Stash Tea

A tea from Advent calendar from Devon and with flavour of my favorite cake, that counts…

But, sadly, it was just robust black tea with little cacao notes and sadly no cherry nor vanilla here.

I don’t even see it on their website? It’s discontinued blend?

My office tea yesterday thanks to Devon and her advent calendar.

I have to say I am not much impressed about this one. It was quite clove-heavy with cinnamon whispering. And base black tea was somehow tannic water, without much to write home about.

I have been expecting more spices and overall more spicy cup for a chai.

Yay, the last one! \o/

This is a nice one. The spearmint and cinnamon are well-balanced. I don’t really get much orange, vanilla, or clove, but I’m not missing them. I’m a spearmint fan so this is right up my alley. It’s a nice, mellow spearmint tisane with the sweet cinnamon adding a festive touch. I could totally imagine sipping this on Christmas Eve!

Glad to be ending on a high note. And now I have to decide where to put all of these boxes of teabags! :|

Holiday grocery store teas tried: 19/19

Not gonna lie, was pretty much dreading this one. I tend to dislike both chocolate and lavender teas, and this has both.

But actually it’s quite good?! Mostly I taste peppermint supplemented by lavender, which is a nice enough combination. The lavender is mellow enough that it doesn’t taste like soap to me. I do get a bit of the chocolate flavor, but mostly it’s a creamy milk chocolaty taste from the cacao shells and the vanilla.

Pretty good for a chocolate-mint tisane, and the peppermint seems like it’s good quality – fresh and clean without tasting like a wet rag. The addition of the lavender keeps it interesting with an almost savory edge. Pleasantly surprised!

Holiday grocery store teas tried: 13/19

Sipdown! (11 | 166)

This tea was just not great. There’s basically zero evidence of white tea IMO, it mostly just tastes like a peppermint wet rag, and I feel like the earthiness of the ginger is only exacerbating that wet rag quality. There is a slight tingle of ginger warmth on the tongue.

Kind of annoyed that I had to order from the Stash website to get this, since it’s apparently an online exclusive. At least I got some cute mugs in that order LOL. :P

Sigh.

So I made an order from the Stash website specifically for this tea, because it’s apparently a website exclusive. And I like mint and white tea so it seemed right up my alley.

Welp, for a tea called “White Christmas”, I sure don’t taste much white tea in here. The peppermint leaf completely takes over the blend. It might as well be a plain peppermint tisane, because that’s mostly what I taste. I do get a touch of earthy ginger heat on the backend, but mostly it’s herbaceous peppermint that leans a big wet rag-ish.

I mean, I’ll drink through it as a bedtime tea, but I was so excited for it. Sad panda. At least I got a couple of cute holiday mugs in that order… :P

Holiday grocery store teas tried: 12/19

This one’s a bit of an oddball as far as holiday teas go. There’s nothing really holiday-ish about it, their thought process seems to be that you need caffeine on Christmas morning? A bit of a reach, lol.

Anyway, it’s fine. If I’m honest, I’m not smelling or tasting the jasmine at all. It mostly tastes like a breakfast blend, which is essentially what it is. Not too strong or tannic, which is nice, but there’s not a lot going on either. Some bready, malty notes maybe. But otherwise it’s mostly tea-ish.

It’s all fine and drinkable, but basically just a breakfast blend, and not a very interesting one at that. Another one for rehoming, as I can’t see myself drinking the rest of the box.

Holiday grocery store teas tried: 8/19

Sipdown! (20 | 56)

Finished off this one by making it into a chai concentrate – steeping it on the stove with water and then putting it in a pitcher in the fridge.

It’s not bad, I mixed it with oat milk and a bit of maple syrup. It’s not my favorite just because of the added flavorings, to me they take away from the spices and make it more of a flavored tea than a chai. I can definitely taste the nutmeg and allspice, which are interesting and do make it feel a bit holiday-esque.

Anyway, I’ll finish it off this way, but certainly not something I would reorder.

This is fine. It’s about as generic as a chai can get, with mostly clove and cinnamon along with a bit of nutmeg and ginger. Apparently it has gingerbread flavoring, which I guess I get a little bit. It doesn’t have any of the lovely molasses notes of better gingerbread teas though. I definitely don’t get the rum at all.

It’s inoffensive, but the spices just kind of muddle together into a generic “chai” flavor profile for me. I guess it has a bit more nutmeg than usual? I’ll probably end up using this as a chai concentrate for iced lattes.

