3519 Tasting Notes
Sipdown
This is reminiscent of the Snowball snack cakes (minus the chocolate cake part) I ate in my youth. My big sister bought us lots of junk food and Snowballs were the only form of coconut I would eat back then, being sold on it by the sticky marshmallow coating on the cake.
Overall, it is a nice marshmallow and coconut green tea!
This is from an assortment box sent to me by Martin – many thanks!
We love strawberry flavor in drinks so I was excited to try this one. I made a big carafe of it sweetened for the fridge to have with suppers since it is uncaffeinated. It is Kool Aid for grown ups, but healthier! It does not taste like pure hibiscus, as so often happens with fruit infusions that are meant to mimic red fruit.
I also put a bag in a cold steeper and drank it unsweetened. It was very nice that way as well. I find that many fruit infusions taste similar to me, but this assortment box has some neat combinations and I can hardly wait to try them all!
This is from an assortment box that Martin sent to me for my birthday. Thank you, Martin!
I like ginger for relief of stomach ailments but as a spice I like it only in very small doses. It can add sparkle to food and drink but can quickly get too hot for me. Based on the name and the smell, I thought this tea was going to be too much for me. I made it yesterday when some fried food made me a bit queasy and I felt like it helped. The ginger wasn’t too hot for me, although it did build in intensity throughout the mug of tea.
I had thought that if it was unbearably hot for me I would send it to my neighbor who loves straight ginger and strong vinegar and kombucha that puckers your whole face. Instead I will be keeping it to settle my stomach!
When I made my hot mug yesterday I also tossed a bag into my cold steeper to drink today. I drank it as is without adding simple syrup and enjoyed it. It is nice to know that I can do the easy peasy steeping for summer!
Sipdown
This was a really lovely tea for breakfast. Ashman and I had it with our tortilla egg bake and it goes so well with food. After breakfast I made a third steep to sip as we do some work this morning and while it is lighter, it is still worthwhile to sip on.
This is a nice Yunnan profile. I had one or two years ago from another company that were so peppery and they gave me a bit of a tummy ache. This one is classic Yunnan without ache and not peppery.
I think the vanilla is fairly subtle, and oddly enough I noticed it more in the third steep. Perhaps that is because we were sipping and not eating.
Delicious tea!
March Sipdown Challenge – International Day of Happiness/Spring Equinox
I have had five or six teas today but I chose this one for the prompt because it is almost time for this limited season tea to be for sale again! In fact, today might even the day you can start ordering.
This is a low caffeine offering from Lupicia and even caffeine sensitive moi is not kept up by it. It satisfies when I want something special and foofy at night. I used it to lure myself away from a sugar laden ginger ale tonight. I am drinking it from my fanciest cup, Lady Carlyle by Royal Albert. And I made it last almost a whole year but hoarding it very carefully!
This tastes like those cherry lollipops they sell at Valentine’s, or like Luden’s cherry cough drops. Yummmmmmmm. As usual – no milk, no sugar, and I love that it steeps up fast so even double steeping we can have our tea pretty quickly.
March Sipdown Challenge – International Day of Happiness/Spring Equinox
I have had five or six teas today but I chose this one for the prompt because it is almost time for this limited season tea to be for sale again! In fact, today might even the day you can start ordering.
This is a low caffeine offering from Lupicia and even caffeine sensitive moi is not kept up by it. It satisfies when I want something special and foofy at night. I used it to lure myself away from a sugar laden ginger ale tonight. I am drinking it from my fanciest cup, Lady Carlyle by Royal Albert. And I made it last almost a whole year but hoarding it very carefully!
This tastes like those cherry lollipops they sell at Valentine’s, or like Luden’s cherry cough drops. Yummmmmmmm. As usual – no milk, no sugar, and I love that it steeps up fast so even double steeping we can have our tea pretty quickly.
Another tea from Martin – many thanks!
This is tied with Raspberry Lime for flavor! I actually drank this one yesterday at lunch. For me, the stevia is sweet enough and I do not add any sugar. The peach was more noticeable in this one than in the Peach Passionfruit. I didn’t realize that this was a black tea when I made it but no worries – I had it early in the day! Super convenient. Thank you, Martin!
Another tea from the big box that Martin sent – many thanks!
This is one that Ashman and I each had tonight. Neither of us have wanted to take the time to make a big pitcher of decaf tea and the fridge has been pretty full of birthday cake (just finished) from my daughter and coconut cream pie (also finished today) from my best friend, so there wasn’t much room left anyway. These teas have come in really handy!
I didn’t realize that was passion fruit in the picture on the wrapper. It looked like a peach and a bowl of oatmeal which didn’t seem a likely tea blend, but I have seen stranger things. Other than oeach, I didn’t know what flavor to look for in the tea.
That’s okay, because the flavor I got was peach plus generic berry. I still liked it! It was definitely sweet enough for me from the stevia but I added simple syrup to Ashman’s glass because he likes his cold tea sweet. He may not have needed it.
I liked the raspberry lime better but this was serviceable enough and helped me delay making a big pitcher by one more day! I have no excuse now to put it off anymore since the fridge has more room now!
Sipdown
Ashman finished the whole tin in about two weeks. He really likes Darjeeling and I thought this would be pretty similar, and indeed it shares enough similarities for him to like it very much. It is the less cut version of Broken Cloud, which is intended for cold steeping. Both are very good.
Sharedown
I am teaching three children who are siblings and there was one didn’t used to like tea, but since I have been sharing some teas with her mother she has found a few that she likes. She mentioned today that she prefers vanilla and simpke flavored teas to ones that have lots of fruit flavors mixed in, so I sent her home with the remainder of this tin. It will definitely be a repurchase unless someone shares an even better decaf vanilla tea, which I simply can’t imagine.
The loose leaf has always seemed superior to the sachets and I don’t why, considering that it should be the very same tea. I gave forewarning to the family that while the sachets are available locally at Target, it is best to get the loose!
@Ashmanra – I’m so happy you picked up on the snowball snack cakes – because that was my exact inspiration for this tea. I LOVED those snowballs! I didn’t include the chocolate cake part in this, because the cake was my least favorite part of the confection, I’ve always found those hostess cakes to be very dry but at the same time, kind of grossly moist, if that makes sense at all. Gross, but not too gross that I wouldn’t eat them as a kid. These days, I don’t know if I’d eat them, but they definitely hold a special place in my nostalgic heart.
I agree on the weirdly dry and also grossly moist at the same time! Ha ha! If it hadn’t been for the creamy filling in the middle I think I would have just peeled off the coconut and marshmallow layer and tossed the cake! A “past date” Snowball was truly a bizarrely dry confection. But we washed it down with a Pepsi.
YES! I wouldn’t have eaten the cake either, but I love that cream filling. It is SO junk food, but also so dang good. If they could have just sold the marshmallow with coconut plus cream filling, I would probably still be eating that on a daily basis.