Friday Afternoon

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – November Tea #9 -A tea from a small business

I wanted to get this tea over and done with!  Not a fan.  I drank it for this sipdown challenge.  I’m also happy to find out this is the tea I inadvertently deleted from my Steepster cupboard a couple months ago.  Honestly, this is the rare tea I dumped in the sink. It’s not “double cream” — it’s double the bug spray flavor.  I couldn’t do it. Sorry tea and sorry Tiffany for sending it – luckily it was only a two cup sample!  But now I know anyway.  I REALLY need to catch up on reading tasting notes before you all start posting notes for advents!! I think the advent notes are what set me back last year! 
2022 sipdowns: 114

Thanks again Tiffany :) !  Forgive my high hopes for this one – a DOUBLE CREAM Earl from a small shop.  Couldn’t wait to try it.  Sadly, now I’m thankful it was only a sample because it’s not the best bergamot for me.  It’s the one that tastes much like a bug spray, darn it, and I can’t get past it.  And I couldn’t tell there was ANY cream here.  Ouch.  Those unbloomed tiny flowers in the blend are also a little weird.  The black tea was strong enough for me anyway.  Happy to try this, but it wouldn’t be a tea I would want in the cupboard.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 28 minutes after boiling// 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled  // 3-4 min

Sipped down!
This smells a little pumpkiny, but I really have to think about it when I smell the cup. I don’t get pumpkin in the flavor. There is a light chai flavor, but it’s really light. I added honey and creamer in this cup and it diluted the chai quite a bit. The cup was really bland and with chai I expect the flavor to be strong enough to withstand the addition of cream. I had several other cups plain since I got this, but none of them really caught my attention. I was hoping I’d really like Friday teas, but so far I feel kinda eh about them.

Got this as a sample with my order! I’m not into oolongs, or maybe I should say I’m rarely into oolongs, so I never feel like my thoughts on an oolong are a fair reflection. This tastes… oolongy. It has that flat cardboard flavor that I associate with most oolongs. I really don’t notice any added flavor at all. shrug

I was really hoping to find the next Teavana’s Almond Biscotti or Butiki’s Almond Indulgence or ATR’s Brioche in this cup and it’s just not happening. It smells hopeful when the tea is dry, but it’s not even close to the others when steeped. It has a nice malty flavor and I totally get the French cookie part. It’s sort of a buttery malt with a little almond mixed in at the end of the sip, but it’s bland. It’s okay if I’m not comparing it to long lost favorites, but it’s just okay. It doesn’t have anything that grabs me and makes me want more. I’ve tried steeping a few cups and keep coming to the same conclusion. To the reject pile it goes while my search for a new favorite almond black continues.

This certainly smells like a health blend. It’s pretty savory and not that great. I’m trying to drink it quickly, but this cup is neverending. It’s just so herbaceous I find it difficult to imagine the person who would love this.

This tea smells really good dry. Rich heavy raspberry with chocolate notes. When I steeped it the cup ended up way too strong with a layer of oil on top and so concentrated that didn’t taste good. Adding cream diluted it a bit to where I could enjoy the taste. When I go in to take a sip I get this quick flash of what I can only describe as the smell of iodine. I don’t taste it, it’s just a quick impression. The sip has a little raspberry at the front, but is a little bland after that. The finish is where the chocolate raspberry come out and lingers. I’m not sure how I feel about a tea being all finish. I think me not saying I’m sure about something is a thinly veiled way to say no me gusta. So far this is the best flavor out of all four teas I got from Friday Afternoon, but I’m not feeling this company overall. I really want a new independent blender who works with unique flavor combos, a Butiki or Quarter to Tea replacement and this isn’t it. This is similar enough to Lupicia’s Chocolat Framboise that has a near permanent place in my cupboard that I don’t think I’d restock this even though it has a badass name.

