August Uncommon Tea

Biscotti balm to soothe the sad-sack soul. I’m crying tears of grain.

Supple, comforting and complete. I’m dumbfounded that this is only barley malt, anise seed and cocoa shells, all organic.

3.5g, 300mL, 212F, 5 and ??min

Song pairing: CC-BT

Big’ol pot that depleted almost the entire sample.

Imagine an orange. Or maybe the flavor of mild orange in a sphere. Now imagine that mildorange flavorsphere sitting on a modest bed of earthy lemon verbena and a scattering of sweet blackberry leaves. Next, moving up, a thin core of savory sage is sprinkled into the mildorange flavorsphere so that it both extends down into the verbena and overflows the top of the mildorange flavorsphere and coats it like caramel on an apple. Then, finally spicy ginger envelopes the entire flavorsphere, making a sort of spicy-ball.

It could be better. For some reason I want it to taste more like tangerine than orange. Overall quite nice but not worth the price for me.

Sipdown! (48 | 145)

From my August Sips by box. Gotta admit, I giggled a little bit when there was a tea from August Uncommon in my August subscription box. Well played, Sips by…

This smells amazing, but the steeped tea is super thin and weak. It does have pleasant buttery cake and caramelized pineapple flavors, which I really enjoy. But it might as well be a fruit tisane for how much I can taste the green tea. And I used a lot of tea, half of the pouch or about 7 grams for a 16-ounce pot.

Yet it tastes like slightly sweetened pineapple-upside-down-cake-flavored water. And the longer I sip it, the more the flavoring becomes artificial and cloying to me. Love the concept, but not the execution unfortunately.

Hmm…

I think this one is suffering from age, it’s surprisingly weak given the amount of leaf I used for the mugful. I do taste the pineapple this time, along with coconut (eyeroll).

But that’s about it, aside from a vague sweetness. Another one for the list of samples to order again for a second try!

Tried again with different parameters: 3g, 300mL, 212F, 2 steeps at 3 and ?? minutes. When drank hot, it was smoky, dark, exotic and spicy. As it cooled, the blackberry leaf sweetness materialized and when mixed with that heavy-handed cardamom, really gave this a medicinal feel.

The smoked Chinese black tea mixed with both green cardamom pods and oil reminds me so much of black cardamom which I thought at first was in the blend. A little poking around and I see none, unless the cardamom oil was pressed from the larger black pods.

This is tolerable when brewed less intense than August Uncommon’s suggestions. Drinking hot is a must.

My cup this morning… I didn’t pay much attention to but it reminded me of walking through the city on a foggy night wearing the well worn leather jacket I picked up for $}18 at Goodwill in Ohio before I ended up on the west coast. Finely ground coffee with cardamom I used to buy from the halal store a few blocks down. But then there was this oh so terrible sweetness from the blackberry leaf that jolted be right out of that moment and into the pre-dawn darkness of driving to work before 6am with my open mug in the cupholder. Less blackberry leaf, maybe even none, and I’d be happy with the leathery, almost medicinal taste of this tea. Pretty sure there’s not just green cardamom in this but also those big ol’ smokey, wrinkly black ones.

Civil Disobedience is going to take some work to get around that awful blackberry leaf sweetness.

Sipdown (2585)!

A bit of a bittersweet sipdown since this is such a pleasant and deeply unique tasting blend. It’s got one of the nicest and most accurate orange blossom notes I’ve come across in a tea with that perfect balance of floral and citrus elements that riff off the natural honeysuckle and creamy cucumber pulp notes of the white tea. It’s also got a wickedly smooth and nutty note of almond that’s jussssttt sweet enough. Makes me think of whipped or otherwise more creamy marzipan? Not as rich though. But similar idea. I love the way the almond and orange blossom interact – so sophisticated and complimentary!!

I was drinking this one during a relatively important meeting on Tuesday and I kept getting distracted in the meeting because this tea was so lovely. Good sign of the tea, less so for my meeting. It was just so flavourful though while having the softest and most gentle overall feel to it. I definitely got the orange blossom but there was this interesting quality that made me think of, like, artisan marshmallows!? Just this really light, fluffy creaminess. I also, at moments, thought of macarons with silky sweet fillings. I guess macarons makes some sense because macarons are made with almond flavour and have that sweetness of almond while note totally being “nutty” in the classic way.

