The Forest Witch

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60
drank Butterbeer by The Forest Witch
2955 tasting notes

This tea is from the TTB 2018!

I’m not totally sure why this is called butterbeer, since it does not taste of butterscotch or beer, now is there any cream soda/creamy element that I would expect in something buttery. This tastes like any other rooibos chai with red rooibos + spices like cinnamon, coconut, ginger, and allspice. It wasn’t a bad cup, but had no resemblance to what I would imagine butterbeer would taste like.

For the record, in Harry Potter butterbeer is described as: “a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch”. Since this isn’t convincing me of butterscotch at all (no caramelly or creamy vanilla notes) I’m taking the rating down a bit.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Coconut, Ginger, Rooibos, Spices

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 15 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Roswell Strange

That’s ultimately where I landed with this one too. It does have butterscotch chips in it, but I think they’re really drowned out by the spice. Eventually I just learned to accept this one for the flavour it offered and not what I hoped it would be. I figured some other Potterhead might get a kick out of trying this one if I added it to the box, though. This Etsy seller has a few Harry Potter blends; I have Slytherin and Gryyfindor right now – the former is great but the latter is more mediocre.

Arby

I normally wouldn’t drink a tea containing milk, but didn’t look at the ingredients until I saw the butterscotch chips in the steeper. I did take the butterscotch chips out before it had a chance to melt since I am very sensitive to dairy these days, but since the tea had already touched water I couldn’t put the leaf back into the packet. It was nice to have a chance to try it though, thanks Roswell!

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68

I keep forgetting that I own this tea, so I think I need to work more actively to finish off the sample I have – it’s one of the older teas in my stash! I had a mug of it last week with some chocolate agave added, and that was very good. Realllyyyyy robust and full bodied chai with intense notes of hot cassia and warming ginger with a unique hit of allspice. I like the idea of chai spices mixed with that sweeter honeyed rooibos and more peppery honeybush base, and the little bit of depth and dense sweetness from the chocolate agave added to the rich complexity of the tea. It was cozy and satisfying.

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68

Still working at finishing off some of those rooibos/herbal tea samples that are taking up space – this one is older, so I’d like to put a little more effort into finishing it off. Especially since it’s occupying precious tin space…

The mug was not bad; all warming spices and hints of sweet and woody rooibos and honeybush. Allspice was the dominant spice note, followed by cinnamon and ginger. I think allspice is an underutilized spice in chai blends.

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68

Thought an evening cup of chai would be nice, especially since this is caffeine free and it’s been quite chilly/cool in my apartment the last week or so – it’s a welcome change from the sweltering hot summers, but I need to be more conscious of wearing cozier blankets/pajamas and not leaving my fan on overnight because I’ve woken up in the middle of the night quite chilly when I’ve forgotten or treated it like the summer still…

I, sadly, forgot about this mug of tea after steeping it and setting it on my bedside desk so by the time I returned to the tea it was ice cold. Still fairly tasty – a more woody/peppery rooibos/honeybush mix with lots of warming spices. Allspice and ginger jump out the most. However, evening if it is a mix of warming spices the tea really doesn’t do anything in the way of ACTUALLY being warming for the evenings if you’re sipping it stone cold…

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68

Cinnamon, allspice, rooibos…

Smooth enough sipping, but not an exceptionally phenomenal blend – I honestly forgot that I still had it, which is a shame because I’m a bit of a way from sipping it down. Maybe this simpler spice/Chai profile would be good latted? That would certainly be one way to finish it off quicker…

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68

Drank this one yesterday.

It’s still such a spice heavy blend, and while it’s not bad I just find I’m always disappointed with it just a little bit since I bought it not just for the name but for the premise of this being a “Spiced Rootbeer” flavour. However, while yesterday’s cup was really spice heavy (allspice, clove, cinnamon) I also felt like I was getting tiny, tiny hints of the sarsaparilla/rootbeer flavour. Not enough to be satisfied with the blend as a whole or feel like I was getting that ‘true’ Spiced Rootbeer profile, but enough that I didn’t feel as disappointed as I’ve been in the past.

