Scheherazade Send Message

Another of my 52Teas finds as I cleared my room to move. I’m a little less impressed with this one – I get “upside-down cake”, kinda – there’s a background buttery sugariness that’s fairly spot on. What I don’t get is banana, or actually (surprisingly?) coconut. That leaves me feeling, on the whole, a bit meh about the whole thing. I wanted banana! A good banana tea is a rare thing on this earth, apparently.

I think next time I might try adding a bit of crystal sugar, just to see if I can amplify things a bit. I might also try increasing the brew time a touch, although it got a good five minutes or so while I was on the phone.

I wanted to love this one, and as an upside-down cake replica, I do. Banana, though.

Last of my teas from last year’s trip to Scotland. I’ve been again since (just back!), so I’m clearly as behind with my teas as ever. I’m not entirely sure what thistle should taste of, if I’m honest. Floral, maybe? The description says fruity, but I’m not really feeling that. I used one bag for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. All of these have brewed up pretty quickly (and dark, because CTC), so I added a splash of milk.

To taste, this is pretty much just your average Indian CTC black, as far as I can tell. There’s a tiny bit of something that initially made me think lychee, but that might be overgenerous. I certainly get where the “fruity” in the description comes from, though, because it kind of is. It’s maybe like someone added a teaspoon of syrup from a tin of fruit salad to a cup of thick, malty assam. Not bad, as far as it goes. I’m reminded a little bit of Mighty Leaf Celebration, but only a little bit. It’s not as chocolatey as all that.

This one surprised me, though, I’ll admit. It might actually be my favourite of the four after all. Thankfully, there’s no floral to be found (and no bitterness, either!)

So I came across this one pretty much by accident when I was clearing my room in preparation for my move today. I thought I’d bought some, but I couldn’t ever find it when I went looking for it. Turns out it must have fallen out at some point and got a bit lost – but still, we’re now reunited and it’s all good.

That includes the tea. It’s perhaps doesn’t taste quite as much of banana as I thought it would, but very few banana teas do (I think I must like my banana really strong!) It does have a bread-like thickness with a touch of sweet maltiness, though, and a silky almost-creaminess that’s kind-of buttery. The spicing is probably the best thing, though. It’s absolutely spot-on; not too strong or overpowering, not too subtle. It’s mostly cinnamon, I think, with just a touch of ginger providing a warming heat after a few sips. Delicious!

Loving this one this morning with a splash of milk!

Just to be clear, this is the “Anne” version.

After my relative success with Maple Marshmallow, and being slightly leery of pouring boiling water on a large bag of green tea to make a concentrate, I decided to cold brew this one. It got around 10 hours overnight in the fridge, in 2 litres of cold water. Like Maple Marshmallow, the base is just a little more prominent than I’d like it to be. I think that’s my fault for not taking the bag out soon enough, but it takes me a while to get going on a morning, and slightly over-steeped tea (cold or otherwise) is a price I’m usually willing to pay. On the plus side, it’s not bitter or astringent – it’s just really obvious that it’s green tea, and maybe a little too vegetal for the otherwise sweet flavour profile.

I have to say, though, the cotton candy is good. It’s pretty much spot-on in flavour terms, although it doesn’t sit entirely happily with the green base. They’re just two flavours that I don’t think work together all that well. Cotton Candy black is more my thing, and that’s the one I’d repurchase if repurchasing was possible. Sadly, it’s not. I’d be willing to try a Cotton Candy white – that I can see working.

Still. It’s tea, it’s cold, and it’s a hot day. It’s tasty, and that’s good enough for me. There’s not much to say about the flavour, I don’t think, it’s sweet and sugary, as you’d expect, maybe slightly strawberry-ish. It’s good stuff, and I’m sad SBT is no more.

First cold brew of the year! Usually, I prepare my SBTs using a hot concentrate, in that I leave the bag in 1/4 litre of boiling water for about 3 minutes, and then top up to 2 litres with cold. I’ve had mixed results with this method, though, so I decided to try this one cold brewed. I left the bag in two litres of water for around 10 hours overnight, and I’m pretty pleased with the result. My only complaint is that the black tea base is a little too prominent, and it’s bordering on bitter, but that sometimes happens with the hot prep method too. Otherwise, this is good – marshmallow is the strongest flavour, but it’s swiftly followed by maple and somehow (somehow) that seems to help round things out. I thought, initially, it was going to be too sweet, but the maple cuts through that and brings it back to a level I’m confortable with. It’s not that the maple isn’t sweet, either, because it is…it’s just a different kind of sweetness. Maybe because it’s got more of a defined flavour than marshmallow has? Maybe because it’s richer? I’m aware that this doesn’t make much sense, but it’s hard to explain. Despite maple and marshmallow being two very sweet things to my mind, they actually seem to work well together and one balances the other out.

Is this my favourite SBT? No. I’d like a base that’s just a bit less obvious, and a touch less sweetness. Maple on its own would have been just fine with me. This is where you need to be if you’ve got a sweet tooth, though. Or maybe that should be needed, since I think Southern Boy Teas are now no more.

