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Advent Day 19

I see that after a hearty breakfast tea yesterday we are back to our regularly scheduled blue teas. MF is really pushing those in this advent. I opened the bag and spotted cinnamon and clove bits along with the tea and pea flower. It steeped into what looks like a deep inky indigo color when peering down into my mug. The flavors are so light and delicate. I can pick out the baked cinnamon flavor and other spices. The clove isn’t prominent enough to stand out on it’s own. I don’t taste the pea flower thankfully or the tea base. All these blue teas are so ethereal and light in flavor. There isn’t much for me to grab onto and love. I do like this one much more that the others, but I wouldn’t buy it.

Advent Day 18

A black tea!!!! If only this was strong enough to knock me out of being so cranky and irritable with my household! It felt like everyone needed something from me before I had gotten breakfast or tea in me.
My cup has cooled now that I’ve tended to all the things. I noticed it was brisk when gulping some of it down with breakfast. It doesn’t quite have that smokiness that I have come to associate with teas with “Russian” in the name. There is a citrus flavor in the depths that comes out more when it cools. Took a few sips to get over or past how strong this is. I bet it would be great with cream and sugar, but I can’t be bothered at this point in my cup or take the risk that I’d ruin what is left. I get wood and tannins in this as well. I’m liking how heavy this tea is, but I don’t love it enough to open my cupboard doors to it and invite it in, especially when French Breakfast lives there.

Advent Day 17

How are we at Dec 17th already?!
My spirits sank a little this morning when I pulled out ANOTHER __________ In Love tea. No black tea for me today. I was in a rush to get out the door this morning and poured my cup into a glass travel mug. I’m glad I did because this is a lovely blue with a hint of grey tea. It’s cold now that I’m home and able to take notes. It has a light minty flavor that left me wanting more mint. I’m pleased to say I don’t pick up on any pea flower taste. There is almost a light rose flavor in the finish. The color of this tea is so pretty that I want to be really excited about the tea and drink it again, but the flavor doesn’t match the visual.

Advent Day 16

Another tea that isn’t in the Steepster database! There seem to be a lot in this advent. This is labeled as a white tea, but it looks like green and kujicha. I don’t know. The sip is very light and a little bland, but I went with way lighter steeping parameters then suggested. The finish is where it gets a little interesting. I notice an almost honey taste. Like the scent of honey that fades into a very light grassy, but mostly hay flavor and then even that fades away. By a little interesting I mean it’s no longer just a bland mouthful of warm pale yellow water, not that it’s something remarkable or impressive. It’s really not to my tastes.

Advent Day 14

I was so excited thinking this was a black tea at first, but it’s not. It’s white and I steeped it at black temps. I thought it was going to be minty based on the large amount of little green flakes, but this is not minty at all. It’s fruity. Was I seeing mate instead of mint? It kind of makes me think of a light Marco Polo. It doesn’t have the depth of MP and the strawberry flavor is weaker and more airy with something else in it. I tried looking it up on MF’s website, but can’t find it. I find a Rhapsody collection and several teas with Opera in them, but not the two together. I know it exists! I feel a little gaslit by a tea company! LOL!

This tea smells really good dry. Rich heavy raspberry with chocolate notes. When I steeped it the cup ended up way too strong with a layer of oil on top and so concentrated that didn’t taste good. Adding cream diluted it a bit to where I could enjoy the taste. When I go in to take a sip I get this quick flash of what I can only describe as the smell of iodine. I don’t taste it, it’s just a quick impression. The sip has a little raspberry at the front, but is a little bland after that. The finish is where the chocolate raspberry come out and lingers. I’m not sure how I feel about a tea being all finish. I think me not saying I’m sure about something is a thinly veiled way to say no me gusta. So far this is the best flavor out of all four teas I got from Friday Afternoon, but I’m not feeling this company overall. I really want a new independent blender who works with unique flavor combos, a Butiki or Quarter to Tea replacement and this isn’t it. This is similar enough to Lupicia’s Chocolat Framboise that has a near permanent place in my cupboard that I don’t think I’d restock this even though it has a badass name.

Advent Day 15

A black tea!!!! It’s been too long! I wonder what MF’s thing is with Marco Polo. How many versions do they have and at what point do they decide a new blend will be a MP and not given a unique name of it’s own? Just checked the website and it looks like seven. Seven different varieties of Marco Polo!
This is a nice cup, but I wouldn’t call it sublime. It has that deep strawberry scent and taste. The taste is very dark and heavy with the lighter notes of the berries peeking out. I can taste the berry in the sip, but there is a flash of alkaline in the start of the finish and it leaves my mouth slightly dry. It’s a nice enough tea, but I’ve never been super excited about Marco Polo, blue, sublime or regular.

I put the tea bag from the advent in a jar of water in my fridge and left it there for it looks like 11 days. A lot longer than I had intended, but I’ve been busy. The rose flavor is very bright. If I think about it really hard I can imagine mint and lemon, but if they are really in this tea they are added in such small quantities to be indistinguishable from the rose. Maybe that is what is special about this blend? Like adding a pinch of salt to something to bring out the flavors without even noticing the salt? I’m trying to be kind, but it’s still not striking me as that special of a tea. Enjoyable yes, but that’s about it.

Advent Day 13

I just took a bite of a passionfruit from a friend’s yard and it’s throwing off my tastebuds a little! Most of these MF teas say to steep for 5 minutes, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that to a green so I only steeped it for one. I’ve been taking my tea out of the bags and suspect I’m getting fuller flavors by letting the leaves expand without restrictions. I’m not a huge green tea fan, but I’m liking this one. There is no hay or grassiness, it’s just smooth and light with a slight buttery taste or feel at the end of each sip. The flavor is the same once the cup has cooled. It is a very enjoyable cup and I would drink it again, but it isn’t standing out enough for me to want to buy it.

This tea has a light banana scent when dry with this almost but not quite earthiness in the background. Once steeped it totally changes. Banana is very present and the not quite earthy scent is gone. There is a strong deep cinnamon, like cinnamon without the heat and only the deeper base flavors. It makes me think less of snickerdoodles and more of a banana foster, but I guess that would usually be more creamy. It’s a pretty smooth tea overall with good flavor. I caved and added a little sugar a few sips in thinking it would round out the banana flavor, but I don’t know that it improved the cup, it just kinda changed it. I bet this tea would do well as a latte! Maybe next time.