Anyway. It was very nice. Very nice.

K is for… Know by Heart!

The last time I tried this tea was during a Geek Steep episode and I did like it a lot then, but I wasn’t able to focus on it at the same level that I would have if I hadn’t been having a very involved conversation.

With this tea getting my undivided attention, I liked it a lot more and was even more impressed with the composition and flavours! Like many blends from August Uncommon, there is quite a lot going on here – but it all clicks pretty seamlessly in my opinion. The profile is sweet but not sugary with the main “body” flavour being this sort of almond/marzipan shortbread note – flaky pasty and butter, nutty, a little coating on the palate. I feel like it definitely leans in to the natural flavours of the white tea as well, and on any other tea base type I don’t think you’d get the same light and crumbly pastry affect as what you’re getting in this cup. In addition to that, there’s a bit of a honey note and a really pleasant delicate orange that threads the line of orange blossom versus actual orange fruit – just in a very non-acidic or juicy kind of way.

It’s a lot of scrumptious in one cup!

Geek Steep S1E7 – The X-Files

This is the tea that I drank while recording for this episode; I picked it because after having now watched more episodes of X-Files spanning multiple seasons, doing some background research, and thinking about it more critically I thought the name of the tea was a cute reflection of Scully and Mulder and their two different view points of the world. As I explain in this week’s episode, both of them basically are taking the stance of “knowing something by heart” – at least, in the beginning of the series anyway. They sorttttaaa find a middle-ish ground eventually. Basically, Mulder “knows by heart” that aliens/the supernatural exists while the more grounded Scully “knows by heart” that they don’t.

I actually hadn’t tried this tea before we recorded this episode so aside from feeling inspired by the name I had no clue what it would be like. I don’t feel as if the actual flavour of the tea matches the feeling of the show – but it was a delicious cuppa! Very almond forward, in a way that reminded me of an almond cookie or even just marzipan. Not overly sweet, but rich tasting and the floral orange blossom was the perfect compliment to that coating, lux tasting almond note. I’m actually a little surprised how well they complimented each other. Something about the overall flavour also made me think of Christmas cookies!? In a more loose sort of way, though.

This might be one of the better August Uncommon blends I’ve had – but I will reserve officially making that statement until I steep myself another mug and am able to taste it without the excitement of geeking out about new fandoms bleeding through into my judgement.

Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
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DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!

I found my sweet spot: 3.5g, 300mL but steep for only 3 minutes with water off the boil. That way the flavors meld together instead of standing more on their own and the second steep has more flavor. I like this one maybe enough to buy more but it doesn’t blow me away. If you like smoke, it has a comforting feel with the banana bringing a bit of something more offbeat and exciting.

Summoned by the allure of controversy.

Followed directions (good derk!): 3.5g, 300mL, 212F, 4min.

The smokey element is at the forefront but not overwhelming for me. It tastes like a fireplace with a stone-ash feeling, not so meaty-bbq. Caramel-coffee note reminds me of that brand of instant cappuccino — what was the name, International Delights? (I hated the stuff as a kid.) Banana tastes like banana chips (surprise) and blends really well with the cappucino note. A tinge of sweetness from the blackberry leaf and probably the banana chips. I’m not sure about the truffle flavor, maybe something like damp mushroomy-peaty earth but definitely not pungent truffle oil. I feel like there isn’t much depth or body — the recurring failure of cheap base tea.

A splash of almond milk toned down the smoke and made this even more instant cappucino-like and turned the banana toward pudding.

So! It feels like late autumn in northeastern Ohio. Can you smell the fireplace smoke fingering through that cold, damp air? Like I’m walking the edges of a peat bog and into the surrounding second-growth forest, where I slip on a patch of wet leaves and take a tumble into a cup of banana cappuccino. What?

Really, truly good for only one steep because the base tea is lacking. I think I like it though.

