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David’s 24 Days of Tea Day 1:

This was the first tea of my tea advent calendar. I’ve had the David’s tea calendar several times in the past but it got pretty repetitive (that is, it featured the same teas year after year) so I stopped getting it. Well, this year I decided to go back. And I can see from the back of the box that several teas will be repeats, but there are quite a few that are new to me this year. Like this one. I enjoyed it. It was a light tea, not brisk or heavy with tannins. There was a bit of tartness but it wasn’t completely sour. I won’t order 50 grams of it but I will enjoy a second cup probably in January. I like that David’s give us enough tea to make more than one cup. Sometimes that second cup is even better than the first.

I’ve been mostly missing in action here on Steepster for a few months. I’ve had a bit of a challenging late summer and autumn. The chemo cocktail they had me on is called FolFox. On my third treatment (in August) I had a pretty severe reaction to the Oxylplatin (or however you spell it). They had to put a breathing device down my throat to keep my airway from closing completely. So since then I’ve been on just two different drugs. It has been a slog and my fatigue has been pretty bad. I have one more treatment this Wednesday. Then scans on the 18th and meet with the oncologist on the 24 (Yes. Christmas Eve!) to plan the next step of treatment. I should have all of January off from any treatment, so you can imagine I am really looking forward to January! Maybe my “Get Up and Go” will Get Up and Come Back!

I made a jug of this iced yesterday and started to drink it today. It is very nice with a dash of Yuzu citrus sugar from The Spice House. Being diabetic I don’t use a lot of sweetener in my tea, but a half teaspoon in a 12 ounce glass is just right. It’s very mild tasting and I don’t know if it is just the sugar, but it has a sweet flavor that is not overpowering. I remember having this hot a few days ago and not being too impressed. But as an iced tea this is great!

So. On Saturday my air conditioner died. I live on a third (top) floor of an apartment building and my windows face south and west. The air conditioner is the wall type. I submitted a service order immediately but of course the maintenance people don’t come out on a weekend unless it is a dire emergency. Saturday wasn’t too bad, but a heat wave started on Sunday. The maintenance men didn’t come until late Wednesday afternoon with a re-furbished unit from the 1980. You might think having my rent increase by 27% over 5 years would buy me better service. Hmph.

Anyway. The new-to-me air conditioner works great. After 4 days of temps between 80 and 86 in my apartment I woke up this morning cold! I drank two cups of coffee and then decided to have some hot tea. I have had this bag for a while now and decided it was time to try it.

I was a little underwhelmed. I don’t know why. I think Whispering Pines has some of the very best tea out there. Top quality. It was smooth enough, but no flavor. It could be the mouth sores from chemo. My sense of taste (what little I have) has been affected by chemo. I am not going to rate this one yet. I get a short break from chemo from 9/20 to 10/9 so I will try it again then and see what I think.

Ugh! Hibiscus heaven here. I saw this at a local discount store and it sounded so good. Did I not notice that the first two ingredients were hibiscus??? I made a cup last night and drank to swallows before I poured it down the drain.

If you love hibiscus you would love this tea. I did not taste orange . I did not taste ginger.

This was a sample included with my recent August Uncommon Tea order. I was glad to get this one as I’m especially fond of flavored rooibos teas. I bet it smells heavenly, but I don’t have a sense of smell. And due to my current ongoing chemo I have a lot of mouth sores, so anything hot is painful, but so is anything cold. I brewed this at boiling and waited until it was at a lukewarm temperature to drink and I think I got some black licorice flavor from the anise. No almond/amaretto unfortunately. I will try it again when I’m done with chemo and see if I get anything else from it. Life sucks right now but it will get better.

I was gifted a 50 gram pouch of this tea. I made a big jug of it iced. It is nice, a little weak maybe. I had it hot also, and it was a bit weak there too, so maybe it is just a really mild flavor. The color is quite pale. The flavor is a bit of a zing, but not sour like some fruit tisanes with hibiscus can be. It is refreshing. Summer has really started now. This week we hit 98. Way too hot for me. Since my blood glucose has been really high, I plan on lots of unsweetened iced tea for the next few months.

I had this one last night. It is the second bag from the advent calendar. I did not like it very much when it was hot. The hibiscus was prominent. However as it cooled I liked it more. It might be a nice refreshing glass as an iced tea on a hot summer day.

I found this single wrapped bag waaaayy in the back of my tea drawer. I wonder if it was part of an advent calendar that I put aside because of the hibiscus? It said Best Before January 2022 on the wrapper..

Ooops.

The flavor seemed muted to me. Probably because it was old? I got a bit of zing from the hibiscus, a faint hint of spices. I didn’t get any orange. Between my bum nose not being able to smell and the age of the tea I just didn’t get much. It was drinkable but not very flavorful. I bet it would have been better two years ago.

I tasted absolutely nothing wit this tea. I don’t have a sense of smell, so I don’t actually taste much anyway, but I had this at the height of the worst cold I’ve had in a long time, so that probably didn’t help. It was literally warm water. At least it wasn’t sour, bitter or astringent. I got plenty of flavor from the Cold 911, so it couldn’t have been only the cold that kept me from tasting anything from this one.

I keep trying to find another caffeine free tea to add to my evening rotation. This one was drinkable, but nothing I need to order a tin of. I have another teabag of it and I will try it again.

Another of the chocolate dessert teas from my self selected sampler from Republic of tea. I liked it. It was pleasant and inoffensive. I have a second tea bag I will be able to drink, but I won’t look for more of this.

The dessert teas have been nice, but none of them has wowed me. I’m glad to have tried them but I have no urge to place an order for any of them.