sugarcane, citrus fruits, apricot, black currants, raspberries, and plums.

Came home tired from work today, so I picked the very same tea bag I had on my desk; and I’m glad I did.
It was delicate green tea, slightly grassy and jasmine level was just right. Definitely not overpowering the base tea flavours, and not so weak either. It was clearly jasmine, and considering it was just a tea bag… colour me impressed!

Food pairing: cold, unbaked blackberry-quark cake. Great pairing!

This is from the big box o’ tea sent by Youngest – many thanks!

I am happy to report that I DID sleep last night even though I couldn’t resist a cup of Violette from Dammann Freres shortly before bedtime. Perhaps keeping it to just five ounces or so is the key.

This morning I was in the mood to have a fruity tea again and this one had intrigued me since I first saw it. Opening the pouch, the aroma is first strong fig, a hint of molasses (from the base probably), and then there was a minty aroma which I realized was the lavender. Lavender and rosemary both can smell minty to me.

Steeped, this is a lighter black tea base than Violette. The aroma is strongly fig, and I feel like I am biting into a piece of toast spread with Bonne Maman fig jam. It even conveys the sweetness of the jam to me, and that’s without adding sugar! It is just that evocative of the scent, I suppose.

I find the lavender to be pretty light and the fig to be the dominant flavor. It is delicious, and I bet it would make a wonderful fruity sweet iced tea as well.

Thank you, again, Youngest!

This is a sample sipdown from a box of tea sent by Youngest – many thanks!

I have never been a rooibos fan but I was curious about this one and decided I needed a quiet and solitary cup of decaf before bed last night.

It really wasn’t bad! The bergamot wasn’t harsh and really tasted altered by the base, while the rooibos came off very woody which slightly offset the Robitussin taste. I had made the whole sample and decided to chill the rest, unsweetened, to have with lunch.

Cold and with food, I found that it left an aftertaste far longer than I liked. After the first sip, I decided to just save it to chug after the meal rather than altering the flavor of all of my food.

I greatly preferred the way it tasted hot. I can even see developing a real taste for this if one drink it often enough. It reminds me much more of the Fortnum and Mason plain rooibos tea than of Harney and Sons organic rooibos, the only two plain rooibos teas I have tried.

Found in the back of my desk at work, I realized this little packet that came from my boyfriend’s brother back in January (who got it from his fiancée). It sat there for so long because:

1) It’s powdered green tea. We’ve all had bad experiences with that.
2) The blatant health claims on the packet and the healthy lifestyle marketing both rub me wrong.

Yesterday was an absolute shit day. I’m recovering slowly today. Don’t have the desire to make tea. Perfect chance to try this little gift. I opted for warm preparation over cold.

It pours out of the packet looking like turmeric powder (expires April 2025). A strange, thick white foam forms on the top after adding hot water. Looks like dark, clear apple cider. Tastes like very old oxidized green tea powder, that brown taste, you know it. Not in your face, but that taste is there. The spearmint is nice, not overdone, but my mouth is left with a sticky dry sweetness I don’t enjoy.

It’s overall not as scary is it sounds but never would I buy it and I certainly do not recommend it, not even for situations that might call for such an ease-of-use product. This is trash. My stomach hurts.

Thanks again, Cameron B! I love when a strawberry tea actually has flavor, and this one does! It’s strawberries and cream for sure. It surprises me that this black tea consists of Ceylon and Keemun… it must be only a few tiny leaves of Keemun in the entire pouch, as I’m not noticing any keemun qualities at all. But I’m fine with such a light black tea being a bit disappointing in this case, because the strawberry cream flavor is so spot on and so delicious. Yuuum. I think my short, tame steep time really works on this one.