Teabox Tuesday! Well, my car that got a brand-new battery in it just a month ago was completely dead this morning, so I got to jump that from a coworker in the snow tonight, and now it’s sitting back at the dealership so tomorrow morning I’ll be stuck without it yet again as I have to get their shuttle to get me over there to hand over the key and get rides to work again… SIGH. So tired of this… $1140 in repairs last month and still the damn thing won’t start? #sooverit I wish I could just take it somewhere else, but since I need their stupid shuttle, I guess they’ll just keep ripping me off… (Was trying to make it to my next business day off so I could go somewhere else but NOPE, it crapped out before then… DOUBLE SIGH.)

My hands and feet were freezing after jumping it in the snow, so soup and tea was pretty much all I wanted tonight. And I felt so drained and exhausted I didn’t even care and decided to have green tea; I figure I’m so tired I’ll pass out anyway. So this is one of my oldest teabox teas, and if it has no flavor left, meh. I’ll be happy if it’s just a tasty green leaf, but considering the age and being a green, I don’t have particularly high hopes. But I need this old stuff to stop getting older. This came from the last Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you tea-sipper for organizing and to all that shared in this teabox!

So this is supposed to have lulo fruit and starfruit flavoring, which to be honest I would probably not recognize as I don’t think I’ve seen either let alone tasted, as well as mango. The tea has a sort of… strange aroma? I’m getting more of a pea/greenbean sort of smell, like a Chinese green. Tasting it… yes, I think any of the flavoring is long faded. I had tried another Bitaco tea from this box, Andean Princess, and had the same issue, so they likely were the same age. There is maybe a ghosting of something like peachiness in the background, but that is a stretch; from what I can make out of the base tea, it definitely is vegetal, with pea and bean notes, and is pleasant enough, aside from being a bit stale.

This is one I’ll likely try out from S&V sometime when I’m not on order hiatus, as I’m curious what those foreign fruit notes would taste like since they are not ones I am familiar with.

Flavors: Green Beans, Peach, Peas, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 350 ML
Kawaii433

That sucks about your car :(. I’d file a complaint at ftc.gov/complaint.

mrmopar

Sorry about your ride.

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Kawaii433

That sucks about your car :(. I’d file a complaint at ftc.gov/complaint.

mrmopar

Sorry about your ride.

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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