A Quarter to Tea

I know this is loved by Roswell Strange but I apparently have not tried it yet. I like when AQ2T uses this base tea though so when I grabbed it and saw the base and the giant peach slice, I was intrigued.

This package claims this tea is hot and perhaps it is because of the age but I get no heat and no honey. The lack of honey is more surprising given AQ2T has a particular honey flavor that pops up in a lot of teas whether it is supposed to be there or not. However, this is peach and base through and through. The base is bready which combines nicely with the peach. It’s enjoyable but not earth shattering. Perhaps I waited too long to try it and its lost some of its pizzazz. The dangers of a giant stash. I feel like I need to learn how to balance drinking down old teas while making sure I try new ones when they are still fresh.

TTB #16

This was another unique flavor combination that I just had to sample! I kind of expected the rose flavor to take over everything, but there’s definitely a nice buttery shortbread note going on here. I’m so sad that AQTT has gone on hiatus, because Lauren’s blends are brilliant!

TTB #10

I love AQTT and I love cheesecake, so I was super excited to try this blend! Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. I didn’t get any caramel or cheesecake flavor…just a generic mixed berry black tea. I do like AQTT’s berry flavor, but wanted more from this tea based on the name.

Sipdown (808)!

Finished off today, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the last cup. It was just a little bit too artificial and perfume-y tasting, without nearly enough oatmeal to balance out the intensity of the flavour. Also, just not plum…

Oh well.

Plum is such a hard flavour to get right, but I always hold out hope that someone will nail it one day…

Today was not that day, though I did really like the flavour of the tea. It was more that generic dark purple “berry” filling you see in midtier quality pastries than any type of plum flavour. That’s not a bad taste – just not the once that AQ2T was aiming to execute. The oat note comes through much more clearly than I’d have expected; I showed this to my manager today and all he could smell in the dry leaf was oat but I struggled to smell it over the sort of perfumey fruit notes of the dry leaf. I’m getting it in the cup, though!

I do think this has that kind of “AQ2T” quality where there’s just a very present undertone of florality throughout the whole cup – but I’m not mad at it for being there; it adds something interesting to the dance of berry/fruitiness, oat, slight vanilla, and black tea that makes up the rest of the cup.

Thanks VariaTEA for the share!

Thanks to amandastory516 for sharing this tea! I love trying different melon teas, and this one smells so fresh and amazing. Sometimes there’s a little bitterness at the end of the sip. This tea was flavorless until I added sugar, which really helped to amplify the flavors. The watermelon flavor is decently tasty. I’d prefer it on an herbal base since I don’t love oolong in general, but for what it is, it’s pretty well done. The resteep was all oolong.

From TTB 2019/2020.

Even with the lackluster tasting notes on this one, I really wanted to try it. Not just because of the description, but also because of the aroma of the blend straight from the bag. I can’t quite place it, but it reminds me of other blends I’ve tried from AQ2T. It’s very distinct. Maybe raspberry? The flavor, unfortunately, is lacking just as others have said. I did use two teaspoons of dry leaf so it’s not bland at all, but I don’t taste caramel or cheesecake. The berry flavor is there, just as it smells in the blend before steeping, so that’s nice. It’s just not living up to its name.

Probably my last caffeinated tea for the day. I’m buzzing.

From earlier in the month!

Don’t remember much about this one now since it was a few weeks ago, but I know it was light/delicate and a bit thin in the cup with a floral rose note. I wanted it to have more impact/oomph – but it didn’t taste too bed and was a fun thematic tea for the month.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 15

So, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what flavor this tea was supposed to be until I looked at the description. I definitely get some creaminess and nuttiness, but nothing that’s coming across as distinctively banana. (Which is surprising, because AQTT usually does banana really well!) It was a pleasant enough blend, but not terribly distinctive for me.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 13

I love a turtle sundae, so I’ve been wanting to try this one for a while. Personally, I wish the caramel came out a bit more, but I did enjoy the notes of chocolate and nuts and maybe just a hint of burnt sugar. I’m thankful Shae sent such a generous sample so I can play around with sweetening it and/or adding milk to see how that changes the flavor.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 11

Oh my goodness, this is SO GOOD! My whole kitchen smelled amazing while it was brewing and it tasted almost as good as it smelled: notes of sweet toffee, pastry, and something that’s reminding me of dates. This is the best dessert tea I’ve had in a long time…huge thank you to Shae for including it in my advent calendar, especially since it was limited edition and is no longer available. (Pretty sad about that, because I would gladly buy a couple of ounces if I could!)

