Herbs & Kettles

Lovely. A perfect way to wind down the evening. A nice herbal latte and the new season of Rising of the Shield Hero.

The dry aroma is intense and pleasant. Soft nose sips. Too much of a whiff will lead you straight to a tissue. Strong in all the ingredients.

Add the powder first. I used about 3/4 tsp of powder. Then hot water. About 4-5 oz. Mix. Then milk of choice. Mix. Enjoy. Honey is also a welcome addition to the party.

This is a nice and spicy blend. It will clear your sinuses. Smooth with a slight but pleasant afterbite.

A nice, classic chai. The CTC base is very malty and smooth, and the cardamom is the strongest spice here, followed by the ginger. I do taste a touch of clove and cinnamon as well. The spices taste fresh and aromatic.

I prepared mine plain and added a drizzle of meadowfoam honey, but I think this would be a good classic option to keep on hand for lattes and stovetop chai as well.

I acquired a sample of this in last month’s Tea Share club. I tossed the sample in a box with a few other teas to work on sipping down and forgot about it until yesterday. I decided that I wanted chai and there was plenty of the sample for a 16 OZ mug.

Aroma: Cardamom, clove, & ginger are strong with this one. No rose.

Taste: Nice bold back tea base & the cardamon really hits the palate. I wish there was more rose flavor – I am not tasting any rose – which would up the rating if there was more of the expected rose note.

My husband and I purchased this tea about a year ago after trying a sample at a tea festival. It’s smoky, but not as much as a Lapsang Souchong typically is. The tea is very tightly compressed, so it can be a bit difficult to pry a chunk off. The taste is very savory and pleasant.

April backlog and sip down

I couldn’t pull this one on their website, so I believe it was a club offering. Unfortunately, I must’ve misplaced the letter or accidentally thrown it away (oops) and I can’t verify if this is an oolong or black tea.

Aroma: Sweet, nutty, perfume, & soap.

Texture: Tongue numbing & mouth drying.

Tasting Notes: Bright, cantaloupe, floral, lavender, perfume, nutty, & sweet.

Additional Notes: This has the classic charm of Darjeeling, but it is less bold than what I’ve had from other vendors and grocery store offerings. I thought that it worked well both western and gongfu’d, however, I was able to get more (6) infusions from the gongfu’d than from the western sessions.

I wish I had saved the club pamphlet and/or noted which club month I had received this tea…I wanted to make a note that it has been sipped down. I didn’t get to write down my notes, as I was driving into the office on Tuesday, when I was drinking the little bit leftover in my thermos. I will note that these offerings have been outstanding and the sheer amount of tea each month is a good change from other clubs I’ve purchased, that offer so little, for roughly the same value ($30-35 USD). Plus, the biggest win is that I get to try a variety of teas from India, which I’d’ve not explored on my own!

I don’t think I’ve ever had a tea from Meghalaya, but the leaf and dry scent seemed most similar to a Darjeeling or Nepalese black tea to me. The steeped color is quite light and somewhat golden.

I like it more than I thought I would, since I’m not a big fan of the aforementioned types of tea. This is light and airy, but not overtly floral and harsh like some Darjeelings can be. It’s smooth and a bit creamy in texture, with a mellow oat and rye bread flavor. Definitely getting some hints of fruit, perhaps stonefruit with a slight tang. There’s a subtle cannabis note in the finish, but not enough to steer me away.

It’s a nice soft yet comforting tea, just not something I would personally reach for, plus the price is a bit high for me.

Finding this one slightly difficult to describe. I haven’t had a lot of GABA teas, and I think they’ve all been oolongs?

I’m definitely getting a tanginess, which the Internet tells me is common for GABA teas. It actually reminds me a bit of a mango yogurt drink or lassi, but perhaps a bit tangier. But then there’s also the earthy-woody black tea flavor, with a bit of musty hay as well. It makes for an interesting combo, and once again does not taste at all like I would expect for Assam. Closer to a second flush Darjeeling really, with those hay notes, but it does have some briskness to it, and a touch of raisin in the finish. An interesting experience to be sure!

Another Indian tea that tastes remarkably similar to hongcha! It’s the golden needle-ness of it all ha ha, it’s giving Yunnan vibes. It does have a bit of that sort of malty sweet potato note to it, though not as thick and rich as a Yunnan tea. Very honeyed and bready, with a stonefruity finish. No bitterness or astringency at all to my palate, which is very interesting for an Assam. I think if you told me this tea was from Yunnan, I would believe you!

This tastes surprisingly similar to a Fujian hongcha… It definitely has that dark wheat bread with caraway thing going on, and is much smoother than I would expect for an Indian black tea. Very chewy and satisfying, with a toasty grain note, and a touch of wood and hay. It’s a bit like a combination of something like a Bailin Gongfu with a late flush Darjeeling.

It’s a bit of a far cry from the notes it’s supposed to have ha ha, they describe it as chocolate orange and list a bunch of other sweet and fruity notes. I can see a touch of toasty, unsweetened cacao, but nothing about it tastes sweet to me at all. It’s more on the savory and malty side IMO. But I really enjoyed it, so I don’t suppose it matters ha ha!

Really enjoyed this one! The spices taste fresh and potent – mostly the cardamom is center stage, with ginger and a touch of cinnamon and clove supporting. And then the cocoa powder gives it a nice chocolaty flavor that isn’t artificial or over the top. It’s not a super dark chocolate note, I would put it somewhere in the middle. The CTC base is strong enough to stand up to the added ingredients, but not tannic, even though I’m currently sipping it cold.

