Beastly Beverages

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Recent Tasting Notes

80

Sipdown!
Still a very nice blend. Happy to see it go for the fact that it’s one less tea in my cupboard, but I did enjoy my time with this tea very much. Thank you MissB for giving me the change to try this tea!
See previous note for the actual tasting note bit of this tea :)

So I’ve been reading a lot.
Like I just finished Allegiant, the last book in the Divergent trilogy. I finished it at around 2am this morning and.. it was okay? The story was very slow, but the ending tied the trilogy off very nicely.
Yes, tears were shed, but I loved my time with these books!
Books and tea just go hand in hand so I’m on Adagio right now trying to keep the Divergent alive in me haha. Making some Divergent blends aww yiss

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80

I wanted to drink a couple teas from my sipdown pile (hence this photo: http://instagram.com/p/ldrYIRvhCI/) but I wanted black tea and none of the black teas in my sipdown pile was really calling my name.
So if I can’t sip a tea down, might as well drink tea and put the remainder of that tea in with all the other teas to get sipped down!

So this one was from MissB which I got not too long ago :)
Dry, it smells like your basic black tea. Like dry and dusty and antique and books and old people and nice :) No seriously. My roommate completely agrees with me when it smells all ancient and old and beautiful and just full of lovely memories. THAT’S BLACK TEA FOR YOU.
But this tea tastes like… black tea. A special kind of black tea though. It just takes me back to memories and wonderful times with friends and family and it takes me to the lovely laid back side of my Mind Palace, not the weirdo scientific/mathy/problem solving Mind Palace.

Overall, a very pleasant tea :)

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
MissB

I’m so glad you liked this. I had a really different experience with it, so this is great to hear!

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drank Mind Palace by Beastly Beverages
1500 tasting notes

I grabbed this in a mystery pack bundle, hoping that I’d get some great stuff, and for much less than the original pricing (100g is a lot of tea, with zero tasting opportunities). This is one of the teas that I grabbed, and I know I’ll keep the bag just for the name and artwork alone. It’s fantastic!

So, Mind Palace. I love the concept and the terminology, and it’s a well-used tactic of mine to remember things, that I learned in a few books related to memory, body language and magic (i.e. how magicians remember each card and where it is in the deck). When it was mentioned in one of the Sherlock episodes, I was all aglow — and therefore when I saw the name of this tea, I was even more excited to try it.

Sadly, it’s a weird tea. Weird in that… I swear it’s a Lapsang instead of a blend of blacks. It’s exceptionally dark – think as dark of a purple as you can find – and it’s just… weird. Smoky, sweetly metallic, a bit granular… I just don’t know what to do with this tea, to be frank. There are zero steeping instructions, and just… maybe I did something wrong. Suggestions welcome!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Sil

haha sounds fun. If you end up sending any teas this way, i’d happily try some lol random weird teas for the….win? :)

MissB

Heh. I’m one step ahead of you… already packaged some up for you and it’s ready to mail off shortly! :)

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75

Sipdown!
And once again, a very great big thank you to MissB for sending me this tea!
I love love love jasmine so much! Definitely dumped this into my teapot, and the rest of DAVID’s Silk Dragon Jasmine as well :) So it’s like two sipdowns in one! But thank you awoogah for sending me more of the Silk Dragon Jasmine, but in the silk sachets this time :) Keeping them in my bag so I have jasmine with me everywhere I go :)

Both teas are great Jasmine teas, but they do tend to get really bitter really quickly. Fairly temperamental with the temperature and the steeping time and there’s just a quick window for the perfect cuppa. DAVIDs Butterfly Jasmine is by far the best jasmine I’ve ever had, and this tea and the Silk Dragon Jasmine are great, but not as great as the Butterfly Jasmine.

Flavors: Flowers

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 30 sec 6 g 24 OZ / 709 ML

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75

MissB is to blame when I land in a tea coma because she sent me a package that I totally wasn’t expecting and SHE’S JUST THE BEST OKAY.
And she ended up giving me te rest of her package of this?!??! Ahh I was already planning on turning this into a sipdown, but I guess not!

