August Uncommon Tea

The time has come. I get to see what everyone is freaking out about when it comes to August Uncommon. I’ve already tried three but have been too lazy to write any notes until now. Since cardamom and I are BFF’s—and because I got only a sample of this—first August Uncommon tasting note it is.

Hot, the cardamom and vanilla are ultra present whilst the base is mild. Initially, the first sip won me over and I immediately thought that I should order more before it’s gone. As this started to cool, however, the vanilla/cardamom and base are swapping places, and this becomes more vegetal.

The second cup I’m enjoying right now isn’t as creamily vanilla-esque as yesterday evening’s. I’d say I added less leaf than yesterday but tried to keep the rest of the steeping parameters the same. I’ll gladly finish the sample size but no more for me. I hands down prefer DAVIDsTEA’s Cardamom French Toast.

Second night this month when I haven’t slept a single minute and involuntarily witnessed the sun rise. Brain please shut up?

Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box
There was 1 cup left of this tea so I was grateful to have the privilege of trying the last of it. It was delicious. It didn’t have a Pu-Erh taste at all, which I really enjoyed. It tasted like a great white tea. Honeyed hay and sunshine, or moonlight I guess. I enjoyed the hints of nectarine that ended the sip. Really good. I would definitely recommend it.

(I listed peach as a flavour, but it was actually nectarine which wasn’t a option to choose.)

I’m reviewing another tea from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox! (It’ll probably take me another week or so to finish typing up all my reviews from my notes.) I’m definitely not getting the “artichoke” flavor that others have mentioned, but that’s okay because I don’t think I go in much for vegetable flavored teas. What I mostly noticed about this one is that the green tea flavor is set off nicely by the grain, which adds a sort of nutty note even though it doesn’t really taste like nuts so it’s kind of difficult to explain. It’s quite interesting and really good, though! And I don’t think I’m just saying that because I’m hungry. :P However, I only steeped it for two minutes rather than the recommended five so maybe I wouldn’t like it at all if it was at full strength. Who knows?

Well. This tea really does depend on the ingredients for the taste more than the tea. That taste gave it a 95, but the tea itself lowered it.

I might have oversteeped it. Flat black tea with chocolate hazelnut aftertaste. Great.

Liquid Nutella is the best deccription I can offer. Smells like thick flavored booze or tobacco. And a very smooth black tea base that is INCREDIBLY sweet. Officially one of the best chocolate teas I’ve yet had. I highly recommend. Thank you Sil for giving me the recommendation and coupon!

Now. This is for you guys.

http://go.referralcandy.com/share/TQ3P5MF

Finally got to try it! Yay! And I got it really fast. I can officially recommend August Uncommon Tea as a company. I’ve never had better customer service. And they included a tea scoop which makes measuring leaves out so much easier.

Onward to the tea. About 2-3 grams in 2-3 ounces. I could have done it Gong Fu with more leaves, but I turned it into western for strength.

30 seconds.
Orchid. And toasty. Overall pleasant. More time needed.

Two and a half minutes later.
Chocolate orchid dominant, which is something that is hard to describe. It does taste exactly like that flower. Again, that is a distant reference. Still more toastiness and a little bit of the coconut talked about.

5 minutes second/third steep.
Toasted coconut and mild orchid. On the borders of being similar to an almond joy, but not nearly as sweet or chocolaty.

10 minutes, fourth steep.
Toasted coconut and chocolate orchid.

This tea could actually go on.

Anyway, I agree with Sil and it is a fairly typical roasted oolong that is not quite green and not quite dark. Yet I can say it’s one of the better examples of a roasted oolong. If I had more disposable income, I might get the full 100 grams of this because its so calming and pleasant. Really an everyday tea. As for the petrichor, I can definitely understand the comparison and would drink this on a rainy day, too. Chocolate orchid and toasted coconut are the two best ways to describe this tea really. But I do have teas that are similar to this. It actually tastes exactly the base of Tea Spot’s Coconut Cabana which is by no means a bad thing. I actually appreciate the purity this one has. I can now say I feel a little accomplished after drinking this tea.

