Kusmi Tea

This is a nice EG. The bergamot is strong, and the black tea is high quality. There’s almost a creamy/vanilla flavor, but maybe that’s my imagination. It was better warm the first day, but it was decent cold the second day too. The resteep was good. I wouldn’t necessarily seek this out over other versions, but it’s tasty.

The almond flavor is really clear, desserty, and tasty. The rooibos is high quality with none of the weird qualities that sometimes creep in. The almond and rooibos go really well together. I enjoyed this one sweetened cold. It’s straightforward, but solid. I’d consider ordering it in a larger quantity, but I also know I can get similar blends many other places.

Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge February 2022: A Tea Flavoured Like a Favourite Muffin – Lemon Crumb

While I won’t be running to refill this tea it was no hardship to drink it up (my mom was also a big fan so it was consumed with enthusiasm). It’s a simple earl grey with a citrus twist. It’s a near-perfect mimicry of the taste of a real lemon slice and a dash of honey (good citrus here). The orange is a floral blossom variety, instead of a juicy flavour; the lime is muffled. The black tea base is bright but kind of boring.

A perfect casual drinker, that takes well to milk and pairs nicely with a citrus-like raspberry crumble cookie (or muffin type in question). Good times.

I like ginger teas and this one tastes exceptionally good. Ginger notes are present but definitely not overwhelming. Sliiiightly spicy, sliiightyly tangy. I brewed it over a slice of TeaVivre dried lemon. I thought it had a great balance with the citrus notes but since I like things sourer I prepare it this way now. It is a refreshing drink and energy lifting. I bet it would be great as an ice tea.

So, I spent two days in Vancouver for work earlier this week – it was a very short and very crammed trip (and I’ll touch on it in some other tasting notes) and I was just exhausted when I got home from it yesterday. Because of time zone fuckery, our plane left at 9AM and I arrived back in MTL just before 6PM so it really did feel like I lost the entire day to flying. This the first tea I made when I got back to my appartment and started unpacking from the trip. I wish I could say it was satisfying after two days of barely any tea at all, but I found the black tea base a little harsh and burnt and the orange too pithy and dull, with a more muddied ginger note. It was a hot cuppa though, and that’s more than I’d gotten for a few days in a row – so it was still appreciated!

Heavy spices with a hint of orange. Definitely something I need to be in a very particular mood to want to steep up, but on this particular very snowy and cold afternoon it was exactly the cozy spiced cuppa I needed.

Adventaggedon Day 24: Tea 7/8

The second little mini tin!

I haven’t loved all the little extra ‘gifts’ in this advent like the strainer and scoop. They were nice quality but just not things that personally need or want. However, I think the idea of adding in a small little tin of one of the holiday teas right at the end is a really nice ‘parting gift’ as we close out advents…

I’ll need to do a full mug of this in the future to get a better sense of the taste. As it stands I was a little rushed getting through all of my advents today before heading out for dinner tonight so I only made a small teacup. It tastes like it’s a got a somewhat generic though slightly cinnamon heavy overall spiced black tea base but with accents of orange and licorice root. I thought the licorice root was a little cloying but the spiced orange profile was nice!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Ro57CkTrU&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart

Adventaggedon Day 22: Tea 4/8

I do not understand what makes the combination of apple and hibiscus worthy of a name like ‘Exotica’ when those are both probably the most commonly used ingredients in fruit infusions – especially when combined with each other.

I will say that the dry leaf aroma was pretty appetizing. It reminded me more of a juicy red apple or candied apple than anything else. However, steeped up this is entirely generic across the board. Not unpleasant, mind you. Just simple and unexciting sweet apple notes with a bit of tart hibiscus and maybe just a hint of tropical fruit. That last part could honestly be placebo and my brain playing tricks on me; it wasn’t a hard leaning flavour direction.

I liked the tea well enough but I’ve also tasted what feels like a million others like it, so it’s not something I’d order for myself by any means.

Adventaggedon Day 21: Tea 5/8

I had to get over a little initial disappointment with this tea since I mistakenly assumed it was a riff on a Russian Caravan and would be a smoked tea. Instead it’s just a very pleasant breakfast blend and once I let go of my assumption I was able to really enjoy it! Quite sweet for a breakfast tea with syrupy raisin and date notes accompanying a very bold and robust overall body. Would clearly take milk and sugar well or, to be more accurate with Russian tea taking tradition, even jam. However I just liked it quite a bit on its own.

