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I had this in my water bottle today, prepared as a cold brew, about five teaspoons to a quart and left to steep overnight. I have to say, this is a really nice fruit tea; I normally love tart/tangy hibi-hip teas, but this tea is much sweeter than a lot of fruit teas I’ve tried, with strawberry being the dominant flavor note I’m getting. In fact, the first thing that came to my mind was sweet, strawberry jam. I also get some slightly more tangy red berry notes, which settle toward the back of the tongue toward the end of the sip, but overall it’s just a very naturally sweet, juicy, jammy tea. It’s very refreshing!

Sampler Sipdown September! Another from my T2 sampler stash, and since I had their Good Afternoon blend yesterday, and it’s Monday, figured I’d brew up their Good Morning blend. It’s another discontinued black tea blend. And my morning is already most definitely not good, because opening up the sampler packet, I dropped it on my kitchen floor and had to sweep up a bunch of black tea. And there was a small spider hiding in my broom. And I just wanted some caffeine. * cue lame Garfield “I hate Mondays” joke here *

Anyway, I do have on my spreadsheet that this is a Chinese/Indian blend which I can’t find anywhere else, so I’m thinking I may have recorded that info from T2’s website before they pulled the tea pages to oblivion when they discontinued the tea (yesterday I couldn’t even get good ol’ Archive.org to bring up the Good Afternoon blend page even though I still had the link to it in my info… such a shame). So I’m going to assume I was correct yesterday that the Good Afternoon was Ceylon with a Keemum or Yunnan, and this tea will be an Assam with a Keemun or Yunnan.

I didn’t really bother to inspect the leaf much or sniff it on account of the cleaning I had to do while not really awake (it was mostly CTC leaf, so I’m assuming heavily Assam), I just measured what I had left after a good deal of my sampler went in the trash and then made a very large cup (16 oz.) with what was left to take out the door with me to work in a thermos.

The tea is quite malty, with more of a baked bread sort of note, and I’m getting some slight smoky/peppery/citrusy notes on the finish that remind me a little of a steak marinade. The Chinese black tea notes are coming out a lot more subtle in this tea than the Good Afternoon blend I tried yesterday, with the thick malty notes dominating for the majority of the sip. The tea, thankfully, is not bitter (a problem I have with many Assams/breakfast blacks) but does have more astringency on the tongue than the Good Afternoon blend, as well. I like this much more than most English/Irish Breakfast blends I’ve tried, am able to drink it without adding milk fine (though admittedly wouldn’t have minded a dash of honey if I had that available), but prefered the Good Afternoon blend to this one.

Sampler Sipdown September! One of my T2 black tea samplers, which I decided to make as an afternoon cuppa. It’s been discontinued so I can’t get any information on it now, so your guess is as good as mine as to just what “black tea” makes up this blend. It’s described only as “medium-bodied.”

The leaf looks mostly like the hearty CTC black used in breakfast blends, with a few larger, full leafs interspearsed throughout. Dry leaf smells like… black tea. (Sorry, I just can’t get poetic about it). Steeps up a deep amber brown and actually smells quite nice brewed, malty but not overly so, with a somewhat spicy note, a bit like cinnamon and brown sugar.

Drinking the tea I can tell that there was at least some Chinese black in the blend (Keemun, perhaps?) as I’m getting notes of a dark bittersweet cocoa, with a smoky and slightly peppery taste on the finish, which I recall tasting in that tea. But the base is very malty, and there is more astringency than I usually get with from Chinese blacks. I think I’m also getting a little bit of a lemon citrus toward the end of the sip, so perhaps a Ceylon mixed with either a Keemun or a Yunnan black? Possibly they threw Assam in there as well, but I think then it would be darker/bolder and more of a breakfast blend than an afternoon blend.

That’s my closest guess lacking any detailed info. It actually has quite a bit of body; I’d have no problem drinking this as a breakfast tea, to be honest. But then again, I don’t like my blacks with a lot of bitterness and overly astringent to the point where they need milk, and while this tea could easily take it, I am having no problem drinking it plain. And that’s really my comfort zone with a black. I think having a bit of Chinese black to temper down Assam/Ceylon is also exactly what I need, since my palate really enjoys one but tends to be pretty meh about the other.

