New Tasting Notes

If you enjoy black tea but have only stuck to Assam or Chinese black teas, I highly recommend trying out Rakkasan’s Black Tea sampler pack. It will open your palate to all the amazing terroirs around the world.

This tea has the power to make you forget your breakfast. I’ve been sitting here drinking it and looked over to realize I completely forgot about my yogurt and granola.

Dry Leaf: Dusty. Twisted. Some golden buds.
Aroma: Woody. Sweet Wood. Palo Santo.
Flavor: Woody. Resin. Cedar. Slight char
Mouthfeel: Slightly astringent.

Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown 2025 – Day 21

Day 20 is a super pretty pomegranate sticker. Day 21 is a Da Hong Pao from Yunnan Craft with citrus peel in it. I’m enjoying it hot on a snowy day but it would probably make a good cold brew too. It’s medium-bodied, roasty, with a mineral note and a sweet-tart citrus flavor at the end of the sip. Hoping to finish my notes for this countdown box this weekend!

Sip Down
Date: 16 January 2026

I found this randomly in my sip down box, toward the bottom of my stash. This was a tea from W2T’s Club (circa 2024). I’m flabbergasted that 2024 was already TWO years ago…Time sure has a way of slipping past us!

Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, I guess I never really drank this tea until this week, so I made the effort on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to get it sipped down. This has been a great tea for the last push of the workday. I have been hitting a slump at 4:00 P.M. every day, where I need a little extra help. Not only does the caffeine help, but the process of gongfu’ing makes it all less monotonous.

So, during the past eleven years drinking tea consistently, I have learned that not all Lapsang’s are smoked, and I like the smoked ones on occasion. When I stumble upon ones that aren’t smoked, I’m surprised because I rarely get one that’re unsmoked. And it’s nice to change the flavor profile up a bit – from smoky– to dried unsweetened plums, pomelo, and a tad bit of a roasted oolong vibes (mineral richness, so slightly earthy it’s almost not there). I dig this one; too bad it’ll be the last time to drink this tea specifically.

Date: 16 January 2026

There is surprisingly a lot of jasmine profile in the flavor! Sure, it’s old and not as potent as it was when it was fresh, it still has flavor. I know the ‘rule’ for green teas is to drink them quickly, but I crave them rarely and take ages to get through them. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to throw them away either, so I get to them when I get to them. Ha-ha. In the case of this being old, I will not be giving this tea a rating. It was a lovely cup, albeit a lightly flavorful one, so there’s that.

Date: 7 January 2026

I was encouraged to participate in a giveaway that Rivers and Lakes Tea held through Instagram. To my surprise, I won a lovely white tea collection of Fuding and Zhenghe tea varietals! I wanted to share my win on IG, so I tried the first tea I grabbed from the box a 2023 Zhenghe Shou Mei.

White teas typically are hit or miss for me, so I try to avoid them as much as possible since they’re also typically more expensive and could be a waste of money if I don’t enjoy them (thankfully, there’s a local friend who is here to take away the disliked teas from my stash now. Lol). This ended up being one of the white teas that are a win, so it was refreshing to sample something special! I spent a lot of time being present in the moment, but my few notes include floral, smooth, viscous, and lasted 16 infusions! I hope to make my way back through the remainder of the box soon.

Date: 12 January 2026

I’m not sure how long I’ve had this sample or whether it was in my ‘mystery tea’ reward box
from August. Part of me believes there are teas that need to be sweetened, and this is likely
one of those blends that need a little sweetener to get the full effect. I thought it was a nice
gentle lemony blend, but the overall strawberry lemonade was missing.

Michelle, I think this is my favorite out of the batch! Or maybe it’s just because I’ve hit my mid-January-just-give-me-sugar-and-nobody-gets-hurt season. At any rate, it was a lovely afternoon treat: decent black base with a little rooibos and sweetening that reminded me of genuine honeycomb. Thank you!

Sip down

Date: 12 January 2026

I have been putting a nice dent into my stash the past few days, sipping down 5 teas…I’m trying to be more mindful of the teas that have 1-3 cups leftover, and making the effort to drink through them as fast as humanly possible. After sipping a few red teas during my working hours, I wanted more tea in the late evening, however, it was drawing near to my bedtime. Lol. I dug this out of my modest 2026 sip down pile and was immediately excited to find this hidden away in my stash! The chocolate-raspberry is quite strong on the dry material, and the rooibos base is an afterthought, which is a rare occurrence considering rooibos blends typically have more rooibos and less of anything else.

