Tealyra

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – September 2024 Tea #1 – A tea Miss Piggy would drink

I, for one, can really appreciate anything Muppets related.  I am a FAN. A FAN, I say.  So I LOVE these Muppets inspired prompts this month!  AHHHHHH —Kermit wavey arms— I had a few in mind for Miss Piggy, but I went with this one.  Classy enough for her, I think.  Apparently I haven’t written a note for this Tealyra blend though, as it was a bit of a restock from similar blends from other shops.  This herbal has a fruit flavor base with an additional champagne flavor.  It’s always a unique one to have around. Not a sipdown!

I bought this 100g mini cake of shou in May of 2018, at a bargain price, brewing a bit of it every couple years and storing the broken-up cake in a jelly-jar with a porous filter paper cover, in the dark of my tea cabinet, at 50-60 %RH. The tea arrived in an unmarked paper wrapper and was discontinued by Tealyra several years ago. However, the cake appearance and the taste & aroma of the tea is so similar to a Yunnan Sourcing product that I believe they may be the same. See: http://steepster.com/teas/yunnan-sourcing/47144-2013-yunnan-sourcing-ripe-pu-erh-and-snow-chrysanthemum-tea-mini-cak . It appears to still be available from YS, as of Aug 2024, still rather inexpensive. Over the years the orange-color of the chrysanthemum petals has darkened quite a bit. Note these are just chrysanthemum petals mixed into the chopped tea, and it is not a “blooming” tea.

Brewed western style, the soup from 5g tea in 16 oz. boiling alpine spring water was rich, smooth, fragrant, and enjoyable. And I, too, also get the impression of dill pickles (not vinegary, just the taste & smell of dill.). I don’t know if it is intentional or if some dill inadvertently got into the mix. Dill is a large weedy plant and if the tea was mechanically harvested, it could have been picked up. It is what it is. Some folks add other herbs like sage or clove or saffron to their tea, so I won’t consider the surprise dill as a defect. No fishy or wet-pile compost flavors, no astringency. Very strong, this would give many gongfu infusions if that is your method, and a few good brews even western style. I like it as a unique shou pu-erh, and will continue enjoying it!

Sipdown! (9 | 115)

I recently restocked on my favorite fruit tisanes from Tealyra, and I also picked up a 50 gram pouch of this to try. And it’s nice! It actually reminds me a little bit of their Tropical Breeze, there is a tart cherry note that is similar (even though cherry isn’t mentioned?). But this has a bit more tanginess to it, maybe from the pineapple. I added a bit more sugar to the first pitcher, and it actually reminded me a bit of lychee somehow, but I didn’t taste that the second time around.

Quite good, but I think I might like Tropical Breeze better?

Sipdown! (38 | 104)

Not my favorite from Tealyra. I didn’t get any kiwi, mostly this tasted like a combination of pineapple gummy bears and bubblegum. I added a palmful of hibiscus flowers to the last bottleful, which did help it taste a bit less cloying. But still, too artificial and candylike for me.

Sipdown! (36 | 102)

Finished off a 100g pouch of this one, cold-steeped. Definitely high on my list of favorite cold teas, it has a nice sour cherry sort of flavor without being too tart (and with no hibiscus actually). There is coconut, but thankfully I don’t really taste it. Mostly just a nice sweet and tangy Jolly Rancher sort of cherry flavor mixed with apple.

Definitely plan to reorder this one, and a few other winners from Tealyra.

Sipdown! (5 | 71)

Cold steeped. This one is pleasant enough, but a touch candylike for my tastes. I’m not sure exactly what fruit it’s supposed to be, but it ends up reminding me of Sweet Tarts a bit. Looking at the description, looks like they’re going for guava and pineapple with strawberry. I definitely preferred their other two guava teas to this one, and I guess I can taste a bit of pineapple, but mostly it’s tangy fruit candy.

New batch of fruit blends from Tealyra! Even though I’ve found several that I want to reorder, I can’t resist trying new ones ha ha.

This one is not well-suited to cold steeping (IMO). It comes out watery and bland, but has a strange bitter flavor in the background. I assume that’s probably the orange peel, which doesn’t tend to do well when steeped for a long period of time.

I think for the second half of the pouch, I’ll try icing this one instead.

