3373 Tasting Notes
This tea came as a sample sent by Nicole in a vast set of Adagio Communi-tea packets. Many thanks, Nicole!
When I made this tea I was not aware that the name translates to “Almond Joy”, but I must say the flavor is pretty spot on. I saw the ingredient list of coconut, chocolate, and almond, and knowing that Ashman doesn’t care for chocolate flavoring (he does like chocolate and cacao nibs in tea, though) decided it would be a good sample sipdown for my solitary breakfast today.
It went well with my meal. I steeped it twice and combined the two steeps to get a good-sized little pot of tea out of it that had plenty of flavor, so it is an economical steeper. It went well with food, and now that it is cooling and I am drinking the last of it sans food, the Almond Joy flavor becomes really apparent.
If you like the candy bar, you would probably enjoy this tea very much! Cassidy Macomber did a good job on the blend, and 5% of the sales goes to the Animal Welfare Institute, according to info page on this tea.
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This is another tea from the box from Nicole – many thanks!
This has been a favorite! I really don’t drink much chai and when I do it is the cinnamon and cardamom type rather than the black pepper and turmeric type. This is of the first sort and has no caffeine as it is herbal! This made it a perfect candidate for making syrup to use for tea sodas.
Now and then I crave a Coke in summer, but I have found that a good tea soda will satisfy that craving perfectly and is far healthier. It doesn’t have to lean toward cola flavors. Ashman and I split a twelve ounce bottle of Perrier, although with the new PFAS information I will probably be switching to San Pellegrino or just getting a home carbonation appliance. Then I add a couple of ounces of syrup and stir well, because it will sink to the bottom of the glass like lead even though I add I last.
This has been so refreshing and is definitely a candidate for a repurchase someday just for this application, although I also like to make a syrup of Harney’s Vanilla Comoro (so I can drink it any time of day) and spices like cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, and maybe a bit of orange zest. I usually do equal parts sugar to water ratio, sometimes a bit less sugar.
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This was a gift from Nicole – many thanks!
We went to a Mexican restaurant for my brother-in-law’s birthday Friday night. The food is awesome but every time I go, the high salt and fat content in the food makes my hands swell up and leaves me with a bloated feeling and reflux. I decided not to indulge too much in the chips and salsa. I gave away my quesadilla that came with my meal. I felt great.
Ashman also tried to restrain himself on the chips and salsa but he had worked late, was famished, and the food took a long time coming since we had a crowd. Also, he doesn’t eat beef and changed his mind at the last second on what he was ordering and accidentally ended up with a beef burrito, which he ate but probably lacks the enzymes to digest well since he never eats beef.
This meant that on the way home he was groaning. I had him drink a glass of cold puerh from the fridge before bed but he still felt that bloat Saturday morning so I made a light breakfast of English muffins with jam and a huge pot of this puerh.
By lunchtime he pronounced himself cured but we have continued to make pots of this tea and drink it throughout the weekend, especially since we returned to heavier breakfast fare today of breakfast burritos made with my friend’s chickens fresh eggs, our homegrown cherry tomatoes, sautéed onions, and cheddar cheese.
They call for a four minute steep and I never let it go that long, although I do like really strong shu. This one is more earthy and definitely smooth and forgiving of absentminded steeping. It was darker in the cup than black tea but so easy to drink. It lacks the strong farm poo odors of many shu puerh teas. There is a sweet minerality to it, as well. I also keep the second and third steeps shorter than the first, going by color instead of time.
Overall, this is a super easy to drink pu, easy to steep like most shu, and lacks some of the stronger notes that put some people off, notes that I generally don’t mind. This would probably be a good intro to puerh tea for the apprehensive.
July Sipdown Prompt – your oldest green
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I actually sipped down my out of date greens last year! But this tea came in a big box and two years past date already when I got it, so the reader needs to keep that in mind for this note.
The packet was sealed and sturdy so I figured it would be in pretty good shape even if a little faded.
The dry leaf smelled really good with those pure chocolate notes I sometimes get from greens or certain oolongs, like Da Hong Pao.
The first time I had the tea I thought maybe I underleafed because it didn’t have tons of flavor. It was good, but nothing to write home about. It went well with my meal, didn’t call any attention to itself, and was not at all harsh.