Sampler Sipdown September! I loved the Wild Lapsang Souchong sampler I got from Dazzle Deer, but that 5g was gone in no time (like, a day). So I picked up this wild lapsang souchong sampler by Whispering Pines Tea Company from a cupboard sale by Ost. Thank you, Ost! The dry leaf smells like rose petals to me, which I don’t remember of the Dazzle Deer version… (Did I sniff the leaf that time? Hmm…)

I only brewed the Dazzle Deer version western, so this time I decided to make the tea both gong fu and western, as it’s the weekend and I have the time to do a gong fu session! And yes, I’m using my tiny, adorable 50ml gaiwan again. The more practice, the better. I think a black that doesn’t have the crazy expansion of a rolled, super-leafy oolong may be a bit easier for a noob like me, anyway.

(I will say my pour was much better this time, I only dribbled on the table three times this time!)

Gong fu / 2g / 200F / 50ml / Rinse|5s|8s|12s|15s|18s|25s|30s|60s

The aroma of this tea smelt like rosebuds, hot chocolate, orange rinds, and happiness! Usually I can’t answer when someone asks me “What is your favorite tea?” but unsmoked wild lapsang souchongs may start becoming my go-to answer to that question! The first infusion was a bit malty with a citrus-orange flavor, but had a strong floral finish that tasted just like chocolate roses… divine! The tea was so smooth and sweet, with so little astringency left on the tongue it is hardly worth noting. The orange flavor was a little more pronounced at the beginning of the sip on the second steep, but the finish was the same chocolately-rose note. The third steep was the most unique; the floral note wasn’t as pronounced, the chocolate note was more dark/bittersweet, and there was a peppery spice note on the finish, so the fruity orange flavor mixed with the spice reminded me of a mandarin sauce. The remaining steeps were very floral, with a rosy aroma and flavor, with a citrusy finish. By the sixth steep the tea was starting to lose flavor, but I pushed it to eight, remaining to get a little malt, orange, and rose, albeit weaker, in the later steeps.

Western / 2.4g / 200F / 350ml / 3m

The aroma of the brewed tea smells like sweet mandarins, reminding me of sweet and sour sauce. I’m not getting any of that rosy aroma that was so prevalent during my gong fu session.

This is certainly more similar to the Wild Lapsang Souchong I had before from Dazzle Deer — but then, I only ever had that one western brew, as well. I’m getting a rich cocoa flavor, though the finish is slightly malty, with hints of orange and a very subtle pepper spice. The tea is over all very sweet and smooth, and I think, thanks to my prior experience drinking a cup of this gong fu style prior, that the sweetness left on my tongue in the aftertaste is more of a floral rose sweetness, rather than a honeyed sweetness, which is what I was tasting from the Dazzle Deer Wild Lapsang Souchong. Is that simply a matter of them being different sources/harvests, or a matter of my palate reading that flavor note differently thanks to the gong fu session? No clue! I will say it certainly isn’t a strong rosy floral note like I was getting during the gong fu session, where I felt like I was walking through a rose garden, the aroma was so strong, and I could’ve sworn I suddenly had a rose-flavored black tea; that particular note is very subtle in the western brew, while the malt and fruity orange notes are much more dominant.

Honestly, I enjoy both! I love the really chocolate-rose flavor fading into delicate-rose-garden, and I also enjoy the malty, cocoa, fruity orange notes with that hint of floral sweetness. I think this is just a tea that can do me no wrong!

I think I prefer this wild lapsang souchong just slightly over the one I tried previously, only because of the rose floral note that I tasted in this one that I don’t remember tasting in the other, which I enjoyed so much, especially coupled with the natural cocoa and orange notes in this tea. Delicious!

Sampler Sipdown September! And the final tea from my samplers for the Harry Potter House Cup… OF TEA!

This tea is also from Malfoy Tea Emporium, and this blend is Malfoy representing House Slytherin! (Which, for the record, is my House… bet you thought all librarians were Ravenclaws, right? I’m just that sneaky.) This is a green tea blend with some spearmint, lemongrass, and spices. The dry leaf aroma is very minty, but the clove is also very noticable!

