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This tea is just so tasty. The bold base paired with the banana is such a great morning treat. It wakes you up, but in a gentle way. The banana is reminding me of the banana cream pie we polished off last night, and I think I’ll make another haha!

The base here just borders on astringency, though I’ve learned to steep this tea at boiling or it does become astringent. I’m nearing a sipdown of this one and I’m sad that it’ll probably be a while before I do a B&B order.

On the upside, I placed a Camellia Sinensis order this morning, which I’m so excited for!

This one is lavender, coconut, and cacao, and it’s exactly that! The lavender is mellowed out, and the coconut adds a delightful creaminess. The cacao is very subtle, but still there, adding creaminess and hints of dark chocolate. YUM.

I had three steeps of this through the afternoon and early evening and it’s so delicious. I can’t get over how much it reminds me of Verdant’s Laoshan Black. It’s got a maltiness but also a lightness to it, and the third steep tasted nearly identical to the first. Incredible!

1st steep 2 minutes
2nd steep 3 minutes
3rd steep 4 minutes

Thanks VariaTEA for sharing!

The steeping parameters on this tea seem to be bordering insanity at 5-8 minutes, but I have always struggled with this tea and decided to just try different times. I sent as much as I could fit to Cameron, but still some remains in my cupboard. I took this to be a sign I’m meant to find a way to enjoy this haha.

I steeped for 6 minutes today and then tried not to breathe through my nose while sipping so as to not catch any smoke whiffs and immediately have to dump the cup XD. To my surprise, this seems to have worked somewhat! I don’t know that’s there’s anything overly special about this tea, but it has a nice full feeling in the mouth and subtle hints of maltiness hidden in the background.

This smells very strong. Uncomfortably strong. Like, I’m a bit worried this tea was created in a first year chemistry lab. Very spicy potpourri.

The taste is thankfully not as frightening haha. There’s a raspberry cranberry flavour for sure, which is nice. This may be good chilled, because I am finding the taste to get better as it cools.

On the plus side, we made both a banana cream and a chocolate pudding pie last night on a whim and they were set this morning and so delicious as breakfast with more Star Wars!

Lexa got me teas for Christmas! Woot! They all smell amazing, but we opted for this one while watching Star Wars last night! The dry tea smells like a lemon pastry with lavender sprinkled on top! It actually smells like what I recall of Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon.

Wow! This tastes just like how it smells. I love when that happens! I’ll have to order this one to build up the delicious rooibos teas in my cupboard for both Lex and I!

Enjoying this tea while I continue whittling away at my paper for a couple more hours until celebrations begin! This Noël tea seemed fitting this afternoon, and as always, it’s so delicious. I truly can’t get over how perfectly fig jam this flavour is, with hints of strawberry complementing. I actually think the flavour is getting more perfect as time goes on!

We’re making an Italian Christmas Eve dinner of conchiglie ripiene al forno and panforte for dessert! Then tomorrow we’ll have our Nova Scotian Christmas dinner. :) Is anyone else making a special meal tonight or tomorrow?

Bird & Blend Advent Day 24 (24-December 2020)

It’s Christmas Eve here, but happiest of everything to everyone! I can’t believe we’re at the end of the advent! I’ll definitely miss reading everyone’s advent notes, and looking forward to our surprise tea each day.

This one in the dry sachet looks just like orange pop! The sachet said there would be sprinkles, but I didn’t see any to pick out, so that a bonus.

It smells more intensely than it tastes, which is a shame. Drinking it is like drinking a hot orange that’s been watered down ahah. There’s nothing wrong or offensive, but I do wish it was more flavourful. I may chill the rest of my mug to see how it is cold.

Okay, chilled it is sadly less orange and more like an orange candy, but without the orange haha? Like a rocket candy, sort of.

P.S. Lexa and I will be doing the Dammann Frères advent in February haha — so we have that to look forward to!

The morning was a bit of a write off with an upset stomach, but I’m back now. After some mint tea and porridge, I’m starting to feel better and I’m back at my paper. So I thought I’d make this tea to be as productive as possible!

I love how malty this one is. It’s the perfect morning tea, but also perfect any time of day (imo). I find steeping at a lower temperature really helps bring out some honey sweetness.

I have only two cups left of this one, so fingers crossed Teavivre arrives soon!

Bird & Blend Advent Day 23 (23-December 2020)

Yaaas, coffee beans! I have determined that I love coffee in tea, and I love B&B’s rooibos blends. So this is the both of best worlds!

Lexa made our tea this morning because I was up through the night sick, and she found me on the couch this morning. Bleh. But the tea is perfect!

The coffee bean is so nice, and I’m getting the orange mostly in the scent. The cacao nibs and shells I could see complimenting the coffee bean here. Overall, I really enjoy and I’ll be re-steeping the sachets for sure. I think I’d order Fairytale of NY ultimately because I don’t know that I need more than one coffee-tea and that was the first one I fell in love with.