1295 Tasting Notes
Day 14 of the Tea Thoughts winter countdown box. Savory and lightly sweet, with a very mild goji note. Interesting cooling sensation after the sip, which I wasn’t expecting. I did the first steep at 3 minutes and that was a bit light for me, but this 5-minute second steep is working for me. I might try for a third…
ETA: Got a third solid steep out of this today.
Day 2 of the 52teas advent calendar. I made this as an oat milk latte because, well, “cookie” in the name always makes me want to latte a blend. Not sure I’m getting any cookie/pastry notes, but it’s possible they’re getting drowned out by the oat milk. I am getting spices though – cinnamon, maybe a hint of clove? There’s something here that isn’t just cinnamon, and the spice blend is different than that in yesterday’s gingerbread tea. It’s got some depth and big wintry cozy vibes. The snowflake sprinkles are adorable. Very seasonally apropos. Respectable showing, but I like gingerbread a lot so I still like that blend more in the spiced-winter-tea match-up.
Day 14 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent. This smells so chocolate-y while brewing, for some reason. But the flavor is spot-on honey and caramel. The nutty, slightly woody honeybush holds those flavors up beautifully. I especially like that the caramel lingers on the palate after the sip. Making quick work of this one.
Day 14 of the Lupicia advent calendar, one loose leaf serving. Y’all. This is so syrupy. The blackcurrant flavor is overwhelming for me. I let it cool and turned it into a tea soda. Which was the preferable way to enjoy it. Definitely helped cut the sweetness and viscosity. Even at half-tea/half-seltzer, that blackcurrant flavor stayed strong. Glad I got to try this but probably wouldn’t have it again.
Day 13 of the Lupicia advent calendar, single sachet. I paired this with Day 15, kinako-coated peanuts. The pattern for snacks here seems to be “peanuts with various coatings.” I’m not complaining, they’ve all been quite tasty so far! When I saw the description of this, I thought it would take oat milk well and that was a correct assessment. Creamy white chocolate, malty base, hint of nuttiness and a touch of vanilla. I see other (mostly older) tasting notes mentioning apricot flavor. Not sure whether Lupicia has reformulated the blend, the oat milk is drowning that note, or I’m just not picking up on it, but I don’t taste any apricot here.
Day 1 of the 52teas advent calendar. I like that each day provides enough tea to play around with. Apparently I quite enjoyed the first version of this tea 11 years ago, though to be honest I don’t really remember it. That tracks though, since somehow I’ve already made this three times and finished it off! This is right up my alley. The gingerbread spice balance is just right, bringing to mind soft gingerbread rather than gingerbread cookies. I tried it straight, as an oat milk latte, and with oat milk and vanilla agave. I found that adding oat milk didn’t really change the experience, but oat milk + vanilla agave added that molasses-y quality of gingerbread and generally made this even cozier. Strong strong start to this calendar.
Day 12 of the Lupicia advent calendar, one sachet of this. What am I even drinking? I tried to find an ingredients list and couldn’t. I couldn’t even find a specific flavor description outside of people’s tasting notes here. I’m getting maybe raspberry, grape, and apricot on a slightly tannic base? Generally in the stone fruit and tart berry vicinity. The gimmick here isn’t working for me, mostly because what if there’s an ingredient that someone is allergic to or otherwise can’t have? It’s a pleasant enough fruity black tea but the mystery-ingredients thing makes this a no for me.
Day 11 of the Lupicia advent calendar. I think the pattern here is that the herbal blends are loose and the teas are sachets. There was enough loose leaf to make one mug. I feel like I’m overusing “tart” as a descriptor. I need more precise language to articulate different kinds of tartness. The tangy, almost sour tartness of raspberry is different from the tartness of pineapple, for example. This brews up pineapple-tart and almost too sweet. Tastes exactly like I’d expect from the ingredients!
Hmm. Day 13 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent. They suggest cold brewing this one, so I steeped it overnight. It’s not bad, but I want to try it hot as I suspect I might enjoy it more that way. I couldn’t quite place the flavor until I looked at the ingredients. It was registering as sort of a less-tart, less-sweet raspberry-like flavor. Which, to be fair, is a way one might describe apricot. And “apricot” does match now that I’ve seen it. This is tasty, I just want to play with it more. Maybe add a touch of agave…
Day 12 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent. I’d call this a rare miss from them. Hard to tell what’s even going on here; the flavors are just so incoherent. Hot, peppermint is definitely dominant, but the ginger and cinnamon are still very present. Cold, the cinnamon comes to the fore. Either way, the flavors just aren’t melding well. This is a calendar-specific blend, so it’s not up on the website yet. The best I can figure from looking at the ingredients is that this is meant to be an anti-inflammatory blend of sorts. There are lots of ways to get anti-inflammatory blends/tisanes that don’t taste like chaos incarnate, though. I’m finishing what I have – it’s drinkable, at least – but I can’t recommend it and would not intentionally purchase it myself.
