Cornelia Bean

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Recent Tasting Notes

68

#VacationTea

So, I’m not the only one on our trip who bought tea. Much to my surprise, my Dad actually ended up grabbing some tea at two of the locations we stopped at. In Fargo, at Steep Me A Cup Of Tea, he grabbed three different herbal wellness blends and from Cornelia Bean he grabbed this one – a simple dark chocolate black tea that he thought might be really nice for the evenings since he’s been cutting out A LOT of sugar from his diet – and I mean a lot. He’s limiting himself to no more than 20g of sugar a day, and zero breads. No real reason for it; he just doesn’t want to consume it anymore.

We’re back in Winnipeg right now for the evening – we leave for home tomorrow morning. He decided he wanted to try his new tea tonight though, so I made cups for him, myself, and our two hosts. My Step Mom decided to pass; she wanted coffee instead. Which is fine. I think Dad may have actually preferred that; more tea left for him when we get back home, right?

Personally I didn’t think there was anything special about this one. I mean don’t get me wrong; it was good! Very rich, full bodied taste and it produced a very smooth cup with a clean profile/finish. In particular, I really like that it achieved such a pronounced chocolate flavour without relying at all on chocolate chips. I HATE chocolate chips in tea; they just ruin the mouthfeel completely because when they melt down they make everything so oily/scummy and they often taste very artificial. This has none of that; which is good.

I’ve just had so many simple chocolate teas now at this point that I’m just not easily impressed and to me at least I think this is just like so many of them. It’s definitely going to serve the purpose Dad wants it for though. So, I’m glad he found something here in Winnipeg to bring home with him that he’ll enjoy.

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84

Cold Brew Sipdown (1413)!

I’m finishing this one off currently and I’m enjoying it a lot. I’ve always found the name of it so weird compared to the flavour – spirulina is so vegetal/oceanic in taste but this blend is sweet and pleasantly spiced. It’s always been like drinking a liquid apple pie – that syrupy sweet baked apple filling and a slight tart edge with warming cinnamon notes. That exactly how this tastes, though leaning more tartly apple, and it’s very nice.

I would 100% buy this again if I found myself back at Cornelia Bean.

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84

Sipped on a mug of this Saturday morning while doing podcast outlines!

We now have five podcast episodes recorded (two of which are edited/finalized) as well as an intro episode and a trailer! We’re so excited that we’re SO CLOSE now to being ready to upload episodes – we just want to make sure we have a good stockpile so that if there are weeks we can’t record it wont mean nothing gets posted. I think one more day of recording and we’ll have enough to upload! Aaaaahhh!

Also – this tea was nice! I picked it because it’s a mate blend, and I wanted something to drink but also that would help me focus and I feel like I got that from the cup. The flavour is very apple cinnamon, but has a specific note to it that makes me think of pie. I think it’s the fact the apple tasted baked and borderline caramelized and mild/delicate cinnamon flavours I just subconciously associate with pastry…

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84

I think I say the same thing every time, but…

Apple pie.

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84

I recently reorganized my tea tin storage system, and when doing that I stumbled upon a whole bunch of teas I’d forgotten that I owned – this being one of them. I’m sipping on it now, although it’s cooled quite a bit, and it’s just delightful. Very cinnamon/apple with a sort of buttery “pie crust” element. Except very tangy, sharp and acidic apples…

Martin Bednář

Sounds still very nice though!

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84

Morning cuppa, with honey.

It’s not that this tea particularly needs the honey, but I actually woke up craving creamed honey so I probably would have added it to whatever tea I made first thing this morning regardless of what it was. It works well in this one though; the tea has a very ‘hot apple cider’ flavour – the kind we used to get around Thanksgiving when we had big family get together; someone, usually one of my aunts, would make a giant crock pot of it and it would sit in the kitchen all day with a ladle so that you could just ladle some into a cup when you wanted a refill. Usually it was just apple juice with apple slices in it and a bunch of cinnamon sticks…

So basically this was like a hot, sweet cider – perfect for the cold, wet weather we’re experiencing right now.

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84

LIttle bit of a sourness, the same way that crab apples can be sour – but with a little less bite, and definitely softened by the fact there are other things like cinnamon and blackberry in this. You definitely get cinnamon notes; less so the blackberry, other than the general sweetness of having fruit in the blend. It’s also a little lemon-y.

I actually liked this cup a lot; sourness and all. Sometimes it reminds me of apple pie, and sometimes it doesn’t – this was a ’doesn’t’ time, but still a nice cup.

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84

Hot, with a bit of vanilla agave.

Even straight up, this tea reminds me a lot of apple pie. Tart, crisp apple notes with underlying sweetness, and then a cinnamon note which seems to sort of replicate the taste of a cinnamon sugar dusted pie crust. It’s a flavour profile I really enjoy: that apple cinnamon combo, but just a bit more weighted towards the apple. The use of vanilla agave here just really pushed that apple pie imagery to the extreme though, and even added an ‘a la mode’ component. But, like, the tiniest little baby scoop of vanilla ice cream – a lot of the vanilla ended up just tying the cinnamon and pie crust imagery together.

