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additional notes: I was intending to steep this one up soon from my dwindling stash and woke up this morning to see it’s included in B&B’s vote back with a slight name change! I think it’s the same tea anyway. I love this one and would love to see it win the vote back.

eta: mmm… steeped it up the next day and YES it is just as loved as I remember. I REALLY hope it wins the vote back! Combining milk oolong + genmaicha = amazing. Do NOT let the rose hip in the ingredient list sway you from trying this! I saw a big ol rosehip go into the amount of tea I was steeping and I can not taste the rosehip AT ALL. Still, it would be better if it wasn’t wasting space in this awesome blend, but I’m glad I am not tasting the rosehips.

additional notes:  My original note for this was for a really old teabag — so I think it’s time to update for the loose leaf.  It’s Lupicia’s extra special strawberry flavoring — the rare tea shop that can get strawberry right, with a nice balance of chocolate on rich puerh. Usually if I crave a strawberry tea I know to go for Lupicia.  If I wasn’t trying to make this small amount of this last a while, I’d probably use two teaspoons but a teaspoon and a half is fine.  Raising the rating from 80.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug //  19 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 min

I bought this in the summer — I forgot I had rewards points and I will usually want to try any Hattialli.  My favorite tea ever, by far, after trying thousands of teas, was hands down, no hesitation, Butiki’s Hattialli Golden Lion Assam!  So I splurged for a tin.   I have tried it a couple times, but sadly, the Harney in no way can compare to Butiki.  The Butiki leaf had such a depth to it!  The Harney leaf is very thin tasting — like a very mild tomato soup.  Only a hint of tomato soup…. and really no other flavors. Hopefully that isn’t because I had just had tomato soup in the mug before that!  Maybe a bit of nuttiness on the last gulp.  The second steep, I might have overdid it.  A bit astringent but also not really an increase in flavor complexity.  The brew color is quite dark and yet the flavor still seems watered down, even losing the tomato soup quality. The Butiki was so complex, it’s just amazing this tea can even be sourced from the same area.  What a shame.  Very disappointing, wouldn’t buy it again.  Not for that price!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 2 minutes after boiling // 3-4 min

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #8 -Jan 20 – coffee flavored tea

additional notes:  I always forget about this tea and YES it does have an occasional coffee bean.  It’s a green yerba mate mixed with black tea, so it always steeps up a bit weird to me.  Roasted yerba mate would have been better.  Lacking raspberry flavor now.  And despite the cocoa shells, this is barely chocolate.  It was never really my favorite from B&B.  BUT this is also an older tea now, so I can’t fault it too badly.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #8 -Jan 20 – coffee flavored tea

additional notes:  Hate coffee but love a great coffee tea. So I will have two coffee teas today!  Somehow this is still fantastic tasting, even with old coconut and old coffee beans.  It was always a great mix of flavors.  Next time a sipdown!

Oh no, I never wrote a note for this one yet?!  Received from Ost ages ago — thank you very much, Ost.  Plenty of peach flavor here for being such an old tea.  Peach is great with white tea.  Not the worst peach flavoring, not the best.  It sure is A LOT of peach flavor — the  second steep the white tea is making more of a presence.  I wouldn’t mind stocking up on this as a peach flavored white tea option!  But I wonder if their flavoring is now different after their switch to more natural flavorings  (I STILL haven’t bought their Vieux Paris yet since they started selling it…)
Steep #1 // 49 minutes after boiling (unintentionally) // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 2 min

additional notes: I THOUGHT this would be the tea that is similar or same to Arthur Dove’s Caramel Apple Betty. But no match here again.  Even visibly, it doesn’t look the same, with mostly black tea, meaning relying on flavoring rather than ingredients, with an occasional tiny piece of cinnamon. The Arthur Dove blend has many more pieces in it that aren’t black tea. Drinking it now, this was previously my favorite caramel apple tea… I really liked this!   But I think this is now replaced by the Arthur Dove.    I think that is all the teas I have in the “cupboard” that might be similar to the Arthur Dove… so I will stop looking!  But the Arthur Dove is probably my new second favorite apple tea, after Simpson & Vail’s French Toast.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #7 – A malty tea

Another Sri Lankan tea for ‘Seven Moons of Maali’ — I guess I forgot all of teakruthi’s teas are from Sri Lanka!   And I also figured this would be an obvious choice for malty tea.  I’m not sure if it’s noticeably malty but this is older now. Not a sipdown though. 

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #6 -A tea for joyful solitude or meditation

This tea screamed “meditation” more than any other, for some reason. Shanti means Peace! And it’s a sipdown.  The flavors always seemed a bit muddled to me — I wasn’t sure what I was tasting. Very earthy ingredients anyway.
2023 sipdowns:8

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #5 -A tea that goes with snow

additional notes:  This’ll go with snow!  Blind taste test wise, there is no way I could tell the difference between this one and Forever Nuts, even though it has extra goodies like marshmallow, orange and clove.
2023 sipdowns: 7