This tea is great. Light green tea with jasmine flavouring. Just be careful about the steep times and the temp of the water because I think this specific green tea base is a bit sassy with all of that and can turn bitter pretty quickly. But if brewed correctly, it’s great!!

And I’m just really excited because spring break is near and I seriously need to figure out which teas to bring with me. So I laid out all my teas and I finally organized it all! I used to organize it by company, but now I just have a massive tin full of sipdowns (there’s like 46 teas in it okay I AM SO HAPPY) and a section full of high caffeine teas, and a section of low caffeine teas. Yeah, I live in a wee tiny apartment so like… this is as much space as I can dedicate to all my teas. BUT SIPDOWNS WILL HAPPEN! I’m probably going to bring a butt ton of sipdowns with me to bring back home :)

Flavors: Flowers

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 3 min, 30 sec 5 g 12 OZ / 354 ML

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75

I’M GUNNA SCREAM. AS I WAS WALKING OVER TO THE COUNTER TO SCOOP THE TEA INTO MY CUP, I DROPPED IT AND LIKE A THIRD OF THE PACKAGE IS GONE NO NO NO NO NO THIS IS NOT OKAY.

I definitely ended up with a smaller cup than I wanted :(
This tea, it’s Jasmine and I love it, but because I had DAVIDs Butterfly Jasmine not too long ago and I still remember how great that tea was, this tea can’t compare. This tea is an average Jasmine tea, much like other Jasmine teas I’ve had. It’s not scream about it good, but a good tea to have on hand :)
I probably won’t be super upset if I run out of this tea (I have enough for a small cup left, thanks to earlier events). I’ll probably just run off and trying other teas from other companies.

Right now, this one, Harney’s, Lupicia’s and Teavana’s jasmine teas are on the same level, while DAVIDs Butterfly Jasmine remains at the top.

Cheri

I enjoy a nice jasmine tea. I’m sorry you dropped it. That bites.

jump62359

Dude. You have to try the Butterfly Jasmine! That was the best I’ve found so far :)
I’ll be grabbing a bit of the other Jasmine that DT carries in a couple weeks, but oh dang was the Butterfly Jasmine so great :))

Cheri

I’ll add it to my wishlist. Thanks for the suggestion.

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75

The only reason why I am at my cousins this morning is because my aunt and uncle had to go to a conference this weekend and IT’S FINALS NEXT WEEK AND I’M TAKING CARE OF MY COUSINS.
But it’s all good. I love them, but I never get anything done at their house.

This morning, I had to bring my cousin to school because she’s going to a music festival/fair so I made my cousins walk with me to bring her. On our walk back, I could smell the Sampaguita and I was all I NEED THIS TEA IN MY BELLY.
I think one of the reasons why I love Jasmine teas so much is because we’d always have Sampaguita flowers growing in the backyard. We needed Sampaguitas and Calamansi trees in our garden, no matter how many times we moved :) So yes. Jasmine is like… my life :)

Dude. So I just looked it up on wikipedia, and Sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines! Being born in the Philippines, one should know, but I was raised in America so my knowledge of the Philippines is very… minimal..

Flavors: Flowers

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 0 min, 45 sec 2 g 5 OZ / 147 ML

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75

AM SCREAMING BECAUSE TODAY WAS A GOOD DAYish.
I still hate the timechange so much. I didn’t sleep till later than usual, and because of the timechange, it was an hour later! Ugh let my body get used to it already.
Anyways, I had to leave my aunt’s place a bit earlier than usual because I had to pick up a textbook from my friend by 10am and then I went home and drank tea and finished the rest of my calculations and conversions FUN STUFF.

Then I waste 2 hours of my time listening to terrible and poorly researched presentations. Walk back home in the perfect 77 degree weather (well warmer than perfect, but at least there’s wind) and I check the mail and TWO PACKAGES AHHH.