The tea steeped up a pale yellow with some subtle greenish tones, true to its green tea base. The distinct vegetal flavor of green tea isn’t noticeable in this blend, however, so those that typically don’t like green tea could still appreciate this as an herbal offering, so long as they don’t mind the caffeine. This is a light tea with a strong minty flavor, the spearmint making up the dominant note of the tea. I find the spearmint gives the flavor just a bit more bite than typical mint. Unlike the Weasley tea where I felt the added spices where lost in the flavor profile, that is certainly not the case here! There is a slightly spicy hint to every sip that tickles on the tongue, and the clove especially lingers right at the back of the tongue. It isn’t overpowering, but it is a flavor that certainly makes itself known. The spice is quite subtle in comparison to a chai, but gives a certain pleasant kick to the soothing mint green base.

This tea actually resteeps quite well, increasing the steep time by a few minutes. The color was still full without the green tea going bitter, and the original flavors held up amazingly well! The spearmint flavor was still very flavorful on a second steep, and while the spices were a little less powerful, I continued to get some clove and cinnamony notes lingering in the aftertaste. I am impressed at this leaf’s ability at self-preservation… but would I expect any less of a Slytherin? Of course not. That deserves a bonus point!

I’ve never had a spicy mint green tea, not even a subtle one, so this was certainly a new experience for me! I have been a fan of Moroccan Mint teas and chais for some time, so this was almost like an odd blending of elements of both. And in many ways it really worked for me. I was surprised how well the clove and spearmint complimented each other. It is a thoroughly satisfying cup. I give this tea four out of five points for flavor.

I’m a bit happy to see this tea isn’t just a dark as mud black tea, because really… hasn’t the whole “Slytherin is dark and evil!” thing been done to death? In fact, those green leaves, and the slight greenish hues in the brewed tea reminded me of the House color and brought a little grin to the face, much the way the red steep of the Weasley tea did… I think I’m going to have to award Slytherin a presentation bonus point for that!

The dominant flavor of this tea, spearmint, is an herb known for helping with cognitive ability such as learning and memory, which is why when tasting this tea, one of the blind tea tasters guessed this tea may be the Ravenclaw tea (not a bad idea!). Though in many respects I can see how these mind-stimulating properties would be advantageous to such resourceful, ambitious, cunning individuals. The green tea base also provides mild caffeine and L-theanine which provide stable mental energy and are known to improve brain function. The minty green tea base plays into the clever and cunning side of Slytherin quite well.

The spices in the tea give the blend a sharp, lingering bite; it makes the tea a bit edgy and unlike any mint green tea I’ve ever tried, and I can’t help but feel it is dabbling just a bit outside the rules here… like a Moroccan Mint hiding a secret. This, too, seems to give the blend just a bit of charm. It’s a green tea that leaves just a bit of a spicy heat on the tongue. At first taste, it’s a soothing spearmint, but the aftertaste leaves a slight lingering “burn” on the tongue. I feel that the spices indicate that darker side, without needing a blatant dark flavor. In fact, it’s more sneaky this way, which I find even more fitting!

On a scale of 0-5, I’m awarding 5 points to Slytherin in this category.

Like the Hufflepuff tea, while I feel the tea embodies the qualities of the House of its namesake character well, I don’t think it embodies its namesake all that great. There are aspects of it that work, but many that just don’t quite hit the mark.

Draco is one of the most intelligent and quick-witted students around, making the mental-stimulating properties of that green tea and spearmint combination work well, but the spearmint flavor is also just a little too cool, in that soothing sort of way, for me to really associate with such a brass, arrogant character. The spices, however, do help make up for this a bit, since they leave that slight hot bite on the tongue, and if anyone has a bit of a bite to him, it’s Draco!

This is a case where I think a bit of black tea really would be appropriate; the blend just has too light of a mouthfeel for a character with dark complexities and that descent into recklessness. I think a more appropriate choice for Draco would be a nice pu-ehr, a dark, complex tea, but accented with the same spice choices that are in this blend, that hint of cinnamon and that thick clove, to give it that hot, biting edge.

There are certainly some qualities in the blend that work, but some that fall flat for me, so I give this tea three out of five points in this category.

The participants of the library blind taste test rated the Malfoy tea with scores of 3, 3, 2, and 2, for a total of 10 House points!

If any participants rated their teas with the same score (for example, gave multiple teas a rating of “3”) I asked them to rank the teas from least to greatest preference. The tea ranked as their greatest preference would then score a bonus point. This was the case for one participant (who rated two teas with a “3”) but ranked the Slytherin tea the highest, so it scores a bonus point!

