Cuppa Geek

CuppaGeek Advent Calendar, December 16

This tea? Okay, I had it before last month came, so.. we will see how it is when directly received from Nichole.

Oh dear. It’s still super tasty even I did only 3 minutes steep to make more steeps later! Tart cranberries covered with sweetness! Yum! Bit creamy.

Let’s brew some water for upcoming brews.
Second brew: is as well very tasty, though creamy flavour disappears, but cranberry is still there.

Today morning I was craving for something fruity, but not caffeine-free, so I decided to brew this one. Dry leaf isn’t much cranberry forward, but certainly doesn’t smell like straight forward tea. Certainly I can see some green leaves in blend but haven’t seen any of the fruits.

Anyway, used maybe only one teaspoon, though heaped a bit and brewed for four-five minutes. I see now it is suitable for multiple steeps, but I did just one.

In taste it was way more cranberry like. Indeed tart as expected from cranberries, some creamy and sweet notes and some menthol. Overall it works well together, the base is present in taste as well (that’s something I highly enjoy!).

Well done! I look forward to finish my sample from derk, or it’s from White Antlers actually? Doesn’t matter — thank you both!

Sipdown (2310)!

This sipdown makes me sad as I’ve become very, very fond of the sweet, bright and tangy trio of fresh orange, tart cranberry, and candied cherry flavours – especially as they contrast and pop with the more warming spice notes. It was one of my favourite chai blends in my stash and I’ve loved every last drop of it. Definitely something I would buy for myself again!

Had this one while I was pretty sick but somehow the bright cranberry and orange notes managed to cut through the congestion I was feeling and I was able to actually taste the tea a little bit. Not the spices though. My cold over powered them, I guess.

Quickly becoming one of my favourite chai blends!

Sipped on this earlier in the week and there’s just something really perfect about the bright sweet and juicy tart cranberry and orange notes juxtaposed against the immediately darker and more spicy numbing notes of clove and cinnamon. It feels like my brain should interpret this as festive and winter-y but it just doesn’t. Instead it’s lively and vibrant and feels like a summer dance on my palate!? I just love the balance so much.

WandaVision Binge Watch – Ep 3

Episode three was 70s Sitcom inspired (and also when things started to get especially weird and heated up!) so something in my brain told me this was the right tea to choose. It’s much more fruity than it is a Chai, with very sweet candied orange, cranberry, and almost “maraschino cherry” type flavours that made me think of Fruit Cocktail and all the weird jello mold desserts for them 70s. Bonus points for the red/orange/gold-ish colours of the fruits matching up with the red/orange/gold-ish colours of Scarlet Witch and Vision. This ended up fitting even better than expected because there were a lot of fruit references/gags in the episode that I hadn’t anticipated – but I was here for it!

On a level of pure fun, this was my favourite episode – but the plot developments. Oh boy, if I didn’t have a chat group of nerdy people to theorize with I would be going insane right now because there are SO MANY comic threads that I feel are being pulled and woven together. Shit is happening and it is exciting!

This was kindly added by Cuppa Geek as a free sample in my recent order, so thank you! She actually added several free samples, and quite generous portions of them also.

I’m not massively into Chai, but I do often like fruity ones and I saw a lot of clove in the sample bag so I was actually super excited for this cup! I’m not sure where I ultimately land on it. The clove actually is super strong/forward which was exciting to me! The fruit note is vibrant and sweet; and surprisingly more cherry than either cranberry or orange but I do taste both of those fruits as well. It reminded me of a cup of chai but with a shot of grenadine in it – and that’s not unpleasant, but it is weird.

Hence why I’m not sure where I stand on this tea, yet…

This is a nice Lavender Lady Grey Cream. The cream note seems to hang out on its own above the rest though, kind of like a light topping of marshmallow fluff. Definitely let Parker’s Blend cool for several minutes before sipping for the best flavor experience. Overall smooth and satisfying but the base tea, as usual in blends, leaves me wanting more. Edit: I take that back. Parker’s Blend’s base tea has enough life for two steeps and can be oversteeped into bitterness.

