Mackintosh (formerly Dots and Loops)

What a delightful blend! Although the candy apple scent is super strong in the dry leaf, the flavor itself is more muted—I’m getting a nice balanced blend of fennel, clove, and apple. Which sounds very autumnal, but that’s not really the vibe I get while sipping it.

I’m glad I ordered a package of this one last month, because I just saw that August Uncommon is discontinuing it. What a shame! I feel like it’s one of their better blends, without lots of flavorings gunking it up.

Happy National Apple Turnover Day! Today the sipdown prompt is to drink a tea with apple flavor notes!

I have been pretty much exclusively drinking cold brews and tea pop from the fridge, but brewed this as a warm cup with my breakfast this morning. 3.5g to 350ml 205F water, steeped for three minutes. The cup has a pleasing green apple and spices aroma, particularly of the peppery licorice scent of fennel.

Perhaps a bit autumnal in flavor profile for this unending heat wave, but I really enjoy the flavor. I’m getting two different apple flavors; a sweeter red apples baked in cinnamon and a tarter, juicier green apple that is more prominent at the end of the sip. There is a strong fennel flavor in the tea which lingers in the aftertaste, which does add a layer of pepperiness/black licorice to the flavor. I personally really like how the fennel tastes in combination with the apple.

A nice tea to lazily sip on during my “faux Sunday” morning, while munching on a breakfast rice bowl.

Thanks so much for the excellent swap, derk! Some amazing teas that I have wanted to try in that package, including the first I’ve ever been able to try from August Uncommon! So very thrilled for that.  I tried this a few days ago, late on the tasting note, but I was drinking this from derk and Yeti from Annie and was feeling quite tea spoiled!!  I’m grateful to Steepster for all the tea buds and the oceans of tea I’ve been able to try over the years because of those tea buds. 
This is GOOD.  A great tea to have on hopefully one of the last colder days of the season.  Apple, yet also savory from the clove and fennel on a lighter black tea base. I love to find an occasional fennel tea.   I debated using two teaspoons for a BIG mug to finish the sample off but I’m glad I didn’t, as the flavor is certainly full and lingering in the mouth long enough to only use one teaspoon. Now I have the extra teaspoon for another day. A great introduction to August Uncommon!
Steep #1  // 1 teaspoon for a mug // 22 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // 3 minutes after boiling //  3 min steep

This tea is very interesting, and I’m wondering if I should try blending fennel with some of my other teas that are less than complex. The tea is bright and citrus, but still tart. Its making me think of a favorite apple salsa recipe that uses green apples. I like the salsa with lime tortilla chips, and maybe that’s what this needs, a splash of lime.
For me, this smells better than it tastes, I guess when I use three times the recommended leaf I expect a bit more flavor. Perhaps this taste is a bit too subtle and delicate for me. I’m liking it better as it cools, it seems a bit more balanced, the fennel is more pronounced, and there’s even a slight hint of the black tea base. I have enjoyed all of the sample pack, but I’m not sure I’d purchase this again.

This tea is quite interesting! The black tea is very bready, almost like a pastry. The green apple is somewhere on the border of candy-like and crisp. I’m only getting a slight fennel flavor in the after-taste. Happy to drink this cup, but not sure if I need to finish the sample bag.

I thought I had posted tasting notes for this tea before. And I thought that I was so so on it. I’ve been struggling to get a good cup out of AU teas. All of the French black teas I have lower steeping temps, which has made a significant difference in the cup, so I decided to try a lower temp on this one. I like it! I’m getting aromatic apple and clove dominating. I can taste that there are more flavors in it, but I can’t pick out what. It’s very spiced apple. As it cools there is a little alkaline tinge that creeps in making it taste a little flatter than when it’s hot, but it’s not too distracting. Now I’m going to have to go back and try all the other AU teas at a lower temp and reevaluate how I feel about them!

This tea came to me from derk! Thank you!

I saved this to drink with my youngest who has just returned from five months abroad. She has always been food adventurous and loved all the beets (is there any borscht left in Eastern Europe or did she eat it all?) and the flavored milk drinks, but she really fell in love with green apple juice.

She LOVED this tea. The description says it is bright black tea with green apple and fennel. It also has caraway and clove, but the dominant flavors are indeed green apple wedded in a beautiful balance with the fennel. The “bright” is just that. You taste the tea without it being buried in flavorings but it doesn’t have that sometimes annoyed harsh and tart brightness of high grown Ceylons.

It was the perfect tea to share with her on our belated Christmas celebration!

This tea is so good!

The dry leaf, wet leaf, aroma and taste all stick to the same palette with no surprises. That doesn’t mean it’s a straightforward tea. This blend of savory, sweet, tart, fruity-floral and spicy has a load of depth.

The apple aroma and flavor is unique; I wouldn’t say it’s green apple but very close — almost sweet like candy but very floral, somehow reminiscent of both crisp and tart fresh green apples and the deeper, comforting aroma of some kind of heritage red apples baked with brown sugar. Clove, fennel and caraway create a sweet, herbal, citrusy, almost peppery and pungent rye-like taste, of which the perfume lingers as an ether after the swallow. All of these flavors are layered into a black tea base that’s malty and somewhat bready with cleansing tannic and mineral qualities.

The tea is actually pretty refreshing for a liquor so savory. I think I’ll keep sipping on this with today’s 95-100F temps. I’d love to try it in the fall since it reminds me of Oktoberfest but the remainder of this gift from Mastress Alita won’t last more than a week. August Uncommon has some interesting teas. Maybe I’ll suck it up and place an order later this year. Thanks, MA :)

Edit: 2nd infusion is watery but still has the flavors of added ingredients. Going to try with higher leaf, shorter steep next time in hopes of pulling out a more substantial resteep.

Silly me ordering tea when I have barely been touching the stash I have as it’s been collecting dust over the past while. But once I saw that August restocked on Passage, I just had to do it.

Sample size of this. The fennel is the most prominent note here, tannins quite strong, but the apple is on the faint side, which I don’t mind. I’m at the very least glad it isn’t a fake, strong candy apple flavour you get from other companies (I think we all know…). The mouthfeel is thin and I’m left with astringency.

365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 24

Sample Sipdown! (55)

This is absolutely my favorite so far from August Uncommon.

The base tea is smooth and a bit malty with some bread notes. The apple is crisp and refreshing – definitely a green apple but not the candy sort. And then the fennel just adds a nice unexpected savory anise flavor that somehow pulls the whole thing together.

It’s like some sort of interesting seeded dark bread, pumpernickel-esque, with thinly sliced green apple on top. Admittedly, that doesn’t even really sound good, but the tea is really good!

I will it’s somewhat savory, and there’s quite a bit of fennel, so not a good choice if you’re not a fan! I’ll definitely be picking up a pouch of this sometime in the foreseeable future.

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