Jillian

Adding milk and a bit of honey seems to soften the taste of the chicory root a little bit and now it does come across a bit more like gingerbread. Still not my favorite, though it isn’t terrible or anything.

The teabags themselves are annoying the heck out of me because they break open so easily and it’s a pain to have to pour the tea through a strainer after I steep it to get all the bits out. :/

I find the name of this tea a bit misleading as it doesn’t make me think of a spooky graveyard so much as a misty forest in the early morning. The combo of mint and green tea gives the blend a fresh, woodsy taste that’s smoothed out by the marshmallow. I’m glad I bought a full pouch of this tea.

De-cupboarding this tea. It’s a shame that Wiseman Tea co. went under as they had some nice blends in their collection. The last few time I’ve been taking this tea with milk which I normally don’t do with fruit-flavoured teas but it actually works quite nicely in this instance.

I gave the tea a longer steeping time today and took it with milk which brought out the smoothness of the marshmallow and gave it hints of creamy vanilla. I enjoyed this one better than last year’s special Christmas blend, though I’m not sure if I like it enough to buy a whole pouch, especially when there’s so many other delectable blends in the offering. ;)

Now that I’m not going crazy with work and Christmas prep I have time to go back and review the teas that I missed from the sampler.

Blueberries + cotton candy + green tea seems like an odd combination at first glance but somehow this blend manages to make it work, and work well. This green tea base seems to work particularly well with sweet, ‘candy’ flavours – lime jello, marshmallow and, in this case, cotton candy. The cotton candy is only half the story with this blend, as actually the first thing I taste on each sip is the blueberry. Blueberry green teas are fairly common but the cotton candy flavour, which sort of sneaks in at the end, adds an extra twist to it. I enjoyed this one, maybe not as much as the lime jello but I still found it quite agreeable.

I was looking forward to finding out what the twelfth tea was going to be this year. Aaaand surprise – there’s more marshmallow!!! Good thing I like marshmallow. ;P

Adding the cool mint give the tea a flavour that makes me think of candy canes. I bet it would be great with milk too – next time. ;)

This is tea #11 from the sampler. I’m sitting on the couch sipping it while I relax from a crazy day of work at the bookstore. I’m back on Boxing Day too, blah.

I’m not sure what butterbeer is meant to taste like as I’ve never tried any of the fan-made recipes floating around the internet and I don’t think it was ever described in the books. I’m going to assume a similarity with rootbeer as this is what this blend tastes like to me – and that’s totally okay as I love rootbeer. There’s a bit of something more in there that’s harder to define – it’s smooth and slightly creamy with a bit of natural sweetness. Very yummy!

No notes yet.

Twelves Teas of X-mas #9. I find that I like this particular lemon green blend better than the Sun and Cloud Mist – I’m not quite sure what it is, but part of it I think is that the base is milder and the lemon isn’t as strong or sharp. The cardamom is subtle but adds a little bit of spice that makes this blend unusual – there are a lot of lemon-flavoured teas out there but the cardamom makes it stand out.

I used the last of this tea to make a really nice iced tea and then mixed it with mango juice. So good!

Maybe I need to steep the tea longer but I’m not getting very much chocolate flavour – certainly not enough for something labeled “Double Chocolate”. The base itself is nice though, robust and malty with a slight hint of smokiness.

Twelves Teas of X-mas #7 (the last tea I can recall blogging about was #5 so I think I might be missing one somewhere in there). Somehow Frank has managed to make this tea taste not like lime, but actual, bona fide lime jello. I’m not sure if I can describe what the jello part tastes like but there’s clearly something more there than just the tang from the lime. The marshmallow works perfectly with the other flavour and don’t seem out of place like they do in other blends.

I’m noticing a theme of green-teas-with-marshmallow in this sampler, BTW. :P

This is from way back on Day 3 of the twelve teas of X-mas.

Everyone else seems to love this tea but I only found it to be okay. The green tea/lemon combination was a bit too harsh in this instance and together with the marshmallow (which is rather faint) gave the tea an odd, slightly chemical taste that doesn’t do to much for me, I’m afraid. I’ll mess around with the steeping parameters a bit with what’s left of my sample to see if matters improve.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to meeeeee…… ;P

This is another tea I already have a pouch of, although I’m certainly not complaining about having an excuse to drink it again. In the past I haven’t been too impressed with Frank’s pumpkin-flavoured teas as I couldn’t seem to get much actual pumpkin flavour out of them. This blend, on the other hand, manages to hit the mark quite nicely. It’s like pumpkin pie with caramel drizzled on top. The cheesecake flavour is milder though I suspect adding milk to this tea would bring it out better. It’s sweet, creamy and decadent, and it’s great for wiling away the evening while the cold winter winds blow outside.

