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Sipdown! (8 | 130)

The last tea from the summer subscription box, woohoo!

This was just an okay mint tisane. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, just not preferable to a nice Pacific Northwest mint or the mint I have stocked for my own herbal blends. There’s a tiny bit of a wet rag thing going on. I mostly mixed it with other things to sip through it, and this time I added chamomile and a bit of ginger, as I was feeling a little burpy.

Fine and does the job, but I just prefer more “premium” mint these days, for a crisper taste. Also, I felt like the peppermint far overpowered the spearmint here, and it could’ve been more balanced.

Single serving sample.

I only used 6 ounces of water for this sample, but I guess I should’ve used even less, because it’s very light. I definitely taste the ginger, especially at the beginning, and then the citrus notes come in a bit later. Not sure if my sample is just not representative of the blend, but it has a stronger ginger/earthy flavor than I would expect given the description. Definitely not noticing any vanilla, though there is a sweetness to it.

It’s fine, but mostly tastes like light lemongrass and ginger to me.

I recently ordered from Yunnan Sourcing’s US website, and picked up their Intro to Chinese Black Tea sampler along with the fruit aroma zheng shan xiao zhong and this tea. They don’t offer smaller sizes in their more affordable teas on the US website, but I didn’t want to wait for shipping from China, hence the sampler. It includes 10 teas and should be a nice variety for my hongcha-starved cupboard. I figured if I enjoy and drink these regularly, I’ll go ahead and order from their main site to try more teas in 25-50g sizes.

I sprung for the 100g of this tea because it sounded like something I would like, and is described as being processed similarly to Taiwanese blacks. And I can definitely see that, it has that fluffy bread flavor going on with touches of creamy honey, cinnamon, and tangy fruit. However, it’s also reminding me of dancong in that there’s a noticeable floral note that I am not loving, and a slight cannabis flavor. I’m not sure what that specific floral is that I don’t like, but I find it to be characteristic of dancong. It’s almost a bit soapy to my palate?

Anyway, it’s perfectly nice, but I will probably try to rehome at least half of it since 100g is a lot to get through, especially when I find myself suddenly hongcha rich ha ha. So let me know if you’re interested in taking some off my hands (for free)! :)

(Spring 2025 harvest)

Sipdown! (4 | 126)

Finished off my tin from 2023, woohoo! I’ve been drinking this one almost daily, so I guess my seasonal tea basket is paying off. Enjoying it in my haunted castle Halloween Nordic mug today!

Still probably my favorite Lupicia tea, though that’s a tough race. Will definitely order this year’s tin when it’s available, to continue my collection. But for now, will work on my 2024 tin next! :)

This is delightful. It’s the same as their traditional chai, but with the addition of star anise. The description says “subtle licorice notes”, but to me the anise flavor is the strongest one here. I like licorice in general (though not licorice root), so I think it’s delicious iced with oat milk and maple syrup! Will definitely need to pick up a tin of this one. :)

Cold steeped overnight.

Even with the shorter steep, still getting that perfume/flowery flavor… Honestly I’m so sad, the muscat grape flavor is so good, and the flavor I was most looking forward to.

Sigh. I guess I’ll put this in the rehoming box for now, though I can’t imagine anyone enjoying it. I can’t bring myself to throw it out though. T.T

Cold steep, and the last fruit infusion from my sampler box!

This is nice, even though I’m not a rose lover. The rose is quite prominent, but it’s not overly heady if that makes sense, plus the citrus and hibiscus tang help to balance it a bit. It’s not a favorite for me personally, because rose, but still drinkable and very refreshing. I’ll definitely put the other bags aside to send to a friend who does enjoy rose!

I’ve been craving iced chai lately, and really enjoying this instant version. It has no added sweetener or milk – just dehydrated brewed black tea powder and spices. I use 2-3 times the amount they recommend per cup, and I’ve been sipping it with oat milk and maple syrup. The only “negative” I would say is because there’s quite a bit of powdered spice here, it does tend to settle to the bottom. But I just stir mine up with the straw before each sip to distribute the spices, and it’s lovely!

I ordered the sampler yesterday to try some of their other flavors! Particularly looking forward to the anise version.

This one doesn’t have a lot of flavor. I mostly taste the very grassy and dry Chinese sencha base, with just a hint of peach. I’m not sure what white hibiscus even tastes like, floral I assume? Not getting that at all. Mostly I just taste dried-out glass clippings ha ha. Meh.

Cold steeped overnight.

This… was so incredibly strong on the licorice root flavor, and I don’t understand why. Weirdly I didn’t get a ton of the accompanying coating sweetness, just the taste of licorice root. Basically it was hibiscus and licorice root, I didn’t really taste cherry specifically. Although I did only take a couple of small sips, because BLECH.