So today I’m drinking the 2015 harvest of this tea. I’m so far behind with my cupboard, it’s unreal. I think I must have last tried this one the year before – in 2014, and judging by my rating (95) I liked it a lot. I’m hoping, second time around, I like it just as much. I used 1.5 tsp of leaf for my cup, or as close as I could reasonably measure given that the leaves are too big for my measuring spoon. They’re a mottled green in colour, flat and folded in the usual style. The scent, dry, is lightly vegetal.

I gave the leaves approximately 3 minutes in water cooled to around 180 degrees. It’s light and refreshing to taste, with a mildly floral undertone and strong top-notes of green bean and fresh garden pea. It’s a flavour that lingers – not quite perfumey, but almost. I like it because it’s not overpoweringly strong – the flavours are delicate, but well defined. There’s no bitterness or astringency, and it would make a good introductory green for people who think they don’t like green tea (which used to be me!)

I’d happily drink this one again, and my original rating remains unchanged.

I felt like something light and fruity this morning, so this one finally got its turn! In practice, it’s not quite what I expected it to be. I understand immediately where the “fruit salad” vibe comes in, although it’s not quite candy-like enough to pull off a resemblance to the chewy sweet. It’s mixed fruit for sure – strawberry, raspberry, pineapple, orange, and papaya – but to me it tastes more like an actual fruit salad than a sweet. That’s not a problem, but it’s not exactly how it’s billed. It needs more sweetness to be an effective “candy” replica, and it’s not often I say that about Bluebird teas.

One of the big positives here is that, even though this blend contains quite a quantity of hibiscus and rosehip, it doesn’t lean sour or become over-tart. I gave this one a good 4 minutes in boiling water, and at the end of that it’s still only a pink-red which I always take as a good sign where fruit blends are concerned.

I’m drinking this one hot this morning, but I actually think it might work even better cold. I might try adding a tiny bit of sugar to my next cup, just to see if I can amplify the “candy” vibe a little more. On the whole, though, it’s pretty great.

This one has made a welcome return to my cupboard. It’s deliciously creamy, with a strong vanilla sugar flavour and a milder note of almond. It’s very reminiscent of cake, to me – a vanilla sponge with buttercream icing. The rooibos base isn’t too woodsy or medicinal, and while black tea appears in the ingredients list, there isn’t actually a great deal of it in practice. The pastel colourd star sprinkles are a cute touch, and they don’t gum my infuser up too much (or make the tea oily…) The purple-ish blue mallow flowers also add an additional touch of special. It’s a nice blend to look at, and a nice blend to drink.

When I finally suceed in getting my cupboard under control – and it’s happening, slowly! – this might well be a blend I keep around pretty much permanantly. It’s that good.

Coffee, chocolate, and chai sounds an excellent combination to me. Even though it’s technically summer, it’s actually pretty chilly, dull, and rainy today. I wouldn’t usually choose a tea like this – particularly a chai, I guess – at this time of year, but today it jumped out at me from the small selection of Bluebird samples I brought to work. Warm, comforting…just the thing.

I used 1.5 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it a good 4 minutes in boiling water, with a decent splash of milk. The dry mix contains a decent amount of coffee beans, and a few chocolate chips, so the main “mocha” credentials are covered. The chocolate chips leave a light oily scrim, as you might expect, but nothing too extreme. It’s a price I’m willing to pay for a soild chocolate flavour, anyway.

To taste, it’s almost as good as I hoped. The black tea base is perhaps a little on the light side, but that’s a complaint I have about Bluebird’s black teas in general – their blend base is primarily Ceylon, and I think for a chai like this I’d prefer Assam. Still, that’s a persona preference only, and it still tastes good. The coffee is more prevelant than I expected, so I think there’s probably some added flavouring. It’s hard to believe that a few whole coffee beans could achieve that in just a few minutes, but maybe it’s possible. I’m no expert on coffee! The chocolate is discernable, too, and pairs nicely with the coffee to create a distinctly “mocha” vibe – I’m very happy with how that turned out. There’s just a touch of vanilla, also, which, with the milk and chocolate, creates a deliciously dessert-like background. The spicing isn’t overpowering, and comes out mostly in the midsip – it’s a pleasant blend of ginger, cardamon, and cinnamon, and it works well with the other flavours. I can see myself really enjoying this one come autumn, but it’s equally perfect for a cold, miserable day like today. This might just have become one of my favourite Bluebird chai blends!

I forgot about this one for a long time, maybe because I’ve only ever had one cup (which was a sample with a previous order). It’s part of their permanant collection, so I tend to overlook it when I’m placing an order – last time, though, I remembered! I still think it’s as good as I did when I first tried it – the first thing I can taste is creamy, milky chocolate, and that’s followed swiftly by a hit of tangy orange. It’s a pretty good match for it’s chocolate namesake!

The base here is ceylon, which possibly helps the citrus vibe. I’m drinking today’s cup without milk or sugar, and it makes for a smooth and complementary base. There’s a mild nuttiness in the aftertaste, but I suspect that’s a result of the combined ingredients, rather than the base tea alone.

Still scrummy! My original rating is unchanged.