2299 Tasting Notes
Oolong is just the cutest tea, but I never buy it for myself, so I decided to make myself a small mug of this one from the tea box. It tastes rather grassy and green. I tend to prefer buttery oolongs myself, but it was refreshing to have this along with the two heavier chais I was drinking at the same time!
This was a fun find from the tea box! I didn’t love the flavor before adding milk, but once milk is added, this is almost like hot chocolate! (Except I’m drinking it cold) The chocolate flavor is deep and tasty, and the second steep tastes as great as the first. Now I’m thinking I should order some of these to add to teas that aren’t chocolatey enough. This might even be tastier than most chocolate teas I’ve ever had – and there’s only one ingredient here! The more I drink it, the more I like it.
It’s been fun trying all these chai blends from the tea box! The main flavor in this one seems to come from the black pepper. I find the spiciness to be very enjoyable. It’s good both with and without milk. The flavor could probably be a little more complex, but for now, I’m enjoying the strong peppery spiciness.
Another one from the tea box – thanks everyone for contributing! This chai is pretty tasty. It doesn’t even need milk! The black tea is pretty weak, but I don’t mind too much since the spice blend is strong and tasty – I feel like cloves and cardamom are the most prominent flavors. I did overleaf this one, so maybe that helped with the flavor. I had the second steep with milk, which was also quite tasty. I tasted the anise more in the second steep, but it worked well with the other spices. I don’t know that it’s special enough to choose over other chais, but I had a perfectly nice time drinking it. Also, I didn’t taste a single bit of chocolate in either steep. The spices definitely take over .
This blend from the tea box advertises itself as being a non-caffeinated substitute for coffee, yet the main flavor and ingredient is anise?? I mean I like anise in general, but it’s a little weird in this context. I’d rather have a Traditional Medicinals anise-based tea than this one. Everything is ground up very small to be the texture of coffee, which comes out of even my infuser with the tiniest holes. This blend just makes a super murky cup that tastes completely like anise and leaves me confused.
So much disappointment for such a pretty name!
It’s definitely not what I was picturing!
I remember once I had a tea that had actual coffee grounds in it, rather than full coffee beans (which I’m fine with, I like the taste of coffee). The texture was so gritty, nasty, and off-putting, even with my best, finest gravity-well infuser, I had to get rid of that tea. Bleeeeeeeeeeech. I don’t know what made them think that was a good idea.
I never order Adagio’s fan blends because they’re super overpriced for the amount of tea you get, but I’m certainly happy to try one in the tea box! The main flavor here is a tasty nuttiness – maybe hazelnut? You can also taste the black base, which is pretty soft and nice. It’s not super chocolatey despite all the chocolate ingredients. I actually quite enjoyed this blend, but I’d probably be more likely to buy their mocha nut mate since that seems to be the most prominent component of this tea, and it would be way cheaper. The second steep was still very strong and delicious. I had that steep with milk, and I like it both ways very much.
Another tea from the box! This blend has that same fake lime flavor that lots of lime teas have, and I’m not a fan. So if you like other lime teas, it’s likely that you’d like this one. It wasn’t super chemically or anything. It was perfectly drinkable, just not to my tastes. Lime flavored food is fine, but I’ve only found one lime flavored tea that I like, sadly.
What was the one lime tea you liked?
It was just a bagged version, but Ahmad had a “Lime and Lemon Twist” that actually led with the lime flavor. Pretty good stuff; however, when I search now, it appears to be retitled “Lemon and Lime.” Hope they didn’t reverse the flavor profile, too!
That sounds good – I’ll have to keep my eye out for it!
The lime tea I like is key lime sublime from Tebella. It’s such a pretty tea with fun ingredients!
Okay, good to know!
I was excited to see some rooibos in the tea box! Unfortunately, I don’t love this one. The flavor is strong, but kind of harsh and strange. I get the rooibos, but whatever they’re using to make it taste toasty just comes off badly. Maybe it’s the fenugreek I’m not enjoying? Frankly, that’s a really weird choice of ingredient for this blend. With sugar and milk, this makes a tolerable cup of tea, but it’s all just to cover the weirdness.
Another tea from the tea box! This tea is a pretty good mix of fruit and oolong. Both flavors are light enough to be subtle and enjoyable, yet still quite flavorful. Once it cools, I also notice a metallic flavor that I don’t love. So my first impression was good, but in the end, I ended up finding this tea to be more average than I had hoped. I really wish I’d noticed the almond in the flavor, but I missed it!
I was excited to see this tea in the tea box because it’s one I had wanted to try but hadn’t ordered. The main flavor is the classic 52teas genmaicha. I’m not sure I love the way the berry flavor meshes with it. It feels like a bit of an odd combination, though the berry is quite tasty as well. As it cools, I do start to find it more enjoyable, but the berry flavor also seems to fade to the background. In summary, this tea isn’t bad, but it isn’t super cohesive either, and 52teas has much better genmaicha flavors.
