Biarritz

This was a sample included with my recent August Uncommon Tea order. I was glad to get this one as I’m especially fond of flavored rooibos teas. I bet it smells heavenly, but I don’t have a sense of smell. And due to my current ongoing chemo I have a lot of mouth sores, so anything hot is painful, but so is anything cold. I brewed this at boiling and waited until it was at a lukewarm temperature to drink and I think I got some black licorice flavor from the anise. No almond/amaretto unfortunately. I will try it again when I’m done with chemo and see if I get anything else from it. Life sucks right now but it will get better.

As soon as I opened the packet, my first thought was, WOW! ameretto! Its really there in the flavor as well. I can detect a little anise, though its not overpowering, just nice and subtle.

Not sure if I can detect any of the other ingredients, but wow, I am liking this tisane. Actually the description mentions flavors of muddled cherries and I can see that as well.

There is a nice subtle sweetness to the flavor that is not a dominating and I think I am enjoying that as well.

This seems perfect to curl up with on a cold night. I’m sure I will be buying more.

I really like this tea but I like it even more with orange honey. The honey brings out the flavor of the almonds, amaretto and orange. I am drinking it hot right now but it is delicious iced too. I am really impressed by all the teas I have tried from August Uncommon.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 23
From Emilie!

So unique! The aroma is cherry while the flavor is just like a black jelly bean. Those aren’t my favorite, but I don’t hate them. The cherry mixed with the anise definitely works. I don’t get the amaretto or orange blossom flavors which is kind of a letdown, but I’m going to use the rest of my sample in a cold brew to see what other flavors might come through. AU really has the most interesting blends!

Unexpectedly, the strongest flavor I taste is anise. There’s a bit of almond, but it’s difficult to taste it past all that strong anise. I’ve had this plain cold and with milk warm, and I think I prefer it cold because the almond can come out more that way. Then it tastes like alcohol and almond, so I guess like amaretto? Plus that strong anise flavor, which sometimes gives it a bit of a soda taste. I enjoyed it much more the second time I had it because it tasted more balanced.

what was i thinking.

haha.

it’s like kool-aid but nasty.

won’t bother ordering from august uncommon again. we don’t play nice together.

on a more positive note, chinese and spanish classes are done. i’m freeee!

I was very excited to receive the August Uncommon Top 10 sampler pack as a Christmas gift from my grandma in December! Since I got a lot of other tea for Christmas and had the Samurai TTB with me in January as well, I saved these teas to open on my vacation this month. Overall, August Uncommon continues to impress me with the quality of their tea and the uniqueness of their blends; I quite enjoyed 8/10 of the teas in this set and several are going on my wishlist to purchase in larger quantities soon.

But this was one of the two that flopped for me….and flopped quite spectacularly! I can usually finish any mug of tea, even if I’m not really enjoying it, but I actually dumped this one out after a couple of sips. It felt like drinking a mug of cough syrup…the artificial cherry flavor was STRONG and the anise also gave it a cloyingly sweet, throat-coating mouthfeel that I just couldn’t handle. I’ve passed this on to an amaretto-loving friend in hopes that she will enjoy it more than I did…wouldn’t take much!

Nope, this is revolting to me.

It’s all amaretto and medicinal cherry throat lozenges. There’s a bit of anise as well, which is something I generally like, but here it’s just making the artificial and boozy flavors even more cloying.

Into the rehoming box it goes!

2021 sipdown no. 32

Unfortunately not enjoying a single rooibos from August Uncommon, which is in complete juxtaposition to their black teas, which I quite enjoyed!

This one is very amaretto-y. There also seems to be a faint hint of what I can only describe as olive tapenade, almost hidden at the end of the sip. I can’t say much else, because I couldn’t finish the cup. I offered it to A and she also did not enjoy. Nonetheless, always happy to have the opportunity to try new teas. Thanks Cameron!

Sipping on this one currently!

In ingredients list alone I felt pretty confidant that I would enjoy this tea; boozy almond with orange and anise!? Yes please! Even the dry leaf smelled very appetizing to me. However, steeped up I’m finding the taste to be a little much. It’s not that any of the present flavours taste bad – in fact they’re all quite lovely! The almond/amaretto is really clear and coating on the palate but not artificial/chemical or too concentrated, the anise is sweet and licorice-y with a hint of warming spice but doesn’t mask the other flavours, and the orange is delicate and floral.

The main issue here is that it’s simply too much when all together. Single out any two of these flavours and this would be a good tea – but all three together is very rich and really coating on the palate, so they all linger for a VERY long time after each sip. That is often a reoccurring theme to AU blends; there’s just so much going on!

I will revisit and see if this is something I adjust to with subsequent steepings, but right now I just feel a little bit impartial towards it as a blend.