Participants were also asked to guess which tea belonged to which House, after sampling all four teas. If any participants managed to guess a House correctly, it would score bonus points! One participant guessed the Slytherin tea correctly, so that’s 5 bonus points to Slytherin! (For the record, one person in the blind taste test guessed all four Houses correctly… the director of the library where I work! I was impressed! I will also note that none of my blind taste testers are tea drinkers… though they are Harry Potter fans and I appreciated them playing along!)

Here is the score:

Flavor Profile Score: 4
Representation of House Virtues: 5
Representation of Character Personality Traits: 3
Blind Taste Test Scores: 10
Bonus Points: 8

Total: 30

It was a fair try, Slytherin!

So the winner of the House Cup… OF TEA! is House Hufflepuff! Congratulations! You get… a magical imaginary awesome teacup and now everyone knows I have no life and this is the kind of shit I do in my free time. Woo!

Sampler Sipdown September! The third sampler of the Harry Potter teas for the House Cup… OF TEA!

This is another of the Malfoy Tea Emporium blends, Lovegood representing House Ravenclaw, and this tea is a fruity pina colada blend with a rooibos/black tea base, vanilla and creme flavoring, and topped off with sprinkles. The dry leaf smells like creme soda and pineapple!

The tea steeps up a warm caramel color. The scent of the brewed tea still reminds me a lot of creme soda, though now I’m getting a lot more of a coconut aroma from the brew. The rooibos and black tea create a base that is somewhat sweet, somewhat malty, and quite pleasant. The flavor of the tea is naturally sweet without being overbearing, and reminds me a lot of the Creme au Caramel Rooibos by Metropolitan Tea Company in body and flavor. The main difference between the two teas comes in the finish, as that tea left very distinct toffee notes on the tongue, and this tea has a pina coloda flavor that lingers with every sip. It isn’t hard to pick out the notes of pineapple in the tea and the sweet coconut flavor that lingers on the tongue.

A resteep just didn’t really hold up for me. The flavor extracts still had a bit to give, but the creamy, somewhat malty base was just so much weaker, even after an extra long steep, that the flavors just felt without a home suspended in a cup of weaksauce tea.

I loved the flavor of this tea! I’ll admit that I’m a fan of pineapple and coconut, so this was a flavor combination that simply worked for me. I enjoy sweet teas that require no sugar, and this tea has such low caffeine content it would make a nice late evening treat. I would happily enjoy having this tea in my collection, if it weren’t for the high price of the leaf. It’s sweet and creamy and the flavors balance nicely, truly a small indulgence in a cup. While some tea drinkers may not enjoy sweet brews like this, for me, I score this tea five points out of five for flavor!

This tea is a little too light, sweet, and lacking in ingredients that I would associate with stimulating the mind (one of the blind tea tasters actually guessed a different tea as the Ravenclaw tea for including mint, since it is a natural mental stimulant, which honestly was a very well thought-out guess!) to remind me very much of the House virtues of Ravenclaw. The black tea added to the base isn’t even enough to give the blend much of a stimulating effect to make this blend effective as a pick-me-up for a late night study session; it really is a relaxing dessert tea. And a relaxing dessert tea just doesn’t really make me think of wit, wisdom, and intellect. In this regard, I think a good mind-stimulating herbal blend mixed with some yerba mate for a bit of a caffeine-kick would’ve been a good choice.

But I can say that this tea blend is very creative and original in creating the flavor profile that it is after, and if there is any House that celebrates such talents, it is Ravenclaw. Blending the rooibos with just a touch of black tea created this perfect base that was naturally sweet but not overbearingly so, that pinch of black mellowing it just a bit and creating just a bit of maltiness. Adding the cake sprinkles gave the tea just the right sweetness so no other sweeteners were necessary. The ingredients seemed to be carefully chosen so their flavors would blend together to create that pina colada taste in a base reminescent of creme soda. There was certainly a lot of thought put into the selection of the blend, and that certainly doesn’t go unnoticed!

On a scale of 0-5, I’m awarding 2 points to Ravenclaw in this category.

