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Bird & Blend Advent Day 15 (15-December 2020)

This one smells caramel-y dry and steeped. I wouldn’t say buttery, like the name, but caramel is still tasty, so here’s hoping.

This is just a half decent black base with some bitterness while it’s still quite hot. I think this is the Assam tea base against the 100°C water. I should’ve checked the ingredients before adding water instead of just the steeping parameters.

I’m going to let this cool some more to see if some caramel flavours come out. Yeah, nothing changed as it cooled, sadly. I still drank the cup, but the sachets I saved for a re-steep may just be tossed.

The dry and steeped scent of this really brings me back to my early childhood when my mom sent me to daycare with an instant packet of Quaker blueberry oatmeal. I am actually enjoying the scent because dried blueberries are still real blueberries!

The black tea base here is fine, I mean it’s nothing special, but there’s nothing wrong with it. The blueberry taste is present, but very subtle. I would say the taste is more reminiscent of dried blueberries than fresh blueberries, but that’s okay. I think this tea may benefit from the teeniest bit of sweetener.

Bird & Blend Advent Day 14 (14-December 2020)

Hmm, rose and peach? Neither are flavours I enjoy in tea. I would go so far as to say I cannot stand rose, however, new teas are always exciting!

For reference, we picked out the wee candy hearts. The steeped scent is actually growing on me as the tea cools enough to try it. Maybe a bit tropical?

Okay, this is bizarre, but I’m actually loving this! The rose has a sweetness with it that is so delicious. The peach lingers at the end of the sip, almost like a not fully ripe peach.

As it cools it gets more rose floral than rose sweet and that’s not my favourite, but I’m still enjoying this!

This is actually an enjoyable green tea and I very rarely, if ever keep green teas around. This one I may actually consider!

I used to work a high-stress job and whenever I had a super overwhelming day, I’d walk a couple blocks to a different building on campus to grab either a “Halifax Fog” or a vegan matcha latte and it always helped.

I was hoping to re-create that today, but something has gone terribly wrong and this is not tasty haha! I used the tetra-pak coconut milk instead of almond, because almond was adding to the bittnerness, but sadly something else has gone completely awry. Maybe too much matcha (I did double the amount haha — I should know better)!

On the upside, it’s super creamy and frothy, which I credit to the coconut milk.

Edit: Lex says “it tastes terrible in my mouth”. XD

Bird & Blend Advent Day 13 (13-December 2020)

A favourite! I love everything about this tea. The coffee beans add the best flavour with a hint of vanilla mellowing out the base.

I have to order this one.

Bird & Blend Advent Day 12 (12-December 2020)

Wow, this smells just like a mincemeat tart in the dry sachet! Takes me right home to my Nann’s!

Steeped it smells different again, but still delicious. There is a baked good flavour here that I really enjoy. The overall taste of this one was great — I can’t recall specifics because I’ve been so immersed in this paper so I can hopefully move onto the next paper and exam studying soon!

I’m having a resteep of this tea now and it’s still super tasty. The clove comes out in the second steep, but not in an overwhelming way — just softly and meshes perfectly into the base tea. I would definitely consider ordering this one for our cupboard!

Bird & Blend Advent Day 11 (11-December 2020)

This one smells so good in the dry sachet. Extraordinarily buttery. The steeped scent is also very buttery with a hint of old school puffed rice cereal.

There is a warming sweetness and at the very end of the tip I get a hint of toffee amongst the puffed rice. I am really enjoying this one and so is Lex! Woot. B&B just gets the rooibos blends.

We would consider ordering this one for sure. Also, I have so much going on caffeine seems to be affecting me and it never has before, so I may just need more delicious rooibos blends for the late night.

I decided to order a very small handful of teas from a wee shop a somewhat short drive from us. It was a great reason to get out of the house for a tea curbside pick up! The woman that runs the tea shop was lovely as well and let me know these teas were just blended yesterday (via email, of course)!

This tea is actually nice. I was hoping for it to be a little more maple-forward, but that’s okay. The black base isn’t astringent at all, which is wonderful and there’s a subtle maple at the end of the sip that lingers. The tea also has a subtle scent of buttery maple, which is nice.

Bird & Blend Advent Day 10 (10-December 2020)

This is the one I was most excited for! It smells super tasty dry and steeped! I can’t even recall now what it smelled like, I just remember it smelled so good! The pomegranate flowers were also beautiful. A lovely pop of colour, and I generally enjoy teas with almond.

I’m getting some very subtle hints of almond and cinnamon against the black tea base, though I’m not getting any orange. There’s a very subtle buttery flavour in the background – more like pastry than straight butter.

Oh dear, I was trying to strategically place our two online grocery orders to find the ingredients for my panforte and drank this whole tea without even realizing it. But I really enjoyed it!

Edit: I so rarely resteep flavoured black teas, but I couldn’t bear to let this one go and the resteep is just as delicious!

We have the rooibos blend of this, but it’s not my favourite. I feel like the rooibos just makes this tea ‘too much’ of something.

I discovered this single tea sachet from my last order in my cupboard and was so excited to try this tea with a black base. Well, it does not disappoint! I checked the DF website and the flavours listed are: cherry, strawberry, raspberry, caramel, vanilla, and I’m sure I can taste them all. Just in perfect balance – not overwhelmingly, cloying, or artificial. Just perfection.

I’ll have to remember to order this one with my next DF order. I was hoping to put that off for a while, but I may just place it in January.