Tea Hippie

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The last Tea Hippie tea from Courtney! I admit, I’m not looking forward to this one, as the base tea in the other two wasn’t great.

Yeah… The base tea here is just so disappointing to me. It’s like a super generic Ceylon with quite a bit of astringency even with a short steep. And honestly I’m not getting much maple at all, perhaps a vague sweetness toward the end?

I added milk and a drizzle of maple syrup to the rest of the pot to finish it off. Somehow it came out tasting a bit like banana, which is odd lol! Happy to be finished with it though.

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Another one from the lovely and sweet Courtney!

So I didn’t enjoy this one much the first time around. The blueberry flavor is actually nice, though perhaps a bit closer to blueberry jam or candy. Quite sweet and syrupy but with a nice strong blueberry flavor.

But that base… It’s the worst. Just bland and tannic and astringent even with a 2.5 minute steep.

So this time I figured I would try it as a latte, since the blueberry flavor was fairly prominent. I prepared it with oat milk and added a bit of vanilla syrup for a bit of a blueberry muffin effect.

But I guess I used too much oatmilk, because I’m not really getting much blueberry here. I get a little mustiness from the base, but otherwise it’s mostly sweetened and warmed oat milk. Still tasty, but not what I was going for. Oopsies!

Strange VariaTEA TTB – Tea #19

Didn’t realize I’ve tried this one before!

It’s a decent vanilla black, the vanilla is nice and natural. The base isn’t great, somewhat tannic and not very flavorful. I would guess Ceylon, as it’s a bit metallic.

Anyway, fine to try but not one I’ll keep.

Result: Tried

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I’ve been nursing a small pot of this all day.

It’s the base tea, I just really don’t like it. It’s not awful, but it’s simultaneously bland and astringent, even with a shorter steep. No real characteristics other than being tannic and tea-ish.

The vanilla is nice! But the base ruins it for me. I have two other black teas from this company to try, so it’ll be interesting to see how I feel about those.

Thanks Courtney for the share! ❤

I just realized I finished off the two swap samples from Courtney that I had opened, so it’s time for a new one! This was chosen at random.

The vanilla flavor is nice here, as it comes from vanilla beans. I like the amount as well, though that likely won’t be consistent between cups. Vanilla bean has such a lovely creamy note to it that I really enjoy.

However, the base here is quite underwhelming to me. It tastes like a generic Ceylon with some Assam astringency to it. There aren’t really any notable features to it, which is a shame – it mostly tastes “tea-ish” to me. The astringency is also building up a bit as I continue to sip…

So with a nice vanilla flavor but a meh base, this one is a bit middle-of-the-road for me.

I got this as a sample in my Tea Hippie order and it’s pretty tasty. A simple black base with hints of vanilla and spearmint. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t think I like a lot of vanilla in tea. Even with the spearmint here, it seems to be upsetting my stomach.

Ultimately, I’d take New Moon’s Mint Cocoa over this one. :)

The base tea from Tea Hippie is alright. A different base or higher quality one may do their teas some favours.

There were no lemon chocolate drops in this sample, so I didn’t have to pick those out. However, there is a subtle hint of lemon here with what seems to be an ever so slight baked note? Maybe like the scent of a lemon tart baking from the neighbour’s house.

I don’t know that I’ve had a lemon dessert tea, so I’m excited to be able to try one, and honestly, I do enjoy it, I just wish the flavours were ever so slightly more.

Random aside: I had a queasy stomach after drinking the vanilla tea from TH, and I have it a little bit now. I initially chalked it up to not being the tea, but now I am starting to wonder. I’ll have to remember the next time I try one of their teas with vanilla.

The dry and steeped scent of this really brings me back to my early childhood when my mom sent me to daycare with an instant packet of Quaker blueberry oatmeal. I am actually enjoying the scent because dried blueberries are still real blueberries!

The black tea base here is fine, I mean it’s nothing special, but there’s nothing wrong with it. The blueberry taste is present, but very subtle. I would say the taste is more reminiscent of dried blueberries than fresh blueberries, but that’s okay. I think this tea may benefit from the teeniest bit of sweetener.

I decided to order a very small handful of teas from a wee shop a somewhat short drive from us. It was a great reason to get out of the house for a tea curbside pick up! The woman that runs the tea shop was lovely as well and let me know these teas were just blended yesterday (via email, of course)!

This tea is actually nice. I was hoping for it to be a little more maple-forward, but that’s okay. The black base isn’t astringent at all, which is wonderful and there’s a subtle maple at the end of the sip that lingers. The tea also has a subtle scent of buttery maple, which is nice.

Christmas present. I made this one into lattes from Christmas to February. The cinnamon isn’t overpowering and the mix of spices along with the quality black tea really does make me think of the holiday season. I am able to resteep it two-three times before it starts to lose its flavour so also good value. On my list to re-order whenever I put an online order in.

