Tea Sparrow

Sipdown (596)!

This was such a good rose flavoured tea and I’m actually insanely sad to have finished it off. So clear, fresh and well balanced. Loved the amount of body that the black tea base gave to the floral profile. Simple, but that simplicity gave clarity to the cup.

If anyone has any good rose black tea recommendations hit me up! I’d love to try some more…

A VariaTEA share!

I can definitely see how this might be too floral for a person because the profile was so potently rose flavoured. Like, it could easily be interpreted as very perfume-y. However, I fucking love rose teas and I found this to be a very tasty one with a lot of freshness to the strong, heady rose notes as well as underlying sweetness. The black base was really nice and full bodied too with a great tint of red fruit to the overall malt profile. It was so smooth!

I mean, I really loved this one. I think it may actually be the best blend from Tea Sparrow that I’ve had to date!

Sipdown (632)!

Quite buttery, and just a little bit sour but still made for a mostly alright pina colada flavour. I really enjoy pina colada teas, and though the coconut didn’t scream “fresh” this wasn’t a bad one either. I just hate the green tea base pairing. I did make it in a tea press, which may have contributed a tiny bit to the weirdness of the coconut in the blend, but then again possibly not. Hard to say. It’s green tea regardless; it’s never going to be my favourite…

Thanks for the share VariaTEA – you can never have too many Pina Colada blends in your life, and I’m thankful for another one; it’s just probably for the best that it was a one off sample.

Sipdown (638)!

Just got a REALLY large White2Tea order in the mail, so I’m feeling the pressure this afternoon to get some sipdowns in. Hence the revisit of this one so quickly after first trying it. Not really much differing thoughts about it though; I still think it definitely gives off more of a spearmint flavour than peppermint and while it’s not bad I just don’t know how I feel about spearmint and chocolate together overall. Peppermint just seems better.

Also, dentist went fine – they said it’s a purely superficial chip and while he, of course, wants to create a prosthetic to hide the chip it’s not necessary to do so. It’s not a front tooth, so I’m like 99% sure that I’m just going to be leaving it as is.

A VariaTEA share.

I thought the dry leaf of this smelled sort of like chocolate and spearmint so that made me excited that this might be a more unique take on the “mint chocolate” flavour profile. However, steeped up it just tastes like your run of the mill chocolate and peppermint combo. Nothing wrong with that – but it’s super boring and pretty average overall.

I have so many other mint chocolate teas in my cupboard right now – and this does nothing to stand out from any of the others. Just meh.

I cold steeped this in lemonade and took it to work. It tasted mostly like lemonade…with some blue candies added for sweetness. It was good but I think the lemonade did most of the work here. I have one spoonful left of leaf so that will be tried in plain water.

certainly glad i didn’t cold brew this one given VariaTEA’s “success” with this one haha. I brewed this one hot…and then based on the smell, just added a little honey. hot, it’s not too bad. It’s not something i need to keep around or would give rave reviews for, but it’s not as VariaTEA explained heh. There is a weird taste to it though, so i can easily imagine what she might have been drinking as a cold brew.

nope. this one isn’t even too floral, it’s just not good. Kinda like someone tried to add roses to red rose tea or something. I dunno…and now of course i’ve got bon jovi stuck in my head lol

Well the first of the teas from tea Sparrow that i’m ok with. this is a decent herbal even if the name is a little silly…fruit jam makes me think of toe jam. :D I wouldn’t say this is a specific fruit – rather it’s more like a fruit medley of sorts. Also the “jam” piece is questionable. Still not half bad!

Dear Tea Sparrow…step up your game. in the continuing trend of average tea, this one is also, nothing to write home about. The rooibos comes through too much in this one, making for a woody sort of constant flavour interrupting the mint chocolate. oh well!

This one was just kinda creamy and sweet. I didn’t get much in the way of ginger or orange. Kinda finding the tea sparrow teas to be pretty “meh” on the whole. Don’t get me wrong, happy to try new things, but nothing yet has made me want to go get more or try any others.

not a fan. This is kinda like a slightly sweet green tea, flavoured with a bit of fruitiness that comes through. I’m not really picking up any coconut and there’s none of that creamy colada goodness. I’ll still to my herbal version. thanks VariaTEA!

I’ve finally been let out of quarantine aka my bedroom as I’ve been on antibiotics for strep throat for a couple of days now. That meant I got to make myself a cup of tea. Knowing that (a) I need to stay hydrated and (b) I probably won’t really taste the tea, I grabbed this because I have a fair bit of it and the nutty orange/ginger profile doesn’t call to me that much otherwise. I ended up adding a peach honey straw to this to soothe my throat since it is still a bit sore and my voice is still missing.

