3690 Tasting Notes
*December 21st Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Winter Solstice: drink your coziest tea (while comfy if possible)
I love this tea! It is one of my advent gifts from AliasHali. I thought I posted about it the first time I drank it but I think I just remember sending detailed notes to her about it.
Almond flavor is cozy and comforting to me. It gives a hug and sets the scene for a good book, a soft blanket, and breathing room in the schedule, or sipping while watching the birds outside the window, or sitting quietly while a candle flickers.
I liked this better than S&V Almond and then I wondered if my memory was fooling me. Why was this one better? What if they were the same tea from a distributor being repackaged? Would I be able to tell by sight if they were different teas?
I tipped out a bit of both teas onto saucers. They were similar, both containing bits of almond, leaf color was slightly different with one being just a tiny bit darker than the other. Then I noticed a chunk of something in this one. I picked it up and squeezed. It was a little squishy, like a raisin might be. I broke it in half and saw that it was a cherry! No wonder it has a bit of an edge over the S&V version for me.
At this point it occurred to me that I should have read the ingredients first. Ha ha! Time would have been saved but I would have missed out on the fun!
Ashman is not as big a fan of almond flavoring. He doesn’t hate it, but his heart broke just a little bit when I made an almond pound cake recently instead of a lemon one. He still ate it, mind you.
From Simpson & Vail, he prefers their Almond Sugar Cookie quite a bit over the plain Almond, which he feels is a bit “one note.” True. While he didn’t rave over this, the reception was better than for plain Almond from S&V so I think it ranks between their two almond teas that he has tried.
For me, this might be a shelf staple. Probably going on the birthday list because I don’t think this will last very long.
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I have had this for at least a year but possibly two. These are teabags from World Market and they came in a pretty box. I was keeping it on hand for a couple of students who like it and whose preferences in tea are very specific. This was one they seemed to agree on and it made it an easy choice when we had tea together.
This tea has a rich mouthfeel that is creamy and mouth coating. I would say oily but that sounds unappealing and this is definitely appealing to me.
Naturally the final session(s) with this tea were extra good such that I regret that I have none left, but I have my lovely rose tea from Happy Lucky now to console me!
I am disappointed that I apparently did not add this to my cupboard, so even though it is a sipdown my number is unchanged.
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I have been trying to read everyone’s notes, comment, etc., but most of the time can not even sign in, but hallelujah today I was able to catch up! Now let’s see if this note posts.
Steepster, please behave! I have missed you!
It has actually been a while since I first had this so I am working from memory. I was pleasantly surprised at the balance between the mint and the chocolate flavor, because I would prefer for it to be chocolate forward rather than mint forward. It was a decent black tea, but sadly I had to drink this alone because it has the chocolate flavoring that Ashman doesn’t like. He says it smells like mildew, and I totally get it. Lots of chocolate teas do. I recently noticed that chocolate Pirouette cookies smell disgusting to me. Good thing I bought the vanilla, too.
Yeah I don’t mind eating the chocolate ones but there’s a reason the vanilla is my favorite of the two. The chocolate tastes better than it smells, tho, especially if you dunk it in milk or an appropriate tea!
They’re all yours! I have consumed too many sweets so the vanilla ones can be yours, too!
AliasHali Advent Tea Day 10
Until yesterday, I had an old-fashioned pink rose in a delicate green glass vase on my desk. I was surprised to see a rose in bloom in the garden last week on the very old rose bush I brought to my house from my mother’s, and I cut it to bring in and enjoy it. (I have rooted that bush several times now and there is one flourishing at my son’s house as well! The rose faded and the color of the petals deepened, so I picked off the petals and scattered them in the path of Mary riding the donkey through the advent candle spiral.
This tea tastes like that rose. The base is mild for a Keemun. The rose scent is delicate and natural, but the more I drink the more it is building up – rose-y and peppery with a little tingle on my tongue. I think this might almost be the perfect rose black tea for me.
I wouldn’t have it for breakfast. This is a tea to drink as I am drinking it now – a relaxing break between tasks, served in a pretty bone China cup – Old Country Roses, appropriately.
How nice that three people on Steepster had a rose tea today! It’s amazing that you still have roses blooming in your garden in December.
I have five tiny Pink Fairy blossoms left out there, but once they go it will be the last I see of roses until April, I expect! The other rose posts made me remember whaich tea the rose in this is reminding me of – it is Rose Congou from Upton!
December 10 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Human Right’s Day: drink a fair trade or ethically sourced tea
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This is on my Christmas list so hopefully it will be back on shelf soon! I had forgotten the steeping instructions (boiling water for up to 90 seconds) and went with boiling water for 45 seconds. I made two small pots today by combining three steeps together and the tra had excellent color and flavor. It neither looked washed out nor tasted weak.
This is just a great all around breakfast tea to keep on hand and it is good any time, not just for breakfast.
I asked Santa for this one, too.
gmathis: oooo I hope we get some!
D has been reading up on the Yule Cat, who eats all the naughty kiddies who don’t wear the socks they got for Christmas … would that apply to the naughty Steepies who don’t drink what they get for Christmas?
