1774 Tasting Notes
Advent Day 14
This smells SO buttery and caramel like! I get a little bit of that flavor on the sip, but it lingers for some time in the finish. Oolongs are tricky for me. I often get a flat cardboard flavor in them, but I’m not getting that past the first initial sips. As I sip further into this cup I do get more of the soft caramel flavors coming out and a lingering sensation of sweetness. There is something slightly irritating my throat, especially when I sip frequently. All in all, it’s a good tea and someone who loves oolongs would probably really like this.
Preparation
Advent Day 14
I’m behind a day! Yesterday I woke up to the electricity out, the attic leaking and a storm storming before a planned outing for a friend’s birthday. So a hectic morning with no way to make hot water and start my day sensibly with a cup of tea. Morning Kick would have been the perfect sentiment for a tea yesterday.
This cup has lemongrass flavor with some ginger in there and maybe a hint of mate. It tastes like an herbal cup. It was easy to sip through and I’m hoping it gives me a little kick to help start the morning.
oh no! I hope things are back in order now!
Thanks! They are and my kettle has power! The electricity was back on by the time I got home in the late afternoon. It was a crazy storm though. San Francisco got a tornado warning, one touched down near Santa Cruz and I woke up to the wind shaking my house like it was an earthquake at 6am. This is after the chaos of the tsunami warning a week earlier because of the earthquake up north.
oh my goodness! absolutely terrifying! (as someone who did not grow up in the ring of fire, earthquakes make me very nervous)
Advent Day 13… and it’s a Friday!!!
Happy Friday the 13th! I have no idea who Ruby Granger is, the collaborator for this tea. I had to look on the B&B website to find out she is an influencer on tiktok and youtube. I’m trying really hard to stay off social media because my feed is overwhelmingly negative and it sucks time away before I realize an hour has gone by.
While sniffing this tea I keep trying to find malty notes. I don’t know why my brain wants to go there, but I’m not finding it. I get a hint of creamy coconut and something that makes me think mellow warmth, something cozy. Is this what a warm library smells like? Is this what aging books smell like? Something like chocolate in the scent, but not quite. When sipping I can pick up a tiny bit of the roasty hojicha. It’s very mild. Maybe the tiniest bit of malt at the back of the sip with that aging flavor in the finish. Some sips have a ghostly showing of coconut rounding any edges. It’s funny how much the name is making me try to connect the flavors to an old library. This is a tea I’m having to concentrate on. If I didn’t I think I’d just mindlessly sip it because it is so subtle and there is nothing trying to jump out and grab your attention. It’s a fun experience, but I’m left pondering how I feel about the tea.
Preparation
Hmm not sure I understand coconut for a library tea ha ha…
The name is sure lovely and evocative!
Library teas should have something old and a little rusty. Keemun or puerh.
The coconut is very light. It gives it a little bit of creaminess without standing out much on it’s own.
A puerh would be perfect for a library blend! Good call!
Librarian here! We have a historic collection that has a strong “old paper” smell that I really enjoy, but I think it would be hard to recreate… I think my brain is thinking those highly mineral oolongs that have that sort of wet rock aroma? Or a petrichor-leaning puerh could work too, ya.
Holy hell, this tea is minty! It may have been a case of oversteeping. I have had so many chocolate mint teas that were weak, so I decided to start my journey with this tea with a 4m steep instead of my usual start of 3. It was so minty I could feel it in my sinuses and I’m not complaining! I had to add some creamer to take the edge off the mint, which happens to be one of my favorite ways to have mint choco teas. It helped, but I feel like the chocolate is muted because of how bold the mint is. I’m happily drinking this cup and look forward to trying it again!
Preparation
Advent Day 12
Steeping up very red and I’m hoping it’s beetroot related. Nope, hibiscus. This had a citrusy fruity flavor in the first few sips and smells like strawberries and lemons, but it changed over to that gross hib tang in the start of the sip and then alkaline at the back. Very unpleasant, but it’s what I’ve come to expect in blends that have hib in any amount above the most miniscule. Hibiscus is like my cilantro. This tea is not for me!
Preparation
I’m with you on the hibiscus…why do tea companies insist on adding it to nearly every berry-flavored tea blend???