Adventaggedon Day 20: Tea 4/8

Cold Brew!

This sort of feels like a weird advent inclusion because the ‘summery’ quality of the blend is literally built right into the name. Thankfully, unlike the other ‘AquaINSERT WORD’ tea we’ve already seen in the advent, this one does actually have a clear flavour direction. The dry leaf aroma was pretty floral peach though steeped up it’s closer to just being a sweet peach candy type of flavour with only a hint of a floral undertone. Definitely a bit tart and bright, but not as hibiscus dominated as it could have easily been.

I enjoyed it but I also felt like it was a little generic as a peach herbal tea and a bit more forgettable that the peach tisanes that have already popped up from other companies.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYp6T9uHYg&ab_channel=TheDistricts

Adventaggedon Day 17: Tea 3/8

Really simple and straight forward but something that’s exactly what you want in a tea, and I don’t think anyone drinking this would be able to argue that’s it’s anything but a really bang on sweet almond flavour with a complimentary honeyed nutty rooibos base. Absolutely for the marzipan or amaretto lovers out there and I do count myself among them (especially with amaretto). I added a splash of eggnog to my cup and it was just such a lovely cozy and wintery feeling delicious treat today.

Adventaggedon Day 16: Tea 3/8

Now this is a classic Kusmi blend! Truthfully it’s not my favourite Kusmi tea because it kind of falls into the French tea trap of just tasting like a generic red fruit on a black tea base, but I do love the bold and brisk tannic black tea and the hint of vanilla in addition to that red fruit taste. It’s one of those blends I’ve been kind of waiting to see in the advent ever since day one! It’s just that quintessential of a Kusmi tea.

Adventaggedon Day 15: Tea 5/8

Truthfully I probably would have liked this tea a lot more if I hadn’t had a much more enjoyable Pear Chai just yesterday. Essentially this is a spiced pear rooibos/honeybush blend, but the pear flavour is a lot lighter and more of a baked pear and the spices are stronger but less clearly defined. It’s also pretty licorice-y in the finish. Not an unpleasant tea by any means, but just hard to compete when yesterday’s 52Teas one was soooo damn good!

Adventaggedon Day 14: Tea 7/8

Yet. Another. Green. Tea.

I like the combination of orange and cinnamon – I actually find it really wintery and festive, especially with the addition of clove. So I was excited for this despite the tea base. It’s got a pretty bright and sweet orange flavour that’s actually really similar to the orange flavour from yesterday’s Kusmi selection “Feel Zen” and while I do like that flavour I feel like… it’s not enough spice?

I just wanted more punch from both the cinnamon and clove, but that’s maybe because I’m so used to drinking DT’s The Spice Is Right/Orange Spice which is heavily spiced. Compared to that tea, this was just weak and not as satisfying. I don’t actually think it’s a bad tea though. It’s just that it wasn’t what I was expecting or wanting.

Adventaggedon Day 13: Tea 6/8

I don’t know if this tea had me feeling zen but it definitely had me feeling happy as I was responding to emails this morning and gleefully sipping away at my mug of it. Kusmi really hit the flavour descriptors right on the nose because this tastes like a more fruit dominant mix of sweet orange, juicy red apple with an almost candied-like edge to it, and subtle caramel. It’s a very nice balance between fruity and decadent even with the fruit notes being more pronounced. I also liked the sort of natural honeyed hazelnut/nutty flavour of the rooibos too. Really, it just all clicked.

I would buy this again! In fact, it might be the first tea from Kusmi’s advent so far that isn’t a white tea that I’m genuinely considering stocking up on.

Adventaggedon Day 11: Tea 6/7

Sipped on this one in the morning while catching up on some of this week’s past Vlogmas videos from TeaWithJann – it was nice getting to sip on an advent tea while watching her go through some of her daily advent rotations.

Kusmi really always nails their flavoured white teas! I sometimes find the combination of mango and passionfruit overdone (and a bit basic) but I saw this one in the morning and just had full confidence that I was going to love it regardless! Nice and medium bodied with distinct notes of sweet mango and passionfruit. Not acidic or tart or tangy. Just smooth and pleasantly, well, tropical.

This is yet another flavoured white tea from Kusmi that I would totally buy for myself – though not quite as good as the White Bellini.

