29 Tasting Notes
“Oh my god.” — upon first smelling the contents of the little tea sachet!
This just arrived in the mail from Bird & Blend as a sample along with my latest order from them. Just another example of the wild scents good tea creators can evoke when they’re in firing on all cylinders. The creaminess is so present to the nose it seems overkill to add any milk to this tea. So I didn’t. It works just fine as it is. I added a little bit of sweetener of choice and found it a pleasurable alternative to the sugar coma levels of its namesake. I’m sitting her sipping on it and can’t for the life of me pull out what I’m tasting — I mean it’s delicious — but beyond buttery, I’m at a loss here. There’s a milk chocolate mellowness to it. Also caramel, I guess? Yeah, yeah. Buttery caramel. I’ll go with that.
I’d be bummed at just having the sample, but having recently signed up for the Bird & Blend subscription service, I’m delighted to see Cream Egg is included in their regular March subscription box (for Easter I suppose). So I look forward to many more cups of this new tea.
Flavors: Butter, Caramel, Cookie
Preparation
Eggh. Wow. I really wanted to love this one. A gorgeous color in the cup, but just unfortunate. I’ll give it a 70 because I’ve really enjoyed the other Arthur Dove teas and know he was going for something here. I paid the admission fee, I just didn’t dig the exhibition.
It smells really fascinating. Earthy and of course smoky with that Lapsang Souchong, but boy it is funky in the cup. I think the addition of the beetroot with the licorice might’ve tipped things to the medicinal. My husband HATED it — pretty much consigned it to the never list. I tend to be a bit more adventuresome when it comes to tea, but this one just went further beyond the bounds. It’s just too cloying in those offnotes, like something soured sweet.
Flavors: Medicinal, Musty, Sour, Sweet
Preparation
I don’t drink this every day. Not even once a week. But when I do I’m always grateful for it. It’s such a pleasurable unique combination of herbs and leaves. One of the most beautiful teas I’ve ever seen, so colorful and evocative. Just a pure delight and nicely caffeinated too.
Just another reminder that Tea-o-graphy may be one of the most innovative little tea shops in the country. They really care about what they’re doing and they’re using the very best of ingredients to push the envelope. I hope to get down to Taos some day and visit in person.
I would highly recommend this tea.
Flavors: Anise, Cardamon, Earth, Sweet, Vanilla
Preparation
Solid chocolate biscuity flavor. Went ahead and got my hands on some McVitie’s Chocolate Digestives and, whaddaya know?, this captures the smell and taste.. To be clear, this isn’t a fine chocolate flavor, it’s a chocolate digestive flavor. And it nails it IMO. I have no idea how it gets the biscuity flavor — I guess that’s the “natural flavours” they list? Maybe woodland sprites? I dunno, but it’s there. Like others have mentioned, no fenugreek flavor (which wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me, but it is what it is).
As for caffeine level, I’m not sure how strong it is. I’d gauge medium to high. Has made for a good afternoon cup when we’re tired of staring at the screens around 3 in the afternoon.
Makes for a nice afternoon cup of tea that’s in the rotation. I initially ordered a 50g pouch and liked it enough to order two more pouches. So it’s in our large rotation.
Flavors: Chocolate, Cookie, Sweet
Preparation
This is a nice cup of tea. I’ve had a few cherry flavored teas and this one has a nice balance of cherry and almond. Amaretto, for sure, but also this kind of nice gooeyness, like a slice of good apple pie. Also some creaminess too, or I might be imagining that. This is my first tea from Arthur Dove and I was absolutely delighted by it. As was the hubby who is not usually fond of cherry flavors — I opened the three bags we’d gotten and let him choose and he chose this one. And he went for a second cup too. Ah, yes, made for a two nice second cups off the same steeper load. So there’s that.
Flavors: Almond, Cherry, Cream, Jam
Preparation
Really wish this was available year around. Really delicious cup of tea that puts you in a very fulfilled mood. Nicely caffeinated with the taste of spice cake. What more could you ask for.
Flavors: Cake, Cinnamon, Cloves, Molasses, Spices
Preparation
Lucky you! I’ll know better next Boxing Day to add it to my order. I think they were sold out when I tried. But I do love their teas. I can’t recall whose review on here turned me on to it, but I’ve absolutely fallen in love with them. I’m just now getting around to doing reviews for many of their teas.
