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This was one of my Christmas presents last year, and it’s in a beautiful tin. It is usually more of a festive drink, and I have had it often, but I broke it out this afternoon as I’m working and it’s stressing my out. This is a really comforting drink, a nice robust black with some really nice flavouring – the leaf is really pretty too, with chunks of rind and safflower making it look extra festive. I don’t know whether it’s because of the tea itself that I find it comforting and relaxing, or because it reminds me of Christmas, but either way it’s doing the trick right now.

I wish this work would go away ):

Sipdown! (35/371)

An oldie but a goodie. This tea is still one of my favourites. Now that I’m beginning to appreciate the base teas too rather than just the flavouring, it does kinda bug me that I can’t appreciate this tea without adding milk. It would be gorgeous paired with a really nice black tea, maybe something like a laoshan. However, it’s not that much of an annoyance as I am from the UK and was brought up on strong black tea with lots of milk. In this respect, it is like a traditional English tea with a twist, and I love it for that. Finishing up my small bag was made easier by the knowledge that I have accumulated 151 adagio points (love their points system, btw) and now have £15 worth of free tea to claim! Yay. This will certainly be making its way into that order, but it is a while off as my no buy continues. Will I ever make it?

Sipdown! (34/368)

I’m drinking this plain tonight, but I really want to add a drop of honey. It’s totally fine on its own, but it is calling out for a little added sweetness. I didn’t think I had enough for a whole cup of this, but I left the remaining 3/4 teaspoon in my mug for a couple of minutes longer, and the flavour is great. Looking back at my old tasting note on this, perhaps I overleafed last time, as I found the cinnamon taste too strong and the tea quite astringent, which definitely wasn’t the case this time. There is definitely a sort of ‘water’ taste mingled in, which doesn’t sound possible but it is. The cinnamon and pear flavours balance each other out beautifully, and I am definitely getting poached pear again. The pear comes out even more as the cup starts to cool, and is very comforting and reminds me of Christmas time (not too surprising since it was part of the 12 teas of Christmas sampler). Just what I need on a drizzly, cold day in England.

Bumping the rating up from 76.

Sample sipdown! (33/368)

This came as a single serving in part of a Tetley multipack, so I guess it’s a sample. I’m not a big lover of green teas for the most part, and plain bagged green teas are probably my least favourite. This is pretty generic, a blend of Chinese greens rather than any particular tea, and as it’s fannings in a bag it gets astringent pretty quickly. All that said, it’s definitely not my favourite, but not bad either. The astringency at the end of the sip is bearable, and the tea is quite bland with a grassy aftertaste. Another one tried, and another one down!

Truly awful this time around. My mam (bless her heart) decided to be sweet and make me a cup of tea while I was working. She knew I usually steep my teas for a few minutes, so she’d seen this downstairs and popped it in boiling water for at least 5 minutes (probably closer to 10) before bringing it to me, teabag still in. It was too late by the time I realised. This tea becomes mega sweet if you leave the bag in for longer than a couple of minutes, and it is a bit iffy to brew. Unfortunately, the liquorice root was really overpowering in this cup, and I couldn’t even taste the peppermint. It definitely sorted out my sweet craving for the rest of the day, though! I powered through because my mam had been so sweet to think of making it for me, and by the end of the cup I was sort of getting used to the sweetness and beginning to taste a hint of the mint. I only have one cup of this left, and I will make sure to brew it for a much shorter time! Not changing my rating as it was a brewing error at fault, and not the tea itself.

This is the first cup of loose leaf tea I have drank in months. I picked the perfect tea to remind myself why I love it so much. I have been absent for good reason, and there are some personal issues I’m still dealing with, so it might take a while for me to ease myself back into writing proper tasting notes, but I’m glad to be back. These last few months haven’t been the greatest for me, but I’m hoping that the worst is now behind me and I can move on – with tea! This is the third (I think) time I’ve drank this, but I don’t remember it ever being so totally delicious. Banana is on my list of hated flavours, so on paper I shouldn’t enjoy this tea, but Stacy suggested the banana was light enough that I’d enjoy it and I’m pleased to report that she was right. Brewed for 5 or 6 minutes (I got distracted) the Premium Taiwanese Assam doesn’t go at all bitter, but rather becomes delicious and caramelly. I added one sugar but after trying it like this decided against adding milk as it was already so perfect and I didn’t want to ruin it. The banana flavour is actually really enjoyable blended so well with the other flavours, and the praline is definitely dominant long with the caramel. The sugar brings out the coconut flavours too, which are strongest in the aftertaste, which I really enjoyed as coconut is one of my favourite flavours. A really great tea to reintroduce myself with, but I’m still praying that Stacy will get bored of her freedom and come back to making teas! Her talent is far too good to disappear ):

Sipdown! (32/368) Thank you so much for sharing this tea with me, Miss B!

This tea has been in my sipdown box for a while now, and I’ve just never been in the mood to finish it off. This morning I’m feeling a bit under the weather, and this was the perfect tea to soothe me. I did a bit of a double take when brewing this, because the scent is so strong and fills up the whole kitchen. If I remember rightly it usually smells like a baking apple pie, but this time I smelled… Sour cherries? Definitely. I even double-checked the ingredients because the scent was so dead on! Maybe it was just contaminated in the box, though, because the taste is unchanged. Plain, the caramel is prominent with a hint of apple. Adding sweetener brings out the apple, so it’s a delicious cup of gooey toffee apple. The cinnamon is a lingering note towards the end of the sip, and there’s also a mild citrus note which rounds it out. I added a splash of milk to make it more comforting since I’m not feeling too well, and this brings out the base more so that the fruity flavours aren’t as dominant. The cinnamon and citrus notes actually seem to hold their own a lot more when milk is added, too. I’m not sure it’s settled my stomach, but it’s definitely taken my mind off it! Thanks again, MissB!

Sipdown! (31/368)

I’m really sad about this one ): I know I can’t buy more tea at the moment but this is one of my favourite summer teas! I have only just finished up with my pouch and I wanna buy more already D:

The last cup was perfect. A lot of the lemon bits were at the bottom, so this cup had a better balance between the strawberry and lemon than there has been in previous cups. The smell is still insane and the sweet fruity strawberry as I remembered. Only this time the lemon provides a more rounded note at the back of the sip, and this is exactly strawberry lemonade, only hot. I wish I had more of this for the warmer weather to have iced – it’s so much better than the Costa iced strawberry lemonade!

First time I’ve used this random steepings tag! This was a sipdown of an unidentified teabag sample I received from Mina in the Hapatite tea swap. It was labelled ‘black tea with fruits and spice’ and is in a little round, organic-looking (?) teabag. Other than that I have no info. I can’t say that I mind – I definitely wouldn’t be picking any more up! The scent is very cinnamon-y, and the main note is also overwhelming cinnamon. I think this has stevia in, as it’s very sweet with no additives, and there’s a lingering back note of orange. It is so so cloying and sweet, and almost undrinkable. Blech. Sorry Mina!

I would rate this tea around a 16.

I’m having one of those days where you just need a lot a lot of caffeine to get going. I opened a new bag of this this morning, and the SMELL! Mmmm. I forgot how much I love this. I think I’ve only ever drank this hot once before, I just think it’s perfect iced. This morning I whisked a scoop of powder into 6oz cold milk and then topped it up with hot water. Warm, this is very sweet! But still so so delicious. It had definitely given me the energy boost I needed, and curbed my sweet tooth in the process! I love that this is a healthy treat (: