TeaGschwendner

Sipping on this currently!

Now that I’m back from Europe I have the long but exciting challenge of sipping my way through all the teas that my coworkers and I brought back with us. This was the one blend I saw at Tea Gschwendner that really stood out to me – and that’s saying something because I am not a green tea person typically.

I don’t know if it’s a seasonal tea for Spring/Easter (all the companies we visited seemed to have large Easter displays with cute ornaments) or if it’s a “core” tea that they were just featuring for the season, but in person at the store the display shelf with the premeasured out bags was fully bought out and only had the small sniffer tin. I could see why because it was such a beautifully sweet smelling lemon aroma that really seemed to capture the name inspiration. It really took me in, and thankfully the staff still had a small amount in the wall tin that they were able to scoop out for me.

I totally forgot I was steeping this as I began writing tasting notes today, and so I was worried I’d over brewed it and would have an awful cup. However, even with a ten or so minute steep I’m finding this delightful tasting. It’s a very fresh, sherbet-y sort of lemon that does remind me a lot of limoncello except for the slightly creamy sort of finish that it has to it. Very lemon curd, I guess. Or even venturing a bit on a lemon meringue!? It’s so nice with the smooth, easy-going grassiness of the green tea. I’m actually quite impressed!

I got this for Christmas last year and have enjoyed sipping it down, I think I have just a few cups left. I use a lot of leaf and a short steep to get all the almondy goodness without any bitterness. It is snowing in IL today so this is a nice warming tea to drink. My only complaint is that the second steep is quite weak, so I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase more of this tea.

Straightforward and relatively mild black tea, tasty and inexpensive. Makes a good daily brew.

Can be a bit sharp if overbrewed or overleafed, probably due to the smaller leaf sizes. Still, nothing like a bad or bitter flavor just strong. I’m burning through this 100g size pretty quickly! It’s cool that I bought Vietnamese tea in Germany and I’m drinking it in The US. :)

Tiny sample from a TTB. Something in there tasted a little off, but otherwise it was just slightly desserty honeybush. Old almonds maybe? Very mildly flavored; didn’t taste like almond milk. The rancid almonds showed up a lot more clearly in the resteep, though since this was from a TTB, who knows how old it is. I’m sure it was better fresh.

Smells so amazing. One of my favorite teas.

Sipdown (220)

This seemed like a pretty obvious choice for a cream flavoured tea for Mastress Alita’s scavenger hunt. And it ended up being a surprise Sipdown. Yay! Thank you Sil for sharing this with me. It’s smooth and nice. I don’t know if I would have gotten cream without knowing the name but the more I drink it, the more I can see it.

I passed this one on to someone else today but I had some good times with Bossa Nova. This kind of roasted oolong pairs so well with nutty flavours (in this case hazelnut). It’s kind of creamy, smooth, and sweet – giving rise to thoughts of Nutella. It’s a comfort tea but I can’t help but think it could step up its game a little (it’s kind of.. pasty textured? I don’t know).

I had enough left from ashmanra’s sample for one more cup. Final verdict: this is heavier on the cream than the whiskey aspect. It reminds me a great deal of Adagio’s cream, which I liked immensely. Still quite good if you’re just looking for a sweet cream tea that needs no milk.

Ashmanra shared a little sample with me, which I gratefully enjoyed outdoors in the glider. (Cooler! mosquitos are on hiatus!) The cream scent and flavor definitely take the lead here, with the bourbon-iness sneaking up on you from behind. Very sweet; very pleasant; and Tazo-approved. He liked the scent and sat on my lap sniffing while I drank.

Sipdown (1457)!

I don’t know why, but I had just assumed this was straight cacao shells when I started steeping it; I really just didn’t look closely at the leaf at all. So, when I took my first sip I almost spit it out. Not because it was unpleasant, but just because all of the notes of spices caught me so incredibly off guard. Like thinking you’re going to take a sip of apple juice and it turns out it’s coke instead.

I did enjoy it though once I kind of adjusted to what I was tasting. Admittedly, I still didn’t realize there were quite so many spices – it really just tasted heavily to me of cacao with cinnamon, ginger, and a peppery sort of finish. I feel like chocolate and black pepper is actually a severely underrated combination so I was amused to be getting that combination of flavours.

Thanks VariaTEA for sharing!

I had a happy accident happen to me: I accidentally knocked over my cup sitting on my bedside table and got this tea all over my carpet and the hard to reach areas between the bed frame and the baseboard moulding. So, areas that… let’s just say I should probably clean a little more regularly than I do.

Why was it a happy accident?

A) This tea smells amazing. It’s literally the best and now it’s over everything;
B) the mug also knocked over my lavender oil (that was on my bed table too?), which also smells amazing and pairs surprisingly well with amaretto;
C) there was still plenty of the delicious tea remaining in the cup; and
D) bedroom cleaning and de-cluttering occurred! Huzzah tea!

Sipdown (1418)!

Finished this one off and, again, enjoyed it a lot. Love the roasted nutty notes paired with the base and this time around I felt like all the flavours were pretty equal in intensity. Coating, sweet chocolate mixed with hazelnut and warming cinnamon in a “Nutella” style medley of decadent goodness – just more roast.

If I ever found myself placing an other with Tea Gschwdfhigaihglkn I would probably consider adding this in. I don’t know if I’d crave it heavily because of the chocolate, but the roast/hazelnut combo is definitely very appealing to me.

Morning cuppa!

I really like how roasty this tea tastes! So many chocolate/hazelnut blends leans much harder on the chocolate but this seems to embrace all of those toasty roasty nutty flavours so much more heavily – maybe not SUPER clearly hazelnut, but the spirit is 100% there! Not unpleasant chocolate, either & that definitely does not hurt.