As far as representing Luna Lovegood, parts of the blend seem to capture her eccentric nature, such as mixing two completely different types of tea together to create such a unique base, or including cake sprinkles in the blend, but other parts of the blend seem so carefully crafted to create just the right flavor with the use of both dry ingredients and natural flavoring, with far too much thought and planning to be considered an eccentricity at all. But then, perhaps that is just it; there is far more logical sense behind what seems an oddity or quirk.

The flavor is very sweet, and I can see this with Luna’s overall unfazed and accepting demeanor of those around her and her ability to comfort others. I can get an impression of her dreamy disposition from the creamy, carmelly tea. I think the only thing that would sell this more is if the pineapple added an edge of tartness to the blend, as Luna had a sense of loyalty that could bring out a bit of steel in her otherwise nonplussed demeanor.

Out of five points, I’m scoring Ravenclaw a 4 in this category.

The blind taste test results with the library staff rated the Lovegood tea with scores of 4, 4, 4, and 1, for a total of 13 House points! (One person in the blind taste test thought this tea was “way too sweet”… proof that everyone has very different tastes! This tea was my favorite, tastewise, of the bunch!)

Participants were also asked to guess which tea belonged to which House, after sampling all four teas. If any participants managed to guess a House correctly, it would score bonus points! Two participants guessed the Ravenclaw tea correctly, so that’s 10 bonus points to Ravenclaw! (One of the participants in the blind taste test, a Ravenclaw, liked this tea the best of the four sampled, so simply marked this tea as his House as a result and was right. Bonus points are bonus points no matter how they are gained!)

Here is the score:

Flavor Profile Score: 5
Representation of House Virtues: 2
Representation of Character Personality Traits: 4
Blind Taste Test Scores: 13
Bonus Points: 10

Total: 34

Amazing, House Ravenclaw! Only one more tea to go!

Sampler Sipdown September! It’s time for my next Harry Potter-themed tea for the House Cup… OF TEA!

This is the one tea that I had to get from Adagio (I really did want to get them all from the same source, but…) It is called “The Sacrifice” and themed around Cedric Diggory, representing House Hufflepuff, and is a blend of Adagio’s Irish Breakfast, Chamomile, and Honeybush Hazelnut teas. This tea is far more economically priced than the teas from the Malfoy Tea Emporium Etsy seller, and if you work hard for your tea, you shouldn’t have to pay ridiculous prices (cough a dollar a cup cough) for it, so while I realize I had to order this blend from a different seller out of necessity, the practical pricing makes me happy… and fits the House well. I’m going to have to give it a bonus point for that!

The dry leaf has a very sweet, hazelnut scent, that almost brings certain chocolately notes to my nostrils, reminding me a bit of Nutella. The tea steeped up a warm, chocolately brown, with just a hint of a red tone, likely from the honeybush. The tea has that malty Irish Breakfast base note on the back of the tongue, but overall the flavor comes off much lighter, with more of a light-to-medium-bodied brew than a full-bodied brew. The honeybush and hazelnut flavor give the tea a lot of natural sweetness, and the tea has a strong sweet nutty flavor. I normally can’t stand the flavor of chamomile, but blended with the malty and sweet nutty flavors here, the chamomile flavor comes off more subtle and doesn’t really bother me much, adding a slight floral note and giving the tea a relaxing, soothing feel. The tea also resteeped surprisingly well; I usually find flavored blends (especially blacks) taste really lackluster to me on resteep, but this one really showed some durability. A black tea with that much dedication and durability to its flavor? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to find such in the Hufflepuff tea! I have to give another bonus point here.

I was very happy with the flavor of this tea! I am not really a fan of Irish Breakfast and Chamomile teas in general, but the way these teas have been blended surprisingly appealed to me. I honestly thought I wasn’t going to like this at all! It’s the balance of the blend that I really seem to enjoy; the malty, astringent tones of the black tea aren’t entirely lost to too much flavor and sweetness, but there is just enough flavor and sweetness to make those black tea flavors palatable for me, and the malt and hazelnut tame down what I normally find the awful flavor of chamomile enough that I can enjoy it’s relaxing effects. It’s like finding a barista that can make you a mocha that’s not too bitter, not too sweet, just that perfect blend between the two extremes. Sipping the tea left me feeling warm and relaxed, and ready for another cup. Out of five points for flavor, I’m scoring this one a five.

