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Sipdown no. 9 of May 2019 (no. 71 of 2019 total, no. 559 grand total).

I think that historically, I may have been tough on my ratings for green teas. I definitely appreciated this one more as a take it to work tea than I did when I wrote my initial note. It had a subtle fruitiness that was pleasant and not distracting. Mellow and smooth. Sorry to see it go, really. Bumping the rating.

Sipdown no. 8 of May 2019 (no. 70 of 2019 total, no. 558 grand total).

My original note on this is pretty accurate. In sipping down today, I noticed that there were slight pops of sweetness during various sips. But other than that the chocolate was pretty much as described.

Having now tasted this back to back with the S&V chocolate orange, I have to bump the rating on this one a tad.

It’s a better tea than the S&V in two respects. First, the orange is actually taste-able, and second, the base is not as heavy.

I do note that the S&V was chocolate orange, and this is orange chocolate. So it could be the teas are trying to do two different things. Either way, though, if I am going to drink something that has the word orange in the title, I want the orange flavor to pop more than it does in the S&V.

Sipdown no. 7 of May 2019 (no. 69 of 2019 total, no. 557 grand total).

I tried this again hot, and it was ok, but I think I was probably more generous in my rating way back when than I should have been. Then I made the rest of it cold. Cold, it’s rather nondescript.

In my original note I said it lacked oomph and intricacy. Yeah, that’s right. Then I said it made up for that with its pleasant unusualness.

I’m not sure I would have said that if I tried it the first time now. In general, my patience with tea that isn’t stellar is rather more thin now than it was back then when I was still discovering what I liked.

Bumping down the rating.

Sipdown no. 6 of May 2019 (no. 68 of 2019 total, no. 556 grand total).

Drank this both hot and cold until it was gone.

I think I liked it better when I first tasted it, perhaps because it was in fact better back then. But it may also just be that I’ve since had other caramel teas that I preferred. Back when I originally wrote about this I described it as an “every day” caramel, so I’d already had a few I preferred.

I am now pretty down on the concept of an “every day” tea. There is so much extraordinary tea out there, it seems a shame to compromise, budget permitting.

Sipdown no. 5 of May 2019 (no. 67 of 2019 total, no. 555 grand total).

I’m very glad to take this out of my cupboard.

The sad fact is that I just don’t love plain chamomile. The best plain chamomile I ever had was from Samovar, and I didn’t even love that.

I have tried. I really have. I just can’t get there.

I will probably continue to try from time to time, but I think I’m better off with tiny quantities of plain and maybe finding a blend or two that works reasonably well. For now, I’m just glad it is gone. Which isn’t to say this is a bad chamomile as they go.

It’s just that the sad fact is I don’t love plain chamomile.

Sipdown no. 4 of May 2019 (no. 66 of 2019 total, no. 554 grand total).

It was a rather heavily bergamot-ed version, with a lighter base (darjeeling). These features make it tasty and interesting, but not the top of the list Earl Grey for me.

It’s good cold, too.

Sipdown no. 3 of May 2019 (no. 65 of 2019 total, no. 553 grand total). Sample tin.

I have been drinking the Harney Viennese Earl Grey fairly regularly also given its rating, and I prefer this one. It’s mellower, and the bergamot isn’t quite as strong.

In fact, I think it needs a bit of a bump in the rating as I say goodbye.

In other news, I am seeing the light at the end of the chamomile tunnel! (At least for the pure chamomile, which is among the lowest rated items in my cupboard.) I need to learn that I am not a straight chamomile fan, try as I might. I kept thinking it would be nice to have around to round out my collection, but the truth is it just takes up space.

Also, I am down to 19 cupboard pages as of this sipdown! Huzzah!

Sipdown no. 2 of May 2019 (no. 64 of 2019 total, no. 552 grand total).

An accidental out of order sipdown. I didn’t read the label, I just went by the color of the can. I meant to sipdown the kyo mukashi instead. Sigh. Not that it matters since it turns out I rated them the same.

This was quite great as a take it to work tea. I had missed taking green tea to work while I was working my way through a bunch of lower rated whites and oolongs.

Sipdown no. 1 of May 2019 (no. 63 of 2019 total, no. 551 grand total).

This held up well, and I enjoyed drinking the last of it. I never tried it as a cold tea because I haven’t really found chocolate teas to work well cold. LiberTeas did a very nice job with this one, and I remember being happy to buy some of the last of it many years ago. Which is one of the reasons I hoarded it until I just couldn’t justify not sipping it down.

I feel comfortable with the rating, though seeing as I actually like it a bit better than the Upton caramel I’ve been drinking which I rated an 81, I’m bumping this to 81 and the Upton down to 80.