1384 Tasting Notes
2025 TTB. Hibiscus, cinnamon, and a sour berry note. Not bad-sour. I can see the sangria-adjacent vibes. I don’t really like sangria though so I may not be the best judge of flavor profile accuracy. I think this blend falls into the category of “interesting, just not to my personal taste preferences.”
TTB 2025. This doesn’t really taste like I expected it to from the name. I don’t know if it’s the echinacea or the marshmallow root (or both, or something else), but it has that slimy quality that I don’t really love. Like licorice, but there isn’t any in here. More than anything else, this reminds me of Calabash Tea’s Eleuthero Vandross blend. And I think both fall into the same category for me: teas for sore throats and sickness, but not necessarily for fun. Plus the ginger is very very soft and I like a stronger ginger. A blend like this has its place but for me that’s a very limited place.
2025 TTB. Admittedly I’ve had this one before, but I loved it so much that I couldn’t resist when I saw it in the box. There was only really enough leaf for one mug – apologies to anyone else down the line who would have been interested! I added some oat milk and agave. Just a really good gingerbread cookie flavor, with exactly the right balance of spices. Whoever put this in the box, thank you for the opportunity to revisit a favorite!
TTB 2025. This is fine. It tastes like most chamomile-lavender blends, with a mild menthol cool that lingers afterwards and a little more earthiness than in a standard chamomile-lavender. The butterfly pea flower feels out of place here – the blue color is less “fun” in this case and more “clashes with the flavor.” It does make me want to add some lemon to see what that does to the flavor, but we haven’t got any lemon at home at the moment.
Thank you Inkling for adding all these Dessert by Deb teas to the TTB for me! I’m excited about them. Made as an oat milk latte, this went down so quickly and easily. My first impression was a cinnamon note, but apparently there’s not actually any cinnamon in here so… shrug emoji? I’m getting a light banana (not as sweet as the 52teas banana) and a nice maple flavor on a sturdy base. The slightest of astringency at the end of the sip, which is to be expected. I’m not really getting a bread/pastry note. Perhaps that’s being obscured by the oat milk. A pretty delightful banana-maple-cinnamon situation even without that bread/pastry flavor.
TTB 2025. Since the first Old Barrel Tea Co. blend was so tasty, I decided to go for another one. At first I thought I might have messed up the steeping parameters because all I’m getting is a big hit of cherry cough syrup. But then I looked at the other tasting notes and they say similar things! So I’m comfortable saying this is a no for me.
2025 TTB. Ooh, I’ve been wanting to try Old Barrel for a while! Getting to try new-to-me companies is one of my favorite things about TTBs. To give this its best chance, I made it iced with orange blossom honey as instructed. It’s pretty good! The mango is sweet and clear and juicy. I’ve never actually had prickly pear itself but the flavor here seems similar to other prickly pear blends I’ve tried, so I assume it’s fairly close (or everyone is using the exact same flavoring that may or may not taste like its namesake). I can see this being a winner in hot weather.
2025 TTB. It’s me Inkling, I’m the rooibos lover. This one never quite hit home for me though. It’s not bad, just a little muddled as others have said. The overall vibe is “red berry rooibos.” The woody flavor of the rooibos is pretty noticeable. While I can get a bit of mango flavor if I really focus, it doesn’t pop. And even though there’s no hibiscus in here, it tastes like there’s too much hibiscus in here. So basically, the balance between the mango and raspberry is a bit off. I experimented with adding a bit of oat milk to the bottom half of my mug. That just gave it more of a creamsicle vibe, but didn’t really do anything to help distinguish the flavors.
The TTB arrived early this morning, yay! I hustled to open it up before leaving for work so I could pick out a tea to take to the office. This was the first one that looked like it would be a flexible option for the day. Of course, because I was then scrambling to do too many things at once before leaving, I overbrewed the travel mug of hot tea that I made. Which actually turned out fine! Still a solid floral jasmine green with no bitterness, astringency, or essential oil-like taste. I took some more pearls to the office to make a cold-brew second mug. Weirdly, that one turned out much less pleasant than the hot brew. I combined fresh pearls and cold water and let it sit for a few hours. Pretty standard method. But the result had a harsh, almost bitter edge that wasn’t there in the hot brew. Very unusual, normally I’d expect cold brewing to smooth out any harshness in a tea. So while this is a pretty solid jasmine, it’s not the best or my favorite.
Day 3 of the Tea Thoughts spring countdown box. I think I maybe made this wrong! I have the equipment but I haven’t made matcha at home in the traditional way in a very long time. My best guess is that my whisk is too big for the bowl I was using (or the bowl is too small for the whisk). Or I should have sifted the matcha before whisking. Or both. But the long and the short of it is that I never quite got a great suspension or much froth. It came out a mossy green color – I don’t know whether it’s supposed to be that color or the darkness of the bowl made it look darker. Flavor-wise, it mostly reminded me of a seaweed broth. Not the most marine tea I’ve ever had – more like that thick, chewy seaweed than the thin, crunchy kind.
Mostly my takeaway is that I need to practice making matcha more often. Possibly in a larger bowl or with a smaller whisk. But I’m really glad to have gotten a reason to find that out!
