New Tasting Notes
Casting Whimsy Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 8
Mockingbird
This is a maple pecan black tea. As I would expect, it’s not for me. It tastes very artificial, as nut flavors often can, and that combined with the maple flavoring is just quite cloying. It ends up tasting a bit generically desserty instead of specifically maple or pecan. It reminds me a bit of hazelnut coffee creamer, which is not a flavor I enjoy. Oh well!
Rating: 55
Flavors: Artificial, Buttery, Hazelnut, Maple, Nutty, Rich, Sweet
Preparation
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea with cinnamon, clove, or chai spices
This one has neither cinnamon nor (thank goodness) clove. I don’t mind a little clove but clove heavy does not appeal and I usually pick out all the clove I can find in a blend that it.
This is a chai that is based on the spices that would have been available and widely used in the Victorian era. It is slightly spicy, mostly just having that little kick of warmth like ginger gives, but it isn’t too spicy for me and is great without milk or sugar.
Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 8
I added these chai bags myself, as the sampler only had 20 bags originally (and I also removed a couple that were not exciting, ahem). I bought the sampler set on a whim when I was ordering something else (autumn teas?), and they had been hanging out on my tea counter for a bit.
Anyway! This is quite mild, but delightful. More of a black tea with a touch of spice than a chai, I would say. I really like it though, there’s a honey-like note to the Assam that’s really pleasant with the ginger, which is earthy yet mellow. I taste quite a bit of cardamom as well – I checked the bag and it lists ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and laurel. The cinnamon is giving a touch of sweetness I think. Regardless, really enjoying it as my first tea of the day!
For jam, today it’s White Nectarine Peach Lemon Verbena Spread (what a mouthful!). I definitely remember this one from previous years. To me, the verbena is a little weird, as it ends up tasting like eucalyptus or a very brisk peppermint to me. Which isn’t necessarily a bad combination with the stonefruit, it just takes it in a very different direction. Still tasty, just not what I would necessarily expect? It’s not super noticeable once it’s on toast though, anyway.
Flavors: Brisk, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Earthy, Ginger, Honey, Malty, Spices, Sweet, Warm
Preparation
So farm the plum has been my favorite! I saved the Caramel Coffee one for Superanna because she has been looking forward to it and is sad they don’t sell it year round! Similarly there is one day that will be saved for my son, ha ha! So we will have two days of foraging other jam, and that’s okay because we have plenty of jam!
The plum and the apple cinnamon are my faves so far!
Sharedown
My neighbor texted last night that her wellness tea tasted absolutely horrible and it really does. I have had it before from a local shop. She is fighting off sickness, so I left,my remaining sachets on her porch. She loves ginger tea and this has a little ginger kick to it, so I am eager to hear how she likes it and whether she feels better
You’re the sweetest! <3
I really do like ginger! For turkey day I made a red-wine and ginger cranberry jam, using a few ginger slices. After cooking was finished, I fished out the ginger slices and, yes, ATE them! They were akin to ginger candies and still very potent! I plan on doing this again soon! (Yes, the cranberry jam was tasty, too! Recipe from the NY Times cooking pages.)
TeaEarleGreyHot – that sounds like tasty jam! I would not be able to handle the heat of straight ginger, though! I am wimpy.
CameronB – We have such awesome neighbors. Most of us have keys/codes to get in each houses. LOL Everyone looks after each other and we are all constantly taking each other food or things to try. I feel,very, very blessed to have them all.
That’s so lovely!
Sip down. Kamairicha is unique. It has roasty and toasty notes like hojicha, but a bit more astringency like a black tea. Overall, I prefer hojicha, but I won’t pass up trying a kamairicha if given the chance. I’d also be interested in trying this one alongside a light roast Kamairicha.
Dry leaf: Lightly twisted. Dark chocolate, dusty brown.
Dry Aroma: Roasty and toasty. A bit of caramel and char.
Flavor: Charcoal. Burnt Toast. A hint of squash.
Wet Leaf: Really unique. I can’t quite put a single note on it because it changes and evolves so quickly. Buttery, then roasted nuts, then slightly burned raisin bread, toasty, roasty, WHEEE.
Sounds wonderful! I’ll definitely need to try kamairicha, even though I am not very fond of hojicha. Maybe I need to give hojicha another chance, from a different vendor. Thanks for the encouragement, @Skysamurai!
Oh man! I absolutely get it! I have two hojicha’s in my cupboard one I’m not a big fan of but the other I quite like. So definitely try some different companies or even years.
Day 8 of the Dammann Freres Advent 2025.
Mate Clementine is a green mate-based blend with orange blossom and clementine flavouring. It’s quite earthy, as you might expect from a mate, but with a bright, sweet, juicy zip of clementine which lifts the whole thing beautifully. It gives a nice afternoon energy boost also. Mate isn’t generally my thing, but I’m glad I got to try this one as it’s not something I would have picked out for myself.
Day 8 of the Mariage Freres Advent 2025.