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68

So, I get headaches/migraines a lot – and working so much these last few weeks (60-80 hour weeks without days off since right now I’m the only member of management at the store I’m working at; I have to open and close every day) has made them worse than usual. The biggest source of relief for me has been teas with a lot of mint in them, but the other thing that I find is helping a fair bit are blends with lots of clove. I don’t own nearly as much of those though, so finding good options has been tougher.

This is a very clove heavy blend though; and I know I had originally sort of criticized it for the simple spice notes because I thought they were a little flat and not great representation of Gryffindor house (especially when the blend was advertised as tasting like root beer) – but as a headache relief blend? Yeah, this actually does the trick really well! Not only is the clove very, very soothing but so is the allspice – and thankfully those are the strongest flavours in the tea.

So it’s a win.

Rosehips

I get migraines and headaches too! I’m glad that you’re finding blends that help. The only thing that ever helps me is laying on the floor waiting for death to come and claim me, so maybe I should look into clove instead….

Roswell Strange

Oh, I’ve definitely done the floor sprawl before. Sadly not something I can pull off at work, though.

Mastress Alita

I have chronic intractable migraine without aura (anywhere from 5-15 attacks a month). I haven’t found any teas particularly helpful for the head pain, but they are extremely useful for the accompanying nausea, I’ve found (particularly mint and ginger blends). I quite like a mint/licorice root/clove blend from TeaSource called Margaret’s Soother that is good for sore throats and nausea as well, so if mint and clove help with your headaches, it may be worth checking out (it’s also quite tasty!)

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68

Tea Press!

So, I bought this one in July and I remember being SUPER excited about it because of the fandom aspect and then also just the description of the tea in general. I don’t know why it took me so long to even get around to trying it, honestly…

I’m actually a little disappointed though. The listing for this tea describes it as tasting like rootbeer, which is the element that made me very excited for it. However, in practice I don’t think there’s ANYTHING in this that reminds me of rootbeer at all. In fact, it’s actually pretty darn similar to The Forest Witch’s Butterbeer blend just without the creamy/coconut components. That’s not terrible but it’s not what I was stoked about. So basically, it’s a very allspice and clove heavy profile with some cinnamon undertones too. I like clove a lot, personally, so I’ll definitely finish this if it continues to be a really clove strong flavour. However I didn’t really need another spicy tea added to my cupboard.

Welp.

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44
drank Butterbeer by The Forest Witch
6444 tasting notes

Sororitea Sisters TTB

I pulled this out of the SSTTB and I was going to write a review for the blog but after smelling the strong rooibos flavor of both the dry and steeped leaf and seeing the murkiness of the brew, I had a feeling I was not going to be a fan of this tea and felt bad hating a tea from an Etsy shop on the blog. I have done it before but tonight I guess I just didn’t feel like it. Instead I would hate on it (or love it) here.

So, in one hand I have a glass of red wine sangria and in the other this tea. This weird tea that tastes like lotion. Like lotion and spice. The sangria is nice at least but I am definitely not a fan of the tea. Didn’t have high hopes going in so maybe it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy where I expected this to be bad so it was. Also could just be a bad tea.

Roswell Strange

I drank this one tonight too – I don’t LOVE it, but I definitely like it a lot more when I stop thinking of it as a “Butterbeer” flavour and more of a Chai type of thing. Have you had a chance to try any other teas from The Forest Witch? I liked her Cancer blend a fair bit, but I REALLY enjoy the Slytherin one.

VariaTEA

I honestly wasn’t even looking for butterbeer. I just wanted something other than lotion. Tbh I looked at the envelope it was in and it was ripped and not properly stored so I’m wondering if maybe the coconut went rancid or something went off because this was bad.

Also I think this is the only one I have tried from her which may be part of the reason I felt bad hating this tea on the blog.

Also yay for tea twins drinking the same thing! It’s been a while since we did that :P

fluffduck

After checking out your profile and stalking through you tea cupboard I’d be interested in doing a little tea swap! I know this isn’t an ideal place to discuss but unfortunately I can’t send you a PM… I think maybe steepster only lets you PM people who follow you?