Sipdown! (13 | 62)

I’m almost out of fruit tisanes! :O Luckily, I already ordered more, heh heh…

This one is sweet and juicy and yummy. I like that it has actual guava pieces in it, though I’m sure the flavoring is doing the heavy lifting. Nicely balanced between sweet and tart, with a tangy guava flavor alongside the tartness of apple and a slight citrusy note from the lemongrass.

Putting this one on the “maybe” list, I remember liking their strawberry guava blend a lot too, so now I’m not sure which to order… XP

Sipdown! (12 | 61)

Not a fan of this one. I think it’s just not very well-suited to being cold-steeped, as it gets quite bitter and pithy from the lemon peel. Otherwise, it does taste like lemon candy. Would probably be nicer steeped hot and then iced, but I’m too lazy for that. :P

Sipdown! (9 | 58)

I really enjoyed this one! Nice combination of bright and juicy orange with the addition of sweet strawberry and a touch of herbaceous lemongrass. I think the amount of hibiscus is just right – it adds tartness but doesn’t overpower the fruit flavors and make it taste generic. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the lemongrass, but I think it helps add a different citrus note and keeps the orange from tasting too much like candy or vitamin C tablets.

Will definitely have to reorder some in the future!

Sipdown! (5 | 54)

This one wasn’t bad, but I feel like the name is misleading. The ginger in this is quite strong, and it ends up tasting more like a ginger beer sort of tisane than a pineapple one, and I don’t taste any lemon at all. It’s still refreshing, and the pineapple flavor is noticeable, just not what I was expecting given the name.

Sipdown! (4 | 53)

This sounded good, but ended up being just okay. I don’t think I would’ve known it was raspberry or pomegranate, as it was just a bit generally fruity and sweet. There was an odd hint of soapiness to it for some reason, not sure if it’s just the flavoring or what.

I ended up adding a spoonful of hibiscus to the second pitcher, and it added some much-needed tartness. I don’t notice that soapy taste anymore either. So it ended up being nice, but not one I would reorder.

Sipdown! (30 | 33)

This one was just not a good candidate for cold-steeping, in my opinion. It came out bland and watery, just slightly sweet and a bit peachy.

I added some hibiscus to the second go-around, and it’s definitely better with the tartness giving some dimension. But still a bit on the bland side (other than the hibiscus) so not something I would order again. I only tend to cold steep fruit tisanes, so maybe it’s tasty hot, I dunno! :P

Sipdown! (18 | 31)

Cold steeped. This was sort of a wildcard selection from Tealyra, it sounded so unusual and I do tend to like sea buckthorn (at least, in my limited experience). It actually ended up being possibly my favorite of the several fruit tisanes I chose.

The color is alarmingly yellow ha ha, and the flavor is tangy and tart, but not overly sour. The sea buckthorn is actually the main element to me – unsurprising, given the amount of peels present in the mix. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor of sea buckthorn really, other than to say it’s sweet and tart and almost like an intersection of citrus and some kind of tropical fruit? Needless to say, it pairs perfectly with the citrus here and is lovely as an iced tea.

Will definitely reorder this one next time!

Sipdown! (16 | 29)

Cold brewed. This one is quite nice actually, it has a good amount of tartness to it, even though there isn’t any hibiscus. I assume it’s from the apples. I don’t know that I would go “aha, this tastes like guava!”, but knowing that’s the intention, I can see it. It almost tastes a bit like passion fruit as well. The strawberry is nice and doesn’t taste like candy, which I guess makes sense given there’s no strawberry flavoring, so it must be coming from the dried slices.

Really nice and refreshing, and doesn’t need any sweetener. Will definitely consider ordering more, though there are still a lot more Tealyra fruit blends that I want to try. :D

Sipdown! (9 | 22)

Cold steeped. Honestly, it’s a bit bland? I was surprised given it’s a hibiscus-heavy tisane. It doesn’t really have a strong berry presence either. It’s an interesting looking blend, with elderberries being the first ingredient. I guess they must not be contributing much in the way of flavor though.

Anyway, they can’t all be winners! Happily, there are other berry-hibiscus tisanes that I like more.

Sipdown! (7 | 20)

I bought several fruit tisanes to cold brew from Tealyra, as they carry wholesale blends at more reasonable prices than a lot of other places.