Twelve Days of X-mas tea #4. Yes this is a day late and I missed #3 as well – work has left me too busy to do much tea drinking. This is the first of three days off though, so I intend to take full advantage and catch up on my tea-drinking. ;)

The dry teas smells like nothing so much as grape Kool-aid which must be from the black current flavouring. Thankfully, the tea doesn’t taste like Kool-aid, though the most dominant flavour is the fruity black currents. The bergamot is surprisingly subtle, but it gives the tea an interesting citrus tanginess.

Tea #2 of the Twelve Teas of X-mas. This blend smells very much like bubblegum or maybe tutti frutti – which is a bit disconcerting at first. After it steeped the flavour resolves itself into actual fruit notes, mostly orange and banana. They go very well with the honeybush base which gives it just the right dash of sweetness. I don’t normally do honeybush with milk, but for some reason I could see myself trying the next cup with some to really give it that smoothie taste. I love it, and I may very well buy a pouch if my Christmas budget permits it.

First tea in the 12 Days of X-mas sample pack. I missed out on this tea during its initial run so it made a nice treat to come home too after a grueling shift at work. It really does taste like cotton candy especially as the tea cools off and it’s sweet enough naturally that there’s no sugar required. I also noticed an interesting undertone that reminds me a bit of caramel.

A good start to what are sure to be twelve awesome days! ;)

I received a sample of this blend a while back from Rachel and I thought I had logged it soon after I got it, but clearly I was mistaken (see guys, this is what happens when you’ve got too many teas!).

I wasn’t so thrilled about it when I drank it plain, but when I added milk it really made the flavours pop. The caramel flavours are especially apparent with smooth, sweet vanilla topping it off. It’s definitely not a tea that needs extra sweetening and it has a decadent feel to it that makes every cup a treat.

I’m currently watching Season 1 of Game of Thrones while I’m drinking this tea. Off with his head – Mwhahahahaha! ;D

The clean, cooling mint makes an unusual counterpoint to the earthy pu’erh, but in this case it seems like opposites do attract as they manage to work very well together. The pu’erh gives the tea a cocoa-like note that brings to mind mint chocolate chip or something similar and the vanilla, while subtle, smooths down all the sharp edges of the flavours.

I love the smell of this tea though oddly enough it reminds me more of almond pastry than of pistachios. The tea itself is light and sweet with a great toasted nuts flavour. The creamy notes are more subtle but I could taste them better as the tea cooled. Very yummy!

I’ve noticed that oriental black teas tend to have these cocoa notes to them, but if I didn’t know better I’d swear that this tea was flavoured the cocoa scent was so strong. I brewed the tea following the directions on auraTeas website as closely as possible, though making 150ml of tea at a time looks a bit pathetic in my big coffee mug – maybe I should invest in some more authentic teaware.

I could be wrong, but I think this is the first Taiwanese black tea I’ve tried and it bears similarities to a keemun but there’s also some distinct differences as well. The tea does have a lovely bitter cocoa flavour but there’s more to it than that. There’s a smooth, sweet, honey-like undertone that keeps the tea from turning into something harsh.

De-cupboarding this tea. It was a quite a unique tea when I first purchased it, but now it looks like all the tea companies are jumping on the bandwagon and offering it. I liked ginseng oolong before it was cool. /hipster post ;D

Backing off the steeping time a bit seems to bring out a bit more of the oolong’s sweetness with the herbal ginseng notes a nice undertone to each sip. The tea keeps its flavour nicely through multiple steep too, although the ginseng fades after the first couple.

The dry teabag smells more like cinnamon candy hearts than gingerbread I’ve gotta say. It’s better flavour-wise though it doesn’t quite hit the mark. It’s the chicory root that partially to blame I think as that seems to come out most prominently. It’s actually a fairly nice blend of flavours in my opinion but they should have called it ‘Holiday Spice’ or something, rather than trying and failing to get their customers to believe that the tea is supposed to taste like gingerbread.

No notes yet.