I was super excited to try a flavored hojicha. I think I’ve only tried one other and really liked it. This one is just okay. The sip is a little flat. I don’t get any maple in the sip, just a roasted cardboard taste that slowly changes to a roasted hojicha flavor. The finish is more complex with some maple. Sweetening this didn’t change the flavors at all. I’m going to have to play with the steeping parameters because I want to believe there is a better cup in there.

I nearly opted not to try this when I saw licorice in the blend, but it’s good to fire up some different sensory synapses once in a while, so I gave it a go. In this particular case, the cinnamon (gentle, not spicy) and the licorice (not obnoxious) interacted in a way that reminded me of root beer. Go figure. Not bad, but not a mandatory repeat for me, which is probably a good thing—I don’t see it in the current Friday Afternoon lineup.

I wanted different this evening. I got different, thanks to this little sample packet sent my way by Nichole. I prefer my bergamot toned down by other ingredients so the potential of marigold, lemongrass, and green rooibos intrigued me. It smells beautifully light and citrusy, but I may not have gotten the right mix of ingredients on my spoon (that happens with tiny samples of “busy” tea), because the light and citrusy vibe is definitely overpowered by the green beany sencha. My next spoonful may be completely different.

S is for…Spicy Peach Cobbler

Work has been crazy. Worked until 2 am twice this week and am working today. Also I slept for 12 hours last night because the week kicked my butt. However it’s the weekend and I’m enjoying it with tea and a lazier working pace. Yay!

This tea is fine. Sort of just a sweet cinnamon rooibos without something that sort of wants to be spice but it’s not. Meh. I like the colourful sprinkles in it though.

Sipdown 149-2021
The last couple cups of this were definitely the best. The roasted flavor of the oolong finally settled a bit, and the spices shined a bit more. I was still hoping for more with this tea, but was pleasantly surprised by how the last 2 cups turned out.

I so desperately want to love this tea. The ingredients are chunky and beautiful (particularly the big slices of persimmon). It also smells amazing- like spiced autumn fruits. But, the flavor is really, really lacking. The charcoal roast on the oolong is so strong that I can’t taste any of the other flavors, even cinnamon (which smells quite strong in this blend). I wish a different base tea was used, as this tea has so much potential.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #240 overall / Tea #20 for June
Wednesday 6/16 — Friday Afternoon Tea Lye/Truth cold brew glass jar sample packet. Wasn’t really my cuppa and I’m pretty sure that’s because of rooibos, one of my least very tea ingredients.
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #184 overall / Tea #8 for May
Tuesday 5/4 — Friday Afternoon Tea Maple Hojicha. I love love this one! This is a hojicha tea + natural maple flavoring – simple but delicious. Had two sample packets from an old Sipsby box (I thought I had already drank those because that’s what introduced me to Friday & her tea company!) & cold brewed and YES. I am pretty sure I have bigger bags of this is my Friday Tea stash from all the orders I made last/this year online + in person last Sept when in Seattle. Will have to keep this around permanently, also try hot and cold/hot latte. :D
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown

Oo, this one is definitely different from my usual tea type. I’m going to have to have it more than once.

The first thing that hits me is the pine smoke smell – which is one that I’m very fond of, but not at all used to having in my tea. The anise and chocolate almost disappear underneath it while the tea is still very hot, but once it’s cooled a bit, they sneak out in the aftertaste quite nicely.

This tea definitely needs a few minutes to settle after it’s brewed; the flavors blend more, and the smoke settles down to an astringent sort of flavor that is quite strong but not overpowering.

I’m certainly not sorry I got it, though I’m not sure if it’s a regular keeper for me. (I have a couple of friends who are very fond of smoked teas and I want to see what they think of it.) I can see why it got the name it did – this tea is the sort one would be drinking next to a fireplace on a cold rainy night when the power’s gone out. It’s the right sort of flavor for that. (Not for a sunny morning in April when the cherry blossoms are going gangbusters outside my window so much. But that’s all right – I have a functional imagination.)

