Bird & Blend Tea Co.

I don’t like the candy that this tea is named for, so I’m not sure what my reasoning was for buying it. The flavor is pretty similar to other B&B blends that contain chocolate. With sugar and milk, it’s pleasant. I don’t taste any nuttiness, but the cocoa shells are nice. It’s a mild, tasty blend. Nothing about it really stands out from other blends though, and as I mentioned, it’s quite light. Maybe overleafing this would make it more interesting. I made my resteep in a much smaller mug, and that actually tasted better than the first steep – like a dark chocolate hot chocolate. Yeah, I’ll definitely be overleafing in the future. I wish I tasted some nuttiness!

Last night was the first time I drank tea hot in over a month. (summer sucks) I had received this as part of my tea subscription several months ago but never tried it. I bet it smells heavenly, but since I don’t have a sense of smell, I didn’t get that. I didn’t get much flavor either. Sort of picked up on a floral taste. Kinda of soapy. Which is probably me, not the tea.

So for me this one was a pass. Probably another tea lover who can taste various flavorsw would have enjoyed this one a lot.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #20

I have put off trying this tea from Bird & Blend for years now because even though I adore banana teas I was scared of commiting to buying it with the green tea base/licorice root combo – both things that I don’t like.

So when I saw it in the box I had to pounce at the opportunity to try it! Turns out my reservations prevented me from enjoying a tea for years, because this mug is really good! I can taste the green tea a little bit but it’s quite mild, and the licorice root I really don’t taste at all – which is great! Instead this is super creamy/custardy banana! Like banana pudding or banana cream pie. I finished this mug so quickly, and immediately wanted another one…

So…

I’m keeping the rest of this tea; it’s something that I know I’m going to want to experiment further with for sure!

This is a tea I’ve been wanting to try for a while, so I was happy to pick some up during the last sale. The flavor is quite festive. I enjoy it a little more with milk and extra sugar. I’d say it’s a moderately spiced black tea, though I wouldn’t say there’s much cakey about it. The main flavors are clove and maybe light orange? I guess I expected this one to be more flavorful and special. It’s all right, but there are many superior teas in its category.

I just eyeballed the amount of tea and brewed.

Not boiling, again I think it was around 80°C.
The sencha base is quite nice, although in taste isn’t the most present. But it was grassy and smooth. The expected flavour profile is there present! Yep, I notice it was quite melon-seed like and overall it was round and nice. Of course, recreating the melon flavour without any actual melon is quite hard, but I think they managed it fairly well!

Food pairing: Blueberry and cream koláč (kolach) and our garden apple, Wealthy varietal. Yum!

Prepared hot unlike the others; two teaspoons, hot, but not boiling, water.

Straweberries and pomergranate → melon? Well, yes, a bit I think!

The tea was nicely grassy, noticed quite strawberries and even the melon flavours. They weren’t super pronounced, but they were there.

Actually it was very tasty and nice for, this time exceptional, weather. We had small thunderstorm around the noon, but in the afternoon the skies cleared and was nice weather to have coffee/tea outside on the porch.

July 2020 subscription

I am not impressed. Dry it smells like loads of oranges, so I used two teaspoons for my DIY tea bag and… not impressed with results after 5 minutes steep.

It is quite generic fruity, tends to oranges a bit, but certainly noticed hibi and rosehips. It wasn’t much fresh oranges as I have hoped, nor any other citrus fruits. Why there are in sprinkles?

Thanks so much for allowing me to sample this, AJRimmer!  I had forgotten what lebkuchen was, even though other Steepsterers had been talking about it, but immediately upon sipping the tea, it clicked: GINGERBREAD.  I was wishing I had kept this to try in the colder months, as it is a thick, spicy, warming blend that is perfect for autumn/winter.  I could hardly ask for the tea to taste more like gingerbread, but somehow it is vastly different from B&B’s ‘Gingerbread Chai’ that is also very much like gingerbread.  I wouldn’t say there is anything salted caramel about this blend, but possibly it tastes like salted caramel when much fresher.  But otherwise, it certainly has a thick, chewy aspect to the tea that could only be gingerbread.  A simple addition of caramel cubes would have made this more caramel – though I’m not sure how vegan those typically are (and B&B is only vegan, I think?) I will be enjoying the last of this in the colder months!
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 1/2 minute steep
2020 sipdowns: 57 (Teavivre – Nonpareil Anxi Qing Xiang TieGuanYin Oolong)

Thanks to tea-sipper for this one! I’ve also had a sample of it from Mastress Alita, though I didn’t write a note at the time. The mint is really good. I’m having it at room temperature, and the flavor is so clean and fresh. I don’t taste any pistachio or black tea, but the mint is some of the best mint I’ve had. Really pleased with this one, though I don’t think I’d buy it over a caffeine-free mint blend.

