New Tasting Notes
Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16
Holiday tea number four from Bush Berry! This is a white tea with walnut flavor. Honestly I don’t love walnuts, so wasn’t terribly excited, but the package is really cute so that helps ha ha.
It’s actually a lovely tea – the bai mudan base is so light and fluffy with its soft hay notes. And then the flavoring is a bit like a cookie or pastry of some kind, yes it has definitely walnut notes, but also a buttery element to it, sort of like the Simpson & Vail walnut shortbread tea from earlier in the month. Not sweet per se, but definitely rich. Almost like a macadamia nut? Really liked the pairing with the lighter base.
Flavors: Airy, Buttery, Dry Leaves, Hay, Light, Macadamia, Nutty, Oats, Rich, Smooth, Soft, Walnut
Preparation
S&V Advent Day 16! I quite enjoyed this! The floral flavors go super well with the smooth black base, and the mint is an interesting addition. I’m having it room temperature with sugar and milk, and it’s one I wouldn’t mind having again! That bright hit of mint makes this one stand out to me, and of course I’m a big Jane Austen fan, so I definitely came into this wanting to like it.
ADVENT DAY 16, tea 3/3
I intended to try this tea after the second one, as they seemed to have a similar flavor profile.
While they are indeed similar, this one is more hibiscus-forward, perhaps due to the longer steeping time. Instead of the prominent cinnamon notes in the previous tea, I detected more cloves here. Unfortunately, I missed the apple notes that were present in the first tea, and there were no noticeable crumble notes in either. It seems this blend hasn’t changed much since Kelmishka tried it two years ago.
Preparation
Not what I initially imagined from reading the ingredients list, though I am still finding this quite enjoyable.
I’m not really getting any pumpkin. The ginger is the predominate flavor. I expected more of a raw ginger flavor, but I think I prefer how it comes across here. The cinnamon is more in the back of the sip than you might expect. Its so common for cinnamon to dominate, but that is not the case. The maple and vanilla are more in the aftertaste, rounding everything out. I don’t think I am getting much in the way of caramel, though it may just be blending with the vanilla and maple.
Overall, I am quite enjoying myself. I’ve been looking for ages for a spiced tea that was neither so strong there was no sign of the tea anywhere nor smacking you in the face with clove. This appears to be filling that niche quite nicely.
Second steep still has a good amount of flavor, though the base is standing out more now. As a flavored tea, this is not unexpected. But still, likely will not go well with my steep the same leaves repeatedly all day method of making tea.
Third steep and I have ruined my sense of smell sniffing all of the new flavored teas I picked up. I’m no longer sure what I am smelling from where at this point and my office is smelling like a craft store at Christmas. But it is confirmed. Two steeps seems to be all this tea can realistically give. I let it go a nearly 10 minutes but the flavor is decidedly anemic at best.
Okay, okay, so I had to get the Schitt’s Creek teas from Harney. Mostly for the tins, but I was surprised to find that this blend (for the Rosebud Motel) and the Botanical Blend (Rose Apothecary) are both actually new teas. A lot of times it seems like Harney just packages their existing teas into decorative tins, sometimes with a slight change as in Gingerbread Festival and the Williamsburg Ginger Cake (tastes the same but with orange added).
This one is a cinnamon roll black tea, which I don’t think they have another version of. It’s not at all similar to Hot Cinnamon Spice, as it doesn’t have that intense Red Hots cinnamon flavor. It’s quite mellow, actually. I’m surprised by how much I can taste the icing/glaze part of the cinnamon roll, and then there is a buttery element as well as the mellow cinnamon. It’s nice! A bit thin, so I might try two sachets for a 12-ounce cup next time and see how that goes (normally I do 1 sachet per 8 ounces). Honestly kind of reminds me of a Simpson & Vail tea in that aspect, earthy base and a bit thin ha ha.
(ETA: It looks like Botanical Blend is the same as their Mind Your Body Lemon Balm Chamomile, but still didn’t find anything similar to this tea.)
Flavors: Butter, Cinnamon, Earthy, Icing, Pastries, Smooth, Sweet, Thin
Preparation
Ooh intriguing!
ooh, I was interested in this collection but not sure whether it was worth it!
I couldn’t pass it up with the 20% sale ha ha, plus I wanted the azuki bean tea. :P
OH I’m so glad you grabbed the Schitt’s creek collection. It made me chuckle when I saw Harney’s e-mail, for sure. Especially as the show hasn’t been on for a few years now!
Cries in Canadian Shipping Prices
It’s a Canadian show! facepalm
Feels like Canadians should have first dibs/accessibility.
