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Sipdown (199/201)!

Tre just headed off to work for the evening, so I’ve got the computer again and can continue with my backlog. I wont have computer access at all tomorrow, so I really want to clear as much of it as possible. It’s also nice to see the dash is back up and running, again!

In the mean time, while he was home, my swap package from Courtney showed up, and she included some really lovely looking extras. I’ve already tried one of the teas she sent to me (I’ll get to its tasting note eventually). I also found a couple things in my sample drawer that I’ve tried and personally didn’t like but I think she will, so I’ve added them to my package for her which I still haven’t sent out yet (I’m working on it). So that gets in a couple unexpected “sipdowns” for me. Yay! Still under 200!

But anyway, I had this last night while we had company over, and I made Tre a mug of it too which meant that was all of it used up! Yay! Tre’s mug was very sugared, and in mine I just added some milk in the hope that it’d calm down the unpleasant rooibos taste and mellow out the overwhelming vanilla. I’m very happy to report that adding milk did all those things – and the mug was significantly better than the last, albeit still not overwhelmingly good either.

I ended up using it to dunk cookies in!

So, I’m happy to report this was a nice enough sipdown, and I’m going to cautiously up my rating just a bit.

Holy fucking butts.

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample; I was excited to make this my first tea from Camellia Sinensis because it just smelled so lovely and wonderful dry. Like sweet flowers and fruity candy!

And man, is this ever fucking tasty! I had company over when I brewed this one up – and I had to hide all my excitement because I really didn’t want to share it at all. Heh, selfish me. But really, it was super sweet delicious yummy cherry candy and candied rose and it was amazing. I’m probably going to finish my sample really quickly, and then I’ll be sad. Yup. That’s how this is gonna go down.

So, onto my shopping list I guess?

Thanks Cavocorax for the very generous sample. I broke it out last night because I wanted to work on sipping down some of the blacks in my sample drawer that are in large quantity (so not one or two cup sipdowns).

This is another Rivertea blend with lots of bits, so I slightly overleafed it to try and get a few more of the chunks included (a huge piece of star anise!). Taste wise, I got prominent notes of cardamom, cinnamon, and chocolate and then slightly more background notes of the black base, vanilla, and the anise. Yes, that’s right – I finally tasted the yummy anise (screw you Ceylon Star with your no anise taste)! I do really wish it was stronger though in comparison to the spices. But I guess this is meant to be spice cake so it does it’s intended job.

Overall impression? I think this is a solidly average flavored black that would totally be some people’s cup of tea, but maybe not mine. And that’s ok.

Mango seemed like a nice afternoon tea idea and I kinda wanted to pace myself from blacks. For whatever reason I’m a little anti-black (that sounds so bad without context) this week, which is very out of character. I guess they just seem very heavy/weighted to me right now and I was struggling to think of why that is but it hit me this morning/early afternoon; I’ve been sleeping horribly this last week, so “lighter” teas have seemed more gentle/like they could nurse me back to sleep.

Heh.

Anyway, mango tea. That seemed like a good idea, and this one was really reachable (literally sitting in my tea bag chest on the dishwasher not a foot away from me) so I went for it. Dry, it does smell almost solely of mangoes, but now that it’s steeped up coconut is much stronger than initially anticipated. I actually am really happy about that though; partnered with the juicy mango this has a very nice tropical feel to it.

Thank you Kat_Maria, I’m really enjoying this one! Super happy to have lots more.

Thanks MissB for the sample, I broke it out today because it’s a size I should be able to sipdown relatively quickly. I wasn’t sure whether I should stick to the steeping directions you wrote out because the temp. was rather high for a blend containing white tea – but I figured you knew what you were doing and I went for it.

My thoughts based on my first few sips are kinda “eighyhh” (which is totally a thing starting now, just because I say it is). The problem I’m encountering here is that the caramel tastes really weird paired with the base teas, which are terribly reminding me of vegetable stock. Vegetable stock/broth and caramel? Eww…

And berries? There’s supposed to be berries in this? Sorry, but nope.

Actually, I just looked up the ingredients list… And what the fuck!? I’m starting to wonder if I’m drinking the wrong tea – except, I totally double checked to make sure I’d grabbed the correct TARDIS tea (I’ve got the Cara McGee one too) – because I don’t taste any of this shit?

Blueberries? Nope
Ginger? Nope (thank God…)
Cinnamon? Maybe, if I push really hard?
Bergamot? Even this one – which is typically a hard flavour to miss – is hiding on me.

The only thing I get is vegetable stock and caramel. Yeah, this is a miss for me…

A really, really weird miss; but hey, at least I have one TARDIS tea I enjoy, right?

Something fun and “fandom” for “breakfast”.

Decent enough mug, but it always bothers me a little that this one isn’t quite rootbeer. So close, yet so far.

Sipdown (192/194)!

Apparently I can’t type right now – my fingers are all fumbly. Anyway, this one comes from Boychik, and I took advantage of the easy sipdown this afternoon (it feels like morning, EG is morning tea). I even got another “sipdown” in from adding tea to a bunch of stuff eventually going out to VariaTEA (she’s gonna get the last of my Demain). Pressure’s on to sip down some stuff before more things arrive – I don’t exactly feel excited about maybe getting over 200 again.

Dry, this some lightly of Bergamot and strongly of vanilla. Mmm! That could certainly be a winning combination for me!

Now that it’s steeped up, it’s a little more 50/50 between the two but it really is very delicious and well balanced; a great EG Creme. I seem to be drinking lots of EG lately, I guess due to having received a fair bit of it this week (last week?) and I’m a little tired of it at the moment – so I think it may be a little while after this cup before I have some more, though.

Still, very nice.

tigress_al’s tasting note on this yesterday really put me in the mood to have it, and I thought that’d it’d be just amazing cold brewed so that’s how I prepped it yesterday and am now enjoying it (it’s 3 PM and I’m only just starting my tea drinking for the day) now. I must say, it’s DELICIOUS!

It feels like I’m drinking Spring or early Summer picnics. Maybe that’s a weird way to put it – but basically this reminds me of something you might have on a refreshing and just warm enough (not sweltering) Spring/Summer day when you’re with your family and have fruit and vegetable plates and all that yummy picnic type stuff.

I think I actually like this better cold brewed than hot, too! Yummy.

Total cold brew time was four and a half hours, and I think next up I’m going to try Cold Brewing some of Rivertea’s Boatsman…

And we have a winner!

This is the cup that finally relaxed me enough to fall asleep, at a miserable three in the morning. But it was just the right balance of flavours; sweet lime and cream with the smallest touch of noticeable rooibos.

So, this is the point in the evening/morning (2 AMish) where I just went: “Fuck it, I’m not getting to sleep immediately, I want a black”. This was in my sample drawer (there are a lot of blacks in my sample drawer I need to sipdown/want to try and I keep going for other things for whatever reason) and looked promising, so I went for it.

I can see how it has the same base as Boston (or at least similar), which I adore, but I don’t think it really works with this one so much. Like, the base was present and it kept distracting and detracting from the fruits. It tasted… Mapley? That’s not right, but it’s the word that comes to mind. And as far as the fruit goes, I really taste the cherry and then get weaker notes of plum. But it’s also fairly muddled.

I have a decent amount of this because I received it from Keychange and Rosehips so I am glad that it is drinkable and that also gives me some room for experimentation – but I can’t see myself falling in love with this one unless I can produce a really different cup. Meh.