August Uncommon Tea

I remember really liking this one the last time I had it, and my rating seems to support that. What I don’t remember is the heat/spice of the chili pepper being so strong! I drank this one pretty late at night while rewatching Thumeblina on Disney+ (the soundtrack was so much better than I remember it being)! and I found myself almost panting at points because the heat of the chili was so intense with each sip. It works really well with the more dark cocoa like notes and black tea and if the goal was a Mexican Hot Chocolate sort of vibe then I think it was totally achieved!

So far this is my favourite from my most recent AU order; though I still have several new samples to go through…

I love the slight bitterness of this rich dark chocolate paired with a sweet, warming cinnamon. The mild heat of chilli in the back of the throat is not to be missed, and it’s that note which adds a complexity that sets this apart from other chocolate chilli blends I’ve sampled!!

I still find this blend so odd. At least now I’m tasting the cardamom. It’s actually pretty much all smoke and cardamom.

I’m glad I didn’t read reviews of this tea before I purchased a sample of it, as it seems pretty hated across the board. Cardamom and tobacco were extremely intriguing, and I get absolutely none of either. This is definitely charcoal level smoke, and extremely medicinal. Quite a strange blend, but I don’t entirely hate it.

I just finished off my sample size and purchased another bag. The cocoa and anise is so well-balanced, and such an interesting combination, I’ve found myself craving the flavor combo recently. August Uncommon posted a recipe for an affogatto using this tea, and I’m very interested in trying it. I’ll have to grab some vanilla ice cream next time I’m at the store.

This is an interesting one! The anise smell was extremely strong, and continued to be prominent when it was first brewed. As the cup cooled, the anise settled, and I was left with a cup of smooth malted chocolate. Really nice nighttime tea!

Sipdown (1151)!

This grew on me a little bit over time, but it’s something I’m mostly pretty relieved to be finished with – especially because my rooibos/herbal tea sample drawer is so full right now that I can hardly close/open it. It was mostly creamy pistachio in this cup, but it always has a menthol peppermint note and is a bit too apple-y/fruity to work all fit together nicely. Long steeps are better though – more pistachio/almond.

Still smells weird before it’s steeped, but the taste is growing on me a lot. Creamy/minty flavour combinations really seem to be my jam right now and that’s sort of what’s going on here, but with the added layer of a rich nuttyness as well and just a hint of something floral. I find it more complex as a blend than it needs to be, but well balanced at its core.

Another new AU blend.

This seems like a strange combination of ingredients, but AU does have a magical way of making flavours that seems contrary taste good when mixed together. The dry leaf aroma was, admittedly, pretty bad though. Definitely nutty and minty, but the mint had a very herbaceous and muddy note to it and I just felt like that meant the cup was going to taste the same way…

It’s weird though because I feel like the taste of this tea is almost entirely different from how it smelled. It’s still very minty but a much softer and creamier more, much more akin to a candy cane type of mint over the actual herb. It’s also nutty, but like a pistachio creme over raw or roasted pistachios. I was kind of shocked at the difference from smell to taste but I liked the blend a lot in the end. Though, it does feel a little bit Christmas-y.

Sipdown 124-2021
Not much else to say about this one. Goodbye, tea.

I’m working on sipping through the teas I have at work, so I don’t have to bring too many back home. This is one of them (I’m down to 2-3 cups remaining).
I’m still confused about where the violet went. After the initial first couple cups that were incredible, subsequent cups lacked any violet and became a bit lackluster. The elderberry/smoky combo is still nice, just not what I’m looking for in this tea.

Had 2 mugs of this over the last few days and they’re still lacking the violet flavor I was so in love with. Sad.

Focusing on finishing this up, as I haven’t been able to recreate the initial violet deliciousness of the first cup. A perfectly nice elderberry black tea, but no longer spectacular.

Brought this to work and enjoyed a cup there…but the violet flavor has faded a bit. It’s still delicious, but it lacks that distinct violet flavor that I loved so much. The elderberry is the most dominant flavor.

