5

Sampler Sipdown September! This is the second of my tiny Capital Teas herbal samplers. Again I prepared it as a single cup (235ml) since it was a rather chunky herbal and the sampler was looking a bit peckish.

I wasn’t impressed with the last sampler since it had a sort of grapefruit taste that I didn’t care for in what would’ve otherwise been a pleasant lemon tea, and this one… is described as a grapefruit and pineapple tea. Greeeeeeeeeat. Have already established I hate grapefruit, and I love pineapple, so dont’ really care to have grapefruit ruining what should otherwise be another pleasant tea. Starting to see a pattern here… Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and some mysterious ghost flavor will save the day instead of ruining it like last time (though I have high doubts, because the dry leaf smells like dirty feet to me…)

This one is also a pale peach, paler than the last one (considering that rose hip and hibi are the second and third listed ingredients, I’m a bit surprised it isn’t darker, so I’m wondering if I got a really uneven blending in my teeny tiny free sampler?) Even steeped it smells really unpleasant to me… like the overwhelming ginger of that Tropical Oolong sampler that was also from Capital Teas, except this blend doesn’t state any ginger in the ingredients, and also a little like… stewed onions? Must be all the grapefruit… ugh. I already know I’m not going to like this one.

It… tastes a bit watery, even infused at only a single 8 oz. cup. It tastes very heavily of grapefruit, which honestly to me has a gingery/onion sort of taste to it… just blechy. And I actually like ginger (in moderation), and onions, I just don’t like the weird sour fruity spin on those flavors my tastebuds give grapefruit… it just doesn’t work for me. If I try to look past the grapefruit really hard, I can maybe make out a tiny hint of pineapple… oh who am I kidding? Like hell I can! The tea smells like dirty feet.

Be gone from my cupboard and never come back!

Flavors: Grapefruit

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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