Even though I’m not really into flavored teas, I continue to try things from August Uncommon. I enjoy that they combine seemingly disparate ingredients to create a conceptual sip. Whether that always turns out well… is entirely up to the sipper.

I really don’t understand…

I get a strong coconut flavor from this. I do taste pepper, and milk chocolate, and maybe a hint of pineapple at the end of the sip. But the strongest note is coconut.

I feel like I’m crazy, because not a single tasting note mentions coconut at all. But I can’t imagine how this would’ve gotten contaminated, it’s in a sealed sample pouch in a drawer with other sealed sample pouches…

Clearly I am losing my mind. And clearly this tea is not for me!

Hmm…

For some reason, I’m getting coconut from this. I smelled coconut in the dry leaf as well, though it’s not an ingredient and not listed in the flavors.

Also, it’s a bit bitter because I didn’t think about it being an Assam. The bitterness is strangely difficult to distinguish from the black pepper, which there seems to be a lot of. I do get a creamy milk chocolatey flavor from the (imagined) coconut with the cacao shells, and I get a bit of candied pineapple at the end of the sip.

I’m going to reserve judgment on this until I try it again, since I clearly botched the steeping parameters this time around. :P

This one sounds amazing in concept, however I’m finding it to be just okay…

The base tea is extremely bland, which is a shame as I enjoy oxidized oolongs. It’s not really contributing anything to the blend except perhaps a hint of woodiness. Mostly I just taste peach here, and it’s a bit candylike. There is a nice tartness to it that lingers in the aftertaste.

I’m not really getting the pistachio, lime, or white chocolate – just peach. It’s not unpleasant, just a bit one-dimensional in my opinion.

Oh well, this is why I buy sample sizes! :)

Wow, this packet has been sitting in my tea drawer unopened for over a year now. Fall weather is officially here so I thought this would hit the spot and it does.

For as long as it sat, I thought there would be a decline or unbalance in flavor, but it tastes pretty much as I remembered. Even the chili has a slight mild kick in the back on the sip.

I should post an update some months later.

I am honestly really pleased with this one, it has claimed a spot in the list of teas I drink all the time. Now once warm weather returns, my moods will change and I will likely put this aside until the blessed cooler weather returns. But for now, I am drinking it once or twice a week.

I do want to update my comment in regards to the chilis. Sometimes I can sense the chili as a mild warmness/tingle in the back of my throat. Sometimes I don’t notice it at all. Odd how that works, but either way, its really good.

Painted Desert goes really well with my afternoon ritual. A hot cup of tea and a small square of unsweetened 100% dark chocolate. Such a wonderful combination and allows me to take a few minutes each afternoon to shut out what’s going on and just relax.

I went through a phase some years ago where I craved a good masala chai. The problem was, I really strongly dislike clove and almost every single masala chai out there is like being smacked in the face with a 5 lb bag of cloves. shuddder

For some reason, every single time I try to drink a tea containing clove, it brings to mind something my mom would make over the winter. She’s put a pot of water on the stove and set it to a a temp that would allow it to steam, but not really simmer or boil. Then she’s put in an old manky orange that was due for the trash, a cinnamon stick, and a bunch of cloves. In her words, it made the house “smell nice” and added some much needed humidity.

To this day I still associate cloves with mushy, pulpy, disgusting oranges.

Anyway, Painted Desert seems to be seriously satisfying that craving I had for a masala chai that didn’t overwhelm with clove. I have a feeling this is going to turn into a seasonal staple.

Several years ago, I ran across something here on Steepster that brought August Uncommon to my attention. Browsing their web site, Painted Desert stood out to me. I thought it looked good. I mentioned it to my mother. She promptly spent a significant amount of effort convincing me it would be horrible and bitter and, yadda, yadda, yadda. (Seriously, how do you know if you don’t ever try.) I let her convince me and so I didn’t order it. Then I lost interest in flavored teas (or even tea blends for that matter) and the subject was dropped.

