August Uncommon Tea

Sipping on this one currently!

In ingredients list alone I felt pretty confidant that I would enjoy this tea; boozy almond with orange and anise!? Yes please! Even the dry leaf smelled very appetizing to me. However, steeped up I’m finding the taste to be a little much. It’s not that any of the present flavours taste bad – in fact they’re all quite lovely! The almond/amaretto is really clear and coating on the palate but not artificial/chemical or too concentrated, the anise is sweet and licorice-y with a hint of warming spice but doesn’t mask the other flavours, and the orange is delicate and floral.

The main issue here is that it’s simply too much when all together. Single out any two of these flavours and this would be a good tea – but all three together is very rich and really coating on the palate, so they all linger for a VERY long time after each sip. That is often a reoccurring theme to AU blends; there’s just so much going on!

I will revisit and see if this is something I adjust to with subsequent steepings, but right now I just feel a little bit impartial towards it as a blend.

Thanks so much for the excellent swap, derk! Some amazing teas that I have wanted to try in that package, including the first I’ve ever been able to try from August Uncommon! So very thrilled for that.  I tried this a few days ago, late on the tasting note, but I was drinking this from derk and Yeti from Annie and was feeling quite tea spoiled!!  I’m grateful to Steepster for all the tea buds and the oceans of tea I’ve been able to try over the years because of those tea buds. 
This is GOOD.  A great tea to have on hopefully one of the last colder days of the season.  Apple, yet also savory from the clove and fennel on a lighter black tea base. I love to find an occasional fennel tea.   I debated using two teaspoons for a BIG mug to finish the sample off but I’m glad I didn’t, as the flavor is certainly full and lingering in the mouth long enough to only use one teaspoon. Now I have the extra teaspoon for another day. A great introduction to August Uncommon!
Steep #1  // 1 teaspoon for a mug // 22 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // 3 minutes after boiling //  3 min steep

It was a nice refreshing, herbal tea. I think it was better cold.

As a black coffee drinker, I really liked this one. Coffee flavor is subtle. No need for sweetener.

I’ve tried this one on two separate occasions, and I pretty strongly dislike it, despite consisting of flavors I generally love (orange blossom, honey, almond). The first time, it somehow tasted like pencil shavings. This time around, it has a strong alcohol flavor that overpowers everything else.

This tea brewed up rather weak the first time I drank it, so this time used double the leaf and it had a lot more taste. The tea can be steeped for 5+ minutes without getting bitter, but I’m not sure steeping longer makes for a better cup. There is definite smokyness here, not sure about the Assam or Yunnan. Sweet, burnt brown sugar lies under the smoky Lapsang Souchong; it reminds me of the top coating on a creme brulee or the sauce in bananas foster. While the caramel taste is interesting, it really doesn’t add much to the tea overall. I wanted to like this tea as it sounds yummy, but even adding honey to the second steeping didn’t change my opinion here. I won’t be drinking this again.

I had a cup of this earlier and was so pleasantly surprised! I had tried this once before, when it first came in, and didn’t like it at all. It was too strong (my fault for using too much tea) and gave me an awful headache with its strong aroma. The bergamot caught my eye today so I thought, why not? I’m glad I gave it another chance. Really delicious.

This tea is very interesting, and I’m wondering if I should try blending fennel with some of my other teas that are less than complex. The tea is bright and citrus, but still tart. Its making me think of a favorite apple salsa recipe that uses green apples. I like the salsa with lime tortilla chips, and maybe that’s what this needs, a splash of lime.
For me, this smells better than it tastes, I guess when I use three times the recommended leaf I expect a bit more flavor. Perhaps this taste is a bit too subtle and delicate for me. I’m liking it better as it cools, it seems a bit more balanced, the fennel is more pronounced, and there’s even a slight hint of the black tea base. I have enjoyed all of the sample pack, but I’m not sure I’d purchase this again.

This was my first tea of the morning!

The dry leaf of this smells amazing; very dark and boozy with truffle-y chocolate notes and a sweet, condensed cherry note. It’s super familiar, but a little hard to place. Maybe like Cherry Garcia icecream if the chocolate was much more intense!? It’s heavenly, though!

Steeped, this is a touch different than the dry leaf smell but still incredible! Rich and chocolate heavy, and channeling a dark chocoolate vibe for sure. It’s got the slightest bit of pleasant bitterness, like a nice high quality chocolate. The cherry is dark and syrupy, and reminded me of the cherry flavoured “syrup” in those cherry filled chocolates that you sometimes see around Valentine’s Day. It’s pretty boozy too though, so maybe like one of those dark chocolate cherry filled truffle things but mixed with some type of spirit.

I also taste a faint roasty/malty type of barley note, similar to what I got in AU’s coffee blend (the name of it is escaping me at the moment). It throws me out of the experience a little bit – it’s nice with the chocolate but kind of weird with the cherry. This flavour, along with a general sticky sweetness, lingers after each sip and it’s a strong motivator to keep drinking because I kind of want to wash it from my mouth.

Overall, it’s a nice blend though and probably one of the better chocolate/cherry blends I’ve had. I really like that there’s no reliance of hibiscus here to push the cherry element. Major kudos for that.

I’m a sucker for creamsicle flavored things, and this tea did not disappoint. It’s very much a sophisticated version of the familiar flavor combination. The vanilla is aromatic and creamy, and the orange is zesty without being sharp. Not sure what flavor the jatoba wood adds, I tried doing some research and can’t find much about using it as a flavoring. I’d imagine this would be wonderful with some milk added.

