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Sipdown (192/196)!

Hooray for sipdown progress!

So, I grossly oversteeped this one. I set it up and had it steeping but was feeling icky and crampy so I sat down for what I told myself would just be “a few minutes” but I just distracted by a few things including a metric fuck ton of FB notifications, albeit delightful ones ;) Around 15 minutes later I remembered the tea! Oh no! I was sure it would be nasty and gross.

But, surprisingly, this is every bit as lovely as it was yesterday: light, buttery coconut and a pleasant black/white base combo with a really soothing affect. Now I’m even more crushed this is a sipdown and a discontinued blend. Obviously it can hold up quite well to some pretty significant user error, and that’s impressive.

With that new knowledge I’m increasing my rating a bit.

Sipdown (193/197)!

This is one of the many samples I received in the mail today from who other than VariaTEA – leave it to her to not only shower me with tea in general but with Nina’s Paris samples.

I wasn’t really sure how I’d react to this one: I’m not exactly the biggest fan of mangoes or mango flavoured things. However, the dry leaf of this smelled incredibly juicy and rich in a very appetizing way so I figured I’d give it a shot. It definitely has a flavour very true to a mango and it’s pretty solidly good, especially considering I don’t like mango a whole lot to begin with. Oddly, I thought it tasted better the more it cooled down though: maybe that’s because there was a faintly floral quality to the hot cup in the end sip that I found less present cold.

VariaTEA sent me two sachets but given my mango aversion I think I’m going to share the tea wealth and send the last one to 221Tea. While I thought this cup was surprisingly good for my own personal tastes I think the one cup was enough to satisfy my curiosity.

PS. I really like this one’s name.

Cold brew with some vanilla vodka thrown into the mix as well. I’ve been sipping on it all day, but honestly I’m really not feeling it that much. There’s a huge distinction between the tea and the vodka: I expected them to blend well but it’s just not happening.

I hate to say it, because it feels like a waste, but I might just toss the last of this one: I’ve about half finished it but I’d like to move on to something else. There’s only so much time for not so good tea…

Sorta Sipdown (193/197)!

I’m jumping down two numbers because the “quest” to find more samples to add to 221Tea’s box of goodies has resulted in my giving her the last of my Asia Cocktail from Tea Desire. It’s not a lot – but I thought I’d share it since I’ve fallen out of love with it and she could possibly really enjoy it. Plus it’s from a company she doesn’t have such easy access to…

This one is also going to her! It’s honestly pretty good – like the fudgey chocolate part of the oreo without the cream (although adding some milk can partly make up for that absence of flavour), I’ve just found that for my tastes it’s a little bit too generic. Besides, it’s easily accessible so if I ever change my mind I can just go and pick more up.

Farewell Oreo Cookie tea! We had a pretty good run and I liked you more than I thought I would…

Sorta Sipdown (195/199)!

Goddamn it VariaTEA – I just finished adding all but one of the teas you sent into my cupboard (I’m waiting to log the unmarked green Nina’s Tin since I don’t know what it is) and of course you’d be so generous as to send me enough tea to push me from 160 to practically 200 again…

Any intention of buying more tea soon has kinda gone out the window for awhile: way to smother someone with kindness! Now I have to scour my cupboard for things you haven’t tried so that I can do the same to you! Mwahahaha!

I suppose this is goodnews for 221Tea though – now I’m even more inspired to add in extra samples to the box I’m sending her so that I can decrease my cupboard space! Alas, I’m out of little portion baggies! I’ll have to pick some up from work tomorrow and then package everything up to go for her by Thursday before work. Goodnews for you though, Rachel – I can’t throw in anything other than what I have already since your package is getting mailed out tomorrow before I have more packaging supplies.

But anyway: this was a good cup to “finish” this one off with: it was buttery without being too buttery and had very light nut and maple notes with a starchy finish: pretty much perfectly a “pancake breakfast” – and of course I made sure to be drinking it at breakfast, just for that added affect.

I hope 221Tea enjoys it!

Sorta Sipdown (162/166)!

Also going to 221Tea. I picked this one out next because I needed a non caffeinated tea to counter balance the string of blacks I had this afternoon, and because it’s surprisingly similar to the Orange Spiced Nut rooibos blend I had from Cuppa’T earlier today.

