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SIPDOWN!

I figure since i only had about a cup’s worth, i might as well finish this up in my quest to sipdown my cupboard…. especially with the 5? incoming orders…6?7?8? eesh…

SIPDOWN!

Thanks Raritea for this sample :) Another straight tea I really wanted to try since I’ve had a few flavoured blends with bai mudan. This is a really nice tea, though i much prefer it as a base tea in a blend. This isn’t too vegetal, which is really nice. it’s also a delicate tea that is quite refreshing.

SIPDOWN!

Thanks again to raritea for this sample. I figured since I was on a green tea start this morning, i might as well try a few of them back to back so that I could do a comparison to an extent. While this one isn’t a bad straight green, I miss the sweetness that the previous one had. This is more vegetal and yet not. it’s also more astringent and there’s an after taste that I’m not a fan of. I appreciate the sample share Raritea!

SIPDOWN!

Thanks to Raritea for this sample. Now i’m not huge fan of straight greens but this one is for sure one that I could keep around for when i’m in the mood for a straight green. There’s a sweetness behind the vegetal notes that I find appealing. Thank you Raritea for this tea that i otherwise never would have tried :)

Seems weird that I have no tasting notes from this since my sample is nearly gone after making this big cup. Regardless this is likely the same tea as the pear cream i picked up from steeped and infused, which was something we suspected when we picked it up. So overall not a bad tea, but not a great one either. Still on the look out for a great pear tea!

mmmmm the more i drink this, the more I feel like i may just end up with some of this if i ever make it to New York. it’s growing on me a bit as i drink it, though it’s nowhere near as delicious as queen catherine to me. I really enjoy the hazelnut/chocolate combo here for whatever reason. Took some of this to drink with me while i was at the spa today. Yes, i brought my own tea to the spa. lol they looked at me like i was nuts but it was great!

soooo you know how sometimes you think you should branch out and try things that you might not like just in case your taste buds have changed?

shudder yeaaaah… mine haven’t. LOL Picked this up as a sample with my last verdant order and sadly i couldn’t even manage to drink half the cup. Floral much? Jasmine… check! In to the spreadsheet it goes.

Not rating this only because i know that it’s ME not the tea in this particular instance.

I’m going to play with this one today and see how i like it as i try out the various steepings. This first one is excellent! The main note i’m getting here is chocolate and it’s wonderful! I’m going to enjoy having this one throughout the day. mmmmmm

Edit: Next steeping of this are truly delicious and I love how the tea is changing. Less chocolaty but still present. More of the sweetness coming forth…

mmmm afternoon dessert tea to have before my meeting. It’s nice to just take a moment to relax and watch the snow fall. Sooo much snow, it makes me giddy! This blend still makes me happy with it’s delicious caramel taste. Likely a reorder as i’m nearly at the end of my small tin.

backlog from yesterday. Totally forgot to log this. SIPDOWN! as well, though it was a sample size :)

Alright…so i picked this tea out today to take a work break and practice using a gaiwan with. I figured it would be forgiving and would really just let me practice a little with handling the gaiwan. I have a bunch of reserve teas from verdant as well as some other teas that I really want to try brewing gongfu instead of my usual western brew. I wasn’t originally as much as fan of this, the first go round as others…but i think the blend is growing on me. On a side note, I am for sure going to do up a cold brew of this as well just to check it out!

First few steeps were mostly mint and chamomille..the chocolate didn’t hit until later. Bumping the rating up on this one a little because as the tea is run through it’s steepings, it changes and becomes a nice little gem that I quite enjoy. Need to add that uh…this gongfu thing is going to take a bit of practice but i’ll get there haha

SIPDOWN!

I figured I really need to start drinking some of my verdant samples since i know i’ll be placing another order in the near future (well month or so). I still enjoy this one, though I’m having a go at drinking this dragonwell style today. It’s uh…. a little interesting and a little challenging not to eat the tea lol But i’m sure i’ll get it figured out before i need to stop drinking this. haha.

Oh Happy snow day!

mmmmmm this tea might be a bit old but I can see why this would have been pretty popular. I’m holding off rating this because i think it’s been around a bit. However, this seems like it would be super tasty. Thank you kittenna for the sample!

I thought i’d start by having this cold brewed. I have to say that this is seriously mango-y for starters. However, there’s a bit of a bitterness here as well, that’s more like mango rind than sweet delicious mango. This is one that needs to have sweetner added to it to really have a mango-licious tea. I’m curious to see how a hot blend works. Temp rating for now until i get a chance to try it hot.