Holiday grocery store teas tried: 5/19

Ahhh, feeling better than yesterday. Much better. It is still not up to par, but at least stomachache disappeared and no back pain anymore as well. A little sore throat remains.

Anyway, third tea from Devon’s Advent Calendar, thanks again.

I am trying to recall, if I had pear tea before. I am pretty sure I had, *checks notes, yes, I had. Anyway, dry bag smells like banana, like most of you wrote about before.

It is gently flavoured and I actually liked it more than I thought I will. Crisp, buttery pear with sweet profile. Enjoyable. Mellow green tea, which is good choice for blending it with the pear. It was floral, hay-like green tea.

As I in general don’t eat much pears, and it is not my favourite fruit, I would not drink it as daily drinker. But I think there will be some who will.

It was kind of a shame to wind up with a Christmas Eve and Christmas “holiday spice” teas back-to-back, but that’s really on me; sipsby just gave me a “bag 1” and “bag 2” with 12 teas each and I randomly put them into pouches.

This was somehow even stranger than the mulling spices in water from the Davidson’s Christmas Tea, and I think it’s the spearmint in it. There’s definitely spearmint, orange, and cinnamon together here. The spearmint is the strongest flavor, though the subtle orange is there through the sip and the aftertaste is mostly cinnamon. I think it was really the orange with spearmint that was bothering me and kept it from being a win, because separately I love these ingredients. I drank it, but the whole time I kept going “so weird”.

sipsby bagged advent, day 11

I can’t understand why the overall rating for this tea is so low???!!! (69 at the time of this review.) I guess simplicity is underrated these days.
I thought that this tea was really good. Simple but lovely!
It reminds me of toothpaste but in the best possible way. I found it super-comforting. For me, it’s all spearmint and cinnamon and I’m here for it! A perfect choice for Winter.

My bag looks different than the one pictured. Brown with a mint green stripe. I am going to try not to be subjective because I usually avoid tea bags. But it is hard. For one, I do not feel that oolong belongs in a tea bag. If it is in a tea bag it is because it must be a lower grade. Despite that, this is decent. Though the main flavor is peppermint. I also taste the chocolate which reminds me of the chocolate used in Andes Mints. But it also leaves a kinda meh note in the finish. Sawdust and dusty shelves.

So I made an order with Stash to get their White Christmas tea (which is an online exclusive for some reason) and this piqued my interest so it tagged along. And I also got a couple of cute holiday mugs because I have no self-control… ^^’

Anyway! I was excited to try this one, but sadly I just don’t like it very much… The elderflower is fine, but I’m not a fan of the yuzu flavoring. It’s a bit… chemical-tasting? It’s too pithy and bitter, and it’s just an odd combination with the soft elderflower.

So I guess this is going directly into the rehoming box! :P

Look, I love clove, and I love a heavy spice in general, so this is a win for me on all counts. I mostly notice clove followed by cinnamon in this tea, but not in a way that totally erases the black tea flavor itself. Sipsby nailed it for me with this one.

Sipdown! (17 | 364)

This had potential, but it ends up just a bit weird.

I think it’s the sarsaparilla. It takes what should be a cozy, slightly sweet cinnamon tisane and makes it taste more like those root beer barrel hard candies. And don’t get me wrong, I like root beer, but this is supposed to be cinnamon and vanilla. I do taste some cinnamon, but it sort of gets melded into the sarsaparilla, and I’m not picking up on vanilla at all. There’s a slight waxy quality, maybe that’s coming from the vanilla?

It’s not awful, but not one I would purchase.

Solid Mint Tea!

I really like this blend. The tart hibiscus and berries help me wake up in the morning. I exclusively cold brew this one, I don’t love hibiscus hot.

So while I have 3 advent calendars I plan to enjoy every day, I also bought some that I’m using as samplers and will be satisfied if I finish them by the end of January. This sipsby bagged version is one – I really didn’t want to do their loose leaf again, but the bagged one seemed like a nice way to have tea for work.

It makes me laugh that this tea was my day 1, since I just finished it from their subscription. I don’t know that I have much new to say about it! It’s still a good tea; a lovely earl grey that doesn’t overwhelm me with lavender. It feels perfect for the morning and remains on my list of “sometime when I don’t have other earl grey waiting for me”.

Sipsby Bagged Advent Day 1