A Quarter to Tea

From earlier in the week – was craving strawberry.

There’s still so much chamomile that comes through in the infused cup, but this was also very “strawberries and cream” in a quite smooth, and silky way. Some floral undertone from the oolong itself, as well. It was better piping hot/freshly infused, but as it cooled the chamomile felt more forward – so making the mental note that it would seem that if I drink this right after steeping and don’t allow it to cool I’ll get more of that silky creaminess I want out of this tea.

Current Cuppa!

In the past I’ve found this far too chamomile heavy for my own preferences but today’s cup has come out quite nice. It’s still really floral with weighty chamomile notes in the top of the sip but the body is sweet, bright and creamy with the kind of strawberry note you’d get in a really nice strawberry shortcake. A little bit of a negative taste to start, and the rewarded with a delicious strawberry.

Mmm!!

Almost forgot that I drank this tea this week – it was kinda that underwhelming.

I was on the fence about picking this one up when AQ2T announced their hiatus given how much I dislike chamomile, but I really wanted to try all the limited edition blends I hadn’t before so I did end up including it. Conceptually I think it’s a neat idea and I’d be curious to see what people who don’t dislike chamomile think of it – but for me it was far too chamomile heavy and I struggled to taste anything in the cup aside from chamomile and a hint of strawberry. Just a HINT though…

Cold Brew Sipdown (711)!

Tasted like fake, artificial banana – sort of like those banana marshmallows candies, with chocolate sundae syrup and a refreshing cream and hay undertone. That might sound like a negative review, but it’s not – all of those things are delicious to me and I really liked this tea!

Sipdown (707)!

Finished this one off as a latte and it was a far, far better experience than drinking it straight. Whatever funky chemical and medicinal cherry note I was getting (I think from flavourings that hadn’t settled) wasn’t present in the cup anymore and that allowed for a very rich, decadent and smooth cup with a thick creamy mouthfeel and a taste that really felt like a deeply chocolate-y brownie. Hints of honey and a “graham cracker”ishness from the tea base, and a little bit of a cherry/fruity note – but most of the cherry seems to be lost during this style of prep, and honestly I don’t mind. It was a delicious tasting latte, and I felt like it didn’t really need the cherry notes.

Glad I found a way to make the most of this tea!

Very cool concept – I would eat the fuck out of a black forest brownie, and I like that this tea is on a rooibos base!

It smells intense though; very artificial and slightly medicinal cherry and like chocolate syrup: just seems like the flavourings haven’t mellowed out/settled yet. Steeped up this was fine but it was a bit intense/rough – similar to what I observed from the dry aroma is just seems like the flavouring is either too fresh/not settled or maybe just too generously applied; it’s a very strong artificial tasting cherry syrup taste though with a hint of medicinal undertone (possibly exaggerated from the base) and a chocolate syrup note. I think I need to wait until this tea has sat for a while before revisiting, just to let whatever is going on here mellow out a little bit…

Cold Brew Sipdown (902)!

Finished this one off on Monday, during my commute to work, and I was happy to be getting it out of my stash. It’s not an unpleasant tea, but it is one that I never really connected with and so the decluttering of samples is to be celebrated.

I never did really get caramel/cheesecake, but this brew was rich with deep generic “purple berry”/wildberry flavours, maybe leaning a bit more blueberry/blackberry!? Definitely thicker, and tasty with a hint of creaminess. Downside is that the finish was a bit artificial and very chalky, like the chewable fruity children’s vitamins. Good encouragement for another sip to wash down the taste, but then the cycle repeats…

Made a mug of this before venturing out of my apartment and braving the grocery store; don’t even get me started on all of that craziness…

This was probably the best version of this tea I’ve produced yet? I was pouring the water from my kettle for it and I didn’t end up having enough water to fill my mug fully, so I quickly refilled the kettle and reheated some water to top up my mug fully. Perhaps that weird prep method made a difference? Ultimately the aspect that came out so beautifully today was that the flavour was really sweet and rich, filled with jammy mixed wildberry notes. Mmm!

Revisiting this tea, and this time I made sure I got some of the caramel chocolate drops into the cup! I know that they really are more there for visual and don’t often impart much flavour into a cup (aside from sweetness/some creaminess) but I didn’t get any caramel my first go round with this blend so I felt I had to try something to try and must up some of those notes…

Sadly, I still felt I was missing caramel notes in this cup – and adding the extra caramel drops just meant more of that oily mouthfeel and glistening droplets of fat on the surface of the steeped tea from the melting chocolate. The berry note is pleasant and smooth with a nice sweetness – though rather undefinable (more “mixed berry”) and I guess I just have to accept, going forward, to just expect that berry profile when I go to make this tea. But as it stands currently, a caramel berry tea this is not.

I feel kinda… ‘meh’ about this one!?

It’s got that sort of intense and sweet generic “mixed berry” note that I would associate with artificially flavoured candies that are meant to taste like berry but not one specific one – the kind that are just bright purple coloured. I don’t actually mind that flavour at all, but this is just a hair medicinal and also doesn’t really have anything that tastes like cheesecake or caramel so I’m just left not totally sure what to think about this blend…

Cold Brew Sipdown (715)!

A little weak/soft tasting but still pretty good; primary flavour is actually the white tea which isn’t ever really a bad thing – and I typically enjoy the white tea base that AQ2T uses. I wish there was something more distinctly “ice brandy” tasting but I do get a delicate sweetness and fruitiness that’s not just from the white tea.

Hot cuppa from earlier in the week.