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 8

Oh wow…this may be my favorite tea in the advent calendar so far! This is hard to believe, but I’m not sure I’ve ever had a caramel-flavored oolong before. Now that I’ve tried it, the flavor combination seems so obvious: why wouldn’t you want to layer caramel flavor onto a tea that’s already smooth and buttery? This particular blend smells AMAZING (my mouth literally started watering when I opened the bag) and tastes almost as good as it smells. Lots of sweet burnt sugar caramel with a hint of creaminess and so delightfully silky-smooth. I’m so sad that this was limited edition, because I’d gladly go buy a whole bag!

Thanks to AJRImmer for a chance to try this tea. It was included as day #4 in my advent calender.

I do find it odd that there is a distinctly floral element here. When I hear fig crumble, I think oats, brown sugar, toasted grain, desserty notes, maybe some distinctly figgy notes. I do taste dried fruit, but the floral and candy flavour is far more prevalent. I also dislike the after taste because it reminds me of the smell of coats/bags that my asshole cats have peed on.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 4

I was excited to see another AQTT blend in the calendar today, as they’re one of my favorite companies! However, I didn’t love my first cup of this one. I definitely get the pumpkin flavor, but nothing that reminds me of brittle…no nuttiness or sweetness that I can detect. Others have definitely picked up on those flavors in their tasting notes though, so I’m not giving up on this one! Shae sent a very generous sample, so I’m going to try different steeping parameters and may also add a bit of honey to my next cup to see if I can get that caramel flavor to pop.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 2

I love A Quarter to Tea, so I was so excited to see this blend in today’s advent calendar packet! The dry leaf smelled pretty spicy, which worried me since AQTT’s Mexican Hot Chocolate was too much for my sensitive taste buds. But the tea itself wasn’t spicy at all! I definitely get banana and hints of smoke; the spices are hanging out somewhere in the background. I’ve never had this particular flavor combination before and I like it!

From last week!

There’s a lot going on with this blend – and immediately, from smelling the dry leaf, I get the sense that there’s probably a lot of flavouring packed into this tea. However, steeped up I quite like it! The roasted oolong was a really good choice for tea base because it adds a great depth and denseness overall and the nuttier roasted notes really play up this idea of a candied fruit/mixed nut fruit cake like all the nicer homemade/artisan ones generally have. I taste notes of pecan/walnut quite specifically too! There’s a good general sweetness level; I swear I’m getting maple notes and a molasses/brown sugar thing that feels very accurate to me of really good fruit cakes!

But how is the fruit note of this fruit cake, you ask!? Well, it’s a little bit boozy bordering on medicinal – like some kind of cherry or maybe blackcurrant brandy!? It’s strong, for sure, but oddly works for me. It’s got that syrupy sweetness that does remind me of those little candied bits of fruit or even a sweet but heavier maraschino cherry vibe!? It works really well with the nutty and roasty elements of the blend and I 100% get “Fruit Cake” from the overall profile!

Sipdown (709)!

Finished off the entire sample in one glorious latte! I just figured this would be a delicious and safe latte to make, and I was correct. The chocolate is rich and decadent with a lovely creaminess that plays well into the latte format and the almond is bright and sweet, with a hint of roasted notes from the roasted planed almonds in the blend but then that kind of “bordering on cherry” boozy amaretto taste as well.