I must admit that the tea didn’t last long in my mug. I drank through it quickly, as it
accompanied me during my reading hour, and it was simply divine. The only other note I jotted was, “Too bad this isn’t in stock because I want more…” Which goes for plenty of their blends – they never have too much, so what you get is what you get.

DIY Fava Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 14

I was surprised and impressed to see that this is a rolled oolong, as it’s hard to tell on the package, and quite dark in color. The ingredients call it “Jade oolong”, but it seems much darker and more toasty than that to me. It’s a nice smooth, toasty base with a mellow cinnamon flavor. It doesn’t scream cookie to me, nor is it a Red Hots style cinnamon candy note. Quite a nice one actually, it reminds me more of a toned-down version of rice pudding than it does a snickerdoodle.

Herbal and Decaf TTB Summer 2025

Went to the annual seed swap event at our local library this morning. It was our first time so we weren’t sure what to expect. They accept seeds if you have them to offer, but also give out lots of seeds. It was run by the local university and a gardeners association I believe. They had popular garden vegetables, herbs, flowers, and a few fruits, as well as a table full of seeds from local plants. They had books, magazines, and pamphlets on gardening and even a table of snacks and drinks. It was definitely a nice event and something I am sure we will return to in the future.

I tried this tea alongside the omelette my husband made for breakfast before we headed out this morning. The name sounds pretty generic so I really wasn’t expecting much. It surprised me by being a lovely tropical fruit lemonade. I distinctly tasted mango, orange, and pineapple with the lemon in a solid supporting role that differentiated the blend from other tropical fruit teas I have had. An absolutely delightful surprise!

I bought this tea for Herbal/Decaf TTB and kept a few bags for my own research and I am glad that I did!

This is pretty much orange forward with a slightly tart finish, thanks to sea buckthorn I believe. And moreover, it is very mouthcoating, with hints of minty notes; however without too much menthol here.
To be honest, this tea produced about 16 km (10 mi) from my home has greatly surprised me. I may try more of their teas.

This tea is supposed to taste like scones with clotted cream and jam. I taste a lot of cream from this, but it’s a little fake. I still like it, but there are other creamy black teas that I prefer. The second time I had this, I noticed that it really does taste like store bought strawberry jam as well! It’s fun!

Back in 2021, I interviewed Teko US. Their innovative styling and unique teas set this company far apart from others. But unfortunately, the US distribution is shutting down. Amy, the owner, was kind enough to send me some of her last few samples to savor with the MN Tea Society. Why is she shutting down she did not mention and is not responding to emails anymore. I wish her the best in her future endeavors.

The ingredients say sencha, so we know it is a green tea from Japan. From the flavor of the green, it seems nothing too special. However, that could just be the peppery notes of the birch. Also, I am no expert on leaf anatomy, but the birch leaf (Betula pubesens) and the tea leaf (Camellia sinensis) have enough differences that I can spot some things as I pick through my used leaves. The birch seems to be cut up too much to distinguish, but I feel like I am looking at more sencha than birch leaf. A lot more…

Flavor: Peppery, metallic, a bit grassy,

Having a bit of a rough start to the year. Everyone came home from our holiday travels and came down with a bad cough, and my husband lost his job. Not having good job security is one of the problems about working as a government contractor. He has been submitting lots of applications, and has a couple of prospects and we rented out the apartment over our garage to help make ends meet in the meantime.

I have also been busy trying to catch up on housework after the holidays and putting together homeschooling portfolios for the fall semester so I haven’t gotten back to the TTB samples yet, but I have tasted and / or thrown together a few of my own blends this week.

I blended quince leaves with dried pairs and flavoring, and as I suspected, it made a delightful pear flavored blend. I am going to be very sad when I run out of quince leaf.

I also blended Teeccino Gingerbread with a bag of supermarket black tea that I keep around for making sweet tea for my husband and it was definitely more than the sum of it’s parts. I should try it with the decaf vanilla black from upton that I have been enjoying recently.