Surprisingly, I did actually get some orange flavors and some nut flavors from this. It was also much more sweet than I would like but that could be the straw full of honey that I added. No rating for now because my tastebuds are still a mess but it did help my throat so yay for that!

I coldbrewed this over the weekend and brought it to work yesterday. Then I forgot to drink it and only now opened it to give it a taste. It smelled awesome but it tasted terrible. Whereas the smell was that of tart and fresh berries or even tart berry flavored candies, the taste was that of a sweet wine that had gone bad but was still very sweet. So yeah, not my thing…st least when cold brewed.

One of my favorite honeybush teas. The honeybush flavor works really well with the vanilla. I just wish I had more!

Cold Brew (460)!

Actually a little sad to be out of this one; one less pear tea on hand! It was a nice enough cold brew; very smooth dewy pear notes but quite a bit of grassy undertone too. I’d have liked just a little bit more sweetness but it was a nice representation of both the added flavour and the base tea.

Thanks again VariaTEA for the subscription that I got this one in!

Tea Press!

To be completely honest, I had kind of forgotten about this tea. However, I was looking for something I could make in the tea press to bring with to work and I found the sample bag of this one and figured, why not?

It tasted really nice, but was quite light as well. I think this might just be one of those teas that’s a little too delicate overall to really be well executed in the tea press. However, I appreciated the mild, gentle smoothness of the grassy green tea, and the nuanced floral and dewy pear notes! I really, really like pear teas and this one feels like pear tea that’s been stripped down to the bare minimum. Not in a bad way, but it’s just a very light/pure ‘essence of pear’ kind of flavour.

Good for quite, peaceful tea drinking and reflection.

Iced tea.

Very light, fresh and dewy pear flavour with the same hints of creaminess you’d get in the flesh of a Bartlett pear. There was some floral notes, probably a combination of the pear itself and the green tea matched with it. Sadly, all of these brilliant tasting notes were masked by a very choppy, grassy green tea with an astringent edge to it.

This could be so good if the base was better; but as is it’s just pretty average.

Thanks for it regardless, VariaTea! I’m always up for a pear tea.

Cold Brew Sipdown (527)!

Finished this one off on my morning conference call with work. It started off a little sharp and grassy with a strong taste of the green tea and a slight bitter edge. Very piercing, in terms of flavour. However, as it warmed up a little/got closer to room temp it seemed to mellow out a little bit and I was able to better enjoy the strong grape notes and floral undertones.

Not a bad tea overall; but not an exceptional one either.

Notes of grapes, lychee, and jasmine.

I wanted to like this one again; I remember being pretty impressed with it overall the first time I tried it. I think I must have over steeped it though because in addition to those lovely fruit notes and florals it was also super bitter AND astringent.

Yuck.

Cold Brew.

Admittedly, I was pretty fascinated by this tea despite the green base. I’ve actually been finding myself craving DAVIDsTEA’s “Grape Freeze” blend from a few years back, and this sounds pretty similar. Also, any tea that tastes particularly grapey is pretty good in my books, regardless of whether it’s candy grape or natural grape.

I think this brews up with a really strong, solid grape flavour which is definitely the most important aspect of it. I’m confidant, that even if I hadn’t read the tea description prior to drinking it that I’d know this is intended to be grape. As well, I taste the currant as secondary fruit flavours too; they’re a TINY little bit medicinal, but not overwhelmingly or to a point where I feel it detracts from the blend.

The green base is pretty present and grassy; it reminds me a bit of lawn clippings or the smell of grass on a really hot day. Do other people notice that too? That there’s definitely a distinct smell to hot grass, that is? It’s not exactly fresh smelling, but it doesn’t smell bad either. The finish comes through a bit floral, as well. Not in any sort of way that reminds me of a particular flower though.

Also, just a touch artificial as an entire brew.

I still liked it overall, though.

I really enjoyed this one. I got this in my tea sparrow subscription box but decided to order more. It’s a light tasting tea with the pear very much present. I have done this hot and also cold brewed. Both were very good for me it just depends on my mood which I do. It’s a perfect simple light and beautiful tea.

Does contain grape flavoring and you can smell it. It doesn’t at all overwhelm the tea it’s actually a really tasty combo. I prefer it brewed straight. I tried just a hint of cream and it didn’t come across well. Made it taste more astringent. I would purchase more.

I didn’t get creamy from this tea but it was tasty. I would have liked more strawberry but it is present. More so then most so called strawberry flavored teas. And its not fake strawberry tasting either. Overall a juicy berry/strawberry tasting tea.