Pink Anise Black Tea

December 2023 Sipdown Challenge – a tea with a red ingredient — almost gone

Loved the idea of this tea so I picked up a small pouch.

Brisk and coppery-earthy black tea meets slightly creamy root beer and sweet spices. The overall experience is sharp and hits mostly high and bright thanks to the raspberry which mixes with the coolness of wintergreen; a light fluff of marshmallowy vanilla-malt plays underneath.

While I’m not a fan of this kind of black tea, the composition works well. Sometimes it reminds me of medicine but overall it’s such a unique interplay of flavors that I find it strangely satisfying. Best as an afternoon tea.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #33

I mostly get the anise from this one, but the vanilla and sarsaparilla come through in the aftertaste, leaving me with a lingering impression of root beer. This probably isn’t something I’d normally gravitate toward, but the licorice root is soothing my throat this morning and I’m enjoying it.

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #25

This is one of the interesting teas; quite sweet, a bit cloying licorice and red fruits — they say raspberries, which it could be. And there are some spices and herbs. Anise was quite strong but not overwhelming and overall it was enjoyable.

TTB
I do like a good licorice tea, but this one is a bit muddled for me. There are other flavors trying to compete with the anise, and it just doesn’t blend well with my palate. Not sure if I used too much leaf, I do need some caffeine this am, so maybe I overleafed it? Thanks for adding it to the box!

As usual, this didn’t taste like too much warm. Now that I’m drinking this cool with milk, I taste mostly black tea, plus the anise. One of my favorite teas is cult of demeter from August Uncommon, which heavily features anise. It’s impossible to not compare these and find that one just so much better. This certainly isn’t bad, but the flavor was much too mild, even when I tried to overleaf my second cup of it.

I had been avoiding this tea for months, thinking I was going to hate it. I finally drank it last week and was very pleasantly surprised by its depth of flavour and the fact that it was much more than just licorice/anise. No specific notes on flavour; I’ve had a rough go of things lately and about all I can really remember are impressions – and this tea gave a good one!

Ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge | December 2023 | A tea you drank at the beginning of 2023

Oh, my. I’ve really fallen off on my sipdowns in the past few months. I’ve just been so incredibly busy. But! December actually promises to be a much less hectic month. I’ve got just 2.5 weeks of classes left for the semester, and that’s really my biggest timesuck outside of work/internship. I hope to enjoy lots of quality tea-drinking time in the weeks ahead.

Anyway, I first drank this tea back in February, so it seems like a good fit for this prompt! I really enjoy this one. There’s a lot going on, but that just means each sip is fun! :D

2023 sipdown count: 54

October 2022 Blend

I’m drinking so much licorice today. Ahhhhhhh

This tea pops. It has abrasive, earthy and sweet notes like anise, licorice, sarsaparilla, and clove – but also contains delicate floral and vanilla flavours. It’s also vaguely tart-sweet with raspberries. I can’t think of any tea that’s quite like this, although I’m familiar with 52teas’ take on vanilla and raspberry flavouring (love both).

I overleafed this last cup, so I added milk to my first steep, and managed a robust second steep. It was a good way to finish the pouch.