Happy Lucky's Tea House

January Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea from China

This was one of my gifts from AliasHali, who has made us happy customers of Happy Lucky’s – many thanks!

The aroma of the dry leaf – oh my, it was so intoxicating. It was bot a super strong jasmine scent, but it may have been a nearly perfect jasmine scent.

Since they tout this as a jasmine tea for people who want a green tea with backbone that is not just a carrier for jasmine, I was a little apprehensive that the steeped tea might be very brisk or super grassy. Apparently by “backbone” they just mean really good green tea, because that’s what this is.

This ranks up there with favorite jasmine teas. Absolutely delicious.

*December 21st Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Winter Solstice: drink your coziest tea (while comfy if possible)

I love this tea! It is one of my advent gifts from AliasHali. I thought I posted about it the first time I drank it but I think I just remember sending detailed notes to her about it.

Almond flavor is cozy and comforting to me. It gives a hug and sets the scene for a good book, a soft blanket, and breathing room in the schedule, or sipping while watching the birds outside the window, or sitting quietly while a candle flickers.

I liked this better than S&V Almond and then I wondered if my memory was fooling me. Why was this one better? What if they were the same tea from a distributor being repackaged? Would I be able to tell by sight if they were different teas?

I tipped out a bit of both teas onto saucers. They were similar, both containing bits of almond, leaf color was slightly different with one being just a tiny bit darker than the other. Then I noticed a chunk of something in this one. I picked it up and squeezed. It was a little squishy, like a raisin might be. I broke it in half and saw that it was a cherry! No wonder it has a bit of an edge over the S&V version for me.

At this point it occurred to me that I should have read the ingredients first. Ha ha! Time would have been saved but I would have missed out on the fun!

Ashman is not as big a fan of almond flavoring. He doesn’t hate it, but his heart broke just a little bit when I made an almond pound cake recently instead of a lemon one. He still ate it, mind you.

From Simpson & Vail, he prefers their Almond Sugar Cookie quite a bit over the plain Almond, which he feels is a bit “one note.” True. While he didn’t rave over this, the reception was better than for plain Almond from S&V so I think it ranks between their two almond teas that he has tried.

For me, this might be a shelf staple. Probably going on the birthday list because I don’t think this will last very long.

AliasHali Advent Tea Day 10

Until yesterday, I had an old-fashioned pink rose in a delicate green glass vase on my desk. I was surprised to see a rose in bloom in the garden last week on the very old rose bush I brought to my house from my mother’s, and I cut it to bring in and enjoy it. (I have rooted that bush several times now and there is one flourishing at my son’s house as well! The rose faded and the color of the petals deepened, so I picked off the petals and scattered them in the path of Mary riding the donkey through the advent candle spiral.

This tea tastes like that rose. The base is mild for a Keemun. The rose scent is delicate and natural, but the more I drink the more it is building up – rose-y and peppery with a little tingle on my tongue. I think this might almost be the perfect rose black tea for me.

I wouldn’t have it for breakfast. This is a tea to drink as I am drinking it now – a relaxing break between tasks, served in a pretty bone China cup – Old Country Roses, appropriately.

November 28 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Black Friday: drink a black tea

I have been trying to choose international prompts and not just American holidays, but it seems Black Friday has spread far and wide so I used it! And if the opportunity arises I will sign a petition to move American Thanksgiving to the same time as Canada’s because it just makes more sense, but we can keep Black Friday closer to year end bonuses and Christmas for shopping purposes. Ha ha!

I asked AliasHali to help me choose and she said that since I mentioned that I have hoarding this tea I should declare today a special occasion and drink it, so I did. I am shocked that I haven’t reviewed it here yet because I have dropped a broad hint or two that it would be a great item on a Christmas list…

My first Golden Monkey was many years ago from Harney & Sons. It was a real breakthrough tea for me because it was the first I loved without sugar and put me on the path to giving up sugar in my tea. The following year their catalog warned that there had been drought and the new harvest was not as sweet and rich. It was still good, but nothing like the first one I tried.

Teavivre has a very good GM and the price point is excellent, though I might rank a good harvest from Harney slightly higher. Teavana had a one but it simply tasted like a decent breakfast tea to me. It lacked the sweet potato and honey notes of Harney’s and Teavivre’s.