Adventaggedon Day 10: Tea 6/7

So the trend of “flavour pairs” kind of continued today since this was another mint and citrus blend. More mint than citrus though, by a lot. In fact it’s mostly just mint and licorice root. I didn’t love this one, but I also don’t like licorice root very much so it was kind of doomed for the start. That cloying sweetness that lingers in the back of your mouth after you swallow is just so off putting to me.

Side note: all of the Kusmi teas have the ingredients on the overwrap and this one had the most weird and dubious thing I’ve seen in an ingredients list in a long time. So much so that I couldn’t help but just laugh.

One of the ingredients simply just read as “Plant.”

What kind of plant? Who’s to say. It’s just plant.

Adventaggedon Day 9: Tea 7/7

Yeah, this is too much bergamot for me.

Here’s the thing though… I find most of Kusmi’s Earl Grey teas are already a very intense/strong leaning bergamot so when I saw they were essentially carrying an extra strong EG I kind of balked at it. I will say it’s not a bad bergamot by any stretch and the hint of more pithy lemon is also nice. However, this is clearly meant for the Earl Grey lover and that is, well, not me.

Adventaggedon Day 8: Tea 3/7

Well, no one can say that the name of this tea isn’t accurate at the very least.

I was really worried I wouldn’t enjoy this tea, but it ended up being one of my favourites of the day. The fennel in it is very strong and overall it ended up tasting almost exclusively of sweet fennel/anise and black licorice. I know that’s not for everyone, but I love licorice flavoured things and that strong fennel flavour was spot on as an afternoon cuppa!

Adventaggedon Day 7: Tea 2/7

An incredibly simple blend, but one of my favourites from the day. The spearmint in it is so strong that I could faintly smell it through the packaging – definitely the first case of that with any of the overwrapped sachets from the advent so far. I steeped it up as my first tea of the morning and that sweet and soothing spearmint with the slightly smokey and vegetal green tea base was so calm and relaxing. Like a little morning moment of aromatherapy – especially with the golden glow of the rising sun.

I had the last half of the teacup with a spoonful of homemade gooseberry jam because I felt inspired to try and loosely recreate the gooseberry/spearmint combination in DT’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Definitely more spearmint in this tea than the DT blend by a lot but it was a fun nod to that unique flavour combination!

Cold Brew Sipdown (1585)!

This is so tart and hibiscus heavy as a cold brew and I’m not really getting much more than that in terms of actual flavour. However, the mouthfeel of the infusion is surprisingly syrupy and thick and there’s something about how rich the mouthfeel is that’s pulling me back into the brew in a much stronger way than the actual flavour. It’s a little weird.

Anyway, I’m ultimately excited to be finishing off the little mini tin.

Adventaggedon Day 6: Tea 1/7

Short tasting notes tonight because I got home from a very busy day at work and was just completely and utterly exhausted. I ordered in supper (the first chance I’d gotten to eat all day) and caught up on the most recent episode of Critical Role because I needed time to decompress before cracking out tasting notes, but now I’m just ready to quickly log some thoughts and go the fuck to sleep…

This was one of the days in the Kusmi advent where the tea wasn’t just a prewrapped sachet but was actually a small little mini tin of loose leaf. If I remember correctly, it’s the first of two days that will have the small mini tin of tea. I took advantage of the extra leaf to make a proper iced tea to sip on at work, and I still have about half the tin left over – so it was a pretty generous amount of leaf.

Unfortunately I’m just not really loving this one that much. It doesn’t taste bad but I’m struggling to really taste anything other than a very sharp hibiscus and mayyyybbeee a bit of red fruit? It’s just a little aggressively tart for me while being sort of plain? So that was a little disappointing, though the tea was still refreshing.

Adventaggedon Day 5: Tea 2/7

Weirdly I ended up with two peach flavoured white teas today which was a kind of crazy coincidence. This is something that’s been on my “to try” list from Kusmi for quite a while though so I was super excited to see it!

I think it was actually my favourite tea of the day, and definitely my favourite tea that Kusmi has included in the advent so far! I tend to really enjoy Kusmi’s white tea blends a lot – their particular “style” of flavouring tea just works super well on white teas. In particular this was a very juicy and sweet peach/nectarine flavour combination that definitely felt worthy of the “bellini” name while still not being heavy/cloying and embracing those more delicate elements of the white tea.

It reminded me heavily of Sloane Tea’s Peaches and Cream white tea which is another favourite of mine – but juicier/brighter peach notes and no cream. Mmm! I think this will definitely be going on the wishlist for post adventaggedon tea orders, haha.