Basilur

This was in the Basilur assortment sent to me by Martin – many thanks!

When someone speaks of Indian Summer here in the South, they mean the hot weather that follows the first cool weather of fall. Sometimes the first cool weather is called false fall. I assumed this is a widespread expression and also that this is what Basilur was referring to in the name of this tea.

Sipping it hot for the first time without having read the ingredients, I was very surprised by the exotic flavor that the rose brings to this blend. It hit me that Basilur is probably referring to summer in India.

This is one of the few hibiscus blends I have really enjoyed hot and unsweetened. I also tried it cold, cold and sweetened, and as a switchel. I think I may have liked it best hot, with iced and sweetened coming in as a close second.

A sipdown! (M: 2 Y: 67)
A perfect refreshing cuppa, even when I drank it hot. As gmathis wrote, it is very hibiscus forward, but lime tastes natural and is very refreshing.

I think it could be a blast iced; but this was a last tea bag, drank on rainy afternoon.

April Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that was gifted to you

I knew this would be a favorite of the Basilur fruit teas sent to me by Martin for my birthday! Thank you, Martin!

Blackcurrant wasn’t a thing in the South when I was growing up. Since the plant was banished long ago it just isn’t that commercially available. I mainly was exposed to it when we were in Ireland and I loved it.

The berry flavors are distinct and tart in this, which made it just right for making a pitcher of cold sweet tea for our hottest days so far. (I drank this one a few days ago. We have cooled a little for now.) These fruit infusions are working out marvelously for our evening sweet tea!

A sipdown! (M: 8 Y: 48) prompt: A breakfast tea

Well, nope. This is too much for me. Too much light elements. Very citrusy bergamot combined with distinctive jasmine. Somehow a floral bomb and I don’t like it enough.

Seems like this box was rather a bummer.

A sipdown! (M: 7 Y: 47)

Third of their Earl Grey assortment and very similar to their Earl Grey Orange. A little bit more fruitier I think; with makes a little stronger clash between tangerine and bergamot.

This is from an assortment box sent to me by Martin – many thanks!

We love strawberry flavor in drinks so I was excited to try this one. I made a big carafe of it sweetened for the fridge to have with suppers since it is uncaffeinated. It is Kool Aid for grown ups, but healthier! It does not taste like pure hibiscus, as so often happens with fruit infusions that are meant to mimic red fruit.

I also put a bag in a cold steeper and drank it unsweetened. It was very nice that way as well. I find that many fruit infusions taste similar to me, but this assortment box has some neat combinations and I can hardly wait to try them all!

June Sipdown Challenge Prompt – drink a flash chilled tea

I have been saving recipes for special beverages on Pinterest for a while now, and one of the most recent is something they are calling Good Girl Moonshine, or GGMS for short. Supposedly the ginger and vinegar are giving you “cleansing benefits” and the beverage is recommended for people who are trying to give up sodas.

The truth is that the recipes are simply variations of switchel, such as Ma made in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, The Long Winter.

Switchel was cold well water with ginger, sweetener, and vinegar. It was refreshing, and because of the ginger a hot farm worker could glug as much as they wanted without getting a stomachache. I expect it could also be made as a hot beverage in cold weather for a tummy soother or for sore throats.

The new recipes are mostly for concentrated tea, sweetener, apple cider vinegar at a rate of one tablespoon per glass, and ginger. I have seen some with grated ginger boiled in simple syrup and some that call for ground ginger. Most of the new recipes start with a fruit based infusion or a plain hibiscus. You can add cold water to dilute the syrup or sparkling water.

My method today was – the last three teabags of this tea – which were so full of ground ginger that it poofed out of the bags when I put it in the infuser, so no additional ginger needed this time – steeped in seven ounces water. This infusion was poured over ice in a shaker and shaken until cold. Then I poured it into a carafe and added two tablespoons of vinegar. By the recipe it should have been more like three but this is a first try. I poured this over ice, added simple syrup, and diluted with sparkling water.

If you make it ahead of time instead instead of at the last minute as I did, you can skip the shaker step and just refrigerate it until ready to serve.

I liked it very much, and Ashman did, too.

Thank you, again, Martin!

This is from an assortment box that Martin sent to me for my birthday. Thank you, Martin!

I like ginger for relief of stomach ailments but as a spice I like it only in very small doses. It can add sparkle to food and drink but can quickly get too hot for me. Based on the name and the smell, I thought this tea was going to be too much for me. I made it yesterday when some fried food made me a bit queasy and I felt like it helped. The ginger wasn’t too hot for me, although it did build in intensity throughout the mug of tea.

I had thought that if it was unbearably hot for me I would send it to my neighbor who loves straight ginger and strong vinegar and kombucha that puckers your whole face. Instead I will be keeping it to settle my stomach!

When I made my hot mug yesterday I also tossed a bag into my cold steeper to drink today. I drank it as is without adding simple syrup and enjoyed it. It is nice to know that I can do the easy peasy steeping for summer!

A sipdown! (M: 6 Y: 46)

This one is the second of the 4 in Basilur Earl Grey assortment. Sadly, here I don’t think it works well together. It was kind of soapy with quite meh base tea I mentioned in previous one.

A sipdown! (M: 5 Y: 45)
An office sipdown and honestly while it’s not bad, it’s not anything I would reach for again and I mean that for all 4 Earl Greys from Basilur; while I have sipped down only 2 from 4 and you can read my notes for these today. The remaining two will follow shortly.

This seems to be best somehow, the orange is fruity and juicy, and its combo with bright bergamot works quite well. Sadly, I can’t tell that about base tea, that one was / is probably same for all 4, tasting very flat and tannic; something I don’t come across often when drinking teas by Basilur.

