New Tasting Notes

On to the next fairy! This is the tea I was most interested in, an oolong with orange and vanilla flavors. I will say, I was (foolishly) expecting a rolled green oolong here, and was disappointed to see that it’s the Adagio-style generic oxidized variety instead.

Thankfully, it’s still tasty. The oolong is toasty and comforting, and not too sharp or drying on the autumn leaf notes. The orange is very zesty and bright, veering toward vitamin C tablets but not quite there. And then the vanilla/cream smooths everything out without being too rich or decadent.

It definitely reminds me of a Creamsicle, with the orange part being more icy and refreshing, and the vanilla being creamy and smooth. And the oxidized oolong base is actually less weird than I would expect. Still probably would’ve preferred a rolled green oolong, but enjoying this more autumnal version too!

I’ve been doing too much for the past few weeks and it has finally caught up with me. I crashed out yesterday; still kind of wrecked today. While I typically prefer to use weekends for savoring fancy teas and ones that benefit from multiple steeps, I just haven’t had the energy for it this weekend. Plus it’s been a pretty hot summer. So an iced matcha latte was appealing. Frothed this up with some oat milk. The flavor is on point. Creamy, sweet lime, very much like key lime pie filling. The grassiness of the matcha is pretty mild – I really only noticed it in the last couple of sips. Sometimes you just need something fluffy and fun to perk you up.

Nice peachy notes with just a touch of some tangy pineapple. Some hay. A nice white tea. This mini weighed in at 6.88g per my kitchen scale.

I had seen this company in passing a few times, and thought the concept was cute. They have created a fairy character for each of their six teas, with pretty artwork to match. I always found their teas too expensive ($17 for 20 sachets) so never ordered any. But now they have a 40% off sale for the rest of July, so my curiosity got the better of me, and I ordered four blends to try. The packaging is very pretty, albeit impractical since it’s just a non-resealable foil pouch inside a cardboard tube. But the empty tubes will look lovely in my teaware cabinet!

This tea is an Earl Grey with caramel and vanilla (although the ingredients list has blackcurrant and not vanilla). Of course, I immediately thought of Paris, but this is organic and doesn’t seem to be the same tea. The EG part here actually reminds me strongly of Dessert by Deb, it has the same weird musty/earthy quality to it that I remember from her bergamot blends. As for the other flavors, I do think I get caramel, but it’s difficult to tell if there’s currant and/or vanilla. Mostly it tastes like a plain EG with that weird musty flavor. A little bit powdery, even?

So not off to a great start heh, we’ll see if the rest of the teas follow suit. I kind of expected these to not be great, since it seems like they put so much effort into the packaging and overall theme. But we shall see!

TTB! This tastes pretty plain. My partner noticed a hint of tartness? It wasn’t as bold as I prefer in a black tea, but it still seemed decently high quality.

Blueberry Vanilla Nut!

I made this blend with a combination of Teeccino Vanilla Nut, dried blueberries, and honeybush tea flavored with two different blueberry flavorings and a touch of black raspberry. I tried it last night as a latte, and am drinking it iced today. It was very good both ways, but I think I might actually like it better iced. The blueberry balances the strong, rich flavors of the carob, chicory, and barley really well, making them a little softer and bringing out the vanilla in a pleasant way. I do get a few notes of artificial grape that I know one of the flavorings has from the iced version that were covered by the cream and almond milk in the latte. But the blueberry flavor with the artificial grape notes is much stronger than the more natural tasting flavor and so I think it works here since the base is so flavorful.

Sipdown! No.5 in 2025 (counting samples over 10g…)

This oolong is on the greener side, and I found it quite non-descript to be honest. I liked having it, and got 3 good steeps before it became even more non-descript. But it also has a random mildly sharp bitter edge unless you are super precise in brewing.

By no means a bad tea. I’ve just had some realllyyy good other Tie Guan Yins in my day.

An Australian brand tea that I tried yesterday at high tea in Vaucluse, a fancy expensive suburb in Sydney which we hardly every visit.

Ovvio’s French Grey was a lovely floral tea which felt uplifting to drink. I don’t reach for rose often, but it felt right yesterday enjoying some quality time with my husband.

Now that I’ve got good memories associated with this tea, it’s hard to stop myself from purchasing a whole tin of it. I’ve been wanting a French bergamot blend for ages, while avoiding most of them on the market due to artificial flavourings.

I’ve now found a natural, organic one now as per my wishes, but I’ve got so much tea in the cupboard and more tea on the way.. including the Earl Grey blends from Whispering Pines. So surely I ought to try those first before purchasing more tea, right? Right?!

Sipdown! The fourth one of 2025! (now, this was a sample sipdown.. but I’m going to count this for any sample sizes over 10g)

Enjoyable and greener than I expected. I’ve had Dong Ding in a bubble milk tea before and while fragrant, it tasted quite watery and weak in the milk and sugar.

Glad to try this as a standalone tea without additions. I love roasted oolongs and don’t tend to go for green notes, but when I do want the green freshness, this product hit the spot. Got 10 enjoyable steeps out of this one, albeit quite light after steep 5 without much interesting development in flavour profile.

Has piqued my interest in trying more Taiwanese oolongs in the future.