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I decided to get a little creative and mix the last of my Mariage Freres Rouge Bourbon with some of Butiki’s Root Beer Barrels. I used about 1.5 tsps of each blend in 8oz of boiling water, steeped for 7 minutes. I’m digging the result. The Root Beer Barrels is definitely dominant. The Bourbon is adding a nice creaminess, though. Adding rice milk brings out the vanilla a bit. The root beer flavor still hits first, but it’s mellower. The creamy vanilla-ness lingers for a while after the sip. I like how well these blends work together! This is a sipdown of the Bourbon, which was really enjoyable both on its own and in combination with other blends, a cinnamon stick, or lavender & mint.

Thanks to Dustin for the Bourbon and rosebudmelissa for the Root Beer Barrels! I’m cross-posting, so apologies for the redundancy on your dashboards.

It’s the first day of spring, and it’s snowing. I reached for this in hopes of reminding myself that warmth will return one day. I can’t say the effort was a total success, but at least it was tasty. Plus, sipdown!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I borrowed a green cardigan from a colleague so I could get a free cup of tea at David’s. This blend smelled lovely in the tin and seemed suitably green. The steeped aroma is nutty and creamy. The flavor is macadamia, general nuttiness, cream, and maybe a hint of vanilla. I actually find it hard to believe there’s no sinensis in this blend, as it’s heftier than a lot of other herbals. It also resteeps decently. This blend might be my new substitute for Butiki’s Pistachio Ice Cream.

Mmm. Sadly, another sipdown. I’m picking up strawberry, raspberry, and creamy vanilla. It’s annoying that Lupicia doesn’t clearly list blend ingredients. I don’t think there’s supposed to be any vanilla here – maybe my tastebuds are confusing the honey flavoring for vanilla. Some rice milk brings out the creaminess and amplifies the strawberry & raspberry flavors. I got a good second steep out of this final sachet, too.

This was part of my Lupicia happy bag. So far I’m quite pleased with their blends. However, the absence of a proper ingredients list is seriously off-putting. I will probably buy next year’s happy bag anyway though – the price is too good.

Sipdown, finally. I’m not particularly fond of this blend. It’s juicier than I generally like in a brew. The berry flavor is fine but a bit generic. It also steeps up very strong if you’re not careful with the timing.

Ok so I cheated and gave this to a colleague, but it’s still a sipdown! My colleague really enjoyed it so there’s a win-win.

A few final thoughts here, as this is a sipdown. Oversteeping risks the roasted flavor turning into more of a burnt flavor. Some rice milk adds creaminess and sweetness that complements the flavor of the brew but doesn’t really change it – that is, rice milk is nice but not needed. The bag can be steeped a second time, but the results are thinner than the first steep.

Bedtime for me. I haven’t reached my sipdown goal for the weekend. Still, eight sipdowns in a weekend isn’t bad!

This sipdown effort is starting to feel more like a grind than a challenge. Nonetheless, I am making some progress. This blend tastes more strongly of chamomile than honey today. Still quite pleasant though! I wanted this tea for the novelty but it turns out to have been a decent cuppa. Sipdown!

Now here’s a company with some serious style. Their preview samples are quite lavish. I didn’t sign up for one, but KiwiDelight was generous enough to send me her second set. It includes three tea samples, a cup & tray set, and a tote bag. I am completely enamored of this cup & tray set. The aroma cup and sipping cup are clean white porcelain. The tray is sturdy and perfectly sized for the two cups (or just the sipping cup and my little glass gong fu teapot). The letter that came with the set identifies the tray as being made of oak. However, the website offers what looks like the same set for sale and says that the tray is made of bamboo. Strange. Either way, I like it.

I inaugurated this lovely set with the Oriental Beauty. This is the first time I’ve used an aroma cup and it really makes a notable difference. It amplifies the fragrance of the tea, but also seems to reveal scents that don’t come through just from smelling the brew directly. I may have accidentally spilled tea on my laptop while trying to use the aroma cup. My laptop may now be damaged and it may cost $174 minimum to repair… this is suddenly a very expensive hobby, folks. The keyboard was all messed up when I first turned the computer on after drying it, but now it seems to be working fine so I am torn about whether to send it in for repairs if there’s no obvious debilitating damage. TBD.

The tea itself is a solid Oriental Beauty. The flavor is all honey and whole wheat toast. It’s very nice, but doesn’t really change over the course of about ten steeps. I have enough of the sample left for another cup. I think I’ll try it Western-style next time.

Thanks to KiwiDelight for sending me this set and Tea Ave for sending it to her!

This is a nice, roasty herbal. The rest is going off in a swap, so sipdown!

Still can’t quite describe the taste. Smooth, thick mouthfeel. Flavor simultaneously roasty and almost-but-not-quite floral. Savory. I just noticed that the Teavivre website says this can be resteeped. Somehow it never occurred to me to try and I’ve already thrown out the leaf! Booooo! I expect this to find its way back into my cupboard eventually. Hopefully I will remember to resteep when it does.