277 Tasting Notes
My third entry for this month’s scavenger hunt – this time: a cherry tea. This is actually a sipdown – the last I have of this blend I crafted last summer. It was inspired by one of my favorite soda shop drinks. Actually, the small town I lived in during my teen years had an Arctic Circle and they made Lime Slushie/Lime Rickey kind of drinks. I’m not sure if they had Cherry Lime Rickeys or not, I know that Sonic has them though and on the very rare occasions that we go to Sonic, I usually get a Cherry Lime Rickey – and we usually only go to Sonic when I want a cherry lime rickey because we really don’t care for the food at Sonic, we just like the drinks.
Anyway, I cold brewed this overnight, and it tastes amazing. It tastes so much like my favorite Sonic drink, but it’s a little lighter because no cherry syrup in it. It’s super refreshing, tart and sweet. It kinda makes me sad that the pitcher I cold-brewed overnight is gonna be the last I have of this tea.
So, I have a tea that I’ll add to the Steepster Scavenger Hunt – this is item #6 (I’m going a little bit out of order) and Marshmallow Treats are a favorite snack food of mine – I love them & I love this tea. It’s 52Teas classic & part of our permanent collection & I have just reblended it (it’s curing now, this is not the new batch yet – this is from the last batch I made just before the holiday season.) Sweet, marshmallow-y goodness with warm, roasty-toasty rice notes & smooth, mellow green tea. A perfect afternoon tea to enjoy that satisfies a sweet tooth craving for me.
I also noticed that the photo for this listing here is not correct, so I’m gonna have to rummage through my photos to find the right one. (this one looks like it’s maybe butter pecan marshmallow treat? Not certain.)
Also, I guess this technically is a sipdown for me, because this is the last of this tea that I have in my pantry until the new batch is ready (in a week or so).
OK, so I guess I’m way out of the loop, but I only just discovered the Steepster Scavenger Hunt (thanks to SororiTEA Sisters’ Instagram post) – so I decided I would like to play along. I don’t know if I’ll be able to post all of them by the end of February, but I can try.
This is my “black tea” for the scavenger hunt (does it have to be a straight black tea – or can it be a flavored black tea? Please let me know if I’m doing this right?)
Anyway, this is probably more ‘chai-like’ than ‘orange spice like’ since there are more spices to this than your typical orange spice/holiday tea. – which are traditionally more a citrus clove or a citrus cinnamon clove blend rather than a chai-ish blend of spices. I didn’t really consider that at the time of blending this tea, I just wanted something warm & cozy & something that also included blood orange so this is what I came up with.
I really like the way it came out, though – I’m enjoying the blood orange in this – it’s bright & a bit more tangy – but not too tart. The spices are mild yet warming. Just what I wanted on this chilly afternoon.
You’re ahead of me! I don’t know what you are talking about! Ha ha! A scavenger hunt sounds fun, though!
I have read a few posts where they’re doing a scavenger hunt – but I wasn’t sure where they got the list of teas – until I saw the post on the SororiTEA Sisters Instagram post today. So, it’s February 17 – I don’t know if I’ll be able to complete the list this month, maybe next month I’ll see the list earlier. :)
Ah – so I didn’t know it was a sipdown thing – so I totally still have some of this tea left, so I guess I’m not playing along. :)
Any tea you drink will eventually contribute to a sipdown! We are all doing it a little differently ;)
Most of mine aren’t sipdowns, it’s just helping me work through some different teas in my cabinet.
OK cool – basically, I’m just interpreting it to be MY teas (aka 52Teas) that I can fit into the categories. :) I will have fun with it. If nothing else, it will offer me a distraction. Not that I need one, but sometimes I do – and this can be a tea related distraction that doesn’t require a lot of time. :)
So, I saw Kittenna’s & CrowKettle’s tasting notes for this tea – and it inspired me to grab the last little bit that I have of this tea and drink it as my goodnight tea. (Yes, it’s 5:13 am and that’s “goodnight” for me – ah, the joys of insomnia!)
I am going to miss this tea from my stash. I enjoyed it as a before bedtime cuppa – it’s a very relaxing cup. I am generally not a fan of chamomile but I do enjoy it in blends like this. I do enjoy it blended with lavender. The lavender is nice, the strawberry is nice (and I think it brings out some of the apple-y notes of the chamomile) and the vanilla adds just a touch of creaminess to the cup.
Now that I’m finishing off the last of this tea, I’m gonna need to create another chamomile blend soon. Any ideas?
Apple Brown Betty! Camomile lavender biscotti! Camomile coconut cannoli! Camomile plum donuts! Camomile marshmallow creams (with or without lavender)! Camomile rose marshmallows! Camomile lavender zabaglione! Camomile eggnog!
What do I win?!
Oh, aaaaaaand camomile vanilla marshmallow.
LOL – sorry, I didn’t plan on offering a prize. But – thank you for the ideas. :)
I need to renew my subscription before any of those happen (I’m in a creative vacuum currently but love the sound of all of Evol Ving Ness’s ideas).
I am here for another chamomile blend! My main request is that it includes vanilla/creamy flavours. Actually – a recreation of DavidsTea’s Banana Dulce would be fantastic – banana, caramel, (vanilla), chamomile? A lemon cream version would be delicious too. Same with something with blueberry (but that’s probably already done with Blueberry-zzz). I also wonder what a chamomile cream earl grey would taste like…
Also, definite regrets that I don’t have more of this, because it is indeed an excellent bedtime tea. Also resteeped super well; I think I had three additional infusions before I decided to move on.