I don’t like black pepper and so this tea isn’t for me. I could see others enjoying it though. Tried it plain , with milk and as a latte (turns out pepper and milk is a gross combination…haha) before getting rid of it. Not a bad tasting tea just not for me!

Breeed at 100c for about 4 minutes. 2 tsp to 2 cups water with 1tsp turbinado brown sugar…I like my flavoured teas slightly sweet. The rose petal taste is nice and delicate. The fruitiness is more prevalent than anything else but isn’t overpowering. A great tea :)

I don’t really know much about the show that inspired the Tea. I also didn’t have high expectations, I found most Tea from this company to fall short. I was also afraid it would taste average like the other green tea I tried from this company. I was pleasantly surprised. I actually liked it. Some sweepings were vegetal, other were pleasantly fruit and nice. Nicest when cold. Also….carrots? Totally new tea ingredient for me but I think I like it. I don’t know that I would go out my way to reorder or highly reccomend…buts it’s ok.

This is by far the most interesting tea I received in the bundle. It’s a blue tea due to the blue sweet pea flowers, something I have never heard of but was fascinated to learn more about. It really is blue and if you add lemon it will turn purple, which was quite fun to see. It smells overwhelmingly minty when I first opened the bag. It’s easy to drink unsweetened and it mostly tasted like fennel and mint. Which is actually not a bad taste. Its not my favorite but I didn’t mind it. I’ve had fennel teas before and found them disgusting because of the sweetener added to the tea, this doesn’t have that. I didn’t notice any candy pieces in it as the ingredient says.

Also..you get about one good re-steep and it doesn’t take a lot of tea to make a fairly strong cup.

I was really excited for this one and the first thing I did was drink it as a latte. And I was very underwhelmed. I guess I imagined the perfect blend of a coffee tea drink…and it just fell short of any distinct flavor. Also there weren’t very many almond pieces in it. Meh.

This one wasn’t so bad. It was a decent black tea with a hint of rose. Nothing to rave about, yet nothing to complain about either

I can’t find this one on the Etsy site anymore so I’m guessing it’s discontinued. I can see why. It’s so confused it doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be. It doesn’t have a very memorable scent until it’s brewed then it smells kinda nice. The tea as most black tea leaves aren’t very flavorful. It’s like they are using up old stocks of black tea. As for flavor it almost tastes like liquified raisins or prunes and at the same time no distinct taste. Another meh one from the company.

I was very excited because this smells amazing when you open it. Like a tropical fruity heaven. Usually if you like the scent you’ll like the tea. This is just…meh. Not much flavor. Slight cinnamon. Out of about an ounce I got about two cups of tea and forget re-steeping. I don’t recommend it. Cold or hot it’s just underwhelming.

I’ve never really been into the Jurassic Park movies. My sister watched them all last summer and I could barely pay attention. But I was still excited about this tea because I love a nice spicy black tea because of how easy they are to turn into lattes. I’m all about a latte. However this tea was very disappointed. You can see the cardamom most prominently and I love cardamom..however the taste doesn’t come through at all. It just tastes like dirty barely spiced water. The black tea itself are all broken rolled up pieces. I manage to get myself excited each time I brew it, only to be mega disappointed. Blech.

A Gryfindoor I would not be. They are brave, and I would be the first one running at a sign of danger. Of course, I was really excited about this Tea… because Harry Potter. It’s an ok Tea. It has a nice orange flavor and is pleasant enough but it’s also highly forgettable. It has rosehip and hibiscus… which means I prefer it cold. There are other herbal teas I would prefer to drink over this and I don’t think I will remember the flavor past another week or so. It was still fun to try but… average.

I remember reading the novel in high school and hating every second of it because all I could read was the racism. I read it again a couple years ago more carefully now that I’m an adult and actually ended up loving it. I think it’s a great novel…I can’t remember why exactly. I should probably go back and read my GoodReads review. Anyway, this is basically a really boring raspberry teas with an inaccurate ingredient list. I found blue fuzzy stuff in it, and also something that looked quite orange. It doesn’t have a very memorable flavor just bleh. The black tear part of it isn’t very strong either. Idk…just not a great one. I couldn’t find it in the Etsy shop, maybe it’s been discontinued?

I get three steeps and it doesn’t hold up to milk very well. Tastes best slightly chilled.

Black tea is my favorite but I’ll never turn down a green tea. Especially with a name and description like this…. Hobbit picked straight from the shire. It’s Lord of the Rings themed. A book I have always meant to read but never mind, I watched the movies. And I’m a fan. Which is why I was so excited for this. It tastes like your typical green tea. Green and spinach tasting. Nothing really amazing and not as high quality as they make it sound. The leaves are broken etc. it’s just an average green.