In any case, I have a laoshan black and an autumnal darjeeling I’m particularly interested in doing a sampler swap to compare to the ones you’ve got. I’ve got quite a few others in my cupboard and some that aren’t marked as stocked yet, too. Feel free to PM me if you’re interested :D

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67

“Sipdown” (648)!

Quotations, because it’s not a true sipdown – I’ve decided to pass along the last few cups of this to the Discovery Tea Box. This cup was great; sweet and strong butterscotch notes, coconut body, and strong allspice/ginger finish. I think it was legit the best version of this that I’ve tasted to date. Maybe that’s because I left the teabag in the cup which let it get really potent, maybe not. I don’t know. I just know I’m not going to jinx it; this was a good cup and that’s the note I’m choosing to end my experience with this tea on.

There’s nothing else I think I can get from this tea, and so I think it’s time to let someone else try it and hopefully get a fun experience from the fandom connection.

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67

Cup from last night.

This is still almost entirely just a brew of allspice and ginger with very little of anything that even remotely makes me think of butter beer. I mean, as a stand alone tea it’s about average; I don’t hate allspice and the slight coconut sweetness is a nice aspect. This cup in particular had an awful mouthfeel though. Very thick, and oily with a weird powdery texture from all the fine spice dust that made it through the filter. Bleeeeeehhh.

At least it’s one cup closer to a sipdown. I’ll make it there. Gradually…

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67

So, at this point I’ve let go of the idea of this one tasting like butterbeer to me.

I tried it hot recently with some pumpkin agave, and that worked really well! I think the extra bit of sweetness was a good addition because it brightened up all of the allspice notes, which are plentiful, and kind of exaggerated the sweetness of the coconut. So, it was like a brighter, sweeter and more autumnal (because of the pumpkin) light dessert Chai! That… actually works for me!

So, definitely an improvement and something I’ll keep in mind for the rest of this tea leaf.

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67

It’s been a while since my tea twin VariaTEA and I had the same time on the same day, but that’s exactly what happened last week – I’m just slower to the punch writing about it. This time around, I tried this one with some cashew milk and I let the leaf continue to brew in the cup (in one of DT’s sachets rather than a perfect infuser) while I drank it in the hope that the butterscotch chips would fully melt down and I’d get a creamier, more sweet and buttery profile overall. Didn’t really work out that way though, and instead I just got a thick, rich mouthfeel and a sweet Chai flavour. Lighter on the spices than your typical chai though, and more allspice than anything else. A fair bit of coconut though, I suppose! As a “light Chai” this is pretty good, but as “Butterbeer” I think it kind of fails to live up to its name…

So far, I think the best version of this that I’ve tried has definitely still been as a latte.

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67

Iced Latte.

- Much softer on the spices overall; still lots of ginger
- Coconut came through more as well
- Sweeter, buttery mouthfeel with some creamy butterscotch notes
- Had moments with fleeting rootbeer like flavours as well

Definitely liked it a LOT more prepared this way than I did when I tried it hot, and straight. The first tasting it didn’t remind me of what I imagine butterbeer to be at all; but this time it was much closer. Still not totally on the mark, mind you – there’s a little too much spice for it to be a perfect recreation for me.

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67

Last Forest Witch tea to try!

There’s always room in my cupboard for a fandom tea, so I was excited about this one. I guess I didn’t browse the ingredients SUPER thoroughly though because I didn’t realize until I cracked the package open just how much spice is in this blend. Ugh…

It honestly didn’t taste too bad; lots and lots of sweet ginger and allspice with this overall creamy candy like sweetness which I know was from the butterscotch chips. Actually, it sort of reminds me of the clotted ginger cream hard candies that the speciality candy store sells in town. I think they MIGHT be British? They’re not too bad, so the comparison isn’t a terrible thing.

However is it Butterbeer? In my opinion, based both on how the books describe it and other tea interpretations I’ve tried, not really. Still and OK tea though.

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88

Cold Brew Sipdown (1332)!

What’s this? Two Harry Potter sipdowns in a row?

…y’all, I just own a lot of Harry Potter themed teas, and I guess I was in a witchcraft and wizardry sort of mood the week in January when I finished these two off. I had actually forgotten that I only have enough of this left for one brew – I knew I was close to running out, but not that close.

