August Uncommon Tea

This is one of the August Uncommon blends that I’ve repurchased. It’s extremely comforting, and though it’s something I generally like to reserve for cooler weather, I decided to brew up a cup this morning. Smoke and burnt sugar notes, the addition of a bit of honey enhances the creme brûlée experience and makes the smoke more mild.

This is a nice one to drink all afternoon. It’s a white puerh, and it’s not my absolute favourite one (I have a cake of my fav!), but it’s nice and sweet and the leaves look cool.

Yum.

At least puer teas age well, even the white ones! This is delicious although I oversteeped it at 1 min. I did a quick rinse, then 1 min at 165F. I’ll do 1-2 more steeps as I finish up my work and then the presentation I’m doing for class tonight. Heh. Yeah, I haven’t written it yet.

Soft, sweet, fruity, and then tannin.

Sadly about half my tin ended up as a sacrifice to the floor gods. Oh well, I’ll savour what I have left then maybe break into one of the other 5 (est) white puer I have.

Yum. This tea is still so good!

I rearranged my kitchen cupboards which necessitated rearranging my teas, and I found this one.

I still really like it. Why haven’t I drank it more? No clue. I would order from them again if… oh hey, they are now offering “15-cup” bags for about $10. It looks like they’re not doing those seasonal releases in tins only! Oh, I might be able to pick up some of my favourite herbals. I’ll have to see where I’m at with drinking up all my no caffeine teas before I work teas into my budget again…

Admittedly, I’ve been putting off this tea because I had remembered it as a little underwhelming. I steeped it up a few days ago though and it pulled my attention so strongly! Yes, it did taste like chocolate and hazelnut in a Nutella adjacent way, but what I enjoyed and found the most stand out was how deeply the aroma of the steeped tea reminded me of perfectly toasted mashmallows. Just, like, the exact right combo of caramelized sugar and creamy ‘mallow goo. It even translated into the taste of the tea! I felt like I was drinking more of a S’mores profile than anything else.

Tell you what, I’ll be remembering that cup for a while!

Oversteeped, but it was still nice – more hazelnut than chocolate, which is the balance I want out of a chocolate and hazelnut blend. The flavour of the nut is way more interesting to me, and harder to convey, whereas I can get a chocolate tea just about anywhere…

Also, am I crazy or didn’t this tea used to have a longer name!?

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.

Sipdown (1287)!

A bit sad about this sipdown – this is one of the better chocolate cherry teas I’ve come across. This cup was divine; dark chocolate with a fudge-y cakey quality while also having that boozy chocolate liqueur note. The cherry was dark Bordeaux cherry; the kind used in fancy AF craft cocktails in place of maraschinos. I like the sophistication of this blend, and how it’s sweet in a way that’s sultry and heavy and not sugary and over the top.

This was an evening cuppa after work, last week, and boy howdy did it taste boozy. Like, deep and rich notes of chocolate and black cherry that were an indulgent as they were divine and accurate, but accompanied by this really alcohol almost vodka like flavour that was so eerie that I had to go and check the ingredients to make sure that there wasn’t actually anything alcohol in the blend.

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.

Sipdown 19

This little sample bag was quite enjoyable. I may repurchase at some point.

Apparently I hated this when I first tried it, but I just opened a new sample bag that is about 2 years old, and it’s delicious! It seems like most August Uncommon blends actually benefit from quite a bit of aging, as it mellows out some of the more intense flavoring they use.
The plum is quite distinct, which I love. The bergamot and clove are both mellow and support the plum nicely. I actually may buy this again.

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.