Peppermint Cream

Drank another of these this evening. I’m still not overwhelmed, although the flavour appealed to me a little more than it did last time. Maybe because I have a cold? I’ve been drinking a lot of minty teas recently, in an effort to try and soothe my throat. Don’t ask me why mint — it just seems to work.

Anyway, I noticed today that there’s actually very little oolong in here. There’s the odd bit here and there, but it’s mostly mint leaves. There is a distinctive creaminess in the flavour, though, which combines with the mint to replicate a candy-like flavour fairly well. As it cools, it becomes fairly dead-on peppermint cream, so I’m not sure why I haven’t liked it all that much before. As flavours go, it’s pretty accurate, and I like that in a tea. I’ve increased the rating a little to reflect this. I’d still like to have been able to taste the milk oolong, though. It gets pretty lost here.

Wowsers….this is super pepperminty with a gentle touch of vanilla resembling Twinings – Butter Mint. It looks like mostly finely chopped peppermint leaf (with some dust) and some small to medium sized Oolong balls amidst it.

The flavour is very mild considering it’s strong scent. In my first few sips it took a few seconds before any flavour came through and when it did I feel the strongest was the cocoa. It’s sweet but also creamy and very light. I wish the peppermint was stronger.

This blend is too mild, I may try and double the dose or the steep time for my next cup. So far this one is disappointing.

KittyLovesTea sent me a lovely package of teas… mostly Bluebird samples to try because I want that to be the ONE company I order from one time in 2014. (Yeah right.) I’d like to know what I like from Bluebird first! thanks so much!!

I wanted to try Bluebird’s Christmas Cake for Christmas day but a headache means I should have a mint tea. Well, this was a mint tea from Bluebird so I went with it. A second oolong blend in a row! I don’t try many of those. This is supposed to be at 194 degrees so the water was cooled for a minutes. This one is a bit odd tasting at the first sip. It tastes a bit like catnip smells (which is probably since catnip is a mint anyway). And the oolong is very vegetal…I’m surprised it’s a milk oolong. The hints of chocolate aren’t very creamy. Not bad, but it’s odd! The second steep tasted more like I thought it should. Not my favorite from Bluebird, but I’d love to try their amazing blends either way.

Love You Oolong Time! I love milk oolong, but this is the first time I can recall finding a flavored blend using milk oolong as a base. Milk oolong already has such an interesting flavor naturally, the idea of making a blend out of it both perplexed me and oddly piqued my interest, so I was quite interested in trying this one out.

I was happy to find that the mouthfeel of milk oolong holds out here; the tea has a very silky, creamy feel. I get some buttery notes from the base as well, though they are a little more subdued due to the rich, minty flavor of the tea, which comes to the forefront. There is a subtle sweetness in the background, that isn’t a rich, full, chocolately flavor, but there is a light, sweet, chocolate-mint candy impression left on the tongue in the aftertaste. I’m /really/ enjoying how this is all coming together; the milk oolong makes what would otherwise be just another standard choco-mint tea feel more creamy and buttery and dessert-like than it really should. It’s really good, and this is likely going to end up a permanent fixture in my cabinent. Right between my regular milk oolong and my chocolate mint rooibos, because while this is very similar in ways to each of those, neither of them can quite scratch the same itch as this.

In my experiences the greener varieties of oolong don’t seem to play well with additional ingredients. Some oolong is so light and floral that it tends to make the flavours seem spaced out and buffered instead of well mixed- if that makes sense. This something that inhibits my enjoyment of most “Oolong Chai” renditions.

Peppermint Cream doesn’t really suffer from this problem in so much that it’s more of a milk oolong flavoured mint tea than the other way around. The milkiness adds convincing depth to the cocoa “cream” (more like skim milk), while the airy green quality of the oolong amplifies the fresh breath quality of peppermint. Space is used well here.

It potently evokes memories of crisp fall mornings and that kind of thing. It also resteeps fairly well. My only complaints are the blend’s metallic tendency, and the fact that I don’t like cocoa in my tea.

Had this one at work with no idea that there was oolong in it until I poured it out. I never would have thought there would be a green oolong mixture with a peppermint leaf added into it. I probably should have waited for it to be cold to enjoy this more, but it was still good since I was inside drinking it while I worked :)
Interesting mixture that satisfied the mint desire a tea drinker may have, but I don’t think I had a note of cream in this tea… I’m curious what a creamy mint would be like with a tea, maybe a butter-mint?

I’m very excited to try this tea since the combination of cocoa shells and a milk oolong interests me. Peppermint isn’t as exciting for me, but I’ll deal with it. When I opened the bag, I was overwhelmed by all that peppermint! It’s incredibly strong. I don’t even really detect any oolong or cocoa shells in the scent.

