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A tea I received in pouch of Devon’s Advent calendar yesterday and yes, I had it actually yesterday, but a bit puzzled what to write about this one.

My pouch says just “SF Chai”, but it is luckily quite obvious it is this one; it is powder/instant tea and overall I am not much fan of chais at all. This one contains as well milk powder which I was actually the most scared about.

“Just add hot water” sounds like typical preparation method, but no steeping time reminds me teadrops. And this contains sugar too. How much? Who knows.

So I did as intended and even brought smaller mug, as I didn’t wanted a watery milky something like chai.

I have been surprised. A lot. First of all, it is not that sweet, secondly the milk is actually quite okay, thirdly it is mellow in spices.

Spices… well, I noticed just cloves, little ginger and loads of saffron. The last makes sense, the other ones were muted.

The base was surprisingly robust and milk powder mellowed it. I won’t get it again, but well, this is memorable, as one of the better instant teas I ever had.

A sipdown! (M: 1, Y:1)
A sipdown prompt! Your oldest green tea.

Actually it’s not that old. Blended and received in December, 2020. It sounds scary in terms of green teas and all things that happened, but here we are.

I have been neglecting this tea because star anise was super strong and actually not so good at all. And I like that spice, but not in such excessive amounts.

My residue was like tea bag filler, very crushed pieces of tea and lemongrass.I was quite afraid it will turn bitter, but a nice surprise there. It wasn’t bitter at all and actually, star anise faded a lot (but remains noticeable), quite lemony and herbaceous notes.

Glad to see this finished and also I am glad it was quite good (however, I completely changed steeping parameters).

Ahhh, feeling better than yesterday. Much better. It is still not up to par, but at least stomachache disappeared and no back pain anymore as well. A little sore throat remains.

Anyway, third tea from Devon’s Advent Calendar, thanks again.

I am trying to recall, if I had pear tea before. I am pretty sure I had, *checks notes, yes, I had. Anyway, dry bag smells like banana, like most of you wrote about before.

It is gently flavoured and I actually liked it more than I thought I will. Crisp, buttery pear with sweet profile. Enjoyable. Mellow green tea, which is good choice for blending it with the pear. It was floral, hay-like green tea.

As I in general don’t eat much pears, and it is not my favourite fruit, I would not drink it as daily drinker. But I think there will be some who will.

Well, it seems I have completely different blend than this one. Mine contains:
Spearmint (34%), Rooibos Leaves (18%), Natural Apple Flavouring with Other Natural Flavourings (15%), Ginger, Peppermint, Apple Pieces (7%) and Baobab Fruit Pulp Granules (5%).

Never had the last one, but overal it should help with the stomachache and even though I already took Espumisian, hot tea won’t hurt. I also found out that my body temperature is 36.9°C (98.4°F), so it seems I am indeed ill. My mother is afraid it is a covid, so I will make myself a test tomorrow morning. Maybe I will feel fine, maybe worse, who knows…

Anyway, never heard about baobab fruits used in tea. It smellls strongly apple-y and I am surprised not to see any camomile in this.

Flavourwise it is quite strong in menthol with fruity — apple note. Not sure about baobab fruit flavour, so not sure if it is there at all, in taste.

In conclusion, it is very enjoyable tea without typical herbal taste profile.

Second tea from Devon handmade advent calendar. Thank you!

Well, my tummy is upset today, my back hurts… it seems I maybe caught something on the vacation. Hopefully it’s not Covid. But there was some fever in the train including gastric flu. Maybe that’s it… or I just jumped too hard back into work or it is something completely different.

As pu-erhs can be good for digestion, or at least it is sometimes claimed, I was happy to see it. I was ready for really robust, strong and full-flavoured tea.

However, it was somehow weak? I have steeped it for recommended 5 minutes but it was quite flat and not much chocolaty at all?

It was rooibos-y with hints of cinnamon for me. But alas, my senses are not up to par, so I won’t rate this one.

Hello there! I just returned from my vacation (and tomorrow to work…) and I have some new teas ahead.

First of all, I got finally a tea advent calendar from Devon! — thank you a lot. I wonder why it was arriving so late.

And as it is 1st January, I decided to get through Advent once more. I also received some Curious tea teas from my Swiss friend; looking forward to try them. And I bought myself some teas too, of course!

Anyway, back to the Advent. It seems that all tea bags are with outer wrappers which is great for my collection. I haven’t seen anywhere numbers, so I just picked up one “pouch” and opened it.

This was the first, adn I had to add this one into the database.

Sadly, it is common bagged Darjeeling, quite tannic one even with short steeping time, and not much distinctive at all. Not much delicate at all and overal quite plain.

Not my favourite bagged tea.

First one from tea bags received before Advent session from postcrossing forum tea tag and well, apart from fruit ones, this sounded great.

However it is a great dismal. First of all, the ingredients list is longer than needed. Why put other herbals in, when it could be plain rooibos with mint mixed in? Why adding fennel, so much (31 %) of blackberry leaves? It tastes just like an another herbal teas, which I had so many this month. That is not an offense against Sonnentor, as I bought that calendar with that in mind.

I could not notice anything from green rooibos and the peppermint is where? Ugh. It tastes so sweet as well and not breezy as their box (and wrapper suggests).

So good in theory, so bad in practice. I guess I need to find it elsewhere (but google search found maybe 3 companies, while at least one was UK based).

And last one from Sonnentor. That means: Happy Holidays everyone, no matter what are you celebrating. If Christmas, free days, Festivus, Hannukah…

This tea is again very same as 3 years ago, which means one thing — their blends are reliable and same no matter what.

Fruity, herbal tea. Some spicy notes. Quite sweet but enjoyable.
Well done.

A last from Nabo and honestly not much fan of it. At first, I generally don’t like chocolate teas as they lack in flavours. Secondly, I prefer dark chocolates and if possible, no flavours added (nuts are welcomed exception, but as a pieces, not flavouring).

Mint is a ingredient in chocolate that is very hit or miss for me.

So, I was sceptical seeing this tea (maybe it is Swedish thing though). It has got quite strong alcohol aroma.

When brewed, it wasn’t much better, however luckily it has not transferred into taste. The taste was chocolately, but a bit artificial for me and not “dark” enough. It was rather milk choco for me, and the mint was somehow strange addition there. As from spices that are in the ingredients, I don’t think that I have even noticed them.

I could copy and paste the note from ashmanra and it would be absolutely that what I am feeling about this tea. Quite sweet — but no sugars, stevia or whatever. Also it smells a bit like camomile, but none in here. A little minty and a little drying, but overall very nice blend.

Actually, I am surprised that I have rated it only 55, it deserves at least my average 70.