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I thought I had completed all the sipdowns I was likely to get this month, but we are bored from two days of rain so I suggested we have freshly baked cookies and tea tonight. Ashman selected this tea, and now it is all gone until November or December!

We love the strawberry, vanilla, and coconut flavors (the coconut really is mostly just sweetness and not a strong coconut) so we will miss it for sure, but we will hopefully get to restock in a couple of months, especially if we can sip down some other decaf options that are hanging out on the shelves.

Thankfully, I still have a bit of regular Carol left to enjoy earlier in the day.

For August Sipdown Prompt – a tea you serve non-tea folks

This one has served me well. It seems to be pretty universally likable and people who take sugar in their tea often leave it out of this one. When someone just wants to have tea and maybe a snack but they don’t want to learn about gong fu cha and they don’t care a jot about single origin orthodox processed tea, this is a good one to bring out, whether regular or decaf. I am having decaf because it is after 3 in the afternoon and I hope to sleep again sometime this week.

This is on the same camp as Earl Grey to me without having a strong bergamot presence that many object to. The blackcurrant, caramel, and vanilla and more up front. Good iced, too.

This in the caf version is Harney’s number two seller, right behind Hot Cinnamon Spice.

For the August Sipdown Challenge Prompt – drink your most refreshing tea

It doesn’t have to be this exact puerh. Most any shu served cold from a glass container is so refreshing to me. Oftentimes I will make a pot of shu to drink hot and then toss the leaves in a carafe and fill it with water and pop it in the fridge for anywhere from several hours to a couple of days or more. The taste is so fresh and earthy but light, and being chilled in glass containers makes it all the more refreshing.

Not a sipdown, not even close, but with puerh I don’t mind as much since it gets better with age.

I am drinking a fall tea for the August prompt – Tea While Listening to a Summer Song

I have actually done this prompt several times in the past two weeks trying to hit a combination I liked, and I liked them all but I was wondering how other people define summer song. I was going with a song that made me think of summer. The obvious choice around here with our wretched heat and humidity is Summer In The City by The Lovin’ Spoonful. I listened to that and Good Life by One Republic with Queen Catherine, which was a November 2009 release but my connection with the song was forged in the spring and summer of 2010, and always accompanied by Queen Catherine so I now associate the two like Pavlov’s dog associates a bell with food.

Today I just wanted a special tea and this one is special breakfast-alone tea to me. Ashman isn’t a fan of maple so I reserve this just for me and this tea is amazing.

Apple is up front to me, the apricot is light and I agree that it comes off as wine-y. The maple flavor is not too heavy, so perhaps Ashman wouldn’t mind it. The base tea is weighty enough that you know you are drinking tea and what I consider to be a breakfast tea at that – a little brisk, and clearly able to take milk and sugar though I have never tried it that way.

Songs to accompany the tea today were My Girl by Chilliwack and a version of Summer In The City by Quincy Jones that I don’t recall ever having heard before.

I have enough leaf remaining for maybe two more pots. I will be very careful to parcel it out judiciously to make it last until this blend is available again, which I believe will be in October.

I only drank this as an addition to smoothies. It added very nice fresh blueberry flavor and hopefully gave me the afternoon boosts I needed. Today was a sipdown, although I still have a few of their others flavors left.

For flavored matcha and powdered hojicha both flavored and unflavored, I would definitely buy from this company again. I have enjoyed everything I tried from them.

August Sipdown Prompt – National Secondhand Wardrobe Day

I got the bonus points but I admit I had to go change clothes because I nearly forgot today’s prompt. Dress was a much too large purchase from the Salvation Army store to which I added bodice tucks to attempt to make it fit better. It didn’t work and I use it as a comfy house dress that I don’t care about which is why it never gets a stain. I also removed a pocket from Ashman’s worn out khaki pants and added it on the right side. The pocket is huge. I could smuggle puppies in it. Or movie theater snacks.

