August Uncommon Tea

This has a pleasantly mild anise flavor that surprised me. The other flavors are the typical fruity mix but the mild anise makes it much more interesting. I am not usually a licorice, anise, fennel fan but this was quite nice.

A white pu’erh? Sounds exciting. To me it tastes like a bolder cup of quality white tea. Not grassy but sunny with a hint of fruit underneath. Not intriguing though. I think perhaps more experienced white and pu’erh tea drinkers would appreciate this more than I do.

This is a very herbaceous tea— aroma is juniper and thyme. Lemon balm helps to balance the flavor, and it really does taste as billed, “a walk in the woods.” Once again a very intellectually interesting tea from AU. What I am realizing is that it doesn’t hit the notes that I am looking for in a black tea— what I am missing is the tea itself. I haven’t found any of the AU teas uninteresting but have only reordered one flavor (Staring at the Sea). I think AU has a great concept and will definitely check out their fall collection, so we’ll see.

Very very floral, jasmine dominates. Almond remains confined to the aroma. First steep leaves my tongue feeling unpleasantly fuzzy.

Second steep still too floral for me… not my cup of tea.

Another from beelicious and to be honest, i’m not sure how i feel about this one. weird smell and an interesting taste. i think the black teas from August uncommon are more up my alley than others. For sure you can taste the anise, but it was balanced enough to only really come through as that sweet taste, I didn’t hate this one, but it wasn’t anything ZOMG MUST have either. still an interesting view in to AC’s teas. Thanks B!

thank you beelicious this is an intriguing brew. I think it falls in to the category of not for me, but this is unique enough that i’m SUPER glad to have tried it. there’s a cooked bread, artichoke feeling to this one…i almost feel like i should be adding a pinch of salt to it..it feels much more like i should be eating this rather than drinking it lol.

thanks for sharing beelicious….it’s a unique tea, just not for me haha but for sure interesting to taste.

boooooring lol Sample from omgsrsly. I have to say this just tastes like any old roasted oolong. I’ll give it another go but for the most part i’m not really getting anything spectacular from this. It’s not a bad tea..but it’s totally middle of the road for me

Sample from Beelicious Sadly this one is a miss for me, if only because it just tastes like a roasty oolong. I’m not really getting a feeling of there being any blending happening with this. It’s just a green-er looking oolong that tastes somewhere in the middle of a green oolong and and really roasty one lol. It’s not a BAD cup of tea…it’s got a smooth finish to it, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not worth 20$ shipping haha

so this was the tea that started my swap with beelicious. She was not impressed, and i’m willing to try nearly anything :) Turns out this is pretty gross. First off, it smells like tiger balm/vick’s vapo rub. There’s just something about it that isn’t right. Brewed, it tastes a little better….slightly smokey but mostly i feel like i’m drinking liquid vapo rub. It’s not even really “pine” it’s menthol more than anything. I am also not a fan. not the worst, but August uncommon has MUCH better offerings! Thanks beelicious! :)

Final cup of this today because the last little bit of my sample is off to Shezza and Christina. I enjoyed this one immensely – not too spicey but interestingly enough to keep me satisfied!

noms. chocolate and chili! sweet and hot. today this is more chocolate than chili but it’s still a delicious cup. :)

this one is back in my cupboard after getting to try a sample of this a while back. chili, black tea and chocolate? YES. I love this blend and i’m happy to have more in my cupboard.

Another from beelicious and one off my wishlist. I love this! It’s a great blend of chili, cacao and black tea. I imagined this one being spicier than it was, but i’m not disappointed. Because the flavours actually blend together really nicely, i don’t long for a spicier bite to this cup. It’s interesting and one that i would love to stock if i can find a better shipping price than 20usd. UGH. seems obscene for that expense to canada.

thank you beelicious She was kind enough to swap some of these teas with me so that i could give them a whirl and hopefully try them before they’re gone. Though even if they are gone, it still helps give me a sense of what the company is capable of before placing and order since international shipping is a flat 20usd. gross.

i can’t figure out what tea this one reminds me of. the aroma is absolutely that of another tea that i’ve had before…maybe one of the roasted oolongs that i’ve had? The difference here is that i am really enjoying the brew of this one. I prefer yellow teas that produce a sweet liquor, but this is still really nice and thoroughly enjoyable. roasted peanut oolong sort of taste…smooth, no bitterness and a satisfying cup. not heavy.

Fresh roasted artichoke hearts! Not getting much reminder of the sea— more like appetizers on my grandma’s patio in California farmland. So good that it is a struggle not to gulp it down. Wow. AU teas keep surprising me. I need more of this!

Second steep is artichoke leaves— the fleshy good part that you scrape off with your teeth. I don’t know why but this is making me so happy right now! Is this what tea drunk feels like?