If you don’t like smoke, this is definitely not a good tea for you. Otherwise, I quite like it for what it is.

The oolong in this tea is roasted, which is what first jumped out at me. I could smell (and taste) a very strong smokey overtone which drowned out most of the other flavors until the tea cooled off quite a bit. The ginger was definitely there as well, but I didn’t smell – or taste – and of the other notes that are listed in the tea’s description, probably because the smoke was overpowering them for me.

I don’t think this is one I will go looking for again; it would seem roasted oolong is not my thing. Not sorry for trying it though.

I’m going to try this tea once more – I got a tasting packet, and it’s possible I just wasn’t in the right mood for it, or I oversteeped, or something, but it really didn’t do it for me the first time. I was looking for a rose tea with some cardamom to it. What I tasted was some cardamom with some tea around the edges – I couldn’t even taste the rose in there. :-( I love decaf rose tea, to the point that I’ve been making my own with rose petals from Sullivan Street and Decaf Ceylon from Upton, but it would be nice not to need to blend my own. (I have too many other demands on my time, I would like to simplify and also support other tea vendors.) But this one…didn’t do it for me. Oh well. We’ll see if a second round does it for me, but if not, this one’s going on the “nope” list.

I forgot I’d already tried this one! Hah. We got sent a sample of it, and I thought, “Oh, chocolate and pomegranate, that sounds interesting…” and tried it and went, “Wow, grenadine, no, that’s nice enough but I don’t need to own it, I should go log it.”

Nice to see that past me was in agreement with present me. Not changing the rating.

There is a very strong smell of cherry to this tea, but the smell doesn’t make it into my mouth, alas. The chocolate, on the other hand, is definitely there. I could also taste the chicory blending in with the cherry. I couldn’t make out the pomegranate, alas.

It was nice enough, but I’m not blown away, nor do I feel the need to acquire more, though if I end up needing to round out an order, I could easily see myself using it as a topper-off.

PEPPERCORNS. Hello peppercorns! Yes, I like you too, would you mind settling down for a bit so I can see what else is in there? No? Ah.

When I work at it, I can tell there’s ginger in there. I can smell the anise and the licorice, but I can only taste them in the aftertaste – or, interestingly, once my mug has gone cold. In the full flush heat of the initial sip, I cannot. Fortunately, they are subtle enough to sneak past the peppercorns – did I mention peppercorns? – to add body to the tea without me noticing it. But when this tea is hot, mostly what I notice is red and black are having a nice big argument in my mug over which one of them is Queen of Most Pepperiness. :-)

I don’t mind – I wouldn’t have bought this tea if I did not like pepper, and also, the tea is not heat-spicy, it has the flavor of pepper with no burn to it. I bought this as a sample to split with a friend, and I will probably buy a small container of it to keep on the “every so often” shelf. In the future, I might cut it with a little extra ceylon to give it some low notes – the pepper is hot and high enough that I’m missing the umame of my normal tea flavors. Or maybe I’ll just keep it as is, and only have it on days when I want a hot thin tea.

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Edited to add: Oof. OK, this tea is quite tasty, but those peppercorns are a lot fiercer than they let on – this is a tea to drink in small pots, not my usual 24 ounce monsters. Because otherwise, you’re putting a lot of pepper oils into your stomach all at once, and the result can be moderately painful. (Oops. :)

First attempt: tried it straight, brewing 14g for five minutes in the same 24 ounce pot I usually brew my black tea in. It smells fabulous and…doesn’t have much of a taste. That’s frustrating. I would like to try brewing it stronger, possibly with some decaf tea leaves mixed in for body, but right now, this hasn’t made much of an impression on me – which is a shame because it should be full of the flavors I love. I’ll try again.

I’m on my third sample mug of this nifty little blend and enjoying it immensely because it is (a) goof friendly (b) strong enough for a wake-up tea ( c) unique. That grape-peel Darjeeling-ness is a really nice frou-frou accent to some good, solid Assam tea.