White Christmas

I have been promised the second episode of Sherlock tonight, but my Sherlock buddy is off playing hocky! Gah. Get back here, stupid Sherlock-buddy, so I can watch detectives in great coats.
In other news, this tea remains a creamy cup of spices, and very nice as an after dinner tea.

I’m finishing off the last of this sample tonight… sniff

It’s okay to have a belated Christmas in MAY, right?!?!

For some reason this seems minty to me tonight and I can’t quite understand why. I just hope I washed my teacups out well enough. I do like the almond-y cardamom flavor in here along with the white tea, very nice for after dinner and I only hope it doesn’t keep me awake. As much as I like Christmas, I’m so happy to be getting 14 hours of daylight!

I still am amazed at how this smells like white chocolate and yet contains no chocolate. The cardamom in here is just so good. I love it and the vanilla. I know I said before I thought the vanilla gives it that white chocolate taste but I think it’s also a bit of the cardamom somehow.

I really do love this tea. It’s nice and light from the white tea base but it’s full of such good flavors.

It’s a bummer that the only loose leaf option is to buy a pound or just the sample :(

Erm yes. Bear with me, Steepsterites. It’s just because it’s now I’m drinking down Tea Corner and therefore I can’t wait another half year to use this one. It’s already a pretty old bag, predating my Sample Tracking Plan, so I’m clueless as to where it came from. (It came from H&S, hurr hurr hurr!)

So yes. Christmas tea in June with lots of sunshine outside. A far cry from the wet undies causing downpour of the other days, which I was forced out in as I needed to buy cat food. (It later transpired that there actually was half a bucketful left in the old bag and I could have saved myself the shower… Isn’t that just typical)

I can smell spice in here. I think it’s the cardamom primarily, but there is also something that makes me think ginger. Ginger. Oh dear. It’s mostly cardamom, though, and I like that. (Lovely in pancakes along with some lemon juice, actually. Don’t ask me for measurements. I tend to use a smidge and a squirt. Sometimes a large smidge and squirt, sometimes small)

It is quite cardamom-y in flavour, and I’m discovering that I actually quite like that. This is odd because I don’t customarily care much for spice in tea. I don’t like ginger at all, tea or otherwise, but can deal with a wee bit in cooking or baking. I like cinnamon in cooking and baking but not too fond of it in tea. But cardamom? Apparently this goes down a lot better with me than the other two when mixed into tea.

Since I’m used to cardamom in the combination with lemon juice in our saturday morning pancakes, the cardamom here does make me rather wish for something citrus-y. I should think a teensy bit of orange, or perhaps even mandarin or tangerine, would have done well.

I usually try not to look at other people’s posts about something until I’ve finished writing my own, because if I’m too aware of other people’s findings, it tends to pollute my thoughts and manipulate me to try and find the same things. This time, though, I accidentally cheated. This just goes to show that I ought to write my note in something else and copy paste it into the posting window here when I’m done. There were more than one person that spoke of white chocolate-y flavours, and I have to say, I’m utterly stumped on that one. This is not like any white chocolate I’ve ever had. I’m surprised so many people seem to have come to this conclusion.

As I drink this, the vanilla shows up, but only on the swallow. It’s one of those building-itself-up flavours that you can’t taste right away. Almond and chamomile, however, eluded me until I got further down into the cup where something strange happened.

The cardamom flavouring transformed! I’m pretty certain it was the same note that I was initially interpreting as cardamom, because it changed so slowly that I didn’t realise what was going on until I went ‘hey, wait a minute…’ Instead of being strongly cardamom, it’s now fairly strongly almond.

It’s a two-in-one tea, this. Cardamom flavoured first, then almond and vanilla flavoured second.

I quite like it, although it is rather out of season.

I love whites, I really do.

This tea was interesting – not at all what I was expecting when reading the ingredients. It was quite dark for a white. I got a large note of white chocolate, and then marzipan which will have been the almond, vanilla and mint. Zero cardamon, which is probably what threw me off the most since I was expecting it warily.

