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Re-review of this tea.
I’ve been drinking this tea in latte form and at first I really liked this tea cause it seemed quite a bit like carrot cake, but I think I had maybe only a bit of licorice root (or I wasn’t discerning the taste enough) in my 25g sample. I have now purchased 200g of it and I think I have an understanding of it better. Here are my findings:
Reg cup of tea (8oz, 200F, 1 “perfect spoonful”, 5 min): Mild cinnamon spice taste, a bit of tart apple in the background, and I can get a hint of why this is carrot cupcake. Ok, not memorable.
Latte: (8oz of 200F water, 4 “perfect spoonfuls” steeped 5 min, mixed with hot, frothed 1% milk (approx 6oz): Lately I have been subbing out 1 or 1.5 perfect spoonfuls of another tea to balance out the licorice root sweetness and to me the resulting latte tastes like Anise Milk (a Dutch treat). I do like it but understand why others do not. I was mixing it with an early grey cream rooibos but I finished that up so I’m going to try a cinnamon rooibos to blend. Altogether I like it, but it’s a damn expensive Anise Milk (normally anise milk is just hot milk mixed with some anise powder which is a lot cheaper than using 10tsp of loose leaf tea. As mentioned previously, I am subbing out my glass of red wine on weekday evenings to a tea latte (keeping red wine for weekends), so I will try and use this up quickly. I somewhat regret picking up 200g of this tea (even though I still like it) since I can make Anise Milk for so much cheaper.

Tried this 2 ways: regular cup and a latte.

Regular cup: 1 perfect spoonful steeped 5min in 8oz of 200F water: tastes nutty/peanuty and a little sweet in the foretaste, but what follows is kinda watery. Not so good.

Latte: 4 perfect spoonfuls steeped 5min in 8oz of 200F water, mixed with hot, frothed 1% milk: The foretaste is the same, but something weird and a bit gross lingers in the aftertaste (artificial flavoring? apple?). I didn’t care for whatever the aftertaste was, so I couldn’t quite finish my latte.

In short this is not a repurchase for me. Glad I only bought a small amount and used it up.

Just as I get my cupboard number down to the teens I end up buying a few more types of tea and I’m back into the 20s, lol. No worries though- I’ll be back in the teens quickly since I only bought small amounts.

I have now used up the 20-something grams I bought. Each time I steeped 1 perfect spoonful to 8oz of 200F water. I tried the tea hot but hot tart tea is gross. I then let it cool off in the fridge/freezer and it was better- to me it tastes like strawberry rhubarb parfait tea. Sometimes though I got a little bit of a “cakey” taste which was nice. Honestly though, I probably won’t repurchase though simply because I’ve been since tart teas give me heartburn sometimes.

My cupboard number is in the teens (19 to be exact but will drop by 2 more this week). Thanks to minimalism, buying small amounts of tea, not buying teas that are similar to ones I already own, and being diligent about using up teas I am at a smaller number than I’ve seen in a year or more. I even moved my collection from a china cabinet to a cupboard and am now using the china cabinet for storing appliances like my crock pot and rice cooker- a much better use of space since I’m always struggling for a place to put them. Altogether it feels great!

Anywho- onto the tea: cold brewed for a day, 6 “perfect spoonfuls” (2.5tsp each) in 2L of water. The taste is a bit tart/ sour with maybe a slight citrus/orange peel taste. Altogether it’s okay- my husband says the aftertaste is a bit “pukey” (prob thanks to the rosehips- see my tasting note from a few days ago). Luckily I only have maybe 2tbsp left of this tea so I’m going to use it up right away and prob won’t repurchase. I much prefer Banana Cherry Fruit Tisane from iHOT.

First time ever foraging my own tea!

My in laws live in a small town 3h away from us. Every August the blueberry picking is amazing (in 2 days the husband and I picked ourselves 14L of blueberries!). This time I decided to save some of the leaves and see how that would be as a herbal tea. We were tossing the leaves away anyways, figured I might try using it for something!

I saved the leaves (some had stems and I think a couple blueberries snuck in too) and after cleaning them (left them for a day or two before I could get to them as well) I spread the leaves out on a baking sheet and then baked them to dry them out on the lowest setting my oven had (200F). I believe I baked them for 20-25min before they felt “crispy” enough, and then I put them away. Today I grabbed somewhere between 1-2 tbsp of leaf and steeped them in 8oz of boiled water for 5min. The taste is herbaceous, slightly woody (thanks to the stems/twigs attached) with a very subtle sweet after taste). Altogether It was alright. It didn’t wow me, so I’m debating blending these leaves with other things or just tossing them (i don’t mind doing so since I didn’t pay for them, haha). Altogether a neat experience regardless!

Husband and I woke up at 8:30am on our own this morning (actually feels so good not to waste a Saturday by sleeping in) and after puttering around the apt for a few hours we went out Pokemon hunting around noon and I asked to go to iHOT to fill up on gunpowder green tea + get a drink to go (otherwise I would get a headache without having non-caffeinated fluids). Been wanting to try this tea for quite some time but figured it was so similar to teas I’m trying to use up I better not buy 50g so this was the perfect opportunity to give this a try.

Pulled the bag out somewhere between 5-10min of steeping. The taste is indeed almost identical to the mandarin orange honeybush tea from twinnings (very real orange flavour without being super sour) with a slight ginger twist (very mild and you really only taste it at the end of the cup when it’s cooled off). Very nice. This is a possible repurchase but of course I have a few more teas to use up first!

Was talking to a customer at work about international house of tea and he claimed to like rosehip tea. Took a walk over to the shop on lunch break (only a 10min walk) and got a hot to go cup (straight, nothing in it). Pulled the bag out when I got back to work, so 10-15min steeping. Honestly, I’m just glad I got a to go cup instead of buying a whole bag because I don’t care for this tea. It tastes sour, like stomach acid-y taste. I can see rosehips working as an additive in fruit herbal blends for making iced tea, but straight up, I do not care for this at all.

Wow, other than cashing in my frequent steeper points, this is the first tea I’ve gotten from DAVIDS in months. I wish this wasn’t a limited edition one, but such is them.

This tea is very vegetal and lovely and I’m presently surprised by the moderate price. No astringency, and I’ve done short steeps (like 30 sec) with 5ish grams and longer steeps with a bit less leaf too. 2min with just under a tablespoon of this tea works good.

If there’s any of this left I may stock up a bit more. This tea is a winner in my book.

Made this tea 2 ways: once in a 2L pitcher and also a single cup.

For the 2L pitcher: 6 “perfect spoonfuls” (2.5 tsp) steeped 10min in 185F water (the highest temp I’m supposed to use in my pitcher), the cooled off in the fridge: I love the banana and cherry flavour that pulls through, and this tea isn’t sour! It is a bit weak though and I would prob up the steep time + leaf next time.

8oz drink: 1tbsp leaf, boiling water, 10min, cooled off in the fridge: ah, this is what I want: it’s a bit stronger and I love that banana cherry taste.

All in all a good tea, but still on the weak side. I’m going to experiment more!

A sample from iHOT.

I took one sip and went “ooo that’s nice!” the creamy lemon flavour is prominent without acidity and I appreciate the green rooibos for a change- very light and refreshing tea. I just copy and pasted over the description of the tea when creating the steepster entry and apparently this is their best selling rooibos tea- I can see why. Putting this on the wishlist!