Bird & Blend Tea Co.

From this year’s B&B valentine’s sampler. It’s like their Birthday Cake blend, but sooooo much better. Creamier, richer, sweeter, cake-ier. It’s a rooibos, too, and I did wonder whether that would be overpowering. It isn’t; it actually works really well (and it’s rare I say that about a rooibos…)

I made today’s cup as a latte using 3tsp of leaf in 150ml water and adding 250ml hot milk, 1tsp agave and 1/2tsp vanilla essence. It’s liquid cake amazingness, and totally lives up to its name. I’m going to need more of this one…

I’ve been saving this one because I love it so much, but it’s time to let it go. I hope one day they’ll bring it back! It’s really a deliciously fruity rooibos. Good for a bedtime cuppa.

I don’t remember anything about this cup, except that I LOVED IT.

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This was a free sample in my Bird & Blend order, and honestly it’s probably about time that I finally try this tea – it is, after all, Bird & Blend’s “signature” tea that uses butterfly pea flower – and not only that but it was the first tea I ever came across with butterfly pea flower as an ingredient so it really introduced me to that ingredient, concept and trend.

I’ve put off trying it though because of the green tea base – oops…

Steeped up, it truly is an absolutely gorgeous dark pigmented blue colour – I can totally see why this was so ground breaking when it was released initially, and why people would totally eat it up. Especially with that “blue raspberry” flavour that plays so well of the steeped leaf colour. The tea actually does smell really fruity and candy sweet, like a blue raspberry slush puppy. It’s making me feel really nostalgic!

The taste doesn’t live up as much to the smell in my opinion – it’s fruity and has a raspberry note but I think it lacks the punch of sugary sweetness that blue raspberry flavoured anything has. Like, blue raspberry is not a natural flavour – it should be almost fluorescent blue and just dripping in sugar. This is too mellow/natural to actually fit the vibe, in my own opinion. However, the raspberry notes that I am getting really aren’t unpleasant at all.

The unfortunate thing is that the green tea base is so appartent – it’s really grassy, almost like a wheat grass shot! Loaded up with all that chlorophyll “goodness” that I hate so much. So, for that reason alone, it’s not something that I would want to have on hand.

I totally see the market though and why this does so well! I would recommend it to someone looking for an interesting/unique fruity green tea, it’s just not for me.

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Drinking this plain and I am getting a flavor profile a lot more similar to the scent of the tea than I got when I had this as a latte. The flavor leans heavily on spice, which means caramel is not really prominent but gingerbread is. It’s a nice enough tea but not nearly as good as I hoped so I am feeling ok about saying goodbye.

This smelled amazing when I packed a sample up for Sil so I decided to bring it to my sisters to make a latte since I don’t have milk at my apartment. It’s a bit annoying this has rosehip because it makes the latte plan slightly risky while not adding to the tea but this happens a lot with Bird and Blend teas and this time I decided to risk it.

While the latte isn’t bad, the flavour is definitely muted compared to the scent. Also, I don’t get much in the way of salted caramel tea. It’s like a sweet chai. Nothing special…not nearly as good as the smell would imply. I have 1 tsp left so I’ll try it plain because it smells deliciously gingerbready and caramel and I’m just not getting that here.

Smells nice brewed up. Taste is tart lime forward followed by the musky-earthy-floral dried lime layer and hints of cola nut. Underneath that is the unmistakable leafy-earthy, lightly smokey-bitter taste of yerba mate. A lot like Numi’s Dry Desert Lime but tempered by linden and something else. It was fine on its own but it really excelled when had between bites of steaming Trader Joe’s Aloo Chaat Kati, essentially an Indian Hot Pocket.

I was craving citrus today (sunny and cold!) so this was a natural pick. Two teaspoons, two steeps.

Zesty and bold, complete with some pithy bitterness and citrus oils that enhance the brighter tones of the base Ceylon black tea, though I didn’t taste much tea. Good body that makes an easy sipper or gulper, whichever one prefers.

This might not make sense but somehow this bold citrus zest black tea, even with bitterness and tanginess, managed to be so smooth that it was inoffensive in all manners. I came away thinking that Simply the Zest is ultimately forgettable. Maybe I like teas with edgier personalities too much to be truly happy with this smooth baby. Great tea for today, though. Thanks for the share, Martin :)

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2024 Tea #4 – A breakfast tea

Never could tell why this was a “breakfast tea”.  But now in my scoop, I’m seeing tiny pieces of something… I wonder if whatever that is contains caffeine? Maybe the Ashwagandha or Gurana? And maybe I didn’t get these tiny particles in a scoop previously and just had the bigger pieces in the infuser? I think it’s hilarious they changed the name of the blend to LIGHT breakfast boost. Still ain’t a breakfast blend IMO! Helpful tasting note, I know.

