New Tasting Notes

A tea I have received from White Antlers. Thank you!

As I know from my last Yaupon experience, it is a caffeine booster. Lots of energy boost. And I was somehow tired when I was choosing today afternoon cuppa; probably due to morning cleaning up the car from snow (around 25 cm of snow, and it’s snowing again!) and overall I was cleaning up the footpath a bit as well our yard paths.

Anyway, as there is a lockdown, and I have lots of exams and everything, I do not do any inventory checks and I was saving the tea bag of this to some. I am afraid I won’t go there anymore — mostly because I just want to find a job right after finishing the university. We will see.

Anyway to this cup. Roasted yaupon sounded somehow a tiny bit better than a green variety, and Lost Maples Park is another place I have saved as would like to visit one day. I was expecting a bit of the maple flavour and I think it’s there actually. As well baked bread as others were writing about. That’s not all! It was kind of pleasantly sour and herbal, which was a bit confusing. It was enjoyable though and I liked it more than classical one.

I have tried to place an order and actually it would work for me! Shipping of their multipack of tea bags for almost same price as the mulitpack is a no for me right now though. Maybe one day!

2021 sipdown no. 11 (an awesome sample from Cameron)

This tastes a bit like a coconut macaroon, which is delightful! Though, not matching the tea name haha. I do appreciate that the rooibos falls to the background and some of the flavours come to the forefront.

I don’t get a lot of cinnamon, but Lexa said that was all she could taste and therefore she didn’t enjoy this one. I count this as a tasty tea, and I’m thrilled as my first Dessert by Deb tea.

I put the remainder of Lex’s cup in the fridge, and I found it tasted pretty much the same the next day, chilled.

Thanks for sharing Cameron!

This one started off with a really enticing aroma. Sweet peaches, zippy ginger, and a slightly odd medicinal note that made one feel they’d be cured just by drinking this. Cured of what? I have no idea. But give this a whiff and you’ll see what I mean. I’m not big on the taste. I could see this being great for anyone with a sore throat but it’s not really a flavor I enjoy if I’m not sick.

White tea is the unexplored, underappreciated part of the tea world. I too vastly underappreciate it. Especially one that comes from Ceylon. I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. I wasn’t very impressed with any of their green teas so I assumed the white would be marginal at best. I was wrong. This is fantastic. I’m currently drinking it gong fu style with water that could probably be warmer but the flavors I’m getting are sublime. The first few were filled with floral notes of jasmine and gardenia. The third infusion is earthy. Incredibly soft on the palate with no astringency. You can definitely steep it up to 6 minutes but make sure to try it at least every minute because the flavors at each are great.
The aroma is a bit grassy but mainly filled with hay notes. Like the hay you find in a stable or barn. And over roasted vegetables.

This tea was a wild ride.

It smells exactly like shortbread. Hot, it tastes just like a buttered popcorn jelly belly. As it starts to cool, the tart element overrides the sweet.

I kept drinking it not because I liked it but because it was so odd. I wouldn’t repurchase, but it was an interesting experience!

(From David’sTea Advent Calendar, Day 8)

Sipdown! (41)

The first one to be finished off from my swap with Courtney!

I don’t have much experience with tulsi blends, so I thought this one would be fun to try. I’m surprised by how mellow it is – I expected the tulsi to have a stronger flavor. But this is mostly a pleasant and gentle lemon ginger tisane.

The ginger is soft and warming, and not too strong. I think I can taste both lemon peel and lemongrass here, which together give a soft and well-rounded herbal lemon note. As far as the tulsi, I get a little hint of a minty or basil note, but it’s extremely mild.

A perfectly pleasant herbal tisane for the evening! :)

First of all, grateful to not taste any fenugreek. This is one of our bunnies favourite herbs and we have more than enough of this in the house — no need to taste it in tea. :P

This one is okay. The chocolate is there, but not my favourite. The biscuit I’m not really getting, sadly. It’s not a bad cuppa, but I don’t need to order it myself.

Always happy to have had the opportunity to try it though! Thanks Cameron!

Hubby loves a good gen… or pretty much any gen as far as I can tell. We had been out of it for a while so I picked up a bag of this at the Korean market yesterday. This has such a nice umami undertone to it! It’s like miso without the saltiness. There is the tasty roastiness of the rice and an almost sweet sensation. It’s really nice and at $5 for 5oz it’s a pretty good deal too!

