1186 Tasting Notes
2020 Advent Calendar from The Tea Girl – Day 4
I opened the little tin of Day 4 before noon yesterday, as I like to see if there is caffeine. Huzzah – this one was a herbal! And man it smelled yummy! Very raspberry, fruity, yum. A Friday tea indeed! After the fruit peach bomb of my morning matcha, this felt like it would follow nicely.
I found this surprisingly enjoyable. I am so leery of hibiscus in teas lol…I believe I steeped this one for 3 minutes as I was worried it’d get that horrible metallic taste from my friend hibiscus. Surprisingly it did not! It was super berry tasting, pretty sweet – felt like it’d be amazing blended with some fresh lemonade…maybe add some gin…:D might try that on the weekend with this one!
A definite summer tea type blend, not one I’d reach for much in the winter, but in summer yes. I imagine it’s great iced! Will finish off my sample of it indeed!
PS – I am so pleased with this advent calendar so far – it’s been fun, as I’ve had to add pretty much every tea to the Steepster database for it so far! Spreading tea love to the masses :D Also, the entire calendar is inherently nut free – as someone with an allergy, for this to be clearly stated right on the front, I very much appreciate it! Happy with this local to me company, and highly recommend you check them out online if you are not in Edmonton!
DavidsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar 2020 – Day 4
Had this yesterday as matcha #4! I was excited to try this one, as it is so highly rated on the website. However – I did find it a bit overwhelmingly sweet. I feel like I’d prefer this one over ice in the summer. It would probably also go really well in a smoothie! It was enjoyable enough, but wow sugar first thing in the morning haha. Kind of lost the matcha flavor for me.
Prepared it in my usual method – 175 degree water, whisk up a bit, add more hot water. Will finish off my sample, but not a reorder for me!
Flavors: Peach
2020 Advent Calendar from The Tea Girl – Day 3
Well this one looked exciting right when I opened the small tin – glitter! I can’t say I’ve had glitter in too many teas, I think the only one was Glitter and Gold by DT back in the day…so this was kind of cool! My brain also was like “hmm is this safe to eat” lol, so I admit, I did leave most of it at the bottom of my cup at the end haha. But it certainly looked magical :D
As for the tea – I am not the biggest fan of fruity green teas to begin with, and I was a bit nervous with the overwhelming fruity smell. I brewed it with 175 degree water for about 2 mins.
The flavor was decent…it was fruity, with a touch of astringency/bitterness from the green base. Not my favorite green tea (as I like my green teas without flavor mostly haha), but it was interesting and I will finish off my sample with no complaints! Probably not one I’d order again personally. I will see if I can pick out more distinct flavors with my next cup, as I found it rather generic fruit rather than defined strawberry or apricot flavor. Happy to try it out though, and the glitter factor definitely made it worth it!!
DavidsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar 2020 – Day 3
Berries and Cream! I was skeptical of this one out of the package…it smelled so fruity, I was like how can this go with matcha? Let’s say I was pleasantly surprised! I prepare all my matcha the same way when I have them the first time – 175 degree water, whisk a bit in to make a froth, pour into one of my two littlest mugs, top up my little mug with hot water. This one was berry tasting and creamy, quite enjoyable! I didn’t find the berry too artificial, which is what I was worried about. It went down smooth, so will have no trouble finishing up the sample!
2020 Advent Calendar from The Tea Girl – Day 2
Day 2 from my Tea Girl Calendar! I opened this shortly after my matcha advent tea from DavidsTea, as I like checking to see if my second tea of the day will have caffeine haha. I am not the best with caffeine as my fellow Steepsterites know, even though I am improving!
So I was super pumped to see that Day 2 was a herbal! And WOW did it smell good! So much cinnamon and sweet apple, just like an apple crisp! I steeped this with boiling water for around 4 mins, and it was quite good! I see that it looks like a lower water temp might be more recommended, so my second tea I will make at a lower temperature. It was quite good, and very hydrating – I love that about honeybush teas. And not too artifical or watery, which I sometimes find can happen with apple teas.
Overall, a tasty non caffeinated cuppa, and I want to have another cup tonight with fresh leaves but I also want to save them :P so I’ll have to wait. Definitely a good one!
DavidsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar 2020 – Day 2
Day 2 – as soon as I opened this one up I was very excited! I love plain matcha the best still – flavored was my gateway into matcha (back in the Red Leaf Tea days), but after having the real deal in a tea ceremony locally and one in Japan, I definitely acquired the taste for it plain!
This one did not disappoint – nice and smooth, a mild grassiness, not overpowering. Not quite as much of a punch as the Japanese matcha I bought while in Japan, but an okay substitute and a good midrange tea. Will gladly go through my sample, this won’t last long in my cupboard!
Prepared it with the traditional method of whisking and hot water.
2020 Advent Calendar from The Tea Girl – Day 1
I am so excited for this advent calendar for a variety of reasons: they are a local Edmonton company, I haven’t tried many of their teas (except the one they made for a local brewery collaboration which was an AMAZING BEER), and the packaging is SO CUTE! So hurray for new teas in the cupboard, hoping to find some that I want to order larger quantities of! #supportlocal
So Day 1, Candy Cane oolong – how festive! This tea smells SO MINTY. And tastes SO MINTY. But a sweet mint, not a peppermint – truly like a candy cane! Did not get much of the oolong base, but the caffeine was a nice pick me up in the afternoon. The mint opened up my sinuses and was awesome! Pretty intense, so not one I’d have every day, but a great holiday tea to start off this advent calendar!
Flavors: Mint
DavidsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar 2020 – Day 1
I am so excited for this advent calendar! I’ve really gotten into having a cup of matcha every morning in the last couple of months, so as soon as I received this in the mail I wanted to open it to try some new flavors. But I waited until Dec. 1 as I should haha.
This one was a pleasant start! I found it quite creamy tasting and sweet, very pumpkin pie like! Only complaint is I could not get a frothy whisk to save my life lol. May have added too much water in my excitement! I thought I hadn’t had this tea before, but I see I did log it about…5 years ago? I much preferred it this time around!
How have I not reviewed this yet haha I definitely have had it, as my sample pack is opened lol. Anyways, this is today’s #SeptemberSipdown tea, as we had to choose one to drink all day and this one fits the bill. Note that all day for me may end up only being 3-4 steeps since I’m so bad with caffeine haha, but shengs or shu are my go-to for all-day teas, and a sheng from Teavivre never disappoints!
This one is quite mellow and nice. I combined my first two gaiwan steeps (after a 15s rinse) into my little mug so I don’t have to get up to steep as much during the work day. Smells woodsy, has a nice woodsy flavor with some sweetness at the end. I always get apricot from Teavivre shengs it seems, my favorite note in a sheng I think. Getting a bit more bitter as it cools, but nothing unmanageable. Excited to get in at least a few more steeps this afternoon, but will not drink too late in the day or I’ll be up all night!
Overall an enjoyable sheng. Can’t believe this tea is already 7 years old!
I was supposed to do this yesterday, but missed it haha, so today I am having a tea that is discontinued as part of the September Sipdown. Much sadness when this was discontinued, I am hoarding my remaining bit and made a cup today. Still super smooth and yummy. Will need to bite the bullet and have a big ol’ gaiwan session to finish this one off one of these days, rather than half leafed western steeps trying to preserve my remaining tea haha :P can’t we all relate though? I may actually sip this one down this month, in the spirit of #SeptemberSipdown. That will be a sad day though, this is a great tea!
Dark star that came out was equally as delicious….but was also limited and sold out before I could get more…so I continue to hoard that one and special dark still.
@Sil oooh I missed Dark Star! That one sounds great, haha gotta love hoarding old teas. At least hoarding pu’er is considered somewhat acceptable, since it generally improves with age ;) some of my other teas…not so much unfortunately.
I was perusing their site the other day after your previous tea note and have a whole cart XD, but also :| haha.
@ Courtney yess! I will probably be reordering from them after I go through all the samples :D
They really have some amazing sounding teas. Have you tried Tea Hippie? It’s in Cochrane, but I also have a cart for them haha!
@ Courtney – I haven’t tried them but will definitely check them out! Love supporting AB companies during this time, and new tea is always exciting :D
:)