A Quarter to Tea

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Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
August 2022 → A melon tea

This one’s weird every time I drink it, no matter how I decide to steep it that day. Today I noticed how dark the leaves are and decided to try steeping like a black tea. Steeping like a green tea didn’t work at all for me last time, so why not? While it is a little bitter and astringent, I’m actually tasting the melon for the first time! That and, strangely, mint. It takes milk very well, definitely more like a black tea, so that’s helping with some of the resulting bitterness. Still not one I love or even like, but this definitely makes it more palatable.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Floral, Melon, Mint

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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This is a very strange blend. It smells like chocolate, tastes like flowers, and there’s no sign of cantaloupe to be found. It’s also kind of bitter. Not really a fan, but who knows how it might have tasted fresh. It doesn’t look like others on Steepster liked it much either though.

Flavors: Bitter, Chocolate, Floral

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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Sipdown but it turns out I never added this to my cupboard so still sitting at 300 teas.

In addition to this sample, which I have from Kittenna (thank you!), and Affogatea by Bird and Blend from July 2019, my oldest teas are the ones I bought in very large quantities when A Quarter to Tea went on hiatus. With that said, they should be what is going into my oldest tea box so I can actively sip them down. However, (1) they are too big to fit and (2) I don’t want to finish them since I am not ready to say good bye. I am thinking of skipping the August 2019 teas and throwing the September 2019 teas in the focus box instead.

This has been in a small ziploc bag for a year and a half and I feel like it suffered because of that. There is minimal flavor here. I can see it was probably custardy once but now it is sort of just a roundness in the mouthfeel than it is a flavor. The only flavor left is a sort of very generic fruity black tea. I’m sorry I left you for so long tea. I think you could have been good if I enjoyed you fresh.

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This tea smells like the inside of a candle store at the end of November. I appreciate the pumpkin seeds in the mix, but this is pumpkin spice all the way. It doesn’t taste nutty or like pumpkin, and I don’t get the salty caramelized toffee flavor I would expect from brittle. This is an older tea though, so perhaps that’s it.

Flavors: Spices

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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30
drank Love Potion by A Quarter to Tea
961 tasting notes

Samurai TTB #25

I tried this one just because it was AQTT and there was just one cup’s worth left in the box. However, with both rose and hibiscus in the ingredients list, I should have known better. This basically felt like chewing flower petals. Not a fan!

Flavors: Floral, Hibiscus, Rose

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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65
drank Cottontail by A Quarter to Tea
961 tasting notes

Samurai TTB #23

There was only about a tsp of this tea left in the bag, so I think my cup was under-leafed. I mainly tasted the white tea base with hints of vanilla and coconut. No lemon that I could discern.

Flavors: Coconut, Hay, Lemon

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
gmathis

Sounds like this one has potential!

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70

Samurai TTB #22

For me, the flavor of this tea came across as straight-up chocolate. A really GOOD chocolate…dark and rich and smooth and well-paired with the oolong base…but not at all what was promised by the name! Maybe this is an older sample and the other flavors have faded over time? Anyway, it wasn’t what I was expecting, but still an enjoyable experience. And always special to get to taste one of the AQTT blends I missed back when Lauren was still in business!

Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Smooth

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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92

This wasn’t as good as my first cup, but then the bag had been freshly opened at the time. Maybe exposure to air took away some of its nuance. The aroma is heavy maple syrup with some spicy cinnamon alongside. Not the sweet cinnamon I prefer. It’s probably a good thing I went ahead and finished it off. Better to remember it as it was.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Maple Syrup

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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92

First, let me try to describe how beautiful this tea blend is. It looks like little pieces of autumn all gathered up and lovingly blended together with care. There are curled knots of rolled black tea, inch-long pieces of cinnamon bark, dusty rose flowers, and caramel-colored flakes of oatmeal. It may be one of the prettiest blends I’ve seen.

This tea has been hiding away in my tea cabinet unopened and sadly forgotten, no doubt due to the mention of raisins. I’m so happy to have found it once again. The aroma is strong and surprisingly reminds me of cherries in a slightly medicinal way. Not like cough syrup, more like a spiced elderberry syrup with cherries. The primary flavor is maple syrup, though it’s not overbearing at all (as it sometimes can be). The base tea isn’t bold, but it’s very flavorful and feels perfectly matched with the other ingredients in the cup. I don’t taste raisin or hazelnut, but I’m quite happy with all the rest.

