1024 Tasting Notes
So after my great first direct encounter with Andrew from Tippity (see: La Luotuo-de), I sent him an email to ask if he would consider selling me some samples of blends, because my biggest fear with buying online is that I’ll shell out for 100g and then hate it. Or even nothing it. I wanna love it, you know? And I’m a hoarder, so I don’t find it easy to just discard a tea if I’m not crazy about it. Nope, I’ll keep it in the cupboard for MONTHS.
So what was cool was that Andrew replied pretty quickly to say he’d a) literally just gotten some sample bags in and b) hadn’t thought to sell samples through the store but dug my idea so much that he wanted to send me samples of some blends for free as thanks for the suggestion.
HOORAY! Tippity is seriously kicking goals for me. I can’t wait to place my first proper order with them, and hopefully I’ll be keen on a whole bunch of these nine samples I got in the post the other day. First up: this guy.
It’s pretty cool.
Chai with honey premixed, so it comes kinda sticky and molasses-y, then as soon as it hits water it puffs out and breaks up and floats around more like regular tea.
This has a really nice spice to it, and my favourite part is that it needs no further sweetening. The honey soaked through gives it just the right amount of sweetness to mix with the spice.
I tried it for the first time tonight in a Zero Japan pot for around 4mins, then doled out with decent lashings of milk. Yum. Yum. Snow on the mountain predicted overnight. Perfect.
This was a pleasant surprise from the September Monstrositea box—I was anticipating it to be just a normal flavoured matcha but it’s actually got starch in it as well so it thickens up into a texture that reminded me a bit of an Italian hot chocolate, sans the milky/creaminess. Really interesting and quite exciting to try! Great job Monstrositea—I love the adventures this tea box takes me on.
One from my awesome swap with VariaTEA and tonight I had a simple no-nonsense cup on a short steep of around 2mins. Really tasty, a nice black tea with a touch of sweetness. The first time I tried it was in a cold brew overnight and the flavouring was so delicate it didn’t really come through—but tonight we have a winner!
The first sample off the bat for me and High Tea with Harriet and already I’m loving their customer service, hooray! An Aussie online company that sells samples as well as full boxes—YAY.
I popped this one open first, it being an evening and I’m funny with names. This wasn’t high on my list to try but I grabbed it as a flavoured white anyway.
WOW this one needs a better description because it smells like a peach explosion in here! I suppose I haven’t encountered a fresh mirabelle before so it could smell like that, but my brain said peach. Wow wow WOW wow.
Served too hot and you lose that delicate fruit flavour, but as soon as it cools (or if you brew it a bit cooler) holy moly, that flavour carries through from dry to wet nose to tastebuds! I wish I had an ingredients list for this because surely some flavour has been added to boost the mirabelle. This is crazy sweet. And the sample’s big enough to gimme a cold brew run too!
This sounds magnificent and beautiful to me.
It is pretty magnificent and beautiful.