Teeccino

This is supposed to be butterscotch cream flavor, and I wish I could taste that! The base is mild (or maybe I’m just used to it now). On top of that, I noticed something a bit desserty, but nothing so decadent as butterscotch cream. I recently reordered a few favorites from Teeccino, and this one didn’t make the list.

Ha I have no idea what the name of this tea means, but I’m still working on the advent calendar from last year, and this was next. I definitely prefer the more desserty Teeccino flavors. This one is a little herbaceous, but still not bad.

I didn’t expect a lot from this one based on the name, but it’s actually quite tasty. The base isn’t overly strong, and it’s mildly desserty on top of that. Maybe I taste a bit of vanilla. The resteep was almost as tasty as the first.

I have tried this in tea bag and in loose leaf form and I like to over leaf it so its a strong cup of amaretto. There’s enough date juice in here to make it sweet, and I like this as a caffeinated alternative. It is a bit boozy tasting, would probably make a good mocktail. This is something I expect to keep stocked in my cupboard.

The base is mild, but desserty. It’s quite nutty, though I can’t tell it’s hazelnut in particular. I’m glad since I’m not really a hazelnut fan. This one is definitely similar to other flavors but I love the nuttiness!

I’ve never had a plain macadamia nut, so I’m just thinking of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, and this tastes familiar. The coffee base is pretty mild again, mostly I just taste the flavoring that I suppose is nutty. It’s nice, though not super memorable.

This is much nicer than I would have guessed. The lemon and mango do actually work with the mild coffee base. I enjoy this with soy milk. The mango is mild, but it’s a really fun note.

This is the last of the three flavors of Teeccino available in my local grocery store (as grounds). I’ve had it hot a handful of times, but mostly I throw two scoops of grounds into a fillable teabag and cold steep it overnight for coldbrew “coffee.”

I’m having a hard time finding this one any different than the Hazelnut I tried last time. Maybe that is due to my brain having a strong hazelnut-to-chocolate association because I’m an eat-Nutella-straight-from-the-jar sort of person, but I’m getting the same roasted coffee flavor, nuttiness, and really dark and bittersweet chocolate. If I had them side-by-side, maybe one leans stronger on the nuttiness and the other on the bittersweet chocolate, but all-in-all they taste “samey” enough to me to not really have a preference of one over the other.

The base was mild and supported the added flavors well. It tastes quite desserty and nice with some almond milk. I’d consider getting more of this one. The resteep tasted exactly like the first.

I’m not a coconut fan, but I actually love the flavor they accomplished here. The coconut is light, but it blends perfectly with this base. The base is lighter and more enjoyable than some of the other Teeccino teas as well. The flavor is so desserty, and the second steep tasted just like the first. I’d consider buying a larger amount next time!

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #13

Well, I just saw a tea bag of this and I knew I have to try it. All the hype about Teeccino here, I just wonder if it is that good or… what it is about.

Yes, even dry bag smells lovely and full of chocolate. When I put it to the hot water, it started to color it so fast… and after 4 minutes it was so dark… and hot chocolate aroma was wafting through the room. I let my brother smell and taste it and he said: “Well, the aroma is great, indeed hot chocolate like. But the taste is… not that good. A cheap chocolate, maybe like chocolate toppings without the sugar added.”

I agree with him, it highly reminds me Hershey’s chocolate syrup minus the sugar. A little bitter too. But mouthfeel is great and while I won’t drink this daily if I had the chance, I would be happy to keep a few in the cupboard for chocolate cravings or/and for guests, who would like to drink hot chocolate — tea.

I would have guessed this had vanilla, but apparently it doesn’t. Ha maybe that’s my vanilla almond milk talking. This flavor is quite desserty and tasty! The base isn’t as harsh as in some of the other flavors. It’s straightforward, but smooth and tasty, especially as it cools to room temperature.

I can taste the floral, sour rose, but it’s not too annoying here. The coffee base is also milder than usual. These are not some of my favorite flavors, but it all worked okay, and I’m sure someone who likes rose will really like this. The resteep was decent too.

This tastes nutty and desserty with a bit of acidity from the coffeelike base beneath. I drank this sweetened with soy milk and finished my 1 oz packet in just a few days, whoops. Not among my Teeccino favorites, but nice.

This is one of the three flavors of Teeccino available in my local grocery store (as grounds). I’ve been putting two scoops of the grounds in a fillable teabag and cold-steeping overnight in a liter jar to make coldbrew.

This is really nice. Definitely has that same roasted coffee flavor of the other Teeccino flavors I’ve tried, but the nutty notes are amplified, and the hazelnut flavor is actually very spot on. I think my brain association with hazelnut and chocolate also brings out a really dark and bittersweet chocolate flavor. It’s a tasty coldbrew but is very thick and mouth-coating, which isn’t always the texture I want for a quick thirst quencher or a cold drink accompanying a meal, but I love the mileage I can get out of a single bag of grounds making coldbrew. I think I’ve been drinking this as my main cold tea for several months now.

I did attempt to try it warm one morning, but I nodded back off into sleep on the couch and when I awoke, it was already cold. Ah well! I’m sure it’s just as tasty warm.

