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Holiday Tea-son! New month, new theme, so this month I’ll be trying to crack out all the random holiday blends I have sitting around my house from years past, as well as working on my advent calendars (I didn’t go like, Cameron B. crazy on them, so I only have Bird & Blend’s 24 day one and 52Tea’s 12 Days of Christmas one). I don’t have an abundance of what I would consider holiday blends, so I might just throw in some flavors that seem to fit, or finally put progress toward the ol’ sipdown goal. My New Year’s Resolution is to make some major progress on sipping down my tea collection and freeing up space on my tea wall, and cutting down my tea spending by half (or more) next year.

So this is my first Bird & Blend advent calendar tea, an Irish Cream coffee inspired blend. Unlike most tea drinkers I know, I am not coffee adverse, I drank it for a good decade or more… in fact, I’m new in the scheme of things when it comes to the tea game. I had to go off of coffee to determine if caffeine was one of my migraine triggers, but I was so used to that “warm” drink in the morning I bought a bunch of bagged herbals from the store to make those few months of hell easier. After one month of worse headaches from caffeine withdrawal, one month off, then month three reintroducing caffeine, it was determined it had no effect on my migraines at all: didn’t trigger them, didn’t make them better (it can do both). So I could start drinking coffee again. But I’d been so impressed with the variety in tea, I just stuck with tea, and started exploring it’s caffeinated options at that point. I still can (and will) drink coffee, and like the taste. So there isn’t going to be any “Oh boo, coffee evil!” from me here. In fact, they absolutely nailed the aroma of Irish Cream here (at least, the flavoring, I’ve never had proper Irish Cream in coffee… alcohol definitely is something that gives me migraines!)

The flavor is quite nice for what they are going for… it does have that slight liquor sort of bite at the end of the sip, it’s quite sweet with some creaminess, very mild cocoa notes, with a nice roasted coffee flavor. But the coffee flavor is making me want a strongly caffeinated cup, so I’m a bit confused why this is on a rooibos base… perhaps the sweet/honeyed rooibos made the flavors pop more, since black tea would be quite malty and dominate the flavors more? It just feels like an odd juxtaposition, since my brain associates the coffee flavor with a morning drink, but the rooibos blend with a relaxing evening herbal. I’m sure all the blender was going for was trying to mimick the flavor as faithfully as possible, but sometimes practicality needs to stump ingenuity.

I enjoy the taste. But I have other blends with coffee beans in them, and they are on black, pu-erh, or roasted yerba mate bases, and I prefer them more as they know what they want to be: caffeine rescue drinks. This is little more than a novelity.

Flavors: Alcohol, Caramel, Cocoa, Coffee, Cream, Roasted, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML
Cameron B.

I’ll take that as a compliment. ;)

tea-sipper

I will be enjoying reading the advent notes from everyone who bought them. :D

Mastress Alita

I’ve been enjoying reading them too!

I bought mine back in November and have had them stashed away, heh. I made an Advent Calendar using teas from my collection and gave it to a friend for his Christmas present. :-D (Hey, that gets rid of some of my over-abundance of teas, and isn’t bad for a DIY Christmas gift, especially since he seemed to like it!)

tea-sipper

Oh that IS a cool idea to get rid of excess teas. haha.

TreeGal

Hee hee, “didn’t go Cameron B. crazy!” I’m same as you, although I never received my 52 teas one. I got Tea Revv and T2. I considered this one but am glad I didn’t because this first one sounds like something I’d like to like, but wouldn’t. And I hate when the first one out of the box is one I don’t like…I’m looking at you, Tea Revv…

TreeGal

And I feel the need to mention that I’ve not actually communicated with 52 Teas yet, so please no one consider my comment as a negative one against them. If it was sent, someone probably swiped it off my doorstep because that has been happening some in my otherwise nice suburban neighborhood. But I don’t want to imply any shadiness or lack of help from 52 Teas!

Cameron B.

I fully understand if everyone wants to unfollow me for the month of December, LOL!

Cameron B.

@Mastress Alita – I love your idea for a homemade tea advent calendar! If I’m still around next year, maybe I’ll organize a secret swap sort of deal where we all exchange calendars… That sounds fun!

Mastress Alita

The 52Teas ones haven’t been shipped out yet, TreeGal. They are 12 Days, not 24, so they are on a later schedule. Also Anne got hit with some menangitis in the middle of November that set her back quite a bit. She was in the hospital for a week straight at one point.

TreeGal

Oh, how awful! I’m extra glad I hadn’t contacted her yet! Thanks for letting me know so that I wasn’t adding extra stress!

Lexie Aleah

@Cam I was actually considering posting about doing a swap where people make their own advent calendars and send them to people.If you did that next year I’d totally be in!

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Comments

Cameron B.

I’ll take that as a compliment. ;)

tea-sipper

I will be enjoying reading the advent notes from everyone who bought them. :D

Mastress Alita

I’ve been enjoying reading them too!

I bought mine back in November and have had them stashed away, heh. I made an Advent Calendar using teas from my collection and gave it to a friend for his Christmas present. :-D (Hey, that gets rid of some of my over-abundance of teas, and isn’t bad for a DIY Christmas gift, especially since he seemed to like it!)

tea-sipper

Oh that IS a cool idea to get rid of excess teas. haha.

TreeGal

Hee hee, “didn’t go Cameron B. crazy!” I’m same as you, although I never received my 52 teas one. I got Tea Revv and T2. I considered this one but am glad I didn’t because this first one sounds like something I’d like to like, but wouldn’t. And I hate when the first one out of the box is one I don’t like…I’m looking at you, Tea Revv…

TreeGal

And I feel the need to mention that I’ve not actually communicated with 52 Teas yet, so please no one consider my comment as a negative one against them. If it was sent, someone probably swiped it off my doorstep because that has been happening some in my otherwise nice suburban neighborhood. But I don’t want to imply any shadiness or lack of help from 52 Teas!

Cameron B.

I fully understand if everyone wants to unfollow me for the month of December, LOL!

Cameron B.

@Mastress Alita – I love your idea for a homemade tea advent calendar! If I’m still around next year, maybe I’ll organize a secret swap sort of deal where we all exchange calendars… That sounds fun!

Mastress Alita

The 52Teas ones haven’t been shipped out yet, TreeGal. They are 12 Days, not 24, so they are on a later schedule. Also Anne got hit with some menangitis in the middle of November that set her back quite a bit. She was in the hospital for a week straight at one point.

TreeGal

Oh, how awful! I’m extra glad I hadn’t contacted her yet! Thanks for letting me know so that I wasn’t adding extra stress!

Lexie Aleah

@Cam I was actually considering posting about doing a swap where people make their own advent calendars and send them to people.If you did that next year I’d totally be in!

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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