Flavors: Cherry, Maple Syrup, Spices

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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Sipping this one down today! I had a cup of it yesterday that I enjoyed with it’s light honey peach flavors. Today I topped off the steeping basket from yesterday with the rest of what was in the bag. I got all the little granules in the basket and today my cup is a little spicy! It’s a deeper heat that I feel more in my throat and stomach, warming it up. There is a weird flatness I’m getting today that I didn’t get yesterday and I’m guessing it must have something to do with the spice. The finish is more honey peach with the heat lingering. It’s an interesting blend, is visually pleasing, but isn’t one I’m going to miss a ton. Still, I’d probably buy it again and give it another go if I had the chance.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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This is one that has been hiding in my cupboard for a while! The leaves are those super cute fuzzy curls laced with pink flowers. There is something grainy like sugar at the bottom of this bag that didn’t make it into my steeper. Maybe it was the spice because I’m not getting any spice in this cup. It was a little bland when hot, but after walking away from it for an hour to help a friend over the phone try to figure out how to post on instagram, I’m getting a bit more flavor out of my cooled cup. The peach is really light on the sip and is accompanied with a slight dill taste. That fades in the finish where floral honey lingers.

This tea amuses me, but I don’t know that I like it. I think I’d enjoy it more if the non existent salsa part were replaced with something else. Could be that the salsa part was way more exciting when this tea was new. :/

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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76

From the Samurai TTB
Lemongrass, lime, salt, and some sort of artificial flavor that resembles a margarita? I’m sure this would cold brew or ice better than it is hot. It’s smells more like a margarita than it tastes. In all not a bad cup, but maybe not for me. It could benefit from some chips and salsa or a salt rimmed glass, but then so would an actual margarita!

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77
drank Cottontail by A Quarter to Tea
439 tasting notes

From the Samurai TTB
A nice blend of coconut and vanilla. The vanilla brings out the toastiness of the coconut and I’m not getting lemon at all. It’s a coconut cream pie in a cup. An easygoing, relaxing brew.

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54
drank Lychee Daisy by A Quarter to Tea
6444 tasting notes

Sipdown (251)

This is a floral tea. Not overly offensive but also not my favourite. I broke it out because it’s one of the teas put into my sipdown box from early 2018. I never reached for it because (1) it came with a cocktail recipe and I always felt like I should try it as a cocktail but don’t really drink so I never did and (2) the ingredients don’t really call to me. So now that I’m drinking it, it’s fine but not for me so into the swap box it goes. Let me know if anyone has any interest for the little bit remaining…

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33

TTB. I miss A Quarter to Tea. I absolutely loved their monthly subscription, and miss all of the unique blends. The aroma of the dry leaf here has the familiar AQ2T honey note that I love. Once brewed, I’m smelling a honeyed corn chip. Tastes like a corn chip as well. An old corn chip and grapes.

Dustin

Don’t get me started on how much I miss AQ2T! Lauren come baaaaaaaack!

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P is for… Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle.

So cute with its little pumpkin sprinkles!

This came out bitter, even after adding my usual honey and cream. I’m sure I must have used to much tea leaf, but this is the last of it so I’ll never know. This is heavily spiced. I wish I could smell or taste the cardamom or even the cinnamon, but all I notice is the clove.

Flavors: Bitter, Cloves, Spices

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Evol Ving Ness

Boo for overwhelming clove. Too bad, such potential.

Shae

I normally like clove in chai blends, but this was too much. This was an older tea though, so that might have had something to do with it. Maybe everything else just faded.

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This has been hiding in my cupboard for who knows how many years now. The package was open, but I’m not sure if I ever had a cup or just sniffed it upon arrival. It smells very peach/almondy. I get a clear peach almond in the sip and as it transitions to the finish more of the oatiness comes out on it’s own. There is almost a slight sweetness to the tea, but it’s vague in a pleasant way. It was a very enjoyable light cup that I seem to have finished before I knew it.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Going through my cupboard last night, I found three bags of AQ2T in my white/oolong bin that I totally forgot I had. One was unopened. This brightened my night up significantly! Steeping this tea this morning… the cup smells like those chocolate covered gummy candies you get in a tube from Asian grocery stores! I love those things. I get that candied chocolate scent with fruit underneath. When I sip on this, the scent translates perfectly to flavor. The white tea base keeps it light and airy like the candy. The finish is more of the same. It looses a little bit of the magic as the cup cools which creates such a dilemma for me: sip as quickly as I want to or slowly to stretch out the cup, even if it means it’s slightly less delicious at the end. I would totally order more of this if possible and would probably go into hoarding mode since it keeps so well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGnIOUWA0o0/

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Cameron B.