I have to say that I honestly prefer the Cuppa’T blend to this one – for a bunch of reason. Personally, I think the orange in this blend tastes sort of artificial and “soapy” and I find the sandalwood in it really detracts from the only winning quality this blend has IMO, and that’s the walnut flavour. Tea Desire does walnut very well, and the walnut in this blend tastes awesome albeit very drowned out/overshadowed by the other elements of the blend.

For me it’s too much going on and, like Robin would say in Young Justice, it leaves me feeling “whelmed” (not underwhelmed or overwhelmed – just right in between: sorry, I’ve been watching season one of Young Justice all day and I have a fascination with Robin’s vocabulary). I really hope that 221Tea finds it more enjoyable, especially since she’s a rooibos fan in general.

I, however, am not sad to see this one go although I am glad I made a final, departing mug of it.

Sorta Sipdown (163/167)!

Sending this one off to 221Tea as well. I actually really enjoy it despite how low my rating is; the problem is that it’s super finicky and hard to get right – so good cups are, in my opinion, few and far between. I’m hoping she has an easier time with it though.

This cup was actually pretty good; the almond/amaretto was thick and strong and tread the line between sweet and bitter very well right up until the cup cooled down, but even then it only slightly took on a bitter edge. However, I also kept my steep time on this short: 1 and a half minutes.

So that’s my parting advice to you 221Tea – if you want more good cups than bad cups don’t let your steep time go over two minutes! If you keep things nice and short this can be a really lovely, marzipan like dessert tea. And who doesn’t want that, right?

Sorta Sipdown (164/168)!

This is Sorta Sipdown number one of six: “sorta” since I’m just sending the rest of the six blends to 221Tea since I don’t drink them regularly anymore or enjoy some of them and I’m hoping that with her and her husband they’ll find more love.

Also, five of the six are black teas which is a tea type that I desperately need to clear out since my black tea section in my tea cupboard is twice the size of any other tea type – and if I plan on buying any more black teas now that I’m working again I’m going to need room to put them somewhere…

I took this one with milk: that’s the best way I found to drink it. I’m getting a little astringency but I’m fairly confidant that that’s just from my steeping the leaf for too long while I was looking for something to snack on/peeing (again).

I think this is the one I like the most out of all the blends I’m sending away; but it’s very similar to rootbeer in flavour and now that I’ve got quantity amounts of Butiki’s Rootbeer Float Honeybush and DT’s Root Beer Float tea, which also has a black base, I don’t think there’s a point in having all three around when I’ll absolutely reach for the other two over this one.

Goodbye Harry Potter Fandom tea; it was lovely having you around! You were an awesome introduction to 52Teas!

I have now reached that level of drunk where you’re kind of consciously drunk and somewhere inbetween absolutely starving and really sleepy – not totally unlike getting high. I also realized that I hadn’t had anything to eat today except for a small bowl of noodles about seven hours ago so I grabbed the first things that came to mind: two slices of plain white bread and a vanilla pudding cup.

Vanilla pudding on its own would be boring though – so I added 1 1/2 tsp. of caramel MATCHAcchino to it to give it some additional flavour. I must say, while this looks really disgusting it tastes pretty awesome! Very creamy, rich and sweet! I should try other matchas in pudding…

It’s a great way to have my tea and eat it too.

The amount of times I’ve gotten up to pee today isn’t even funny. That’s what I get for continuos, non-stop drinking (both tea and other drinks) since getting up this morning.

Anyway; this is another tea/alcohol hybrid drink. I decided that a bit of Butter Ripple Schnapps would go excellently with this since I’ve always considered it to have Butterscotch notes anyway. Also – maybe this is because of the alcohol buzz I’ve had going on since yesterday, but in my head I keep saying “Butter Nipple” instead of Ripple – I think it’s the almost “rolling R” affect ‘-er Ripple" has going on that’s throwing me off.

But I was right: this is delicious like expected. The alcohol does not drown out the flavours of the tea but just compliments them: the black base is smooth and the coconut is strong. In fact I think the butterscotch is just making it pop even more and enhancing its natural sweetness. I’d totally make this again but better than that it’s something I’d also totally serve to my alcohol drinking friends or to Tre who A) loves drinking and B) loves coconut.