Oktoberfest Blend

Sample from Tea Tiff. Thank you!

I’ve been wanting to try some A&D teas for a while since I’ve heard lots of people rave about them, but I go through caffeinated teas pretty slowly so I didn’t get around to buying any until Tea Tiff put together a group buy a few months ago. I got an ounce of three teas and Tea Tiff threw in a sample of this as well. It’s definitely unlike any black tea I’ve had before, with a distinct flavor of leather and smoke. I don’t think I particularly care for the leathery flavor, though. Another tea to knock off my wish list, then.

Thanks again Sil for this sample forever ago!
I enjoyed this one but it is a smidge too smoky for me to order a whole tin

I enjoyed this tea. Smokey for sure, definitely evokes a fallish feel. I would be happy to see this in a sampler, and might even order a small bag of it. I appreciated the quality of the leaves.

I rarely try blends, can’t get my head around some of the single varietals let alone a blend. This was my sip down for this morning, reaching far in the back of the cupboard and dragging out the days winner. And what a winner it is. Lots of flavors on the tongue, smoke, leather, tobacco, pie crust, and a hint of citrus. Blew my mind. This tea blend, if it becomes available again, is the perfect gift for my close knit tea friends as well as myself.

GCTTB

Starting my morning with a big ole mug of this one. This is some goooood stuff! So, yeah, really happy that I got to try it, BUT really sad that I didn’t get any :( I missed out on some awesome tea. I really hope they bring this one back.

Malty, sweet, smoked leather. Sound tasty? It is!

Received a small sample of this in my Steepster select box a month or two back, and waited to try it until yesterday. As a German-American, I felt really put off by Andrews & Dunham’s asinine marketing that surrounds this tea (as well as all their other teas) so I missed out on a pretty good blend.

Assertive and bold. The sample I had was mostly Indian Assam, with no smoke detectable. Tannin and malt dominate. Very pleasant, but definitely lacking the smokiness which would have added character. I blame this on the small size sample packaged by Steepster who probably didn’t think to blend the tea before packaging. But that is a rant for a different post.

So this weekend went nothing like we’d planned… Does anyone else ever have a weekend like that? We started The weekend off with big plans… Cirque Du Solei is in town and we had tickets, Good Friday and Passover fell on the same day for the first time in a long time which meant some series food prep … There aren’t many good Friday meals that also pass as Seder friendy or vice versa and we had plans to backcountry camp Saturday in the Sierra…. Well, the only thing that actually worked the the way we planned was our cirque tickets and I feel like we’ve acomplished nothing this weekend!!

Sigh!

So I’m sitting outside enjoying some calm before the rest of the household wakes up and I’m watching a cheeky little squirrel balance on our fence and stick his head into an orange on our tree to devour it’s insides which is quite funny because hes going to town on it and I’m drinking this tea because I know this can’t go pear shaped on me. Raising my rating as this is something I have fnd myself reaching for quite a bit over the last few weeks… I’m sad to see it go but happy to have another sip down under my belt!

Happy Easter and Passover to all those who celebrate!

I had just enough of this left for one cup, out of the incredibly generous sample that ifjuly sent me in the fall. The smokiness of this tea is absolutely perfect to me. Leather and malty wood, all brewed up in the most glorious colour. I am going to really miss this one.

Oh man, this is good! I don’t taste any smoke, but that’s okay. This is so malty and sweet and delicious I don’t miss it much at all. Maybe the smoke comes out as it cools, but I sipped this one so quickly I wouldn’t know :) Even steeped at around 3 minutes it’s incredibly bold and flavorful. So delightful. I hope they put this out again next year. I’m totally bummed I missed out on it.

Thanks for the sample Sil!

I don’t have access to my computer at the moment, so I’m attempting to catch up on tasting notes via my phone. I ask your forgiveness ahead of time for all of the autocorrect errors I’m sure I’ll miss. :)

This was my morning cup. It was heavy and filled with malt and earthy notes along with some smoke and a touch of sweetness. So basically it was awesome.

I know this was a limited edition tea, but I’m really hoping A&D will reblend it next year. This is an excellent fall/winter tea!