Kittenna

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Sipdown! 778.

Drinking down my last cup of this so that I can pass the remaining cup’s worth onto Raritea. Due to age, the watermelon flavour has dissipated a bit, but it’s certainly still there, both in aroma and flavour. I opted to try a 1-minute infusion for the dragon well instead of the recommended 2.5 minutes, and I think that it helped to bring out the flavouring and tame the dragonwell a bit. I see that I noted that I should try it with a bit of sugar this time, but I don’t really feel inclined to. I like it as it is. At some point I’ll try Watermelon Xylophone with sugar instead to see how it brings out the watermelon flavouring.

Sipdown! 779.

I keep craving this one, and lucky for me, based on the facts that a) it (was) stored in a plastic baggie, b) there was only one cup’s worth left in said baggie, and c) I chanced across it tonight while migrating baggied samples downstairs and airtight packages upstairs to encourage sample drinking, I get to finally satisfy that craving! Wooooo!

If you like flavoured black teas… this tea would be an excellent purchase. Just saying.

Sipdown! 780.

Well, it took me 11 months to get back to this one, but I have. And again, I got the most deliciously buttery aroma from the brewed up tea (which was unexpected, given the age and storage conditions). I just took a sip of it hot (hotter than I’d like), and I’m finding it difficult to discern anything other than black tea (with a characteristic 52teas older-blend flavour), so I’ll let it cool down a bit before I sip again.

10 minutes later… second sip. I’m still tasting classic 52teas black base and not a great deal more than that. I cleverly avoided astringency with a 2-minute infusion this time, so it’s perfectly enjoyable to drink, but I’m just not getting much in the way of flavouring. If this ever returned as a re-blend and I managed to nab a sample of it, I’d be curious to give it another shot when fresh, instead of well-aged.

I am seriously addicted to this tea. Also, the fact that it tastes so incredibly good after a brief hot water infusion (ok, 4-5 mins) followed by cold-brewing makes me wonder if most herbals would benefit from a bit of hot water before cold-brewing. I’m not sure it would be effective for actual tea due to bitterness, but I think it may help herbals like this one out a bit.

Anyways. Deeeeeelish. I really should stop drinking teas that are in nice, airtight bags though. Gotta sipdown the plastic baggie ones.

SO funny story, I’m definitely listening to Hedley songs on loop right now… and apparently I confessed my teenage crush on Hedley last time I drank this tea. Teehee.

Anyways, I think I left this one too long :( A 2.5 minute infusion, and this is kind of astringent and not as flavourful as I previously said it was. Totally my fault. It’s not bad, but definitely needs some sweetener to cut that astringency. Perhaps I’ll make my way back downstairs and doctor it up. I’m pretty much out of tea at this point anyhow. Oh well!

Sipdown! 781. Why did my tea count just go up, you ask? I forgot to add my last three Amoda box teas to my tea list. D: I swear, I just can’t win! 6 sipdowns to 775 now…

Anyhow, this is still pretty tasty. A bit astringent, and the flavour has clearly disappeared a bit, but this still has the best cherry flavour I’ve ever had in a tea, even though it’s quite subtle. THIS is the cherry flavour I want in a future Butiki blend. Real sour cherry flavour. Not sweet cherry, not maraschino, not cherry chapstick, not a flavour that could be confused with almond. Delicious, sour, cherry. I am now even more sad that Ovation is out of business, and that I didn’t try this prior, because I definitely would have ordered some sort of cherry-flavoured deliciousness from them. :(

Sipdown! 779. This is a generous bonus sample from Stacy at Butiki, sent along with my last order.

I kept the infusion time a bit lower than recommended as I dislike any sort of astringency, and I definitely think it was a good choice in this case. Not saying that the tea would have been astringent with a full 3.5 minutes… but that I achieved a perfectly smooth cup! Uh…. which is now gone actually, because it’s pretty darn tasty and I just downed it in like 2 minutes.

This tea is a close second to Premium Taiwanese Assam for me. It’s missing the chocolate, and the raisiny notes are quite subtle, but it has the same overall deliciousness and smoothness. So pretty much, it just tastes like a less complex version of PTA, which makes it quite delicious. I see that it’s actually more expensive than PTA, which kind of blows my mind, since I’m pretty sure I prefer PTA, but it’s certainly an amazing tea, so I can understand the price. Apparently I’m all about the really expensive black teas (probably has something to do with quality equating with lack of astringency and such).

ETA: Second infusion is pretty tasty as well, following the same parameters and probably 6 oz. of water. Still very similar to PTA, but missing the almost desserty aspect.

Yum, a generous mug of this tonight. I still maintain my opinion that it’s very chocolate-liqueur-esque, but actually fairly tasty. I do want/need to find a milk chocolate rooibos, or rather, honeybush. That would be the perfect caffeine-free chocolate tea.

D: So sad. Sipdown on this one today, so I’m down to 780 teas now. Luckily, I think I can hold off on repurchasing this until fall, as I’m far more interested in fruity, summery blends at the moment than I am in warm, rich, comforting teas.

Brewed this as recommended today, and am definitely getting green tea-like flavours. I love how the liquor isn’t a typical tea colour though, kind of a strange purpley-greenish tone. Very unique. I apparently have more of this left than I thought, as I forgot that it only requires 1/2 a teaspoon per cup… so I guess I have about 8 cups left. So much tea!

Sipdown! 781.