Highly recommend this rich tea. If suffering a sugar addiction, replace a donut with a cup of Veins of Gold. Hands down my favorite rooibos. Has a milky flavor, taste lingers on the tongue like cream. Has a faint wood vibe, but not really, tastes like roots of earth mixed with chocolate and delicious cream. I drink tea straight, don’t add milk or sugar. Don’t need it with Veins of Gold, rich enough, like a meal in a cup.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #43
First, the leaves in the sample do not look like the picture – that has solid sickle shaped leaves. The sample is mostly crumbly tiny leaves in green & black with a few sickle shaped white leaves here and there. Regardless, I love the story that this tea is processed during a full moon in the moonlight. AND it reminds me of Butiki’s White Rhino in flavor, so that is always a plus. It’s a really nice flavor profile – smooth, honey, hints of hay, some sort of light fruit. I definitely recommend trying the last steep at boiling… the flavor is even more pronounced and delicious, while still being smooth. Rather than a sheng it’s like a really light black tea. I love the slow flavor change from steep to steep.
Steep #1 // 30 min after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 20 min a.b. // 2-3 min steep
Steep #3 // couple min a.b. // 3-4 min steep
ETA: I’m laughing that the description mentions it tasting like wet limestone…. not sure how I would know what that tastes like.. haha.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #41
I can’t wait til this one is out of the teabox so I don’t hear that Cure song every time I see the name of this tea. :D Anyway, this is a nice green with a sweet nutty flavor that I was expecting to be stronger, like being hit in the face with an ocean wave. But it’s more like sweet macadamia nut. I had it a couple days ago, so not much else to say, but a fine green tea.

Sipdown from last night.

I finished this off because I was really craving chocolate last night but didn’t want to eat anything snacky since I had already eaten a lot yesterday. I let it oversteep a bit and didn’t add any sugar, which made it less candylike. But it still smelled totally boozy.

I realize now that I really want more decaf chocolate teas for the evening when I want something sweet but don’t want caffeine. What do you all recommend? I know there are many out there to choose from.

Oh. My. God.

I opened up the package that Sil sent me (which came with the GCTTB5) this morning, and it smelled LIKE BOOZE. CHOCOLATE AND BOOZE AT A QUARTER TO 7 IN THE MORNING.

Since I don’t drink a lot of alcohol I couldn’t name exactly what kind of booze I was smelling. Rum? Brandy? Nevertheless, it smelled amazing. Like chocolate covered cherries.

The flavour was more subtle, but very enjoyable. I super wish I had this tea on Valentine’s Day, it would have been so perfect.

Thank you to Dexter and Sil for sharing this.

It was… bad. So astringent. The chili barely made itself known, and the chocolate did not blend well with the astringent Ceylon base. “Brisk” is what they call it…

Even milk didn’t rescue it for me.

So disappointed. The flavours sounded like such a great combination after I tried Passage du Desir.

:(

Chocolate and something. The caraway (which honestly I usually detest) wasn’t extremely prevalent. But it was more of a savoury chocolate tea, and I much preferred the sweetness of Passage de Desir (or whatever).

Nice tea, but the flavours aren’t for me at all.

Thank you for sharing all the teas, Sil!

I made a good choice with this one.

Not as boozey as it was that first time.

Really delicious, though. This might not be my ideal chestnut tea, but it’s a nice nutty chocolate tea. Here’s hoping I don’t get tired of the chocolate flavour before I reach the end of my 100g!

Has this the other night while a bunch of us were on Facebook egging each other on to make an order. It’s nice. The chocolate is a good chocolate, but what really made it for me was the sweet and nutty flavours.

This is, however, nothing like Chaud les Marrons! from Lupicia. Which is sad.

But I still bough some of this because it’s unlike anything else I have at home, and I happily drank the whole mug, and then uhh, a tea friend whose steepster name I forget came over and had the second steeping, and then we tried Leatherbound.

It was a good evening. :)

Sipdown.

This was a sample that Sil gave me when we met at the Toronto Tea Festival. I know that August Uncommon has some unusual blends, but I’ve never really cottoned on to the idea of mixing green tea and vanilla, or green tea with chai spices. This has green tea, vanilla, and cardamom.

