4169 Tasting Notes
Even after all these years, the flavor here is still unique and memorable. More of a syrupy flavor or MAYBE honey than anything remotely “pistachio”. But I sometimes crave the flavor profile here that I have never found in any other tea.
edited to add: I thought Angry Tea Room had this for sale, but nope, it’s gone now.
additional notes: I’m surprised yet not surprised by the 93 rating I gave this one. I wanted to write another note to say I love this more than I remember… I didn’t remember the 93. The ingredients are really cohesive here, maybe getting better with age? or maybe they just taste better together on actual Easter day (had this yesterday). And I swear I can taste that Hot Cross Bun frosting…
Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – April Tea #6: A tea that includes a color in its name
Shouldn’t humans be smarter by now? Isn’t it so great to be able to ask the internet something ridiculous like “is gold a color?” “is silver a color?” and have instant knowledge at your fingertips? (Not to mention, not to have to feel dumber for asking an actual human stupid questions?) Or course, depending on if the internet is right anyway. ANYWAY, I feel this tea fits for the Color prompt, regardless. Otherwise it would have been a Silver tea. I had to mix the last teaspoon of this sample with some from Ost. So different harvests in the same mug but very tasty either way. Not much new to say here, but I just love Teavivre’s 1)black teas 2)green teas 3)jasmine teas 4)ripe puerhs. I guess I rarely can go wrong with Teavivre’s selections!
2022 sipdowns: 52
Definitely a color!
I need to order some Golden Monkey again sometime. It was the tea that took me away from adding sugar to my teas.
Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – April Tea #5: A tea with the flavor of your favorite jelly bean
About halfway through the month, halfway through prompts. I thought this would be the appropriate prompt for today while enjoying some other Easter teas today: Hot Cross Buns & Easter Egg Nests. THIS ONE…. it’s a blend of fruits to me that is supposed to be certain fruits, but I’m tasting other fruits…. kind of like how jelly beans sometimes are… confusing at interpreting the flavors. I generally like ALL the jelly bean flavors…except for licorice. So a jumbled flavor tea also works for this challenge.
2022 sipdowns: 51
Ancient Alphabet challenge – G
Another old tea I have enjoyed over the years. It’s sad not many of these teas lingering around are teas that I didn’t like. I liked all of these teas in the challenge so far. sigh. I always thought this flavor wasn’t exactly jasmine OR lemon but I just figured out what it reminds me of: that champagne flavor that is occasionally in a tea. Which fits: there are so many huge flowers in this blend it’s like a party in a cup. Maybe whomever named this tea just took a chance guessing this weird flavor.
Ancient Alphabet challenge – F
This one has been a longtime revisiting. I like the idea from the description:
“Feng Shui Wellness Blend has the goal to create harmony between human beings and their surroundings. In order to create this, the perfect balance between oneself and the five elements wood, fire, earth, metal and water has to be achieved. According to Feng Shui, the elements are represented by the colors green, red, yellow, silver and blue as well as the forms twined, pointy, flat, round and curly which all represent an ingredient in our herb tea blend. Add the fifth element WATER yourself”
They also included lots of orange in color: orange peel and carrot. haha. I’d say the ingredients ARE in harmony, as they are seamlessly tasting well enough together…or they are simply old and muted by now. I’m definitely noticing the eucalyptus more than I would have before. My original note for this said “I like samples, it takes me forever to get through even an ounce of tea.” Apparently it also takes me forever to get through SAMPLES. sheesh. This is a tasty double steep though. It sure is colorful, but I guess that was the point.
As I’m sipping a decent cup of this particular B&B blend, I’m looking at news on updates to their tea wall teas which is making me a bit sad. A handful of favorites will be gone (forever? Or will they reappear during sales like so many of their other teas?) But that means some blends are coming to the tea wall, but I’m just not as excited for those. (I know I see a couple of Roswell’s favorites though!) So basically B&B wants the fans to stock up before they are gone. I definitely won’t be ordering right now, but wish I was! I would get THESE FAVORITES THAT I’M SAD ARE LEAVING: Lazy boy! Coco chai #5! Terry’s Tea! Hot Mama Jama! Mowgli’s Fire Chai! Coffee Puerh! The majority of the others leaving I probably have never even tried and would probably love those too. sigh. Hopefully they will at least return for sales. See the news here: https://www.birdandblendtea.com/blogs/news-from-the-nest/teawall-revamp-letter
edited to add: I will say I noticed some of these blends have been with B&B since DAY ONE, so though I have appreciated B&B’s consistency up until now, I do realize that some things have to freshen up and change.
Aw man, I always meant to order Lazy Boy, but somehow it never happened, and I’m not ready to make an order at the moment. Oh well, I don’t feel too strongly about the rest of the removals at least.
Lazy Boy hurts my soul. I just can’t splash out for their expensive international shipping to get it right now…
Sadly, I can’t help you much as it is UK company and that means customs declaring. Yes, in the end it could end up free of customs, but it means a lots of stress and paperwork.
Yeah, I guess we could do a US-based group order if we wanted to in order to reach the free shipping threshold.
Ancient Alphabet challenge – E
I really enjoyed this tea years ago! A 96 rating! Now it seems like the fantastic bergamot flavor is completely gone. Even though I thought I steeped this up a couple months ago and there was a little bit of bergamot flavor. hmm. It’s worth it for the black tea anyway! I’d buy this to restock, if I could find it.
Ancient Alphabet challenge – D
Another good one! A great quality white tea. Nothing new to say really, and it’s a sipdown. ALSO another company that I genuinely planned on ordering from and I THOUGHT has now closed up shop, but my virus scanner is telling me is a risk for my computer if I visit their site.
2022 sipdowns: 50
Lochan Tea is alive and well, and just sent me a huge list of 2022 first flushes. I’ll be doing an order when the SF Darjeelings come out, so let me know if you want anything (though considering the rate at which I send packages out, you might get it in the fall!).
Leafhopper – that is very awesome & thoughtful of you but I currently have no teas I deem fresh enough to swap with anyone. I have been trying to drink what I have – definitely no orders probably for almost a year now. Thank you though!
I understand the problem of having too much tea! You could always pay me for the teas plus shipping, but that could get expensive and would make your stash even bigger. :)
A recent tasting note I read said Raspberry Puerh so I immediately recreated this amazing combination the next day. Half a sample of this with my amazing Maya Raspberry black tea (one heaping teaspoon). I figure whenever I combine any puerh with another tea, it should be a loose puerh, as it will already have a headstart on unraveling with the other tea, rather than it being a cake of puerh that needs time to unravel. Somehow the raspberry tea is so flavorful I can hardly taste the puerh here in any of the three steeps… I’m only tasting raspberry black. So maybe adjusting leaf amounts should happen. But this is an amazing idea that I need to keep trying with other ripe puerhs. I guess I liked this puerh too much in the past to overpower it with another flavor. At least the raspberry was full of flavor for three steeps.