Happy Lucky comes along and charms my socks off. This is a rich, full-bodied GM with both sweet potato and honey notes. It is a real treat, and was a gift from AliasHali – many thanks.

The TTB has made its way back to me! This is one of the first teas I tried! It’s light and apple-y. It’s supposed to taste like citrus, which I don’t notice as much. It’s enjoyable cold though! The cold resteep had more of a mild citrus vibe. I’d drink this again!

TTB!!!! I don’t think I’ve done one of these in a few years and this one has a bunch of teas I want to try!

This has a very natural chocolate taste to it. It’s light, but it’s there. The first sip was a pretty even balance of mint and cocoa. It gets a little more herbal tasting further in. Maybe it’s the hint of dried ginger? This is a nice cup that I’m enjoying, but not anything I’d run out and buy.

Steepster 2025 TTB Tea

This has a very pleasant jasmine aroma (very strong) and the tea has a light sweetness and savoury element like how broth is a bit savoury. Maybe it is the lack of bitterness combined with the strong tea flavour. It is very floral, but in a good way. It gives a really intense 3 steeps and I imagine it will keep going. The tea tastes very fresh, and the leaves are pretty (silvery hairy little leaves rolled into balls). Super smooth.

4-5 pearls in 350 mL or 450 mL mugs with hot (not boiling) water and they brew strong for several steeps. Steep time is under 2 minutes for most of my brewing sessions.

TTB 2025 – Nice pleasant jasmine flavor. Very similar to other jasmine pearl teas I’ve tried, so not much else to note.

TTB 2025 – Nice subtle white tea. It has sweet floral notes.

TTB! This is super floral, but in a way that’s pleasant with the black tea. It was tasty cold with milk and sugar, though I wouldn’t seek it out over other EG blends

Sweet chocolate with a hint of rose. Not a bad chocolate tea, not my favorite flavor profile, but I. Glad I got to try.

The TTB arrived early this morning, yay! I hustled to open it up before leaving for work so I could pick out a tea to take to the office. This was the first one that looked like it would be a flexible option for the day. Of course, because I was then scrambling to do too many things at once before leaving, I overbrewed the travel mug of hot tea that I made. Which actually turned out fine! Still a solid floral jasmine green with no bitterness, astringency, or essential oil-like taste. I took some more pearls to the office to make a cold-brew second mug. Weirdly, that one turned out much less pleasant than the hot brew. I combined fresh pearls and cold water and let it sit for a few hours. Pretty standard method. But the result had a harsh, almost bitter edge that wasn’t there in the hot brew. Very unusual, normally I’d expect cold brewing to smooth out any harshness in a tea. So while this is a pretty solid jasmine, it’s not the best or my favorite.

Today’s matcha madness is between two teas I don’t like very much, waffle sauce (too weak) and this beet chai that overwhelms the beet sweetness with cardamom and clove. It does turn pink, but other than that it doesn’t have much going for it. Licorice or ginger could have rounded out the flavor profile, but I might just flip a coin for my vote today.

My daughter woke me up this morning to tell me that she had made birthday biscuits for breakfast! In the kitchen, the pink sparkly bag was waiting with this tea and a Snoopy plushie, so soft and wearing his little aviator cap. Cap? Helmet? Leather hat?

She told me that she bought this tea mostly because she knows I like “tea for a cause” and since reading Alexander McCall Smith’s books set in Botswana I have been ordering tea for education in Malawi from Rare Tea Company. This tea benefits the women and children of Kenya. It came in a foil bag, that was inside of a plastic bag, in a cardboard box that has a front cut out as a window for a little piece of handmade artwork as decoration. I will keep that piece after the tea is gone and display it somewhere. It is textured paper that I initially thought had a traditional scene painted on but realized on close inspection is actually little pieces of paper cut out and glued on to depict a scene in Africa of women in bright red dresses in front of a hut, one chopping wood and the other resting on the fence.

Happy Lucky said in their description “above all, strong” and they were right to emphasize. GMathis, you should have been here. Combat boot tea. Sam Vimes would love this.

The instructions say 3-5 minutes. I put one teaspoon in my infuser that holds seven ounces of water and after one minute I saw by the color that I dared not let it go longer. I did a second steep for thirty seconds and added it to the first steep in the small pot. The tea, when poured into my cup, is almost as black as coffee.