My 1,000th tasting note!

I thought about choosing something special to mark the occasion, but in the end I’d had this one set aside to try so I went with it. Kind of regret it now. This isn’t really what I expected. I mean, it’s chocolate and coconut, but it’s kind of a weak chocolate and I’m not tasting any sort of marshmallow flavor. I bought it around the holidays, so I don’t think it would be too old yet. Maybe I’ll try two teabags next time instead of one.

The good part about the whole thing is that I got to celebrate my thousandth tasting note with my younger brother. I haven’t seen him in a couple of months since we’re still being really careful, but he needed to come by and get a few things out of the attic so we took some time to visit and have tea. He had a really delicious-smelling Earl Grey, which might have added to my instant regret over my tea choice.

This is a bit of a confusing blend. The main flavor is chamomile, though I can taste a bit of spice underneath. It’s blue from the butterfly pea flower, which isn’t too present in the flavor. I’m not sure what this blend is going for exactly. It tastes fine since I like chamomile. Just mild and pleasant, definitely not what you’d think of as chai. Thanks to amandastory516 for this one!

I never buy cider type teas since I usually find them all to be the same. For some crazy reason, I decided to buy some of this one during the last sale. I’m drinking it very hot since that’s the way I would drink my cider during the winter as a kid. It’s definitely better than bagged cider teas. I’m not sure it’s super special, but I am enjoying it well enough. I can taste the fruit and the spices evenly. It’s a good blend. After I finish my 50g, I probably won’t buy any other ciders for another year or two.

This was my first tea of the morning yesterday, and I felt a bit conflicted all while drinking it. It was VERY delicious and the perfect mesh of buttery and creamy vanilla and pastry with soft and supple white peach notes – however I was feeling very nauseous and this is a really rich tea so I kept going back and forth on if I actually wanted to finish the mug. It seemed like such an awful shame to toss it, but I was so queasy already…

In the end, I finished the mug and then just took an extra Gravol. It was worth it.

#battleofthepeaches

Last, but certainly not least, in my cold brew ranking from this collection is Peach Cobbler! My number one spot!

This was a total curve ball for me, because I expected that I’d probably like it hot but I was anticipating the cold brew to be a bit rougher. I was really surprised by how smooth and delicious it was as a cold brew though while still perfectly capturing the flavour notes that I both wanted and expected a “Peach Cobbler” tea to have!

This was the first of the blends where the peach felt altered from this fresh and juicy “sweet peach” kind of note – it was instead a little more baked/cooked down and subdued in flavour while still being a consistent presence in the sip. That approach to the flavour really helped sell me on why this was some type of baked peach pastry type dish and not just a creamy peach, because in addition to that peach flavour there was also a very rich creamy vanilla component as well. That creamy vanilla/baked peach element worked so incredibly with this buttery pastry flavour in the infusion and the malty and bready notes of the black tea base as well. It felt so well thought out and executed. I could not keep my paws off the brew, and I also still see it working well hot or with milk; I really value a tea with versatility.

Yum!!

Photos of all the brews: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCLpF0UgyNO/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuvf4gQ4j68

#battleofthepeaches

Second place cold brew in terms of collection ranking, but very close with the one that I chose for third place…

I expected to enjoy this one, though not as much – it also still had some surprises to it. It’s the only rooibos in the collection but I visibly didn’t see a lot of rooibos in the leaf that I had measured out for the collection so it was very surprising how intense that flavour was in the infused tea. Really forward and strong rooibos flavour, which is a bit mineral and a bit nutty like hazelnuts, which might be a turn off to some but I happen to really enjoy the grade of rooibos that Bird and Blend uses in their teas…

Aside from that strong flavour, it’s a good marriage between three complimentary flavours; peach, raspberry and cream/vanilla. Definitely all three come through, and yes it leans a little artificial (especially in terms of the cream flavouring) but I still enjoy it. It gives me Campino/yogurt candy vibes a little bit. There’s hibiscus in this so a latte is a no go, but it’s the type of flavour profile that really feels like it would work well as one.

Enjoyed this a lot!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIN_8Xg_XJg

#battleofthepeaches

Third place cold brew, but so close to tying with my second place choice. I liked this one a lot and since it was the first one that I had tried I was actually legit worried that I had started with the best and it would only go downhill from there…

This was one of the two peach blends I was most excited about on name alone, but what I saw the ingredients list I was a little confused because peach and cardamom is one of the weirdest approaches to a peach soda inspired tea that I can imagine. I would have expected either peach and a citrus of some kind for more of a “Sprite” feel or vanilla for a take on a “Peaches and Cream Soda”. I’m honestly not sure what the idea was here. Maybe it’s a UK thing lost on me? I don’t know.

