New Tasting Notes

The weather is getting warmer, so I stocked up, and then promptly drank all of, some fruity black teas. Now I’ll need to restock!
I’m not 100% sure that I’ll restock this in the next tea order, but I do like it. The trouble is I have fruity blends from Harney that I like better (Tower of London, Paris, Capri…)
But it still has a nice balance of flavors, and I enjoyed this tin.

Sipdown! (26 | 230)

This one is just a bit blah for me. Which is a shame, because the name sounds so yummy.

But I don’t really get any apple, and only a hint of orange. Mostly this is just a clove rooibos. And I guess the spicing does, in a way, remind me of apple butter, which I guess means apple butter has cloves in it.

But it’s not apple butter, it’s just the “spiced” part ha ha. Bye-bye, tea!

I picked this up on a whim at Whole Foods, because I love pear and a pear green tea sounded just lovely!

Honestly, it’s pretty good for a teabag. The pear is a bit candylike, but it does taste crisp and pear-like to me, maybe teetering on the edge of apple. For some reason I’m getting banana though? And not actual banana, but Laffy Taffy banana. So that’s a bit distracting, ha ha! The base is actually quite nice, mellow and nutty without any bitterness.

Quite good! And I can imagine it being delicious as an iced tea… Ironically, I just received another pear green tea today, in the form of B&B’s Jasmine Poached Pears. So that’ll be interesting to compare!

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Wednesday, April 13th: National Peach Cobbler Day #3

The no caff option for Peach Cobbler day!  Opening a fresh pouch of this guy.  Has a very large fragrance and taste of almond / marzipan now which is VERY out of place for this blend.  Very weird and can’t say I’m happy about it.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Wednesday, April 13th: National Peach Cobbler Day #2

I bought this during the Boxing Day sale and it seemed like a good day to write about it!  Honestly, never had a peach julip before so you can’t trust me on the accuracy with this one.   Here we have a green tea base with peaches, sage and osmanthus.   An interesting combination anyway!  The peach flavor itself seems very different from the peach flavor in their Peach Cobbler blend.  I love the flavor in Peach Cobbler.  It seems more like a fresh ripe peach, while the flavor here is more like a peach ring candy.  Personally, the couple times I have had osmanthus reminded me of peach anyway, so I’m not sure how much that is contributing here.  The sage would be very interesting!  However, I’m not sure I would even notice that it’s here without actually knowing it’s in the ingredients already.  Second steep a bit bland – maybe the parameters weren’t great.  Not the most fantastic blend from B&B but I bought it at a deep discount anyway.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon // 32 minutes after boiling //  1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2 min

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Wednesday, April 13th: National Peach Cobbler Day #1

I thought I would be going for actual Bird & Blend’s Peach Cobbler tea for peach day!  But other teas were calling me, including this one, which is now a sipdown.  I really grew to love it.  It’s one of those teas that won me over the few times I drank the sample.  It’s a bit faded now, but really the flavors were fairly subtle when I had it the first time (from a grab bag sale.)  I will miss its uniqueness though! I AM glad I didn’t miss that smooth third steep though.
Steep #1 // 1 3/4 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min
2021 Sipdowns:  45

National Peach Cobbler Day! Sipdown Challenge
I’ve reviewed this one before so not much else to say about it other than I think this teabag has started to lose some of its flavor. This is the first cup I’ve had that wasn’t super peachy from this tea. This was an office grab teabag but I really need to find out where I can get a box of this.

National Peach Cobbler Day! Sipdown Challenge
I opened this before I even realized it was Peach Cobbler Day to have during my class this morning. I woke up late and didn’t have time to brew anything other than a matcha teabag. The peach was pretty mellow here compared to the stevia. I think this is my least favorite I’ve tried of their bottled iced teas so far. I really liked the raspberry one and the blood orange earl grey was good too. They are very stevia heavy in flavor so definitely not the best option if you don’t like stevia. I actually had quite a few peach teas I’d been meaning to drink today but want to limit my caffeine. So I’m gonna just stick to a few likely.

M is for…Marzipan Yum

It is definitely marzipan but not overly offensive. I am catching up on a course I barely started and have an exam in next week so I am distracted but this was better than expected.

Sipdown! (25 | 229)

“An Ode to Tea” Alphabet Challenge – M

I actually have samples of this tea from two different swaps, so I’m counting them as separate sipdowns. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me, nyah! :P

Anyway, this is okay. I will say I’m pleased that the maple flavoring is more on the subtle side, after that New England Breakfast I tried the other day, I was a bit nervous. The base is quite brisk at a 3-minute steep, next time I would go shorter. But overall, it’s flavorful enough with some nice malt and almost vegetal tones, I assume from the green tea.

It’s fine, but not quite good.

Sipdown (248)

M is for…Milk Oolong

I got through a lot of this in the March sipdown tournament so it seems fitting to finish it off today in another Mastress Alita-inspired sipdown adventure.

Because of the tournament, I wrote a lot about this one and since its a fairly consistent tea, I don’t have much new to say. Just want to mark the sipdown and take a second to thank Roswell Strange again for sending this my way. Thank you!!

