3703 Tasting Notes
I was really excited for this one because it sounded so good! It was okay but it was so so mild that I don’t know that I really tasted apple, and even the date and black tea base were mild. It was inoffensive, but it really could have been great. It was a gentle and sweet cup of tea, but not the level of flavor I was expecting. Would drink again if someone offered it, but I wouldn’t buy a tin.
January Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a favorite tea from a favorite mug
Golden Monkey is one of my favorite style teas, although right now I am more partial to the one from Happy Lucky. I love the rich, yammy, baked sweet potato with honey aroma and the full body. I love how it resteeps.
I usually drink tea from a small teacup and saucer, usually Spode Blue Italian or Royal Albert Old Country Roses or Lady Carlyle, but my newest mug is the limited edition Blue Italian mug, of which only 1770 were to be made in honor of the year of their inception.
The handle is a generous, easy to hold size, and I believe it is large enough that it won’t bump those pesky genetic Heberden’s nodes on my hands when they flare. The mug is tall with a smaller circumference than my others, making it feel sweet in my small hands and also keeping my tea warmer longer since there is less surface area at the top.
Day 13 Simpson & Vail advent
Another new to me tea, and a flavor profile I just don’t reach for but I wanted to give it a try, fully expected to pour it out.
Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice is their number one selling tea and I bought it as a tea newbie. It was too strong for me – I don’t like Red Hots, those heart candies, and that’s what it tasted like. For some reason I did enjoy the green version until they toned it way down – go figure. I tried the version from Sweet Earth – meh.
This surprised me. I really like this. I think I might even buy it for my friend for her birthday because she is off black tea and can’t have caffeine late, and for our little neighbor gathering that happens whenever we can manage to get together. No sugar at all is needed. It is perfectly sweet on its own, and the rooibos doesn’t taste like I am eating one of those wooden ice cream spoons from elementary school.
I couldn’t get to my instructions because Ashley was fixing a door for me and I couldn’t get in the room where the advent was, so I did a three minute first steep with less water than called for and a second four minute steep, combining the two. It was good that way. I couldn’t fit all of the second steep in my mug and poured it in a glass to try by itself.
Having had that flavorful combo steep first, a plain second steep was too weak for me.
I am really glad I tried this one.
January 12 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Hot tea day!
I finished three samples today – this one, a Dan Cong from Teavivre, and another from SV Tea.
This one was, as I expected, a no. I don’t love turmeric in tea and while I really tried to have an open mind, this one just wasn’t for me. The medicinal, almost chemical taste from some a weird mix of elements is not my thing.
This was in my S&V advent that I received after Christmas and started on January 1st. I am trying to make notes only on teas I have not tried before.
This smelled just like the blueberry flavoring in Blueberry Crumble by S&V and I wasn’t getting a ton of lime from the dry leaf. In flavor, however, the steeped tea does taste like both of those, but there is little green tea flavor. It wasn’t bad but it was surprisingly unremarkable. I drank it with breakfast and it was fine but nothing to write home about.
I didn’t know it was supposed to be blue and surely I would have noticed if mine was blue. I am going to assume my packet didn’t have any/much butterfly pea flower in it.
January Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea from China
This was one of my gifts from AliasHali, who has made us happy customers of Happy Lucky’s – many thanks!
The aroma of the dry leaf – oh my, it was so intoxicating. It was bot a super strong jasmine scent, but it may have been a nearly perfect jasmine scent.
Since they tout this as a jasmine tea for people who want a green tea with backbone that is not just a carrier for jasmine, I was a little apprehensive that the steeped tea might be very brisk or super grassy. Apparently by “backbone” they just mean really good green tea, because that’s what this is.
This ranks up there with favorite jasmine teas. Absolutely delicious.
Sipdown
January Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea you prefer with additions
Yes, I am aware that this is not a tea, but a tisane or infusion!
We have changed how we drink this lately, adding just a bit of warmed up half and half and some sugar. Delicious, but I have lots of Vanilla Nut and an unopened bag of French Roast to go through before I buy any more.
I knew by the ingredients this was not for me but I drank it to say I did and because now and then you should try things that are outside of your comfort zone. If I hadn’t been having it with lunch, I probably would have poured it out but it was tolerable with food.
I didn’t add milk or sugar and maybe that was a mistake. It is a chai, after all, but other chais that I have enjoyed were fine plain. This had a really funky smell to me that was off-putting. I am not a fan of black peppercorns or lots of ginger in tea, and I think the sarsaparilla may have put me off a bit, too. Does sarsaparilla smell like gym socks that were left under a damp mildewy towel that had been used to mop up spilled milk?
Most of the teas in the advent are ones I enjoy or look forward to trying if I haven’t already had them. This one was the dud (for me) I expected, though I did go into it with an open mind. People who love chai will probably appreciate the spices and the fact that it is caffeine free if one needs to watch that. Glad to have tried it, though!
Some of my students who have missed a month of lessons due to sickness passing through the family two by two returned last week and had Christmas gifts for me. The Simpson & Vail advent calendar was one of those gifts! I am excited to drink through it in January!
The first tea is one I have never tried, but I was hopeful because we really enjoyed Rocky Mountains. Thanks to AliasHali, I have tried a great many S&V teas and will probably only makes notes on the ones I have not had before.
I really liked this one. It tastes fresh and clean. I have had juniper needle tea and was surprised that I didn’t taste juniper much unless it was contributing the fresh, clean “Glacier” cool aspect. It was not minty, just fresh tasting. So while it didn’t taste of juniper, it did taste good and I would absolutely be happy to see this tea again.