Well I am always willing to forward things if it’s cheaper! Whenever normal Canada Post operation resumes…
It appears that the Tropical Green from the Schitt’s Creek line is the same as the Tropical Green loose leaf that has been around forever. This one sounds really good, and Superanna asked for the Rose Apothecary blend for Christmas. The fact that the base is thin makes me not want to try this one although I had really wanted to from their description. Salted Caramel broke my heart with its horribly anemic black tea base, and I am afraid this one would do the same. It might even be the same base.
And yes, they repackage their teas under new names. Hot Cinnamon Spice and Hot Cinnamon Sunset were the same tea in different packaging. IIRC Bug Red Sun is just loose leaf Royal English Breakfast, and Titanic Blend is….Palm Court, I believe?
Devon Bartholomew Advent Day 16
Oh dear, another promising blend ruined by hibiscus. :( Teavana used to have a blood orange oolong which I absolutely adored. I think it did have some hibiscus in it, but it was subtle enough to add a bit of citrus acidity without taking over. Here (as is too often the case) it completely dominates whatever other ingredients are meant to be in the blend. Hard pass for me.
Flavors: Acidic, Hibiscus, Tart
Preparation
Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16
Yay, more literary tea! Not sure if it’s just the distribution of ingredients in my sample, but I’m not getting the lavender at all here. I think I could smell it in the packet, but didn’t pay that much attention ha ha. Mostly I taste spearmint and the earthy/woody/musty black tea base. I smell a lot of vanilla, but only taste a little bit, and it’s more of a smoothness/creaminess than specifically vanilla.
Not bad, but I wanted more of everything ha ha. I’m sure this one is in the literary sampler, so hopefully I’ll get around to ordering that one of these days, and then I can try it again. :P
Today’s jam is White Nectarine-Peach Spread. To me, it’s like why even add the peach at all when those two things are so similar ha ha, but I digress. It’s a very tasty stonefruit jam, and delicious with a bit of butter as well. Nectarine is a nice variation on the usual apricot!
Flavors: Creamy, Earthy, Mineral, Mint, Musty, Spearmint, Sweet, Woody
Preparation
ADVENT DAY 16, tea 1/3
Another already tried tea. But this time I used whole pouch in one western steeping method. Well, I don’t recommend this.
The flavours felt like washed out, like a standard red fruits tea with black tea base.
Don’t steep this tea in a strainer. It deserves gongfu brewing.
Preparation
Advent Day 16
The days have just been flying by this month. I get to the end of every day and feel like I didn’t do much with my time until I go back and break down my day: yard work, processing persimmons for drying, unpacked and set up my casting equipment, cast. I need to be a better cheerleader to myself because I am using my time better than I give myself credit for!
First sip was “Oh wow!”. The creaminess of the coconut pairs so well with the milk oolong. It looses some of that magic if I sip too frequently, maybe my tastebuds need a moment to reset. The finish is a lovely creamy oolong as well. I get zero flat flavors in here. My brain kept reading the name as “coconut milk” oolong as opposed to a milk oolong with coconut flavors, like somehow they infused coconut milk into the oolong in the processing. Then as my brain woke up a little more I could understand it was the latter. The coconut doesn’t mask the milk oolong flavor either, they are in such a nice balance with each other. The coconut almost amplifies the oolong. I’m going to have to resteep this one because I have drunk down this cup fast!
Preparation
Know how little sample packets sent by friends get woodged down in the bottom of a container? I un-woodged this morning! I am a roo lover and this mix of sugary, boozy flavors blends in nicely. A previous note from Michelle mentions that this resembles butterscotch. Absolutely.
What is a roo? In my dictionary it’s short for rooster and that doesn’t make sense in your sentence at all! LOL!
Rooibos was my guess ha ha.
Well, I do have a soft spot in my heart for chickens, but that’s a whole ’nother story! Rooibos it is.
OMG, I can’t believe I didn’t think rooibos! Facepalm.
:)
DIY Herbal Infusion Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 15
Name: Orange Spice
Ingredients: kuki-hojicha, orange, cinnamon, clove, allspice
Movie: Jingle All The Way
Yay, more hojicha ha ha! This one is an orange spice blend, with slices of dried orange, slivers of cinnamon, just a touch of clove, and some allspice, because why not? The base is Suzume Hojicha, a kuki-hojicha from Obubu. It didn’t come out as orange-y as I would’ve liked, but I also didn’t break up the orange slices before steeping, which I meant to do… Still, it was a lovely warmly spiced and toasty hojicha with a dash of orange!
Flavors: Allspice, Autumn Leaf Pile, Cinnamon, Clove, Dry Leaves, Orange, Roasted, Roasted Nuts, Smooth, Spices, Sweet, Toasty, Twigs, Woody
