Clipper

I have a tea bag. I have no idea where I got it. From swap, from postcrossing or I bought it myself?

Anyway, caffeine-free tea for evening. Tomorrow another inventory check. Quite far (3 and half hours by bus).

Yep, just a rooibos. Nothing else, nothing more. Little extra points for being organic.
Do not expect much and you will be happy with this one. No bad notes, little honeyish taste, nice tea bag design.

Enjoyable :)

refreshing and fruity

I was sent this tea from my best friend Andy in the UK. It’s a light taste, I have it almost every night with a bit of milk, no sugar. It doesn’t knock me out of course but it’s relaxing enough.

Again…
Much shorter, as I don´t recall it so well. Can´t we have some autosaves for tasting notes?

I have a physics exam today again, I did not studied much for it. As an extra – I have flu. I brain feels boiled, can´t focus at all.

Colour of brew is brown, nothing really fancy – maybe yellow (golden) notes.
Aromas are lemon, slightly sour and herbal.
Taste is very similar – lemon, but with some herbal aftertaste.

Overall, it is quite okay. Maybe my teaste buds are numb, so I can´t enjoy it so much. I feel numb completely myself.

Finished a cuppa; it went better than expected. A verbena in makes me feel bit better probably (I googled few effects it should have), yerba maté woke me up and overall it was nice blend. Not that I would make another cup, but certainly nice. Now, to the physics.

So I have been putting off entirely updating my Steepster cupboard, because honestly, I know it’s insane and people will think I’m being buried under tea. I promise, the tea is organized. I will slowly add them all over the next few days. SO don’t be alarmed, even if I know there is ONE serving left, it’s a variety of tea that is going on the Steepster cupboard until it’s a sipdown. Updating the cupboard is so when I’m even remotely thinking of acquiring more tea, I will just take a look at the number and slap myself upside the head. I’m not trying to win the Steepster crazy cupboard award. Of course I appreciate all these teas, but too much is too much. And I need to enjoy the awesome teas that I already have. I guess it’s also a problem when I feel like tea companies will go out of business without purchases. And there are only so many tea drinkers and SO many tea shops. So I feel like I should buy from them and support them once in a while… especially the small companies.

This is a random teabag from an ancient teabox. I love the name. (Oh, I’m NOT putting individual teabags in the Steepster cupboard at least.) This one might be too old to judge, but it wasn’t bad. I’m sure it’s much better fresh. Hints of lemon, lavender and mint and very savory.

364/365

I assume the name of this one is a play on “War & Peace”, that notable sleep-inducer. I find that cutely amusing, but in practice this is a pretty ordinary blend – chamomile, lemon balm, and lavender. The flavour isn’t bad, but it’s not unique or particularly inspiring – I mostly get lavender, with just a hint of lemon, and then the sweetness of chamomile in the background. It’s like a lot of sleep teas I’ve tried, in that respect, but I’m always up for trying a new one! So far, the Twinings Superblends and Bird & Blend’s Dozy Girl have been most effective for me, but both seem to give me crazily vivid dreams, which is a side effect I could do without. So, the search continues…

I didn’t experience any dreams with this one, but I’m not sure that it really helped me get to sleep. It took me at least an hour to drop off. I felt I stayed asleep more readily, although that could be coincidence. I’ll have to give it a few more tries before I can say for certain. I wouldn’t say I particularly like the flavour, but that’s more to do with my own personal preferences than anything else. I’m not generally a fan of floral teas, but sleep blends tend to be that way inclined. It’s drinkable, but not particularly…interesting? I’ve tried more flavoursome options, let’s say. Still, I don’t tend to drink sleep teas for the flavour, on the whole. It’s time I stopped complaining.

I’ll persevere for a while, certainly long enough to finish the box. You never know, after all.

194/365

I got these tea bags “free” with my flat when I moved in last year, and they’ve basically sat unloved in my cupboard since. Not for any particular reason, I think I just kept forgetting they were there. Since it’s firmly iced tea weather now, I decided to use up a decent handful of these by making sweet tea. The recipe that seems to strike about the right balance for me is 6 tea bags in 2 cups water for 5 minutes, with 1/4 cup of sugar. I then top it up to 2 litres with water.

It’s one of the best ways I know to ensure I get plenty of caffeine without having to drink hot tea all summer. I get caffeine withdrawal headaches if I go more than 3 hours without tea, but I blame my parents for giving it to me as a baby. Talk about addicted. The only problem with sweet tea (and my new best friend, anything cold brewed in lemonade) is the amount of sugar. I’m just glad I don’t have to go to the dentist anytime soon…

Anyway, this tea is strong enough to make a good base for sweet tea. It’s still possible to taste the black tea, rather than just sugar water, but it is still very sweet. It strikes a good balance, which is exactly how I like it. Clipper’s everyday seems more tannic than my usual Twinings, maybe with a tendency to be a little harsher/more astringent. I drank a hot cup with milk last night as part of my using-up spree, and found it malty but with a slight bitterness in the background. I’d not switch from my usual to this, but it’s not a bad substitute by any means.

Well, this tea converted me to a chamomile drinker. I always wanted to like chamomile (it seemed so iconic in the tea world), but just didn’t. Until I picked this up through TJ Maxx, and low and behold, I loved it. I stashed away a few boxes so I would not run out (sound familiar??) Alas, I have finally run out.( My next “go to” chamomile now is Ahmad chamomile lemongrass.) I love to drink an herbal at night, with a little honey.

057/365

Something simple this morning, for the first full week back at work. I found this one surprisingly malty, so probably quite heavy on the Assam, but with brighter, citrussy Ceylon notes. I think I actually prefer it to Twinings English Breakfast, which is something of a revelation to me. It’s so much maltier, and I really like that, although I wouldn’t necessarily drink it on an empty stomach.

Not much to say about this one, but I’m glad I tried it. It’s nice to find that I can still be surprised by something as ordinary as an EB!

Honeybush and orange are dominant in aroma, coconut hides in the background.
The taste is dry, slightly sour, warming, with heneybush, orange and coconut nicely balanced.

I’m not sure why you’d waste single origin organic Assam on fanning grade in a paper bag, but whatever… It was alright. Surprisingly it didn’t get bitter despite getting distracted by work when I had the best of intentions to pay attention. I didn’t use boiling water though. It wasn’t what I’d call malty, but it was better than the normal bags you get in a restaurant. I’d probably take it out of the paper bag and use a cloth one or a really fine infuser. I still taste the paper a bit even though it’s unbleached.

It’s just a mild, inoffensive black tea. Stronger than Ceylon but not as strong as a truly good Assam.

I keep trying these British brands, hoping to like one enough to keep it around, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The licorice was too overpowering in this blend and didn’t fit in well with the flavour profile. I would have liked more of a tart citrus note from the lemon and a bit more spice from the ginger. This is not what I would expect lemon and ginger to taste like.

The chamomile and lavender aromas are at the forefront in the brewed cup. These two aromas seem to go together very nicely.

The flavour is very mild- the lavender is washed out alongside a very weak chamomile. I suspect that the decaffinated green tea in this is making the brew taste a bit strange to me.

Sipdown 51/375!

Man my cupboard is not as up-to-date as I thought it was. This tea belonged to my flatmate over a year ago and I had a cup or two out of curiosity – I have no idea why it’s in my cupboard. I actually didn’t hate this! I don’t remember too much about it, but it was very one-note, and I do enjoy the flavour of nettle tea.

it just tastes like… tea. Literally like cheap green tea. Kind of bitter (I only steeped it for about a minute in hot, not boiling water?!) and generally just not great. You’re better off getting white tea from another company, this was a real letdown