This reminds me very much of DavidsTea’s Lemon Smash (but with orange rather than lemon). I actually prefer the DT version. There’s a bit too much blackberry leaf in this version, and not enough ginger. Still a fine blend, but nothing really unique here.

I’m not loving this. It has an odd, familiar medicinal note that I can’t place. Perhaps it’s the plum combined with the clove? The base itself is pretty abrasive as well, which makes for a pretty abrasive sip.

A tea inspired by an Almodóvar film, with a disjunct combination of ingredients- how very typically August Uncommon. Not saying it’s a bad thing! Just very much their style. I’m actually loving this blend. The cocoa, clove, and rose are all distinct, without fighting with one another. It smells absolutely divine as well.

This tea is quite interesting! The black tea is very bready, almost like a pastry. The green apple is somewhere on the border of candy-like and crisp. I’m only getting a slight fennel flavor in the after-taste. Happy to drink this cup, but not sure if I need to finish the sample bag.

A generous and unexpected gift from amandastory516.

Bursting with cherry right from the bag. More cough drop on the back end. Once steeped, the smoke from the Lapsang comes thru. Not overpoweringly so. Is overpoweringly a word? The cherry has also become more subtle. Not so Punch You In The Face.

PS – I’ve gotten so lazy with my notes lately. And my tea drinking to think of it. I’m home, sitting mere inches from the tea cabinet and this is the first cup I’ve had in a week. What’s going on here???

Group share – Favorite comfort tea to get you through a global crisis? Which ones were you saving that you’re drinking now?

Usually I’m not a huge fan of white tea, as I feel it’s too subtle, causing me to oversteep it and then getting a less than desirable result. This is a flavored one, though, and that makes a big difference. The orange blossom floral note is quite pleasant, which is saying a lot because generally I’m not into floral teas. Somehow, the floral notes along with the almond flavor all wrapped up with hints of honey works really well. It’s surprisingly tasty for a white tea. It makes a very nice afternoon break cup of tea, especially with a little something sweet to snack on. This sugar addict is having a rough time giving up her sweets completely.

I like August teas, but this one tastes like Listerine. It’s the one and only time in my life that I am throwing out a canister of tea. It’s fugly!

I ordered about 10 more August Uncommon samples. I’m trying to work my way through their entire collection. I can’t say this one is my favorite. The balance of flavors is really strange, and there’s a very odd scent. I think it’s the barley that is working against the pineapple. I’ll finish the sample, but I don’t think I need to repurchase this one.

This is one of those few August Uncommon blends where the “Feels Like” descriptors REALLLYYYYY draw me in/I can picture exactly the sort of vibe that they’re going for…

The dry leaf and steeped tea smell really strongly of Chocolate Guinness to me. I know Guinness is an insanely polarizing beer, but to me that’s a really positive thing. I love a good pint of Guinness, and chocolate Guinness works so well. However, I found the flavour of the steeped tea a bit off – still rich/chocolatey but also quite unpleasantly bitter with a sharp and more acidic top note, and a very puckering astringency. I think milk could have rounded the flavour out a bit, but I didn’t test it.

I think I need to revisit this again with either less leaf (though I used my normal amount) or a steep time shorter than four minutes, but at least at first impression this was a bit of a let down for me…

I thought I had posted tasting notes for this tea before. And I thought that I was so so on it. I’ve been struggling to get a good cup out of AU teas. All of the French black teas I have lower steeping temps, which has made a significant difference in the cup, so I decided to try a lower temp on this one. I like it! I’m getting aromatic apple and clove dominating. I can taste that there are more flavors in it, but I can’t pick out what. It’s very spiced apple. As it cools there is a little alkaline tinge that creeps in making it taste a little flatter than when it’s hot, but it’s not too distracting. Now I’m going to have to go back and try all the other AU teas at a lower temp and reevaluate how I feel about them!

After taking a few years to sip down a giant stash, I am finally buying some new teas! Teaching means no time for loose leaf most days except in the evenings, so it has taken quite awhile. I have been taking extra time to brew this in my to-go cup in the mornings, though. The burnt sugar aspect really shines with a little milk and a smidge of sweetener, and it is divine. On it’s own, it edges on a bit tangy.

So after some initial pondering (Do I even like flavored teas anymore? What’s happening to my taste buds?), I decided that there is room in my life for both flavored and unflavored blacks – which brings me pretty much full circle. I needed a dessert-like tea after dinner last night so I chose Cabaret.

It tasted like chocolate cake with boozy cherry filling. It’s really good, and definitely hits the sweet spot for a sugar addict like me who’s trying to cut down on the thing she loves most for health reasons. August has some very tasty flavors, and this one is no exception. The only thing I don’t find so great is the booziness of the fruit notes. I had a similar issue with Breathless, where the brandy flavored prune flavor was a bit off. I solved that by making it iced, and that seemed to cut down on the strange tangy flavor. This one, however, I don’t see as an iced tea, so I’ll try to cut down on the leaf to see if that helps. August seems to always want you to use lots of leaf per serving – maybe they really want the flavor to be very intense, or maybe they just want you to go through the tea faster so you can order more – not sure. I don’t mind cutting down on the amount just a little to see if I can still get my chocolate fix without such a strong alcohol flavor. Other than that, the chocolate + cherry flavor is a winner for me.