Tupelo Tea

Candied mango scented. Light bodied. A bit of a soapy after taste.

I was hoping for a more toasted tasting tea. The delicate floral flavor is an unexpected, but welcome surprise to my morning cup.

A little too peach ring candy for me. I wish it held some of the richer peach flavors.

Delicious as a hot tea, I imagine it would be even better iced.

This one was sent by Shae, and I’m just getting around to a note when it’s a sipdown.
I’m not sure if this has caffeine in it, the ingredients are Lapsang, but it’s in the herbal section of the Tupelo tea web site.
I like this tea because it has a bunch of different notes that may not seem to work together, but I like cinnamon, licorice and pepper so I don’t mind them all melded into one. Add a bit of smokyness from the lapsang and there is a lot going on here! I’m not sure if I need this in my cupboard, but I’d be tempted to add it to an order. Thanks for sharing, Shae!

Shae Advent Day 6

I steeped this slightly longer than usual, but still within the recommend parameters, and it came out tasting a bit too harsh for me. Really, I don’t taste any flavoring here, just sharp black tea. This could be a good base for bubble tea or mixing with something else, but I wish it had a bit more personality itself.

From Shae.
This is better than I expected, and I like it more than Adagio’s Kentucky Bourbon. It certainly tastes like bourbon, not a whole lot of caramel or vanilla notes, but has a bit of a harshness to the finish. But then most bourbons have a bit of a harsh finish. There are some fruity notes to the aftertaste. I am enjoying this tea, but am thinking it would be better with a less harsh base black tea. The second steep is certainly weaker, but the harshness is gone as well. Its bourbon on the rocks with too much ice.

Still working through some of our open teas that I haven’t tried yet – only ten or so herbals to go. After this, I think I’ll try to start sipping down most of my older stuff. Maybe get my cupboard to a more reasonable amount, date-wise. Say three years max? It’s a goal to work on at least.

This blend is an herbal that’s been on my list for a while. We picked it up on a weekend trip to Georgia last year. I can taste the lavender, but I also taste chamomile which is weird because I don’t think it’s on the ingredient list. Maybe I just associate all herbals with chamomile now, I don’t know. It’s not something I would crave, but it might make a good tea for nighttime. My husband will probably love it.

STTB Tea

Strong black base made primarily of a Chinese black tea. Smokey bourban, but none of the vanilla and caramel I was promised by the seller’s description. No sweetness at all.

Sipped on this tea earlier this morning while working on some Geek Steep outlines. It was the perfect cup of boozy smoky goodness with those deep bourbon, cacao, and almost anise-like notes that just kept me feeling cozy and motivated.

From this weekend!

Really robust and intense bourbon notes that deeply hit the spot, but also a whisp of fruit? Maybe that’s in my head after seeing the “candy apple” flavouring in Adagio’s Bourbon tea but all throughout the mug all I found myself thinking was that in addition to that lovely boozy note was that it has a similar sweet apple/fruity note. Ugghhh! Am I even gonna be able to separate that bias/association from bourbon teas now? Who knows – certainly not me!

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #25

I pulled this from the box in the morning as something that I was curious to try, not realizing I’d be making a bourbon flavoured tea at work. Of course, that’s not super out there and it’s far from the first boozy tea flavour that’s been in our office before – but I was in a TINY meeting room and the aroma coming off the steeping mug was VERY intensely bourbon. I’m sure no one else cared, but I definitely noticed…

That said, the bourbon flavour is excellent and I really enjoyed the mug. I’ve been trying to be super critical of what teas in the box are worth actually keeping for myself but I think this is one of the ones that I want to pull (I think it’ll be the third I’ve kept). It was just so intoxicatingly (haha, puns!) smooth and rdeep. I think I could do a lot of fun stuff with this blend if I don’t just drink it all straight…

Before leaving for our trip, we looked up tea shops near Blue Ridge and found this one right in the middle of downtown. It was frigid and windy today, so by the time we made it to the tea shop we felt like walking icicles. We each picked a tea to try as a latte and warmed up inside the store while we waited. Mine was supposed to be a blend of hazelnut and strawberry, but I think the strawberry flavor may have been lost in the coconut milk they used in my latte. I could taste the hazelnut, though as a whole the tea flavor was weak. I bought a bag of this to bring home with me, so I’ll try it again making it the way I normally would to see if I can bring out some of the flavors.

Side note – When was putting this into Steepster, I noticed another tea with the same name from Adagio and the exact same description, word for word. Maybe Tupelo Tea is an offshoot of Adagio? I did notice they were using Adagio IngenuiTEA steepers while we were there, but didn’t think too much of it.