I decided to finish it off by making a big pot and err on the side of overleafing. There isn’t a lot of difference. It is good, but right now there is nothing about it that makes me want to get some more right away. I will happily sip on and enjoy this pot for the rest of the afternoon.it isn’t grassy, but rather has mid-tones that are a little mineral and maybe ever so mildly roasted in nature. I bet it was really awesome fresh, so I need to try this type again sometime.
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July Sipdown Prompt – a tea you will re-order
This wasn’t in my cupboard but should have been. Always welcome, especially as an afternoon treat with chocolates, cake, or cookies. I am enjoying this cup immensely and it fills the flavor profile I got from Fig Formosa but even better, I think.
Definitely one I want to have again.
This tea was a gift from Youngest – many thanks!
I looked this up on the Tin Roof website. If you search for the tea, it says no results found. Tried more than once. If you just click the category for aroma oolong you will find it. And you should find it if these are flavors that appeal to you because it is really good.
Tin Roof recommends making it at 176F and steeping for three minutes, so that is what I did.
This is a floral green oolong and it pairs so beautifully with the apricot flavor. There are pieces of dried fruit in the blend as well as flavoring. There is a deep note that hints at baked apricot but not pastry. It is a lovely balance. The taste is green oolong up front and then the fruit flavor blooms and finishes strong. It is not an overpowering flavoring, though, and I find it to be clearly apricot and not peach, which can come offasting very similar.
This is a tea I would repurchase one day. I wonder how it is iced…..
July Sipdown Prompt – World Chocolate Day
This tea was a gift from Nicole – many thanks!
I don’t have many chocolate teas. Ashman hates article chocolate flavor. He says many of them smell like mildew to him and after he said that, I completely get it. Sometimes chocolate flavored teas appeal to me, sometimes not. But he and I BOTH enjoy real cacao nibs, and that is all we have in this one!
The steeped liquor smells like a melted candy bar. Years ago I wouldn’t have enjoyed this because my brain would have expected the sugar and fats and such of candy or frostings, but now I like it.
This came out a deep golden yellow. The mouthfeel is a little coating, almost oily but not in a bad way. It is mostly just the feel of the body of the tea. I don’t know if milk and sugar would make it seem like hot cocoa for me or if it would ruin it, because I am enjoying it as is.
Next I want to try adding this to a plain tea that could use some dressing up, or to a chocolate tea that could use a boost.
Edited to add: I couldn’t resist. I had to see if it made a nice cup of hot chocolate without caffeine. Heated some milk, steeped for six minutes, added sugar. It is so delicious, Ashman and I both drank some and loved it. I put the normal amount of sugar I would put 8n a cup of hot chocolate and it was a little much, so this is a good way to get caffeine free and lower sugar hot chocolate this fall and winter. Definitely something I want ti look into ordering.
Delicious and satisfying. Thank you, Nicole!
This is a sample that was sent in the box from Youngest – many thanks!
I didn’t add any of the Perennial Tea Room samples to my cupboard because they were large samples but still less than two ounces, so it felt like a cheat to call it a sipdown. This is a sample sipdown, however!
I do NOT like red rooibos, though I enjoy flavored green rooibos a lot. There was one from Lupicia that I liked called Caramel and Rum, I believe. I liked the plain one from Fortnum and Mason well enough, and ordered a tin of plain red from Harney which was a horrible mistake. Could not drink it. So I was a bit apprehensive and thought I might not like this at all.
But this one….right away the dry blend smelled like lovely caramel. After steeping, that is still the main thing going on. I do not get cappucino from this at all, but the caramel is so nice and the rooibos is very woody but does not reek of Robitussin like so much red rooibos does.
I enjoyed this very much and would be happy to have a cup with cookies or biscotti in the evening most anytime. We had lemon biscotti with it.
There were lots of flower petals in this, and I was surprised to find that although I detected no floral taste, there was a lovely floral aroma to the cup that I held close to my face just to enjoy sniffing that lovely aroma.
This is a sample sipdown!
I regret that I didn’t save a teaspoon for gmathis because this is right up her alley. This is a tea that will boot you out of bed and out the door and quite possibly out of the county in the morning.
With food, it is simply a warm chestnut blend, but if you are not eating or if it is not actively washing breakfast down, it has some surprising heft. It isn’t as coppery as builder’s tea tends to be but it does have a lot of oomph.