A tea gift from your past self! ;)

Dustin

Totally! I’d love to thank 2018 me!

tea-sipper

That mug!

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84

I’m really starting to enjoy and appreciate the roasty aroma of oolongs. I took a nice, deep inhale while this was steeping and can smell the cherry here alongside the oolong. Sipping now, and I am so happy with the flavor. It’s deep and dark, chocolaty too, but the cherry is front and center. As it cools, I’m also getting some coffee notes reminiscent of a coffee-flavored Werther’s candy. Surprisingly, this is one of the better teas I’ve had in a while. I expected it to be weak with age, but it’s incredibly flavorful and complex. I’m very tempted to try a second steep, but I’m worried it may not live up to the first cup and I don’t want to ruin my memory of it.

Flavors: Cherry, Chocolate, Coffee, Dark Bittersweet, Roasted

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML
Devon Bartholomew

Oh, wow, that sounds fabulous! Not sure how I feel about coffee flavored tea, but I love trying cherry blends!

Shae

I feel the same way about coffee in tea. The flavor doesn’t usually come through strong enough, so it often turns out to taste like a watered down cup of coffee. But this one was wonderful! I wish A Quarter to Tea was still around. Maybe they’ll come back one day.

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P is for… Plum Oatmeal Squares.

I remember vaguely that I didn’t love this one before, but I never wrote a note and couldn’t remember why I didn’t really like it. Tasting it now, there’s this tang that is making it feel thin. My husband says he can taste the oatmeal, but I don’t taste oatmeal OR plum.

Flavors: Tangy

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 5 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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70
drank Buddha's Best by A Quarter to Tea
2170 tasting notes

This was a sample I received from AQ2T with another order. It’s obviously a few years old since the company is no longer in business, so I expect the flavor won’t be quite as strong as it once was.

It is slightly floral, slightly astringent. Still flavorful, surprisingly enough. It’s not one I would order even if I had the opportunity but it’s nice to try as a sample.

Flavors: Astringent, Floral

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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drank Scarborough Fair by A Quarter to Tea
1711 tasting notes

I’ve had a sample of this forever and am just getting around to oversteeping it. :( Walked out of earshot of my tea timer and got distracted. I’m trying to imagine what this would taste like steeped normally. I’m expecting parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme as the song says, but I’m really hoping there is no parsley in this because dried parsley is gross. I also can’t get that line of the song out of my head in Miss Piggy’s voice. Paul Simon was a guest on the Muppet Show and they performed this song with Miss Piggy impatiently yelling that line over Paul’s melodic voice. Classic. Also… strangely… I have a couple pieces of rambling fan mail that was intended for Paul Simon, but ended up in my hands instead. I briefly had a job answering fan mail for Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher’s father and Carrie once having been married to Paul was the link as to why this fan used Eddie’s address. I guess he figured Eddie would know where his long since ex son in law was and would forward the mail. The fan would ask odd questions of Paul and added the time of writing, which was something like 2 in the morning. I was so amused by those postcards. Anyways… tea.
This is savory for sure. I feel like I’m getting cranberry in with dried herbs. There is an unpleasant tang that I’m guessing is user error. It reminds me of one of the Theodor laponic blends that is very herbaceous as well. I can see this being an interesting tea if steeped properly, but that’s not the type of cup I ended up with.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 6 min, 0 sec
ashmanra

Oh my gosh, how does one get a job answering fan mail? That sounds fascinating and also potentially scary! But fun and unique!

Dustin

The mother of a friend of mine was friends with Eddie’s last wife who had passed away and she kept up a friendship with Eddie for a while. Since my friend’s mom was trying to help him sort things out after that loss and I had free time, it just sort of happened. He seemed like such a strange man from the few times I met him. His whole adult life was spent with people taking care of things for him, but it also seemed debilitating and isolating. He needed someone to sort through his mail, have him sign records and memorabilia people sent him to sign, sign photos asked for on request and mail it all back out again. There wasn’t actual letter writing in return, but it’s hard to explain the job briefly other than “answering fan mail”.
Since he was Carrie’s dad, I get to joke that I worked for Princess Leia’s dad, Darth Vader.

ashmanra

Wow, and how sobering to hear what it was really like. I expect fame can be quite isolating, and that is sad. But it sounds like a great experience to have had for you, and certainly a fun story to tell, especially working for Darth Vader! Ha ha!

Dustin

He was funny and bratty and tried to be sly as well. I definitely did get a few good stories out the whole thing!

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