One was from shmiracles and the other was from MissB!

This particular tea was from MissB’s collection when she was selling off her collection for mystery packs. I told her that I loved Jasmine green tea and I was sorta hoping for some Butterfly Jasmine since it’s been on my list of teas to buy when I take a trip out to DAVIDs (the nearest is 7 hours away so.. yeah. That’s kinda crazy) BUT THE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING THAT SHE IS GOT ME A PACK?? And it looks like she went out of her way to get me some. Like wow I wasn’t expecting that?? If she had enough of that tea, I was kinda expecting like the bottom bits which I was totally okay with but a new pack!??! I love her already :)

I was sorta… not super excited with the teas in the package because I didn’t recoginze any of the companies haha BUT I DID TELL HER LIKE I WANNA TRY OTHER COMPANIES SO THAT’S A GOOD THING. As I opened up each one, I was more and more excited to try them all! Like dude. They smell SO FREAKIN GOOD.
And then I got to this tea and I had to do a doubletake because I was all Dude. This is Jasmine. I had to check the writing on the package if it really was a jasmine tea and it just said “Angel of Decadence” and I was all. That tells me nothing about this tea, but it definitely definitely smells like Jasmine!
As I was adding all the teas into my cupboard, I kept this one in mind and YES YES YES THIS IS A JASMINE TEA and this just had to be the first to try!
Like you have absolutely no idea how much I love Jasmine okay. It’s my favourite tea and it was my first love. I always have to have some sort of Jasmine in my cupboard and sadly I drank the last of it last week. Since I’m planning on going on a massive shopping spree at the end of the month, I figured I could wait but HERE WE HAVE MISSB TO THE RESCUE. So yeah. Needless to say, I am oh so VERY excited to try all my new teas! I’m starting to get bored of a lot of the teas that I currently have right now ahha.

NOW ONTO THE TEA
(am v sorry for that massive update on life oops)

But dude. This tea. I do taste the Jasmine, but I think it got a bit bitter. I may have let it steep for too long while I was writing this tasting note ahha.
Right now, it’s good! I think just because I love Jasmine so much, I look past the bitterness and I just can’t wait till I try it again later when I actually time my teas :)

((today, I’ve decided to just use like 1.5-2g of tea and use my baby teacup so I can get through just a tasting of a whoooole lot of my teas))

Preparation
2 g 6 OZ / 177 ML
MissB

Woot! I knew you’d love this one… comes from an Etsy tea maker in the UK, and the artwork with it is spectacular. If you end up finding it’s sweet spot, do let me know, and I’ll send you more. As for the Butterfly Jasmine – I just wanted it to go to a good home. I’ve had it a month or two, and as I can just go for a walk and grab some anytime, I thought you’d be more appreciative than my cupboard. Enjoy! :)

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This was perfect for me last night, I added some honey(don’t know the last time I did that) it was a wonderful happy cup of sweet bergamot. I don’t know if I put more honey than I thought last night or I prepared it differently but it was not the same tonight. Maybe I was not in the mood for it tonight like I thought. Thank you MissB for including this in the mystery pack.

MissB

Oh, cool! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it at least a little bit. From a tiny one-person company in the UK that only sells on Etsy!

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37

Got this sample from MissB. When I smelled the tea dry I picked up some floral notes but I didn’t know it was jasmine (until I logged in here and saw it was jasmine). Brewed up it’s quite a strong green tea with a slight bitterness to it. I do pick up a faint jasmine flavour in the tea but it seems a bit off. Definitely floral but jasmine? I am having trouble putting it in words. Until I saw it was a jasmine green tea, I wouldn’t have taken it for one. As I drink down my cup the bitterness becomes stronger. When I have this again, I will try brewing a smaller amount with less steep time to see if there is a difference.