The de la Couronne (or “crown tea”) is a British-inspired black tea flavoured with fruits and spices. It’s deliciously sweet and malty, with a hint of juicy fruitiness – maybe blueberry, although it’s not a prominent enough flavour to say for certain. There’s also a subtle background of citrus which is reminiscent of earl grey. There is no “spice” to speak of at all as far as I can discern. The website indicates that this blend works best with milk, although my experience today is that it’s not really strong enough for that; even after the recommended 5 minutes, milk seems to wash out most of the flavour. Definitely glad I tried it black beforehand! On the whole I found this one pleasant enough but not particularly memorable.
I’ve had Si Ji Chun oolongs from Taiwan ranging from spicy and floral to grassy and unappealing. It will be interesting to try a Four Seasons oolong from Northern Thailand. I steeped 5 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water for 30, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.
The dry aroma is of peanut butter and florals. The first steep has notes of peanut brittle, grass, daffodils, orchids, and herbs. I get a hint of spice, maybe nutmeg. The next steep adds almonds, butter, coriander, and faint citrus. Steeps three and four are similar, with nuts, butter, coriander, nutmeg, herbs, spinach, and grass. The next couple steeps continue to be nutty, buttery, herbaceous, grassy, and slightly floral. In the final steeps, the tea continues to have appetizing aromas of almonds, peanuts, and butter, but is increasingly grassy, vegetal, herbaceous, and sharp.
This is a decent Si Ji Chun, especially in the earlier part of the session. However, it gets grassy and vegetal easily. The vendor’s recommended temperature of 175F for Western steeping probably reflects this. I enjoyed their Thai Sticky Rice Oolong more than their Four Seasons.
Flavors: Almond, Butter, Citrus, Coriander, Floral, Grass, Herbaceous, Nutmeg, Nutty, Orchid, Peanut, Sharp, Spices, Spinach, Vegetal
Preparation
2025 Steepster Advent Swap: Day 8
Another OBTC blend I’ve been wanting to try!
This is definitely quite nutty, although I’d be hard-pressed to identify it as pecan-specific nutty. I think a large part of the nuttiness comes from a natural flavor that doesn’t quite agree with me, because I’ve noticed it elsewhere and often feel vaguely offput when I encounter it.
Other than that, I do get a bit of butteriness, which feels appropriate. There’s also cinnamon and a bit of cocoa, both of which take away from the “pecan pie” vibes, IMHO. I also find the lingering sweetness from the licorice root to be a bit off-putting. I do like the pu’erh base; it’s present but not overwhelming.
I like the idea of this blend quite a lot in theory, but it’s just not gelling for me as a whole!
Flavors: Buttery, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Nutty, Sweet
I liked this one, too, but like you, I am firmly convinced that cinnamon does not belong in pecan pie. My Aunt Nancy’s recipe is gospel. :)
I agree, pecan pie does not have cinnamon! Though I also don’t like pecan pie… XD
I love pecans (how ever you choose to pronounce them!) and I like pie but not strong cinnamon, and I want to like pecan pie, but the cloying caramel base and dearth of pecans in most pies disappoints. Since you are the closest thing to an expert that I know, @gmathis, can you point me to a recipe with loads of pecans in a mousse-like custardy base? :-)
I LOVE pecans and things with pecans and chocolate with pecans and pecan turtles and pecans…you get the idea. We even have a pecan tree but the squirrels steal the nuts.
I just saw a recipe for pecan pie with maple syrup and honey instead of corn syrup and I want to try it! And I agree – no cinnamon in pecan pie!
Also, TeaEarleGreyHot – as much as I love pecans, I do not seek out pecan pie though I will eat it. It is sooooo sweet. Ours down here have lots of pecans, though.
There is a nearly small business call Southern Supreme that has gone big that sells “more nuts than fruit cake”. There is so little dried fruit but it is packed solid with walnuts and pecans! I love it, and am going to try to adapt a recipe to make it myself!
The recipe I grew up with is treacle-y and syrupy instead of moosey :)
I am laughing at the “expert” reference, but thank you kindly. Anything beyond “measure and stir” is way past my comfort zone!
@ashmanra, if you do end up with a nice copycat recipe for the fruity nut-cake, please share with me! I love making banana bread with black walnuts. I think those flavors go well together!
Day 7 of the Mariage Freres Advent 2025.
French Afternoon Tea is a green tea flavoured with vanilla. The green tea base is smooth, delicate, and lightly vegetal, and the vanilla soft, sweet, and perfectly creamy. There’s just the barest crystalline hint of rose also. One of the nicest flavoured greens I’ve tried in a while.
Day 7 of the Dammann Freres Advent 2025.
Oolong Chataigne is an oolong flavoured with vanilla, chestnut, almond, and chocolate. The oolong is highly oxidised and so quite roasty, which conjures the impression of chestnuts quite well, and there’s also a soft creaminess from the vanilla that adds sweetness and really helps to round everything out. Almond and chocolate I do not get so much, except perhaps as a bare hint in the initial sip (almond) and aftertaste (chocolate). The chocolate I feel is more of a scent than a flavour here, but it’s quite delicious all the same
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – an unflavored black tea
Homemade Advent Day 7
I bought a 2 ounce pouch of this for our advent as I am trying to match teas to the F&M tons that came in the original advent.
