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Made as a hot matcha latte. A little bitter today. Mostly tastes like milk. Not really sure what I did to it to make it this bleh but I’ll try hard not to do it again.

I steeped this tea a little hotter, a little longer, and more of it this time than last time. I have about one more serving left in the bag and I will be sad when it is gone but alas, it is coconut so it wouldn’t have lasted that long anyway.

Adding a little milk and sweetener makes this quite a nice cup of tea. I don’t think I got any calendula this time around but just the black tea and gigantic coconut flakes impart quite a bit of flavour. Since I know this has at least 3 steeps in it, I’ll likely be drinking it for the rest of the afternoon. It really is very goo and I’m again said that it is a limited edition tea.

I wanted to like this tea. I really did. It smells fantastic both in leaf and steeped form, so very very chocolatey. But then I taste it and all I get is chocolate and HIBISCUS and I have a hate/hate relationship with hibiscus so this is going to get given away. Too bad.

4th tea of my June Sips by teabox.

Tea #3 from my June 2018 Sips by Tea Box.

Oh my, this is quite the tasty tea. I didn’t expect much, ‘red berry’ teas usually don’t do a whole lot for me and greens are always hit or miss, especially bagged greens. Sayra (a company I’ve never heard of before, if nothing else Sips by is introducing me to a lot of new companies) hit this one out of the park. With NO hibiscus (yay), this is quite sweet, though I did cheat and add a bit of extra sweetener to bring out the fruit flavour more. And it is certainly red berries, I can definitively taste the red currant and cranberry and I have a deep love of goji berries. The green base is pretty weak overall, there in the background but not much character to it. The berries, however, are fantastic.

Tea #2 from my June 2018 Sips by Tea Box. Had to add this one to the database too, which is why it has no picture.

First steep is very robust. I steeped it much longer than I probably should have (got involved in something else and forgot about it for a few minutes). It’s a bit roasty and has a very deep flavour. No astringency or bitterness that I can pick up at all. Extremely smooth. Lingering malty-ish aftertaste. There’s something there I can’t quite identify but it’s nice.

Going to steep this for the rest of the work day. The recommendation is 4-5 times so I think these leaves have a lot of life left in them. The packaging leaves something to be desired though, with no way to re-seal after opening.

This is the first tea from my June Sipsby Tea Box. It’s been a long time since I had an unflavoured matcha and this one is so very very green. I think I got 2 servings, which isn’t bad.

Made as a slightly sweetened hot matcha latte, adding a bit of hot water to 1/2 tsp of matcha, letting the sugar melt, frothing with my milk frother stick and then adding 8 oz of hot milk.

This is good. Very umami, vegetal flavour. The taste lingers in the corners of the back of my throat. Like it’s attracted to my tonsils or something. Pleasant, but not spectacular. I think I prefer flavoured matcha, though I will have no trouble drinking the other serving of this. Though I think I will stick to the matcha latte format as I think it would be a little too strong in the traditional preparation.

As always, when I added this tea to the database, I was completely unable to add a picture. Apologies, it just doesn’t seem to work for me.

Iced this time, since my first experience with it hot was terrible.

Iced, the tea is much more pleasant. I didn’t exactly measure how much tea I put into my half-gallon takeya but it was the rest of the package and then I stuck it in the fridge to cold-brew in filtered water for…I tried for 8 but I think it ended up being closer to 10 hours.

I added sugar, shook it up, and then poured some over ice to drink with a straw and yes indeed, this is quite a pleasant drink this way. Like a weak orangey lemonade. But not in a bad way. I’ll have no trouble drinking up the rest of this and I might even consider getting more at some point. Maybe.

This is delicious and hit the spot this morning. I’m so glad I bought it, however many years ago that was.

4th tea from my May Sips By box. I was so excited to see a fruity herbal without any hibiscus in it!

The rosehips sort of give it a meh for me and I’d probably add more ‘leaf’ next time than suggested but it’s quite lemony, which is to be expected since there are 4 lemon ingredients in it. They also list mango on the list twice and I did get a big chunk in my steeper but it’s less present, or possibly I’m just less attuned to it?

I enjoyed it more when I added a bit of german rock sugar to it (or rather, remembered to stir what I had already put in that was just hanging out in the bottom of the cup) and all the flavours got just a little brighter and I’m suddenly enjoying this one a whole lot more. Is it totally unique and worth seeking out? Maybe. I doubt I’ll buy it again but the ingredient list is pretty interesting, even if they have a disclaimer on the package about medical claims and the FDA. Apparently Urbal is a ‘health’ company more than a tea company.

At any rate, I’ll have no troubles drinking up this little ‘starter pack’ from Sips By and it was kinda cute how Urbal included a couple of empty bags in the package of tea for people who don’t have teapots in every single place they spend significant amounts of time (me).