15662 Tasting Notes
I’ve been putting off trying this one because I’m a little fickle about ginger, but it was actually kind of perfect!? Just ginger-y enough with undertones of cinnamon and a smooth but full bodied black tea base. Most importantly, though, it really nailed that more golden and kind of malty biscuit flavour. From sip one I really felt like it was quite accurately conveying the namesake inspiration, and I ended up enjoying the profile a lot. Made me want to dunk actual biscuits in it!
Cold Brew!
Brisk, tannic black tea with notes of pithy fresh squeezed lemon and a hint of stonefruit all with a very distinct, boozier tequila flavour. As I’ve said before in a past tasting note, I don’t particularly love tequila and I’m not a HUGE fan of this tea (though I think it’s very well executed). However, I ended up drinking the last half of this brew with my supper and I have to say that something about pairing it with food actually made it much more enjoyable. It was just flavourful enough with that sort of “sweet tea” vibe from the bold black tea and citrus to feel… I don’t know… correct?
Iced!
I pretty much always drink these SuperBelly powders in a rotation of three to make sure I’m going through the packets evenly, but this is always the one I reach for first when I start a new rotation of three. My opinion hasn’t changed: the darker juicy berry and pomegranate notes in this make it the best of the three.
Iced!
The more I drink this flavour the more frustrated I get with Blume’s comparison of it to a Pink Lemonade. I guess visually the two drinks are both pink, but it just doesn’t taste like a lemonade one bit. It’s very clearly a sweet, tart strawberry note. More like a Kool-Aid mix than anything else. And it stands on its own two legs flavour wise – no need to compare to something it isn’t in order to make it appealing. Especially when Blume does have a lemon tea in their SuperBelly line…
Iced!
I’ve been trying to pace myself a little better with these single serves – not because I’m getting sick of them (far from it) but because I’m sipping through them at such a fast pace that I’m going to be out soon, and Blume is very back ordered on them so I won’t be able to repurchase for a while…
This “brew” was very, very interesting though. In general I’ve really enjoyed the almost lemonade-like sweet and tangy citrus notes, but I’ve found the ginger notes somewhat lacking. In this case, I actually tasted the subtle earthy heat of the ginger more than any other time I’ve whisked this up. It tasted fine, though it through me for a loop because I’ve just become so used to the flavour being lemon forward without much ginger at all.
Sipdown (2588)!
I’m worried this might not actually be a sipdown because, at one point, I did have two bags of this and I can’t remember finishing off one of them before now. I also didn’t see a second bag when I went to look for it though, so maybe I did drink it all??
Anyway I really enjoyed this final cup. I made it at work, and I guess I’m pretty desensitized to the intensity of most Lapsang/smoked teas because I had a few coworkers who commented on how smokey smelling the area around my desk was. However, I love it. Reaallllyyyy intense and aromatic with almost a peaty whisky vibe, and then the finish rounds out with cool, crisp peppermint notes. I would miss this tea more, but it’s also definitely something I can recreate with other teas in my stash.
Sipdown (2589)!
I liked this tea so much more than I thought I was going to. It was relatively light bodied and smooth tasting with undertones of grassier green tea, but what really won me over I think was the dynamic balance between the citrusy and lemongrass and the cooling but sweet notes of mint. It was also just a little fruity with a tropical passionfruit lean. Reminds me a lot of Morning Detox from DT which, flavour wise, is a pretty big favourite of mine.
Maybe the best Yogi blend I’ve tried??
I’m pretty sure this is the only Lao flavour that, until now, I hadn’t tried. I’ve always skipped it over because I find the blue colour kind of gimmicky.
The taste really surprised me, but not necessarily in a good way? It doesn’t taste like matcha in the slightest which is a disappointment. Reading the bottle it’s supposed to have notes of strawberry and rhubarb pie and I can see – the strawberry in particular. However instead of a fresh juicy strawberry note with natural sweetness or even a more tart strawberry I found this had that somewhat unpleasant taste of a slightly sour and over ripe strawberry. The kind you bite into that’s a little too soft and mushy and maybe even starting to ferment, but not really rotten yet.
Also, near the end of the bottle, I started getting this weird creamy finish that mixed with the kombucha vinegar taste was giving a sour yogurt note – and not in a fun way.
I don’t know – I just felt like this was a weaker and weirdly funky (even for kombucha) offering from Lao. That said, I bet it’s still a best seller for them. People are really, really weird about blue drinks. Like, they just get SO excited even if the taste is kinda just meh.
Someone recently gifted me one of every kombucha flavour in Lao’s assortment, so I’ll probably be slowing drinking through those over the next week or so.
This is one that I think of as kind of “middle of the pack” in terms of their offerings. It’s fruity, fresh, and floral with a really approachable elderberry note but part of me wants it to lean a little more heavily into either the sweetness, tart tangyness or floral notes. As is, I find it a little too middling and in that regard just a bit forgettable compared to some of the flavours Lao has that are just SO strong and memorable.