Not totally sure what a pizelle is. Well that’s not totally true; I know it’s a wafer/cookie of some type – but I don’t know exactly how it’s meant to taste. I don’t think I’m getting anything “cookie” from the flavour – but I could be covering with the milk or it could just be one of those “buzzwords” that gets tossed in a tea name to try to make the idea of a chocolate and almond blend seem fancier.

Regardless, this was lovely and appropriately festive as well!

I had this today right at the end of the afternoon but I think I might have to retaste it because the notes I was picking out, in my half attentive state, were a little strange!? I mean, I got the oat and a bit of brown sugar sweetness but what I think was meant to be a fig flavoured just tasted really raisin/grape forward to me…

This has such a unique smell. Floral, maybe? It reminds me of my grandmother’s soap or maybe some of her powdery makeup. I can’t quite place it. It’s not a bad fragrance, not even soapy really, just floral and powdery and grandma-esque. It’s nostalgic really. The aroma changes entirely while steeping. The lemongrass shines. It’s reminding me of PEZ candies for some reason. It has a sweet aroma.

The blend is heavy on the lemongrass and calendula petals. I wish I’d used 2 teaspoons rather than one because the cup is very light and there weren’t many tea leaves there. I can taste lemongrass most of all. It feels and tastes more like an herbal tea. I’m not really getting custard or hibiscus. I’ve added a bit of cream to hopefully bring out the custard flavor, even though the tea is so light. I’m not one bit sad about the missing hibiscus, but I’m bummed that the custard just isn’t there.

Thanks, amandastory516 for letting me try this one!

Thanks to amandastory516 for the sample. Unfortunately, it tastes rather floral and artificial. I don’t get any of the flavors it’s supposed to have. The flavor is pretty strong and not very pleasant. Just a weird one.

THis is another one of the AQ2T blends that uses the same very floral. intense and borderline boozy apple flavouring that all the other AQ2T apple teas does – and honestly I was really banking on that because whatever flarouing AQ2T uses for these blends I’m obsessed with it! Is it a particularly natural tasting apple? Well, no. It’s kind of like a sweet red apple on crack, spritzed with a bit of perfume – but it’s addictive and, to me at least, it just kind of works in everything!? The cranberry adds some tartness/crispness to differentiate this from all of the other apple blends, and I can taste a little baby hit of herbaceous sage in the finish so I think this is a decent recreation of the title flavours as well! Scrumptious!

When I was a kid, we had a small fig tree that would produce one fig a year. The six of us would split that one fig, and it was always so wonderful. I haven’t found a store that carries fresh figs, and I don’t like dried ones, so anyway, maybe fig tea will do the trick? Actually, this one tastes entirely like roses. I thought it was fun that the blend had oats in it, but all I can taste is rose. Since I’m not a big fan of floral teas, sadly this is not a winner for me. Still, thanks to amandastory516 for the sample! Can’t rate it too highly because it doesn’t taste how it’s supposed to at all.

Thanks so much to amandastory516 for the swap! This was the first one I tried because I love horchata, and I would love to find a tea that accomplishes that flavor. Surprisingly, the main flavors I get here are a light pineapple/coconut along with some nice toastiness. I can say that it mildly evokes horchata, but really, it’s delicious regardless. It’s so light and tasty. The resteep tasted like plain genmaicha. I’m glad I have enough for more cups!

Drank this one over lunch.

It’s not bad at all but definitely not my cup of tea, if you’ll pardon the pun. Same cheesecake note as what’s used in On Wisconsin – or at least it tastes like it. Just maybe a bit toned down? It’s nice, definitely works well with the coffee and cream notes. I thought the coffee was actually much more subdued than expected, but very clearly present. That’s the main reason I didn’t love it – I just don’t do coffee flavours that well. I really liked how roasted it tasted though, and the oolong base here is very roasted and mineral tasting (also really present in the cup) and that goes together BRILLIANTLY with the roasted coffee notes, so compositionally I think it all goes together really well.

Maybe I’ll finish this off as a latte?