I had some more tooth pain earlier in the week, so I didn’t drink as much tea as I normally do on a few days because I was trying not to irritate it – but this is one of the cups I had during a point where it wasn’t super unpleasant, and I quite enjoyed it. The smoke is very strong and intense, as quite campfire-y but the peppermint is also VERY strong and cuts through it a lot, while giving the finish a big kick of menthol crispness. It’s a cool execution on this sort of “Fire and Ice” play, which I imagine is loosely the point given it’s a GoT blend?

Whatever the reasoning, I’m here for it.

Afternoon cuppa from today!

Added a bit of peppermint agave to this, and it was an amazing addition because it actually upped the cooling, menthol like notes in the blend by a lot while also (because of the sweetness) taking some of the edge off the Lapsang in the blend. I liked that I didn’t lose the LS though, because there really isn’t something fascinating and delicious to me about the pairing of very crisp, menthol heavy peppermint and a pine-y smoke note.

Certainly very distinctly smokey tasting, but this cup actually leaned more heavily towards the peppermint in the brew more than anything else – much to my surprise. In fact, while I deeply loved this one, I was shocked that halfway through the cup I found myself thinking that the profile seemed to have much less bite/edge to it than my first tasting, and I wanted a stronger and more abrasive flavour from the cup. I imagine I’m probably the only one who wants that – but none the less it’s what I was craving.

Aware enough of GOT/Pop Culture to understand the reference for this tea – but to be honest I bought it because I was interested in the combination of Lapsang and peppermint and not at all because of the GOT reference…

This is weird, but I think in a good way! It’s quite intense; definitely a very strong Lapsang Souchong with heavily full bodied smoke notes – the sort of “tire fire” smoke that turns off a lot of people, but that I find deeply compelling. The peppermint is also pretty strong; it’s really crisp and refreshing and I deeply enjoy this sort of intense smoke note with that menthol kind of finish. It’s so strong, but it’s incredible!

Wow – I love this! Refreshingly different.

- From the first Steepster freeze/lockout from a few weeks ago…
- Thick liquor and a rich flavour
- Creamy, nutty cashew butter w/ a hint of sweet and earthy carrot
- Anyone want to sign my petition for more cashew teas!?

From yesterday; really enjoy the balance of creamy coconut and nutty cashews in this tea. I don’t personally taste any carrot the majority of the time, despite it being a called out ingredient/flavour in the name, but I suppose it could be adding a degree of natural sweetness – that’s often what carrot is used for in tea blends (natural sweetness), aside from just adding a nice orange visual to the look of teas. What’s impressive to me is how distinctly the cashew tastes like cashew. With some milk, this is like drinking a cup of coconut cashew butter. Mmm!

From earlier this week.

This was a bit of a tea and food pairing – I made a stir fried cherry tomato and snow pea type thing with some sesame oil and a mandarin glaze, and I thought that the taste of both coconut and cashew would compliment the dish since both of those are flavour elements that compliment this sort of Thai/Asian inspired flavour direction…

It worked really well actually – the dish was sweet with a bit of acidity and then some crispness still from the snow peas and the tea was very smooth and nutty with a lot of creaminess from both the cashew and coconut. They seemed to work well together; neither food nor tea really stood out as the “stronger” flavour, and flipping back and forth between sips and bites made me appreciate the creaminess of the tea and sweetness of the mandarin even more. It just kind of ‘popped’!

Interesting cuppa!

It starts off with a bit of distinct coconut sweetness but then transitions into this interesting creamy and nutty profile that tastes pretty distinctly of cashews but in the sort of way that a savory and especially sweet cashew butter might taste, with a hint of earthy and malty undertones. I don’t particularly mind that it’s not a super sweet cashew though; with the sweetness of the coconut at the start of the sip and the creaminess that carries throughout it still is a really tasty blend and has a pleasant balance of flavour notes!

Remember earlier in the week when I had a couple different flavoured green tea blends from AQ2T because I was going through a weird tea craving streak? Well, this was the third tea in that series…

I was a good cup; primarily a mix of creamy/custardy notes and cinnamon (that woody but still very hot “cassia oil” sort of cinnamon thing). It actually reminded me a bit more of an eggnog profile in this mug than of a horchata, though. That could very well just be because it’s still kind of eggnog season in my mind – but regardless I loved the cup!

I think I got this tea around the same time DT released their Horchacha blend – but I’m only just now getting around to actually trying this one…

It’s fine but a little bit astringent and while all the flavours I would associate with Horchata are all present in some capacity I think the tasted of toasted brown rice is the most dominant flavour by quite a bit, and that feels somewhat out of place to me? Which I know probably seems strange because Horchata is made with rice; but this is just so much more of a Genmaicha profile than the rice notes I think you’d actually get from Horchata…

Had this one a few nights ago – I realized I had a lot more AQ2T white tea blends than initially thought, so I figured I’d try to work on finishing some of them off…

So much tea to drink, honestly.

I want to do a side by side with this tea and Dammann Frere’s Carcadet Fraise Pistache now because honestly, as much as there is a similarity in flavour profile/concept, there’s something super different feeling about both blends as well. I think tasting them next to each other would really help me isolate some of what that might be. I know this one is a lot less juicy, and it has a more artificial kind of feel overall – but it’s still very good. I love the pistachio in it; I wish AQ2T had worked more with pistachio as a flavour…

I’ve had this tea sample for a long time but am only just now (well, last week) getting around to trying it – my bad! There’s a quality to this, a flavouring or something like that, that is really reminding me of past blends from AQ2T that I’ve tried but I am struggling to totally nail down what exactly it is. Perhaps that’s because it’s simultaneously also reminding me quite heavily of Dammann Frere’s Strawberry and Pistachio herbal tea blend that I also keep stocked…

Regardless, it was very good!