As far as House virtus, Irish Breakfast is such a tried and true, common, beloved breakfast tea, with a full and hearty taste, I have a hard time not thinking of it as one of the most dedicated, loyal teas around. The fact the brew has been sweetened up with honeybush and hazelnut so the black tea doesn’t come off as so harsh or astringent, tends to make me think of Hufflepuff’s reputation for being friendly and kind. But I think what is most telling, for me, is the chamomile. Chamomile has such a soothing, calming effect on the body, and anyone who chooses a path of hard work and dedication is going to need a nice, warm, relaxing drink to unwind. It’s easier to have patience with a calm mind, and this tea has the odd effect of providing alertness and a relaxed disposition at the same time. The flavor profile of this tea is very balanced, and Hufflepuff is one of the most inclusive and balanced of the Houses. It really is a good choice, and I can easily imagine this being a drink of choice in the earthy Hufflepuff common room.

On a scale of 0-5, I’m awarding 5 points to Hufflepuff in this category.

So how much does The Sacrifice blend remind me of inspiration Cedric Diggory? Cara McGee who created this tea blend says, “Simple, strong and solid, a tea worth supporting.” And I can certainly understand those sentiments. This tea does have a very solid and sturdy Irish Breakfast base, and the flavor of the tea makes it warm and inviting and easy and tongue, without coming off as too harsh and astringent to the most casual of black tea drinkers. It is a tea that is easy to stand behind. The balanced flavor profile of the tea is also easy to see in Cedric’s very fair-minded nature.

Where I think it falls a little flat is it might be just a bit too balanced, as Cedric is such a strong character. Looking at the reviews for this tea, I’m not the only one that gets the impression of it being “soothing”, with many folks describing it as a “hug in a cup,” and while I found that chamomile effect a great strength for representing Hufflepuff as a whole, I feel it perhaps isn’t the best representation of a character with such a strong inner character and so many achievements. Never unfair or unkind, but soothing? I think the chamomile is more a way for the tea drinker to be soothed with the loss of this “good, and kind, and brave” character.

So I can certainly see aspects of the blend in the character, but it doesn’t quite mesh up for me, and certainly doesn’t as well as the Weasley tea. Out of five points, I’m scoring Hufflepuff a 3 in this category.

So, the blind taste test results! My librarian test subjects rated The Sacrifice tea with scores of 3, 5, 3, and 3, for a total of 14 House points! (That person who ended up loving the flavor of this tea and giving it a full five points? As coincidence would have it, he is a Hufflepuff!)

If any participants rated their teas with the same score (for example, gave multiple teas a rating of "3") I asked them to rank the teas from least to greatest preference. The tea ranked as their greatest preference would then score a bonus point. This was the case for one participant (who rated three teas with a "3") but ranked the Hufflepuff tea the highest, so it scores a bonus point!

Participants were also asked to guess which tea belonged to which House, after sampling all four teas. If any participants managed to guess a House correctly, it would score bonus points! One participant guessed the Hufflepuff tea correctly, so that’s 5 bonus points to Hufflepuff!

Here is the score:

Flavor Profile Score: 5
Representation of House Virtues: 5
Representation of Character Personality Traits: 3
Blind Taste Test Scores: 14
Bonus Points: 8

Total: 35

Great job, House Hufflepuff!

Sampler Sipdown September! I don’t exactly hide I’m a bonified geek (I love going to fandom conventions whenever I can!) so for me, September (the start of the new Hogwarts school year) is the perfect time for a House Cup… OF TEA! So I’m going to go through my Harry Potter themed samplers and see which one comes out on top!

Most of these teas came from Malfoy Tea Emporium on Etsy, a small batch original tea blender. One I had to get from Adagio, because Malfoy Tea Emporium didn’t have a tea I could use for Hufflepuff (poor Hufflepuff!) This first tea is Weasley, representing House Gryffindor. This is a chocolate-cherry black tea, and the aroma of the dry leaf was quite nice, like chocolate-covered cherries with some notes of sweet rose.

The tea steeped a bright red color, and I have to say that at least the striking color deserves a bonus House Point. The taste on the other hand… leaves much to be desired. It’s rather light-bodied and naturally sweet, with very strong cherry notes. They aren’t particularly medicinal, but they are strong enough that the tea doesn’t really have much of a chocolately flavor and I can’t really make out any of the spices present in the blend. There are only very subtle hints of cinnamon and ginger that linger on the tongue after you’ve taken a sip.