Sipping… I was expecting this tea to be sharp, but it’s actually quite smooth. The cocoa flavor comes through stronger than I was expecting which is just lovely! I can’t say that it’s a strong chocolate flavor, but one that is specific to cocoa shells.. I’m not sure how else to describe it. The peppermint is definitely present – a little bit stinky and lingering, though. I can’t taste the oolong at all, sadly.

I do enjoy the combination of peppermint and cocoa shells, but I wish that the milk oolong would shine through. I’m not sure I would buy this one again, but I’m happy to finish up what I have.

Another one from Bluebird! This was one that I didn’t necessarily pick out, but ended up splitting with someone else who wanted it (I got 10g). I have been liking mint teas more and more lately though, so I’m glad I ended up with a sample. This is another blend that has barely any tea in it. There are only a few pellets of oolong mixed with a lot of crushed peppermint and cacao shell. Dry scent is pepperminty with sweet and creamy notes, and I can smell a touch of cocoa. Recommended steep was 3 minutes, but I went for 4 since there’s so little oolong anyway.

Hmm… At the beginning of the sip, the first thing I taste is roasty cacao. It quickly gives way to strong peppermint, and it has an unfortunate mineral/sour/musty note to it that makes me sad. Not sure if that would be improved by a shorter steep or not, but I’ll definitely try the recommended steep next time. I don’t taste the oolong at all, which is what I expect given the scarcity of the pellets. It does, however, take on the thick texture of a green oolong, and there’s a touch of creaminess. I would be very happy with this tea if it weren’t for the weird wet rag peppermint taste. :( Withholding rating until I try it again.

It’s Thursday, and in spite of my having errands to run and possibly meeting a former colleague in the city to stuff around and take photos, I’m currently trapped in the house, because the washing machine is taking bloody AGES and I want to get my sheets out of there as soon as it’s done so they don’t go all wrinkly. I normally wouldn’t be bothered, but as much as he insists it doesn’t matter, I was raised to keep a tidy home when company’s coming over, and my gentleman’s up from Oxford this weekend. I miss him when he’s down south. Why is everything so actually quite near to everything else but annoyingly awkward and expensive to get to in this country?

But I digress. While the hideously inefficient washer/dryer chugs along in the kitchen, I’m filling in futile applications for jobs they’ll never give me at the BBC and sampling a cup of peppermint cream. I was intrigued by the fact that this is an oolong blend, though as far as flavour goes, I’m really mostly getting peppermint. Maybe the oolong is there to provide a bit of texture rather than flavour? Or maybe I need to muck about with brewing times to get more of an oolong-ness out of it. Regardless, it’s still a lovely brew, and good at every temperature (as I did rather take bloody ages to drink the whole thing and it was as cold as my unheated winter apartment by the time I was finished) though interestingly, I think I liked it best when it was just warm. Not hot, not tepid, just warm. That’s the best place for it. And with milk. I like a mint that pairs well with milk. It’s super-cozy and comforting, but less dangerous than hoovering an entire thing of After Eights like I was tempted to do when one of my new headshots was emailed to me yesterday and I had a major wibble at the thought that THAT’S what I look like to other people, I’m fatter than I thought I was, and I hate my face.

(I’ve been assured that the photo in question doesn’t do me justice, but it’s still tempting to spend tonight crying into a giant-ass bowl of macaroni and cheese)

My profile says, ‘No peppermint.’ so obviously it’s time to give peppermint another chance. It’s 2014! The year of tea bravery! Besides, I would really like to learn to enjoy minty teas.

In the bag, this smells very fresh and light; it’s all crisp, cool peppermint. In the cup, the scent seems much thicker, a little dirty – a gritty mint. The earth tone reminds me of gardening; a few years ago they sold me peppermint plants instead of regular mint by mistake and I didn’t notice until they started growing bigger (they were very small from the start) and I had to dig them up and banish them to a less coveted spot. (Don’t look at me like that. Think of the poor orphaned mojitos. Priorities, people!) This is exactly that – garden soil and crushed peppermint leaf.

Steeped, it’s… fair. It’s not the most aggressively evil peppermint I’ve tasted, but it’s not super mild. It doesn’t leave that minty coolness mouthfeel I have such a hard time with, and it’s consistent throughout the sip, taste wise. Unoffensive, fresh, clean and a little earthy.

That much said, I have not been converted – peppermint teas might just not be for me. Overall, I feel mint should be served in very small amounts, preferably inside some form of chocolate casing.

It was good to try, though, and definitely nice to add Bluebird to the list of tea companies I have tried. I’d never heard of them, but will consider placing an order with them after this – their website is great, the packaging pretty, they ship fairly cheaply within Europe, and they blended a peppermint tea I could actually finish a whole cup of. Definitely worth a try.

Thanks, KittyLovesTea for adding this to the box!

[Sample from the second round of the EU Travelling Box, spring 2014.]