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021/365

I’ve not yet become a fan of cold matcha, but there aren’t many ways I can conceive of drinking this particular matcha. I think, ultimately, I’m going to end up trying it hot (as a latte), but I figured I’d give cold another shot.

The recipe I used for this one is called “Matcha Fresh” (from T2’s website), and uses 1 tsp of matcha in 150ml 80 degree water, topped up with ice and soda water. It’s more palatable than some of the cold matcha I’ve prepared, although it’s still far more vegetal and grassy than I’m used to tasting. I could use less powder, but I fear that then the cola flavour would be lost – it’s not all that prominent currently as it is.

I’m not sure that cola matcha in a hot latte is going to work, but given that that’s really how I prefer my matcha, I think an attempt is in my future. Cold matcha, for some reason, makes me feel nauseous and lightheaded. I know it’s odd, and I don’t claim to understand it.

The cola flavour here is pretty good, reminiscent of the off-brand supermarket stuff. The soda water is a nice addition – the carbonation makes it that bit more realistic as a cola imitation, and of course it’s much healthier.

Great matcha; still not sold on drinking it cold.

020/365

I’m pretty sure I tried Snowball last year (or maybe the year before?) Either way, it’s a Bluebird blend I’m familiar with. I like the idea of chocolate/coconut/marshmallow – they make for a good combination. Drank conventionally, I’m not sure I got all of those flavours very clearly, so I’m going to experiment a little with this year’s sample.

I brewed my first cup as a latte. I’m using a recipe from Bluebird’s own website – 4 tsp of leaf in 300ml boiling water, topped up with 100ml of hot milk, 1 tsp of honey, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.

It’s really delicious. I get mostly coconut and marshmallow, but with a background of milk chocolate. It’s sweet and creamy, reminiscent of one of those Tunnock’s Snowball cake/biscuit/teacake things, which I think is supposed to be. If that’s the case (and I’m pretty sure it is), Bluebird did well with this blend, and it works really well as a latte.

I’d buy more of this one.

019/365

The first from this year’s PostTea tea advent calendar – I say this year’s with a degree of uncertainty, because I think in actual fact it might be last year’s. It was packed in Summer 2016, if the box is anything to go by, and they’ve not exactly been very active on their blog, or other social media, since then. If I’m honest, I don’t get the impression that things are going all that well for PostTea. My order took ages to be dispatched, then took ages to arrive (parcel post), and wasn’t in the greatest condition once it did reach me. I’d ordered two new Timolinos from them, and one of them had definitely been used. There was leaf trapped in the infuser basket, and a red stain at the bottom of the flask itself. It was in a box, but with no inner packaging or instruction booklet (the other one I ordered had both of these). It had been shoved into the box upside down, which doesn’t particularly matter, but it’s hardly the best first impression. The box my order arrived in had been made from two smaller boxes stuck together, and was basically in half when it arrived. Only the address label was holding it together. The overall impression I got from my order was “we don’t give a shit”, and so I won’t be ordering from them again.

I’ve tried one PostTea blend in the past, which I got with a book subscription box. I placed this order on the strength of that blend, because it was so good. I was expecting great things from this particular tea, but unfortunately it’s not really there.

The flavour is Gin and Tonic, and while I appreciate that it’s hard to recreate in tea form, it should be possible to at least hint at that kind of flavour. There are loads of juniper berries in this blend, and I feel like those alone should have made it taste of something. I even crushed a few of them, but still nada. All I really get from this blend is sencha, which is nice enough but not exactly living up to any kind of promise. Even the orange – and there are a few pieces of peel kicking around – is strangely muted.

The bags that make up the advent calendar are paper, and foil lined, but I just have a feeling that any flavour there was in here has dried up. If it really is a year old, and hasn’t been stored in optimal conditions, then maybe it’s not a surprise. It’s a disappointment, though, because this is a blend that should be right up my street. Unfortunately, it’s fallen totally flat.

Not a great start. I only hope the rest of the calendar, or at least some of it, is more up to par.

I decided to try the last teaspoon of this straight off the back of my latte, so the comparison will be clear in my mind. I gave it 3 minutes in boiling water, no additions. One of the things that surprised me was how similar the flavour is to the flavour of the latte – clearly there wasn’t much lost, even though I basically drowned it in milk.

The chocolate is a little clearer, and a little stronger, and still not as artificial as I was expecting. The cinnamon is still very prominent, the ginger perhaps a little lost. It’s kinda there, in the background, but you really have to focus to find it. The ceylon base works quite well. It’s smooth, with no hint of bitterness, and it allows the flavours to shine. In a flavoured black, that’s really all I want from the base tea. Obviously it’s nice if it’s nice, but I don’t want it to be a distraction. The flavour is the whole point, otherwise I’d be drinking a straight black.

I’m going to wrap this up before I start rambling, but I like this one a lot more than I was expecting to. Adagio’s chai blends are usually pretty good, and I would consider buying another sample of this in the future.

018/365

This came as a free sample with my recent Adagio order. I don’t buy from Adagio much anymore, but I have a soft spot for their fandom blends and I wanted to pick up the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones samplers while they were both in stock. There’s something I have to say for Adagio, though; they dispatched quickly, and it arrived nicely presented, shipping was free, they were generous with the samples, and all the boring but important stuff (invoice, points info card, etc.) was in its own little folder at the bottom. Their tea can be hit and miss sometimes, but their customer service is spot on. I wish every company were as reliable.

