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Thanks, getanzt!!
Preparation: Western
Tasting note: This is the closest thing, I have had to a glazed lemon cake. And its not overly sweet and really nice night cap. Lemony and has a creaminess. Also, its not too expensive. I will be finding more of this soon.

Preparation: Gongfu
Tasting Note: First off, this is a really pretty wet leafed tea. I didn’t steep it in a clear vessel but I should have, the tea blossoms and brown leaves have a beautiful contrast.

Actual tasting note: I have never had a Laoshan white before but it reminds me of another tea I have had maybe Gong Mei? This tea is also herbaceous and a little sweeter than that. There are some faint floral and earthy notes as well. I will admit this is only the first steep so I will probably edit this as the steeps progress.
Second steep got a little more mineral-y I think.
Ran out of time to steep more.

Preparation: Gong Fu
Tasting Note:
Opps, I didn’t realize that this tea recommended using 95C water instead of 100C so I think I may have messed this batch up a little bit. Oh well, it doesn’t taste bad but I think since I have plenty of these leaves, I can try again. These gongfus were a little stronger and more “pithy” and a little tinsy astringent. I will retry again later to see if I can get a more accurate tasting note.

Sipdown theme: Grape/Muscatel tea

This month, I am going to try to sipdown more of my straight teas. Total sidenote, Steepster has been a really positive influence on keeping my spending habits in check this past month. I think being able to discuss tea, sipdowns and how much is being spent on tea has really helped me enjoy the tea I have in my cupboard more and be more mindful of what i want to spend on and putting a hold on my wishlist. Also, I am really grateful for all the tea swaps, and community discussions, its really nice to be able share a common interest. Thanks everyone! :)

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: After tasting so many blended teas lately, it is a slight adjustment getting back into straight teas. It will take a while to get a more nuanced palate again. I think with this tea, i get that slight fresh sweet aftertaste that reminds you of a muscatel grape. This tea is light and spring watery. It has a floralness to it too. I think it is closer to a green tea than white but it is characterized as yellow. Anyways, I like it. I had got a sample of it last year and really soon after reordered for a larger portion.

Working on sipdowns but more evenly spread than one specific tea at a time. The upcoming months will be harder to sipdown as much as April mostly because I sipped down most of my small samplers and nearly empty teas. I think I will have a much smaller number in May as I have a lot of full containers and bags left.

Preparation: Western (no additives)
Tasting Note: This tea is a nice balance of sweet and tart. I think the strawberries, apples and flavoring do a lot to take the edge off the hibiscus and tart fruits. It is a rich tea that reminds me of a red wine blend possibly. I haven’t had the tea cold brew yet but hot it is really nice.

Total side note: This was blend for Todoroki from the anime My Hero Academia, I didn’t really think it captured the character’s personality at all but it’s a good tea blend. (shrugs)

Had this one later in the evening because I knew we had a late D&D session tonight.
Preparation: Western (a tiny bit of rock sugar)
Tasting note: This blend is one part bitter cocoa, one part pithy orange and final part is a kind of a caramel base. Despite added toffee flavoring, I detected no sweetness added to this tea. In fact, I think this tea needed more sweetener to give any sort of toffee resemblance. I liked the blend as a bitter-pithy blend though, it was like a dark chocolate earl grey and was nice. The two tiny rock sugar crystals i added didnt make much of a difference in this tea. Maybe honey would have been a better option.

Will need do some testing on this one. I am starting to notice that Call Me Sweetea doesn’t have very strong flavorings used for the amaretto, toffee, butterscotch teas. They seem to be completely overwhelmed by the other ingredients. The rest of the teas composition though is quite good. I would say though now trying 4 teas that it is the chunks of ingredients that shine through the most. So I would say that if you are ordering from her expect that the flavorings to be faint or not really there and the “whole” ingredients to be the true flavor of the tea.

I had this tea a day or two ago. So what I remember may not be the whole story any more.

Preparation: Western (No additives)
Tasting Note: There are cocoa shells in this tea and I have noticed Call Me Sweeteas with cocoa shells are the most dark chocolate tasting teas that I have had. This is true with Believe as well. They are like bitter dark chocolate, but it is really nice and rich and filling. This tea had a little strawberry but it was more sweet than tangy, which was nice. It wasn’t a strong strawberry taste if I can recall. From my experience with Call Me Sweeteas, her teas taste the strongest and best without adding cream or sugar. This was one of my favorite blends along with Believe so far from her so far.

Preparation: Western
Tasting note: So I started out drinking this tea straight and I think it is truly better this way. It sort of reminds me of a rose darjeeling blend I had in England back in 2017 when I visited. There is a light rose note and the black tea is light. I don’t know if I taste the amaretto flavoring or the almond. The tea is nice but I don’t know if the additives really bring anything to the table. As a latte the flavors are even more masked so it is not the best latte as it is a pretty light tea to begin with. (I am not marking this negatively as I feel like I should’ve known better to have this light tea as a latte).

Bottom line: Do I still get the Romp and Circumstance from this tea? yes, it reminds me of a gentle rose darjeeling which reminds me of an English high tea. Does it have all the notes of all the ingredients that are in the blend? No, I don’t get any almond or much amaretto. A good rating at best for that.

Tea two ways: John’s having it with oatley and i am having it straight.

Tasting note: I took a sip of John’s with the oatley and it didn’t really stand up to the oatmilk a whole lot. Its possible I put too much in.
Without any additives this is a strong tea. The chocolate is bitter but there is a light sweetness from the marshmallow and flavoring. I like this tea a lot, it is something rich that forces you to slow down and enjoy it. Also, it isnt as decadant as an actual hot chocolate. Honestly, the best chocolate herbal I have had without actually being hot chocolate.

Back to normal work-life balance. Other than that, I have been sending tea swap packages out for a couple steepsters this week, so if anyone is interested doing a tea swap in the US or Canada, I am quite at my leisure. Mainly would like to share some of my black tea blends (dessert) and straight teas (black, oolong, green, white) though.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Notes:
This is a sweet fruity tea for sure. It reminds me a lot of those Easter sweet tarts candies that are shaped like chicks and bunnies. I think there is sort of a cotton candy aspect to it too, but I am glad it is not identical to the real thing. Personally, I don’t like actual cotton candy, it is way too sweet for me. I think this tea is sweet but I appreciate that the fruit is both juicy and a slight bit tart so it has balance. This is a really good dessert tea. I don’t think I could have more than one cup in a sitting though, it is candy.