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Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #9-A tea with a strong aroma

I feel if any tea is worth its salt, it should probably have a strong aroma, so I think many teas would be appropriate for this aroma prompt!  But I went with this one… the best candy cane tea.  Sadly it seems Angry Tea Room has folded.  Even though I will still be working on their Christmas advent from many years ago this year. (Possibly they made their advents too big?  But that is why I bought it. :D)  Anyway, I couldn’t ask for more from a candy cane tea.  Fierce mint and sweet from actual candy cane pieces.   Could I throw in my own candy canes to a black tea?  Sure.  But I like the perfect balance here.  Also, just want to throw in that my current book is ‘Hell of a Book’ by Jason Mott and it’s a special book.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #8- A tea from a tea swap/traveling tea box

Man, no sipdowns for me for about a month now.  So here is one.  This was a good CTC!  Not TOO strong of a CTC, but with a ton of flavor anyway.  It never had that brisk bite to it, even while it was overbrewed for five minutes.  It was probably one of my favorite CTC blends that I have ever had.   I was glad to find this in a teabox back in the day.   Way way back. 
2022 sipdowns: 98

So I just had to order a few things from Harney’s and lo and behold I had quite a few rewards points stacked up that I wasn’t aware of.  Which means I splurged on a tin of Hattialli assam!  Hattialli is my very favorite tea, but I have only ever had it from Butiki!  So we will see how Harney’s Hattialli goes… more on that later.  The story on THIS tea.  I have always thought Hot Cinnamon Sunset is an essential cupboard tea.  My old tin is almost gone BUT I also wanted to try the no caff Hot Cinnamon Sunset to see how it stacks up to the black tea version.  I also thought a rooibos base for these sweet cinnamon flavors sounds like the perfect dessert tea.  Steeping it up, I can’t ask for a better dessert tea.  Wow.  It’s all the same sweet cinnamon flavor of the other version.  I love it so much.  Very happy I gave this a try.  Now BOTH versions of Hot Cinnamon Sunset are cupboard staples.  (They also have a decaf black Hot Cinnamon Sunset but I’m fine with these two.)

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #7 -A yerba mate

The only yerba mate I brought on the trip, so it will have to do for the prompt today!   I like this one because it at least has marshmallow root.  It’s an odd blend based on an odd book.  Nothing new to report!

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #6 —A hibiscus tea

Probably my favorite tea with hibiscus and gladly not a sipdown (never never a sipdown!)  I just love this blend, even with the hibiscus. 

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #5 -A coconut tea

Probably the last hot days of the year so I’m steeping up this beloved tea.  Yet another one that isn’t at its prime with the water up here, but I steeped it up a few times here anyway.  And there is definitely coconut in this one to count for the prompt!  I don’t think I would travel with this one again… I don’t want to be wasting this with subpar brews and flavors.  But it was nice to have it around for the hot days. Update on reading tasting notes: I’m now only 30 pages behind. That is much better than I have been doing.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #4 -A tea with honey added

The book I’m reading kept mentioning chamomile, and once for eye health (though the book didn’t mean drinking it for eye health, but a compress or something…), and my eyes are always wrecked so I steeped this up.  I don’t actually mind this one from Twinnings and I’m often craving it.  So this has honey in the name of the tea for this prompt AND I actually added some of Grandma’s honey to the mug… which I never really like to do since I never actually taste honey until I get to the bottom of the mug… and that will be the dregs of the cup in the morning! On another note, the local grocery ad this week showed $7 for two boxes of 20 teabags of Twinings tea. NO WAY. I don’t like this that much.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #3 – A tropical tea

additional notes: Not a true sipdown again! Maybe soon as I only brought a bit on the trip with me, but I also don’t want to burn through all my tea options. This is the benefit of almost always resteeping. :D I fear this is the mango chai that eventually just tastes earthy. EARTHY. The less fresh it is. Which I was trying to avoid as I had a mango chai in the past that did that…. ah well, it was cheap and this tea isn’t fresh anymore.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #2 – A chocolate tea

additional notes: This is actually one I’m actively trying to sipdown because of the stevia, but it might yet take a while to sip it down. It’s chocolatey, but some teas brew better with the soft water here, and some do not. This one doesn’t taste quite chocolatey enough so I might save the rest for home. Don’t want to make a tea taste worse, when I know it can be better!

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #1 – A Breakfast Tea

So eyeing the list for September prompts, I might actually have a few possible challenge possibilities from what I brought along in my gallon zip bag of teas. Scratch that. Uncannily, I might be able to accomplish ALL the prompts with my gallon zipbag of teas, though they may not be actual sipdowns!   I like to bring a few teaspoons of each tea along, for variety so I don’t get bored with a tea, but also for space saving.  20 teaspoons = too much for travel.  1 teaspoon = not saving enough space in that gallon zip bag (too much packaging, not enough tea).   So this will be fun seeing what prompts I can accomplish away from my tea stash.

This tea is Not a sipdown and I’m glad.  I always forget this is just about the best black tea bag.  And accurate with the “breakfast” name. It’s so rich while not being astringent, two steeps.  I usually bring this specific tea traveling…