27 Tasting Notes
ADVENT DAY 19
I got so excited when I opened up my bag this morning – maybe for the last two months, I’ve been looking for a grape flavored tea to try. It did not disappoint! It didn’t taste anything like grape or wine – I looked up the ingredients, and there is no mention of grapes either – but it was really yummy and relaxing on this cold day at work!
Preparation
Advent day 14
I was intrigued when I opened the gift bag this morning – maple rooibos – oh yay I love maple! What in the heck is that yellow powder all about, is it turmeric? Saffron? Lol I never figured it out – we looked it up and was glad to find it was caffeine free so we would down with it last night. I liked it but would have enjoyed it more without the added stevia.
ADVENT DAY 10
Honestly, the name scared me at first – I hate peach – so I was hoping this was an apple orchard instead of a peach orchard – I went online and found out it wasn’t talking about peaches, thank goodness :)
I’m on my second day of drinking this tea – I kept it hot in my coffee urn overnight, and it was good this morning – I tried to get it as close to the 175 degree mark as I could, with my Keurig – the lowest setting was 182, so I did that. It turned out a little bit watered down and a little bit bitter at the same time – I used a tablespoon in 27 ounces and steeped it two times in a row – maybe I needed to add a 4th teaspoon to make it perfect, but it was a nice and relaxing blend.
Preparation
ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 7
I ended up brewing this today on December 8th, I’m a day late! I had an oops – I took a tablespoon and brewed a pot and poured it in my carafe, and ran out of water for my resteep, so stuck it under the keurig and hit the brew button to fill the rest of the pot with hot water and freaking coffee came out, not hot water! ARGH – so I shorted myself 27 ounces of this yummy chai! I got excited about it, just by the name alone :) My roommate is trying the coffee flavored tea tomorrow, as she says there is something called a dirty chai, which is chai tea and coffee – I’ll update it in the morning!
Preparation
I was just thinking as I was reading your note that it might make a good dirty chai! How did it turn out? Did your roommate like it?
Shae, she said it was okay, but the straight tea with eggnog was better – I saw she had only a few sips – not her cup of tea :)
Ah, too bad. Eggnog is pretty hard to beat.
Day 5 ADVENT CALENDAR
I’m loving trying new loose leafs and finding new tea companies I never would have heard of if I didn’t participate in this project!
I double steeped a tablespoon to make a big 54 ounce pot – I had three cups. my roommate had two, and we refrigerated the leftovers for breakfast this morning. This tea was great – I loved that there were no notes of bitterness in it – it was smooth – I feel like I"m one of the few people I know that actually enjoys rooibos teas – this was a good one – I am sure I will order this at some point!
Preparation
Day 4 ADVENT – GINGERBREAD ROOIBOS BY MARKET SPICE
My roommate and I opened up our little present this morning and she squealed with delight when she found out it was gingerbread – she told me to just go ahead and make the whole pot. I don’t like ginger, but this was a mild cookie like flavor that I liked, it wasn’t spicy, and overwhelming. It was nice and smooth. I had three cups and she had two, and we’re refrigerating it for her in the morning! Thanks for sending this!
Preparation
Day 3 – Advent from Inkling – I am sorry I do not know how to tag somebody or link somebody! I really like this tea because it’s mild with a lot.of flavor, and very relaxing. It’s not bitter at all, I love straight black teas, I steeped 16 oz, then poured it in my teapot, then steeped another 16 oz immediately afterwards, and made one big pot. This lasted me till 10:30 tonight, I think I got like 5 small China tea cups out of it, and it tasted just as good as it did fresh this morning. I hope they still make this, I will definitely order my own. Thanks for I teosuxing me to this, Inkling!
Preparation
I don’t think there is a way to tag others, not that I’m aware of anyway, but that would be a great addition to the site. Some users put names in bold if you would like to do that – you can do this by adding an asterisk at the beginning and end of the person’s name.
So glad you liked it, Devon! That one’s been a recent favorite for me. :)
Day 2 – 2020 tea advent swap – Vanilla Chai black tea by Fava – loose leaf
Inkling sent this to me! I made a first steep, then immediately poured it in my tea pot and steeped a second brew, and mixed them, so I can make one giant pot of tea to sip on on this cold day. I’m even burning a spicy candle to enhance the comforting ambiance :)
I tried it without sweetener first, just out of curiosity, even though I know Chai is prepared with milk in it. It is a Chai I like – you can even see the whole cardamom pods floating in there! I like the spices they use in this blend, I’d definitely buy a small bag of this!
To put a twist on things, I thought this would be well paired with eggnog instead of milk – and I was right, it’s fabulous – the flavors of the eggnog marry so well with the flavors of the chai tea! I added some erythritol monk fruit blend.
It says to steep this at 212 for three minutes, which I did, but maybe add more than a teaspoon per 8 ounces? It seemed a little weak the way I prepared it.
Preparation
This sounds really tasty! Whole cardamom for the win!
I love cardamom-forward chai! I recently tried teakruthi’s Majestic Chai, and cardamom is the dominant flavor. I think it might actually be the only flavor, aside from the black tea itself. It’s a new favorite for me. And I wholeheartedly agree with Courtney – there is something special about finding whole cardamom pods in a blend. It’s so lush.
I received my Christmas advent calendar early this year – I must admit, I peeked for the first day a few days after I got it trying to figure out if it was a tea bag or loose leaf tea that I was feeling, but I did wait until December first to drink it! :) I found this tea on vacation awhile ago, and enjoyed it, but hadn’t been able to find it again, so this was a nice thing to open! It’s like a vanilla lemon cake – a sweet lemon, not a sour one. I love Tazo teas!
That reminds me I have some grape flavoured teas too; I should try them soon :)