1635 Tasting Notes
Not into this one. There is something I don’t like about the sip. It’s a weird flatness that almost comes off as a salt free broth sensation with the dull woody flavor of rooibos. The finish leaves me with that dry rooibos mouth feeling, but I do get the apple cider flavors showing up and lingering.
Preparation
This tea is really oily. Lots of cinnamon. It has a cinnamon stick taste in the sip and a dried and powdered cinnamon taste in the finish with a light almost baking soda like sensation flashing by. The rooibos flavor isn’t bothering me here! There is a sweetness to this tea from the licorice root. There is also partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil in this, which is a first in a tea for me and also a HUGE turn off. I try to avoid all partially hydrogenated oils in my diet. Maybe that’s what is floating on the top of my tea. I feel like I can pick out the toast part if we are comparing this to the similarly named breakfast cereal. I’m getting a little bit of rooibos dry mouth in the finish, which I dislike. Flavor wise this tea is enjoyable, but the ph oil is a dead stop for me.
Preparation
Palm oil in general is a turn-off, this is just a big yikes.
Yeah, I hear bad things about the production of palm oil. I hear bad things health wise about partially hydrogenated oils, so it’s a double blech for me. The tea had cinnamon confection chips in it that had the oil in it. Like a chocolate chip, but cinnamon.
Such a shame, I’m sure they could have done it without the chips!
This is hitting a little flat for me, especially at the start of the sip. There is something extra artificial about the raspberry and it seems a little sour. It relies a little too much on being perfumey and is a really hard flavor to pull off in a tea. The fudge part is just background noise and the caramel part is really hard to pick out. Adding sugar just made the entire thing worse. Not into this one.
Preparation
This is chai like for sure. I get the cinnamon cardamom flavors pretty clearly. The caramel part comes across as a richness in both scent and flavor, supporting the chai which is the main player. I drank most of this cup without sugar and liked it, but decided to add some to the last third of my cup and I don’t think it adds anything good to it. There is a sourness in the finish and something distracting in the sip with sugar. I can’t really pick out the honeybush. If the price point were lower I’d buy more of this to add another option to my limited non caffeinated options.
Preparation
I gave up on my advent tea a few days back. Now I get to focus on Xmas teas! I got the small subscription to Almost. This is a branching off from the Universal Yums box from the same company that we have had a subscription to off and on for the past three years. In that box they pick a different country for each box and choose snacks and treats that are well known in that country or are unique to that country. That subscription has entertained the entire house! When they decided to do tea, I was really excited. The thing for this subscription is they pick a favorite dessert maker of theirs, have samples sent to their tea blenders and try to match the flavor of the tea to the sweet. I thought it would be six treats from different companies that the teas were blended to match per month, but it’s six sweets from one bakery. The tea is on the pricey side, but fun for a gift. The small subscription is two tea bags of each of the six tea. The bigger one is five bags of each of the six flavors. For this mix they have two blacks, two rooibos, one puerh and one honeybush. They come in pyramid bags without a string.
This smells really good dry, steeping and in the cup. The instruction said to use boiling water, I ignored it. The flavors were a little more intense when first steeped and seem to loose a little of the magic as I write about the tea and let my cup cool. The sip is very blond brownie like, but light. It’s a little buttery and a touch underwhelming. Then the finish arrives and the brown butter richness really kicks in. I’m betting this would taste amazing with a little sweetener to round out the flavors and make it super brownie like. I think I can pick up on the bourbon part, but that is one of the flavors that eludes me a little unless it’s overpowering. I’m having a hard time picking out the puerh on it’s own. I think it’s making for a nice depth to the cup without standing out with that earthy damp flavor that puerh has. Adding sugar amplifies the flavors! It’s making whole thing more rich, especially the butter part. There is something distracting at the start of each sip, but it passes so quickly that I can’t pin point it. The sugar really makes it more decadent and full.
There is a little pamphlet that comes with the tea giving info on the maker of the dessert these are based on and it’s tempting to order some of the brownies to see how well they match the tea. They have a little QR code and I wish it took you to a page with all the flavors of brownies represented in these teas in a premade sample pack. It looks like they have a lot of seasonal and rotating flavors and two of the flavors of corresponding brownies were not available. If this box picks up in popularity it would be an interesting way to cross sell desserts and teas between companies.
I’m really enjoying this cup. I’d gladly drink another cup any time, but the price point of $30 for 30 sachets if I wanted to buy more is a little on the pricey side. If I really loved one of their teas I’d be more likely to consider buying more if it was 15 for $15 or if they had a mix and match $1 per bag with a minimum of 10-20 bags. As it is, I think two servings in the subscription to try out a new tea is perfect for this tea fanatic.
Preparation
Advent Day 19
I think I lost a day in there somewhere. Things have been hectic and confusing lately, but here we are on Dec 19th! I’m not ready for it to be this late in the month and this cup of tea isn’t helping. It’s green tea with lemon verbena, basil, peppermint, ginger and lemongrass. It’s like this cup can’t decide if it’s tea or a light broth. The flavors clash. It’s brothy in scent, confusing in the sip and muddled mint tea in the finish. I keep wincing with each sip. This is a NO for me.
Preparation
Tea Drops seemed like such a gimmicky way to sell tea, but I am very tea curious so I wanted to try. First ingredient in this is sugar, second is matcha. It dissolved easily in my cup of warm water. It just tastes like match. Sweetened matcha. It’s not particularly good. It’s boring and not that convenient for a mediocre cup.
Advent Day 18
I was super busy yesterday and didn’t even have time to drink my cup! Took a few sips, liked it and left if out for today. It’s cold now, but it’s still interesting. It has very bright notes to it with an underlying taste that I can only describe as light tobacco, but not. It’s probably the yaupon and I noticed we don’t have a category for yaupon in the Steepster choices for categorizing new teas. The lemon and eucalyptus are the strongest flavors. It also has clove and ginger, but they are playing perfect supporting roles to the others that it’s hard to pick them out in the sip, but they shine through a little more in the finish. I kinda like this one. Maybe not enough to buy more at this point, but if I came across another chance to drink it I’d take it.
Advent Day 16
How did we get to 16 already?! This is an almond peppermint green. It’s weird and I’m not sure what to make of it. I love love love almond in my tea, but I’m used to it being paired with flavors of cinnamon, cookies and other really warming and sweet things. But peppermint?! I dunno. My first few sips were almond first and peppermint later in the sip, but a few more sips in and they switch up on me. Later in my cup they sort of merge, but in a slightly clunky way. My mouth is left chilled by the peppermint while a little of the green tea flavor kicks in. It has settled into a mostly peppermint tea with a hint of almond fighting for recognition. I don’t find them meshing well and complimenting each other. It’s an interesting flavor combo, very bold and unusual, but it doesn’t work for me.
Preparation
Advent Day 15
The package says this tea has black currant and chablis flavors. I had to look up what chablis was (wine made in the colder Burgundy area of France). It does have a fruity floral scent to it. It’s light and mellow both in scent and flavor. It lacks deeper lower tastes and is more in the mid to high range. The currant is the most prominent flavor with the grape following. The more I sip the more I get an almost dusty flavor behind it, which I’m guessing is the tea. My mouth feels dry after every sip, which I’m not a fan of. It’s an okay tea. Probably not something that I’d have again, but not because it’s bad, but because it’s just not to my tastes.
