1375 Tasting Notes
Day 12 of DIY Adagio advent calendar, which means I’m finally done with this calendar! Not the finest note to end on, unfortunately. The peach is very “peach gummy candy” rather than “fresh fruit” or even “juice/nectar.” The base is earthy and hearty, but that doesn’t really mesh well with the candy note. DavidsTea’s Peaches & Cream oolong isn’t a perfect comparison, because this blend doesn’t purport to have a creamy element. Still, I think part of why that blend works better than this one is that the base tea is lighter and more floral than this one, which is a better match to the fruity note. Luckily, this was just a sample, so the definition of low stakes.
Day 11 of DIY Adagio advent calendar (yes, I’m still working on finishing some of my advent calendars!). Tragically, my variable temperature kettle seems to have kicked the bucket. I ended up heating water in a pot on the stove and ladling it into my mug, because the weather is chilly and obviously I can’t go a few days without hot tea!
This brewed up decent! It’s got that mineral and roasty note typical of a TGY. There’s a very strong marine note, like a seaweed broth, which seems unusual for a TGY. It’s not bad, necessarily, just not entirely what I’d expect for this type of tea.
Day 10 of DIY (mostly) Adagio advent calendar. Technically this is Selefina, but since that’s just Adagio’s spice division I think of it as being from the same company. I’ve played around with this a couple of different ways. As a straight tisane, it’s earthy and peppery, with a ginger-like bite at the end of the sip. A dash of honey rounded out the flavor nicely.
Day 12 of the Inoki Bathhouse advent calendar. This was pretty but I found the flavor a bit meh. Sort of a generic “Chinese green tea” flavor with maybe a hint of floral if I really look for it. I really liked the flowering rose, but this one just didn’t have that same vegetal-floral balance.
I feel like flowering teas are meant purely for aesthetics, they always taste so bland and similar to each other.
I got some jasmine flowering green when I was in Taiwan and, while it wasn’t the absolute best I’ve ever had, it was a solid jasmine that held up well to grandpa-style brewing. I haven’t had that experience stateside, though. Maybe it’s also a freshness thing?
I had some flowering teas from Teavivre that were pretty decent!
Day 11 of the Inoki advent calendar. This is a nice ginger – zingy with a hint of sweetness. It reminds me of Fever-Tree ginger beer, just without the sugar. It even resteeped well, which doesn’t always happen with ginger. Just needed a long brew time on the resteep.
Sipdown. I enjoyed this so much in the advent calendar a few years ago that I asked for a full size as a holiday gift. I was gifted a very generously sized 4oz bag. Alas, it seems like that’s just too large a quantity for me. It took me over a year to finish, and by the end of it I was just not as into it as I was at the beginning. Still tasty, but just sort of felt a bit mundane after a while.
I hate when that happens!
Anything over 50g is inevitably too much for me as well, I just drink too many different teas so I can’t get through that amount within a reasonable time!
Yes, exactly! I feel very seen, thank you.
Same! I prefer small amounts under 50g/1.5 oz. I just have too many teas and I don’t want to drink the same one every day for months. With real tea they tend to be caffinated ,which is something I usually avoid except on caffeine day once per week. Herbal blends are usually really light and even 25g can last me 10-15 cups (especially mint or rooibos based ones). I had this looseleaf spearmint I had to be at least 2 oz and it probably took over 100 cups to finish it. You should have seen the size of the bags they put it in lol
Sipdown! This came to me in some past Tea Thoughts countdown box, but I’m not sure which one. I finished this yesterday during work and wasn’t able to take detailed notes at the time. However, I distinctly remember the rose being so strong that it rather drowns the base tea.
Sipdown! I’ve been craving coffee lately. This blend has been a decent substitute, with a dash of oat milk. I like the candy cane teeccino better but this one is respectable too! A bit of sweetness (and maybe cinnamon?) on that chicory/dandelion base blend.
It’s weird to me that all of their flavored oolongs use an oxidized strip-style base…
Yes! I don’t get it.