168 Tasting Notes
23rd day of Sara’s Advent Calendar!
It’s Christmas Eve Eve, and this is a nice spiced tea that reminds me a bit of Hobee’s tea, a blend they serve in their restaurants and also offer in loose leaf. The cinnamon and clove waft off the cup and are the prominent flavors. I can also taste the rooibos and a subtle note of the orange peel. It tastes sweet too. I like it hot, and I’ll bet it would work great as an iced tea too.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Orange Zest, Rooibos, Sweet
Preparation
22nd day, not much left of my Advent calendar!
I am told this is the best of Sara’s calendar. Based on the smell already, wow. It smells like honey.
Whoa. I remember thinking lapsang souchong tastes like sipping black tea around a campfire while the wind blows smoke directly into your face. Thankfully someone thought to put out the campfire.
It’s very honey-tasting. There’s a strong black tea flavor, but not very astringent. There are notes of raisins, maple syrup, and chocolate too. Oh and malt near the end of the sip. How can this much flavor be in a pure tea? It boggles the mind. I wish it had come up sooner, would have ordered some as a present for my son and daughter in law. Heck, I might still. Wow, Sara, I can see why you love this tea. Wow.
Edit: I have ordered some.
Flavors: Chocolate, Honey, Malt, Maple Syrup, Raisins, Tea
Preparation
The malty flavor at the end of the sip makes me crave a soda pop I got into on a visit to Venezuela called malta. It’s malt-flavored by the way.
Simply the best. <3
I haven’t tried this particular Wild Lapsang yet, but of the two I have had, both had a very malty based with strong cocoa and mandarin orange notes. I also remember getting honey sweetness and a spice note. One of the two had a strong floral rose note, so it has been my favorite of the two… it was like dark chocolate paired with oranges and roses, so good! I believe I did both gong fu. May have also tried them western finishing up the little sampler packets I had of those.
Sara’s Advent calendar, 21. It’s old enough to drink. Tea.
Ooh, this is a Taiwanese oolong… from Adagio, okay. Wow, it smells nice, a bit grassy. The taste is nice, grassy and vegetal and buttery and a bit sweet. It feels very smooth going down. I wonder where they sourced this from. It’s very nice. I also wonder how well it would steep gong fu style. I’ll bet someone here has done so… yes, sounds like it does well.
Flavors: Butter, Grass, Sweet, Vegetal
Preparation
Get ’em started early, mix tea into the milk and put it in the bottle. ^_~
I still need to gong fu this… So hard for me to find the time to do gong fu sessions! I need to dedicate more time to them because they are a great way to experience tea in a new way.
You two are silly.
It’s already the 20th day of Advent! Thanks again to Sara for the custom calendar!
This one smells like pumpkin in the cup, not just spice! Since this is a chai blend, I brewed it in water and added enough vanilla almond milk to cool it down so I can drink it right away. It’s probably not to most people’s taste, but I like doing it that way.
It’s actually more pumpkin than spice! I can taste a little cinnamon and clove or allspice. I checked the ingredients, and no allspice. So it must be clove. Oh hey, now I found a ginger note at the end of the sip.
I think it would be fine w/o any milk too.
If you like your chai to have a big kick of spices, you might not like this one so much, but I love it. It’s warm and soothing.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, Pumpkin
Preparation
The best pumpkin chai. It’s mellow enough it doesn’t need to be milked, and it actually does have a pumpkin flavor, not just spices. I’ve tried a lot of pumpkin teas and it is still one of my favorites. Has a nice vanilla sweetness from the vanilla bean in the blend if you drink it plain, too.
Sara’s custom Advent tea calendar, 19th day!
The leaf smelled strongly of ginger and turmeric.
The turmeric and ginger are pretty balanced in the beginning of the sip, while I taste licorice root at the end of the sip. The taste lingers a bit after the sip, mostly the licorice root, but it doesn’t burn. This is milder than I thought it would be, with all the delicious spices. But it is strong enough that I’ll bet it would work great as a latte too.
Flavors: Ginger, Licorice
Preparation
Usually turm/ginger teas burn my mouth to pieces. Does the licorice really balance it that much? Huh! I haven’t tried this one yet!
Try it! Not a hint of burn for me… so perhaps a slight burn for you, but shouldn’t be bad! That TeaCrush ginger that was too much for you, I could really detect the kick, but enjoyed it. This one should be up your alley.
The Turmeric Ginger Pear Teacrush I was fine with (my favorite!), it was the Cayenne Pepper one that was too much for me! That one was… hoo boy, ya. Tea Chai Te has a turm/ginger tea that I can only drink if I infuse it directly in coconut milk, not water!
Oh that’s right. I mixed them up.
It’s the 18th day of Advent already? Time for another tea from Sara’s calendar!
This tastes like “golden” to me! I also notice honey and cinnamon notes. It kind of feels rich and light at the same time. I can taste the black tea also. I’m really impressed with this one.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Honey, Tea
Preparation
Ya, Golden Monkey is a great tea. I often get cocoa, apricot/peachy/stonefruity notes, and sometimes sweet potato, though brewed Western usually it’s the cocoa, honey, and spice that stands out me. So sweet and smooth, I don’t think I’ve ever had a hint of astringency from this stuff.
The 17th, a good number for Sara, who gave me this custom tea advent calendar.
The smell is very subtle. It smells good, but nothing I can pick out.
Without using other tasting notes as a cheat sheet, I notice a honey note. It’s a really tasty tea! After reading the other tasty notes, I can pick out a bit of roasted and vegetal notes, but they’re very subtle. I imagine this would be great to drink while sitting under a tree, reading a favorite book.
Flavors: Honey, Roasted, Vegetal
Preparation
Ah, a good one for Lucky #17, as far as I’m concerned. I miss this oolong. One day I’ll restock it… I always found it super toasty, like roasted nuts, with that floral honeysuckle sweetness. It was also amaze-balls cold-steeped, I think I went through it fast because I kept making it as iced tea.
Sweet 16th day of Sara’s advent calendar.
Moondrop Dreams!
The leaf smells amazeballs. Steeped it smells… kind of like honey with a hint of spice.
The first sip was like some kind of spice journey without a map. There are a lot of spices in there, well balanced, having a party. There’s a note of honey at the end of the sip.
I had to cheat and look at the ingredients while sipping to pick out the orange zest and lavender flavors, and I still couldn’t pick out others. But I’m really happy to join the spice party. I am considering buying some of this.
Flavors: Honey, Lavender, Orange Zest, Spices
Preparation
I’m surprised you got no lemon from this, it should be the main note aside from the lavender (it’s a lemon/lavender blend). I’ve had a different lemon/lavender blend and did notice the lemon wasn’t as strong in this one on the rooibos base as the other (the other isn’t vegan so…) but I could taste it. I always find the lavender is never very strong in these… I always add just a little bit more from my stash, heh.
Yeah, that is odd. But there were a lot of flavors to pick out, and I did really enjoy it.
On the 15th day of Sara’s Advent Calendar…
Ooh, this is a fine green tea. It’s very smooth, with a pure taste, if that makes sense. It’s a little sweet, with honey notes. It’s very refreshing, even hot, and I would love to try i iced too. There’s also a very mild vegetal note. It’s really good.
Flavors: Honey, Vegetal
Ya, it always made me think of a sweeter, more natural-tasting version of Hobee’s tea as well. While I frequently ice Hobee’s tea, I actually prefer this one warm; for some reason I don’t like red rooibos iced. Something about it cold brings out certain medicinal notes I just don’t like. But I drink it as a warm evening herbal all the time!