Herbal Infusions Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

56

I listed this as a sipdown last time I had it but then I found one more serving so not sure what happened there. Nevertheless, this is an actual sipdown and it is basically the same unimpressive cup as last time. A touch of orange. Mostly rooibos. A big ole cup of meh

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56

Sipdown (238)

I have been lazy with my teas lately which means throwing the tea into a tea bag, pouring hot water over the teabag and then just forgetting about it. This has been sitting for I don’t know how long and it tastes like…not much of anything. Some rooibos. Some orange. Nothing remarkable. It sounded tasty though so thank you for sharing, Evol Ving Ness!

Evol Ving Ness

Too bad. It sounded like it had potential.

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90

This tea tastes exactly like pfeffernusse cookies. Exactly. Especially the ones dipped in chocolate. Good thing, because I happen to have some chocolate handy.

http://www.daringgourmet.com/pfeffernuesse-german-iced-gingerbread-cookies/

Autistic Goblin

yumm… gingerbread.

Autistic Goblin

I admit to looking up the particular cookie you mentioned as I wasn’t familiar with the name. Saw the picture and was like “oh”.

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90

Solid blend. I am surprised actually as I was expecting some sort of false generic tasting chai blend with a gaddawful abundance of cinnamon, but it turns out that it is truly lovely.

Steeped up—nice. Hints of cherry and chocolate and coconut and a bit of gingery spice in a smooth black base. Slight catch in the throat at the back of the sip as you would expect from the ginger.

The second steep is also more of the same deliciousness, just a bit weaker.

The dry leaf is very chai-like, a bit tinier bits of spice and such than what I am used to. The black leaf is plentiful, thankfully, and then that is interspersed with what appears to be shredded coconut, spice, and possibly cocoa nibs. But who knows, really, as there is no ingredient list, as per usual for HI blends. Thankfully, I am not allergic to anything that I am aware of, but people who are might want to avoid HI in general.

Oh yeah, and Canadians might want to avoid HI teas too as I was charged in US funds by a company that is based in my city here in Canada. So yeah. Never again.

Too bad. This is a nice one.

Flavors: Cherry, Cocoa, Coconut, Ginger, Spices

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Indigobloom

Ugh. They didn’t warn you? uncool

Evol Ving Ness

Yes, I had posted about this previously and I will continue posting about this every time I drink these teas until I sip them all down. I had ordered the 12 Christmas teas last December. I guess I subconsciously didn’t want to be reminding of the smarminess of the transaction, so I haven’t been drinking or looking at them much. Now they are on my sip down agenda. Because new year, new teas—heh.

Indigobloom

I think I remember now. Sipdown races can be fun though :P

Evol Ving Ness

And perfect weather for it too. Totally tea weather. And fleece. And flannel.

Indigobloom

hehe yep. and its a white holiday season!

Sil

Another reason why HI sucks ass

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60

This is the second one of the Herbal Infusions Twelve Days of Christmas kit that I’ve tried.

By chance, I came across the collection online on Black Friday, the only day that it is listed for sale.

I liked the sound of the teas, and I liked the idea of supporting a tea company in my own city.

So I made the purchase, and suddenly, I am made aware that I am being charged in American dollars. Yeah, really.

I am being charged in US funds AND I am being charged rather high shipping fees, considering that the tea is being mailed within the same city and comparing shipping charges of other tea companies in my city. Ok then.

Furthermore, nowhere on the site before checkout confirmation did it mention that the cost of tea is in American currency. Nowhere on the site am I seeing shipping rates listed.

Not a good first impression.

All this to me seems a colossal failure of communication. And more than a bit of an ethics issue.

I did contact the company about my concerns. No change.

A couple of days after ordering the collection of teas, I returned to the site to review the teas I would be receiving. Gone. No trace of the Christmas teas listed. The collection is only sold on BF, and only listed then apparently. Yeah, whatever. I am not a big fan of gimmicks, but perhaps working on creating a buzz works for some people.

When I did receive the teas a week or two later, there were no ingredients cited on the packages or on a separate itemized list in the box. Fortunately, I do not have any allergies or firm dislikes. Not a huge issue for me. However, still.

Anyway, on to the tea. The first tea that I tried out of the box was just fab. I will write about it later.

I had to look up a Pavlova recipe because though the dessert was vaguely familiar, I had to refresh my memory of the flavours involved: meringue, fruit—mainly berries, and cream.
Promising, promising.

And of course, there are no ingredients listed on the packet. Nor any steeping parameters.

The scent of the rooibos was raspberry cream. There were a couple of cream-coloured chips, which I assume are meringue bits.

I steeped with water resting a few minutes past boiling.

The flavour is raspberry and a bit of cream. The smell is a bit of cough syrup. Occasionally, the cough syrup taste creeps into the tail end of the sip as well.

The second steep was more of the same. I poured it out.

Maybe more meringue and more cream? Maybe some raspberry bits?

Raspberry vanilla seems like a nice change from other rooibos flavours. The idea has potential. The execution could use some work.

Flavors: Cream, Raspberry

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Fjellrev

Sigh, oh boy. Not at all surprised by any of this. There have been a ton of problems with this company, especially over the past year. I’m so sorry you got dragged into it. I’m actually surprised they even sent you your order.

Evol Ving Ness

Thank you. Actually, to be fair, my order shipped 17 days after I made the online order. Which is fine. All items shipped together. I have no issues with that part of it. It’s all the other stuff.

After I made the order, I was made aware of the many many previous customer service issues that Steepsterites have had with this company. So unnecessary. Really, so unnecessary.

I do look forward to trying the rest of the teas though. The quality of the first one was very good. And I have heard good things about their teas. So, let’s see.

That said, something truly exceptional on the planet would have to happen for me to order from them again.

Sil

haaaate haate haaate…. i wish something in this universe would happen to make Dan realise that shitty customer service needs to go. Stop effing around with 100 projects and focus on one or two and do them really really well. the man is all over the map.

Fjellrev

I’m wondering if they only bother trying to send newcomers their orders to reel them in, and then don’t bother if you’re a repeated customer, or maybe that’s just a coincidence. Who knows. I’m glad you at least like the tea itself thus far. It’s just astonishing that he is even still in business.

Evol Ving Ness

There are a couple of teas on their site that I’d like to try. However, unless they open a physical store that I can walk into and shop in, in Canadian dollars, I won’t be making further purchases. Apparently, sometimes they show up at markets that I frequent, so that is another possibility.

I can totally understand pop-up stores and such. Even then, I expect some form of reliability and trust established with the public.

Evol Ving Ness

Oh wait, I just remembered that I’ve tried another one from the series as well and really enjoyed it. So that’s two out of three which have been winners so far. I will review them at some point, hopefully soon.

Sil

they had a physical store…and then it randomly closed after never being open during their stated open hours… which also pissed me off.

Evol Ving Ness

Yes, iIrc, it was on Adelaide in the business section. I was unaware of it at the time it was open, so I missed it. But I see a pattern. There’s a lot of randomness associated with this particular business.

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