Blue Star

I really didn’t know what to expect from this one. At first, I found it to be a little sour and strange. I added some milk and extra sugar, and actually, I kind of like it in its eccentricity. I totally get both the chocolate and the fruitiness, and the combo works. It’s like having a bar of dark chocolate with dried fruit bits in it.

Sipdown (290)

This is another tea from Sil’s latest drop off. Thank you!

I pulled it out, honestly because I thought it was thematic to go with the tea photo I thought would be cute. Now that I am not moving between 3 houses and other places, it is hard to diversify my #365daysoftea photos on instagram so I try to change them up when I can. Yesterday was a fun day at home as my sister and I set up a gender reveal surprise for her husband. We were limited in what we could do to what we had around the house so we ended up with a chalk drawing in the backyard and blue file folder confetti. We filmed the surprise and that allowed them to make a cute virtual reveal video in lieu of the gender reveal party we were hoping to have prior to the virus. So now that they announced publicly, I thought it would be cute to incorporate yesterday’s fun into today’s picture and this tea just seemed like the right choice. Check out the picture here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_sxtNkg2Gg/

As for the tea itself, it’s not my favorite. It’s a little bit of a spice flavor, though not so much a spicy kick. There is also a cacao flavor that is quite strong and is coming into conflict with the fruitier notes in the cup. It’s fine but 52 Teas has many more offerings I’d reach for before this. As such, I am ok with just the one cup.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 3)

This was really tasty today! I always expect it to be a blueberry tea, which results in disappointment until I taste it. Nice chocolatey fruitiness; I wouldn’t have been able to identify passionfruit, just a tropically fruity tone alongside the chocolate, but it works well here.

TTB #13

What a unique blend! I was disappointed by my first couple of sips, but the flavors really began to pop as my cup cooled down. Passionfruit is definitely the dominant element, but I’m getting hints of dark chocolate from the cacao nibs and a little spicy kick in the back of my throat thanks to the cayenne. It is just a bit drying, which I don’t enjoy, but otherwise a fun flavor combination and a nice change of pace.

I was crazy busy before New Year’s Eve doing my level best to get December’s Teas out before that day – which I’m happy to say that I did manage to do, but not with much time to spare. It seems like every time I get close to getting caught up, I end up having to tweak a tea or something and it throws me behind schedule again. I’ve come to realize that it’s probably going to be a never ending process because I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my teas (or so I’ve been told).

Anyway, those same people who tell me that I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my teas have also ordered me on a bit of a vacay so that I can catch my breath. Tonight, I’m back at it full-time – so I decided that i needed a pot of tea to get things going. This is the tea that I grabbed.

I am really in love with this tea. It came out just the way I wanted it to. A really great passion fruit flavor, just enough cayenne to add a bit of warming to it without being too spicy – and the cacao is just enough to add a pleasant touch of chocolate without interfering with the passion fruit. It reminds me a lot of the donut that inspired it – except that this has a bit more chocolate flavor to it because with the donuts, you just get the cacao nibs – and because they aren’t infused into the flavor and serve as “sprinkles” to the donut, you don’t get a strong chocolate flavor – instead, you get some chocolate-y notes with some texture that actually nicely contrasts the cake-y donut.

But since I have yet to discover how to make a tea crunchy and still smooth and sippable, you just kinda have to imagine the crunchy texture of cacao nibs with this tea. Or I guess you could nibble on some cacao nibs while you drink this tea. But you really SHOULD drink this tea because it’s totally yummmm!

Day 13 of our Advent Tea Swap. From amandastory516.

The description for this tea sounds so interesting – passion fruit, cacao, and cayenne. Not something I’d pick out for myself but I’m curious to try it.

I left this one to steep far longer than I intended, so I’m wondering if that might have something to do with the taste. It’s not exactly bitter, but it’s definitely more dry and the flavors just aren’t coming through. I’m not really sure about the flavor of passion fruit, but I’m not tasting cacao or cayenne either. It reminds me a lot of the Whiskey and Fig tea I had a little while back. A very dry tea with little flavor. I’ll save my rating on this one until I can steep a proper cup. Hopefully the flavors will come through more with a better steep.

SIpdown!

There are two listing for this tea so I’m just using the first one.

I’ve been really excited to try this tea since I saw the description go up on 52teas. The timing couldn’t be more perfect.

First I want to acknowledge something—this tea sounds weird. Like seriously strange! I’m guessing most people would be a little dubious if not turned off by the flavor combo. I actually would have been one of those people a week ago. But universe works in strange ways I guess.

Across the hallway from the little Powell’s shop is a Blue Star Donut. I’d tried them out last time I was in Portland and was mildly disappointed. The Blueberry Bourbon Basil donut is one of their specialities and while the donut itself was a good texture the flavors just didn’t do it for me. I decided I’d just stick to Voodoo as my weird Portland donut shop(the mango one and the chocolate frosted voodoo doll shaped ones with raspberry filling and pretzel “needles” are my favorites).

Then I see this tea go up a few days later! I was a bit scared going in with such high expectations but I wasn’t disappointed. Anne captures the balance of the flavors so well and they do go excellently with the base tea. The passion fruit tastes really natural but the tea it self isn’t stick from the powder like Anne was worried about. The spice level was nice, not overwhelming but it makes the other flavors pop nicely. It was great hot and the little bit I accidentally left in my cup and drank a few hours later cold was just as good.

Highly recommended.