This was hard for me to finish off because it’s the best Slytherin tea I’ve ever come across and one of the best pistachio teas, just in general. It’s like a dark and creamy pistachio pudding with and underlying black cherry sweetness & one of those flavours that seems weird together on paper but in practice is so unexpectedly lovely. I don’t even mind the hint of fresh lemony citrus from the lemongrass!

I’m trying my damnedest to not order any tea right now – but this is 100% a tea that I would order again. It was such a phenomenal discovery!

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88

I’m just finishing up a mug of this one currently, and I’m quite into it – it’s sweet and creamy with lots of pistachio pudding notes but mixed with pops of cherry and refreshing and citrusy lemongrass it makes me think of something more Middle Eastern inspired that I can’t put my finger on. They use pistachio and sweet fruits in a lot of pastry and desserts though, so that’s probably what my mind it thinking of.

I’m nearly out of this – I don’t need to restock because I have so much tea, but I really want to restock this one when it’s gone. I think the shop still carries it, but under a slightly different name now…

At some point I should actually do the math and figure out how many Harry Potter inspired blends I own, because I have a gut feeling it’s actually a lot higher than I think it is – especially with more on the way from a recent Adagio order. I wanted Halloween teas, but couldn’t resist adding in some fandom samples too. I was trying to decide what HP inspired blend I might drink for… reasons… Maybe podcast related reasons…

I had too many options.

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88

Revisited this, and the other HP tea I have from this etsy store, earlier in the week. I’m definitely much closer to finishing this blend off over the Gryffindor blend. I oversteeped this mug a bit so it had a slight bitterness to the black tea and was also a bit astringent, but that delightful pistachio pudding note was still present!! That’s all I really care about.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Creamy, Lemongrass, Nutty, Sweet

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88

Pistachio pudding in a cup, but with the delightful addition of sweet candied cherries.

I swear I’m not making this comparison because this is a Harry Potter themed tea, but rather than reminding me a whole lot of the Slytherin household this tea kind of tastes the way I always imagined Aunt Petunia’s cake (from Chamber of Secrets) would have tasted like. I mean; it looks so decked out in creamy frosting and then those giant candied cherries on top!? If the frosting was more of a pistachio custard instead then I think it’d be a perfect match.

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88

Is anyone else obsessed with the new Harry Potter Mystery game for the phone?

I’ve spent the last week totally engrossed in this game and the story line; it feels like in a way I’m finally living our my childhood dream of going to Hogwarts. I really only get the chance to play on break and on the bus ride to and from work so I’m still struggling to make it past my first year – but it’s been a blast!

Thematically, I thought it was appropriate to pull out one of Harry Potter teas to enjoy on the bus ride to work. Though, I didn’t pick Slytherin for my house – I went for Hufflepuff. That’s what Pottermore says I am, and what I feel like I am. I do always score like one point away from Slytherin every time though. Anyway! This tea was good; sweet pistachio pudding notes accented by candied cherry and soft lemon undertones – a little bit malty from the black base tea. It felt like something that would fit into the Harry Potter Universe – like, maybe some sort of festive Christmas pudding sort of thing with a magical history/background. Maybe.

Also, Merula is a bitch.

Mastress Alita

Heh, I’m opposite — Slytherin with Hufflepuff a close second!

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88

Home sick today…

I figured I’d make myself a hot cup of tea; I thought that would be really nice and comforting! The problem is that I made the tea, brought it to my room and then fell asleep before touching it. When I finally did wake up, the tea was of course cold. It still tasted delicious; like pistachio pudding! It even had a thicker and more viscous mouthfeel which emphasized that pudding quality. It just wasn’t the soothing, hot cuppa that I had envisioned…

Fjellrev

I’m home sick today too. Ugh.

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88

Super glad I decided to get more of this one, because I made it in my tea press the other day to bring with to work and I liked it just as much as I did the first time!