Wheeee! so close to a sipdown on this one that i had to have this again today :) it’s been snowing a bunch here which means everyone is in full paralysis and freaking out. For me? It just means an excuse to work from home today and a chance to drink more tea than I usually get to :)

This one still confuses my brain, with the lemon factor but i’m learning to love it. :)

Indigobloom picked this one out for our joint purchase and I’m glad she did. Although this is a pretty sour blend, once you add a bit of sweetner, the cherry and banana flavours come out and this is a decent tea. I’ll have to try this hot at some point to see how this goes when hot but i can certainly see drinking this in summer for sure.

Let me tell you how excited I am…down to 193 teas in my cupboard! Now, that fully ignores the umpteen packages on their way but I choose to ignore that since i may not see them before i leave lol. What’s exciting is that I still have a few new teas in my cupboard that I haven’ yet gotten around to trying. THIS is one of those teas! I received this one some time ago as part of my Amoda tea box which i HIGHLY recommend, ESP for those of you in Canada. Mostly, because we don’t have too many options in Canada for this sort of thing that isn’t stupidly expensive. With Amoda it’s like 15/month, includes shipping and they do up a nice box and for the 3 months i had it, wasn’t really disappointed with any of the teas and got to branch out a bunch from what my usual comfort level is. The only reason i paused that box was because I decided to treat myself to the Verdant reserve club box during the winter months since I prefer the darker blends. Come spring i’ll likely be switching back to Amoda haha.

Soooo i digress….back to this tea! Chamomille isn’t really something i love or want. I don’t mind having a few non caffinated teas in my cupboard but largely chamomille irritates me with all it’s flower bits that make a mess in my strainer. :)

This tea is like you usual boring chamomile blend but with a hint of something else. I’m not getting orange exactly, though that could just be that i missed getting some into this cup. The flowers and bits are large and hard to get a good sense of a teaspoon. What i do get is the mint, hiding out behind the chamomille taste and it reminds me slightly of lil leapin’ lordy lou from Keen Tea Thyme’s 12 days swap with us. But clearly not as intense of a mint :) Anyway…as far as chamomille’s go, i prefer Butiki’s Citrus Dream but this isn’t a bad little tea.

Thanks Amoda!

Kittenna! I’m so sad! it’s all gone! SIPDOWN!

So strangely I’m kinda sad to see this one go. I’m not generally a fan of almond flavoured things but this tea is pretty darn delicious. I MIGHT have to have a re-order of this one for those times when i want a tasty dessert.

SIPDOWN!

Looks like i should go through my upton samples since i could likely get through a few of these on the weekend to help lower my stash. And yes..I managed to get to less than 200 yesterday! Though I suspect i overloaded my system with caffeine because i had to stop drinking it later because i had chest pains lol.

This is a nice sample, your basic tasty black tea. While lovely, nothing i feel the need to re-stock. Instead I’ll maybe try some of the other samples and see how they fare. it’ll take me a few years to get through all of the upton blacks lol

Welcome to lemon chiffon tea! I mean uh….creme vanilla. So yeah. Any time i drink this i get lemon…it actually reminds me a little of della terra’s lemon chiffon…well what i remember that one tasting like, only slightly more creamy and a little less intensely lemon. vanilla? i think not. Still yummy!

Super stupid busy today so my notes will likely be short. Had htis in the morning and it was fantastic. Still one of my happy teas. :)

FAKE SIPDOWN! YAAAAY! I relaly should call this ode to Raritea or something lol Inspired by her love for this tea, I pulled out my package of this tea again. I’ve only had one previous cup of this and didn’t love it to death back then but figured i’d check it again in case something had changed.

So officially? This tastes like pistachio and cream….in that it might as well be ice cream. Secondly? I don’t like pistachio ice cream lol but i don’t mind this tea. Why did i buy this from Stacy? because i’m a fan boi and that’s what we do…try everything! No, in all seriousness i wanted to see how i enjoyed this and while i had tried the sample, it wasn’t enough for me to really tell. So i picked up a small package.

Overall? This is still a really tasty tea…but i don’t love this in the way that Raritea does, so this one has her name on it now. You just have to come pick it up! :)

SIPDOWN! Thanks again raritea for this sample. I had a good time with this tea and now..now my chest is telling me i should take a break from tea for a few hours lol so I may try some water and/or decaf for a bit and see if that feels any better lol

This is a pretty decent tea…so i’m sure it’s on the discontinue list lol either way, it was good to have and try!

SIPDOWN! also… go me for getting to under 200 teas today. Did i mention i’m going to ignore the fact that i have orders on the way as well as teas not logged in my cupboard living with kittenna and raritea? :) Because what’s in my house at the moment in time? well that’s less than 200…so NYAH! Now to try and keep it going so that i stay under 200 when i get my tea from the two of them :)

This tea? Not so much a fan. it’s kind of like brown water with a murky filmy layer on top. eeesh. Thanks to kittenna for the sample though :)