Yum. I still think it’s so unique to have such a deliciously nutty yet unsweetened tea. It’s really quite tasty. At some point (you know, when my stash gets down to a manageable 250 teas or something), I’d like to pick up a few more things from Lupicia. They have enough interesting teas to give it a shot, even if their prices are a touch expensive!

Ohhhh man. This is pretty much the best iced tea I have ever made. Brewed this one strong (4, possibly 5 generous tsp to 8 oz.) with boiling water, and then diluted up to probably 14 oz. with cool water after about ~4 min. It went into the fridge maybe 10 hours ago, and the result is seriously amazing. It’s creamy and “vegetal”, but not in any way that tea has ever come across to me. It’s almost more like cucumber, except there’s some sweetness from the strawberry. When I was brewing this up, I fully admit that I was regretting that I had so much left of my 50g bag…. yeah, no longer. And I’m now hoarding the rest of it, because nobody I’ve sent it off to likes it, so now it’s all mine! :D So there! Haha.

Anyways, this was a very pleasant surprise this evening (er, is 4:30am still evening?) while I’m working on project stats. I’m far more interested in drinking this than the 3 hot teas I just made… oh well.

Sipdown! 782. The rest of this is for Sil.

I will admit that my tastebuds are a bit compromised right now, as I just consumed a deliciously huge amount of garlic/ginger/soy/lime marinade while eating a marlin steak. Nom nom nom. So my mouth kind of tastes like GARLIC, but even so, I can taste the delicious banana of this tea, such a real, banana chip flavour (shocker – this tea contains banana chips!) Yum. While I don’t think this is going on a must-have list for me, I can see myself attempting to nab a bit more in the future, or splitting a small amount with someone. Mmmmm!

Sipdown! 783. The rest is off to Sil and Indigobloom!

It’s such a shame that the flavour of this one doesn’t match up with the crazily delicious aroma, although this tastes infinitely better when sweetened. It’s kind of a burnt, malty flavour, that unlike the natural burny/malty flavours in some black teas, really doesn’t taste great unsweetened. Ah well. Interesting enough, if nothing else!

Sipdown! 784. Aiming to drop my tea count low enough over the week that my meet up with Sil doesn’t push it back over 800… ahhhhh who am I kidding, I’m doomed :(

Anyways, brewed this one hot and then chilled it with the tea still floating in it – it’s pretty good! I see I rated it fairly highly previously as well, although I think I had only tried it hot and/or cold-brewed. The dominant flavour is peachiness, though I certainly taste some pineapple as well. I do understand the slight weird aftertaste that apparently other people have mentioned. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not terribly bothersome for me.

Overall, tasty summer tea. I’d drink this again :)

Hot/cold-brewed some of this up for today. Pretty good! Naturally fairly sweet, with gingery tones. Not one I’d restock, but pretty delicious regardless.

Sipdown! 785.

I think I preferred this one brewed hot and cooled. I cold-brewed it, and it tastes a little strange, but it could also be because I’m at the bottom of my bag of it. Anyhow, it’s still not nearly as gross as Raspberry Nectar, which I unfortunately still have a small amount of, but it’s not a tea I’d bother picking up again. There are far more deliciously fruity summer tea flavours to pick from.

Another cold-brew. Still some bitterness, but it had quite a bit of delicious flavour too. I think I have about a cup’s worth of this left now – the rest will soon be on its way to Sil!

Unexpected sipdown! 786.

Ended up taking the last of this to my boyfriend’s place yesterday and brewing it up. Hopefully I’ll manage to cold-brew the combination of this cup and my previous and get a bit more flavour out of it. Such a delicious tea.

ETA: Ok – cold-brewing the used leaves really brings out the ginger, in a super-delicious way! (Ok, the bottom of the cup was TOO gingery, but still. Tasty!)

This still doesn’t have as much flavour as I would like, but what it does have is fairly tasty. Woody and sweet. I oversteeped a little though, so hopefully I remember next time that overleafing is preferable to oversteeping!

Should have steeped this a bit less time, but… sooooo tasty. I really want to try this as a cold-brew/iced tea. Good thing I have tons left!

I brewed up a bunch of this one to chill in the fridge, and did a second infusion with the leftover leaves to drink now. This is a surprisingly tasty tea – the lemon flavour is very lemon candy, not lemon peel or lemon verbena or lemongrass, and the black base is fairly typical of DT, decent and not particularly astringent. Quite refreshing! I’m excited to try it iced.

ETA: Yum!!! This one is super delicious iced and sweetened. It tastes very much to me like Nestea lemon iced tea. I sweetened it with maple syrup as that’s all that I had at the time, and the boy thought it tasted funny and didn’t like it (I’m trying to find something that he will like… sigh). I think I’ll ice the rest as well and sweeten it with sugar instead… see if he’ll drink that!

ETA: This tea has some serious longevity! Second re-steep, in about 4 oz. water (so 1/4 strength) was quite delicious. I think I’ll try for a fourth infusion. Really hoping I remember to make some up this up (with sugar) for the boy tomorrow…

Wow… yeah, this one’s definitely as delicious as I was remembering. When I make it to DT to pick up the summer collection, I admittedly will probably indulge in a 25g purchase of this one if it’s available. I am dying to try it iced or as a latte, not that it isn’t absolutely delicious warm and without additions. The ginger is a touch more prominent this time, but it still creamy, lemony, coconutty goodness. Definitely one of the best and most unique teas DT has released in recent months.