1360 Tasting Notes
A travel tumbler of my favorite tea to-go. Spent some quality time with family (outdoors) on this beautiful Sunday.
Edit: Found out that one of the medicines I take is an immunomodulator so the vaccine I just got on Friday may or may not be as effective as it should be. It should still provide some protection, I think, but I may need to check for antibodies later on. This makes me a teensy bit nervous, but it’s been okay so far so hopefully my luck continues.
Preparation
My husband made me drink it…
Feeling dizzy/woozy after my COVID vaccine for some reason, but aside from that I haven’t had any side effects. Well, other than the sore arm. That I expected. Breathe Deep is James’ go-to medicinal tea, now curing all ailments apparently, so I was brought a nearly overflowing cup of it and told to drink ALL of it. Which I didn’t do, of course. I drank half then snuck into the kitchen and tossed the rest down the sink. This stuff is just gross.
Flavors: Licorice
Preparation
This reminds me a lot of Teavana’s White Chocolate Peppermint Rooibos but without the strong licorice root aftertaste. I don’t taste any lavender, but I’m okay with that. I like this one more than I expected, but probably not enough to buy a whole box. Thanks for sharing, Devon Bartholomew!
Flavors: Peppermint, White Chocolate
Preparation
Michelle recommended a full ten minute steep for this one, so I steeped this according to her suggestion. It smells very much like chocolate liqueur right out of the bag, a definite alcohol aroma, but while steeping I’m getting something different. I’m immediately reminded of a hospital cafeteria. Weird. Why? And then I realized —> IT’S COFFEE. This smells like coffee. Huh? I don’t know where that’s coming from. I can taste the rooibos above all else, followed by the chocolate, but I’m still puzzled by this coffee element. I’ve search all over the internet for the ingredients to this tea and can’t seem to find them anywhere. I do hope there isn’t actually coffee in this one though, since I’m drinking this late in the afternoon and I’d really like to sleep tonight. Even though it specifically says rooibos, I have come across a couple of blends before that say herbal (for example) in the title and they ended up having puerh and black tea in the mix. Definitely misleading.
Side note – I’m so excited to have finally received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine! Thanks, Leafhopper, for the encouragement earlier this week. :) I’ve felt so behind since I haven’t been able to get it yet. Many people I know are already fully vaccinated, including my husband. I’ve also been especially anxious about it these last few weeks, since my dad was in the hospital and my father-in-law isn’t doing so well health-wise. I was supposed to have gotten it already, but I got sick with a cold and had to postpone. Anyway, I’m typing all this out because I feel super proud of myself today and wanted to share. I have Dysautonomia which causes my autonomic nervous system to act irrationally, so I was very nervous and worried about having a reaction and/or blacking out during the vaccine. I really had to mentally prepare myself for this, as silly as that may sound, and I was so proud of myself for making it through. I came out of that pharmacy grinning ear to ear. :D
Flavors: Alcohol, Chocolate, Coffee, Rooibos
Preparation
Yay for vaccine! And for you that you have decided to go through even you could have serious side effects.
Thanks, Martin! And surprisingly I don’t feel too bad today, that’s a bonus.
That’s indeed a nice bonus!
It could be a coffee flavor in the herbal tea, but I was curious so I got out my other HEB favorite tea, Cinnamon Spice. A large ‘Caffeine Free’ banner is on the Cinnamon Spice packet and I remember that it has mostly chamomile and cinnamon. So it could be there is some coffee in the Chocolate Rooibos. HEB stores don’t all have the exact same inventory, and I while I looked for it during my last visit to Houston, I might have to search HEBs until I find a box again. I like a challenge, I’ll figure out if there is coffee in this or not!
Yay for vaccines, and thanks for sharing that you are proud to get one without incident. Things that seem simple and mundane for some are difficult and nerve wracking for others, you never know what people are going through by just looking at them. It’s awesome you recognize your triumph and are happy with it!
I would be curious to know! I don’t remember that it kept me up or made me jittery, so maybe it was just a flavoring added to enhance the chocolate. And yes, you’re so right – we really don’t know what others are feeling or what might have happened to them earlier that day or week. So many people juggle so many things. I feel like sometimes it’s just enough to make it day to day.
