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I am a hazard to myself and others sometimes. I’ve managed to fuck up or injure myself an impressive amount over the last few days. The highlights include walking into the corner of the bed frame, in the middle of the night, so hard I have a giant purple bruise with a white void in the middle on my thigh. I also managed to break skin. And then tonight, a safety pin on my bag popped open, and I managed to walk directly into it, skewering the side of my toe.

Making this tea was a small exercise in fuck ups. I went to get everything ready, put my mug out with a steeping basket, and then added a teaspoon of this tea. And then I realized that I hadn’t washed out my mug, or dumped out my Assam leaves from this morning. ::sigh::

Fortunately, I have lots of this tea. I’ve had it for quite a while, and I haven’t had any in a long while either. I’d forgotten what it tasted like, and I’d just assumed it would be kind of generic herbal/medicinal tasting. Not so! This is both warm and cool spicy, with notes of basil and cinnamon. It’s herbal tasting, but delicious, and not generic.

I had a tea loving friend over today for hanging out and catching up, and made a pot of this for us to share.

It was excellent, lots of cocoa and malt this time around, and she really enjoyed it. I sent her home with samples of the blends that use this as a base, as well as some others, because I am a terrible enabler :)

Thanks to Lindsay for this sample.

These beautiful little pearls are uniformly rolled balls of black tea, and quite possibly the best smelling lychee tea I’ve ever encountered. Both dry and steeped, they smell intensely sweet and juicy. The lychee fragrance is very authentic, bit I’m reminded more of those lychee canned juices, or lychee bubble tea, than of just the fresh fruit.

I steeped 8 pearls in 8oz of 93C water. I think for about three minutes, but I had a timer failure, so I’m not sure.

This is delicious. The lychee flavour isn’t quite as in your face as the scent, but I really like it. It’s sweet and juicy and has that whole mouth flavour that lychees have and that I often find missing in lychee flavoured teas. The black base is apparent, with hints of malt and cocoa, and quite well balanced with the lychee.

Definitely a winner among lychee flavoured teas, and one that I can see buying.

Cold brewed this over night, as I have it in my sipdown box (one teaspoon left and then it’s gone!)

This is really nice – melon and vegetal notes, with a bit of natural sweetness that isn’t cloying at all. Mostly tangy vegetal on the finish.

I’m reminded of my Cool Cucumber cold brew from the other day, but this is like a more mature, refined version of it.

Less sweet and fruity than my earlier Assam. Malt, with a hint of the toffee note mentioned on the package. Now that this cup has cooled a fair bit I’m really enjoying it. A bit of astringency, but not unpleasant. Pleasantly bitter.

Malty and fruity, with a touch of bitterness. Relatively smooth. Medium body. A little more fruit than I was wanting this morning, but quite tasty.

Sipped this down in a latte with a scoop of matcha. The flavour of this tea doesn’t come through strongly – there’s just a hint of spice and an extra rich, creaminess to the cup, and it completely mellows the grassiness of the matcha. All in all a good way to be done with a tea I didn’t love.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve had this tea, and I’d finished most of my bag and put a fair bit into a TTB, so this was my last cup.

When I first had this tea it was around last Xmas, and it had been relabelled Vanilla Eggnog. I do remember really liking it and getting the eggnog comparison. Today, it’s all tropical fruity green for me, both in taste and smell, with a touch of a creamy note.

It’s tasty, but my tastes have changed a lot, and I’m currently in a phase of not caring too much for fruit flavoured greens. If I get back to craving them, I would consider restocking it, as it’s lovely and not terribly generic tasting, like many are. But for now, I’m glad to sip this down.

Sipdown!

This is a really straightforward but delicious flavoured black. It smells and tastes like strawberries and cream. The black base is there, but primarily supports the flavours. I drank this with a touch of sugar and it went down quick and easy.

There’s nothing fancy about it, but it’s a good tea.