I also made a blend of pasilla pepper, rose petals, and lemon spice cookie that was surprisingly delightful.

I finished my last cup of carrot and nettle leaf and I want to blend more because I really enjoyed it and it is a quick and simple blend to make.

Finished off a 50g bag. Love this – pretty sure I have a couple bags left, but will repurchase at some point.

Carrots.  This tastes like carrots.  That would be my uninformed guess.  It really tastes nothing at all like mushrooms.  I bought this from the local shop, mainly for health purposes, mainly for days when I know I have eaten too many carbs (or to put more funly: bagels, rye bread, and turkey stuffing, etc.)   Trying to get the chagas to counteract the carbs in a decaf fashion.  The chagas here is chopped quite finely, allowing quite a bit of it to sift through the tea filter.  But that just means healthier, right?  And more carrots. (The description says “vanilla notes”. Nope. Carrots!)
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 4-5 minute steep
Steep #2 //  just boiled // 10 minute steep

Stash Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 13
Red Velvet Treat

This is a weird naming choice to me, as this is actually a strawberry and hibiscus fruit infusion, and isn’t chocolate or cake-flavored at all. Yeah it’s red, but it’s not at all what anyone would expect for a red velvet tisane…

Anyway, it’s not my favorite. There’s a strong metallic note along with a mustiness, which kind of dampens my enjoyment of the star ingredients. Otherwise, it’s very mild red fruits with hibiscus. This one would probably have done better in a little less water.

Rating: 52

Casting Whimsy Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 13
Name Me

This one is a strawberry white tea. To me though, it actually has more of a honeyed flavor and aroma to it. There is a touch of strawberry jam as well, but mostly an authentic and soft honey note. There’s also black pepper and hyssop in this, though I don’t taste any spicy notes whatsoever. It’s enjoyable, as I do like honey, just not what I expected given the ingredients. There’s also just a hint of bitterness, perhaps because some of the particles were quite small.

Rating: 68

Assam Harmony (Mangalam Tea Estate); by Adagio.
Loose-leaf straight black tea, steeped Western-style, as directed in spring water, using a stainless steel micropore infusion basket. Nice characteristic Assam aroma and flavor, malty and slightly astringent, with flavors of stewed stonefruit, and a bright savory note that is hard to describe — neither fishy nor smokey — (maybe ripe tomato?) but pleasant. This is a bold tea, with a strong flavor that will wake you up! A re-steeping of the leaves gave a satisfying cup as well, just marginally less potent than the first. My 2 ounce bag is rapidly vanishing, but will be repurchased. Recommended and rated as 90.
Lot no. 94360. Fresh by: 03/2030

When I made my big B&B order, I guess I bought almost every tea I hadn’t tried before, even if it didn’t sound like it would be my sort of thing. The fruity tea on the green base is perfectly nice, but I’m not really on board with the hit of spicy pepper after that. I just don’t prefer that in my green tea.

I must start off by saying I am not a fan of red rooibos. This one unfortunately has that wet-dog note, but it’s not the worst I’ve tasted. The pear is rather on the artificial side. I’m afraid I am not the best reviewer for this one, as I don’t like the base tea, but I’m determined to get through all my advents/assortments in 2026, so on we march. On the upside, it does brew to an attractive brown-red colour and is not the worst red rooibos I have ever tasted.

DIY Lupicia Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 13

This is one I’ve seen many times on Lupicia’s website, but had never tried. Probably because it’s one of those teas where they don’t really tell you what flavor it is – just “a fruity aroma”. Well, it turns out it’s grape! Which surprises me, as they have so many other grape teas. This definitely seems like more of a muscat grape to me, rather than a purple one like Jingle Bells. I feel like there is some other fruit in the background as well, but I couldn’t venture a guess at what. Also, I didn’t realize there is some black tea mixed in with the green tea here, which explains the somewhat color of my cup ha ha.

Anyway, another tasty tea from Lupicia, but not one I’m sure I need in my cupboard given the myriad of other grapey options they offer. :)

ETA: Another reviewer mentioned green apple, and I could maybe see that, though it’s hard to tell if I’m just tasting the crispness and astringency of the green-black tea comnination.