1774 Tasting Notes
I’m a sucker for almond in my tea, so I bought just about every tea that Co&Co had. This one has cherries in it and the candied scent comes through in the cup. It smells like maraschino cherries. There is a tinge of bitter in the front of the sip, then some spices. The finish starts out slow and then shifts to cherry. Cherry and almond flavoring have a weird overlap in my brain, so it’s hard to pick out the almond. This tea is weird. There are parts of the sip I enjoy and parts I don’t. There are moments I’m finding very artificial notes. Adding milk tones it down a bit. Adding sugar makes the cherry jump out a little. I’m not sure about this one. More experimenting is called for!
Preparation
Someone else in the house just made a cup of this and had me take a few sips. I hate it. I get some green tea and lemongrass, but there was a weird flatness accompanied by something bitter and something unknown. It was gross. The cup was dumped, the tea removed from the cupboard and my mouth washed out. Not into it.
Advent Day 19
My cup has cooled now. I think this tea was a little more exciting when hot. It has a light lime flavor and a good amount of mint. Not a knock you out level of mint, but enough that you know it is there. I’m feeling like there is something that is trying to hint at being sweet. A little bit of green tea under it all. Mojitos are a summer drink to me and making it into a warm drink for the winter is messing with my understanding of the universe a bit. I think I would like it better cold steeped in the summer.
Preparation
Advent Day 18
I’m tasting some bergamot in here, but there is something else that is making it brighter. It is almost a candy citrus taste. It’s smooth and easy to drink. I think if I had a few more cups of this I’d be tempted to buy it. This is a tea that could easily grow on me.
Preparation
Advent Day 17
I don’t know what to make of this. I seem to feel different with every sip. The first few sips were surprisingly nice for a rooibos with the mandarin flavors dominating. A few more sips tasted a little flat, a few more and I could taste the red fruit and rooibos part. I did just finish a fishy dinner and that complicates things. I’m very confused. I do know that I don’t like red rooibos much and that this is better than most rr blends, but the dry mouth feeling is something I don’t love. Eh is my conclusion.
Preparation
Advent Day 16
Woooo this is minty! I poured the hot water, placed the teabag in my cup and then the phone rang, but I had my headphones on so the sound was coming through them and couldn’t track down where my phone was. I went into a panic because I didn’t want to miss the return call from the company who installed the gutters on my new house in ’21. We have had two storms come through and the gutters have overflowed into the attic which then leaks down through two stories of 140 year old Victorian house and a scramble to manage the leak ensues. The result of the call was they are sending someone out tomorrow to look at them and WAIT…. I HAD A CUP OF TEA STEEPING!!!! That was what it was like in my brain minus the other five things spinning in it at the same time.
Minty cup, but not bad at all for having been oversteeped. The green base of the tea comes out a little more as it cools, but I mostly just get mint. I feel like a lot of the teas in this advent would be better cold steeped in the summer. Can someone put out a mid summer advent for just that purpose, please?
Preparation
Advent Day 17
This… yes. I really enjoyed this cup. It had such a warm baked flavor to it. In my morning haze I didn’t realize it was ginger until I reread the name. It’s a baked ginger… like banana bread kind of baked, but with ginger. I had no idea that there was a thing called gingernut biscuit, but I wonder how it compares to gingersnaps. I over steeped this tea and it was very forgiving. I tried for a second steep and got a not too bad, but lighter in flavor second cup. I’m into this tea.
Preparation
Advent Day 16
The days have just been flying by this month. I get to the end of every day and feel like I didn’t do much with my time until I go back and break down my day: yard work, processing persimmons for drying, unpacked and set up my casting equipment, cast. I need to be a better cheerleader to myself because I am using my time better than I give myself credit for!
First sip was “Oh wow!”. The creaminess of the coconut pairs so well with the milk oolong. It looses some of that magic if I sip too frequently, maybe my tastebuds need a moment to reset. The finish is a lovely creamy oolong as well. I get zero flat flavors in here. My brain kept reading the name as “coconut milk” oolong as opposed to a milk oolong with coconut flavors, like somehow they infused coconut milk into the oolong in the processing. Then as my brain woke up a little more I could understand it was the latter. The coconut doesn’t mask the milk oolong flavor either, they are in such a nice balance with each other. The coconut almost amplifies the oolong. I’m going to have to resteep this one because I have drunk down this cup fast!
Preparation
Advent Day 15
Hmmmm…. strawberries and pears? It tastes like strawberries and pears, but red fruit and baked apple is what the bag says. The base is very light and airy, a little hard to pick out over the fruit. It has a hint of tartness, but it’s very subtle. Another one I wish I could try cold steeped.
