Far Afield

Samurai TTB #24

I continue to be impressed by August Uncommon and it’s been a treat to sample more of their blends this month! This one appealed to me because of the ginger and mandarin orange, but I was worried the sage might dominate as it has in other sage herbals I’ve tried. However, this one is perfectly balanced! You get the juicy citrus, warming ginger, and herbaceous sage all in just the right amount. So yummy!

From the Samurai TTB
An interesting combination, spicy ginger with a sage and orange aftertaste. The orange reminds me a bit too much of Tang for me to like it. I’d be interested in a sage and ginger blend as they seem to balance each other well. But this one was nice to try, not for me.

Big’ol pot that depleted almost the entire sample.

Imagine an orange. Or maybe the flavor of mild orange in a sphere. Now imagine that mildorange flavorsphere sitting on a modest bed of earthy lemon verbena and a scattering of sweet blackberry leaves. Next, moving up, a thin core of savory sage is sprinkled into the mildorange flavorsphere so that it both extends down into the verbena and overflows the top of the mildorange flavorsphere and coats it like caramel on an apple. Then, finally spicy ginger envelopes the entire flavorsphere, making a sort of spicy-ball.

It could be better. For some reason I want it to taste more like tangerine than orange. Overall quite nice but not worth the price for me.

This reminds me very much of DavidsTea’s Lemon Smash (but with orange rather than lemon). I actually prefer the DT version. There’s a bit too much blackberry leaf in this version, and not enough ginger. Still a fine blend, but nothing really unique here.

I feel like I’ve had this tea before. There is another with similar ingredients that I usually keep stocked, this one replacing the turmeric with sage. Ginger is dominant. The orange comes up behind in the sip and sage shows up in the finish. It’s nice, but I have enough of the other tea that I don’t feel this fills a niche in my cupboard.

The flavors go so well together. I add a bit of sugar because…I add sugar to all my teas! So it’s a pleasantly sweet and spicy combination. I’ll be sad when this one is gone, but I don’t know if I’d order again at its current price. I’d be more likely to try to make my own. I’ve got some dried sage leaves, so I’m partway there!

I am seriously thinking about buying more of this tea.

But first, I need fewer herbaly bits and bobs.

Cold Brew Sipdown (121)!

Brought this one in to work and shared with coworkers. We played a guessing game, of sorts, with the flavour notes and ingredients so see if they could blindly identify any of them. My assistant manager did the best and was able to name both the ginger and orange. No one got the sage, which is the other key player here. A few people guessed ginger pear…

I really enjoyed this one cold brewed though; I felt like the earthy/spiciness was still present but the brightness of the orange was more the focus point of the sip. If we weren’t going into spring, I might be tempted to order more of this. I don’t see it being something I’d reach for often Spring/Summer though.