Thanks, ashmanra :)

Advent Day 16, From the Depths of the Grab Bag.

sniff the leaf, grimace “Let’s get it on I guess!”

sniff the mug “Oh gosh, here we go again. It’s got that caramel smell again, like butterscotch.”

sip “Yup there’s clove or star anise… it’s warm spice. sip Caramel apple? sip Cinnamon. It’s no so bad. Mhm. It doesn’t have that gritty tongue thing. Chocolate? sip, BURP Kinda tastes like pecan pie. Not too bad. It’s alright. I say it’s, uh, 7. Maybe 6.5 to 7. It just has, like, a little bit of an artificial sweet flavor. Would I recommend it? I don’t… I don’t… I don’t think so. There are better things out there. It’s got kind of artificial flavoring.”

If Mrs. Butterworth were convicted of smuggling sweet cinnamon and drowning eggy waffles.

Thank the glorb this was a freebie. This one is for those lovers of sweet thangs.

Cold Brew!

Had this one a few days ago and was disappointed to not really be able to taste the cranberry at all. It actually eerily reminded me of DT’s Santa’s Secret with a very similar mix of smooth medium bodied black tea, creamy fondant-like vanilla, and lightly cooling mint. It was refreshing, just not quite what I’d been looking to drink.

This is not as crisp and cooling as it once was, but it’s reasonable the peppermint has lost some edge given then age of this sample. Still a very delicious cuppa, though! I have such a soft spot for both cranberry black tea and blueberry ones, and this is just a really nice jammy but full-bodied and brisk medley of the two.

Checkmark on the light mint and checkmark on the cranberry-like red fruit note. However, I still strongly feel like the third unnamed but definitely main flavour here is this fondant/icing sugar creaminess that can come off a little pasty when combined with the mint. It’s still a good tea and I like how robust and tannic the black tea is, but I can never really decide if I’m excited to be drinking it, y’know?

F is for… Frosted Cranberry!

I wasn’t a huge fan of this tea the last time I had it – I remember feeling like the mix of mint and cream was a bit fondant/toothepaste like in contrast to the pleasant sweet berry notes of the blend. I didn’t get much mint in this cup, so thankfully I skirted the mental toothepaste comparison. I still got some of that fondant like sugar/doughy cream taste in this cup, but without the presence of the mint I didn’t actually mind it! It was just a sweet and smooth cup of cream/cranberry goodness with a nice thick body.

Currently undecided on this blend…

The cranberry was really pleasant in the cup and worked well with the black tea base; more of a sweet and jammy cranberry (likely because of the presence of cherry, as well) than a tart/puckery one and that’s the sort of cranberry I like more. The more herbal and bordering on smoky notes of raspberry leaf come through, and work okay with the fruit. The thing that I feel sort of… “meh” about is this sort of creamy mint note that I’m sure is intended to be the ‘frosted’ part of ‘frosted cranberry’ – it’s pretty strong and consistent throughout the sip, but it’s very pasty tasting to me, like a fondant flavoured with mint extract!? I think that flavour could work with a cranberry tea to give it more of a sweet pastry/decadent type of vibe but with the presence of the rapsberry leaf (which is just so natural/herbal) the combination felt a little cacophonous for me. I will need to revisit this a few more times, I think, to try and wrap my mind around the flavour composition a bit better…

Sipdown (1457)!

Finished this one off as my first tea of the day today – it had a little bit of extra sparkle to it from a bunch of the gold glitter that had fallen to the bottom of the pouch and been trapped in a corner. Nice and smooth cup with a lot of gentle strawberry and cream flavours against a neutral black tea. Nothing crazy or out there, but really sippable and the kind of gentle and milder fruity black tea that was good to ease into the day with. I had yesterday off for Labour Day so it’s essentially my “Monday” today – so subtle start to the work week was just nice.

Sipped on this one as my morning cuppa – I’m actually getting much closer to a sipdown than I thought I was! It was nice and brisk with a strong malty tannic black tea note coupled with a more “candy style” strawberry flavour. I actually liked the balance; I felt like it could have easily comes off as cloying were it not for the body and faint astringency of the black tea to keep everything in check.

Cold Brew!

Doesn’t have quite the same flavour impact as when brewed hot, but this is still a nice cold brew with some smooth and approachable fruit flavours! Strawberry on the forefront, but without any acidity/juice – more strawberry candy or strawberry creme, especially as it bleeds on the palate into a muted but full bodied black tea base (with some floral undertones) and a more vanilla finish.

I went on a bit of a mini “berries and cream” style tea binge this last week and this was one of the teas that fell into that assortment. More cream, less berry though.

