VariaTEA Send Message

Sipdown (168 because I forgot to add it)

It might be human error but this tastes rather watery. Plus, there is a weird raisin flavor and that’s it. Not sure what happened but if this is how this tea is supposed to taste than it is not for me.

So I’m not getting chocolate and though I saw marshmallows in the leaf, that’s not coming through in the flavor either. I am getting oolong. Lots of oolong, though luckily for me, it is not overwhelming as oolong tends to be. It’s hard to describe because usually I hate oolong but even though that’s the main flavor here, I don’t mind it and I can’t place my finger on why. I am also getting a slight kick from the chili, enough to give flavor but not too much that it’s spicy. It’s a nice enough tea but I don’t know if I would call it “hot chocolate”.

Sipdown (168)…or I should say pour down as the last of this got dumped.

Turns out that vegetal base I praised this for not having was just hiding in the cold brew. All the fruity deliciousness of the hot cup was buried under mounds of grass. I think this may be a result of the leaf used for the cold brew was all the crushed bits left in the pack as opposed to the long leaf used for my hot cup. Whatever it may be, the end result was rather unpleasant. Life’s too short for bad tea so this got poured down the drain.

Sipdown (169)

Thank you Dexter for the share. This is a nice cold brew. Not too sweet, not too tart and certainly berries through and through.

Sipdown (170)

Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing. This is definitely a juice tea(especially cold brewed as I am having it) though I imagined the flavor would have been more elaborate than what I am getting. Cranberry tends to be more prominent than it is here. All I’m getting is dragon fruit, which is lovely but less than what I expected. Still, it’s a nice enough tea and I enjoyed the little bit that I had, even if it was different than what I thought I would be having.

Oh and turns out this is my 2400 tasting note. That’s a nice round number.

I got this in an Amoda box and I’m not a lover of greens so I wasn’t quick to jump on this but the base is completely undetectable. Seriously. I am only getting a cup of tropical fruits. Fresh and delicious. It’s like drinking juice. Papaya is the strongest element but pineapple is also lurking in the mix, as is mango.

Caramel and orange? Not the usual combination but having tried this tea, I can confirm it’s a good one. Burnt sugar is the lasting flavor but I am also getting hints of orange peel throughout the sip. If I really concentrate, the green tea base comes through as slightly vegetal but in this case I think it is helping add to the orange element. Also, the tea at first has quite the nutty taste to it, like that of a walnut or perhaps a pecan, which then evolves into the caramel orange flavor. All in all, this is a lovely tea and one that is unlike many other teas I have tried before. Thank you MissB for sharing and Sil for being the facilitator and passing it along. You guys are awesome.

What else is awesome and a rather unique combo? Beer and ice cream apparently. Ben and Jerry’s has a Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale ice cream and it’s delicious. Who knew?

A friend of mine got me this as part of my holiday gift/care package when I was going through some rough times with my family. It’s not something I would have picked for myself because I am pretty picky about my straight black teas, though as far as blacks go, I have found success with Assams so I was hoping this would be the same. I took to brewing it but the directed parameters made me rather hesitant (3 mins in boiling water) especially when I saw the color of the tea getting very dark, very fast. So, I let the water cool and ended up brewing it for probably closer to 2 minutes. Unfortunately, despite the rich color, the result is pretty bland. What I am getting is a hint of smooth malt but overall it is coming off pretty monotone. Luckily I have many more tea bags to play around with in order to get this right.

Sipdown (171)

Call me crazy but the first sip I took of the tea tasted like a green…pepper. Yep. Pepper. Not an apple which is made even more confusing by the fact that as soon as water touch this tea bag, the aroma of crisp apples filled the air. As I continue to drink, I am picking up more of a tart, green apple flavor (definitely hints of the hibiscus, though in this case it helps create the flavor rather than destroy it). Still, I can’t help but feel that this may have been better suited as a cold tea (either cold brewed or iced) to help bring out the fresh apple crunch I know it is capable of having. It’s a nice enough tea and despite my pepper misstep in the beginning, the end result is certainly an apple tea, though not one I will miss too much now that I have used up the only tea bag I had of it from London (one I had to literally run across a marathon to get!).

Sipdown (172)

Thank you Cavocorax! I used the rest of this leaf to make an eggnog latte. My thinking was pumpkin spice lattes are super popular so there must be something to the combination of pumpkin and creaminess (not that I have ever actually had a PSL). However, this has taken a weird turn as the pumpkin, though present, has taken a backseat to the green base. Consequently, the latte is tasting a bit like a veggie stew mixed with eggnog. Certainly not what I hoped for but it was still fun to try.