75

A free sampler, thanks Anne! Decided to brew this up as my herbal tea tonight, on what has become a very stressful evening! My kitchen sink is leaking, and since I don’t want to pay for “after hours” repair charges (in podunk Idaho, anything on a Sunday is “after hours”!) and I work during “normal business hours” during the rest of the week, the best I could do on the plumber front was getting an appointment early in the morning, an hour before I go into work, next Wednesday. Which means I have to deal with that sink leaking until then! (I’m no expert, but it looks to me like it only leaks when I’m running the water in the sink, so towels and a cooking pan under it will have to suffice, and I’ll have to try to severely cut down on my dishes until then… guess the next three days will be ordering in!)

I’m smelling my steeping cup, and getting warm blueberries, cinnamon, pastry, and that peppery note that I’ve been getting from honeybush a lot lately. The steeped tea tastes like a syrupy sweet blueberry, like a blueberry pancake syrup, followed by lingering spices in the mouth; the spices actually help mask the peppery note of the honeybush (or at least it seems to blend in well with them rather than standing out like several of the Plum Deluxe blends I had during advent). I rarely taste nutmeg when its included in a tea, but I taste it here! It sort of lingers on my tongue after the sip, too. The base tastes a touch nutty which I think is what is bringing out the pastry associations for me.

A pleasant cuppa on a not-so-pleasant evening!

Flavors: Blueberry, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Nutty, Pancake Syrup, Pastries, Pepper, Spices, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 2 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML
Veronica

Ugh. Sorry about your sink. Hope it’s a quick and easy fix.

Mastress Alita

I just hope it doesn’t get progressively worse over the next three days before the plumber can come out! (As a shock to no one, I wash a lot of teaware in there, heh)

52Teas

Sorry about your sink – glad you enjoyed this tea! :)

Martin Bednář

Leaking sink is no fun.

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Comments

Veronica

Ugh. Sorry about your sink. Hope it’s a quick and easy fix.

Mastress Alita

I just hope it doesn’t get progressively worse over the next three days before the plumber can come out! (As a shock to no one, I wash a lot of teaware in there, heh)

52Teas

Sorry about your sink – glad you enjoyed this tea! :)

Martin Bednář

Leaking sink is no fun.

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Profile

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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