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Drinking this while catching up on tasting notes. This is a tea we picked up in Taiwan, and I’m drinking it Western-style out of an 8-oz mug I also bought in Taiwan. The lychee aroma and flavor here is so head-and-shoulders better than any other lychee tea I’ve ever had that I’m almost at a loss for words.* The moment you open the wrapper, a spot-on scent of perfectly ripe and juicy lychee wafts up. Even my partner, who thinks most tea smells and tastes like stump water, was into this. I bought this in sachet form – my guess is that’s the only format it was available in – so I liberated the leaves and brewed them up in with a wide metal steeper. I’m now on my third steep and about to go for a fourth. The ripe, juicy lychee flavor is still going strong. It was definitely the strongest in the first steep, being the most prominent note in the cup, whereas in later steeps it’s more like half-lychee, half-base tea notes. The base tea itself is a medium oolong with some nice heft. It’s sweet and a bit floral, with almost a buckwheat note that somehow complements the lychee rather than clashing.

*Not that all the other lychee teas I’ve had have been bad, there have been some very tasty ones! The flavoring on this one is just exquisite.

Finished my birthday with this minty delight. I got it in a Tea Thoughts countdown box a while ago and have been carefully rationing it ever since. Most peppermint teas are basically the same, but this is actually one of the best peppermints I’ve ever had. It’s this and Kiani’s that come to mind when I think about truly great peppermints that are a level above the rest. This one has the classic cooling menthol taste and sensation, but also just a hint of natural sweetness that you usually don’t get.

Another tea I busted out for my birthday! I loved this one in last year’s herbal advent so much that I ended up buying some for myself AND asking for it as a gift. It’s just a perfect combo of rose, lemon, and vanilla that ends up strongly evoking the flavor of a delicate, perfectly executed macaron. Love love love this one. Don’t love the staticky plastic bags – why, Plum Deluxe, why? The hassle and annoyance is not worth whatever they’re saving by going with plastic instead of foil.

Dipped into my stash from our Taiwan trip for my birthday! I’m really a victim of my own excess here – I brought back so much tea that we had to store it separately from the rest of my stash because there isn’t enough space, but then I don’t drink it because it’s off in a corner in a different room and when I’m poking around my tea stash to decide what to drink I forget to go look in the other room. Thankfully they’re almost all oolongs so they’re still in great shape.

I went with this one because I love rose teas and rose oolongs specifically. They’re surprisingly hard to find stateside so I made a point of picking up a few different ones while we were in Taiwan. Unfortunately, I think I may have overwatered this one! I went with a Western brew because I didn’t want to go back and forth to the kettle, and there’s so much leaf that I thought a 16 oz mug would be ok. But it came out just a wee bit lighter than I’d expect. Definitely still floral and rosy, on a lightly oxidized base. Next time I’ll try it in a smaller mug – I think that will give better results.

Time to make notes for the teas I drank a few days ago for my birthday!

I started the day off with a favorite coffee-substitute oat milk latte. This also happens to be a blend made in my home country for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge. I didn’t realize it would be a sipdown when I went to make it, which is a bit of a bummer, but I still have some Not Coffee Vol. 1 and some Teeccino left so it’s not so bad. And I sent this one out in style – made in a favorite mug and savored to the last drop. The nutty roastiness of the chicory works so well with the cinnamon and nutmeg! Oat milk adds a creaminess that really brings it all together (probably washes out the vanilla but is a plus-up overall so I’m willing to make the trade).

Happy belated new year! I’ve been absolutely slammed at work this week, so this tasting note is a few days late, meep!

I’ve started a low-key tradition of beginning the year with a gyokuro. I have no idea how I got into that habit but I like it. Something about a brothy, deep, green brew just fits conceptually with both the dead of winter and a fresh start. I didn’t take adequate notes on this one and unfortunately it was a sipdown so I won’t have a chance to take more, but one thing I specifically remember being struck by is that it wasn’t quite as thick as some other gyokuros I’ve had. Not the thinnest, but also not the richest. Very middle of the pack in that sense. Enjoyable though!

I was a touch nervous about the Greek yogurt inspiration for this one, because I don’t like the tartness and acidity of Greek yogurt. Mostly I took a flyer on it because of the vanilla flavor and because my stomach’s been acting up so I’ve been trying to work more tummy-friendly foods/drinks into my diet. Thankfully it’s not tart or acidic at all! It’s just silky vanilla. There’s an almost apple-y note as it cools, but it doesn’t tip over into acidic.
I like the flavor of this, health benefits or not! And Kelly I think you made the right call going for a more “simple” flavor profile for a health tea. It’s the kind of flavor that lends itself to being enjoyable in a wide range of weather, being blended with other teas, being latted, being used as a base for a shake, etc. Which hopefully will make it easier to drink consistently!

ok no. Steepster MUST have eaten my tasting note on this tea. Right? Am I losing my mind? I could swear I’d already written a note for this. Which is why I didn’t take notes when I did a sipdown of this earlier today. Just know that I liked this one a lot. Coconut is a good combo with the marshmallow genmaicha flavor profile. Overall just a nice creamy, roasty drink on a cold day.

Sample sipdown! I just made a note for this recently because it was in the advent calendar. Normally I wouldn’t bother with another note so soon but I’m really just celebrating that the dashboard is back! Yay!
I received a sample of this with my order. It probably would have languished in my tea drawers because I’m not a blueberry fan. But the beauty of samplers and advent calendars is that they push me out of my comfort zone, which is how I learned that actually I really like this tea! It feels like drinking a blueberry ginger muffin.

25th and last tea of the Plum Deluxe advent calendar. Supposedly this is a twist on chamomile-vanilla, but made up as a latte I can’t make out either of those flavors. I’m getting primarily cocoa and, inexplicably, nutty notes, with a hint of maple. The maple is stronger in the aroma – it mostly shows up at the end of the sip while drinking. I actually love this exactly as-is. It’s a very indulgent dessert tea without being overly sweet. Great way to end the calendar.
Overall, I’m really glad that I got this calendar again this year. I didn’t adore every blend but there were a lot of really enjoyable ones. The amount of tea is just right: enough to enjoy and experiment with but not so much that it takes forever to drink through. I had fun with the teas being unlabeled, since it allowed me to test my senses before looking if I wanted to. The tin is very cute and a good size to repurpose for storage. I still don’t adore the plastic baggies they use, but the baggies do seem to have been a bit less staticky this year – mostly I only noticed it with rooibos blends.
Four advents/samplers is apparently the right number for me. I was able to more or less keep up – enjoyably and without stress – even when illness periodically knocked me off course by a couple of days. I’m really pleased with the ones I picked out this year and the way I structured it, except that I should have gotten the caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. Five is probably the absolute max I could do without it being too much, and if I do that I should make sure only one a day is caffeinated.
Surprisingly, no glittery teas in ANY of my advents this year! I guess it’s out of fashion? Too bad, I still enjoy some sparkle from time to time.