I get what some blenders are trying (and failing IMO) to do. Butiki was really good at using just a hint of hibiscus because that tang can fill out the missing tang in fruit that often doesn’t translate when you dry it or use flavorings. It can make the fruit come alive and taste vibrant, but it so easily overpowers. I understand that some people really enjoy hib, but blenders seem SO heavy handed with it and that’s the part that baffles me. This blend didn’t taste like strawberries to me, just muddled hibiscus filth.
Oh man, I miss Butiki!
Same! I keep hoping she will do a comeback tour.
Advent Day 12
Well this is interesting! Kumquat and finger lime?! I have had a kumquat tea from Lupicia once, but I’ve never come across a tea with finger lime! I am partial to finger lime and have had two small trees in pots for years. The larger one that has not been a good producer of fruit is now covered in blossoms at the moment, so I have hope it may be catching up with my prolific tree. We moved in the fall, so perhaps it likes the new yard better. I also grew up with my grandma having a kumquat tree in the back yard and often snacked on those as a kid.
This has a light juicy citrus taste. The first couple of sips were powerful and then the tea mellowed out or maybe it was my tastebuds that did. I think I can pick out the sweetness and flavor of the kumquat peel mixed with the flesh of the fruit, but it lacks the tang the flesh has. The finger lime flavor would be hard to differentiate with a regular lime. The difference is the fruit filled sacs inside the fruit are round balls instead of tubes with tapered ends. I had to look up what marula is… a fruit from Africa. Finger lime from Australia, kumquats are native to China… that is three continents. Not sure where the lemon peel and green tea are from to make the namesake five continents, but I like the concept. This is a nice enough cup that I’d try again, although I’d love to try it cold steeped if I came across it again.
Preparation
Wow, I consider myself fairly well-versed in fruits and veg but I’ve never heard of finger lime. Learned something new today!
Kelmishka I become intrigued with finger lime after learning about them from Masterchef Australia (it was quite the feat to watch from Canada many years ago) and now can’t wait for the day I get to try the fresh version. P.S. Dammann Frères Grand Goût Russe also has finger lime. :)
I haven’t heard of finger limes either. I wonder if they’re the ones used in Thai food. Sounds like an interesting tea!
I think finger limes are a fairly new introduction to places outside of and far from Australia. I stumbled across them about 10 years ago at a fancy grocery store and then tracked down trees. It can best be described as citrus caviar. You can squeeze the little balls of juice out of the limes (which grow in a long tube shape and are usually at the biggest the size of a finger) and can add them to all sorts of food and drink for a fun citrus pop when you crunch down on them. I haven’t noticed them having a unique lime taste.
The limes used in Thai food have been called Kaffir (although it’s coming to light that it is a racist term) and are starting to be called Makrut. It’s usually the leaves that are used in Thai food. I have two Makrut lime trees too, but they have never produced fruit, just plenty of leaves for cooking.
Thanks, that makes sense! Lime caviar sounds fun. I’ve never actually tried to cook Thai food but have had it many times from restaurants.
I have had a couple of teas with finger lime before, but I don’t remember which they were! I am thinking Dammann Freres or Lupicia?
Do you recall if the lime in the finger lime teas tasted different than regular lime, Ashmanra?
Advent Day 11
I didn’t follow the steeping instructions (3-5m steep) and instead did a little over a minute, afraid to oversteep this. I think I understeeped it instead. It does have a nice jasmine flavor, but it isn’t as strong as I prefer my jasmines. I do get a little green behind the jasmine flavor, but not a strong grassy green that would overpower the flower. Another tea that I’d happily drink another cup of, but am not moved to buy.
Preparation
Advent Day 11
I think I’ve only had mince pie tea twice and then tried the actual pastry once after that, so my familiarity with the concept is limited. Steeped, this tea smells lightly of fruit and spices in a way that makes me think warmth. I can kind of get that in the sip, but the flavors seem really light to me. I get the scent of almond, but not the flavor. It’s is hard for me to pick out much in the flavor individually. I used the term murky for the last tea in this advent and I’d say the same for this one. I tried adding cream and it didn’t help. Another cup dump for me.
Preparation
Advent Day 10
I love the chocolate mint combo in tea. One of my early gateway loose leafs was a Teavana mint chocolate blend. It’s one of the flavor combos that I find hard to pass up. That said… this was the blandest mint chocolate blend I’ve encountered. The flavor was so weak it was like it had already been steeped a couple times. It was murky with a hint of mint. I couldn’t even drink the whole cup. Hard pass.