For a really flavorful cup, a double teaspoon produced a very red brew! The black tea base was heavier and more flavorful, but unfortunately was also a bit more bitter/astringent as well. The cherry tones were still quite flavorful, but some of the overbearing sweetness was toned down a bit by the brew being a bit more hearty. The spiciness in the finish also lingered longer. I had very little tea in the sampler, so I was only able to make one cup using a double teaspoon of leaf, which, with just a dash of honey, I think improved the tea quite a bit.

As much as I love chocolate-covered cherries, the flavor of this tea didn’t impress me too much. The chocolate notes made the brew a bit lighter-bodied and sweeter but not particularly chocolately to me, and while it was definitely a nicer cherry flavor than I’ve seen with a lot of teas and I would definitely recommend to folks looking for a good cherry-flavored tea that doesn’t feel like drinking a bottle of cough syrup, it just didn’t strike me as the sort of thing I could imagine myself drinking to cozy up by the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room. The finish also left me wanting, as the spices that are apparently in this blend are all but impossible to taste. I found the tea a bit more palatable using double leaf, but I don’t particularly think a tea should need to use extra leaf to really enjoy it, and even then it came out just a bit stronger than I typically like. Somewhere between the two extremes would’ve been my preference. Out of five points for flavor, I’m scoring this one a two.

As far as House virtues, I’d say that first cup honestly displayed none of them. Being a black tea, I would’ve expected a much heavier brew for a House characterized by bravery, daring, nerve, and chivalry; a hearty tea that takes a bit of grit to drink, not something so light, sweet, and… well… dainty. I mean, it would’ve been fine as an accompaniment with some cherry cheesecake at an Afternoon Tea…

But the cup made with the double leaf was an entirely different experience. It was strong and had a bit of a bite. My tongue tingled a bit with just a bit of a spicy and tart aftertaste that reminded me of the House element, fire. There was still a bit of cherry-flavored sweetness, but overall the tea was far more hearty, the black tea flavor more defined, and I found myself having to add a bit of sweetener to the cup to round it out a bit. This cup of tea was far more bold than what I had tasted previously, and changed my impression a lot!

On a scale of 0-5, I’m awarding 4 points to Gryffindor in this category. The loss of one point is due to needing a double batch of leaf in order to achieve this result!

And how much does the Weasley tea remind me of its namesake? Perfectly, actually! That first cup was so warm and sweet, and even though the flavor profile of the tea just didn’t quite mesh with me, I couldn’t help but find the tea comforting in its own awkward way. Ron is so warm and friendly I can see why a tea trying to mimick chocolately cocoa, but that brews the color of that cherry-red hair, might be exactly what the tea blender was going for!

But not only is the tea warm and sweet with a somewhat awkward flavor profile, that second brewing with double leaf produced a much stronger, bolder cup… it was much like seeing how the character progressed over the series, his sweet side and his darker side. The Weasley tea, in my opinion, does a good job representing the character! On a scale of 0-5 points, I give Gryffindor 5 points in this category!

I also had members of the staff at the library where I work participate in a blind taste test of these four teas, which were simply labled as Hearts, Clubs, Spades, and Diamonds (they are librarians and thus Harry Potter geeks, so I didn’t want their own House biases to impact their rankings of the flavors!) They were instructed to sample each tea and simply rate them from 0-5 based on their personal preferences of the flavor. So how did this one do in the taste test? The participants rated the Weasley tea with scores of 3, 3, 1, and 4, for a total of 11 House points!

Participants were also asked to guess which tea belonged to which House, after sampling all four teas. If any participants managed to guess a House correctly, that House would score bonus points! Two participants guessed the Weasley tea correctly, so that’s 5 bonus points for each correct guess! One participant who ended up guessing this tea (and only this tea) correctly remarked, “Those Gryffindors, they’ll always find a way to sneak in a few bonus points!” Hahaha, indeed!

Here is the score:

Flavor Profile Score: 2
Representation of House Virtues: 4
Representation of Character Personality Traits: 5
Blind Taste Test Scores: 11
Bonus Points: 11

Total: 33

Nicely done, House Gryffindor!

