Mint Pistachio

2022 Bird & Blend Advent calendar Day #21

After a rocky start to the new year, I’m feeling more like myself. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been sick like this. I took today off from work unsure if I could put in a full day but I think I’ll need to head back in on Thursday. Since everyone is back to school finally, I have a quiet house for the first time in ages! So I thought I’d spend some quiet time with a mug of tea before tackling the laundry and bills that piled up.

I rather like this one. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read the ingredients. I definitely get the mint in scent and taste and can smell some cherry to it as well. There is a slight nutty taste that give it an interesting factor. I’m reminded of pistachio ice cream from my childhood. This was good mug for the afternoon and I’ll probably go put the kettle on for a second.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 14
From Emilie!

Mint black teas are a favorite of mine. The addition here of cardamom to the mint and pistachio is so unique and, honestly, pretty exciting. My first bottle of ground cardamom was a gift and so the spice has always been a bit of a treat to use and experience. I do wish there was more cardamom here, and more pistachio, as I am mostly tasting the peppermint. I have enough here for one more cup, so I’ll try again perhaps with less water to see if I can deepen the flavor. On the whole, this is an intriguing blend. I love the combination of flavors.

This is one of the teas I bought on their boxing day sale.

I was a bit amazed; pistachio is expensive here (probably everywhere, but I digress) and I love that nuts. And combined with mint? Honestly I couldn’t imagine it.

This is only tea I have opened from that order (if I don’t count the already drank tea bags) and I just had to smell it.
Nuttiness hit my nose, then the mint notes… I let my brother smell it and he said “It’s how I would expect it.” and me too! It smells indeed quite nice, though quite strongly IMO.

Ah well, flavour profile. I prepared it two times already; so this will be a combination of both. One was 4 minutes (as recommended) long, the other was certainly more than 5 and less than 10 minutes long. I was a bit distracted by my grandma, who decided to give me some money to finish the school (I have to pay per term.). How nice from her!

I digressed again, sorry.
It is nicely nutty, with pretty much nice base. It is indeed like a pistachio (is that the cardamom in actually?); and the menthol freshnesss is very enjoyable too. It seems fresh to me, but luckily it isn’t overpowering the nutiness nor the base.

Well blended, indeed! 50 grams will be gone faster than I have thought. It seems that almost only me and Roswell Strange are truly fans of this blend :D

It seems the mint has become a bit less aggressive, and I can taste more of the pistachio. Adding a bit fo honey also helps to enhance the pistachio flavor.

I was going to make Christmas Cake, but when I dug into my B&B black tea freezer bag, I saw my package of Christmas Cake was still sealed, and this had been cut open, so I changed gears (as I know the sealed packages will keep fresh longer). I know I’ve never had this tea, so I can only assume I opened it to give someone as a request for a trade at some point.

The dry leaf just smells like peppermint tea. And my brewed cup… still smells just like peppermint tea. It’s… a little jarring because there is this really strong menthol coming from the mint, which leaves such a cooling sensation on the mouth, but that sensation is making the black base come off a little metallic in flavor. I have to really push past the strong, minty sensation and swish the tea to taste the malty/bready black base at the back of my tongue and throat. It’s a flavor that can only really come in once that strong minty pucker sort of dissipates from the sip, so the aftertaste is sort of an English-Breakfast-if-I-just-brushed-my-teeth sort of taste. And there is nothing even remotely pistachio, or even nutty about this. I’m not sure if that is just my palate or due to the age of the blend.

Not really a fan of this. I like minty teas, but I don’t think I’m liking the strength of mint here paired on a black base much. Might try it cold brewed or as an iced tea instead, and see if that improves things.

Thanks to tea-sipper for this one! I’ve also had a sample of it from Mastress Alita, though I didn’t write a note at the time. The mint is really good. I’m having it at room temperature, and the flavor is so clean and fresh. I don’t taste any pistachio or black tea, but the mint is some of the best mint I’ve had. Really pleased with this one, though I don’t think I’d buy it over a caffeine-free mint blend.

It’s been a rough few days.

Maybe it’s my frustrated mindset, or maybe it’s because flavored teas often confound me, but I find it difficult to capture what I think about this tea. The first cup tasted overwhelmingly of alcohol-based extract (pistachio flavoring?). The blend really grew on me over the course of three days, though. Sweet but crisp mint, very lightly creamy. Green cardamom blends so well I couldn’t pick it out at first. The black tea seems to serve as a caffeine-delivery vehicle. Maybe it provides a different, oh-so-light layer of tannic cleansing. I just don’t know.

Recommend 1tsp, 10oz, water off boil for 1 steep as long as you want. 2tsp with a 3min first steep doesn’t seem to leave enough power for a second steep.

Thanks for providing a bit of respite from the madness, tea-sipper <3

Thanks again for your sale, Cameron B! More B&B teas I have the chance to try! This blend sounded like an intriguing combination, unfortunately I can’t taste much of the pistachio or cardamom at all, with the leaves in my teaspoon being mostly mint. The black tea that did end up in the teaspoon didn’t result in as light of a brew as expected, so that’s a plus. Hopefully they upgraded that too-light Ceylon in their blends a while ago. The mint was quite strong, which I like, with also a bit of a creaminess — a quality I definitely enjoyed from their Brighton Rock. This is mostly a black tea with creamy mint which is good thing, I can always enjoy more mint blends, especially when headaches roll in, though the blend is nothing spectacular. Unless it’s in how I’m brewing it. It’s also a little too much like their Candy Cane blend I had the other day. I have 25grams to experiment with. I usually have two teas with caffeine in a day and I thought this one especially paired very well with TeaPots n Treasures’ Chagas, Chestnut & Chocolate which is an old favorite I have once in while. I was please to see the company still in business today (though a kind Steepsterer originally sent me this blend, I didn’t think the company would still be around after all these years. Sadly, no Chagas, etc currently in stock but they make a point of letting you ask about blends.)
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoons for my smaller mug // 8 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 3 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Home – 8:30 PM

This was one of the bonus 50g bags from my Bird & Blend order. It looks like this was a spring blend that they don’t carry at the moment. I do like both mint and pistachio, so hooray! I was surprised that this is a black tea – if I were to blend those two flavors, I would likely put them with a white tea base.

Wow, sniffing the dry tea certainly cleared my sinuses out! It smells like peppermint Altoids… O.O

Luckily, the steeped tea doesn’t have such a strong peppermint aroma. Hmm… The peppermint here goes a little “wet rag” for me. I sometimes have that issue with peppermint leaf. I do taste just a little bit of cardamom, which is a spice that I really enjoy when it’s not too strong. To me it almost tastes like a combination of citrus and floral with some additional spiciness. I’m not sure I can taste the black tea at all here. The pistachio (which really is almond extract, like in pistachio ice cream) comes at the end of the sip, and it is quite subtle. It gives the blend a slight creaminess as well.

Personally, I could do with less peppermint leaf here. I feel like it overpowers the other two flavors, and it definitely overpowers the black tea.

Maybe next time I’ll try picking some of the peppermint out to see if that improves it.

Steeped this one up yesterday.

I haven’t been drinking quite as much tea since advents ended; mostly because I’m still sick and my energy level has been rock bottom. I did make this though because I thought the mint would be soothing but I didn’t want to just make a boring cup of peppermint. It was very nice, and very relaxing. Sweet nutty notes were the forward flavour, like some kind of pistachio macaron or other pastry, but then with the typical herbaceous and cooling finish of peppermint tea.

(Thankfully caffeinated though, because of the black tea base!)