Album: Tiny Ruins – Ceremony
Song: In Light of Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAvaiIoMnXE

A free sample from my Boxing Day sale!  It’s quite the new odd blend:  Toasted rice, cocoa shells, cocoa nibs, coffee beans, ashwagandha, guarana seeds.  The flavor is surprisingly savory, almost like sesame seeds or something like that.  Extra toasty from the toasted rice.  With hints of coffee throughout.  I’m surprised I’m not tasting more chocolate here, with the various chocolate elements.  I wish there was more! But the resulting flavor is unique and enjoyable anyway.  I think using two teaspoons for a mug was a good idea. 
I’m not sure how much caffeine is in this, without any actual tea.  But it’s supposed to de-stress but also give you a brain boost.  I’d say I had the same amount of anxiety as usual and also got about the same amount of reading done as usual, but maybe that is just me.  So I wish there was more of a BOOST than whatever boost was here…  Sometimes I can drink yerba mate or guayusa and have much more focus, but this tea is not those.  Sometimes I drink black tea and then feel even more tired, so who knows.  Maybe I’m a ghost and tea is the same for me, as food is to Slimer.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 11 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled  // 6 minute steep  
TLDR: A unique savory toasty blend but wanted more chocolate and more of a boost!

Thanks so much to tea-sipper for giving me the chance to try this one! It had a bit too much mineral flavor until I added some sugar and milk. Once I did though, wow it became tasty! So sweet. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the flavor other than that it’s almost like dessert! I didn’t realize that it had chocolate in it until seeing the ingredient list once my cup was finished. That inclusion definitely explains the dessert flavor! Pretty nice for a morning cup.

I’ve been putting off tasting this for the last 6 months because I was worried I would love it and I wouldn’t be able to get it again. Tea logic. I saw it was available on the Bird and Blend VIP website again, so finally decided to brew up a cup. Yeesh! Thankfully I have August Uncommon’s Black Metallic as a lovely violet tea to indulge in, because this is not what I was hoping for. It’s just straight hibiscus with a whisper of violet. Not sure why the hibiscus was necessary in this blend, but it kind of ruined it for me.

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This has a 2013 Great Taste award but I was never able to enjoy it. This last cup is somehow simultaneously bland but cloying and artificially waxy. Not a good combination and definitely not for me.

Haha, whoa.

The leaf is detritus. The liquid is stagnant swampwater. The flavor is the smell of the musty edges of a swamp complete with the tastes of tangy black currant and crisp mint that can grow in such moist locations.

If this tea didn’t have the novelty reference to The Guide, I don’t know what my gut reaction would’ve been but this is freaking brilliant. Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster transports me back to my swamp work ten years ago.

The smell in the bag was ahhhhh. Subtle sweet creaminess. I smiled and my shoulders relaxed.

It smelled pretty good brewed up, with that same subtleness but also light tanginess that accurately captured mascarpone. A vegetal/cooked green quality was present from the oolong (cheap and/or old tieguanyin or milk oolong?). The taste was strange and weak. The cherry came through with a 3 minute steep time but sampled with a longer 5 minute steep, the flavor was more watery, generic hibiscus sour. The light vegetal taste from the oolong didn’t complement the intended flavor profile. In desperation to get some of that creamy taste, I inhaled through my nose while taking a sip. Nada. I think the mascarpone and sour cherry combination would be awesome but the aroma and tastes didn’t integrate well enough for me to consider this a cohesive brew. Still enjoyable but not recommended.

The smell reminds me of chocolate scratch-and-sniff stickers. Fourth grade specifically, what 1993? Taste and body are thin but a strong returning sweetness like I’d expect in good loose-leaf comes about many minutes later. I used 2tsp to 10oz; thinking now that I should’ve used all three. Regardless, it’s kind of artificial. Thanks for the try, Martin :)

I have a half-gallon of coconut milk that was unopened in the fridge but getting close enough to the date that if I don’t start working through it now, most of it is going to be wasted, so I started looking through my teas for something that might go good with it. Found this matcha sampler I hadn’t opened yet, and thought that would be a solid flavor combo. I used a teaspoon in 350ml of coconut milk in my milk frother on the heated setting. I may have used a little more matcha than necessary but wanted to make sure the flavor would come through the strongly flavored milk, and it was pretty good! Oddly enough, it reminded me of pina colada, despite there being no pineapple flavor… something about the creaminess, and the sweetness of the coconut paired with the lemon flavor made the citrus read more as a pineapple flavor in my mind, I suppose? There was a touch of grassiness but mostly I tasted smooth and creamy pina colada latte. My only real issue was some issues with separation and having to open up my thermos and restir occassionally, which was annoying enough to keep me from rating this higher for how much I enjoyed the flavor.

