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A box of this tea was left on the up-for-grab’s table in our library breakroom, so I decided to take it home. The name sounded great… cinnamon horchata? Yum!

…………….

Welp, I now know why this tea was being given away for free. The teabag smells like stinky feet and cinnamon, and the steep cup… just smells like stinky feet. I’m not exactly sure how to put the taste into words, except HORCHATA THIS IS NOT. This is a musty damp basement where a lone cinnamon stick was left forgotten in a corner.

It’s so bad, but I can’t bring myself to take it back to work and put it on the up-for-grab’s table, passing it on like the curse from “The Ring.” If I have noticable sleep benefits from it, I’ll probably try steeping a teabag with something stronger (like some roasted buckwheat or Teeccino, maybe hot cocoa) to use it up. If my sleep still sucks after drinking this monstrocity of a cup, it’s gettin’ tossed.

Flavors: Stinky Feet, Mold, Dank, Cinnamon(?)

Tonight I’m finishing off my packet of this tea. The aroma is spot-on chocolate cherry. The chocolate flavor is a bit boozy, but it compliments the cherry nicely, which, thankfully, is not veering into medicinal territory. The honeybush is sweet, and I’m getting notes of oats and that pepper note I always get from honeybush, which is blending with the chocolate to give sort of a Mayan chocolate vibe. The flavors are just really harmonizing well together!

This is a decadent tea; the caramel note is very spot-on, and I love the noticable hint of saltiness in the aftertaste. It has a very buttery and creamy taste and mouthfeel, and leaves a strong coating sensation. It’s also very sweet. I’m sure a latte would make this even richer and creamier, but honestly, it doesn’t need it. Dessert in a cup. Should I feel guilty I’ve been having this for breakfast recently?

Todd gave me one of the pre-sealed packages of this tea he got from his China trip. It is a sachet-style teabag and smells strongly of the artificial peach found in candy. As it steeps, I start to get some aroma notes of minerals, greens, butter, and baked apple.

The oolong was coming off quite strongly right after removing the teabag, but the peach starts to come forward and the flavors smooth out as the tea cools a bit. The oolong has a leafy vegetal flavor and is slightly buttery. The peach comes in about mid-sip and lingers in the aftertaste. It is definitely that artificial peach candy flavor, but not nearly as sweet. The apple note blinks a bit in the background, but is hard to pick up on.

It reminds me of a poor man’s version of Lupicia’s Momo Oolong Super Grade.

Todd gave me one of the pre-sealed packages of this tea he got from his China trip. It’s… very strange. When you open up the package, rather than having a teabag inside, it’s this solid square that looks like a solidified honey-like substance with one dried lemon slice and one dried kumquat enclosed inside. The instructions say to drop it in cold or room temperature water, though I could find no information on exactly how much water one “cube” is for… I used a liter knowing it might be a bit watered down since I was guessing. The cube dissolves in the cold water very quickly, and leaves the lemon slice and kumquat floating in the water. I couldn’t really find any information on the ingredients… one source said it was instant jasmine green tea? If so, I definitely don’t taste anything remotely like jasmine or green tea in flavor. It just tastes like lemonade, albeit waaaaaaaaay less sweet (which I prefer). It is bright and citrusy, and while I think it tastes fine with the amount of water I used, it would probably be a bit stronger and punchier at a half-liter, instead.

So, it’s basically like an instant cube of dissolvable lemonade. It’s a bit fun, definitely refreshing, but not particularly exciting. This would be incredibly convenient for travel, but obviously not very accessible in this part of the world.

I’ve been working through my package of this for the last couple of months, and really enjoy it in the evenings. I have a lot of GI issues and rather than just avoid the foods I know cause me issues, I’ve been chasing those meals with this tea to help soothe the tummy instead, heh.

I’m a big fan of Greek Mountain Tea, though I’ve only had it straight and not in a blend. When I had it before, it was big, fluffy flowers rather than sifted like in this blend, and the flavor I got was really fruity, a sort of floral honey and apple with a bit of citrus, hay, and mint in the background. I’m not getting any of those notes in this blend, aside from citrus and mint, but considering the amount of peppermint and lemon myrtle in this blend, I suppose that makes sense. It’s really minty but lacks that strong menthol aftertaste of most mint teas… instead it leans closer to tulsi in flavor, in that the mint is a little peppery and citrusy and some pleasant basil notes.

I prefer the flavor of Greek Mountain Tea more on its own, but I also like the extra flavor notes in this minty tea that would be lacking from drinking plain peppermint. It’s nice, and it really is great against nighttime acid reflux.

It’s Thanksgiving morning (edit: this was written yesterday when the Dash was down yet again), and I was greeted by our first snowfall of the year. Boo! I needed tea therapy after shoveling the slushy walk, and when I was looking through my older selections the word “maple” caught my eye and I realized I was really hankering for that flavor.

Steeped according to the package. The spent leaves had a strong woody aroma, not too unlike houjicha, while the steeped cup smelled strongly of maple and butter. That is pretty much what it tastes like, too: sweet maple and a bit of buttery creaminess on a roasted and slightly nutty backdrop. I may try a subsequent cup as a latte with sweet almond milk as I suspect that will make the maple pop even more, but it is perfectly satisfying as-is. Fits the “suddenly it’s winter!” weather.

Rating: 82

Todd gifted me some Chinese green teas from his trip to China last month. I don’t have any information on these teas aside from translating the type, and this one is a Long Jing (Dragonwell). No steeping instructions, so I just defaulted to my norm for green tea, of 2g/350ml 175F water, steeped for 2 minutes.

The aroma off the spent leaves was roasted nuts, and while I get a little of that from the cup, I also smell more vegetal notes, like peas or green beans. The liquor is pale yellow and very slick and warming. There is a little earthy nuttiness there, but mostly the flavor is very buttery greens. It’s been a long time since I have had a Dragonwell, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s very relaxing and feels good on my sore post-dental-surgery mouth.

Flavors: Earthy, Nutty, Vegetal, Peas, Green Beans, Butter

I’ve been really enjoying this! Nice, roasty hojicha with those cozy woody and nutty notes, with a nice caramel sweetness. The caramel is really popping for me, leaning almost into a maple flavor with the fruitiness of the apple. This will be missed when I finish off the bag. Shame flavored hojicha blends are so uncommon, I haven’t had many but seem to really like the ones I have stumbled upon.

I’ve been sipping through a pouch of this has my morning tea for a bit. I see some of the reviews say it’s “all Pumpkin Spice, no Earl Grey” but my batch (or maybe just my tastebuds) are having the complete opposite. The bergamot is coming off very strongly for me, and I don’t taste any of the desserty pumpkin pie/cream/vanilla flavoring that is apparently in this. The only other note I’m picking up on aside from the strong bergamot is the cardamom; I suspect the slight citrusy notes of cardamom are being amplified by the citrusy bergamot, but the other spices, like the pumpkin flavoring, are drowned out in my cup. So what I’m left with isn’t Pumpkin Earl Grey, or even Pumpkin Spice Earl Grey, but rather Cardamom Earl Grey.

I will say I do like the flavor combo of the cardamom and bergamot and think I would really like a Chai Earl Grey if the flavor balance was more even between the berg’ and the spices. But when something has “pumpkin” in the title and I get none of that, I still feel a bit disappointed.