I picked this one out this evening because I wanted something warming and comforting, something wintery and sort-of festive, but not super-Christmassy. This one fit the bill.

I made it up as a latte, using 3 tsp of leaf in 250ml boiling water, for 5 minutes. It brews up surprisingly light, given that it’s a black-based tea. I suppose it’s Adagio’s usual Ceylon, so that’s perhaps not too much of a surprise. I added 150ml hot milk, and gave it a light froth with my aerolatte.

It turned out pretty much as I hoped it would. The main flavour is milk chocolate, and it’s not too artificial tasting (although there is an element of that if you really focus on it…) It’s also possible to pick out the cinnamon and ginger, which are the only two chai spices in this blend. The cinnamon is more prominent than the ginger, but both work well with the chocolate. The milk is a good fit – I imagine this is one that’s better as a latte than it would be brewed conventionally (which for me means 1tsp of leaf given 3-4 mins in a mug of hot water, with a splash of milk.) I have a teaspoon of leaf left, though, so I’ll try it like that next time. It’ll be good to compare.

It helps that I have Rolos to go with, and that’s a combination worth coming home for.

Tried this one with milk, and I’m not sure I’m convinced. I wouldn’t usually add milk to oolong, and it looks kind of thin, pale, and…uninspiring. It tastes fine; mostly peach, although more muted than it would be without the milk. I do think the white chocolate came through better, although how much of that was the tea and how much the milk, I can’t say for certain. I still don’t get pistachio. It was worth a try, but I think I’ll be finishing this one black.

Another latte this evening. I like this one a lot more than I thought I would – it’s really growing on me! I feel like I might have to buy more of this before Bluebird’s seasonal blends disappear, although whether I’ll want to drink it all that often once spring arrives is debatable.

I find it really refreshing, which is a pleasant contrast with most winter/Christmas blends, which are usually pretty heavy on the ginger/cinnamon and/or dried fruit. This one’s distinctively herbal and nicely cooling; a great palate cleanser.

I’m glad I decided to try this one, because it was a reasonably close thing. I’m a fan!

Went with a very short brew time (about 1 min) in slightly cooler water, and found this one much improved. The peach is sweet and juicy, and there’s none of that odd artificial/chemical flavour I noticed last time. Part of me wonders whether this one might cold brew well (maybe not overnight, but for a few hours…?) I might be brave enough to try.

017/365

I’m considering buying some more August Uncommon blends, now that I’m apparently back on a tea-buying bender. I feel like I’ve bought all the tea in the last two weeks. I’ve certainly made up for lost time!

The description for this one mentions tangerine, and I don’t get that at all. What I can taste is strawberry; sweet and juicy, and really flavour accurate. It tastes to me like a strawberry that’s maybe just a touch over-ripe, when they go soft and pinkish in patches, and become even sweeter and more strawberry-like than they were to begin with. The end of the sip brings a light lemon flavour, with just a hint of orange peel. It’s a semi-pithy flavour, rather than juicy, but it’s a good contrast with the super-sweet strawberry. There’s a slight earthiness in the aftertaste that I’m guessing might be the silver linden.

I was intrigued by the inclusion of thyme, but it’s actually totally lost as far as I can taste. That’s a shame, because I was hoping it would cross a kind of sweet/savoury divide. As it stands, this one mostly strikes me as a sweet dessert tea, and I would have liked more “forest”. It’s definitely a case of a description making promises the actual tea can’t deliver, although somehow it’s close. That’s maybe the most infuriating thing of all.

I noticed from reading other notes that people found the sencha to be fairly prominent, and I don’t get that at all. I feel like I have a low tolerance for green tea when it’s obviously getting in that way of the flavouring, or clouding my appreciation of what the blend is supposed to be delivering. I don’t find that to be the case here – it’s just a smooth, sweet backdrop for the equally smooth, sweet flavours – a green meadow on a sunny day, to keep with August’s imagery. I was a lot more conservative with my brew time than they recommend, though. If I’d left it for 5 minutes, as the pouch instructs, I feel it might be a different story. I don’t typically give my greens more than 3 minutes, particularly on first steep.

I like the flavour of this one, but I feel like it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I guess based on the few I’ve tried, I’ve become used to August Uncommon blends delivering something fairly unique, and this one really just isn’t. It’s a pleasant, easy drink though, and so I can’t really complain.

016/365

Another from my recent Bluebird order. I think this was a leftover from one of their summer collections, since it was labelled “last chance” on their website and has that kind of vibe about it. It’s the kind of tea that wants to be iced. I was intrigued, anyway. Can tea taste like lemonade?

The answer, unsurprisingly, is no. It’s all the more unsurprising when you consider that this blend doesn’t actually contain any lemon. The main four ingredients are apple, rosehip, lemongrass, and orange peel. Admittedly, lemongrass bears _some_resemblance to lemon, although I usually get more of a generic citrus/hay kind of flavour from it. That’s not to say this is a bad tea.

It tastes of lemongrass and not a lot else. It’s on the sweet side, but not super sweet or overdone. I’d have liked a clearer lemon/citrus flavour, but my expectations were probably too high to begin with.

I drank this one iced, and after an initial sip, I added soda water to make a kind of tea pop. It increased the resemblance to lemonade, simply by adding some fizz. A slice of actual lemon (and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice or a grating of zest) might go a long way, too. There are possibilities here, things to try.

I’d probably not repurchase, but it’s pleasant enough to sip on. Curiosity satisfied, if nothing else.