Anyway; it was very nice! Smooth, rich, delightful – with just a bit of tart crispness.

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84

Cold Brew!

I’m still disappointed that this one doesn’t brew up blue/green in colour – that’s arguably one of the coolest things about spirulina so it kind of sucks it doesn’t happen with this one. Oh well, it tastes pretty good and that’s the most important thing anyway. Even as a cold brew, it’s still very much an apple cinnamon/apple pie kind of flavour. Differences I’d say at that this is a little more tart apple/Granny Smith in flavour with a little bit of a stronger grassy undertone to the whole thing from the various herbal elements.

Still very enjoyable, though. Blue or not.

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84

#VacationTea

So, we got to Winnipeg yesterday afternoon – and literally the first thing that we did was go shopping at Cornelia Bean! I’ve tried several teas from this store before, the majority of them passed along to me by Dexter. From what I can recall, most were in the range of average to very good so I was excited to actually get to check out the store in person.

I think, all in all, I ended up getting eight different teas that were actually Cornelia Bean ‘branded’ and then one of the Algonquin Tea Co. herbal blends they were carrying as part of a partnership. It was a really nice experience though! The atmosphere of the store is really nice and relaxing, and I feel like with the large table/desk in the center of the store that it’s the kind of place one could easily hunker down in for an afternoon to get some studying done in a quiet, peaceful environment with good lighting and accompanying tea! The best part, in my opinion, was just the conversation I had with the woman working at the desk who, though I’m not 100% sure, I believe was the owner. She was very sweet – and after my Dad very awkwardly/proudly boasted that I was a certified Sommelier we ended up having a really nice conversation about the TAC certification program – in particular the extent to which the program discusses tisanes/herbs in general. We also talked very briefly about the terroir similarities of Nepalese teas and Indian teas, such as Darjeeling – since the two countries share a border/are so close geographically. It was just a super positive experience in general!

As I was smelling away at the different teas, I stumbled upon this one. Though I’ve never had Spirulina tea, I’ve had several different things with Spirulina in them before and honestly I’ve always quite liked them. To be fair, I don’t know exactly what it takes like on its own though. I know a lot of people aren’t fans of the flavour though; I’ve just never experienced any unpleasantness myself. When I saw this one, I was intrigued by the smell though and I pondered aloud what it looked like visually when brewed because it DOES have that really distinct blue-green kind of hue.

The lady we were talking with (I really wish I had caught her name!) offered to make me a cup, and I happily took her up on the offer! I ended up trying it just as we were checking out, and I took like three sips and then apologized to her for having to make her do more work – ‘cause I 100% wanted to grab some of this to take home with me! It was actually so, so good! It’s hard to describe it; it tasted eerily familiar in flavour but also completely unique/different.

The descriptor I finally settled on, about halfway through finishing the cup, was “Apple Pie, but if you made it with crab apples”. It was sweet and tart, with warm cinnamon notes like what you’d get in baked apples/pie crust. It has more going for it other than that though – particularly a lemony quality alongside that sort of crab apple tartness. I wish I could isolate the taste of the spirulina – I just don’t think it’s gonna happen, though. I still think there’s another mystery flavour in here than contributed to the wonderful flavour – but without a complete ingredients list I can’t be sure.

Anyway, definitely not something I expected to pick up – but one I’m happy I got to try in the moment and decide on. It was good! Plus, it’s nice having another mate option!!!

Evol Ving Ness

I miss Dexter. If you are in touch, please prod her into making a guest appearance or two.

Sounds like you are having a splendid time away, Ms. Strange. Hurray for vacations!

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drank Creamy Lemon by Cornelia Bean
247 tasting notes

Holidays TTB

There’s only enough left in here for one, maybe two cups. This is good though, it reminds me a little bit of England – there were a few days where I just hung out in my pjs before bed reading and drinking Lemon Ginger tea and this is extremely reminiscent.

This one of few green teas that I’ve actually enjoyed and the green tea base is prominent. I can’t taste any creamy notes, but the lemon/citrus flavor is not as distinct as I would have expected, so it very well could be that there is creamy notes but they are just cutting the initial sour lemon flavor.

Flavors: Citrus, Lemon, Lemon Zest

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GCTTB

Sipdown!

I had enough for about 2 cups of this so I coldbrewed it overnight. Bright pink liquor, peachy smell, but the flavour was very tart. There was also a weird undertone I couldn’t describe – I guess it was a result of sitting in the box for so long and absorbing other flavours.

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drank Toffee Dream by Cornelia Bean
1146 tasting notes

Thanks so much to Inkling for sending me some of this! I couldn’t find brewing instructions online, so I went with the Steepster average of 180f for 3 minutes. This is surprisingly hefty for a white tea. I really quite like it. Very good toffee flavor, smooth and thick mouthfeel, nice savory-sweet aftertaste. This makes for a nice dessert tea. I got a good second steep at 180f for about 5 minutes (didn’t time it the second time).

Sipdown!

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drank Peach Yellow Tea by Cornelia Bean
661 tasting notes

GCCTB4

This tea is not for me. The peach came across as too artificial tasting. I’m just really sensitive to artificial flavours so I think others who drink them might like this tea. It definitely was peachy.

