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Day 8 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent calendar. This is so fragrant as soon as I open the packet! It has really powerful chocolate and sweet caramel notes that translate beautifully into the brew. I’m not really noticing the rosemary but that’s ok given how tasty it is otherwise (which is funny because the other tasting notes find the rosemary very strong – I don’t know what’s going on here!). I made the first cup with no additions and it was rich and flavorful all on its own. I thought this would be great as an oat milk latte but it was actually better with no additives! The oat milk somehow flattens the chocolate and caramel flavors, making them less robust and sweet. Better to just drink it straight.

Arbitrarily selected Day 6 of the Hanukkah sampler. This is perfectly named, actually. Besides literally being golden-hued from the turmeric, the spice blend gives it a brightness of flavor that’s not super common for a cacao blend. The pepper and ginger are particularly prominent, along with the cacao. It all works together very nicely, and the brightness of the blend makes it super on theme for a Hanukkah sampler. One of my favorites so far from this sampler.

Accidental sipdown today. I just wanted some jasmine tea to help me get back into things at work, and it turned out I only had one teabag left of this! It’s not the finest quality jasmine I’ve ever had, but it’s a solid daily drinker type of jasmine. Floral, not artificial or chemical-y or sweet at all. The base is a little grassy, which works well with the jasmine. Definitely good, just not astoundingly great.

Arbitrarily selected Day 5 of the Hanukkah sampler. The strawberry and pear notes in this one are really sweet and juicy. The ginger complements them nicely. It’s fainter when the brew is hot and stronger as it cools; personally, I think this particular combination works better when the ginger takes a back seat, so I prefer it when it’s hot. Hot or cold, this is quite refreshing!

Day 26 – last and final – of Kelmishka’s advent calendar! I appreciate that this calendar started and ended on a Taiwanese oolong, one of my favorite tea styles. Including a Day 26 was also a very nice touch, as I’m finding this a great tea to unwind with post-holiday chaos. I brewed this up gong fu style. It’s nicely floral, creamy, and smooth. 

There is a gyokuro from Day 7 that I need to circle back to sooner rather than later while it’s still fresh – I kept saving it for a special day when I could give it proper attention, but I can only have a few cups of caffeine per day and somehow the stars never aligned for a day when that could be my caffeine for the day and I could give it the focus it deserves. So this is not quite the last of this calendar.

Thank you Kelmishka for a lovely first advent calendar swap experience! I got to try a bunch of new-to-me teas that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and discovered a few new faves along the way, notably 52teas which I hadn’t revisited properly in a long time. Perennial Tea Room’s Orange Grapefruit was also a particular delight, from a company I had never heard of before! And it was really helpful to be able to compare a few different ginger teas, as we’re coincidentally revisiting the question of which one should be our household sick tea.

Day 24 of the Teeccino advent calendar, and here endeth this particular advent-ure. I’m glad that I did this one, as it allowed me to sample a wide variety of Teeccino’s offerings, but now that I’ve done it I don’t really feel the need to do it again. Especially tasty were the Maple Pecan, Candy Cane, Hazelnut, Maca Chocolate, Dandelion Coconut, Vanilla Nut, Chocolaté – and this one, the Dandelion Caramel Nut! I made it as an oat milk latte. It’s got notes of caramel, chicory, carob, dandelion, and a nuttiness that I can’t place but the wrapper says is almond. Extremely solid entrant in the flavored coffee dupe category, and an excellent end to the advent calendar.

Day 23 of the Teeccino advent calendar. The dark chocolate flavor of this one is spot on. It’s specifically dark chocolate, too, with that hint of bitterness. I would have loved to try this as an oat milk latte, but, alas, did not have any oat milk available when I drank this.

Catching up on advent calendar notes today! I definitely got too many this year, so I’ll be doing this for a while. I think three is what’s actually realistic for me to keep this fun and interesting rather than stressful and overwhelming. This year I got the Teeccino, Clipper, Dammann Freres, Kiani, Plum Deluxe (advent and Hanukkah sampler), DavidsTea herbal, TeaThoughts, and did the Steepster homemade advent. I only managed to stay mostly on track with 4 of them, and even then my notes aren’t all up to date. TeaThoughts is a constant, but I’ll have to be more thoughtful and selective about my other advents next year!

French Roast is day 22 of the Teeccino advent calendar. Apparently I HATED this blend ten years ago, describing it as tasting like “burnt chicory, with a hint of carob.” It’s still not my favorite Teeccino blend, but I’ve softened on it with time. It doesn’t have any astringency or bitterness, but it’s thick and has a pronounced chicory note that makes it clear that it’s not coffee. The blend is particularly disadvantaged because I accidentally mixed up my mug with another and drank some incredibly good coffee thinking that it was this tea, then went back to this tea – so the not-coffee-ness of the tea was very acutely obvious. It’s less of a big deal in the flavored blends because the flavoring takes center stage, and somehow the dark roast seems to have been a better dupe for coffee. On the up side, my tastes have changed in ten years and I now quite like chicory, so I’m adjusting my score (up from 12!) accordingly.

Ok, final stretch of the holiday season! To those who celebrate, I hope you are having a merry Christmas and/or happy eighth night of Hanukkah! If it’s already Monday when you read this and you celebrate Kwanzaa, happy Kwanzaa! I hope folks are finding moments of joy and light even if parts of the holidays are rough.

I pulled this out of the Plum Deluxe Hanukkah sampler. The packets aren’t numbered but this is the fourth one I’m getting a note done for – I’ve fallen behind in the past couple of days due to a lot of family holiday stuff. This one is perfect for finally being done. I have completed my obligatory engagements with three different families, dealt with a higher than usual amount of drama, and trekked to a friend’s place in the cold to feed their cats. A tea called “no obligations,” decaf so I can have it in the evening, is just the right match for my state of mind. I am enjoying this one quite a bit. It’s a dessert tea that’s rich without being too sweet, relying instead on cocoa nibs. I’m enjoying the chocolate, nutty, cinnamon, and vanilla notes in this. The base is sort of bready, adding to that sense of indulgence. The chocolate and cinnamon build and linger, too, which is really nice. I’m not getting anything from the orange peel, but I’m not sure that I want to – citrus flavor on top of everything else just feels extraneous. This still tastes good cold, but I think it really shines as a hot tea given the flavor profile.

Day 25 of my advent calendar from Kelmishka! After 26 hours of intense family holiday drama, I am so happy to be curled up on the couch with this sweet, cozy cuppa. It’s like a glazed lemon cookie. The sweetness is very particular, not just sweet or sugary but specifically the kind of sugary that a basic glaze is. There’s no tartness or edge to the lemon at all. I think there might be a bit of vanilla at the tail end of the sip. Sometimes I taste apple in here, which doesn’t make it taste worse but does break the illusion when it comes through. Erring on the shorter side with steeping time would probably correct for that.