This one wasn’t my favorite. The coconut ruined it a bit for me, and I was surprised how much I could taste it in the first bottle I steeped. I ended up removing most of the coconut shreds for the second try, and I like it much better. It’s a fairly raspberry-forward berries & hibiscus blend, with a hint of coconut on the backend.

I did enjoy it this way, but I’m certainly not going to buy a blend that I have to “edit” before steeping ha ha. :P

Iced Latte!

Made this one today to drink during the afternoon and I was… kinda into it? It’s very earthy and pu’erh forward, but even more buttery and I found that the sheet intensity of the butterfly flavour was a little too much for me and not especially balanced out. The pistachio really just comes through in the finish. While that smooth, nutty note is authentic and tasty I feel like it’s too little of the profile in comparison to everything else going on. That said, I did drink the whole thing pretty quickly so it wasn’t all bad!

Interesting tea. It seems more fitting to drink this tea on a ship in the 1800’s. Something about the smoky undertones takes me back in time to when spices and teas were not readily accessible without trade.

Pistachio is such a strange nut flavor. I love it, but it’s not as common as almonds or cashews and it seems like different parts of it are prominent in different uses for it. This tea for example tastes way different than pistachio baklava or pudding, but they all still have flavors of the nut. I feel like I need more pistachio in my life to feel this theory out.

This tea smells delicious. The pu isn’t as murky and wet tasting as some that I’ve had and that works well in not overpowering the other flavors. The pistachio is nice and light, but present here and holds it’s own with the pu. The flavor is well rounded and has depth. It’s a good tea, fun to try, but probably won’t be a reorder.

Have you ever placed an order for tea, received your order and wondered why you ordered a particular tea? Something that doesn’t fit your usual flavor preferences or sound exciting in any way? Maybe you wonder if it was a mistake, check your email and see it was indeed on your order? That is this tea for me. Wild berry chai doesn’t sound like something I’d be drawn to. Did I think I was selecting a different tea and didn’t pay attention? I have zero recollection on finding this tea interesting or adding it to my cart. Weird.
ANYWAYS… The flavors in this are very light. I do taste some fruitiness in there and the fruit seems well balanced. The spices are really faint for a chai. The flavors are not bold enough to have this with milk and have much come through. It isn’t a bad tea, it’s just not something I’m into contrary to what 5pm January 24th 2024 me thought. I need to have a talk with that version of me before ordering more tea.

This is my first time trying this blend from Tealyra, but I’ve purchased it from other companies in the past (it’s a catalog blend) so ultimately this was more of a revisit than a new experience. Definitely very cinnamon forward, but also strong notes of clove and a peppery undertone alongside that rich, jammy apricot note.

In the past I’ve likened the combo of fruit and spices to ketchup, and I think kind of stand by that. Maybe, though, in hindsight it’s a little more chutney than ketchup!? Despite being a wholesale/catalog blend, I think it is one of the more unique chai profiles I’ve come across and many, many years later it continues to be a favourite.

Sipdown (1379)!

Made this one as a larger Western style teapot because, well, that’s what you do with flowering teas. I have a box of these flavoured ones from Tealyra that feels like it’s constantly staring at me from the shelf it’s on, and I never want to brew them up because I’m never in the mood to commit to a full pop of one on my own – but I just bit the bullet today to get that sipdown in.

It’s… Well, it’s conflicting. Flowering teas are sort of always terrible; the quality of the tea used isn’t typically all that exceptional and they keep steeping all the way up until you finish the pot so they’re usually very bitter and gross by the end – which was the case here too.

All that said, the first half of this pot was actually shockingly lovely. Though very much on the grassier side, that slight green edge played in really well with the banana. It was super authentic banana with a mellow sweetness and a bit of a starchy sort of finish. With the base, it felt like eating a banana just a day off from being perfectly ripe. Not too sweet, and not at all candy or “banana runts” like. Not baked, banana bread style banana either. Really fresh, and just simple yet balanced.

And then it got over steeped and yucky. Alas, the curse of blooming teas.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzhTjaPufba/?img_index=1 (Fifth & Sixth Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5dnC3Fm70

This isn’t a great tea. Fake berry mixed with sort of murky rooibos, a combo I’ve encountered many times before. I received four teabags from Sips by, so I’ll drink those as cold work teas, but I wouldn’t want this again. It’s just fake and okay.