This tea bag was neglected in green tea box for long. For how long? Who knows… Was it single one? Who knows, again. Maybe it was from Izzy as she is only one who wrote about this tea.

Anyway…
decided to brew it today. Maybe I just wanted something simple, so… a tea bag is handy.
It was fine, hay-like and grassy green tea. Very easy to drink, no bitterness here. A kind of boring, but it makes its job well. Hot and refreshing.

Low cranberry sour, low tartness, warming quality. Decent.

Potent, warming, deep, malty aroma. It may be just me but it kind of reminds me of dried mushrooms a slightly bit.
And deep, malty, earthy taste with zero bitterness and minimal, contrasting astringency. Surprisingly good.

I think this is my first tea from Uva region. And I like it. It is rich, malty, earthy, with distinct woody notes and low-level astringency. Definitely better than I expected.

Martin, I think this is the last of the fruit infusions you shared with me. I put it straight into a Mason jar to steep and it looked like a magic potion in motion—immediate swirls of red curling around the jar. Almost as fun as watching jellyfish in an aquarium! But I finally pulled my eyes loose and tucked it in to chill.

Fortunately, any hibiscus in the mix was well-behaved and only added a little sharpness to the fruit flavor. Like the other Basilur entries in this series, you might be hard pressed to guess “cranberry” in a blind taste test. Kool-Aid red fruit punch, more like. But on a hot afternoon, friendly, fruity and cold is all you really need.

This is very, very, very hibiscus-y. In most circumstances, that would lower my rating to the floor. However, I can stand a little hibby when it’s cold-steeped in the fridge, which I did today (100 F — I don’t care what I’m drinking as long as it’s cold). With some real lime wedges, it reminds me a little of Swee-Tarts on ice. (Thanks, Martin! These fruit infusions have been great for summer.)

This has a nice enough raspberry flavor – it’s quite authentic and doesn’t remind me of candy. I would like a bit more of it, I think, but overall this is quite well-balanced. I have other raspberry teas that I like better, but this is a decent one.

Martin, I’m slow to taste and review the little sample you sent me, but I’m glad I waited until hot weather. This makes a really nice iced tea. Truthfully, if I hadn’t read the label, I wouldn’t have guessed either mango or peach, but the combination is nicely fruity. Hibiscus always behaves better for me when it’s on ice as well. Thanks!

This is nice enough – sweet and candylike strawberry flavor with rich and custardy vanilla. The white tea itself came out a little bitter though, even though I only steeped it for 2 minutes. I do have two more flavors of this white tea line to try, so I’ll have to try a shorter steep next time to see if that helps.

First tea from Basilur! Courtesy of my new tea friend Jen, who lives in Germany.

I steeped for 2 minutes, as I find that when I steep fannings-style teabags longer, they can become quite astringent. The tea still has a deep russet color, so I think 2 minutes was long enough, even though the wrapper suggests 3-5.

This has a good balance of tea and flavoring. The tea itself is nothing special, as I would expect, but it’s pleasant and gives a good foundation for the flavoring without being too brisk or too watery. The lime here is very Jell-O, but I’m quite enjoying it, as it isn’t overbearing. Actually, I think it reminds me most of lime Life Savers. I do taste the lemon as well, and maybe its citrusy freshness is what helps keep the candylike lime from becoming cloying.

A fairly good first impression for Basilur, excited to try the many other flavors she so generously sent my way!

(This tea break sponsored by our friend Martin.)There are so many different fruit flavors happening here—papaya, pineapple, strawberry, apricot—it’s a little hard to pick a single one out, but together, they make a cheerful little fruit punch blend. Fruity “mishmash” teas are generally very good iced down. I think I’ll try the rest of the sample that way.

A sipdown! (M: 2 Y: 45), prompt: A tea that reminds you of a garden

Raspberries are definitely something that belongs to our garden and I’m happy we have those bushes there. Yes, autumn “maintenance” is awful, even we have not thorny variety; but usually it is in time when lots of other work must be done as well.

Anyway to the tea, it’s quite sweet, and quite real to actual raspberries, mixed up with, but not tart, hibiscus. Iced, it can be lovely I assume.

But honestly it is somehow too simple. maybe I just miss some complex flavours… but considering it’s justa atea bag, it’s fine enough.

I was one of those kids who never voluntarily tried unfamiliar fruits or vegetables, and the bad habit has stuck over the years…so in a blind fruit test, I doubt I could recognize an actual pomegranate by taste or texture. However, since it became a trendy flavor several years ago, I’ve had multiple variations and mutations of pomegranate teas and drinks. This is a pleasant one. Fruity with only a little tartness. Not sure I caught any raspberry, but I still liked it. Reminds me of one you could serve your kiddos.

Speaking of whom, you should have seen mine at work. Volunteer day. We spent a couple hours at our former city library which is in the process of becoming a children’s science center. The building has been vacant since 2017, and my crew swept, vacuumed, Swiffered, hauled boxes, arranged furniture, and organized dozens of boxes of supplies the non-profit staff had moved from their temporary home.

One fifth-grade girl who ducks behind her older cousin rather than make direct eye contact smiled at me while hauling a folding table that weighed about as much as she did and said, “I think this is making me come out of my shell!” One of my fifth grade boys, given a vacuum cleaner, remarked, “Wow. I’ve never done this before!” Priceless.

Oh, and two of the girls found a lizard skeleton. Brought it in a dustpan to the center’s director, who grinned and said, “Hey! I’ve got a glass jar about the right size for that.”
Hope your Sunday afternoon was just as much fun, wherever you were.