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Day 11 of the DavidsTea herbal advent calendar. I haven’t had this tea in years. It kind of smells and tastes like rugelach filling – the cinnamon and nuts combo is very evocative at the moment. Although it’s not my personal favorite flavor combo, there’s definitely a place for it and it’s a classic filling for a reason.

Day 10 of the DavidsTea herbal advent calendar. I made this as an iced tea. It’s just on the edge of too sugary for me. I’m not a huge fan of this one. It just feels a little generically “fruit punch,” which Hibiscus Splash and Sunny C from earlier in the calendar ALSO are. Sunny C at least has a clearer (to me) taste profile and is not as sugary sweet, so I still prefer it over the other two. Caribbean Crush is fine if you want something similar to but less sweet than Hibiscus Splash – they have a lot of overlapping ingredients. I’ll probably make the last of this as a tea soda.

Day 24 of my advent calendar from Kelmishka! I love the idea of this flavor profile, and this blend is enjoyable, but the hibiscus and lemon are strong enough to make it not very mango-y. If the blend had a different name, or those notes weren’t quite so strong, there might be better alignment. As it is, with all the tart, sweet, fruity flavors going on, this might make an interesting cold brew.

Day 23 of my advent calendar from Kelmishka! This houjicha is great. It’s so smooth and rich that it’s almost chocolatey. The pine and juniper are fairly faint by comparison in the first steep. However, a long second steep brings out the pine nicely. I know it’s not meant to be, but this is a great seasonal tea, beautifully encapsulating that combination of coziness and Northern hemisphere winter flora. More advent calendars should include teas like this instead of 80 takes on chai/spice blends that eventually blur together. I love chai, but I also love variety. I appreciate that this one is a little more creative.

Day 21 of the Teeccino advent calendar. This tastes like something I had earlier in the calendar… not quite as chocolatey as the Chocolaté, but very similar to the Maca Chocolate. I described that one as having “big mocha latte vibes,” which this blend does too (made as an oat milk latte). Short of a side-by-side, I’m hard pressed to find a meaningful taste difference between them based on memory alone. This made for a very tasty latte, delightfully enjoyed in the evening!

Day 6 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent calendar. I’m so behind on posting notes for this calendar, and that’s partly because I have spent literally weeks trying to figure out what this tea reminded me of. At first I thought it was maybe a pastry of some kind – a macaron, or perhaps more specifically an Ispahan – but that’s not it. Then I thought maybe it was Alice’s Tea Blend from Alice’s Tea Cup, but that wasn’t it either. Finally, finally, I figured it out! This tastes like how my favorite soap smells! It’s Rose Jam from Lush, and it smells gloriously like rose, vanilla, and lemon. I can’t believe how long it took me to place this profile. The tea tastes like a pastry version of Rose Jam. So so good!

Arbitrarily selected Day 3 of the Plum Deluxe Hanukkah sampler is an oolong blend called Heartfelt Hanukkah. I’m not going to create a new entry in the database for it since I don’t have a ton of info, it seems to have been created just for the sampler, and I suspect I’d be the only one reviewing it. Honestly, I don’t know how to write this one up. Its ingredients are oolong, elderflower, passionfruit essence, and calendula. That’s… not related to any traditional Hanukkah foods that I know of. I even went down the Google rabbithole to see if there’s some passionfruit-based traditional food that I wasn’t aware of, but I could only find modern takes on classic recipes. And passionfruit isn’t really heart-shaped. So on the one, the name feels really, unnecessarily, and confusingly forced. On the other hand, name aside, this is a pretty serviceable fruit oolong that I would find quite enjoyable if I wasn’t so confounded by the name. I’m not entirely sure what the oolong base is – it’s not an obvious one like Oriental Beauty or Tie Guan Yin. It’s more like something hearty, probably medium roast if I had to guess, that complements the juicy passionfruit flavor very nicely. I’m not really picking up on the elderflower and calendula, mostly it’s a natural passionfruit flavor that dominates the sip. It’s nice! Just very confusing. 

Day 22 of my advent calendar from Kelmishka! I tried this a few months ago thanks to the TTB, and my impressions are much the same now. It tastes very much like clover sprouts. It’s springtime freshness and salad in a mug. I think it’s relatively unusual as an ingredient or flavor, and not one that I feel a strong urge to keep on hand at all times, but one that’s tasty enough and interesting enough to drink occasionally.

Day 20 of the Teeccino advent calendar. I accidentally overbrewed this by half an hour, but that doesn’t seem to have done any harm to the flavor. There’s no astringency or bitterness here. I’d have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure, but this tastes to me a lot like the Turkey Tail Astragalus from a couple of days ago. It tastes like coffee, but thin, weak coffee. Drinkable, but just not as robust as the classic Teeccino base.

Arbitrarily selected Day 2 of the Plum Deluxe Hanukkah sampler! The primary aroma of the dry leaf and brewed tea comes from the lemongrass, and that carries over into the sip. After the lemongrass, there’s a floral jasmine note and a fruity citrus note that I can’t quite place. Looking at the ingredients, this has lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit essences, which is coming through as more kitchen sink than kitchen table. It’s just a little muddled and comes off as generically “citrus” because there are so many citrus fruits – I think this blend would have benefited from just having even one fewer citrus fruit represented (and probably two). Still, it’s tasty and refreshing. I suspect this would make a good cold brew.