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Very sad sipdown! 245/405.

Aw man, another excellent Butiki tea bites the dust. I overleafed this and made a giant mug, which I’m nursing and planning to resteep the crap out of once I’m done. I bought this as I love Butiki’s Maple Pecan Oolong, and this has some similarities. That one still beats this hands down, but this wins a fight with pretty much any other maple oolong out there. The Doke Rolling Thunder is a very malty oolong base, and it’s definitely the backbone of the blend with more subtle flavouring (yes this tea is very old but the flavouring has always been lighter). It’s got enough body to it that I would say I could consider it a breakfast tea, which works wonders with the flavour combination to make for a really evocative drinking experience. I’m sitting on a balcony with my beloved, enjoying a late breakfast of waffles with syrup and a cup of tea while we take in the view. Lovely. One thing I really miss about Butiki is how all their teas seemed like an experience rather than just a drink. The tea community really lost something when Stacy shut up shop. I hope she’s out there living her best life.

I enjoy green tea very infrequently, but this one is easily likeable. In fact, I was enjoying it so much that when my mam threw my leaf out after the first steep (alas, she does this often), I went back to my stash to get more instead of picking something else, and proceeded to make another two cups! If I’m in the mood for a straight green tea, this is the way I would go. It’s mild and mellow with little astringency though it is a touch drying, buttery and vegetal (sugar snap peas and green beans today), and very easy to drink. Tonight this was the perfect choice to help me relax after a long, tiring, stressful day at work. Upping my rating a little from 62 because I always feel happy and relaxed when I drink it, and it’s so inoffensive that I think even the most ardent of green tea-haters would be hard-pressed to truly dislike it.

Edit: Oh hey, this is tasting note number 650 for me! Nice! It’s been a while since I hit any milestones.

Welp, I did not remember to take the teabag out and improve on the tea like I hoped in my last note. In fact, I steeped it in too-cool water (for the second time today) and all I got was the metallic note without any of the yummy berry. So sad. I really should read these things before I finish my cup, not after…

Well this is gone now. Not technically a sipdown since I never added it to my cupboard, but only one tea left from last year’s advent calendar and then I’m free to drink whatever I fancy!

Don’t ask me what a tea called ‘ghostly green’ is doing in a Christmas advent calendar, when it seems like it should belong with some Halloween theme, but whatever the reason I’ll take it because I actually like this! I came downstairs for lunch and found the kettle still warm, so being too lazy to re-boil it just to let it cool again, I used the water that was already in, and I’m pretty sure it was too cool. Maybe that was key, because although a light brew, this is tasty! It’s a creamy mint, a profile which I love, on a green base which I don’t, but the base isn’t very prominent and because of the cool steep there’s no astringency at all. It reminds me a bit of 52teas Graveyard Mist – a favourite of mine – only not as good. Also the name is kind of similar, huh? Hmm… I resteeped in boiling water and there’s still no astringency, and I’m happy to report it holds up well! The leaf is actually quite large, which might account for the lack of astringency, but I can see something mixed in with it that looks like pieces of cinnamon bark (I don’t have the ingredients handy to check), and whatever it is it’s not coming through at all. I suspect there might be a few redundant ingredients in the mix, if the previous blends are anything to go by. This is definitely one of my favourites from the calendar.

I rooted through my stash for this after a discussion with whosbradpitt about the potential similarities and/or differences between gingerbread in the US and UK. Neither of us has tried both, so I decided to pull it out, steep it up and see how similar to gingerbread it seemed to me. I took this very seriously, making myself two cups steeped regular western style (one plain, one with additives), as well as a tea latte, which I’ve been making almost every night lately.

I think my final answer is… a bit similar?
When drank plain, the similarity is less noticeable, more of a rooibos chai and less of a ‘baked goods’ vibe. The spices are well-blended, which would usually be a plus, but the ginger isn’t particularly prominent so the ‘gingerbread’ feel is missing. Adding milk dulls the whole thing down, but a pinch of brown sugar adds that dessert feel which was missing and makes it feel much more like gingerbread. I even think the ginger becomes a little more prominent this way!
Prepared as a latte, this is where it really shines. Double strength tea, 1/3 hot milk and a teaspoon of premium grade maple syrup – this is how you make it taste like gingerbread! Now ginger isn’t my favourite spice, but I love cinnamon, and this is a really nice blend of the two. The rooibos isn’t particularly woodsy, but somehow is adding to the ‘cakeiness’ of the whole thing. If there were a brown sugar or vanilla note to really amp up the dessert notes, I think it would be spot on!

