89
drank Winter Mint Oolong by 52teas
1216 tasting notes

Happy Universal Health Coverage Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea with (supposed) health benefits!

I’m not really one that purchases “health blend” teas, and tend to instead look for (usually tastier) options that include the ingredients that work for me. No “headache” tea blend I ever tried ever did anything for my chronic migraine condition… but I have found mint and ginger to be quite effective on the awful nausea and GI issues that accompany migraines.

Aaaaaaaaand I just happened to wake with a migraine this morning. A rain/slushy wet snow storm moved in over night, and the barometric pressure changes set me off more often than not. So today was going to be a “tummy tea” day regardless.

I actually find ginger works a bit better for me than mint, but I’d already pulled this packet out of hiding and stuffed it in the Sipdown Corner™ last night, so rather than dig up a ginger tea I decided to brew this old holiday tea. Has a delightfully strong spearmint aroma, both in the dry leaf and the steeped tea. My warm cuppa also has a sweet aroma, and combined with the spearmint, is reminding me of the sweet spearmint-flavored spice gummies.

Mmm… nice! The oolong gives the tea a very silky/creamy mouthfeel, and I’m getting a strong spearmint presense that leaves a cooling menthol presense on the back of the throat after the sip. During the sip is a warm, sweet, creamy vanilla note. I think that sweetness is amplified by a subtle background florality from the oolong. After the sip, I’m left with what I can only describe as a “carbonated tingle” on the back of my throat, and the mix of the mint and sweet vanilla with that sensation is giving me an odd reminescence to rootbeer (just without the “barky” sort of flavor that accompanies rootbeer).

Easily one of my favorites so far as I drink through old 52Teas advent teas of years past. And it is very soothing this morning when my head is yuck and my stomach is blech.

Flavors: Cream, Creamy, Floral, Mint, Root Beer, Smooth, Spearmint, Sweet, Vanilla

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 12 OZ / 350 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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