261 Tasting Notes
#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #101 overall / Tea #17 for March
Sat 3/13/21 (WRITTEN 3/18/21) — Bird and Blend Mulled Cider I’m a weirdo but since I started working at the front desk of a hotel (this summer will be 6 years since started) I enjoy traveling and staying at hotels when I go on vacation.. getting an employee discount is nice and it’s nice to meet people in the same field as myself and it’s nice to have that stability (even if there are many different hotel brands from basic to very fancy full service upper class). In past year or so obviously that has been drastically reduced with everything going on the world. While I was off for almost a week, I got to squeeze two trips in (I live in Columbus, OH so one night to Cleveland area and one to Cincinnati area which are few hours away in opposite directions). I had a very old 4g sample of this tea that I made warm and plain (the hotel lobby water wasn’t very hot, it wasn’t that warm even but I was too tired to go back to front desk)… I steeped it overnight in one of the old skool design DT tumbler in a metal steeper basket. It tasted like a very weak flavored water in the morning. I pretty much dumped into the sink which I never do. I won’t judge it since the sample was so small and old.
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #100 overall / Tea #16 for March
Friday 3/12 (WRITTEN 3/16/21) — Tea Forte Mango Melange. YAY A TIN IS FINISHED!! I made this a week or so ago as full cold-brew pitcher I think but then had 3-4 PS left in bottom of tin, so I put them in a 20 oz glass jar with water for cold-brew in fridge & sipped it down 3/12. I had gotten this when I made my only ever (and large with a ton of different teas) order with Tea Forte, I think in 2019? (maybe 2018?) I can’t remember to be honest. I know my boyfriend love mango (the fresh fruit) so I remember this being one I picked up for him but he must not have enjoyed it or I wouldn’t still have the tea around. It was okay, not anything memorable writing this note a few days later. I’ll have to figure out something nice to reuse the tin for, I do like the tea forte tins.
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #99 overall / Tea #15 for March
Friday 3/12 (WRITTEN 3/15/21) — Bird and Blend Mince Pie So this tea was a loser in a Round 1 battle (vs. Bird and Blend Maple Bacon Pancake circa 2017?) on the Cozy Lattes side of the bracket. I am not the biggest black tea fan so I’m glad to sip this pouch down it’s not a bad tea at all (I don’t have any strong feelings of like or dislike) just not a tea for me. I was happy to finish it thinking it was gone from my collection but found another sealed pouch of this and Tori on IG is accidentally sending me some in the collection of teas from her stash she has coming my way so I’m going to have to gift this or figure out something to do to get this tea out of my collections. Hmm, maybe it will go into my “black tea for homemade kombucha pile”??
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #98 overall / Tea #14 for March
Thursday 3/11 (WRITTEN 3/15/21) — Grateful Tea Co Lemon Verbena The date 3/11 is special to me now since it’s my anniversary of dating my boyfriend Micah (2021 being 3 years). He suggested with go to Jungle Jim’s (a giant international supermarket a few hours drive from where we live). I had never been, so I was game, plus I got to stay in a hotel [that isn’t one that I work at] for the first time in 5.5 months which was nice. We got a bunch of fun snacks/fruit/etc. and just stayed in the hotel room cooked dinner and relaxed. I was good and didn’t get any tea (although that was probably because he was paying at JJ and he wouldn’t ever add to my collection LOL) but did sip this tea which was in my package from @briannadrinkstea – it was a nice simple black tea with the lemon verbena shining through. I drank this hot and plain with dinner (cheap steak and a simple homemade salad).
