Pickwick

TTB sample. It reminds me of Lupicia’s mahina, which is a banana rooibos. With milk and sugar, this was a bit average, but not bad. Sometimes I taste the berry, but sometimes that interesting banana.

Banana? This is a ‘jasmine tea’ right? All I can taste is banana. Earthy banana with piled leaves. Maybe a slight grassy aftertaste. Banana…

A sipdown! (M: 6, Y: 26)
An office sipdown and I see that I never wrote a note for this tea, so I was trying to be a bit more attentive to the last tea bag than usual.

Altough it’s named ginger spices, it’s not much accurate. For me it was rather a fennel tea with lemon verbena and lemongrass flavour. The flavour was actually reminding me rather hay. When drunk, I get some of the ginger like a fiery breeze; and spices were muddled and again it was the anise and fennel — something that can be called spices I think; however not what I have been expecting.

A sipdown! (M: 4, Y: 54)
Or actually, teabox-down! Putting the rest into TTB. I remember this tea fondly. Not perfect, but pretty tasty with sweet candy notes.

My office tea; yes, I have a vast selection there and I never know what I want to drink :)

Actually pretty tasty considering tea bag. Candy like berries, mostly strawberry and blueberry. Raspberry is mostly noticeable as a scent coming from my mug. I believe that the lemon is making the rooibos tamed and that base “tea” isn’t bad either. It’s not woody, I would rather call it honey-ish — like honeybush being used instead of rooibos.

That candy flavour diminish my sweet tooth and that certainly counts not just because my belly, but also because of my wallet :)

I bought this for office tea sessions, and when I put it into cupboard, my boss went to his shelf and told me: “You really like tea, don’t you? You have loads of tea here.” And I have replied: “Well, look at your shelf full of coffee capsules.” “True that.” he replied.

Anyway, sometimes, when I want a green; but with some other notes, I pick up this one. (The other is plain Chinese sencha in tea bags, not bad though!) This one I picked actually because it is jasmine, but with pear! At least they claim so.

They say it is with pear, but sadly it seem the ratio is too low, or it is just too weak to win or tie with strong jasmine. The fruit loses in all points sadly and it is just a normal.. bagged jasmine tea. No fruit. Not in aroma, nor in flavour. Base tea is cheap green tea — so a nondescript, hay. The sencha I mentioned is way more flavourful itself, than base of this tea.

From my new pile of loose teabags.

This one is actually quite nice, unlike the apple version the bitter compliments the melon more than make it taste rank and the result is a very drinkable tea.

I think, perhaps, that black tea and apple should not be paired. The bitter of the black tea makes the apple taste rotten, in my opinion. I did not finish the cup, ever after significantly sweetening it, as I could not get over the flavour of fermentation.

First tea of 2023… yikes. happy new year to everyone reading this!

From the slim pickings of my Grandmother’s tea box. This rooibos has a warm, woody flavour that goes well with the general taste of spice. I don’t know if it’s an added ingredient, as I did not get a look at the origional packaging, but I could swear there is cinnamon in here, too. It’s a decent, albeit not spectacular, tea indeed.

Dutch tea at work…literally as I’m in the Netherlands and at work. I don’t have much to say about the tea itself, it’s not my favourite even though I usually love spiced teas. The bitter tea kind of overshadows the subtleties of speculaaskruiden. Its better when sweetened, but… Meh.

So, my mother only really drinks green tea, so going over I had the choice of… green tea. This one is not my favourite, it’s weirdly stale? the strawberry is definitely present, but not, well, good. it’s pretty artificial and overshadowed by the green tea. I did not notice the lemongrass at all.

Let’s be honest, this tea does not have a complex or appealing flavour profile: it tastes of liquorice. It’s my guilty pleasure to significantly oversteep it and get a cup that tastes like chewing on a liquorice root, and it’s very good at that.

A decent Earl Grey for being in a tea bag. Drinkable but not one I would seek out to buy. The bergamot flavor was probably the best part of the experience. The citrus tasted crisp and fairly clean. When steeped from 2-4 minutes, not sure how long as I was grabbing food, you won’t find much in the way of astringency. Woody flavor and a bit of earthiness but mainly just he bergamot. The aroma is really what brings the score down more. It smells of citrus and cardboard. Not tea related: In Vouliagmeni there is a Lake Vouliagmeni. Now, why would someone who lives in the Land of 10,000 lakes, want to pay money to visit a lake in Greece? I asked myself that too as my husband stood there paying. We soon discovered why. This pristine area is a volcanic lake that maintains a fairly decent temperature year around. It was still a bit brisk to get in but not nearly as cold as some of the pools we tried to swim in ^^; And the main, fun attraction: the nibble fish. Once you got past the tickling sensation it was quite nice. Also amusing to watch people around you.

