94 Tasting Notes

80

I tried this tea, and went, “What am I tasting?” in a sort of confused delight. I’ve now drunk it twice, and I am really enjoying it. The pollen in it gives the honey flavor a robustness that I don’t usually get when I add honey to my tea, and a floral overtone that is pleasant in an unexpected way.

I was not expecting to enjoy this tea nearly as much as I am – I got it because it was on deep discount and I thought it looked interesting; as it is, this one may need to go into regular rotation, which is kind of a problem because my tea cabinet is currently full. Oops! :sweatdrop-grin:

It tastes like summer to me, and in the midst of a ten day span with only one day of blue sky, I really needed that. I will enjoy my 2 ounces, and buy more.

Flavors: Floral, Honey, Summer, Sweat

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72
drank Earth Kingdom by Tea & Absinthe
94 tasting notes

This is a perfectly acceptable masala-chai style tea, done with Pu’er instead of standard black assam which made it rather more mellow. The cinnamon was the most noticeable flavor, but all of the flavors melded together well, with no notes sharper than the others.

I have other chais that I like better, so I feel no need to buy more of this one, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Flavors: Cinnamon

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75
drank Air Nomads by Tea & Absinthe
94 tasting notes

I got this tea as part of the Four Nations pack, and as it’s an herbal, I went in with zero expectations of anything.

It is a naturally sweet tea (that would be the date pieces) and it is VERY lemony (that would be the lemongrass). The other flavors blend nicely together in the background, but I found them somewhat overpowered by the lemon.

As a hot brew, this would be a very good tea for a day when I had a sore throat (I did not have a sore throat when drinking it) and it doesn’t need additional honey at all. I suspect I’d also enjoy it as a sun-brew on a hot day?

It’s not one I need to drink again, but it’s a good herbal if herbals are your brew of choice! :-)

Flavors: Lemon, Sweet

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76

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80
drank Fire Nation by Tea & Absinthe
94 tasting notes

I do NOT like the taste of rooibus. At all. I have never quite forgiven it for not being actual tea, and so when I was stranded at a location where I could not get my hands on decaf black, but where I desperately needed a cuppa for the evening before bed, I grudgingly said, “OK, fine, I’ll try it. It’s better than nothing, after all.”

Friends, it was way better than nothing, and better than something, and while I will probably not keep a large stock of this tea in my house at all times (because I can’t forgive the rooibus) – it was a rooibus where I drank it and I did not instantly hate it.

I actually liked it.

Joking with a friend, I said, “It’s the Fire Nation, it’s sure to be a disaster.” And the friend replied later, after also trying the tea, “Wow, the Fire Nation really has it together – wait, did I just say that?”

So, shockingly, it’s a rooibus I recommend. But do give it a splash of milk, or the peppercorns will probably go after your mouth like an Angry Fire Nation Person.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Pepper

Cameron B.

Seems like a bit of a cop-out to make fire nation a chai ha ha, but at least it was tasty! :P

Keshwyn

Yeah, but can you really figure out another way to get “hot” other than masala chai? Friday Tea does a Pokemon: Team Rocket tea that’s all peppercorns (Prepare for Trouble) but this one is less likely to make my stomach mad at me, so I’m all for it. :-)

(Prepare for Trouble is delicious, but I drank too much of it and gave myself indigestion!)

Cameron B.

Lapsang maybe?

Keshwyn

I could see that – except I believe they were deliberately trying to stick with the rooibus for this one, to counter the Puer in the Earth Kingdom tea.

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75

The coconut aroma is quite strong, but the flavor is very subtle, and somewhat overwhelmed by the rather grassy taste of the green. Unlike many green teas, I find that I’m OK with this one in the winter, although I don’t usually keep it in the house. I wish I could make it slightly more coconutty, but it’s perfectly serviceable as is.

Flavors: Coconut, Grass

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73

This is one of the ones from the Steepologie advent calendar that I didn’t get to during Advent. I figured having it for New Year’s Day was appropriate.

The apple is very strong in the nose; when I opened the tea, I could briefly smell fig, but then it was overwhelmed by the apple. Similarly, when poured into the mug, the smell of the apple was much stronger than the fig.

However – happily! – when brewed, the fig comes through in the taste.

Totally acceptable tea. Not one I need to seek out, but happy to drink it.

Flavors: Apple, Fig

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71
drank Snow Day by Friday Afternoon
94 tasting notes

Oh wow, it’s a tea I don’t have to input to Steepster because I’m not the only one drinking it! Neat!

I liked this one, but not enough to want to buy it. It’s a cheerfully chocolate tea, strong in the nose, but when I drink it, the chocolate somehow got muddled in with everything else and I lost it somehow. This doesn’t make any sense at all, but it’s what my tastebuds did with it.

(Also, because it’s got real chocolate in it, it left a glaze of chocolate on the walls of my teapot and I had to wash it rather more thoroughly. Fair warning.)

Anyway. If a friend offered it to me, I would cheerfully drink it and be happy about it, but I don’t need to keep it in my cabinet.

Flavors: Chocolate

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72

The last tea in the Advent Calendar from Steepologie (though there’s a few I missed/haven’t done yet because hahahah holiday season is frantic) is their Masala Chai tea.

I love masala chais; spice has been my thing since I was a kid, and discovering that there was an entire class of teas that were spiced made me very happy as a young adult. This one is just fine – heavier on the cardamom than I usually go for, but quite tasty on a chilly morning. The ginger is also quite distinct.

I won’t seek this one out for a refill, but that’s mostly because I adore Steepologie’s Majesty’s Chai, which started off the advent calendar. Nothing has yet dethroned that one as my favorite masala chai.

A particularly nice thing about this particular tea, however, is that the aftertaste in my mouth when the tea is gone is quite pleasant. Zingy, and with lingering ginger. :-)

Flavors: Cardamom, Ginger

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65
drank Darkest Chai by Friday Afternoon
94 tasting notes

This particular masala chai doesn’t do anything in particular for me. There’s nothing wrong with it? But it’s a fairly standard masala chai. It’s a little more mellow, a little more malty than the ones I usually drink – I suspect that’s because the tea itself is aged. The peppercorns aren’t particularly strong (nothing like Prepare For Trouble) and I can’t taste the cardamon at all.

Nothing wrong with it, but not one I need to keep around. It came as part of a sampler from bigger order we got from Friday, so when I finish off the last of my advent teas, I’ll be on to those, but it’s dark and gloomy here this afternoon, so I figured a dark chai might be the way to go.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Ginger, Malt

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Profile

Bio

Ratings:

95-100: I will keep this on my shelf at all times if possible.
85-94: This tea is probably in active rotation in my house and getting drunk a lot (or it’s about to be).
75-84: I liked it. I will probably keep a small tin of it around.
65-74: I liked it. I might keep a small tin of it around, but I will not mourn its loss if it disappears from sale.
50-64: Meh.
0-49: No.

I like real tea (camellia sinensis). Black with milk and no sugar, unless it’s a really froofy chai latte. Green with no milk.

I’ve discovered through trial and error that I really don’t like Rooibus, even when it’s mixed with black tea. (Sadly.)

Herbal tisanes are not out of the running, but I have to be in the right mood and they have to be sufficiently strongly powered that I don’t miss the tea leaves.

By preference, I drink loose-leaf, but I will drink bagged tea if it’s good enough.

My icon is a piece of fantastic art by Ursula Vernon called Cattail Tea.

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