I’ll probably get another bag at some point, but I plan to try the last available-to-me flavor first (Mocha, if memory serves). I did like this one more than the French Vanilla, mostly because it so perfectly nails the flavor on the tin (hazelnut) while the French Vanilla one tastes of coconut to me.

The base is a little too prominent for me. I don’t get much chocolate flavor, but I taste plenty of coffee. So I don’t know that the mocha descriptor is super accurate. I liked this one more when I mixed it with other Teeccino blends that had more flavoring. This one isn’t bad, just a little plain.

I really thought I would hate this one, but I was buying all their flavors in order to reach the free shipping minimum, so I went for it anyway. I’m happy to say that I actually like it! I had it with almond milk, and the fruitiness is pretty refreshing cold. It’s super peachy! I couldn’t imagine having this one warm. The coffee flavor is thankfully more mild here than in some of the other blends. It’s just that fresh authentic fruitiness with a bit of coffee-like base below.

#SVTTB Round Two – Tea 5/???

Sipdown (2226)!

When I placed my Teeccino order last year I didn’t see this flavour available, so I had to take the opportunity to try it. I have to say, this might be one of the rare Teeccino flavours that I don’t actually like. I thought the presence of licorice root was unpleasant in contrast to the deeper and more bitter roast notes. It clung to the back of my palate in a sickly sweet way. Worse was the fact the turmeric erred very savory to me. So this was a little more like drinking a very dark, roasty broth (like some shou) but with the unpleasant sweet finish.

Glad I tried it, but very happy to not ever revisit this particular flavour.

The base is milder than in some other Teeccino blends, which I like here. I definitely taste the bright mint along with a bit of chocolate plus the toasty base. It all works together quite well with some soy milk. It’s bright and pleasant.

Sipdown (2165)!

So, right before the database crash I was looking for something in my tea cupboard and I saw that this was added into it… which was weird, because I was pretty sure I had finished the one teabag sample I had of it almost a half a year ago.

Of course it was when I clicked on the tea page to see if I’d just forgotten to remove it from my cupboard that I realized all the tea pages were down. So that whole crash I had the annoying back of my brain feeling of not knowing what the fuck was up with this tea. Turns out I just fully forgot to log it, so oops! Hard to remember everything I thought about this because, like I said, it was about a half a year ago that I tried it. I do remember wishing for more vanilla, and if I can recall correctly I think I also observed that the almond was the same sweet almond that’s present in other blends (which does taste nice).

Overall I don’t think I necessarily had a strongly positive or negative experience with this blend.

The base here tastes a little too much like bitter coffee, but it still tastes good with some extra sweetener and soy milk. I also taste a bit of dessertiness, but it’s not very specific. I can taste a little nuttiness, but not the maple mentioned on the bag. This did grow on me over the course of the 1 oz bag though.

This sample was gifted to me by AJRimmer, thank you!

We are still getting intermittent snow in my neck of the woods, so I brewed this up as a warm thermos. Has that same dark, rich, roasty and slightly nutty coffee flavor as the other Teeccino flavors I’ve been able to try, but I find the pumpkin spice a bit lacking. I really only taste the nutmeg, and it is a strong nutmeg flavor, which I find rarely stands out in spice blend tea mixes I’ve had. It is a nice flavor and I like seeing it shine, and it compliments the coffee notes really well, but I don’t get even a hint of cinnamon, ginger, or clove, so it doesn’t really make me think of “pumpkin spice.” If they just named this “Nutmeg Coffee” it’d be spot on.

It’s good and I’m enjoying my thermos, but I liked the French Vanilla and Chocolate Raspberry flavors a bit more.

I received a sample of this from AJRimmer, thank you! I only have three flavors of Teeccino available to me locally (French Vanilla, Hazelnut, and Mocha) so I’m happy to get to try some others!

I brewed this hot this morning, and just left the fillable teabag in the cup as I sipped, letting the cup get very dark and rich. It had that same roasted coffee flavor and aroma as the French Vanilla Teeccino I’ve tried, with a bit more of a super dark, bittersweet chocolate note and a hint of raspberry toward the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. I imagine adding sweetener might amplify that note a bit, but I enjoyed the cup as is, strong, dark, and coffee-bitter.

What I really like about the Teeccino I’ve tried thus far is that while actual coffee gives me terrible GI problems (which is why I stopped drinking it) I haven’t had any of those same issues with these herbal alternatives, and I still get to scratch the itch for the coffee flavor.

Calling this a sipdown because this is the last bag in the variety sampler I ordered with the advent calendar. I haven’t been making tasting notes for most of them, but wanted to for this one a) because it’s the last one in the sampler and b) because I wanted to remember my thoughts about it.

So this is the last bag for a reason: I thought it would be terrible and kept putting off trying it until I was out of other coffee-alternative teabags. Orange and coffee just seems like a really weird combo! While this isn’t my favorite Teeccino blend, it turned out not to be as awful as I expected, especially as an oat milk latte. The oat milk smooths out some of the sharper parts of the orange and chicory, and the end result is something not altogether unpleasant.