As richly dark as it is, it is drinkable without additions even though HL recommends them. This has that bold, cherry/fruity flavor and body I associate with Assamica teas. I drank most of it plain, but I decided to try it with cream and sugar as well. It is really lovely that way and still very strong.

It occurs to me that this profile is probably brilliant iced and sweetened, so I think that will be my next adventure with this tea!

2025 TTB #24

I usually drink my Earl Grey with milk, so I automatically added some to this cup. Sadly, I think that was the wrong call. There’s supposed to be orange and vanilla and bergamot in this blend, but all I tasted was the rose petals. And I gotta say…milky rose perfume is really not the greatest flavor combination.

Part of Happy Luckys matcha madness bracket this year, it’s a strong contender. Chocolate and earthy with a touch of vanilla. The chicory comes through at the end so you know it’s not actually a dark chocolate bar you are tasting. I might be tempted to buy more of this!

Sipdown

I probably should have been shaking the bag! Every pot of this has had plenty of chocolate flavor, but this last three teaspoons had so much chocolate that I had to pour, wait for the water level to go down as the chocolate melted, pour some more…over and over.

As you may guess, this is extra extra chocolate-y today. I don’t add anything but I bet milk and sugar would turn this into a chocolate bomb. I don’t like things overly sweet and I am pairing this with some top secret oatmeal pecan cookies that I am making for a gathering tomorrow night. The cookies are also not too sweet since one guest is watching both sugar and sodium intake, so they go nicely together.

September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – an intentionally aged tea

Superanna came Saturday bringing us croissant bread and hazelnut chocolate spreads and I decided this would be a great tea to pair with them for breakfast.

The label says dark tea but the back of the pouch specifies that it is puerh from China, as puerh must be to be truly designated as puerh. This blend also contains vanilla black tea, vanilla honeybush, and roasted chicory. They say it is a great introduction to puerh and you might say it really eases you in. If we can say that one dives into the deep end of the pool of puerh, I would call this not even a kiddie pool, but rather a nice warm bath. It is a really gentle intro to puerh.

You can see the real cacao nibs in this blend – no chocolate flavoring oils swimming like scum on the surface. You do taste the puerh. It is not completely hidden by the other ingredients but it is greatly softened. The chicory is not super strong. You won’t be fooled into thinking this is a coffee substitute.

I like puerh, so I don’t need for it to have all this treatment but this is a good blend. They suggest making a frothy latte with it and I want to try that sometime soon as a special dessert treat.

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a good resteeper

I was awakened this morning by Sam the King of Dogs (and my heart) who needed to go out. It was warm and misting rain. I sat under the covered back porch in the rocker and the scent of petrichor was so powerful near Sam’s special designated dig spot that I knew this needed to be my tea with breakfast.

This is one of the many morning surprise teas post surgery from my daughter who lives with us!

Chocolate. Wow. WOW. This has a powerful chocolate aroma and it is from real cacao hulls, not some oily flavoring born in a laboratory. The chocolate and puerh aromas were pretty well tied in strength and if I had not read about the roasted chicory in this I think I would gave missed it. It makes for an inky dark cuppa.

This resteeps very well indeed. If you have been disappointed in the past by chocolate in tea that wasn’t rich or natural enough, this might heal your wound.

I don’t like bergamot, but I thought I’d try this Earl Grey that is one of Happy Lucky’s best selling teas. It smells like rose and tastes like an orange creamsicle with bergamot underneath. I can still detect the bergamot is there, but its very muted. Not a bad cup, and I’ll actually vote for it instead of Waffle Sauce today, but I don’t need this in my cupboard.

Hmmm, this was more cardamom than chocolate, and to me wasn’t balanced enough to make a good cup. I don’t tend to drink chai, and I don’t need more of this one, glad it’s only a sample pack.

While this tea brews up nice and strong to open your eyes in the morning, it doesn’t have enough Assam for my liking. It’s astringent and malty and robust, but I think I like Happy Lucky’s English Breakfast more with its keemun chocolatey notes. I kinda wish I had a bit more of this blend, but not enough to place an order :)

Another white tea that’s not too bad. I’d say it’s more of a yellow tea than a white, and tastes like sweet, floral hay. Nice cuppa for an afternoon pick me up and would make a good iced tea.

I’m not a fan of white tea in general, but I like this one. Dunno if I can actually taste the pear or ginger, but its a general berry flavor with a floral aftertaste on the first steep only. I might try this as a cold brew.