Hugs and Kisses

My coworker and I had an interesting conversation. I told him he didn’t appreciate good tea. He pretty much only drinks it for the caffeine value, he’s turned down nice green tea when I’ve offered ‘because it probably doesn’t have enough caffeine’. I’ve seen him dump three Lipton tea bags in a 8oz cup and leave it there for 15 min before drinking it. Shudder He then proclaimed that he loves tea sooo much that he drinks more tea than an Asian. (Really?) When I asked how much that was he said about 4 mugs/day. I laughed and then told him to come back when he got that up to 5-6 pots of tea a day at least. Silly man. He would probably be overwhelmed by all the tea goodness being enjoyed by those on Steepster. I consider myself a moderate tea person, especially after seeing how much tea all you people enjoy in a day, but four mugs feels like hardly any at all.

This evening my friends were supposed to drive down for a sleepover, but have been delayed. I felt like I needed something sweet smelling because I haven’t really eaten much today, and I can’t because I’m fasting. I’m soo happy I didn’t count tea into that.

Hugs and Kisses smells like a warm almond cookie. Some almond cookies are a little bit almond and mostly other stuff, but when I make almond cookies I tend to put 2-3x the asked for almond extract. I’m a big big fan. Of course my cookies don’t always come out looking pretty, but they taste nice (to me). My last batch of thumbprints ended up looking like fried eggs.

It’s almond cookie smell with a roundness imparted by cocoa, but not with nearly the sweetness that chocolate can add. I don’t get much floral, and I’m glad it melds soo well. It’s a nice sleepy tea.

I like that I can’t taste the rooibios as much, I don’t think I’m much of a fan, but I do get that rooibios clean mouth feel, like refreshing. It doesn’t taste medicinal like other rooibios I’ve tried though. More lends a nice after-tea mouth feel, but doesn’t intrude too much on the other flavors. I can see some people liking that, and some people wanting more rooibios.

It’s a pot and dainty tea cups type of night. Hopefully I can stay awake long enough to receive my friends, if not, I’m sure they’ll wake me up.

Thanks to KallieBoo! for this sample. I am glad I got to try it!
I can’t find it on their website, but some people have listed ingredients in their tasting notes. As soon as I saw rose, that’s all I have in my mind, because as much as I love floral teas, I am not a fan of rose or lavender. So I pretty much just tasted rose. But I did get notes of vanilla and almond.

Almond-flavored things are generally pretty hit or miss with me. I love actual almonds, but sometimes I find the flavor overwhelming, especially in baked goods. Thankfully, this strikes a nice balance between the almond and the cream/vanilla/caramel flavors. It’s a very warm-seeming tea, not just in actual temperature but in its general impression, if that makes any sense. Like, it’s a cold cranky Monday (I hate the time change) and this is exactly the kind of comforting tea I want for that.