Sipdown (125/132)!
So my Design a Tea samples (plus extra sample) arrived on Thursday when I was home sick. Of course I was very excited to try them all but I patiently waited until late in the day when I was feeling much better before I steeped a few up. Since this was the first I “designed” it was the one I started with.
There was probably more “specific” thought behind this one than all the others if I’m being honest, and that was that I’d already tried a Design A Tea blend with Cranberry in it and I had really enjoyed that aspect of the tea so I thought I’d do another as a “safer” gamble. I don’t know why I picked Rum to pair with it – I just thought the two would work. And really, it definitely did.
The black base was very smooth and hid in the background well enough to let the flavours I had chosen really shine; and I appreciate that. While I did choose the black base, I am ultimately most interested in seeing how my selected flavours combine.
The cranberry was definitely a much more dominant flavour than the rum and it stood out loudly as very ripe, sweet and juicy. That’s not to say that the rum wasn’t present though; I think it just came off as lighter overall because it was sweetening up the cranberry and keeping it from getting to be very tart.
On the whole; this was really enjoyable and for whatever reason brought forth strong connections to Christmas and “Christmas Dinner”. I am going to proclaim this first combination as a delightful success!
Flavors: Cranberry, Rum, Vanilla
Totally bookmarking the 5 samples for $5 page for when I’m off hiatus. I assume their base teas aren’t great but it still seems like a fun idea. :D
I still haven’t tried my oolong sample, but having had both the black base and rooibos base I can say that while they’re certainly not high quality bases they’re not awful tasting either; they really sorta disappear into the background and become forgettable, if that makes sense.