Banana, caramel, vanilla, chamomile sounds SO GOOD. Chamomile marshmallow cream also sounds delicious. I vote for those.
Oh, yeah – I still miss Banana Dulce so much! If anyone could craft a delicious banana chamomile tisane it’d be you, Anne :)
Apricot (or Peach) Pavlova with Chamomile Cream, Peach & Chamomile Panna Cotta? (something stonefruit with vanilla and cream flavours).
An “Earl Grey Creme Brûlée” with lavender or Lavender Honey Madeleines might be interesting with or without a chamomile base (I like your lavender too).
Peachy Keen… you can just add chamomile. :D :D :D
So… “Sleepy Peachy Keen”? :-)
YEESSSSSSS haha
When my computer crashed, I also lost the recipe for Peachy Keen. :(
oh no Peachy Keen! At least the ingredients list is on Steepster but I know that isn’t the recipe…
I still have my tasting notes as well, I was in the process of moving my recipes over to ‘the cloud’ so that I wouldn’t lose them but some recipes, unfortunately, got lost in that crash. Given the unusual nature of how Peachy Keen came to be – I don’t know if I’d be able to recreate it to be exactly as it once was. Any reblend would be a v.2 at best. :(
Aw, I’m sure V.2 would be good though…
This is the tea of the week for this week (wow, look at Anne. she is on time! What’s happening right now?)
I love this tea. Yes, it’s another coconut tea, but you know what? It tastes amazing so I’m good with that. The lime & coconut taste so good together. The background notes are hints of sweet cookie with the light sweetness of the green tea. Everything about this tea is just delightful.
The 12th Tea of Christmas – this is also this month’s “bonus” tea of the month. This month, I had planned on reblending the Coconut Cream Pie Black Tea as the reblend/bonus tea, but since I had not just 1 BUT 2 coconut teas in the 12 Teas of Christmas box PLUS I did a coconut tea for December as well – I figured, that was enough coconut teas for one month. I mean, I’ve missed coconut too (I went about a year without any coconut teas) but I feel like I’ve more than made up for it over the course of the last few months. (Note: that’s not to say that I’ll not be reblending the coconut cream pie tea, but it will be some time in the new year – and not immediately.)
Anyway, this tea: I fell in love with this tea at first sip. Yeah, it wasn’t strongly CHAI – but I didn’t really care, to be quite honest – because it tasted so good just the way it came out. It tastes like chocolate spice cookies. Like my brownie cookies & spice cookies got together into a cup of tea. Perhaps chocolate spice cookie would have been a better name for it, but I had already called it cookie dough chai & things were hectic & I had already made several changes to my tea menus (see the previous paragraph) – so I just kept it the way it was.
Just – so – good!
The 11th Tea of Christmas – I’m a little behind on getting these posted – I did drink this tea yesterday, but I just forgot to post about it. Yesterday was a little busy because I was baking cookies & wrapping presents & I forgot to post about the tea as I was sipping it.
I loved this cup. I think this batch turned out even better than the original batch from 2018. Back then, it was one of the four new teas & to be honest, I can’t believe it’s been three years since I last blended this tea – the time has FLOWN by.
The cuppa was memorable, even if I couldn’t remember to post the note about it at the time – peppermint & lots of sweet creamy vanilla & marshmallow notes. Lovely.
The 10th Tea of Christmas is one of my favorite teas I’ve ever blended – so I was very happy to see that it not only was nominated for the poll but it earned it’s place here. (Interestingly enough, three of the black tea reblends TIED for first place: this one, Banana Bread & Tangerine Cupcake) so that was exciting to see.
I love the way creaminess of the coconut plays with the bergamot notes. It’s just SO good.
That is all.
The 9th Tea of Christmas – I was interested in reading what others thought of this – I personally LOVE it & it tastes a lot like the bit of Pryanik I had last year. It didn’t really taste cake-y or even entirely like a gingery gingerbread. It tasted a bit like … imagine a fig newton, but the cake part was made with spices & sweetened with honey rather than sugar & instead of fig, you had a thin, plum-y jam-ish sort of filling.
The honeybush I use has often been described as “peppery” & I think it works well with the spices in this blend. It’s sweet & mildly spiced with notes of plum & hints of honey. Tasty!
Woah, Arctic Circle?! That is a chain from my neck of the woods (Utah/Idaho… fry sauce land :-)
In my teen years, I lived in a small town in Nevada and there was an Arctic Circle there. I’m not sure if it’s still there because it’s been almost 30 years since I’ve been back there. I loved the lime rickeys there. I don’t remember much about their food – or the fry sauce because there was also a Dairy Queen in town and it was closer to the high school – so that’s where I got my fry fix – and they made a good fry sauce there.
Looks like they have expanded their franchises out into Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming (I honestly didn’t think there were that many!) It’s definitely a go-to here in Southern Idaho… I don’t do fast food often, but when I do get a hankering it is usually for an Artic Circle Ranch Burger with fries and fry sauce. (I also love the pumpkin pie shakes during the fall!)
I know that there is one (or there was one) in Oregon (Newport) because we took a weekend vacation out to the coast and I noticed it and we had to eat there for my own nostalgia’s sake.