Sipped on over the weekend…

I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a Sailor Moon tea blend before, but I’d be remiss if I turned down the opportunity! It’s actually been a while since I last watched this anime, and with the “reboot” out I think it’s probably high time that I revisited it!

This tasted really solid! It’s essentially a strawberries and cream profile, though heavier on the strawberry than the cream. I liked that the black tea base was still very much apparent in the infused cup, and the slight floral notes that it added were a good addition to the sweeter and bordering on candy-like strawberry flavours. It’s a touch perfume-y/artificial, but not in an off putting way to me.

I wouldn’t have known, prior to trying this, was a “Sailor Moon” tea should taste like but having now tried this blend I think the profile does match with my recollection of the anime!

This was a sipdown, and was actually in my cupboard so I got to remove! I have way too many teas that just never got listed…

There used to be a deli nearby that sold caramel apples that were out of this world. The apples were HUGE and they had many varieties, my favorite being the Turtle Apple, covered in caramel, then chocolate, then rolled in chopped pecans, and drizzled with more chocolate. A single apple would feed four. Well, in theory they did but who listens to serving size advice for something as good as this?

This tea is caramel and apple, and I forgive it for having clove. Ha ha! It was delish with a bit of caramel Milka bar and some fresh pecans for my snack between students.

Cuppa Geek Advent Day 4

Technically my packet was just labeled Caramel Apple Chai, but on the site this was part of the fundraiser and had “Parker’s” added. I am 99% sure they are identical.

I did pull this randomly this morning with no cheating, and I figured if I chose a good breakfast tea I would have it early and if it was desserty I would wait and have it later. As it so happened, I had a whole pouch of this already and could add some of mine to stretch it to a big pot to share with my husband. I knew I had some cinnamon bagels on hand and they would pair well.

There is clove in this, which always makes me think of Teaberry chewing gum. The cinnamon enhanced the bagel instead of competing. We drank it plain, but I have to say I really love this as a sweet latte.

I actually went for a third steep and completely forgot it. All my fault! When I finally remembered I was sure it must be ruined. Instead, it was just super super clove-y and the tea had grown somewhat brisk but it was still drinkable. Pretty amazing considering how long it steeped.

Cuppa Geek sent me this tea from the St. Jude’s benefit line! I could hardly wait to test it out!

This afternoon was very warm but cloudy. My husband is more or less on staycation as he has a lot of “use or lose” hours so we are living decadently at home, doing things like drinking soda (Mexican Coke) and eating french fries on a weekday! It’s really wild.

The soda has been getting to me reflux wise so I had no beverage with lunch and saved this for after. It was a treat! I made it just as normal tea – one teaspoon making two steeps in a kamjove combined. The smell pre-steeping was largely caramel. After steeping, all those other flavors come out. The apple is nice and not too tart, black tea is present and not buried under flavorings, and after sipping for a while it builds up a little zing, almost like briskness, from the clove. It was exactly what I was looking for to clear the palate after having vinegar-based North Carolina BBQ for lunch.

Tonight I made it as a dessert drink for the two of us! I heated about twenty ounces of two percent milk on the stove and threw in three teaspoons of leaf. I didn’t let it boil, just let the milk get hot and steeped it for about eight minutes.

I stirred in some sugar (this is dessert, remember?) and strained it into mugs, and topped it with whipped cream. Oh my goodness. This is super tasty and my husband loved it!

Last year I found that the high sugar and caffeine content of the cocoa was just too much for me to sleep well, and this is a brilliant alternative. I am excited about trying the other blends in the line up this way, especially when cooler weather gets here. For now, we are back up in the 80’s.

Thank you, Cuppa Geek! It was DELISH!

Iced Latte with Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam (199)

I actually finished 2 packages of this for my oversized latte – one being my own and the other coming from Sil so thank you!

This tea is best steeped in milk. That said, this is still a nice enough iced latte. It’s more muddied than I usually would like because of the spices. I think maybe I was thinking pumpkin chai which has the caramel sweetness and so that feel like it’s missing but overall it’s nice. It highlights the vanilla well at least.

Eggnog latte sipdown of my first package but I have a replacement ready to go because I was not ready to say good bye. Unfortunately I didn’t want to open the replacement and this is a bit underleafed which is making for a thinner than usual flavor. Even still, there is a lot of nice pumpkin spice and cinnamon flavor. I am also getting a lot of the cream and vanilla. The black base comes through a lot too and I think that’s due to the underleafing.