I bet this would be wonderful prepared traditionally too! Might have to put a tin of this blend on my wishlist for later this year…

Sipped this last night and don’t recall a whole lot other than I enjoyed it. The spices were well-balanced, potent but not overly strong, and I could mostly taste cardamom and ginger. I didn’t specifically taste lavender, but I feel like lavender and cardamom can be somewhat similar, so perhaps it was just melding in there. The base was smooth and inoffensive, maybe a tiny bit nutty. Overall it was a pleasant afternoon/evening cuppa sipped while knitting. I’m not sure I feel the need to have a green chai in my cupboard, but this would be a good choice if I did.

Poor, neglected Herbs & Kettles samples… Oops? This is why sipping through samples is one of my tea goals for this year. XD

Anyway, this is nice enough. I don’t taste rose, but there weren’t a ton of petals in the leaf, and honestly I don’t mind that it’s missing ha ha. Cardamom is definitely the predominant spice, as I would expect. There’s some clove and ginger in the background as well. The CTC base is fairly smooth, but still adds flavor (I do think I underleafed this cup slightly, but it’s not overly thin).

I mostly just ordered this to be thorough, because I am not a rose fan. But it made for a pleasant cuppa this morning!

So I ordered a bunch of samples from Herbs & Kettles while they were having their black Friday, cyber Monday, whatever sale. Their chai blends sounded intriguing, and I was drawn in by the beautiful packaging featuring cute animals. But I did constrain myself to only getting samples, even though I was so tempted by the pretty tins… XP

I was not prepared for the amount of lavender in this, ha ha. The dry leaf looks like roughly 50% lavender. I am not a lavender lover, though I have grown to enjoy it in small quantities, so I was a bit nervous. Thankfully, the lavender isn’t super overbearing in the cup. It is definitely the strongest flavor, but it still tastes citrusy and pleasant, and not like perfume or bath products. I will say, the spices seem a bit lacking. I do taste hints of them, specifically the cardamom and ginger, but I think the lavender is just overpowering most of the spice here. I certainly don’t taste vanilla at all.

Still a pleasant cup of mostly lavender black tea, but not something I would personally order.

Sipddown 71 – 2024

This is just okay. I’ve realized that I really prefer these type of chai/spice blends with milk or as a latte. Straight without sweetener, just not a huge fan. This blend is also really saffron dominant, it actually overwhelms most of the spices. Aa touch of clove, but not much cinnamon.

This smells super chocolatey. It transfers to the flavor a bit, but there’s also an astringency that isn’t great.

Assam’s can generally be pretty hit or miss for me, but this one is decent. Loads of sweet potato and dried fruit. Really sweet, without a trace of bitterness.

Also- looks like my sample packet is labeled Black & Gold, but on the Herbs & Kettles website it’s called Black Gold. Not a huge difference, but noting it in case I want to purchase again.

Made on the stovetop with oat milk and honey.

Ended up liking this less than the Saffron Chai. I couldn’t detect any rose and just a hint of cardamom. The ginger was most present, with a really unpleasant hay flavor.

Made this stovetop with some oat milk and honey.

This has a surprisingly strong saffron flavor. It actually overwhelms all of the spices, and is a bit too much. Not terrible but not to my personal preference.

Meh, unimpressed. Steeped with a short steep time and relatively cool water and it came out a touch bitter. Hay, rose, underripe stone fruits.

Sip Down & Backlog

This was an interesting tea which is different to most teas I’ve had prior. It took me a long while to drink this down on the account I was never sure whether it was good or different. Teas that tend to break rules or change our perception on the tea varietals we encounter, during the endless trip through the Tea Rabbit Hole, give us pause. My very first session with the tea was riddled with notes of “rubbery, light intensity of Assam or CTC, & oolong-ish.” I think the way the tea was stored (rubber sealed container) added the oddities of the first session; therefore, I stored the tea with my shou cakes to verify if the storage was the issue.
After giving the tea some time to sit with shou, the aroma changed. It had a little bit of the earthiness of shou and the maltiness of stronger red/black teas such as Assam. However, the way it tasted was a lot of the same apart from the rubbery notes. I think if given more time and/or amount of tea, I’d’ve experimented with its storage more – adding to the sheng cakes, oolongs, and sealing one off entirely by itself.

Backlog and Sip Down

I’ll keep this brief on the account it was a few days ago since I’ve sipped this one down. I will note that it was highly floral and as noted on my IG post, “A cup which poets would write of.” My mind was in the great deal of stress over the past week, on the account work was tremendously difficult—with staffing, etc.—and I wasn’t in the best mindset to put much thought into anything, except for long naps. Ha-ha.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7hXE3WumTA/?img_index=1

Sipdown

A lovely tea for sure. I had two cups today since after the first there was very little leaf remaining. The first cup was western brewed and the second was gongfu’d in my 60ML gaiwan (3.2g).

- Western brewed was definitely stronger. I brewed the leaf with 205 F water and steeped 3 minutes. There were heavy jasmine and floral notes. A mild bitterness lingered, but it wasn’t off-putting.

- Gongfu’d was lighter, but more balanced. The jasmine/floral notes weren’t as heavy. I could really tell there were more layers – such as cucumber, earthy, and mineral notes – which made for a more pleasant experience.