The NecessiTeas

Steepster TTB 2025

I have to admit that my tea drinking in 2025 has been pretty uninspiring — I’ve barely written any Steepster notes, and I’ve mostly been drinking old favorites. That makes the TTB’s arrival extra exciting for me!

Mmm, smells delicious. This is malty, astringent, and maple-y, but I’m not getting much blueberry at all (or bready notes to evoke pancakes, for that matter). Blueberry as a flavor is hard to capture in general, I think. I do have a soft spot for brisk breakfast teas, and I love maple, so I’m not complaining here. But “blueberry pancakes” is a stretch!

There’s not much left in this packet so I’ll probably keep it and try it again with some oat milk — that might add some pancake-y heft to the flavor.

TTB 2025. Have I ever tried anything from necessiteas before? Not sure. I’m not a big fan of blueberries but this looked interesting enough to give it a try. Made as an oat milk latte. Mostly I’m just getting maple syrup, with just a faint whiff of blueberry that I might not have noticed at all if I didn’t know it was there. I enjoyed this more than I expected to, but someone who likes blueberries might be disappointed.

2025 TTB #5

I haven’t tried much from Neccessiteas and their blends always sound delicious, so I was eager to sample this one! Although I could see dried blueberries in the leaf and smell a bit of berry sweetness as it stepped, all I could really taste was the maple. It was a pleasant, natural-tasting maple…but based on the name, I was hoping for more.

I definitely taste the lemon meringue! It’s not tart, just desserty like a lemon cake. I get the pillowy feeling of the meringue as well. This one is accurately named! I like it cold, and the cold resteep is nice as well. I’m a fan of all the lemongrass here!

I love the lemongrass flavor here. There’s a lot of soft fruitiness. It also tastes quite candylike. The 2 oz bag disappeared super quickly. I’d order this again! As usual, I removed the marshmallows.

Homemade Advent Calendar from AJRimmer: Day 24

AJRimmer had already removed the marshmallows from this blend since neither of us eats gelatin, so I cheekily added a few vegan marshmallows to the blend while steeping!

I can’t decide if this is eggnoggy or not. It’s reading as custard to me, with notes of nutmeg and cinnamon. It does have a decent amount of body, too, which is appropriate for a nog!

I never liked candy corn, so luckily this doesn’t remind me of it at all. It’s desserty, though I can’t tell exactly what it’s going for – I taste sprinkles? Maybe something like vanilla icing? I removed the marshmallows before steeping. With milk and sugar, this is quite nice! I like it best cold.

This tastes really similar to another Necessiteas tea I’ve had before. It’s nice and desserty with milk and sugar. The spices are delicious and french toast-ish. I’m enjoying this cold. I removed the marshmallows. I’m not sure why so many Necessiteas teas have them since it makes the teas not vegetarian friendly.

The blueberry is a little fake tasting, but milk and sugar smooth things out. It’s not bad, but far from my favorite from Necessiteas. I guess I do get a bit of a blueberry baked good sort of vibe from this, though maybe store bought instead of homemade. Recently, I’ve been using almond milk to accentuate the nuttiness. This one is growing on me!

The name here is quite accurate! The main flavor is pineapple. It’s fresh without being too sour. I finished my two oz quickly. It makes a nice cold tea, and the resteep is good too!

As soon as I smelled this, I knew it wasn’t going to be a favorite. Rose is the strongest flavor, and it’s just not something I enjoy. I also taste some neutral fruitiness. I don’t know if it’s the perfume vibe from the rose or added flavoring, but something makes this taste pretty strongly of alcohol, which is a flavor I have an aversion to. So though this is drinkable, for various reasons it’s not a great match for me. It’s hard to know how to rate this because I do think it captures its name quite well, and I probably shouldn’t have bought it due to my preferences.

This is one that I got to try from the SVTTB, I always hesitate to order from the Necessiteas because their stock changes so much but I think this would be a staple for me should it be available year round. I agree with some of the other notes, it tastes more like cola than butter beer but I did rather like it.

I always skipped this one when ordering because I don’t love coconut, but I received it as a free sample in my last order. Ha the sales tactic worked because I now intend to order some! The flavor is so desserty. I taste coconut, but in a delightful, almost cupcake frosting sort of way. I don’t think macaroon specifically, but this is very tasty and well executed.

This was a serving I grabbed from the TTB as I was trying to limit the weight. I guess I liked this one enough to grab some, and I can see why. It’s creamy lavender with a hit of coconut aftertaste. Not getting a whole lot of chocolate here, but maybe there is some lurking in the background. It is a comfort cup and I would add it to an order. Thanks to whoever put it in the box!

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #12

This is first of the teas I took out of the TTB and thought I should try it. Smelled it and saw those big flakes of coconut, but I was still postponing trying it.

Until today… I bought a new mobile phone, so I needed a comfort tea to play with it, setting up everything (it’s really easy nowadays though).

Creamy, coconut tea with floral lavender twist. Flavours that strong that baase tea wasn’t noticeable, but certainly strong as it boosted me with energy. Tasty and luckily, at least for me, caramel isn’t much noticeable. Maybe it made the smooth and little sweeter taste only.
But I actually liked it.

Sipdown 48

Made this as a cold brew and really didn’t love it. Getting lots of apple and raisins, but no pineapple flavor at all.

This sample was gifted by AJRimmer, thank you!

It smells pleasant in the cup… gentle spices and a subtle sweetness. The flavor is nice, too. I get more of an orange spice tea than gingerbread, but it is also one of the better orange spice flavor profiles I’ve had in a while. The citrus isn’t too potent as a flavor, but I think it really makes the clove notes pop, which is coming off as the strongest spice note. The ginger is present but not without any unpleasant burning. The tea isn’t as sweet as it comes off on the nose, and the spice notes are strong but not aggressive.

It’s a nice cold morning tea. (Spring still is hesitant to spring in my neck of the woods, and it’s a comforting profile against the random snow/rain/wind that keeps popping up the second I think the weather is going to turn).

The flavor here is super accurate. I had this cold, and I could taste both the cherry and the cola quite clearly, along with the decent rooibos base. The resteep might have tasted even more accurate than the first steep. I’m not sure I prefer this over other cola teas, but I certainly enjoyed it! Soda teas are one of my favorite tea genres, and I’d happily drink this again.

Sipdown 15

Tasty, but not something I need to purchase again.

Working on sipping through my Necessiteas stash, as they’re starting to get old. This isn’t one of my favorites, but it’s still pretty good. Mostly brown sugar and maple, with a touch of sweet blueberry. I like the black base as well- not astringent or bitter and grounds the sweetness of the maple sugar and dried blueberries.

This one is sort of weird. The chocolate comes through as pretty fake, and the spice is a little tingly and artificial on top of that. This really pales in comparison to the version of this I’ve had from 52teas. The flavors here are just so fake and strange.

This reminds me of Lupicia’s mahina flavor. I don’t end up enjoying how the rooibos flavor combines with the over-ripe/candy banana flavor. It tastes almost rotten…it’s okay with milk and sugar, but nothing like a banana split.

I tried preparing this a lot of different ways throughout my 2 oz bag, and I think I liked it best at room temperature with sugar and soy milk. Oat milk covered up the banana too much, and skim milk just wasn’t quite right. My last cup or two have been the most pleasant of the bunch with a good amount of desserty banana showing up, though I can’t say that the oats in this blend add anything. The black tea itself is a bit weak, so I feel like it really needs the help.

Another hit from my secret Santa exchange with Vallhallow, it was sweet, buttery, toasty, and so nostalgic for me. I definitely need to grab a bag for myself!