BTW, I saw on your bio that you had Arthur Dove on your To Try list. I just got my first order from them. I’ve communicated with them a bit and they’ve been super nice. Also, their shipping costs aren’t as high as B&B. Just got three from them, Cherry Bakewell, Moon Beam, and Hound on a Hunt and have really loved the first two we tried. Hound on the Hunt is next!
This is one beautiful tea! This was my first tea from teo.o.graphy and the result of a sweet amount of graciousness on their part. I’d ordered a Biscochito-inspired tea from another New Mexico based tea merchant. That tea, reviewed elsewhere here on Steepster was not only disappointing, it was downright confounding for their including the wrong type of anise. For those not familiar with biscochitos, they’re aniseseed flavored cookies and very traditional to New Mexico. They’re not biscottis, the name biscochito comes from the Spanish word for cookie, biscocho. Anyway, after the bad experience I did a quick little online search to see if another New Mexico teashop had a version. And that’s how I stumbled across teo.o.graphy up in Taos, New Mexico. They had a biscochito inspired tea and listed aniseseed as the ingredient. However, the other tea merchant also had listed aniseseed although they were clearly using star anise shells. So I just called teo.o.graphy up and the shop’s owner answered. I told her my story and she not only reassured me that they used aniseseed, she offered to send me a sample free of charge. Imagine my delight to receive four samples of their teas in the mail about a week or so later. Among them was Woodland Walk.
This tea is a visual knockout. People play around with labels and descriptions but this tea actually looks like the forest floor on a woodland walk. It’s colorful and captivating and I could immediately tell that they were using the freshest of ingredients. The minute the water hit the enfuser the smell just shot up from the cup. Just utterly delighted by this magical cup of tea. So much going on but a pure delight. Between the aromatics and the spiciness of the peppercorns, I couldn’t ask for a more illuminating discovery in a cup of tea. I made a pot of tea (a scoche under 3 cups) and managed to get a good second steeping from the infusion. I should also mention that the enfuser shows some lovely flowering petals after the steeping.
I’ve already ordered more of this beyond a sample and I can’t wait to try more of their delicious teas!! Bravo! Bravo!
Flavors: Anise, Cinnamon, Floral, Fruity, Ginger
Preparation
We’ve really been enjoying this tea. It’s kind of the epitome of Hot Cider tea. Not sweet either though we’ve been adding a bit of basswood honey to each cup. It’s quickly become one of our afternoon mainstays especially as it’s begun feeling like Autumn.
Flavors: Apple, Cinnamon, Clove, Lemon, Nutmeg
Preparation
This must be a revamp of an earlier reviewed tea as this one clearly includes natural flavors and not artificial ones. Needless to say I really enjoyed this tea. I was first struck by the luxurious smell of tropical fruit amongst the chai spices. A gander at the contents of the sample revealed nice long pieces of coconut amongst an almost potpourri of a chai - just what I like in a good chai.
One taste of the tea confirmed two things to me: I’d
1. I probably under-dosed the steeping basket (my husband had heard me puttering around the kitchen and asked if he could cadge a cup along with me- I quickly added more chai and water to the teapot). It could be stronger but that’s probably my fault and not the teas. Upton’s so good about giving exact directions/suggestions for steeping. Oh well, try again I guess.
2. I knew I wanted to order a full bag of this stuff. Even under-steeped I knew this was a really nice chai - a really nice departure from the usual chais. Our go-to chai, is the Bollywood Chai from Reluctant Traders (a tea I have yet to review here —my bad-) which I’d purchased because of raves and because RT does such powerful work sourcing direct from growers and working towards equity and real fair trade). It’s just a solid classical chai. But it’s nice to have a few chais to reach for and a tropical chai with fruit is the tea I didn’t know I needed (or wanted).
Flavors: Butterscotch, Caramel, Cinnamon, Coconut
Preparation
Got this as a sample from Upton Tea Imports. Made for a nice stiff cup of tea in the morning. Just what I was looking for. Managed to get a second steeping. Very fine with a little cream and honey. Now I just have to rustle up a good scone to go with it the next time. And yes, I will definitely be ordering this from them again.
Flavors: Malt, Molasses