This is the least expensive Assam S&V carries right now but it was actually quite good. We had it with breakfast, and then when I was making another pot of it for lunch I dropped the pouch and virtually all of it spilled. I don’t think I have ever done that before, but I am grateful we already had two pots of it and there is enough left in the little tin that I was trying to refill for one more. We didn’t need additions but we did enjoy the lunch pot which had a shorter steep time best.It smells like rich breakfast tea and the scent lingered, making me want MORE TEA PLZ! I think in the future I may buy a sampling of lots of their Assams to taste and compare.
Oh no! Sorry to hear about your tea mishap. Of course, it would have to be a tea you liked…
I think an Assam flight sounds like a marvelous idea! And it’s the sort of thing that teahouses could implement, too! Assam flights, puerh flights, sencha flights, duck-shi’t flights, dragonwell flights, Ceylon flights, fruity black flights, rooibos flights, herbal flights, and on and on. A different category every night on Tues evenings and Sat. afternoons, on a rotating basis. Five infusions guided by a tea-sommelier, and with palate-cleansing biscuits. Modestly priced but with a 4 oz. purchase included. Lunch or hors d’ouvres afterward optional. Great way to build the customer base!
Tin Roof Teas in Raleigh, NC does them! I went to one ages ago, and I have done them in my home a number of times for people who are curious about tea. My neighbor’s daughter who lives out of town (but we grew up in the same school) said she didn’t like green tea but wanted to drink it and someone told her she just hadn’t found the right one. I did a ten (!!!) tea flight of 7 green and three black teas and she loved them! I have also done black tea and ripe puerh flights for people, as well as gong fu oolong sessions for those interested.
My family never had people over. My mother grew up in an orphanage and really didn’t know how/disliked entertaining so neither did I. Tea opened up the world of being social for me. I am still pretty reclusive by nature, but I enjoy having people to tea and they seem to enjoy coming, some of them coming regularly for years.
Wow! If I ever make it back to the Raleigh area, I’ll have to look up Tin Roof Teas! That is a heartwarming story, @ashmanra, about how tea transformed an aspect of your life, and I thank you for sharing it!
Homemade Advent Calendar from AJRimmer – Day 7
I got distracted and ended up steeping this for 20 minutes, but it’s actually really good that way! The chestnut flavor is completely on point, with a subtle sweetness. The woodsiness of the rooibos works nicely with the chestnut. Part of me wants to try this out as a latte, part of me doesn’t want to mess with a blend that works beautifully on its own.
Day 7 of the Tea Thoughts advent is another pu’erh and I just… don’t really feel like going through the same “maybe this time will be different” → “nope this one just tastes like fish and wet dirt too” cycle of disappointment that I always seem to have with pu’erhs. I might just skip it and put it aside for rehoming.
2025 Bird & Blend Advent: Day 7
Yikes, this one is weak as hell! Weak rooibos, weak (though not terrible) cocoa flavor, nonexistent cream but maaaybe a smidge of vanilla. Meh.
Rereading my first note on it from four years ago, I mentioned a mustiness from the coffee beans. At least that wasn’t a problem this time around!
Flavors: Chocolate, Cocoa, Red Rooibos, Watery
Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 7
Whew, last one! I haven’t had this tea in a while, I remember many years ago I bought it thinking it was osmanthus scented, which it is not. However, it’s a very pleasant lightly roasted oolong. There’s a gentle toastiness combined with mineral, green, and subtle dried fruit and floral notes. Some kind of stonefruit perhaps, especially in the finish. It has a nice, gentle honeyed sweetness to it as well. A very pleasant cozy tea for the evening!
Flavors: Dried Fruit, Floral, Green, Honey, Mineral, Roasted, Smooth, Soft, Spring Water, Stonefruit, Sweet, Toasty, Woody
Preparation
knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 7 (my pick)
Theme: A song for car karaoke
Song: Best Christmas Ever by Wonder Girls
Since I chose a peppy and upbeat song for this prompt, I wanted a fun tea to go along with it. And since the song is from a KPop group, lychee seemed like a perfect choice. As always, this is a delightful fruity oolong from Lupicia. The lychee is sweet, clean, and floral, and pairs perfectly with the baozhong base. It’s not very wintery, but still delicious at any time of the year!
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ECwjOoPvqyE&si=XOAwFxoBIP2aB-dH
Also, I had today’s Caramel Coffee Spread from Bonne Maman on a sliced apple, and it was scrumptious! I wasn’t sure if the coffee would go well, but it gave dimension to the caramel and it didn’t clash at all with the apple.
Flavors: Clean, Floral, Green, Lychee, Mineral, Smooth, Spring Water, Sweet
Preparation
Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 7
Seems like a strange name for a grapefruit white tea? I like grapefruit, but this isn’t great. Very pithy grapefruit flavor with a cleaner-y edge, and the white tea itself is a bit astringent. It also lacks depth, it’s all top notes. Supposedly there’s hazelnut in here, but I don’t detect that at all. Not bad, but not something I would purchase.
Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Chemical, Citrus, Citrus Zest, Grapefruit
