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ADVENT DAY 3, tea 3/3

And last one, served at home, steeped western all 5 grams in 300 ml of boiling water.

I remember having Doke black tea once and I wasn’t too impressed, but this one is better than the previous experience. It was very strong with high caffeine content, full-bodied and malty tea. There is quite strong tannic note and hints of woodiness in the flavour, not really sure if I like it in my afternoon cup. It rather tastes like one of the breakfast blends. I have had much better black teas, also from India… probably Doke isn’t the region that impresses me.

ADVENT DAY 3, tea 2/3

Seeing this, I wasn’t too impressed. I am not fan of chamomile; and combination with honeybush, in a tea bag; well, “it will be just herbal blend like many others”.

Not that much. It was actually quite tasty, and its bright yellow color glowed in my office (not the warehouse one) in gloomy, grey morning (later than Chocolate Cake by 3 hours). Prepared for Teams meeting that was supposed to be 2 hours long but actually we have finished in 15 minutes. The weather outside was just awful, imagine temperature just a little above zero centigrade, rain/snow fall, with cold wind gusts.

Happy I was in the office and happy having the hot mug.

It seems I digress a lot about this tea. Sorry!
It was actually quite tasty, honey-ish both from honeybush and chamomile, but without wet rag smell and taste that chamomile sometimes have. I assume that the peppermint was making it even a bit refreshing, and makes it “far away” from just a herbal blend taste.
Definitely a nice surprise, though not a caffeine-free tea I would buy right away.

ADVENT DAY 3, tea 1/3

I have planned teas for today yesterday and… decided to bring two of three to the work, having in mind that the afternoon and evening will be busy and I don’t want to repeat yesterday “drink all the tea in 4 hours”.

It has worked well to me, this one was a breakfast tea and whoa what a tea!

It was not artificial, it was not boozy, it was not terrible and it was actually very, very good. And without toffee, caramel and those :)
It was fullbodied black tea with natural and genuine chocolate flavour. It has got pastry note, it was quite creamy too; like a chocolate cream (we call it Parisian, but not sure if it is in English too). Smooth, easy drinking mug, hearty and chocolatey!

Really like it. Of course, biting real chocolate cake would be a bit better… on the other hand, this has got (almost) no calories :)

Well, apple-day I guess? Two apple teas and now with toffee. As I wrote yesterday, not much a fan of sugar-based sweets. But again, it probably suits well the season.

Pinkish and bright color, strong apple aroma, almost artificial; followed with definitely artificial smelling toffee.
In taste very, but very sweet tasting toffee with slight acidity and sweetness of red apples, so definitely this blend is true to its name; but sadly I am not a fan of those flavours. That makes rating hard to me, so I am keeping it without it. Because I believe there are guys out there who would like it and my personal preference doesn’t allow me to enjoy it that much.

ADVENT DAY 2, tea 2/3

It feels I was in the timeout for whole day. My warehouse office is a room without windows, quite small and I was clicking and typing all day there. After lunch I sat there (again) and haven’t went out until it was time to catch the train. It was already dark outside, and from office colleagues from whole company I was definitely one of the last ones. And yep, again working overtime. Not great! Hm. Maybe it’s not a timeout, maybe it is a prison.

Anyway, to the tea. It smells like a generic fruit tea. Greenish-pinkish color. Lots of rosehip in aroma too. In flavour it’s dominantly apple. Well, according to ingredients list, it is 46 % of 1.9 g tea bag.

A little of blackcurrant is here too. Makes a a little tart note. I steeped it in the lower lower limit, maybe that’s why I think it tastes a bit flat and thin. Maybe longer steeping (close to suggested higher limit 10 minutes) would make some flavors pop.

Very easydrinking cup. For people who are not a tea enthusiasts, definitely fruity and tasty. Maybe I am just used to have better teas.

ADVENT DAY 2, tea 1/3
I have to admit, I am a little bit cheating with my Advents. If next day is a working day; I took all teas out a day before, to choose if I should bring some to the office. Today I have this oolong and two caffeine free blends.

How I wish I took at least one to the office! Albeit I wouldn’t have much time for that there, it would be more comfortable than drinking all three just a few hours before jumping to the bed.

So, right away when I arrived home, I took this tea and decided to brew it western (though I can imagine using all 5 grams in gaiwan), again keeping half for next session as I don’t really want a strong caffeine boost at 6 pm.

It smells wonderful! Orchids, lilacs, meadow flowers, that all is in the pouch of dry tea as well as in the mug and steeper. The liquor is thick, floral and creamy; with sweet and long mouthfeel, with several layers, each one revealing the flowers mentioned before.

The leaves after 3 minutes steep doesn’t look completely expanded and used; and now I am not sure if I want to try another steep or another tea.

ADVENT DAY 1, tea 3/3

I took Siam Tee Shop advent just because I just wanted to go through plain teas to find some new favorites, to try teas I wouldn’t probably buy otherwise and to keep palate ready for plain teas and not only for flavored teas.

Vendor promises chesnut flavors from this tea, when brewed with 90°C water (!) so I did exactly as they suggest. Decided for 3 grams / 125 ml gaiwan; that means I have 2 and something left for other session. Probably after holidays, though!

I got promised flavor! It is chesnut with buttery notes, especially when steeped longer (at least 1 minute). When steeped too long, it gets green beans and vegetable notes too; which clash with chesnuts.

While it is a fine and nice tasting tea, I probably prefer the grassy green teas; as this one just didn’t click to me… somehow? Or I just didn’t expect this in the Advent?

ADVENT DAY 1, tea 2/3

In the morning I had an intetion to have this as the last tea. However, in the afternoon my brother with his family visited us, so I rather decided for simple tea bag tea, instead of gongfu-ing my tea. Their 5 years old daughter “was bored”, so it was definitely a good call.

That said, I wasn’t paying much attention to the tea, but rather to don’t have it spilled. But yes, it kinda reminded me Baby Spice by Bird&Blend (I rated that only 60?); spicy but nothing too strong; pumpkin was quite present and also a bit custardy and sweet. This one I consider a bit better… maybe because it’s just a tea bag?

I consider it a nice end of the autumn season tea and welcoming winter tea. Sadly, I can’t find it anywhere in whole 20 (or so) tea bags box.

So it begins! Advent Season! Time to drink teas we wouldn’t try otherwise.

This is one of them. Generally speaking I am not fan of caramel flavoured teas and not even much of caramel itself but salted caramel.

My cup was sweet and buttery, I assume pretty true to intended flavour, with surprisingly long mouthfeel and finish. Plus point for no sugar in this tea, so not getting any calories in the very first day of the session.

While it is not my personal preferred tea flavour, it’s good start from this, for me unknown, company. (I just found out today that Kelmishka had their advent 2 years ago.)

A sipdown! (M: 6 Y: 93)

A sad sipdown of tasty tea. But life is too short to drink bad tea. And all teas must be drank before they go bad. This one is from autumnal flush 2023; so year old tea. Nothing is telling me it’s “old”. I know… I have (and we all have) much older teas in our stashes.

I prepared it gongfu. And, oh boy, it works. First steeps were a bit weaker, however then the flavours I mentioned in my previous note started to glow. Baked bread with honey, stonefruity aftertaste, orange zest, all together with velvet mouthcoating feel. A little bit of astringency.

The aroma of used leaves is definitely a bread, made from rye, almost black one as mostly (or only) rye flour was used. And mixed with pumpkin seeds, that’s it; hints of dark malts are present as well.