Tourbillon

This black tea boasts a delightfully gourmand aroma, swirling with enticing notes I can’t quite place. The website says marron, cookie and caramel, with whispers of orange and apricot. Ever so subtle floral notes emerge after steeping. While pleasant, the overall impression leans generic, the promised complexity doesn’t quite translate in the cup.

AJRimmer Advent Day 5

If the packet didn’t say this was a black tea, I would have thought it was an oolong. The base tea is super smooth and has a bit of a floral note. The flavor came across a bit muddy to me. Maybe a bit of caramel and a bit of fruit? But overall, just a muddled jumble of sweetish flavor.

Thanks to Cameron B for sharing this tea! I didn’t know what flavor it was supposed to be, and I would have guessed grape? Apparently it’s actually supposed to be chestnut/caramel? The black tea is pretty smooth, just not my favorite sort of flavor profile.

Pretty stressed out today and, once again, had no time before work to brew a tea for French Friday (I may have to permanently move working on these samplers to the weekends). Quickly brewed up this cup on my lunchbreak, sample courtesy of Cameron (thanks Cameron!)

No time for fussing, whole packet steeped in 350ml 205F water for as long as it took me to scoop the cat boxes. No measuring, no steep timer, just taking what I get. Smells and tastes floral and grapey. * looks at description * Huh, not tasting anything biscuity/caramelly. It is fruity with that floral undertone, mainly muscatel grapes but I can sorta taste apple and a hint of citrus.

Thanks Cameron!

This tea sounded really good and Cameron B graciously offered to send me some!

I tried it first with Ashman as a huge pot with bagels for breakfast. Since it was brand new to me I didn’t do my usual two steeps put together thing, but drank it full strength.

It was very good, but neither of us got fruit or flowers. I asked Ashman if he tasted fruit and he said not at all. I thought I tasted burnt caramel and he agreed that was spot on.

But we were supposed to taste something else, something fruity, so I tried it again the next day for breakfast when I was alone. I used 205F water instead of 212F and took the steep time down just a tad. And there it is! Baked apricot!

It was ever bit as good as I thought it would be! Thank you so much, Cameron B! It was a great tea and fun to try!

2021 sipdown no. 71

Sadly no re-order of this one either as the perfume-like/floral essence is not my favourite.

Day 1 of my DF advent calendar! I was very pleased to see this as the first day, as it’s a flavor I’ve been wanting to try. I really enjoyed it! Very distinct orange blossom flavor, with caramel and apricot also being at the forefront.

Sipdown (274)

I opened the package for this teabag and then quickly regretted it because this was never really all that great to me and I realized I should have set it aside to send to my friend who might have appreciated it more than I do.

Anyways, the package was already open by the time I thought that so here I am drinking it and it’s fine. Just fine. It’s got apricot but it’s muddled up with other flavours which are distracting. I’ve had it several times now and while it’s an alright cup of tea, it’s nothing special.

Finally writing a tasting note for this one, as it is a puzzle to me. I love the list of ingredients but the result to my tastebuds is just this rum sort of flavor that is unique but odd considering the ingredients. Rum rum rum on a black tea. Maybe like a hint of fruitcake? That has rum in it.

#adventageddon Day One – 2/5

Second advent tea today – drinking it currently. Most of the teas I pulled today are caffeinated/black tea so I’m gonna try to bunch them all into the morning as much as possible. I’ve had this one before and I know I have a love/hate relationship with the blend where sometimes all the flavours click together and become this sweet nutty/fruity harmonious victory in a cup and sometimes they’re messy or flat to me.

I think today’s mug is somewhere in the middle of that!? I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s definitely a little “busy” in terms of the flavours happening in my mouth and it’s leaving me feeling somewhat meh about the whole infusion. I taste a mix of chestnut, wafer cookies, dried apricots, candied orange peel, and just a general floral vibe and all the elements on their own are nice but as a sum it’s too much. I can’t just loosen up and relax because I feel like there’s too many notes grasping for my attention.

A bit of a shame, and not a grand start to advent season for DF this year…

(Lowering my rating from the 90 it’s currently at…)