Certainly a tea that could be enjoyed year round.

Yep… I caved and bought the White Christmas gift box. Haha! Since my family is either a little intimidated to buy me tea (or thinks that I have enough tea) for a present, I have started buying my own tea presents! This year, I got myself this gift package as well as the 12 days (which I’m eagerly waiting to start!) box from 52Teas.

On to this tea. It is YUMMY… I like this very much – and I’m a little surprised because I tend to be a little disappointed with Harney’s sachets, but this one is good.

The almond and vanilla are very well pronounced, and I like the flavor of the cardamom. So good. Not too spicy, just warm and inviting. Cozy! Delish!!!

This tea smells amazing. I had a cup at a housewarming party for my step sister in law. Perfect for this time of year!

Little bit late for Christmas, eh?

I dug into this one today after a long day of work, and this one surprised me in multiple ways. The white tea leaves are a bit more pulverized than I usually like them to be. I’ve gotten used to seeing white peony/bai mu dan style teas with big, leafy, stemmy parts. These were more ripped up than average.

I went into this one without really knowing what was in it until after I had made the cup and was sipping it. So hrm. The smell of the tea itself was mainly a white tea smell, meaning a sort of musty green smell, mixed with sweet notes hinting at almond.

And then I steeped the bugger up, and I could swear that this smelled like chocolate. The cup was unusually dark for a white tea. Goldenrod yellow, more like what some of the Chinese greens steep up to. But back to the smell. Like a cocoa powder scent. It was in the taste as well. I was thinking to myself, hrmmmm, this sort of is on the lines of a Florence, except with less cocoa and more of something else.

And then I read the description online. WHAT.

Cardamom? Vanilla? Almond? WHITE CHAMOMILE?

Okay, no. I started to sip this now more curiously. I can sort of taste the vanilla coming in at the tail end. It’s more of a bean-feeling, which might be where the cocoa is coming from, and there’s a sweet, very very slightly tart component that I can somewhat attribute to the chamomile. I’m not getting the taste of almonds at all. And as for cardamom, I’ve never really had it alone. But nothing is jumping out at me that would be the spice that tends to be the hallmark of chai.

The other flavor (beyond the flavoring, hurrhurr) is the white peony. It’s fairly decent, but lacked the depth of flavor that I’ve had in other variations of this particular tea. I’ve always enjoyed that dark-sweet taste that bai mu dan has, but this was sort of like swimming in the kiddie side of the pool. Nice to dip your toes into, but not much else.

I think that describes the tea pretty well overall, actually. Fairly enjoyable, but just not exciting. Better than average, but forgettable. And as I grow and change and learn about tea, as my tastes become more refined and honed, I start demanding excellence. There’s so much tea out there, and so little time. Why waste it drinking just okay stuff. I mean, this is better than okay. This is enjoyable, and nice and relaxing. It’s just not memorable.

The scent of the dry leaf transports me back to my (unfortunately shortened) life in Sweden where cardamom is a favoured spice in desserts. Every once in a while I’d treat myself to a cardamom bun, as it’s a favourite spice of mine too.

The cardamom remains at the forefront once steeped too, both in taste and aroma. Steeped, it vaguely smells like a baked item with cardamom. Like, it’s almost bready, and definitely cardamom, but it doesn’t scream cardamom buns or kheer or whatever.

The cardamom remains the star of the show from the first sip to the last. As it cools, the vanilla makes this a little creamier and sweeter.

It leaves a predominately white tea aftertaste in the mouth, along with a whisper of almond, and speckles of cardamom.

It’s one of those teas that while you enjoy it, it’s not restock-worthy. The sample pouch is the perfect amount.

I truly enjoyed this tea but the whole time I was drinking it I kept thinking it is missing something. Every sip kept trying to pull a memory out of me but because it was missing that ingredient I couldn’t quite grab it. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the flavor and am very happy my dear husband and daughter thought of me and bought the tea set. I also got the Holiday Spice Black Tea but I haven’t tried it yet.