Sampler Sipdown September! So, this is probably the most non-traditional tea review on this site? Maybe? Because I have a confession… other than using this in a batch of iced tea once (and it was mixed with some Stash Lemon Ginger), I’ve never drunk this stuff. (For the record, that was one of the worst quarts of iced tea I’ve ever had to put myself through, and I had put absolutely gobs of honey in the thing trying to make it palatable).

Truth of the matter is, I’m not really a fan of plain ol’ black assam and ceylon teas to begin with, so a plain ol’ Lipton bagged black tea? Hell na. This box was gifted on me by a former volunteer in my department at the library, who handed me a bag of her tea cupboard de-stash of boxed teas, and I took it all home to sample. I never really wanted this, but I have a hard time throwing tea away (I did end up having to throw away the Traditional Medicinals Raspberry Leaf she bestowed on me after sampling it, though… that stuff was just too nasty.)

So I’ve now used this up with hardly any of the stuff having to actually touch my tastebuds. How? I’ve been using it up making black tea hair rinses! Yes. The boatloads of medications I’m on for migraine coupled with my PCOS-hormonal-rage cause a ton of shedding, and apparently black tea is a natural way to help with that (yes, I’m one of those weird “natural” people when it comes to my hair, I won’t put any weird chemicals/dyes/what-have-you in it). I’m also hoping that it might naturally color my grays (I have a ridiculous amount for only being 36), but haven’t seen any results in that department, yet.

My regimin has been three of these teabags plus four teaspoons of loose sage herb (which is supposed to naturally help with the grays) steeped in boiling water for five minutes. I strain and let it sit in the fridge when I go to wash my hair, and by the time I’m done, I take the tea out of the fridge and it’s still warm but cool enough to apply without fear of scalding. I pour half in an applicator bottle and half in a spray bottle and thoroughly soak my hair in the black tea. I let it sit for at least ten minutes, then do a two cup rinse that is one part apple cider vinegar and 3 parts water since the apple cider vinegar helps act as a sealant. Because the caffeine in the tea can be drying, I put a nice honey and sage deep conditioner on, let it sit for about 20 minutes, then do a luke warm rinse. Hair is very soft afterwards.

Shedding is still pretty bad when I wash, but is already noticably better day-to-day when the hair is dry, and breakage/split ends is much better too. No coloring of the grays yet, though. The Lipton is gone now, and this was a great way to get it out of the cupboard. Now I’ll just start using my “less loved” loose leafs (those more bitter/astringent blacks that I rarely feel like drinking!) up this way!

Got Lipton? Making a hair rinse out of it is always an option!

Sampler Sipdown September! This is the second of my tiny Capital Teas herbal samplers. Again I prepared it as a single cup (235ml) since it was a rather chunky herbal and the sampler was looking a bit peckish.

I wasn’t impressed with the last sampler since it had a sort of grapefruit taste that I didn’t care for in what would’ve otherwise been a pleasant lemon tea, and this one… is described as a grapefruit and pineapple tea. Greeeeeeeeeat. Have already established I hate grapefruit, and I love pineapple, so dont’ really care to have grapefruit ruining what should otherwise be another pleasant tea. Starting to see a pattern here… Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and some mysterious ghost flavor will save the day instead of ruining it like last time (though I have high doubts, because the dry leaf smells like dirty feet to me…)

This one is also a pale peach, paler than the last one (considering that rose hip and hibi are the second and third listed ingredients, I’m a bit surprised it isn’t darker, so I’m wondering if I got a really uneven blending in my teeny tiny free sampler?) Even steeped it smells really unpleasant to me… like the overwhelming ginger of that Tropical Oolong sampler that was also from Capital Teas, except this blend doesn’t state any ginger in the ingredients, and also a little like… stewed onions? Must be all the grapefruit… ugh. I already know I’m not going to like this one.

It… tastes a bit watery, even infused at only a single 8 oz. cup. It tastes very heavily of grapefruit, which honestly to me has a gingery/onion sort of taste to it… just blechy. And I actually like ginger (in moderation), and onions, I just don’t like the weird sour fruity spin on those flavors my tastebuds give grapefruit… it just doesn’t work for me. If I try to look past the grapefruit really hard, I can maybe make out a tiny hint of pineapple… oh who am I kidding? Like hell I can! The tea smells like dirty feet.

Be gone from my cupboard and never come back!