It reminds me a lot of pistachio pudding, with the initial flavour. It’s sweet, and creamy/nutty. I think the black base also really nicely bonds with the flavour of the pistachio as well and it’s during this portion of the sip and flavour profile that I notice the base the most. The rest of the flavour is great too though, and the body to me has more of that sweet, dark cherry flavour. I know that there isn’t cranberry in here, but I still kind of taste cranberry notes alongside the cherry. It’s just like the flicker of tartness and then all that juicy red fruit flavour…

I don’t think I noticed the lemongrass as much my first time drinking this as I did with this steeping – it was really present in the finish of the sip. I’m kind of meh about lemongrass generally speaking; I can do it paired with other flavours but on its own I just don’t love the taste. It as a little strong for me here, but since it was paired with the cherry notes I didn’t find it unpleasant. It was the weak point in the flavour for me, though.

Still – I’m very happy with this tea, in particular just how brilliantly the pistachio flavour comes across! It’s very natural, and smooth and it just works well with everything else. It also just adds so much character to overall flavour. Anyone can do a lemon/cherry mix; that’s not exciting or creative. Pistachio though? That takes this to a different level.

There need to be more pistachio teas in the world.

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88

Iced Sipdown (240)!

The Forest Witch offers samples, so when I ordered I decided to throw one it and let the owner pick what it was. I think generally speaking, when you let the owner of a tea store choose a tea for you you’re bound to get something REALLY good. I mean, they know both what their best sellers are and just what in general is REALLY top notch that they carry. It’s also, for me, a good way to sometimes try things that would be outside my comfort zone.

This is the one that she chose for me, and honestly part of me what to be all “Ahah! I’ve been sorted!” because whenever I do the Pottermore quiz I’m VERY close to Slytherin, but then also part of me is like “Hufflepuff forever, bitch”. So…

Anyway; this sounds really good and the dry leaf smells amazing so I’m stoked. Actually, both me and a coworker kind of agreed that it reminded us a little bit of DT’s Cranberry Pear just in that the cherry smelled similar to the brightness of the cranberry, and it had this sort of creaminess to it like Cranberry Pear did. Honestly, the only overlapping ingredient is the black tea so it’s maybe a weird observation/comparison. Still, I think it stands.

This tastes AMAZING.

Honestly, I was a touch skeptical because of the lemongrass but it feels very well balanced, and has such a good range of flavours. Mostly, it’s a lot of sweet, nutty pistachio from top of the sip until finish but also that pistachio does kind of have the creaminess to it that was in cranberry pear. It’s almost like pistachio pudding, which really does take me back to my childhood and gives me solid nostalgia pangs. There’s also fruity brightness from the cherry; sweet, a little bit tart. Maybe it’s because I’ve already drawn this mental comparison so I’m projecting this flavour onto the tea, but the cherry actually does remind me a bit of cranberry too! The lemon grass is subtle; just hints of it in the undertones. The black tea is smooth and malty, with the faintest astringency at the top of the sip, though it very quickly subsides and with the pistachio pairing I do think that bit of astringency reminds me a little of the dryless of the “skin” on most nuts. I mean, it just reminds me of Cranberry Pear. I know they’re dissimilar, but also they’re sort of not?

Point is I fucking LOVED this sample, and it’s gone now and I’m already crushed over that. So, I’ll probably try the one last tea I ordered from The Forest Witch sooner rather than later and since everything was so reasonable price wise I’m probably going to order more of this immediately after payday.

Just, it was SO good. Everything I could have wanted from a cup of iced tea.

Scheherazade

I’m a Slytherin. I might need this in my life.

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80
drank Cancer by The Forest Witch
15575 tasting notes

Tea Press Sipdown (334)!

I had actually already thought I’d finished this one off when I found the bag of it in my sample box, so this is kind of like a surprise bonus cup of it! I think the fact I was so pleasantly surprised to see that I had another cup of it really speaks to how much I enjoyed this one, though!

This last cup was fairly one note – but it was a good one note. Basically, it was just really sweet, fruity and bright kiwi notes! Kiwi is pretty great though. The only thing that kept it from basically just being a purely kiwi flavoured cuppa was a hint of lemon in the finish. It was the perfect second layer of flavour, and a pleasant end to the sip.

I’m not looking to get more of this one right now, but definitely something I’d consider ordering again the the future!

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