Flavors: Flowers

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
MissB

I’ve yet to try this one… for whatever reason it feels like less than jasmine to me as well, and likely why I didn’t go for it yet. I hope your second try is more positive!

MissB

… or at least more enjoyable. :)

Ubacat

Maybe I’ll give it a try soon. Sometimes it’s the brewing time and temperature that can make a big difference.

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78
drank The Morning Star by Beastly Beverages
1500 tasting notes

Still love this tea, and knew I could count on it for some yum amidst the ick I’ve found so far in my cupboard today. I WANT MORE CHILI! There’s really none in any sip I’ve had (last time or this time) and this makes me sad. I also get no pineapple – it’s really just a fantastic, luscious, mango tea with enormous mango chunks in it.

Oh wait — I taste pineapple this time. Hooray!

If anyone wants any, let me know – this is one of those “hard to get teas” (not even sure if you can get it anymore), and while I do love it, it’s not on my must-have list.

Flavors: Mango, Pineapple

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Sil

i’d try a little. :)

MissB

… and marked off for you. :)

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78
drank The Morning Star by Beastly Beverages
1500 tasting notes

This is the tea I was most excited about in my Beastly Beverages order, and thus why I’m having it as soon as I can (read: when caffeine will keep me pleasantly awake instead of tossing-and-turning awake). Mango, pineapple, chili? YES!

Parsing out the tea was an interesting experience: a huge piece of mango was in the middle of the brew, one longer than my hand. Yea, I have small hands. Still.

I only brewed this for two minutes, and wish I’d given it a bit more time. It’s a bit thin, the whole thing – other than the mango. That’s present and lovely and really authentic – as evidenced by the dried mango, of course. However the base is thin, the chili only peeks out momentarily, and there’s definitely something granular in the brew – almost as if the fruit pieces had disintegrated.

I’ll try again, hopefully with a bit more fleshing out and fullness.

1.5 tsp in 12oz.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
VariaTEA

I am sorry it is not as good as you would have hoped. It certainly sounded like an interesting tea. Plus it is inspired by Supernatural which makes it all the more appealing.

MissB

Agreed! I’ll brew it longer next time to see what changes. The mango really is bang-on though. I have tons to play with… and can of course send you some, to save you finding out with the huge order requirement, if you’d like.

VariaTEA

100 g really is a large quantity to order but I might give in eventually as some of the blends do sound great. I shall continue to watch your notes to see your thoughts on the company.

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drank Profound Bond by Beastly Beverages
1500 tasting notes

First of the Beastly Beverages to try out! Admittedly, I’m not a huge EG fan, especially when it lies in the floral side of blergamot. I’m cool when it’s got something less floral and more orange-like in there, or when something smooths it out. This unfortunately is 100g of floral bergamot though, and while it does mellow somewhat as it cools, it’s just outside my interest or tastes. I could see someone wanting a great EG with zero caffeine however loving this, so I’m keeping my rating off.

1.5 tsp in 12oz.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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84

Always End Up Here, Beastly Beverages tea. Available from their Etsy Shop.

Rose Tea.

(Brewed in a drop-canister tea pot, four cup, for five minutes with freshly drawn boiled water. Served with milk, for I am a philistine)

My office smells of rose petals.

Usually, by this time of the afternoon, the office smells of pie, of curry, of subway sandwiches, of overbrewed coffee. Of fish and chips, or beef lasagne. Of whatever Wendel!s, with an integrated exclamation mark and a decent chef, is selling in the work-complex canteen today.

But today the office smells of rose petals, because I brought in Always End Up Here.

On the nose, on the tongue, on the throat and on the air, like an early tenth doctor episode the smell and taste of rose inflicts like a delicate and lacy battering ram, drowning any notes of the tea behind it, and leaving you without any doubt of the ingredients list, save maybe where it said Black Tea.

If you like rose petals, summers days, and the perfumed air of an english country garden, I’d recommend this tea. If you hate the smell of rose petals, you’re not going to get along.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 45 sec

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