Lauren | A Quarter to Tea Send Message

This is how I always imagined butterbeer tasting! It’s caramelly, rummy, creamy and completely decadent.

The flavoring is intense without being heavy handed, so the fannings base is inoffensive if not slightly dominated by the flavorings.

This isn’t so much like drinking a cup of tea as it is a cocktail or a dessert.

I’ve been drinking this while catching up on housework and binge watching the season of Top Chef that takes place in New Orleans.

It’s kind of appropriate, with all the mad vibrancy and color going throughout. I only regret not having some on Fat Tuesday!

There’s a wonderful herbaceous note running through the cup, which definitely tips this into a more savory tea category. The orange/lemongrass play second fiddle to the more grounded flavors of eucalyptus. The base is solid and non-obstrusive and does a good job of tying all of the strong flavors (that could easily miss the mark) together.

Ever made apple pie bread?

It’s pretty much an apple quick bread with a cinnamon streusal ribbon running through it. It’s freaking good, and I try not to make it because I can down the whole thing in about 48 hours.

This tea is that bread.

It’s super sweet apple with a cinnamon sugar like note running through it. The base is malty and just a touch…buttery almost.

The base is fickle, though. Quickly bitter and astringent if not coddled. I’ve found 2:45-3 min at about 200 to be a sweet spot for this one.

Mate is just one of those flavors I have a hard time getting behind, so I was definitely okay with not being able to taste it in this cup.

The cocoa is more of a scent than a present flavor, but the licorice root is just enough to make it deceptively sweet, so if you close your eyes you can definitely imagine the flavor. The blend of peppermint and spearmint adds an element of depth without being overpowering.

All the pick me up of mate without the mate taste. Count me in!

In a word: subtle.

Initially this tea comes on as a white tea, slightly vegetal with hints of floral flavors.

Once you swallow though, you realize there’s a light twinge of an I’m-not-quite-sure-which-berry and spun sugar. The sugar/berry/cotton candy flavor only becomes more pronounced as the cup cools.

It doesn’t need sugar, and I didn’t add any, but I could definitely see this taking it well.

I don’t hate this tea, and some of the hate in the reviews seems unnecessarily hostile. But eh.

If you don’t like chai, this cup is totally a big cup of NOPE, though.

Strong spicy cinnamon and ginger, little bits of clove, and a pumpkin-like sweetness in the back.

Definitely recommend milk + sweetener. A 50/50 of milk to water while brewing seems to soften and smooth it quite a bit.

Hubby says I’m extremely basic in this, but seriously. Pumpkin spice all the things.

I am definitely the person who still has tins of pumpkin in my pantry and makes/eats pumpkin custard all year long. And pumpkin cranberry muffins in the freezer for in a pinch.

So, it only seems fitting I drink this year round too. Or at least as long as it’s still cold out. Pumpkin is such a divine, comforting cold weather flavor.

This is sweet, almost like there’s added sugar. Maple-y almost. And there’s actually a pumpkin flavor (which I seem to miss in a lot of pumpkin spice teas), in a roasted sugar pumpkin kind of way. The spicing is dessert like, with cinnamon in the front and bits of allspice and clove trailing.

Such a good pumpkin tea. One I’ll probably grab again next fall when the rest of the country pumpkin spices everything with me.

Jasmine is always a good option. And this is a very fragrant/potent jasmine.

So, clearly I was going to like this.

The base is sweet, but fickle. So definitely steep low and short.

Dirty Secret Time:

I initially thought the Mandarin part of this tea was going to be a sweet orange flavor (maybe orange blossom) mingling with the jasmine. I might be the slightest bit sad that I was very very wrong.

Oh god.I swear all the closings of companies I love is going to turn me into a tea hoarder someday.

I’ve been holding onto this (like most of my offerings from here) in airtight sealed bags for virtually forever, because I know I can never ever get them again and I am so incredibly saddened by this.

Thankfully it’s still fresh tasting, and I’m winding down to the bottom of this one so I know it won’t go stale on me before I can finish it.

This definitely falls on this flowery side of lychee, though the finish is juicy and more like the fruit. I really enjoy the base they use here, it’s smooth, subtley sweet and light. Fickle, though.

Any lychee green recommendations?

I have completely ran the whole range of emotions on this tea.

I went from being indifferent, to disappointment, to dislike and now I’m on my third cup in two days and completely in love with it.

That summarizes my relationship with a lot of flavored tea, actually.

This one is absolutely a cup that needs milk + sweetener, though. (2TBSP Silk Unsweetend Soy Milk + 1/2TSP Sugar Free White Chocolate Torani for me today, please). The Torani seems to be both decreasing the chemically/plastic chocolate flavor I felt was present last time and increasing the actually chocolate flavor. Milk smoothes it out and makes the marshmallow creamy, sweet and present. There’s a crumbly cinnamon graham cracker note that kind of floats in and out and isn’t quite sure of it’s presence all the time.

The real reason to have this though, is that there’s something kind of fun about drinking dessert mid-morning.