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December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea with fruit flavors
I have hoarded this long enough. It always felt too special to drink just any old time. It is a wonderful oolong base (I believe also pouchong?) with fresh and juicy peach flavor, so refreshing! The whole leaves are bigger than the rose petals that grace this blend, but fear not if you are a rose hater, it doesn’t taste like rose. The petals only add a hint of sweetness to blends where rose oil or flavoring isn’t also added.
Delicious. Definitely a someday again tea.
Momo always makes me think of Avatar (the cartoon, not the movie) … wasn’t that the kids’ monkey or sloth or tree-ish critter?
While I have no previous “Momo” association, I sure do like this tea, and plan to sip mine down in January as a reminder of summer! Woo-hoo!
gmathis: yes, it was!
TeaEarleGreyHot: That gives me an idea for a January prompt…thanks!
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea with cinnamon, clove, or chai spices
This one has neither cinnamon nor (thank goodness) clove. I don’t mind a little clove but clove heavy does not appeal and I usually pick out all the clove I can find in a blend that it.
This is a chai that is based on the spices that would have been available and widely used in the Victorian era. It is slightly spicy, mostly just having that little kick of warmth like ginger gives, but it isn’t too spicy for me and is great without milk or sugar.
Sharedown
My neighbor texted last night that her wellness tea tasted absolutely horrible and it really does. I have had it before from a local shop. She is fighting off sickness, so I left,my remaining sachets on her porch. She loves ginger tea and this has a little ginger kick to it, so I am eager to hear how she likes it and whether she feels better
You’re the sweetest! <3
I really do like ginger! For turkey day I made a red-wine and ginger cranberry jam, using a few ginger slices. After cooking was finished, I fished out the ginger slices and, yes, ATE them! They were akin to ginger candies and still very potent! I plan on doing this again soon! (Yes, the cranberry jam was tasty, too! Recipe from the NY Times cooking pages.)
TeaEarleGreyHot – that sounds like tasty jam! I would not be able to handle the heat of straight ginger, though! I am wimpy.
CameronB – We have such awesome neighbors. Most of us have keys/codes to get in each houses. LOL Everyone looks after each other and we are all constantly taking each other food or things to try. I feel,very, very blessed to have them all.
That’s so lovely!
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – an unflavored black tea
Homemade Advent Day 7
I bought a 2 ounce pouch of this for our advent as I am trying to match teas to the F&M tons that came in the original advent.
This is the least expensive Assam S&V carries right now but it was actually quite good. We had it with breakfast, and then when I was making another pot of it for lunch I dropped the pouch and virtually all of it spilled. I don’t think I have ever done that before, but I am grateful we already had two pots of it and there is enough left in the little tin that I was trying to refill for one more. We didn’t need additions but we did enjoy the lunch pot which had a shorter steep time best.It smells like rich breakfast tea and the scent lingered, making me want MORE TEA PLZ! I think in the future I may buy a sampling of lots of their Assams to taste and compare.
Oh no! Sorry to hear about your tea mishap. Of course, it would have to be a tea you liked…
I think an Assam flight sounds like a marvelous idea! And it’s the sort of thing that teahouses could implement, too! Assam flights, puerh flights, sencha flights, duck-shi’t flights, dragonwell flights, Ceylon flights, fruity black flights, rooibos flights, herbal flights, and on and on. A different category every night on Tues evenings and Sat. afternoons, on a rotating basis. Five infusions guided by a tea-sommelier, and with palate-cleansing biscuits. Modestly priced but with a 4 oz. purchase included. Lunch or hors d’ouvres afterward optional. Great way to build the customer base!
Tin Roof Teas in Raleigh, NC does them! I went to one ages ago, and I have done them in my home a number of times for people who are curious about tea. My neighbor’s daughter who lives out of town (but we grew up in the same school) said she didn’t like green tea but wanted to drink it and someone told her she just hadn’t found the right one. I did a ten (!!!) tea flight of 7 green and three black teas and she loved them! I have also done black tea and ripe puerh flights for people, as well as gong fu oolong sessions for those interested.
My family never had people over. My mother grew up in an orphanage and really didn’t know how/disliked entertaining so neither did I. Tea opened up the world of being social for me. I am still pretty reclusive by nature, but I enjoy having people to tea and they seem to enjoy coming, some of them coming regularly for years.
Wow! If I ever make it back to the Raleigh area, I’ll have to look up Tin Roof Teas! That is a heartwarming story, @ashmanra, about how tea transformed an aspect of your life, and I thank you for sharing it!
Very nice to hear how tea was such a game changer for you, ashmanra. :)
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a flavored green
I ordered some tea as Christmas gifts and threw in some small amounts of various teas that are new to me to add to our homemade advent to make it more exciting.
Ashman didn’t what we were drinking and after breakfast I asked if he liked it. He said that he did, and found it an unusual flavor profile for a green tea and felt it tasted like oatmeal cookies. I can see that!
I get mostly creamy vanilla and a boozy flavor. The color is sunshine yellow, which was welcome on this second heavily overcast day in a row.
While I liked it and don’t mind drinking the rest, I don’t think I would repurchase just because it is an unusual profile and not one I prefer on a green base. Glad to have tried and had something a little different for sure!
