August Uncommon Tea

Last Sips by tea for September!

This one was highly disappointing. It had a nice apple smell in the bag, but I’m struggling to find the apple when it comes to the taste. Mostly it just tastes like a roasted oolong, maybe with a tiny hint of apple in there somewhere. Not bad, just not the apple tea I was hoping for, especially when August is usually a bit over-the-top with their flavorings.

Says – Tastes like strawberry, ginger, lemon verbana
Feels like: Strawberry field dreams

This tea did not help me sleep but I adored the name and love ginger when done right. Same for lemon verbana. The strawberry makes a nice note – a strawberry tea background touch, not the tart jam. The main ingredient is chamomile, which I am super picky with, but there are many ingredients in this one that definitely balances it out, including turkish apples, fennel, blackberry. Natural licorice root adds some natural sweetness but nothign artificial that licorice tends to do if applied too heavily

Another keeper – this one for “Nightfall” and caffeine free modes

Company says:
Daybreak: Sweet Roasted Coffee Alternative
Tastes like Buttered Popcorn, Pecan, Marshmallow
Feels like Tennessee Summer

I included this one in a large recent order. It is a confusing tea because it is a “coffee alternative” with dandelion and chicory root – but they left out caffeine, so it’s caffeine free. As a coffee tea and called “Daybreak”, leaving out caffeine is a bit odd.

The smell of this one dry is not pleasing, and I was not looking forward to a buttered popcorn taste

To my surprise, I very much enjoyed this sweet and delightful tea. Steeped five minutes with some sugar. Very good and vibrant. It is creamy and buttery. I will definitely keep Daybreak as a keeper, although with the caffeine free it would be a great evening tea despite the name.

Company says:
TASTES LIKE: bitter orange zest, neroli flower, tart black plum, blackberry, clove
FEELS LIKE: sparkling conversation on a city terrace

This is definitely a….unique tea. I decided to try another after working late and playing some Sims 3 – my Sims was about to finish his first semester of University, and the game takes forever to boot up even on my new computer, so I got to know this one in the meantime.

And mainly, yech.

The dry smell, first of all, reminded me a little of bubble gum for some reason. The taste was not bubble gum but was not earl gray or orange zest with plum that I could tell either. I did a five minute steep. It came across almost very, very vaguely of a pepto bismo tea for me. I think the bergamot they used, or else they way it blended with the other stuff, made it almost pepto, almost cheerios, very odd tea. Not to my liking unfortunately.

Company says

Tastes like: Baked apples, burnt caramel, and Petricho.
Feels like: Warm Summer Rain"

So….my supervisor is back from vacation and annoying me greatly. I am wanting to work late this evening. Time for some stress relieving mini tea break, eh?

This one is lighter than I supposed. Still get a tickle that my electric tea brewer has an oolong button. I’m so easy to please sometimes….and sometimes not >:( It’s hard to be such a creative mixture of “high maintenance” and “easy going” in life.

I steeped it four minutes. Next time may try five. Especially for August Uncommon it’s a bit mild, but I really like it. The color and taste do remind me almost of apple cider tea. I am trying to find the caramel but I have weak taste buds. Have no idea what petrichor is supposed to taste like.

This is a sample bag but will keep playing with it. And of course I love their tea names and descriptions. September is an awesome month and I’m a rain kind of gal, and the name, “Avalon” is just ridiculously cool.

Finished up my little bag of this. It is a very unique tea. I like it, and sometimes I don’t. It’s for certain moods and certain palettes; however, I don’t feel I’ll order it as a staple. Love the name, though, so that’s kind of a shame, but there’s so many teas and so little room and time.

I followed AU’s instructions for making this into an iced tea but added some sparkling water instead of still. The first sip was INTENSE. It took a second for me to register what I was tasting: aromatic bitters, like gentian. I was playing around with cocktail-making toward the beginning of the pandemic and ordered a few craft bitters, and this tea reminds me of an orange variety I particularly liked. I’m getting bitter, pithy orange peel flavors along with a smidge of anise and other herbs I can’t quite identify.

I don’t drink too much alcohol anymore, but I love adding a few drops of bitters to sparkling water — you can really taste the bitters’ flavor when you let them become the star of a drink. This iced tea is reminding me of that concoction! It’s giving mocktail vibes and I’m OK with that.

I was sure I’d tried this one before, but I didn’t see a Steepster review from me, so I added a small bag to my most recent AU order. When I tasted this hot, it was pretty off-putting. It had such a floral tang combined with the black tea that it started to take on a metallic vibe. I put it in the fridge, and now I’m drinking it cold with soy milk. It’s drinkable now, but still not delicious. It’s too metallic, and I don’t think I like this particular elderberry flavoring.

The quality of the orange is so bright and interesting! The rooibos is the perfect base for it. I love having this one cold. It’s refreshing and not at all tart. I’d consider getting more in my next order.

Western, at work, with a cinnamon roll indulgence for the holiday. Fit the bill well enough, though the base is crisper and thinner than I’d like/expected. I was hoping for something a little creamier to underpin the smoke and vanilla, I suppose.

I had a sampler of this a while back and didn’t decide to reorder; should have trusted myself, but the folks on the AU Facebook are so friggin’ bonkers over this offering that I felt like I should give it another chance.

I initially brewed it up and felt like it was lacking, so I added some almond milk and maple to it. All I could taste was cloying sweetness that the tea didn’t support, so I dumped it and started over. Left it plain.