Side note – I’m about to drink the Cinnamon Spice tea you sent! Looking forward to it since you said it’s your favorite HEB tea.
For National Blueberry Cheesecake Day courtesy of Devon Bartholomew.
I know this is one of Devon’s favorites, so I was excited to get to try it! There is a strong blueberry aroma, as there should be, and a sweetness that I can’t identify. I’m sure it’s the honey flavoring, but it doesn’t really smell like honey. It’s definitely unique. No honey in the flavor either, but I can taste the blueberry. I’m glad it was a black base and not an herbal. I always like a fruity black tea, and the convenience of a tea bag is an added benefit.
Flavors: Blueberry, Sweet
Preparation
Harvest & Year: Spring 2020
Ahh, this tea is so beautiful! And it smells amazing. Lovely golden dust floating all around and over everything. I left this to steep for too long, of course, but it’s still tasty even if a little bitter/astringent.
Side note – I finished up a quick inventory of the tea cabinet last night and I’m missing four teas! I keep everything separated into specific bins/drawers based on tea type so I’m not sure how they’ve managed to disappear. It’s not a big deal really, but I’m perplexed. I feel like I need to keep looking and looking until they are found, but I don’t know where else to look! I suppose if that’s the only thing going wrong for me today, then I shall count myself lucky. :)
Flavors: Chocolate, Malt
Preparation
I have that problem when a tea goes missing. Usually I find the culprit “miscataloged” (a white tea stuck in the green tea drawer, etc.) There was a bit of shuffling when I moved houses.
Weren’t those teas sent to someone else?
I thought perhaps I’d thrown them in the wrong bin too, so I checked all of them twice. I’ll probably check them all again today because I JUST CANT LET IT GO.
I checked my swap spreadsheet too, Martin, but I never sent them out. :/ I’ll probably find them in two years stuffed in a sock drawer or someother random spot…
Harvest: Spring, May 2020
I tried my best to scoop this with my teaspoon, but the leaves are long and gangly so I’m not entirely sure everything made it into the cup. There wasn’t a weight recommendation on the package or I would have measured, so I just went with it. The dry leaf smells to me like raisins, which I don’t like to eat but do love the flavor in tea. I taste sweet potato in the finished cup and, surprisingly, peach. I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted peach in a tea that’s not actually flavored with peach, so this was a nice surprise. I love stone fruits and black tea together. I will say that it’s lighter than I would like, not sure if that’s because I didn’t get enough on my teaspoon or if I need to increase the steep time. Compared to the Tiger Assam I had a couple of days ago, this isn’t as dark and luscious as I would have liked. Still enjoying it though, especially with that peach note.
Flavors: Peach, Raisins, Stonefruit, Sweet Potatoes
Preparation
This is one of my favourite black teas! It’s definitely a little lighter than Indian Assam. I also don’t mind raisin notes in tea, but avoid raisins like the plague.
Same, I honestly only like them in Raisin Bran when they’re caked in sugar. And even that doesn’t make any sense.
LOL. Everything is better when it’s covered in sugar. :)
A vanilla tea for National Vanilla Pudding Day from Devon Bartholomew.
Unfortunately, I don’t taste vanilla and I don’t really even taste tea. All I can taste is the milk powder. It’s very much like the Nestle hot chocolate powders, but without the benefit of the chocolate. :/
Flavors: Milk
Preparation
Way back in the day, before I was a “tea person,” I remember having a box of the regular Oregon Chai that I would make often. After I got into “proper” tea the box sat, untouched, for years. Then I decided to make a cup one day, and that milk powder had gone so off there were clumps of it in my cup.
Oh gosh, I can only imagine how awful that tasted. I hadn’t thought of powdered milk going bad, but of course that makes sense.
Switching over to decaf this afternoon courtesy of Devon Bartholomew. Devon sent a bag of this over in our last swap, and it’s really nice. I love the happy surprise of finding bagged teas that actually taste as good as some loose leaf teas out there.
