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September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea you reordered before you were out

This tastes like what it says, and my neighbor who loves coffee but gets indigestion from it adores it and has given up coffee.

I thought I would only like the flavored Teeccino blends, but this one is really good. When having it with food, I can even drink it sans additions.

September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Sipdown a Sample!

The site is running as slow as molasses in January. Clicking like on a post takes me to an ever spinning new page instead of lighting up the wee heart. Come on, tech team! We believe in you! Get us running again!

This sample was a tea mail surprise from GMathis – many thanks! It really came in useful today. Brekkie was late but I had to teach, so lunch was literally a slice of deli turkey I grabbed from the fridge and a glass of chocolate milk to wash it down. I walked as I “ate” lunch.

I wanted something to sip on for a couple of hours of afternoon teaching and it was the perfect time to try this.

The label says white tea at the bottom but the first ingredient listed is rooibos. The rooibos is somewhat temprered by the white tea and flavoring, though. It added a nice fruity note to the fruity flavorings without being overly woody. It smelled very nice in the cup. Enjoyabke, and I would drink it again if offered.

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This may have been Ashman’s favorite of the Earl Grey All Day line from RoT that we tried. The flavouring is pretty strong, which meant he could easily resteep and combine so that he had tea for breakfast plus enough for a travel mug to take to work.

The strawberry and rhubarb were pretty balanced so the rhubarb toned down “candy” tendencies in the strawberry. It was a brightly flavoured green and the base wasn’t sharp.

I barely picked up bergamot in these, and I don’t think I noticed it all in this one.

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What a shocker to come on here today and see that my two sipdowns have never had a tasting note from me.

This was a really enjoyable blend. Orange Marmalade was super heavily flavored. This one a little less so.

It was genuinely a lemon biscuit/pastry flavor and not just tea with lemon. Ashman is not a fan of lemon in tea as a rule but he liked this. There was a nice, creamy vanilla note that sold the dessert profile.

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September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea you will not repurchase

I bought this one day when I was really feeling down and wanted some tea retail therapy. It was fun to try, but when a tea is this strongly flavored I assume it is not a great quality base and there is a lot of flavoring that might be labeled natural but is in no way what I would consider natural. (Rare Tea Lady suggested recently to just stir a spoonful of high quality jam into one’s tea if one wants fruit flavor! The Russians do, usually with cherry jam or preserves.)

It was fun, it was good, it was very summery, but I am glad to finish it. There was only one bag left and I added two teaspoons of Ceylon OP Kenilworth No. 450 from Tin Roof Teas so I could make a Stump pot full for breakfast. The orange flavor still came through and I had a more natural tasting beverage.

Even though I will probably not repurchase the other two flavors I bought, the Lemon Biscuit was probably my favorite and I might eventually look for Whisky Fig to try.

September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – the tea most past its “best by” date

Still not a sipdown. I should buy my green tea in smaller amounts. I really like this tea. It is one of my favorite greens, but I have let it get too old. It isn’t bad, but it definitely does not have all the brilliance it had when fresh.

September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – an intentionally aged tea

Superanna came Saturday bringing us croissant bread and hazelnut chocolate spreads and I decided this would be a great tea to pair with them for breakfast.

The label says dark tea but the back of the pouch specifies that it is puerh from China, as puerh must be to be truly designated as puerh. This blend also contains vanilla black tea, vanilla honeybush, and roasted chicory. They say it is a great introduction to puerh and you might say it really eases you in. If we can say that one dives into the deep end of the pool of puerh, I would call this not even a kiddie pool, but rather a nice warm bath. It is a really gentle intro to puerh.

You can see the real cacao nibs in this blend – no chocolate flavoring oils swimming like scum on the surface. You do taste the puerh. It is not completely hidden by the other ingredients but it is greatly softened. The chicory is not super strong. You won’t be fooled into thinking this is a coffee substitute.

I like puerh, so I don’t need for it to have all this treatment but this is a good blend. They suggest making a frothy latte with it and I want to try that sometime soon as a special dessert treat.

September 5 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that gives

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There are so many teas that could fill this prompt, but I sure do love the way Rare Tea listened to their growers and set up a charity that would give them what they desire – a better life for their children, and how they make sure that at least 50% of their scholarship money goes to females. Primary school education is largely covered in many areas but there isn’t a lot above that. They fund education through university level, even announcing a young woman in their program who earned her Master’s Degree!

Harney And Sons also contributes to many charities, some of them receiving a straight 1% of general sales profits and other charities having their own representative tea that benefits them specifically. Really any Harney tea also would qualify for this prompt.

This Afternoon Blend is quick to make. Lower temp and shorter steep time means I get to my cookies or cake faster. I do a resteep and combine. The result tastes a bit like Fortnum & Mason’s Afternoon Blend, which has both high and low grown Sri Lankan tea in it. This tea comes from Chiyabari in Nepal and Satemwa Estate in Malawi.

It is a nice little pick me up, milder than Lost Malawi which I love love love for breakfast. It does not require milk and sugar but if you make it with hotter water and a longer steep they say it can handle it and becomes more chocolate-y.

Few people would consider this a suitable breakfast tea and it never intended to be one, but I do sometimes have it for breakfast as I don’t need a caffeine kick. It is lovely and smooth for afternoon drinking, though.

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September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a chocolate tea

I can’t believe this doesn’t have a tasting note from me and yet here I am at a sipdown. This is going on the wishlist as a someday repurchase. I always saved it to drink when Superanna visits as it is one of her favorite teas.

This resteeps very well so four teaspoons of leaf in a Stump pot, poured into a large Curve pot and immediately resteeped and combined, makes a very tasty accompaniment to all sorts of food, whether it is a meal or dessert like today. It was served with lemon pound generously spread with lemon fluff frosting and Superanna commented on how perfectly the tea paired with it. It’s good with everything because it is just plain good.

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This has served its purpose – a nice sweet tea for summer evenings. Summer is drawing to a close and fall approaching so it was the perfect time to finish the tin with a big carafe to drink this weekend. Still high summer temps here so it will be enjoyed.

I will probably repurchase it for next summer but will let something else take its place for fall and winter drinking.

It is decaf so the base is as you might expect – it doesn’t pack a punch but it is good. The peach flavor is really lovely and improves after a day or two in the fridge, as I find with all sweet iced tea, even unflavored.