Violet Cream

I’m back! I have had the best week and really enjoyed my much needed holiday, but I did miss my tea while I was away. Still, sightseeing around London, seeing 10 shows in 6 days and meeting some very cool celebrities (including David Tennant and George Takei, who was an absolute sweetheart) didn’t leave me much time to drink tea! I have laughed, I have cried, I have gasped in amazement, and I have spent a lot of money that was not necessarily in the budget for the trip.

Soooo… about my no-buy. Here’s the thing. I have been buying tea from Bird & Blend since their infancy, when they were a new company with a small online presence, no physical stores you could go to, and the orders were hand-packed by the founders/owners of the company themselves and sent out with little hand-written notes and hand-written stickers on the packets. You get the idea. It’s been nearly a decade since I placed my first order. Well… the company is doing fantastically well. Going from strength to strength, creating many new blends, employing a large staff and opening several brick and mortar stores. It’s fantastic to see! But being from the North East, there are none near me, and I haven’t had the chance to visit a store in person yet. So when I saw there was one only a single tube stop away from my hotel, I had to visit! I dragged my friends along and I was like a kid in a candy store, chatting to the staff and accidentally becoming a sales advisor and enabling other customers to pick up some of my favourites. My friend initially picked up 1 box of tea bags, and ended up leaving with a strainer and 10 small packets of loose leaf tea instead! So, it’s safe to say, I did some damage… My cupboard is now up 24 teas, but I don’t mind because I’m just so happy to have restocked on some old favourites and to have picked up some wishlist teas to try, including this one. I’m definitely going to have to work hard on my sipdowns now, though!

This was the first tea I made myself this afternoon when I arrived back home, picked at random from the pile of new teas, and it was a good choice! The scent of the dry leaf reminded my instantly of Parma Violets, a favourite childhood sweet of mine, and I was happy to find that this carried through to the sip. The front is all sweet powdery violet, and the creamy chocolate comes through at the back of the sip. I drank this cup plain, and found it sweet enough, but I bet with a pinch of sugar it would be very reminiscent of a violet cream chocolate. Yum.

Now to shamefully update my cupboard…

Flavouring. Never was anything so nondescript in ingredients as this word. And flavoring can contain who knows what. And you know what? I find that really annoying. Because allergies. And furthermore, did they actually taste violets before naming this? Or are they just…. Oh. OH. Okay. I don’t know what violets taste like, raw or otherwise, but somehow the name fits. It is creamy and floral. I know I was being really negative to start but the flavoring thing always gets me. But then I smelled it and I was like Well… now I have to try it. And here we are sitting with this nice creamy cup with woodsy undertones. It coats the mouth nicely.

Another B&B tea from the TTB! It tastes super strongly of violet. The black tea is all right. There’s not a lot of nuance here, mostly just floral flavor. It’s not my favorite sort of flavor profile, but it’s decent. I wish I tasted some cream. I didn’t get to finish the mug because my cat knocked it over on top of our whole d&d setup.

I found the bright base kind of lacklustre and meh (Sri Lankan/Ceylon black tea) but I did enjoy how much this one reminded me of a “chocolate” covered Turkish Delight candy bar (but a twist of violet instead of dusty rose). I think Big Turk is a Canadian candy bar but this tea does a good impression.

Thought it was satisfying with or without milk.

Had a little teacup of this one yesterday afternoon. There was such a clear divide in the flavours to me as I sipped this. All chocolate in the top notes and front end of the sip and then really full force into the violet in the back end and finish. The chocolate is more of a chocolate liqueur note over actual milk chocolate, which is actually preferable for me. The best part is that sweet, sweet parma violet though. I fucking love violet teas and I think B&B really stepped up their floral tea game with this one.

2021 sipdown no. 125

Thanks Cameron for sending this my way!

This one is kind of like chewing a children’s grape Tylenol and chasing it with a piece of creamy dark chocolate behind it. No thanks.

I so wanted to love this, but it’s just not good. I sadly can’t taste any violet. It’s just a very chalky, artificial chocolate flavor.

I rarely post a review here that I did for Sororitea Sisters, because I figure I already wrote it a while back and not today, and I feel inept at posting them here! I don’t like to just do the link because then the people reading have to work too hard, clicking a link and going to another page and all. Ha ha! But this was a gift from Martin Bednar so I wanted to post it! I just copy/pasted so you don’t have to click a link! I will include the link anyway, but here it is!

http://www.sororiteasisters.com/2021/01/04/violet-cream-bird-and-blend-ashmanra/

A friend sent some samples for me to try from far across the sea! This is my first time drinking Bird and Blend as far as I recall, and this is the B&B tea I was most excited to try! I generally enjoy floral teas very much and violet seems so exotic as violet flavored things are rare where I live.

I am “one of those people” who likes violet candy. The first one I tried was very strong and I didn’t like it. It felt like I ate a bath bomb. But then I somehow missed that flavor. I tried another brand and I don’t know if it was milder or sweeter or if I just developed a taste for it, but I could eat a whole pack in one sitting if I didn’t use restraint. (I don’t, by the way, always use restraint.)

I was so madly excited to try this that I took out my most foofoo china and sat at the dining table with pink camellias in front of me in a silverplate gravy boat and fetched a fancy cookie. I am going for the whole experience here.

Mmmmm, the aroma is divine! This is a soft, sweet violet and somehow like sniffing a very fine, delicate talcum, in the best sort of way. The scent is very dreamy and creamy. It doesn’t assault my senses like cheap bubble bath.

I did not get a strong chocolate aroma, but I have never had chocolate covered violets, so maybe this is spot on. In fact, I wondered where the chocolate was. It seemed to actually smell of cream, not just have a creamy mouthfeel.

The chocolate part of this blend is (hallelujah!) cocoa nibs instead of chocolate flavoring. I dug through my infuser basket and found a nib and ate it. Ah, yes, this is what I thought was the cream. Sometimes cream is really just vanilla added to a blend, but this was legitimately creamy tasting and smelling and now I see it somehow came from the cocoa nibs!

All in all, a wonderful elevenses today and this is a blend I would definitely purchase.

I wanted so much to do a SIPDOWN, but couldn’t decided which flavoured tea I would like to drink, so I made a line of them, counted them and let the random.org choose a tea for me. If I was clever enough to don’t include the new teas… I would not open tea from AUGUST 2020 subscription

So yeah, I am having a fresh new tea, so new, it isn’t on their website yet.

Opened the pouch and something familiar hit my nose. I found out bit later it is dark chocolate covered violets with vanilla notes. They have this line on their pouch and it is exactly that I think. Dark chocolate with strong violet aroma. Vanilla not that much. Typical set-up; DIY tea bags (need to buy new box (100 pcs)), two teaspoons, 300 ml cup.

Steeped for recommended 4 minutes and well, cloudy copper brew appeared. I probably overleafed it or steeped for long as, well, it is quite bitter with vanilla aroma. And cocoa aftertaste. It is as well somehow floral from violets and all the tastes/aromas are fighting each other what should be the most present and best for tea.

But as it cools down, it has specific flavour, which is nice! It reminds me some floral Darjeelings a bit (but not that smooth). I think I will try it again with shorter steeping. Or less leaf? I am just sad there is no violets in, instead there are mallow flowers. Probably cheaper?