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TTB

Huh, this is strange. It says cola and I can pick cola flavors out in the finish, but the sip is more savory and almost sage like. I can smell ginger in the cup, but it gets sort of muddled in the sip. This tea is confusing! Not really into it.

TTB
I’ve been eyeing powdered flavored hojichas from this company recently, so I’m excited to try this! My brain is all over the place today and after I added a little sweetener to the mix to bring out the honey flavor I forgot that I had done so and added honey so this is extra sweet. Having it as a latte. I taste honey and lemon that brightens it up a bit. I wish I had tried it before adding sweeteners, but brain fail. It’s a delicious cup with that deep hojicha flavor, but I’d like to try it again before adding things to it so I can get a good feel for the flavors present.

Wow has my tune changed on this tea over the past 8 years since I first logged it! I didn’t like it at all 8 years ago. 7 months ago I accidentally bought a bag that was in the row for a different tea and managed to go through that bag in record time. I bought another bag a couple months ago when I placed an order with MF because I ended up loving it so much. There were so many new teas in that order that I’m only now digging up the bag of this, but I pulled it out today and drank a cup pretty quickly. It’s such a strong and smooth EG that works well plain as well as holding up to cream and sugar. I think it’s my favorite straight EG now. How times have changed!

I wanted something smoky today, but this one isn’t quite hitting the spot. The jammy flavors aren’t in this cup, which is part of what made it unique. Another instance of tea hoarding going bad? It’s coming off as a lapsang with an edge that gets sharper as my cup cools. I need to figure out what plum or jam flavored tea I have and start mixing it with this when I steep. I still have a decent amount of this left to go.

Sipped down!
This smells a little pumpkiny, but I really have to think about it when I smell the cup. I don’t get pumpkin in the flavor. There is a light chai flavor, but it’s really light. I added honey and creamer in this cup and it diluted the chai quite a bit. The cup was really bland and with chai I expect the flavor to be strong enough to withstand the addition of cream. I had several other cups plain since I got this, but none of them really caught my attention. I was hoping I’d really like Friday teas, but so far I feel kinda eh about them.

Not as delightful as a goat milk latte as I had hoped. Or maybe it’s the corn chips I ate just before. I feel like the caramel is somehow more distinct. I’ll have to find a different type of milk before I try this as a latte again.

Found this in my travel tea bag! Not sure how old this is, but it’s probably had several birthdays by now. The genmaicha is going strong flavor wise, but it feels like any other flavors left long ago. It’s a little creamier in the finish than I’d expect from a gen and I’m attributing that to the cashew. I really don’t get any salted oatmeal cookie though. I wish I had made a tasting note for this when I first tried it so I had a good comparison of fresh and aged.

Almonds and vanilla?! I’m in! I was sad to see this wasn’t available when I placed a Harney’s order, but on a recent stop at a farmer market type store in the middle of California I found four types of Harney’s holiday teas in the tin on sale. Kinda wish I had passed it up. Harney’s is one of those companies that I don’t like most of their teas. I’ve only found two so far that I liked enough to buy again. The whole cup is just so light. The almond is faint. It’s a passive baked cinnamon flavor. The whole thing is just so boring. Maybe it’s just my mood. I was really hoping for a tea to pick me up and this is not that cup.

I’m trying to like this, but I keep going back and forth about how I feel about this cup. Some sips seem really boring and others seems like they have the potential to be interesting. The flavors are a little artificial at times and that is distracting. I can sometimes get a malty undertone that is nice, but a slight tingly sensation in the back of my throat that I associate with artificial flavoring pulls me away from the nice malt. The finish starts out a little flat and then drifts off into something more pleasant. A mixture of nuts and a light hint of chocolate. Is it the Harney chocolate flavor that is ruining another of their blends for me again? It really makes me want a cup of a Theodor hazelnut blend who’s name escapes me now.
I’m sorry Florence, but I really don’t have time for this back and forth kind of relationship. Off to the reject bin you go. Go on with you.

I have been searching for a replacement almond tea for some time. It’s been a journey. First it was falling in love with Teavana’s Almond Biscotti, then turning to Butiki’s Almond Indulgence, then turning to American Tea Room’s Brioche, then….. emptiness. Each tea is discontinued and/or the company goes out of business and the search starts over again. I love a good cinnamon almond black so much that I need to go full hoard mode next time I fall hard in love and just have a bathtub full of it so I never run out.

Anyways… I feel like this tea is close, but not * quite * there. The leaves are much larger than any of the other blends I mentioned. It does have a good cinnamon almond flavor to it, but I feel like it’s missing some depth that I can’t quite put my finger on. It smells really good. It tastes pretty good too, but it feels like it’s almost, but not quite there. It makes me a little crazy that I can’t quite pin the difference. I like this tea and it will for sure patch a hole for now, but it doesn’t quite fill it for me. Thank you to Mastress Alita for pointing me in the direction of this tea!!!

On a side note, I was marveling the other day between the difference of French almond and American almond flavoring styles in tea. I feel like American almond is more of a baked heavy prominent rich almond often paired with cinnamon while French almond is more light aromatic marzipan fresh and paired with fruit. I lean more towards the American, but I do enjoy the French versions as well.