Pulled this for my evening sipper, from a very old TeaSource order (a still-sealed January 2018 tea). Dry leaf aroma reminds me of their Evening in Missoula tea (one of my favorites, which I sipped down recently); they do share many of the same “rootbeer” ingredients, like wild cherry bark and sarsaparilla. This one does smell a bit more spice-heavy than Evening in Missoula, which had more of a minty undertone (thanks to the wintergreen).
Brewed tea still has that strong, pleasant rootbeer aroma. I’m definitely not digging the flavor of this one as much as Evening in Missoula, though. I definitely do taste sweet sarsaparilla (the sarsaparilla and lingering licorice root sticky sweetness really do come off very rootbeer-esque), but I’m getting a lot of cinnamon and chicory on the sip as well. I like chicory, but that roasty quality feels out of place here; not so much as to make the tea unpleasant, but considering both this blend and their Evening in Missoula have a very similar flavor profile, the other blend is the clear winner for me and I wouldn’t really feel a need to have both in my cupboard.
Strong rootbeer/licorice/spice notes, with this slight roasted coffee bean flavor on the finish. It’s fine, but the crisp, clean rootbeer flavor of Evening in Missoula with the wintergreen appeals to me more. That said, I won’t have any issues sipping this down; this cup was prepared hot (and was quite nice that way) but I definitely need to try it cold brewed/iced, which I imagine would work quite nicely.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Coffee, Licorice, Roasted, Root Beer, Sarsaparilla, Spices, Sweet
Whenever I restock Evening in Missoula, I may have to pick up some of this too.
Sandy here on Steepster went to Montana and came back with Evening In Missoula for us to try. I liked it. Ashman was traumatized. It was in his early tea sipping days. He drank two Cokes, brushed his teeth, drank water, and bemoaned being unable to get the taste of a whole bouquet of flowers out of his mouth. I had saved the contents of the basket to dry and put in our room like potpourri and he was horrified so I threw it away! Ha ha! I would love to try it again someday. (When he is at work.)
Ours came from Montana Tea and Spice in Missoula, but I am guessing it is the same blend. It is our benchmark now – like I ask him….was it Evening in Missoula bad to you or just bad?
Again, I really liked it! So did Sandy!
I rated Evening in Missoula a 98 (review here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/376087 ), it’s one of my favorite teas. It doesn’t taste floral to me at all (I don’t even taste the chamomile in the blend, and I hate chamomile). It’s a TeaSource blend (though tons of mom and pops wholesale it from them) and it tastes like rootbeer to me (it has wintergreen, sarsaparilla, and cherry bark in it, all very rootbeer-y herbs). This is also a TeaSource blend, and also tastes like rootbeer to me, it just isn’t as good as Evening in Missoula to me.
This reminds me it is high time for me to break out my sassafras concentrate. I need a good tonickin, as Granny Clampett would say.