I didn’t have many options for U in my cupboard for Ode to Tea, but I did have this, and it is a very old tea that needs sipped down anyway! This tea is from Chasandai Tea Factory and was purchased through Yunomi… back in 2018, and is well past its best by date. It was still sealed, but I really should do better, especially with green teas…

While I get a mood now and again for a warm cuppa green tea, I actually prefer it cold brewed, and find that typically works best for me with these neglected, old leaf greens anyway; the instructions said one teabag was for 500ml and my mason jars are 1000ml, so I just dropped two teabags in a jar, left it overnight, and removed them in the morning.

This tea… confuses me. It has this somewhat roasted sort of taste to me, but it is bancha, not a roasted green tea, so I don’t know where it is coming from! Sort of an earthy/minerally, roasted nuts flavor that I often get from oolongs, reminding me a bit of walnuts. I have never had shiso (perilla leaf) so I have no idea if that is what I’m tasting here. Everything I read about perilla says it should taste minty or citrusy, and I’m not tasting either of those flavors… though at least one site says “basil” and “petrichor” and I do see those associations to what I’m tasting. It is kind of reminding me of a softer/mellower tulsi, with a stronger minerality that I can definitely get a petrichor/wet rocks vibe from. There is also a light grassiness underneath, but it does sort of have that “stale” taste to it, more of a dry grass flavor, which is the fault of my neglect, not the tea. I’m not tasting the ume (plum) at all though?! Maybe, if I squint, it kinda peeks out in the aftertaste, but it isn’t as strong as I’d prefer.

For a tea well past its prime, it has that refreshing/thirst-quenching quality I enjoy from cold brewed greens, and I don’t dislike the earthy/mineral/nutty flavor. I wouldn’t say its a favorite either, and am uncertain if that would be different if this were fresher.

Making some good progress in my sample bag of this tea! This mug was a tiny little bit on the drier side, from both the white tea and hibiscus, but was still an overall nice and delicate mug of tart florals – jasmine peaking out the most next to the hibiscus.

AAAH! just as i finish up the last of my straight black teas, Nicole to the rescue with a surprise box of teas for me! This one was in it so of course i pulled it out to have some. Thank you so much for the treats!!! So happy to have a little more straight tea to tie me over until i can get some more in!

M is for…Marshmallow Crispy Square

This is from one of my earlier Deb orders and I just kept overlooking it. People in the Sipdown group were talking about it the other day though and so it seemed as good a time as any to give it a go.

I actually really like it. It reminds me of 52 Teas Marshmallow Treat Genmaichas…with a whole lot of coconut as Deb tends to do.

M is for…Morning Mimosa

This was part of my sub box. I decided to make it as a tea pop. Except I am really not liking it that way. It’s got a lot of citrus flavor but there is almost sort of skunky about this. I think its something weird about the teapop and will try the last serving either just iced or hot.

Plain and Iced Tea Sipdown (249)

M is for…Muscat Oolong

Thank you for sharing this one with me, Roswell Strange!

When I looked it up on Lupicia’s site, I saw another Muscat Oolong was recommended iced so with the remainder of my sample, I had enough for an iced cup and a hot cup. Decided to just finish it off.

I drank the hot tea earlier when I made this. I then went to shower. I recall the dry grape flavor being really strong and really nice in the hot cup. I don’t recall much more though.

The iced tea I am having now and I think I actually prefer it hot. Iced I am getting less of the grape and it is more floral/drying.

Happy National Peach Cobbler Day! Today is the day to drink a tea with peach flavor notes!

I found this one for my Ode to Tea J entry… and I can’t believe it has sat, untouched, in my cupboard since March of 2018. Sigh…

The aroma wafting off my steeping cup is very compelling! I smell a strong tart/pithy orange citrus aroma, mixed with a peach/nectarine aroma which smell so inviting together!

On the tongue, I get a lead of hibiscus; the tea is a bit tangy but it doesn’t have the typical “hibiscus pucker” to it, it’s much sweeter. I’m mainly just getting the fruity sort of taste of the actual flower, and when I get that taste combined with the pithy tangerine note, it creates the feeling of biting into a very juicy orange or mandarine. As the tangier notes mellow on my tongue, I taste sweet peaches; I can detect the particular sweet note of licorice root, but there isn’t enough here to leave that “sticky” feeling on the tongue after the sip, only a mild flavor. The blend of rooibos and honeybush itself is magic, as I’m not getting any of the off-notes I often find in each (medicinal for rooibos, pepper for honeybush); it’s really smooth and sweet.

This may be one of the nicest rooibos blends I’ve had in a while! There are a lot of polarizing ingredients in it, but they happen to all be polarizing ingredients that I personally love, so this mix just works perfectly for me. This is just juicy citrus, sweet peach, and slightly floral honey-tasting nectar of the gods to me.

Why did this sit in my stash untouched for so long…?

Matcha Tuesday? I saw many a matcha Monday post yesterday but couldn’t bring myself to make one. Today I took off work to power through some reports that are due Thursday and I knew matcha would help.

I haven’t tried many matches, but I love that this one comes out lovely and creamy with little to no bitterness. It’s always an enjoyable cuppa.