Steep Society (Sips by)

This is supposed to taste like cinnamon rolls, and it sort of does! It reminds me of some S&V dessert blends. With milk and sugar, this is a sweet, decadent, desserty tea. The rooibos is the perfect base for it. It’s just my sort of thing, though not every cup of it is as delicious as some.

This was a very sweet tea, but the cinnamon flavoring helped balance it out. It doesn’t need much sweetening to drink which is nice.

sipsby advent, day 1

I didn’t plan to do this advent again originally but since I missed Plum Deluxe and this went on sale, I decided to go for it. It showed up late last night so I’m a day behind (but these are not assigned any numbers anyway; it’s random).

What stands out the most for this particular tea is how sweet it is. I can see the vision of baked goods, with hints of spice that come through more in the scent than the flavor. It makes me think of shortbread cookies with the sugar ramped up a notch (or two, even). I finished it, but I wouldn’t go back for more.

Last one from the brunch box, and from my Sips by samples in general!

The blackberry leaf is putting me off a bit here, it adds a noticeable sweetness that I’m not a fan of. Otherwise, it somewhat reminds me of S&V’s Winter Wonderland, which I would describe as being closer to an oatmeal cookie than a cinnamon bun.

Still, nice buttery pastry notes and cinnamon, so not far off! Too bad about the blackberry leaf though… :/

Sipdown! (43 | 140)

So I signed up for Sips by again after watching way too many TeaTubers reviewing it… I blame peer pressure! :P This is the first tea from my August box.

First off, the packaging is so pretty for this tea. Steep Society is one of the “brands” that are exclusive to Sips by, which I assume means owned by Sips by. I’m not sure how I feel about it, because they have probably a dozen different “brands” with different themes, and my box happened to have two out of four teas from those “brands”. Considering Sips by is supposed to be a way to discover new teas and brands at an affordable price, it feels wrong to me that they filled half of my box with their own teas. I also don’t really agree with big companies like Stash and DAVIDsTEA being part of the mix, but that’s another topic entirely…

Anyway! This is a perfectly nice Moroccan mint green tea. The spearmint is well-balanced, and adds a nice refreshing sweet mintiness without overpowering the green tea. It is a rolled green tea, similar to gunpowder, but it doesn’t have a strong mineral or smoky presence, which I appreciate. It’s softly earthy, herbaceous, and mellow with hints of grass and nuts. I like that it has enough body and substance to stand up to the spearmint, but isn’t overbearing, as gunpowder often is.

Happy to have this in my box this month, it’s a solid Moroccan mint that I would enjoy any time. :)

My partner asked for a cup of tea and tends to prefer simplicity, so this was a good one to share with him this morning. It’s a green tea and mint pairing that delivers exactly what it says – some green tea flavor up front and then the rest is spearmint. I like a good spearmint tea; this hit the spot.

sipsby advent, day 11*
(sipsby packages this in no particular order, so your order may be different than mine)