So in conclusion, is it gingerbread? Kinda. Is it tasty? Heck yeah.

This was in the advent calendar two days running, and because I’m just drinking through it and ignoring the dates, that means I had it twice in one morning. I’m not complaining though, because I didn’t really fancy anything else, and I quite enjoyed it both times. As I was drinking my first mug, I noticed some astringency and wished I’d added a splash of milk. So when I saw it in the next slot of the calendar, I remedied that and made my second cup with milk. I enjoyed it both times, but I think the winner was with milk, as the black tea is quite robust and not a particularly nuanced one that loses anything with the addition of milk. There’s a gorgeous, sweet aroma coming from the steeping leaf that makes me think it’s going to be a dessert-type tea, but it doesn’t quite come through in the sip. It is a little more mellow than most ‘spice’ blends, and possibly has a touch of vanilla in there. The cinnamon is also quite forward, making it feel on the sweeter side of chai. Not one I would buy, but one I will happily sip on on this cold December morning.

First time as a latte… wow! This tea is perfect for latte-ing! A light bready note accompanied by cinnamon – always a winner with me – orange rinds and raisin notes. I can’t get over how accurate it is, yet a million times better than an actual hot cross bun! The lapsang adds just the barest hint of smokiness, really making this feel like a toasted hot cross bun and not just a generic spiced fruits tea. I have a splash of cream and brown sugar added to my latte because I felt like being extra decadent, and it is honestly incredible. Occasionally the cranberry will come across more and take me out of hot cross bun territory, as it’s not an ingredient I’d associate with them, but other than that I’d say it’s a pretty great match! I’m forever grateful to Bird & Blend for sending me this tea to try (I hadn’t even placed a recent order, a whole pouch just turned up on my doorstep one day out of the blue with a hand-written note), because I am in love and not being a fan of actual hot cross buns, I never would have ordered it myself, and I would have seriously been missing out! Gah, I could drink this all day. Yum.

Woohoo, first sipdown in a long time! (244/405, but let’s not focus on how many more I have to go)

I did a double take while this was steeping, because I sniffed the wet leaf and it smelled exactly like Marmite on toast. Wild. The liquor itself isn’t quite as spot-on, but it is very malty, bready and yeasty (?), which is probably where the comparison came from. As much as I am a self-professed Marmite lover, I can’t stand Bovril, and I didn’t fancy drinking Marmite either. Luckily, it’s in scent only. The tea itself is malty, with a light astringency (I was still able to drink it black so not too astringent) and definite raisin notes. I rather enjoyed it! Sadly, I tried to resteep my leaf and got a cup of deceivingly-dark hot water. Never mind.

Thanks to MissB for sending this my way, I never would have tried it otherwise!

The pouch of this I have comes from a collaboration with Bookishly, a subscription service where you’re sent a classic novel in an artistic sleeve every month accompanied by a pouch of themed tea. The label on the Bookishly pouch actually lists the name as ‘Drink Me’ (it came with a copy of Alice in Wonderland), with ‘kaika cherry sencha’ as a subheader, but after some digging it looks like the same tea is sold by Jenier under the latter, so I’ve created the listing like that so it’s easier for others to find.

On opening the packet, I was immediately hit with a strong cherry scent, along with something distinctly playdough-y. I was worried that it would taste artificial because of the scent, which is just as strong when steeped, but I needn’t have been as I was pleasantly surprised by how subtle and delicate the flavouring actually is in comparison to the scent. In the sip it actually reminds me of Japanese flavouring – very tea-forward, with the cherry playing an important but supporting role. Green teas are not my favourites as a general rule, but I really enjoyed this one as a blend, and will happily finish the rest of my pouch.

Ugh, this one again. At least it’s the last of it from the advent calendar, and I will never have to drink it again! Garlic still prominent, sadly. It’s mostly a plain rooibos in the sip, with a lightly spicy, lingering garlic aftertaste. Just, why?