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #97 overall / Tea #13 for March
Thursday 3/11 (WRITTEN 3/16/21) - I was about to start my note with “so” and then I realized I think I use the word “so” a lot. After I had planned for the first-time to do three festivals (Toronto, Seattle, and Chicago) one happened + had a blast plus 2nd time to that city/3rd time to country (Toronto), one I went to the location anyway since I had planned a week vacation visiting there for first time (Seattle), and one I went to location anyway since I planned a long weekend, but actual festival was online (Chicago). Anywhoo I got this a sample in my upgraded box for last fall Chicago Tea Festival turned International Virtual Tea Festival (IVTF). The last few years (since 2019?) I’ve been trying to get into more traditional/straight teas. This tea was so lovely, smelled very fresh and green. Sipping wise I had some hot with my @teathoughts v-day box gaiwan and then made the rest cold-brew in 32 oz glass jar. I don’t have better notes for the taste or anything like that, but hope as I get more experience sipping teas I’ll be better in the future.
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #96 overall / Tea #12 for March also #drinkwhatyouown March slot ??/25
Wednesday 3/10 (WRITTEN 3/15/21) — I knew I’d be taking almost a week off from work so planning out March I upped my sipdown goal numbers and figured I’d be crushing a bunch that week. Instead of got sucked into the March Tea Sipdown Madness bracket [16 teas battling it out, just finished Round 1 yesterday 3/15] and just generally did have some fun last week tea and not tea related but sat around like a blob more than I care to admit. Anyway, time to catch up on my notes for steepster and step up my game for the 2nd half of the month. This tea [Green Passionfruit] was a pitcher pack cold-brewed (I had a million older pitcher packs laying out in plastic divider on my couch at my old apartment (moved from there August 2020 after living there for 5+ years) and this particular tea was a favorite a pesky mouse problem I had for awhile)… and won in Round 1 vs. DT Goji Green. I enjoy this tea since it incorporates some of my favorite things, green tea + fruity. It is tea is a pleasant to sip on cold, I can’t remember the last time I’ve had it hot to be honest.
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #95 overall / Tea #11 for March also #drinkwhatyouown March slot ??/25
Wednesday 3/10 (WRITTEN 3/15/21) — This was a pitcher pack cold-brewed in Round 1 vs. DT Green Passionfruit. Green Passionfruit won. This is another example of a tea that sounds good in theory (green tea, raspberries, hibiscus, etc)… but in practice I sip it and I’m out [still thinking stevia is the culprit of all of this]. Can’t love every tea so at least this is something I can be mindful of in future, even if I do still want to try a tea that sounds good if it has stevia don’t get it or only get a small amount/sample.
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #94 overall / Tea #10 for March also #drinkwhatyouown March slot 2/25
Tuesday 3/9 happy birthday to me :) my #drinkwhatyouown collection this month is green tea (besides herbal/tisanes and oolong, green is my fave type). This tiny foil package was first of three in one of my @teaandmeblog 2020 advent calendar. Belated #matchamonday etc
I had this as a warm plain cup whisked up. I enjoy matcha but not very experienced in that department so it tasted fine but a little thin (I think I added too much water after I whisked it up). I need to drink more matcha from different companies plain and flavored etc to get a better idea.#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge
#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #93 overall / Tea #9 for March.
Monday 3/8 so my weekend of work was finished and I’m off for almost a week using some PTO. This was from a Sipsby box and I made a cold brew pitcher but I steeped it too long so it didn’t taste as nice I hoped (or maybe it was because the 10g was older packet) but it was still refreshing to sip on this weekend while running around busy at work and finished it today heated up in microwave at home. Nothing like a refreshing cup of green tea.
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#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #92 overall / Tea #8 for March.
Friday 3/5 I bought a bunch of this tea in pitcher packs/2 oz bags etc from sales/deals last year on DTs website since the tea was released. It sounds right up my alley (the fruity part). Unfortunately I need to trust myself on the stevia part. I’m not sure but the common theme of many teas that taste fine but icky artificial aftertaste is always stevia so I’ve blamed it on that. I can sip a little bit of this but not a bunch. Thank goodness for the boyfriend and I made a cold brew pitcher of this for him last week that I believe he finished this date (3/5)… I never had any of it this time.
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