It smells lovely, I will give it that — vanilla and spice and cake. But the taste is pretty much what I was expecting: vegetal and vanilla. It was smoother than I expected, but it didn’t quite win me over.

Rambling thoughts:

I’m sitting here watching the hockey game, wondering why I haven’t opened my X-mas gift from my boss. It’s sitting here on the coffee table. I haven’t opened it because she doesn’t believe in opening gifts before 25Dec. She would never know if I opened it early or not. Why am I not opening it? Why am I even pondering it? Must be too much bourbon in the tea…..

Brutal cold out there tonight. Staying in drinking Low Country with honey bourbon.

It really is a beautiful thing…..

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB_PCBuuE8F/?taken-by=dex3657

Yet another one that Sil shared with me.

I had a cup of this a few days ago and wasn’t quite sure what I thought about it. It was nice and really caramel – but wasn’t getting the burnt bourbon notes that are mentioned.
Not sure what I did different tonight – but wow – boozy. More leaf longer steep is what I think. Really like how it is tonight. A little smokey – a little caramel – a lot of bourbon (sweet booze). I’m going to get more of this one too – I will need to play with it. Me thinks a little maple syrup would go well in here (or even a little bourbon on those crazy nights)….

Just for the record – yes I"m drinking all three of these August Uncommon teas while I’m putting together a shopping cart – this is going to be my first purchase of 2016…..

Thanks so much Sil for introducing me to these amazing teas….. :))

OMG!!!!! This is the most amazing chocolate nut tea. WOW!!! Fantastic. It’s chocolate chestnut and just screams hot chocolate by the fire. Mmmmmmmmmm
I don’t have much more to say – other than 200g of this is in a shopping cart right now. Sooooo gooood.
Thank you Sil for sharing.

Drinking though a few of the August Uncommon teas that Sil sent to me.
Wow – this is really fun. A little unusual but really interesting. It’s just a really nice molasses, chocolate, bready black tea – and then there is this something in the background – if you don’t read the ingredient list it’s hard to put your finger on it. But then yep – that’s it – caraway – that’s why it’s a little pumpernickel bread ish. Awesome – in a strange kind of way.
I need more of this in my life – even though I don’t think it’s the kind of tea that I would drink everyday (that’s probably a good thing – it’s pretty expensive) – but on those days you need something special – this would totally fit the bill.
Thank you so much Sil for sharing.

Honestly, this tastes like something I should be using to season up some lamb. So I put a good teaspoon of honey into it… and it still tastes like something I should be using to season up some lamb!

Really really neat tea, but extremely savoury. Fairly rich, which is nice, especially compared to that tomato-and-red-pepper-water tea I had a few days ago. Not something to drink when you want a sweet treat, but I actually quite like it. I have enough for another cup, and I might also use the leftover leaves from this cup to flavour a piece of chicken… guess it depends on if I manage to get out and do grocery shopping tonight, or if I stay home and continue hassling the cat.

Thank you, Sil! :)

I am really eager to try this blend as I’ve never had a tea blend with caraway included. It sounds like such an interesting combination – assam tea, caraway, cacao.. so unique! Plus, I love the idea of this tea bringing to mind a library and old books.

Sipping… hm, the first thing that I taste is the smooth black tea base and the cacao. It reminds me of other chocolate and black tea blends I’ve had in the past. There is a tiny bit of astringency as well. A strange thing happens after I’ve sipped.. a bit of a buttery flavor blossoms on the tongue. It reminds me of caramel squares and buttered toast. I also pick up on hazelnuts and very lightly, cherries in syrup. The finish is very drying, but it’s still drinkable despite being slightly unpleasant. I can’t seem to pick up on the caraway flavor… but then again, I’ve never had caraway in a tea.. so I could be tasting it, but just not know it.

Overall, I enjoyed this tea and I appreciate that it had many different flavors to discover. I’m not sure that I really experienced the library comparison just by taste… perhaps the description is slightly far-fetched, but it was certainly interesting. I’m excited to see how my next cup will be when I add a bit of milk!