More teaware arrived from DAVIDsTEA today and my Black Friday order from Happy Turtle Teas. That got me excited to get into some new things. I wanted a latte and the T2 teas that arrived earlier this week were in large quantities and definitely latte flavors. This is a little thin so I could see it benefiting from a bit of whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. Other than that, it’s not bad.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #17

Brew 32 oz of warm water yesterday at work.. Drank today 1/15 through the day as latte with kroger 2% milk.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

Second sample from Adagio. This one smelled like gummy peach rings when I opened the packet. I honestly miss those so much but haven’t found any without gelatin that taste the same thus far. Once Steeped you can tell that there is peach flavoring used in this tea. I like peach flavoring and it’s quite nice here. Sweet and floral with a bit of a candy peach flavor as well. The oolong pairs nicely with the peach here though the peach is by far the Prominent flavor. As my cup of tea starts to cool the flavors become more muted making the cup less enjoyable. So definitely one best drunk hot before it gets lukewarm.
If I was already placing an order I would probably add a sample of this. Would gladly drink a cup of this again.

I had purchased a tin of this because my husband really liked it. Somehow I have managed to miss posting a tasting note every single time we had it and now it is gone and I can’t even enjoy announcing a sipdown fully because I didn’t add it to my cupboard! Or a Steepster glitch took it out? Who knows?

Anyway, this is a lovely looking dragonwell with soft, gentle green, fuzzy peapod-like leaves that smell so chocolate-y. The steeped tea is more assertive than the dry aroma gives away, richer than I expected it to be. This is one of my husband’s favorites so once I get my cupboard under better control I will have to seek out more.

Don’t repurchase. Flavor is a bit too artificial and never hits the spot.

Would repurchase, very good

Once Christmas is over, my mind goes to pink and red and frilly and lacy VALENTINE’S.

Nichole at Cuppa Geek mentioned that she was doing a special Valentine gift bag called the Valen-Tea Party, and this will be the featured tea, although there are others you can choose and honestly that Vanilla Rose Cake is taunting me from afar because it sounds so ever loving good! I will be getting some of that for my friend who loves green teas!

The first time I served Chocolate Covered Strawberry tea was with brownies and strawberries. I don’t usually serve like-with-like and Ashman even questioned it, asking if I thought it would be too much together? But once he sipped the tea, he declared it a perfect pairing.

You may have had this in your advent calendar teas, or you may have had the Vanilla Black or Peach Vanilla Black. This seems to be the same base. I would call this a very adult tea, that is dessert-like without being candy-ish. There are a few teas that seem like they would be delightful for a little tea party with children, and others that make me feel like a very dignified grown-up (now there’s a laugh) and this one has the grown up feel. It isn’t astringent, but lightly brisk, assertive, and resteeps very well. The flavors seem natural and not overdone.

We had our tea by the fire on this chilly, rainy night and ate our strawberries, saving the green tops for the bunnies who frequent our yard. We drink it sans additions but you could add milk and sugar if you like it that way. It can definitely handle it.

Yep, I found a tea I can finish! I love the sweet resinous taste of the pine needles. Definitely need to ID some trees and can some spruce tip syrup or something in the spring.

Cold steeped this overnight and added some bubbles to it with the soda stream machine! I can smell the strawberry and mint. It’s minty and fruity when sipping on it too. The carbonation adds a fun lightness to it that really works with this tea. Tea soda!

Ugh, January. While the snowflakes that are landing on our porch mat are precisely formed six-pointed ice crystals, the wind is just too stinkin’ cold to appreciate them.

Hunkering down for the evening with a cup of this nice custom Adagio blend—decaf black tea, hazelnut, and honeybush; even creamier and more comforting with milk. Wish I could guess the proportions and try to replicate it with pantry tea ingredients. My half-tin is getting old—I’m not seeing this custom blend on the Adagio website any more—but it’s been stored decently and still has some life in it.

Stay warm out there.

A sample I got from an order some months back. Just getting around to giving it a try.

This is pretty good. Mild and smooth. No bitter, no astringency. Not sure how to describe the flavor. It pleasant, though not on the top of my list for gotta have.

I’ve been drinking A LOT of water lately. Not so much tea. Part of it is water has no decision factor. Tea does. Today I wanted tea but had no idea which so I just decided to make myself a cup of my oldest tea. My cupboard isn’t too bad in the sense of age since this is the oldest and its from July 2019.

This tea is fine but honestly not one I really care for. It’s got a coffee flavor but also a touch of hibiscus. I think that’s where this loses me. The coffee would lend itself nicely to a latte format but the hibiscus means I can’t do that. I think I will toss this into my swap box since I am just not feeling it.

Hello hello.

I went through my teas today, organized things, bagged teas that I like to drink but don’t want to clean a strainer for, etc.

And I found a tin of samples. Heh.

This one is from Sil. I do like it. It’s sweet. A bit sharp as raw puerh can be. I don’t have anything excellent to say about it. Just. It’s nice. I appreciate drinking it today. Thanks!