Yeah, it’s pretty medicinal. Disappointing because of all the AU selections this is the one that I was most excited to try. I see that they were going for pine needles, but other flavors are overwhelmed. Even so, there is a slightly salty, slightly smoky, slightly sweet taste at the end of each sip which becomes more consistent as it cools. And then the cardamom comes out, which although I love cardamom, I think it is part of what’s wrong here— it really contributes to the medicinal taste.

No regrets on trying this sample or any of the other AU selections so far. Each has been surprising, intriguing, with a quality tea base— by far the most interesting if not the most delicious that I have tried. And I have this feeling that as my tea journey unfolds interesting may begin to trump delicious…

I’m not quite sure what to think of this one.

To start I despise anise. The only way I can really stand it is if it’s in a spicy chai, buried and blended with several other flavors. Here, it’s one of the main ingredients. I will admit that the smell is much stronger than in the brew. The cocoa shell and barley make for a very velvety, smooth, grain-and-chocolate experience. It’s heavenly. It’s a little buttery and it really does remind me of biscotti! The anise serves as a back note: very, very faint but still present. I find myself craving it now and again, but I only have one cup left in my sample. Maybe that’s a sign that I should reorder. I do wish they had a 50g sized option…

Preboil/10oz/3.5g/120s/150s

This is a unique and interesting tea. I’ve never had anything like it before. The steeped liquor is a beautiful, pale amber with the strong aroma of peanuts, soup broth, and salt. It’s very savory with a dark, buttery undertone. It’s not very heavy (surprisingly) and it doesn’t stick to the inside of your mouth like other teas with such dense flavors. It’s light to medium bodied with a mildly sweet aftertaste. The savory/umami quality makes me think of edamame, though I don’t think that’s exactly right. The flavor of butter combined with the faint, faint saltiness (and roasted/nuts) also bring popcorn to mind. Maybe popcorn cooked a little too long. I’m not getting “smoke” although the roasty notes are coming through quite strongly. It’s a little vegetal, which helps me see why others could call it a combination of roasted buttery oolong and smoky green tea. That’s a VERY accurate description. The second steep contained many of the same notes, with a little more salt and vegetal sweetness. The peanut flavor has receded, just slightly, and the aftertaste has a more lingering presence. Edamame, snap peas, and peanuts. Unexpectedly delicious. (I don’t even like peanuts.) Have I mentioned how incredibly smooth this tea is? It’s so smooth! No astringency or roughness whatsoever. If it were, I think it would ruin this tea for me. As it is it’s perfect.

(:

It’s nice to step out of your comfort zone sometimes and try something you wouldn’t normally try. It was a huge win in this case. I’m glad I got the sampler, because otherwise I would not have wanted to try this…and now I’m entertaining the thought of getting more.

Another one I managed to sneak into my bag before jetting off the other day… And I’m kinda disappointed that out of all the amazing teas I have in my cupboard I picked this one up and took it with me…. It smells like hydrogen peroxide!! Taste wise it’s really medicinal when hot and as it cools there is a sweetness that suddenly jumps out but unfortunately the medicinal flavor is still the most dominant… I’m not a fan at all but it could just be me and my spoilt tastebuds. I would be happy to find this guy another home where he might be better appreciated if anyone out there is interested to try it

MMMM, So good on a Sunday morning.

OMG, I really love this tea. its just so good. today is savory and sweet and just omg.
Great Damn Tea!!!
Oooooooo Mommy!
My fav from August Uncommon, I need to try some other ones from them but this one won’t let me.

Awesome good!!!
sometimes ya smell or taste something because you read it in a description, I read peanut aroma and try to smell peanut and I do totally and it smells really really good. Everybody else says it smells nutty too, I made everybody sniff it cuz it smelled so good lol

2 reviews already as I read them I see they are both so different but I’m in agreement with both of them and then some, this tea is Sooooo Good!

The taste is even better than the smell, I’m not very experienced at yellow teas so i’m not sure how they are suppose to taste but this one is just Awesome.
It is nutty(like the smell)kinda roasty and buttery with a savory note and so velvety smooth, vegetal, woodsy, smokey, earthy and slight sweetness too(sweetness like the sweetness of sweet peas).
Last but not least I get a slight hint of an odd something that took me a while to put my finger on, I think it may be called an Umami?
I’m not sure how to describe it, its a kinda savory almost, kinda like the Umami that you get from a grilled steak, I know that weird but thats what I get.
This one to me is kinda like a cross between a nutty, buttery, roasty oolong and a sweet,vegetal, smokey green tea(smokeyness like a gunpowder green).

I really, really dig this tea,in Love for sure.
Sad that I almost drank my Mini all up I will be wanting to get more of this one asap :)
I’ve had 1 or 2 Yellow Teas before but not enough to know anything,
Is This what yellow teas taste like? Now I must explore more yellow teas lol
100 Points!