One of the main reasons for placing my most recent August Uncommon order (aside from not being able to sleep at 2am), was to try this tea. I absolutely love violet. I grew up enjoying C.Howard’s violet gum and candies, so violet is a flavor/fragrance that I gravitate towards. The dry leaf and brewed aroma is like walking through a field of violets and blackberry bushes. Sticky sweet floral berry divinity. There’s an almost lychee quality to it. The mouthfeel is like silk. The flavor is unreal. I did add 1 raw sugar cube, but it didn’t need it. It’s sticky sweet, and packed full of violet flavor. The berry flavoring combines perfectly with the floral, and the lapsang is barely there, but present enough to tie everything together. This blend is a stunner.

This is such an interesting tea. I can taste everything in the description- creamy white chocolate, boozy brandy, and prunes. I definitely have to be in a particular mood for this one, but I really enjoy it!

I’ve been going through an August Uncommon phase the last couple weeks, sipping through many of my favorites. Trying to control myself and not place an order.
I still love this one- the prune, armagnac, and white chocolate are all distinct and work strangely well together. I definitely have to be in the right mood for this.

I’m actually pretty sad to be out of this one. The prune and white chocolate notes worked so well together, and I found it so easy to drink.

I placed another August Uncommon order and it just arrived. I’m slowly making my way through their entire catalogue. I was intrigued by the inspiration, and was very excited for this particular blend to arrive. The dry leaf smells exquisite- creamy, with hints of stone fruit, and cherry. I didn’t care for the smell while it was brewing, it was very medicinal. I also didn’t care for the first few sips. Way too boozy and very medicinal. However, as it cooled the flavor really developed, and the creaminess and fruit flavors melded wonderfully. I couldn’t stop drinking it for some reason.

Sipdown (1459)!

Can you go wrong when you pair eucalyptus and fruit? I’m really, really starting to feel like the answer is no. This was so refreshing and cooling and the herbaceous menthol of the eucalyptus only made the dragonfruit notes feel all the more fresh and sweet. I’ll miss this one.

Maybe if AU ever releases new teas I’ll order more…

T is for…Tropic of Capricorn!

I recently ordered all of the issues of Eighty Degrees, which is a magazine devoted to tea! I’ve been eyeing them all for a while and I finally just caved and bought every issue printed so far – https://www.readeighty.com/

It’s gonna take me a little bit to get through all the issues, but I randomly picked one to start with and it was themed around Japanese green teas – not my favourite tea type, but I’m still always excited to learn more about any facet of tea. I probably should have sipped a Sencha or a Gyokuro while I read, but instead I settled into my magazine with a mug of this tea which was, at least, still a green tea.

I think I liked it more this time around, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s because the context of being so immersed in what I was reading elevated the mug. Still, I got notes of grass clippings and seaweed, cooling and herbaceous eucalyptus, and a fruity (but not all that sweet) undertone of punchy dragonfruit and melon. It was the perfect amount of flavoured to detract from a tea base that I don’t often love, while still leaning into some of its natural flavours in a complimentary way!

From earlier this week.

I have a mug warmer from VariaTEA that I love, but it lives in the kitchen right now for my tea to sit on when I’m doing dishes or cooking – I love having it there, but I also really want to try and find a place for it in my room because quite often I make a mug of tea to drink during a TV show and then I get engrossed in the show and forget about the tea.

Such is the case here, where I made a mug and then got a little too into my Fruits Basket binge. When I finally came back to the mug, it was lukewarm and not as good as it could have been. The flavour is already a little strange in the blend in the first place; it’s quite herbal mint/eucalyptus tasting while still having the cooling menthol element. The dragonfruit is present, but not juicy or necessarily sweet. Recently I was doing some tea and flavour pairing exercises for work and I looked at doing Cold 911 and Watermelon, and what I realized happens is that the sweetness of the watermelon gets sucked out of the fruit, and instead the cooling and herbaceous elements of the mint/eucalyptus combo are drastically amplified. I bet that’s what’s happening here…