At first, this one is pretty similar to their black forest tea in taste and smell. After the first taste, the flavors diverge and this one gets a tiny bit of an almost graham cracker undertone. The main flavor is the kind of weird chocolate-ish tea. For my resteep, I added milk, and the cup took on a toasty marshmallow quality. It was quite tasty! I just don’t like the way they’re adding in their chocolate. Somehow all these flavors combine to make quite a tasty tea. With or without milk, it’s turned into one of my favorites from B&B.

Another tea from Martin :)

Before brewing, it smells just like fruity lebkuchen!

After brewing it smells more like a little caramel drizzled on lebkuchen.

But then the taste suffers horribly. It’s not bad just lacking in comparison to the delicious aroma and the body is very thin. Mostly warming ginger, with a bit of cinnamon and barely detectable clove. So it’s basically Spice tea with a little bit of tartness. I didn’t detect any salt despite the name, but as I type I can feel the salty tingle. I would think pulling off salted caramel flavor in tea to be difficult because when I bite into one, the thing I most enjoy is the distinct juxtaposition of salty and rich sweetness. In a tea, added salt would just flavor the whole cup since salt dissolves. The gingerbread and caramel flavors do make a timid appearance when I exhale through my nose.

All is not lost, but meh.

One thing I’ve kind of known about myself, having twice experienced this before, is that I hate living alone. Having my housemate spending an indefinite amount of time elsewhere since I’m still working with the public as COVID-19 continues to spread has cemented that notion. I am alone and reaching for all the comforting teas to soothe the empty feeling. Black teas, shou puerh, sipping down my vanilla rooibos at night. Then I remembered this rooibos gem. Despite not being a fan of banana in any form, Banoffee Rum-ba envelopes me in a happy blanket.

tea-sipper: I love you. Thank you. (And thank you Martin for providing my first taste of this.) I wish I had taken advantage of the link you provided a few months ago. Please return next season, Banoffee Rum-ba.

Two teaspoons of Banoffee Rum-ba (the amount in the teabag) does not make a better mug. One is sufficient.

My day started with a debacle. Classic ‘lock yourself out of the house you’re housesitting and climb in through a window with 2 neighbors eyeing you suspiciously.’ Thus began Day 2 of a 12-day house-sitting spree. I’m no too thrilled but there’s a dog that needs me. While I’m here, I’m aiming to sample all of the teas that Martin sent in a swap which is a lot!

I generally despise banana. Like, I gag at the smell, taste and texture. And I suck at getting a good feel for flavored teas. This smelled so good in the bag, though, that no trepidation arose within me and I got to steeping this nighttime caffeine-free cup.

The aroma is moderate strength and smells deep and sweet with rummy vanilla banana chips. The sip has the same flavor with less intensity and opens up into the red rooibos taste with a woody, rum cask profile. The finish is drying but the aftertaste is intriguing, like smokey, rum-soaked and flamed sweet plantains that have lightly caramelized. I’m soooo into this flavor profile right now. I even want to add sugar. What is this tea doing to me.

WTF.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2024 Tea #4 - February 14 – World Library Lovers’ Day

Second tea for this prompt!  Another book that would definitely make my top ten:  ’Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’!   I had to break out this tea today.  Still is an unlikely tasty mix of ingredients, surprises me every time.  Just like every page of Douglas Adams is also a surprise.  I also had to wear my Hitchhiker’s Guide socks today.  Don’t panic!

Happy Towel Day!  And this is the 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy so that is something extra special.  This tea gets more and more magical every time I steep it up – the mint sharing with black currant with just a hint of sweetness from the gold bar sprinkles, shouldn’t work but does.  The look of the brew always gets me – murky with tinges of both green and purple with gold swirls throughout.  Raising the rating from 81. If anyone wants to rehome their pouch of this, I’d be up for a swap (in USA). I might watch the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie later… it has some bearable actors in it, so I don’t mind the movie.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge January 2nd: National Science Fiction Day Tea #1

additional notes: Drinking this one as part of the funsy day sipdown challenge. For one of my favorite geek things: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! This is still a stunningly odd tea, both in flavors and appearance and it really WORKS for Hitchhiker’s Guide. I thought I’d love to hate this blend, but it’s really growing on me. I’m glad I took a gamble on it. I think I’ll raise the rating from a 78.