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Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2026 Tea #1 -January 1 – Welcome to the New Year! Drink one of your newest teas! 

So this is my newest, from an order I just made, and it MIGHT be a new tea from Adagio?  I love their Candy Cane tea, so I was happy they wanted to send me a pouch of this.  (I switched it from the Krampus blend.)  It sounded very much like their Candy Cane blend.  It IS very much like the Candy Cane tea, it is DELICIOUS.   Strong black tea, strong peppermint, creamy vanilla.  A brisk winter tea for a brisk, snowy winter day. Invigorating!  Love it, love it.   One of my favorite minty teas, for sure.  Two great steeps. The main difference of the two blends is that this one has mini white chocolate chips.   Would I need both Candy Cane and this blend in my tea collection?  Well, one of them better always be in the cupboard…. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

additional notes: I thought it would be funny to drink my oldest tea today AND my newest tea (mainly because I couldn’t cram this in yesterday for the prompt!) It might be old, but it still tastes magical. Despite my searching, I couldn’t find this in the grocery store this year and I only have TWO teabags left. oh no!

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2025 Tea #7 - An unflavored black tea 

This was the unflavored black to count for today.  I kind of ruined it on a too long resteep though, watering the plants….  I did ruin the flavor of this poor tea. On my sipdown challenge for the year, I kind of failed, but I DID do one sipdown better than last year.  All that matters is that I’m still enjoying the tea I’m drinking.   HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!  Wishing everyone health and happiness…
2025 Sipdown total: 89 
2025 unique tea sipdowns: 70

This was from Cameron B — thanks very much!  This MIGHT be my first sheng from white2tea?  I like that I just have one serving, as I will only very occasionally steep up sheng.  On the first steep, the mini did not unravel at ALL, so mostly the cup tasted like sweet mineral water…  but I keep resteeping and resteeping this thing.  It might be one of my favorite shengs (not that I have had many of them.)  Usually they get really harsh for me, really fast.  Maybe I am usually impatient with sheng when I should have learned by now.  But the flavor took quite a while to get even a little harsh… The mini unraveled mostly at steep three. As usual, hard to describe the flavor…. and then there was a little bit of a stingy to the mouth quality in later steeps…  this one was actually even more delicious when the cup cooled, on some of the steeps anyway. I LIKE it, but it also seems a little lost on my tastebuds, which means someone else might appreciate this more.
Steep #1 // 1 mini for a full mug //  30 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 35 second steep
Steep #3 // 36 minutes after boiling // 35 second steep
Steep #4 // 22 minutes after boiling // 40 second steep
Steep #5 // 27 minutes after boiling // 40 second steep

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2025 Tea #6 - A tea you will repurchase 
Have always, will always love this blend.  Luckily, I CAN still purchase it.  Luckily, I still have some left in another pouch so I don’t have to worry about repurchasing it yet….
2025 Sipdown total: 87 
2025 unique tea sipdowns: 68

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2025 Tea #5 - A tea with cinnamon, clove, or chai spices 
This is mainly a cinnamon forward tea with a bakey note, just as it should be.  On a strong black tea. A Ceylon that is actually pretty good here. And somehow, this seems more like a Ceylon type of cinnamon? Finished one sample, have one more.   I really like it, so I’ll miss it. 
2025 Sipdown total: 86 
2025 unique tea sipdowns: 68

I couldn’t help but place an order for some Adagio favorites. I did pretty well the rest of the year with not buying much tea. First, Adagio could NOT have shipped this faster, especially around the holidays, especially due to the weather, especially due to two of these blends being custom blends, so they obviously had to make it fresh. A++ for that.
Here we have one of my custom blends, that I created AGES ago, and never tried it, because I never ordered it. And now I get to try it! I will say right now, the flavoring here has EXCEEDED my expectations. There is a ton of flavoring here. It is delicious. It’s vanilla and it’s apricot. I have loved both of these flavors from adagio before. The only thing better would be if actual vanilla bean was included. Also in this blend is a bit of Assam Melody, which I love to boost the black tea a bit. I really could have included maybe 10% more Assam Melody, but then that would diminish the existing flavor bomb. Of course, I could probably use 1 1/4 teaspoons of this and then add 1/4 teaspoon of my own assam melody… The best comparison I could make is Bird & Blend’s Peach Cobbler. It tastes very similar to that, but on that one I think the base is stronger. Sure, apricot does not equal peach, but I think both teas use a fluid flavoring. I love this blend. Some might say the base is a bit astringent and harsh… but I used 1 1/2 teaspoons here and possibly I should try one. Some might also say the flavor is TOO much, so possibly I could fit an extra 10% of Assam Melody in the recipe anyway. I’m very happy with it! Especially when I created it very early in my tea drinking days.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

Simpson & Vail Advent 2025 – Day #24
Lastly, this fave!  It’s a good way to end the advent.  A delicious dessert in a cup, rich, creamy and chocolate.  Just enough coconut to keep it interesting.
I think there were surprises for me in this advent.   Some teas I expected to be advent shoe-ins did not make it in the advent (they were probably included in previous years). Some were clunkers that seem like they would have a very specific tea fan to appreciate them. But overall, a great mix of teas. As a bonus, I think this is probably the least wasteful advent you could possibly buy.  It’s a piece of folded cardboard with silver pouches tucked into cutouts of the cardboard, the perfect size pouches, not wasteful at all.  The scent of the teas was not escaping the pouches at all, which I can SUPER appreciate and is probably the most important thing for me, that there is no contamination happening.  Not a very thick, wasteful type of pouch, but also keeps the tea fresh. The packaging was also not static clingy to the tea at all. Also, there was never less than a teaspoon of tea to a pouch — sometimes two teaspoons. So I liked the advent overall.  It was a fun time!  Thanks very much to S&V for allowing me to win an advent!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 10 minute steep  

Simpson & Vail Advent 2025 – Day #23
Nice to revisit this one! It’s definitely one of those teas the fresher the better. The flavoring on my old sample is probably long gone by now, but this fresh tea is certainly flavorful! I can attest it does taste like a nice sweet dessert tea (sweet in flavoring, not in added sugars.) I have never actually had creme brulee, so I can’t say how accurate it is. The black tea hasn’t been changed to an extra light base…. yet.
Steep #1 // 1 2/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

additional notes: Drinking this festive fave today. It never lets me down, no matter its age! It always surprises me how tasty it is. (And it DID end up appearing on Bird&Blend’s VIP page this year, along with some other holiday faves some of us were looking for… maybe they will appear in the sale tomorrow?) I hope everyone is having an enjoyable day today. :)