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drank Juicy Peach by Cornelia Bean
286 tasting notes

GCTTB

Had this one as a cold brew. It was pretty true to flavour – juicy peaches. Delicious :)

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77
drank Toffee Dream by Cornelia Bean
350 tasting notes

Sample sipdown – thanks to Anlina for the sample!
This is pretty good. The dry tea has a really intense toffee aroma, which is there but much lighter in the brewed tea. The base tea has a light, vegetal, sightly sweet flavour. I’m getting mostly cucumber notes from it, actually. I like both the base tea and the flavouring, but I’m not totally sold on the combination. I think the toffee flavour might go better with a sweet Chinese black tea, maybe. Having said that, I’ve slurped back the whole cup while typing this review, so I can’t complain. :)

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 g 10 OZ / 295 ML

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HGTTB

This is a weird tea because it smells amazingly like ooey-gooey caramel and that’s the first taste that hits your lips. However, that caramel slowly morphs into a rich root beer flavor. Up until that point it is delicious but then the mate takes over and that luscious caramel/root beer becomes wet earth. It’s not mad but I just wish the mate was left out of the mix as that would make this one amazing cup of tea.

Fjellrev

That’s too bad they stuck mate in here. I don’t even see why they’d want to add that to such flavour profile.

VariaTEA

Exactly! Plus why combine a caffeine free base with a crazy caffeinated base. It seems counterproductive to me.

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drank Pineapple Coconut by Cornelia Bean
6444 tasting notes

I decided to use the rest of my sample from Roswell Strange to make a small latte with this tea because I had extra milk from the Brasiliano latte I was making simultaneously. Unfortunately, as soon as I poured the milk, I remembered the curdling issue of Hot Tropic so I had a moment of panic and then decided to drink it quickly before the milk got a chance to curdle. However, as I sip, I can’t help but feel like I am drinking a glass of lotion. It’s weird and creamy but the coconut/pineapple combination is leading to a somewhat sunscreeny type taste. Blech. This isn’t horrible tbh but there are so many companies that do this flavor combination better that I am not sad to see this go. Still, I appreciate the share so thank you Roswell Strange for the chance to try something new. 203.

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drank Moody Manitoba by Cornelia Bean
1040 tasting notes

Three tsp generic green oolong, three tsp of this in my DavidsTea mason jar – cold steeps about 9 hours.
It’s really good – I’m not sure I can taste the oolong at all, but that’s probably a good thing – added more for the caffeine than for flavor. It’s a tart mixed berry iced tea that’s more like juice than tea. Ok I did add some sweetener, but I don’t think the hibiscus is over powering, just adds that bit of tart that keeps fruit flavors from being too candy like.
I really like this and will for sure buy more.

caile

I really like this too. Another good berry one from there that I have had is called lake of the woods – I can’t recall which I preferred though as its been awhile.

Dexter

I also really like Pear Garden “Black Currant” :)

caile

That does sound good – nice ingredients! These types are my favorite to have cold in summer. :-)

Dexter

Exactly – I’m moving away from flavored teas into the straight stuff, but still like to have fruit tisane around for cold steeping. The Dragonberry? Dragonfruitberry? (whatever it’s called) is amazing – favorite of all the fruit tisanes I’ve tried….

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80

HGTTB

While hot, the base is clearly present in the scent, mingled with lavender, but the bergamot is playing hard to get!
The Lavender definitely comes through strongest in the taste as well, it’s pretty intense. There’s just a hint of the Bergamot I’m looking for. The base is tasty, but just bordering on more astringent than I’d like in an everyday tea. This is one I would make when I’m looking for a flavorful, more bold cup of Lavender EG. I’m really considering making an order from Cornelia Bean, there’s so many good teas in this box, and I’m so glad I participated. Huge thanks to Anlina for setting it up!

Edit: A couple minutes after I finished my cup, I sneezed, and all I could smell and taste was Lavender. ’Nuff said! XD

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 7 OZ / 207 ML

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80

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78

HGTTB

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, since the scent in the bag isn’t very strong. I’m getting just a hint of sour in both the smell and taste. I don’t know why, since nothing on the ingredient list would suggest it.

It’s definitely a lighter tasting tea than the last couple I’ve tried, maybe because of that, I’m underwhelmed slightly. Maybe I didn’t steep it long enough. Why do I taste fruitcake? Are you okay tastebuds? Anyways, it’s pleasant, and I’ll be happy to finish my cup.

Edit: When cooled, the flavour actually gets stronger, more toasty almond flavour. My like.

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67

Nigiri Woodlands :
Welp, I honestly don’t usually have just straight black tea, so I can’t really compare one from another. I’m hoping that I can get a baseline soon though.

I know enough to able to smell that it’s a black tea, at least. Hrmm…. Malty and dark, but with this brewing time, very little astringency, I can certainly see how it would threaten to get bitter with a longer steep though. I get the barest hint of smoke that’s mentioned if I really try, but I was hoping for a bit more. So, lots of malt and wood, not a lot of smoke, with a sweetness carrying it. The further I get into the cup, the more dry it leaves my tongue.

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