Sigh. It’s fine. It’s truly fine, it’s not repulsive. But oy VEY, I don’t get it. Yes, there are butterscotch notes; yes, it’s sweet; yes, there’s some lapsang doing it’s smoky thing. There’s a lot in the nose; a smattering of it translates to the taste. Bourbon? Eh. I tend to the nerd-side of whisk(e)y, so I’ma let that slide. The base is just. so. thin. There’s nothing there to push all these potentially big flavors into climax; they just sort of putter around in the fishbowl without any destination.

I love love love the artful descriptions AU pours out, and I love their big unique inspirational reaches, and I have loved a couple of their single-origin teas (I see from browsing Steepster that I missed a yellow that sounds gorrrrrgeous before I discovered them). But, eh… all the flavoring in the world can’t fix a meh base. Can we imagine for a minute what a good malty, strappy brown-bread black could do here? Or a barrel-aged pu-erh accent? A brandy oolong? Guhhh.

Here’s to trusting one’s self, Steepsterites… cheers.

TTB Review #26: Really enjoyed this one! The sweetness of the pineapple and chocolate juxtaposed with the tartness of pepper and spices made this full of complex and rich flavors. Very very enjoyable.

Pretty good, definitely unique. It’s a mild black tea with some floral notes from the flowers within.

I have tried both western and Gongfu brewing. The flavors are consistent throughout and it will resteep 2 or 3 times like it says on the bag.

The nose is bright and sweet like a candy, it does have some marshmallow body to it with a lovely black tea malt in the liquor, no astringency. I’m more a fan of straight teas but this is a fun blend for those who like flavored teas every once and a while.

It’s a dessert tea for sure, but I had it for breakfast as a nice little treat.

Edit: With the right patience, leaf ratio, and Gongfu brewing time, this yielded 6 flavor-filled steeps which took me on a journey!

In some sips, the chocolate flavoring tastes too much like alcohol for me. This tea is pretty straightforward. It’s rooibos and artificial chocolate. I expect fancier flavor profiles from August Uncommon, so I’m a bit disappointed. It was okay with sugar and milk, but nothing special. I never tasted the nutmeg.

Grandpa. I liked it this way — didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much versus a full gong fu. No bitter. Nice classic oolong note, which I was craving after green/black/puer experiments this week.

I had tried a sample of this AU oolong a few months ago, and didn’t order more. I’ve since started hard down the single-origin road, learned they were discontinuing it, watched my damn panic button light up, and slapped a big-ass bag into my cart. It’s fine — it’s technically groceries, right?

Anyway. Nope, it’s not my favorite oolong, but this is good tea and I’m glad I grabbed it.

To be perfectly honest, the only place I got lemon (one of AU’s few tasting notes) was coming off the leaves as they sat in my pre-heated pot. Frosting, lemon, spinach, floral, and… roast? Hm.

The nose on the first steep was nearly empty, but flavors of spinach, umami, and that milk oolong creaminess came through. Still not much on the nose off the second — I could coax rice if I really tried. Some toast, vegetal flavors, and elusive florals as it cooled. Finally smelled grass on the third steep, with light florals and astringency, spinach, umami, and toast.

This tea leaves room for exploration and discovery, and can also be a nice easy session. Maybe I’ll find that lemon in one of these, uh… 70 cups…

A well done vanilla rich smokey black breakfast tea. August Uncommon does strong and unusual tea blends. I had this with 8 ounces and a tea bag of 1 tsp put together for five minute steep hot with one cube of sugar. I ate with some toast, and still slightly hungry.

Good if you like Vanilla. I will drink down. Do I like enough to reorder? No. The vanilla blends well with smoke and is not artificial, but I am not a major vanilla fan in my tea and it almost makes me think slightly of bananas for some reason.

Geez, I am so confused by this tea.

First, have to say I was so excited to try it based on it being Library themed, the back description, the lovely fruit smell that erupts from the bag, the company, the ratings.

But this is so ODD to me. The cocoa is very strong. I figured it would be a back layer but it’s strong and predominate. They did the cocoa well and not artificial at all, but I think mixed with something with rye or a liquor type makes it taste very strange to me. The description said toast - but I am not a rye fan. Caraway / Rye – didn’t make the connection lol.

It is drying and not sweet even with some sugar added. Suggests adding a touch of milk but I don’t see that making much difference. Will finish out the sample but couldn’t finish this cup at the current steep. Steeped 3, then 4.

Ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge | May 2023 | A flavored black tea

I reorganized my tea stash yesterday and realized that things are… getting out of hand, especially after the TTB came through. It doesn’t help that my sipdown pace has really slowed over the past few months. I did set aside a bunch of packets that are sipdown-ready, so hopefully that will help!

Anyway, it’s a cool, grey, rainy day and chocolate-hazelnut sounded like a winning combination. This blend smells so amazing, but the mouthfeel is disappointingly thin. I am enjoying it more than when I first rated/reviewed it, so I’ll bump my rating up a smidge, but in general I’m fine saying a permanent goodbye to Passage.

2023 sipdown count: 33

Huh, I could’ve sworn I’d reviewed this one in the past, but I guess not. I bought a small bag last year and it was calling to me today, so I brewed a cuppa for an afternoon pick-me-up. I’m underwhelmed! I remember enjoying it in the past, but today it’s tasting pretty thin even though I over-leafed it to make it extra flavorful. I even added oat milk and — gasp — a pinch of sugar to my second cup!

It’s not bad, but it’s not as rich or creamy as I’d like, and the chocolate flavoring is only OK. I’m also getting some minerality at the back of the sip that clashes with the dessert profile. Meh.