Lift Me Up, Angel

Thanks so much for sharing a sample of this, Cameron B! Another one of B&B’s shop blends I’m excited to try. To be honest, this one reminds me a little bit like their Morning Kick blend, now that I’m thinking about it. The differences: Morning Kick seems to have ginger and no green tea. Lift Me Up Angel has ginseng and sencha. So there is a slight difference. But both are mostly lemon yerba mate blends. I really like this one though. The lemon is bright, fresh, and a bit like the topping on a donut, but then the earthy flavors of the sencha and yerba mate keep it grounded. The name is perfect. I love that the yerba mate and ginseng are energizing. Not enough yerba mate blends out in the tea world, so I do love when B&B has them. So overall I think this blend is actually an improvement on Morning Kick. I just noticed this blend also doesn’t have lemongrass, which Morning Kick was mostly drowning in (at least with my sample back in the day)— so yes, a definite improvement here!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for not quite full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 8 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Home – 9:00 PM

This is one of Bird & Blend’s store-inspired blends. I ordered the full sampler pack of these because at least 5 of them sounded quite good, so I figured might as well try them all!

This is a nice lemony herbal-tasting tea. The lemon is very herbaceous, as it comes from lemon verbena and lemon myrtle. I’m not sure I can distinguish between the two. I can taste the yerba maté just a bit, and it gives a nice earthy note. I definitely cannot taste the green tea. I wish there was more ginseng here, as I generally enjoy ginseng in tea.

I must say, I’m pleased that they didn’t add ginger to this tea. Too often, lemony teas have ginger in them, and I’m not really a fan.

My issue with this is that it tastes like an herbal blend, and it’s not. I would be most likely to drink something like this in the evening, but with the high-caffeine yerba maté that’s not a great idea.

313/365

Another B&B store blend, this time for their London (Angel) store. It’s a yerba and sencha base, with lemon and ginseng. I kept the brew time pretty short after yesterday’s exprience with Tea From The Hood, but I feel like I could probably extend it in this particular case because the flavouring seems very light. It’s lemony, but in a sweet/dessert way rather than a fresh/sharp/sour way. It’s quite creamy, and reminds me a tiny bit of both Butiki’s Lemon French Macaron and Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon. It’s not exactly like either of them, but there’s a suggestion of both and that’s pleasing enough for me.

The yerba base adds a subtle earthy crispness, and is more prominent in flavour terms than the sencha. It’s supposed to be an “uplifting, angelic blend”, and I’d go along with that. It’s delicate, light, and airy, and makes for very pleasant sipping! I’ll probably adjust my brew time a little to try and coax out a touch more lemon, but I’m really pleased with this one.