Decent for a tea bag. Good for you who like to drown your tea in milk/sugar. It is brisk. Somewhat woody. Along the lines of dried wood. Varnish. And bits of metallic notes in the finish but this is mostly covered with the asringency. When the tea bag is opened it reveals chocolate brown coloring, CTC leaf. Pickwick was the tea of choice for the Amarilia Hotel in Vouliagmeni Greece. They had a great breakfast with a honeycomb that they slanted to get honey from.

There are certainly many better Earl Greys, but I actually ran out of flavoured blacks at work (some little of Snowball remains) so I bought this in grocery store with a hope it will be a good easy drinking tea. Moreover, the box was very cute and I have hoped that outer wrappings of the tea bags will be cute as well. They are!

So, I decided to take a mug of it when I have arrived home to test it out.

The aroma of the tea bag itself is pretty much common. Almost nothing. Some herbs. Nothing from tea. Bergamot was somehow muted.

Brewed tea with boiling water and three minutes steep is okay. Orange is actually overpowering the base, but in a still pleasant level, there is some sharp lemon taste too. Sadly, I don’t notice much of bergamot — because the rest of the flavour is the fennel (or anise, or both). Interesting twist.

I think that I will finish the box while sipping in the office. It’s safe bet for those sessions.

The remaining tas of Joy of Tea series are: Ginger Spices, Green Jasmine and Berry Dreams. None of them sound too interesting to me, but maybe I will buy them for the tea bag wrappers.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
January 2022 → A new tea

I picked up a box of this with my latest igourmet order. I’m a huge fan of strawberry black teas, so I was excited to see it. They didn’t have the variety I expected, but there were some new-to-me teas there that I might want to try at some point.

James loved this one and asked me to immediately add it to the wishlist so that we don’t forget when we run out. He’s already had a few cups. Today was my first, and I have to say that I’m not too impressed. There is a musty smell after steeping, not quite sure what that’s about, and some strawberry candy flavor, but there isn’t really anything exciting about it. I’ve certainly had others that were better.

The bag I had stated Best Before 04 APR 2021, drank nearly 8 months beyond that. No issue with the taste whatsoever. I actually quite like this one. There’s less of the obvious hay-and-apple floral chamomile taste and more of a soothing herbaceous quality.

I had this tea yesterday, some oldie bag founded in the drawer, but it was still full of flavour though it was only in paper bag.

I arrived home 6 am today and now it is 10 am and I have to be “ready” on the lecture via MS Teams. At least it is online and not present! I would be sleeping all the lecture. Actually I am thinking about going to sleep again… it is quite boring lecture (warehouse operations) which is good for my bachelor thesis, but she almost only reads the presentation. Ehhm.

Back to the tea — it is pretty strong in cinnamon in aroma, but when brewed… I think it pretty much is what is it. There is some fruit notes (not that sure about pear, but could be some really ripe one), warming cinnamon and some sweetness from caramel.

Overall quite smooth, missing bit the base, but I can’t ask for everything in such a small tea bag.

I’m having a very old indeed bag of this, made up with twice boiled water because I forgot about it the first time, and then added a splash of cold to bring it down to temperature. It’s only a miracle that it’s not oversteeped to boot. And it’s fine.

I’m having tummy issues and I’m all out of minty. Don’t judge me.

Received this tea bag from postcrossing, from the Netherlands. Apparently back in September.

But, it is pretty clear what this tea is about. Camomile with passion fruit and passion flowers.

And indeed, it is very fruity in aroma. But camomile takes its part very seriously too and is noticeable in aroma. And probably not bad camomile, because it really takes nice pollen scent. Not that weird earthy, herbal aroma.

In taste, after 5 minutes of steeping, there is most prominent the passionfruit. Unfortunately, bit in artificial way. It also make the camomile disappear in taste in a whole. It’s not bad, but… I have expected more herbal, than fruity taste.