The tea was also a dilemma. I have lots of tea given by other people. Most of my tea is probably gifts from other people. But is that really secondhand? Then I remembered that I few teas left from WhiteAntlers Swedish Death Purge, and I believe those fully qualify.

Today I took special care to explore the aroma of the leaves. The most prominent note was whole black Tellicherry peppercorn. I decided to make the tea at a slightly cooler temperature this time, going with 175°F.

This was very good with my breakfast, although most people would probably consider it an afternoon tea. I drank it sans additions. A mild black peppercorn taste was noticeable but joined by fleeting florality on the swallow. The characteristic raw “green” edge of darjeeling was also noted. Next pot will be a sipdown!

This is a “share-down.” I gave my last sachets to my neighbor and suggested he share it with his mom. He had really serious surgery and is out of work for three months and she has been visiting a lot. I had her over for tea once and we drank Carrot Cake Cupcake from S&V, which is definitely a repurchase for me when it runs out. She loved it, so I told him to try this one with her to see if she likes it, and that might be his Mother’s Day gift for next year all planned.

Harney is not listing butterfly pea flower as an ingredient, but I cannot remember this turning blue years ago when I first tried it. Now one sachet will give a gold colored tea and the next purplish blue. They only list one blue ingredient and that is cornflower, but I have never seen cornflower turn a tea this blue. It is a mystery.

It is chamomile forward, but isn’t almost every tea with chamomile that way? I get a little tired of chamomile when it is my only caffeine free option but I have several others on hand right now as well as other good decaf teas, so it made sense to share this one.

Third sipdown of the day! This is chilling in the fridge but the pouch is empty and tossed, so it counts.

I have to admit that I didn’t love this hot, but as a sweet iced tea it is really, really good. I would be happy to repurchase it next summer. The melon flavor is strong, so if you like subtly flavored tea keep that in mind.

I could use this for the prompt “tea while listening to a summer song” if we count cicadas screaming so loud that we sometimes have to raise our voices to be heard. But I won’t.

We managed two sipdowns this morning and this was one of them, but it isn’t even in my cupboard. How?

A delicious tea, resteeps well, good Western style and gong fu, sweet potato and malt. I consider this more of an afternoon tea than a breakfast tea but Ashman was drinking this while I finished off Minnie Mouse since he doesn’t like rose flavor in tea. (Loves it in lemonade, though.)

I have been so tempted by this tea ever since reading tasting notes from CameronB and other folks. I didn’t buy it partly because of my sipdown goals and partly because I am not a big fan of ginger or clove when they are too strong and they will put me right off a tea. If the pieces are big enough and the tea is good enough, I will pick out these ingredients as best I can.

I saw an ad for a new-to-me Harney tea and went to the website to check it out. Definitely not going to buy anything! I noticed that the large Royal Palaces style tin of this was on sale for 8.95 but told myself “no” and moved on. I didn’t buy anything!

The next day I had an email from Harney and Sons with a picture of this tea and a coupon to come back and try it with an additional $5 off, which I could instead apply to a different product if I wished. Believing that this was a tea Ashman would love, and in view of the fact that he has just started having tea instead of milk in the mornings on workdays, I reasoned that I should buy it because the sachets would be and easy for him to make so early in the morning.

My total was $3.95 for a tin of 30 sachets. Free shipping always with Harney and Sons in the US. It would be almost criminal not to use that coupon, right?

The aroma is worth $5 at least. I had braced myself for a clove assault, but all I got was sweet molasses cookie. Worth it.

Drinking it sans additions, it is not at all cloying or super sweet. Molasses leads the flavor and after lots of sipping the clove and ginger are building up in the aftertaste but they are mostly just warming and not hitting assault levels. This will be really nice in cold weather.

With a heat index of 110F (43.3C) today, I decided we should finish the rest of the pot as a cold latte. I added a little sugar and milk to the now cooled tea. Awwwww yiss. This is absolutely delicious. I think this is how it will go, hot or cold, from now on. Ashman loved it.