MojiTEA

Holiday Tea-son! The tenth tea from my advent calendar, which I cut out of the sachet this morning and have had swimming in a mason jar of 350ml of cold water doing a cold-brew all day. I just popped it out of the fridge, strained, and am ready to try it out!

I have had other “mojito” inspired teas before, though I admittedly have never had a mojito (well, when you can’t have alcohol due to migraines…) The steeped tea smells nice; very minty, but I’m picking up some citrus zing in the aroma as well. I think letting the leaf openly cold brew free of the shackles of that little sachet was the way to go, because I have a pretty sharp and full flavor here, that is very refreshing on the tongue. There is a refreshing, brisk mint flavor, and then a sharper, full tangy citrus that hits afterwards. It’s more full on the lime notes, but I get a bit of a lemon flavor as well. I couldn’t really say anything about the base green tea, because the flavors are so overwhelming it’s pretty imperceptable here. I really can’t imagine liking this flavor combination as a warm tea, personally, but this ice cold brew is very cooling and refreshing.

A bit of an odd choice for a winter advent calendar, perhaps, but I’m one of those people that still keeps a jar of iced tea in my fridge during the winter to drink with hot meals, so I’m not complaining, and it breaks up all the orange/spice/almond flavors. It’s also better than the other mojito tea I tried in the past; the lime/citrus note is presenting better in Bird & Blend’s blend and it just feels more balanced/refreshing.

Bird & Blend Tea Advent Calendar – Day 10

Yay, more Bird & Blend! And this happens to be a tea that I ordered a sample pack of, but haven’t gotten around to trying yet. So that’s nice, as I spoilered a lot of these advent calendar teas for myself by ordering so many samples… ;)

I’ll never understand why tea companies use peppermint so much more than spearmint. Especially in an application like this, where it’s inspired by a cocktail with fresh mint. Dried peppermint is nowhere near the same flavor as fresh in my opinion, and I feel like spearmint conveys that refreshing taste better in dried form.

But anyway! This is a green tea with lime and mint, inspired by the mojito. Which happens to be a cocktail that I thoroughly enjoy! Unfortunately, this tea is mostly just dried herbal peppermint to me. I don’t even taste the lime at all, let alone the base tea.

So this is not one I would reorder, being not the biggest fan of dried peppermint. Oh well!

An odd one to end the advent on! But here we are. A tropical tea for a freezing winter bomb cyclone. I think I will extend the holiday tea drinking until at least January 1st… hope all who celebrate have a happy Christmas.

Holiday Tea 2022 # 41 : Bird & Blend – MojiTEA (advent)

Currently supping away at a mini sample I had of this! Been sitting in the cupboard for a little well so thought I would finally give it a whirl!

Thought it was a herbal blend so whacked 100C water over it oppsie! Despite this I done seem to have ruined the green tea much, not bitterness to report! :)

Moderate minty aroma.

Flavour is lovely! Can image this so easily iced with a bit of tipple added in! Flavour is fairly citrusy and again moderately minty. Lovely!

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I’ve been drinking this for a couple of days after making a large iced batch. The reason for the delay in reviewing is that I can’t make my mind up about it. On the one hand it tastes so pepperminty that it reminds me of toothpaste, especially since it’s cold. It leaves my mouth tasting as though I just brushed my teeth. On the other hand it’s a handy drink to have if you’ve eaten something smelly like onion or garlic. And after all the taste is actually pleasant and refreshing,

Let me break it down. First sip is citrus(y) with a light infusion of lemongrass and lime (nothing sour, actually rather creamy) but this only lasts for a second. After that the peppermint kicks in and spreads itself around my mouth to leave a creamy and refreshing (almost tingling) sensation. This lingers well into the after taste until before you know it, poof, it’s gone.

The only conclusion I can come to is that it’s nice but because of it’s unusual nature (in iced form anyway) I would have to be in the right mood to drink it. That means it’s not perfect, but the fact that I can drink it at all also means something.

For that reason I will give a fair and rather medium score. ie – Could be better, could be worse.

Sipdown!! (193)

This is the last of my Bluebird samples from the amazing Nattie!! Thank you! This one is really nice. The lime is bright and refreshing without making the cup sour and the mint is fresh and delightful. However, the flavors as a whole are a bit subtle so it takes a little bit of focus to truly appreciate the flavors but this certainly has potential.

Another one from my hepatite swap with Sami Kelsh This one is rather tasty. I know mojito’s have mint in them, but i feel like this is the wrong mint for this tea. It makes me want the mint to not be in the tea lol.

Edit: work got in the way of me finishing this review… long story short, this is really tasty, but i want the mint to be less present, or be a different type of mine. I really like the citrusy flavour of this one quite a bit.

Sipdown 185/397

I could have sworn I’d written a tasting note on this already. This tea was an early favourite of mine, zingy lime and refreshing mint which really did remind me of a mojito – and I’m a bartender, so I’ve made and drank plenty. Sadly, as this tea has aged, the lime has dissipated to the point where this just tastes like a mint green tea to me. NOT the tea’s fault, I hasten to add, since I’ve had this so long it’s still in Bluebird packaging with ‘I was packed by teabird Mike’ written across the front. I’ve been holding onto the tiniest bit because I loved it so much and I was loathe to throw out original Bluebird packaging (I might be a bit of a hoarder). I’m trying to rethink that outlook and remind myself that tea is a perishable item which can’t be kept indefinitely, so finally saying goodbye for now. I won’t make any promises that I won’t pick up more in the future, though.

Know where I was this afternoon? A cake expo. It’s pretty much my wonderland. And I got in for free, and there were free samples everywhere of all the things (salted caramel marshmallow, oh you sexy beast!) and enough free samples of booze that I admittedly had a bit of a buzz on by the time we left the building. Whoop.

And I emerged with only one purchase: a very sensible giant doughnut with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles. Its name is the Pink Princess. I can see why.

So I’m kind of down with a somewhat cleansing tea, though the name of this suggests more toxins rather than less, admittedly. I can tell you exactly why I love this even though the thought of an actual mojito turns my stomach a bit, and it’s basically because this isn’t ruined with icky booze. I’m not a big drinker at the best of times, but if it tastes of rum or tequila, I will be making embarrassing yuck faces long after it’s passed my taste buds. This, however, is just a lovely festival of mint and lime that I like with a squizzle of honey or a packet of organic sugar for balance, and feels really cleansing after an afternoon of various bits of frosting and cake and fudge and marshmallows and jams and sloe gin.

(Gosh I do love a good sloe gin. If I weren’t virtually teetotal I could easily ruin myself on that stuff.)