Maple, Bourbon & Nutmeg (Eggnog)

The scent of this tea is spot-on eggnog. It smells creamy & spicy. I usually don’t like nutmeg in anything, but I can usually handle it in eggnog. After water has been added, the spices come to the front rather quickly and the creaminess of the eggnog is lost. The cup turns into a bit of a cloudy, orange cup with a decent bit of oil on the top. It smells quite spicy now – nutmeg and cinnamon being most prominent.

Sipping… this one’s a little weird. The first thing I taste is something almost fruity? It reminds me a little bit of apple combined with the tartness of apple skin. The sip carries on and I pick up some marshmallow. The end of the sip finishes with some sweet rooibos. Not bad… This is certainly drinkable as I’m now about halfway through my cup. I think that this tea would probably work well with milk because it might tone down the tart, almost sour, note that I’m getting. The spices are there, but they stay in the background and lend a sweetness to the cup. They actually make me think of a spice cookie in the way they are present, but not dominating. I can detect a little bit of maple as an aftertaste, but it otherwise doesn’t show up.

This is a nice blend for the holidays. I’m going to try this with milk, perhaps as a latte and will write an updated note. For now, I’m not crazy about the tart flavor & want more of that marshmallow/creamy flavor to come out.

Relatively weak, steep 1 pyramid bag at boiling for 6m30s. Uninspiring and didn’t really stand up to milk either. What flavor there was was promising, but with one bag in 12oz of water at over six minutes I would have expected to be able to discern more than nutmeg and a bit of maple. Purchased as a single bag in plastic, may have been old/stale.

It is a sad day in my tea and art area, my little blue peacock of a fish passed yesterday after fighting with dropsy. I live in fear of the pinecone infliction (called that because the bacterial infection causes swelling which makes their scales pop out like a pinecone) because it is almost always fatal. Pretty sure it was brought in by one of the mystery snails I bought, since one died and then a day later Fish Beleren took ill. I was ridiculously attached to that fish and I feel immense sadness, I will get another Betta after Christmas because I like having them around, but I doubt I will find one as epic as him…those fish are a rarity. At least Espeon can tell I am sad and has been staying close to keep me company, comfort from cats is always welcomed.

Today’s tea is all sorts of holiday cheer! I totally forgot to get real holiday teas this year, so I am winging it. From Teaguys, this is their Maple, Bourbon & Nutmeg (Eggnog) blend, which is concocted from rooibos, honeybush, buckwheat, maple sugar, almond flour, cinnamon, flavors, nutmeg, sliced almonds, coconut, soy pieces, marshmallow pieces, stevia, turmeric, which is quite the list of ingredients! Browsing around their catalog, they have a bunch of unique looking blends that I need to get my hands on at some point. The aroma of this eggnog themed tea is not so much eggnog, but certainly get the bourbon and nutmeg. Underneath strong bourbon and nutmeg is woody sweetness and coconut with just a hint of maple at the finish. It is very sweet smelling, and the woodiness blends well with the maple and bourbon.

Steeping time, the liquid is rather cloudy, probably from the marshmallow or the coconut, or one of the other random ingredients. The aroma is quite woody and sweet, with strong notes of maple and bourbon, with lesser notes of nutmeg, coconut, and a gentle nuttiness. The liquid sans tea and bits is woody and spicy, very creamy with notes of coconut and bourbon, it is quite sweet smelling and I am starting to pick up on the eggnog idea.

The website gives the instructions to make this into a latte, and in hindsight I kinda wish I would have tried that, but I was only gifted enough for a cup so oops. The first thing I notice is the oily and thick mouthfeel with a slightly dry finish, typical of a rooibos and honeybush blend with coconut, a clever way of combating the strong dryness of this woody plant. The taste is rather sweet, strong notes of bourbon and coconut with a slight metallic note (honeybush always tastes vaguely metallic to me, not really sure why) and a maple and marshmallow midtaste. The finish has an odd coconut candy that lingers. This is an alright blend, not my favorite, but points for unique!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/12/teaguys-maple-bourbon-nutmeg-eggnog-tea.html

I had an eggnog tea show down yesterday morning (this vs. Bigelow’s Eggnogg’n) and this guy was unfortunately not the winner. The flavors when compared to Bigelow are less Eggnogg-y, still creamy and spiced but not as spot on Eggnog as it was when I first had it. The upside to this tea is that all of the flavors come from natural sources compared to Bigelow’s which uses Eggnog flavoring. So for the production of the flavor, this one gets a lot more credit in my book.

I went to yoga this morning, and it was so hard that an hour later I’m still sitting helplessly, unable to convince myself to get up and go put on normal clothes.
Argh.
I did convince myself to make a cup of tea, though, and this sample that Ost sent me. I wanted something sweet, and this certainly meets the bill.
This is really, really good. Its got an eggnog flavor, but not a canned eggnog flavor, instead a rich and spicy layer of flavors, which is gorgeous.
I might need a little more caffine, though, to get me through this day!
Thank you to Ost for this sample. Sipdown!

Yum, yum, yummmmm…. I am definitely going to order some more of this. Similar spices to eggnog but starts off with a lovely maple flavor and then salt and butter take the forefront as the tea cools. Undercurrent of bourbon throughout. Highly recommend with a little cream.

Resteep was just as good. Malty, full-bodied, and no caffeine. :):):)

Finding myself out of decaf teas, I went online searching for rooibos, and decided to place an order with Tea Guys (the flavours all sounding amazing…).
I ordered a sample of this to try, and I’m really liking it.
The scent when I opened the bag was fantastic… bourbon-y, maple goodness.
I added a splash of milk to this, since I tend to like spicier rooibos with milk, and thought it would bring out the ‘egg nogg’ feeling… It did.
This tea is downright decadent treated that way, and I’ve got it steeping for a second round right now (I usually get 2 steeps out of my rooibos, even though the second is oftentimes far less flavourful than the first… ).

Soo Tea Guys is so insanely underrated. I’m not even joking. I don’t see why they aren’t more popular. They were one of the first companies I ordered from.
This one really surprised me. When I opened the sample bag it smelled super strong of egg nog. Like way stronger than DTT’s Winter Nog.
Oversteeped it on the first steep, so had to dump it. Second steep wasn’t as strong, but I definitely tasted egg nog and creaminess. There was definitely woody notes in there too from the rooibos. I think the first steep would have been better. But the second steep wasn’t that bad. I’m excited to finish off this sample! :D This really is a great egg nog tea! If you like egg nog I think you’ll like this tea! :D

I tried this tea yesterday and I think is really good. It’s very flavourful and rich. I made it with steamed milk and it was super nice.