Recently something brought my attention back to August Uncommon. And I was regaining interest in flavored teas again, especially with the onset of fall and colder weather. So I went back to their web site, poked around, and made my first order. Of that order, Painted Desert is the last one for me to try. I’m one of those people who likes to save the (what I hope to be) best for last.

Opening the packet, the very first thing that jumped out at me was cacao, REAL cacao, not some chocolate flavoring kind of thing. I know that smell. As mentioned in another review, I adore brewing cacao. And right on its tail was cinnamon. And again, this smells like a cinnamon stick, not some overpowering cinnamon oil that never tastes like actual cinnamon to me. Can we say I am excited?

I can’t help but get diverted here. Have you ever actually tatsted ground cinnamon all by itself or licked/sucked on a cinnamon stick? Serious, it ain’t sweet. I don’t understand how people think cinnamon is sweet. Its actually slightly bitter. It does go excellently with sweet, but is not sweet in its own right. And neither is this tea. Yippie!

Once steeped, the cinnamon takes center stage and the cacao steps back a little. I can’t really detect the chili, which I am disappointed about. I was really looking forward to the chili.

Second steep and I feel the cacao is standing out a bit more this time. There might be a tad little bit of astringency in there, but I’m not sure if its the tea or the cinnamon. I also steeped it for longer, so that might be a factor in both cases.

Verdict, while my chili hopes were dashed, the result is still really enjoyable and perfect for a cold gray Seattle October day. And true to form, as soon as I typed that previous sentence, the sun came out from behind the clouds blazing in its brightness. grumble

Makes a decent cold brew, though nothing exciting. Just started my last pitcher this evening. Close enough I’m calling this finished.

As part of the great iced tea experiment, I’m tryin this one iced.

The first go was a bit rough. I’m sure I steeped it too long before brewing. It was bitter (even for me) and astringent and very strong.

I steeped it again with the same leaves and lowered the amount of time as well. Much better this time around. I am unsure if it may be because it was a second steep, because it was a shorter time, or a combination of the two above.

I should try it again, but I actually think there’s a flavor profile in this that just doesn’t work very well iced. I may just move on to try another.

I need to start off with a bit of a warning. I enjoy eating unsweetened 100% pure dark chocolate. You know, that stuff in the baking aisle your mom kept in the fridge that you tried eating as a kid because it was chocolate and discovered that real chocolate with nothing else in it tastes like bitter dirt. Yep, that’s the stuff. I eat that almost daily . . . for pleasure. I keep a bar in the top drawer of my desk at work as an afternoon treat. I have a bag of brewing cacao in my tea drawer that I enjoy pretty much as often as I do tea. (No, its absolutely nothing like hot chocolate.) So my perceptions of bitter and chocolate may not match the average person.

So, onto In the Mood for Love.

What can I say, its black tea. I don’t detect chocolate at all. Or malt for that matter. Actually, what does malt taste like anyway? I honestly have no clue. I had a chocolate malt once. It tasted exactly like every other chocolate milkshake I have ever had.

I don’t taste sweet. Given the fact that I have avoided anything containing any type of sugar at all for almost 7 years, I am pretty sensitive to the whole sweet thing. Carrots actually make me sick at my stomach because they are so sweet. There is none of that here at all.

On the first steep I detected no astringency or bitterness (note my bitter warning above however). It seems like a basic black tea with, as far as I can tell, no offensive qualities. As things cooled, I did notice a tiny bit of astringency show up, but it was pretty mild.

On the second steep there was still a slight hint of that astringency there, but never seemed to be more than just a hint

This is the second keemun I have tried. I was not a fan of the first one. I would be more likely to drink this one but there’s a lot of other straight black teas out there I would prefer.

Overall: decent but doesn’t stand out.

So, this packet was opened about a year ago and has been sitting in my drawer pretty much untouched during warmer weather.

Love it every bit as much as I have before. I think it may have mellowed out a little in flavor, but has not suffered for it.

Love the mood it puts me in. Sadly not a mood that’s work friendly. :D

Recently picked up some more just in time for our temps to be hovering around freezing.

Oh how I have missed this. It just seems so warm and comforting and perfect for when you’d rather remain curled up at home instead of outside braving the cold.