Regardless of the naming miss, this tastes really good – and is a very fresh and unique take of peach that I really appreciate. It does feel a little more autumnal or “harvest-y” to me, probably because of the cardamom, over summer but both of the two flavours come through really clearly and are very balanced with one another. I wouldn’t call this more of a fruit blend than a spiced blend just like I couldn’t call it more of a spiced blend than a fruit blend. It’s also just right in terms of sweetness level, and very refreshing!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7sQzI8Bw04

Cold Brew Sipdown (1076)!

I should have snapped a photo of this brew, but I didn’t think to. There was so much small cut pieces of butterfly pea flower at the bottom of my bag of this, though, that it was the richest, most deeply blue infusion I’ve ever seen from a butterfly pea flower tea…

In terms of taste, it was nice! I actually don’t remember a lot about what I thought of this tea from the Battles of The Peaches – so that speaks I think to the memorability/uniqueness of the profile of this tea. I thought this was more blueberry forward, by quite a bit, but still had some nice peach to it. I’d be fascinated to know how much of that impression is unconsciously influenced by the colour of the tea. I like to think that I have a really good palate, and I’m actively aware of how colour can influence your perception of taste – but that doesn’t mean my monkey brain isn’t capable of still falling for that trick! Aside from the blueberry/peach, this is also pretty floral. Not surprised to have a floral note crop up given the presence of butterfly pea flower (and so much of it). It’s a weird kind of floral note – just a hint “musty”.

Happy to have sipped down a herbal tea sample – good tea overall, but not a wildly memorable one. There were better peach teas this summer.

#battleofthepeaches

My fourth place pick – this is another one that tasted perfectly fine but lacked some of the “spark” that I got from other teas in this collection. It was very pretty when infused, because of the butterfly pea flower in it, and that resulted in this gorgeous purple coloured liquor with a reddish undertone.

The taste was a little thin, and I think that this will probably be a stronger tea as a hot cuppa. What surprised me was that the peach was much stronger than the blueberry, and I guess for a peach collection that’s probably better? I have a serious soft spot for blueberry blends though…

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj0rOtdoJ1g

(Good song in general – but the part that hooks me is the way he says “I’m so happy”. There’s something weird and magical about that delivery that makes my ears tingle…)

#battleofthepeaches

This was my fifth place cold brew from the battle, though I didn’t mind it. As I said on instagram, the orange and peach flavours both come through as sort of sweeter, candy like flavours along with something more tropical tasting – it’s a bit like a sherbet or maybe even a “Froot Loops” type of flavour. My main issue was just that the overall flavour was quite generic and forgettable.

I also observed that, after finishing my instagram post, there was a building and almost floral flavour note as I drank the brew that got to be a little overwhelmingly artificial and perfumey.

I’m sad I didn’t love this one more – Peach and Orange always reminds me of Fuzzy Navels, which is the first cocktail I learned to make for myself when I started drinking. It’s a little nostalgic, and while this was a fine tea it didn’t capitalize on that nostalgia the way it was set up to…

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYLZq390IHg

#battleofthepeaches

So, this past week I went through all six of the peach tea blends from Bird & Blend as cold brew teas as part of their summer Battle of the Peaches campaign – I wanted to do this earlier, and I even ordered my teas as part of their subscriber pre release, but because of international shipping and Covid-19 delays I only ended up getting the teas right at the end of the campaign…

I posted an instagram story daily for each tea going through some thoughts on the cold brews – those stories are now saved as a highlight in case you missed them. Finally, after I’d gone through all of them I posted my final ranking for all the teas – so I’m going to write now starting from my least favourite to my favourite.

Obviously, Peach Julip came in sixth place for me – and once I knew the ingredients for the blend that was kind of what I’d expected would happen because there’s just so much green tea in this blend. It was one of the two new teas though that, based on name alone, I was most excited about initially.

Even if I was a green tea fan, though, I don’t think that this would have fit what I’d envisioned a “Peach Julip” tea tasting like – it was just a ton of sage and green tea and actually very little peach coming through at all. Plus, a Julep is usually made using whiskey and mint and there’s NOTHING in this blend that conveys those flavours at all. So this was really a miss for me in accuracy and execution.

It was also the only one of the six teas that I truly disliked. You can’t love them all, and if there was only one that I disliked overall then that seems like a win anyway…

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AeYJuxqu3A

(Ironic song choice, all things considered)

sample from VariaTEA from yesterday. enjoyed this one but glad i have a bit more to really pay attention to it haha