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Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #8 – An herbal tisane

I finished a sample of this one.. have another pouch left.  This is always a tasty, cozy brew.  I love the combination of flavors: cocoa, coffee.  The perfect dessert tea.
2024 sipdowns:  86

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #7 – A tea that was a gift 

I received this as a gift this year, and I also previously had my eye on it — I think the vendor was at the fair this year.  So, a great gift!  It’s a great tea too.  An decent chai, definitely.  Most importantly, the base is robust enough.  The base is Assam and Ceylon, so not just Ceylon here, which I can always appreciate.  I think I notice at least four types of peppercorns in the blend, which is unique.  The spices are spot on.  It reminds me a little bit of pumpkin pie, but also it seems to have a hint of vanilla flavor, though there is NOT actually vanilla here. Just my tastebuds thinking so.  The second steep really does lean into a squash note — so it seems even more like a pumpkin pie with these spices.  I would say it’s an excellent balance of base black teas and spices.  Really good stuff.

On another note, I did check out the sale table at the grocery store and they had TWO boxes of two different Celestial Seasonings teas.  Though I’m wondering where they were in the store previously, if they made it to the sale shelf.  I intentionally was looking for them a week or two ago!  However neither box was Nutcracker Sweet, so I did not buy them.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling  // almost 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

I haven’t looked yet, but I just bet S&V saved this one for the advent tea for Christmas day. Old reliable holiday blend! Always cozy and tasty.

Kwanzaa and Hanukkah tomorrow… many special days packed together this year! Happy everything to all!

2024 Holiday tea #15

Somehow I had a note typed up and it disappeared… I always wanted to try this one due to so many of you that are fans here on Steepster.  Thanks to Cameron B, I finally get to try it!  The scent is JUST LIKE gingerbread.  The flavor is too, but somehow the fragrance is more prominent than the flavor.  Two delicious steeps.  However, I really wish the sort of base for a gingerbread flavored tea was a much deeper, darker black tea.  It’s a bit light. That would be my only complaint here.
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #6 – A holiday or celebration tea 
2024 Holiday tea #14

This COULD be worse, but after the magic of Angry Tea Room’s Candy Cane tea the other day, it’s just a bit of a let down. But it’s done and gone now!
2024 sipdowns: 84

2024 Holiday tea #13

The PERFECT candy cane tea. Always equal parts mint and cream. So good. Now that Angry Tea Room is no longer… this is Adagio’s Candy Cane tea as far as I can tell. Hilariously, the Steepster button says “currently unavailable” when this is a case where they can actually link to their own Candy Cane blend.

2024 Holiday tea #12
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #5 – December 21 – Winter Solstice: drink a warm and cozy cuppa 

I forgot this was the prompt day for a cozy cup, and had already steeped this up for the day, but this CERTAINLY is cozy.  I would definitely think of this one when thinking of particularly cozy teas.  It’s a good one to have on this snowy day.  Happy solstice!!

2024 Holiday tea #11

Delicious as usual. I will say, I’m glad I don’t rely on grocery store chains for teas. I have seen NONE of the holiday teas. Not from Bigelow, Celestial Seasonings, etc. Someone let me know if they see Celestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet out in the wild!

From Cameron B! Thanks again! Wooee, to make this “caramel” I think they doubled down on the sweet elements. It’s cane sugar. But also stevia. I think they wanted to rely on both of these things to carry any hints of caramel. It should also be “salted” and I don’t notice any of that at all. When I’m looking for an almost too sweet, almost cloyingly sweet cup, I’ll go for this one. I like it, but just barely! If it was ONLY stevia, oh no, that would be bad. It’s interesting, because the Sipology pumpkin matcha I had the other day didn’t have cane sugar or stevia. So I guess I can appreciate that one even more now. Sipology also has a Caramel Rooibos Latte blend that uses fenugreek to sweeten it, and I think that works really really well.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #4 – A smokey tea 

As a Sherlock fan, I really wanted to try this one!  I guess the PBS show led me to eventually read some of the books.  I really should read the others at some point (I have a big ol edition of all the Sherlock novels in one.)  To the tea! I was intrigued by a smoky cherry tea.  I would say the dry leaf smells more cherry than smoke.  But then the flavor is more smoke than cherry.  But what cherry here is pretty good.  I’d say it most reminds me of maraschino cherry, which certainly could be interesting with smoke.  It’s not a LOT of smoke.  Just enough to be hinting at it.  My main problem with this blend is that the black tea is too light for me.  Doyle really deserves a nice murky black tea with some depth to it.  Needs that caffeine to solve those mysteries (or write them anyway).  The second steep, really just seemed like a plain mild black tea… somehow even the smoke notes were gone, definitely the cherry.  Maybe a hint of smoke when it cooled. That’s a shame, as the first cup was enjoyable. I entirely forgot that hibiscus was included in EITHER steep, so that’s nice.  I guess with this one, I won’t have to resteep, which I usually don’t miss on most other teas.  Overall, the flavor of the first steep is enjoyable and unique. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 21 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep