Cornelia Bean

Sipdown (174/178)!

Wow, look at that sipdown progress! I’m starting feel less fearful about my Red Leaf/52Teas orders arriving and any incoming swaps!

Thanks a bunch VariaTEA for the sample of this! It’s the second green from your giant package of them that has really surprised me with how good it is. For the prep I, of course, cold brewed last night while I slept. So, it cold brewed for a pretty good nine or so hours – potentially closer to eight.

Basically it’s a light green that leans towards a more buttery kind of quality – with a very creamy but somewhat generic fruitiness to it. And the fruitiness is strong and potent – just not abundantly “rhubarb”. I would maybe venture to call it somewhat more strawberry like. It’s very good though and I’m quite happy and content drinking it.

I don’t know if I’d want to buy this in any sort of quantity for myself – but I wouldn’t pass it up if offered in a swap or just served to me in general. I’m actually pretty curious how it would fair hot…

Thank you for sending this my way VariaTEA. It’s interesting to get a tea from a local company, from someone else. I really do appreciate it, because this is not one I would choose for myself.
I actually liked this. It’s sweet and caramelly with just a hint of floral in the back. I don’t normally do well with floral, but this is just a bit and seems to go well with the sweetness of the fig and caramel. Thank you for this interesting experience. I really liked it!!

Sipdown (192/196)!

This was an easy enough sipdown to take with a cold brew so that’s exactly what I did with the sample from VariaTEA since this totally just screamed cold brew.

When I opened it up to set up the cold brew the smell was intoxicating and intense and smelled so strongly of sweet, borderline overripe strawberries. I knew in an instant that I would love this tea and I was so sad to be parted with it already. The colour of the cold brew threw me off a little though; it’s was really light and pale.

Taste wise: like a strawberry bomb went off in my mouth. It really was a sensory overload in the best way ever and now I’m crushed that this is gone. So, so sad. However, that makes two Cornelia Bean blends that I’d order in an instant which is actually 2/2 tried. That’s promising, and I have lots of other Cornelia Bean samples to try out so if there are a couple more I fall in love with then who knows – there might very well be a CB order in my near future!

My browser crashed and I lost my note. Sad panda. :(

This tea is really interesting. The ingredients really made me do a double take… I mean, caramel, rose, and rosemary? What?

But the tea is pretty good! A little floral for me because I ended up with a whole rose bud in my steeping basket, but a really interesting combination of flavours.

Thank you for suggesting this one, VariaTEA! Or did I suggest it? I don’t remember anymore. :)

Looking at the ingredients, I am not surprised to find rose hips and hibiscus in this. Is it ever tart! I cold brewed some and I like a tart iced tea, but even I am trying to work out if this is a good tart or a bad tart. I want to say that the dominant flavour is cranberries, but there does not appear to be any actual cranberry in the leaf, so I take it I am tasting the tartness from the hibiscus and attributing it to cranberry. The apple is present, under the berry, but really, it is the tart hibiscus/berry you are tasting. Overall, the flavours don’t clash, but the whole blend tart, bordering on downright sour.

I am glad I brewed some of this up, and I think it is a well blended tea, but I am not sure if it is the berry blend I am looking for.

Hmm. AKA Rooibos Cream.

Yeah, IDK, VariaTEA. It’s not quite rooibos, but the rooibos is very very present. Of course, it’s screaming hot at the moment, so it might change as it cools down. Too bad I need to go sleep now. I might update in the morning (if I remember), how the tea changes when cold.

:)

Better tasting note later, for sure though.

Love it – not just nutty – this is walnut. You can actually taste the little bit of bitter that walnut skin has.
If you like walnuts, you will like this.

A big ol shoutout to VariaTEA for sending this my way!
I just finished off the rest tonight :)

A lovely tea, a lovely rooibos! I haven’t had rooibos in so long, and I actually brewed it the normal way to see if my taste has changed, but nooope. I still like my rooibos in the hottest water ever steeping in 15+ minutes. I steep it for as long as I can!

In other news, my roommate tripped and fell down the stairs this morning sooooo it’s a party at our place and my roommates and I are in her room watching Netflix and drinking tea :))

Dude.
Swaps are taking over my entire life right now.
Thank you VariaTEA for including this tea in our swap!
Ahh DRINK ALL THE ROOIBOS!!!

I actually only picked this tea up from out of the package because of the name. Dude, Swaziland? Sounds way cool :)
Thank you Rachel for giving me so many rooibos teas, and actually helping me at least try to cut caffeine out of my nighttime routine haha.

Accidentally weighed out 4g of this even though I’m using my 8oz mug, Ahh well, at least I love all my rooibos like super way overleafed and oversteeped :)
It smells interesting. Like nice, sweet south african rooibos, but I definitely smell hints of flora… and cinnamon? I think it’s just my nose playing with me hahah
Okay seriously, I feel like it’s a good thing that I added too much tea for this mug. After like 5 minutes, I tasted it and it’s just leafy water. I don’t know, I’m just weird with my rooibos okay
IT’S GOOD! I like it a lot! But I’m probably going to let this steep for another like 10 minutes :)

It’s a really nice rooibos. I really like the sweetness of the rooibos, and yet there’s a bit of a punch with the fruity flavours. Yep. It’s good :)

So good. Rooibos form of Bayswater Divine Temptation. Wee hazelnut nougats. Nice nutty sweet flavour.

I “had” to finish the maple whipped cream otherwise it would go watery, don’t ya know… :)

(2.5 tsp in 16 oz-ish)

Yep, this is Divine Temptation by Bayswater in rooibos form.

Yum yum yum.

Mostly nougat, really nice with a little almond milk, would buy again (but probably local as this is available in a couple places here).

Boozey, nutty, rooibos. It’s actually really nice this evening with some maple whipped cream on top. Too bad the boozey flavours are so overpowering when it’s plain.

Thanks for sharing, VariaTEA. :)

Wow! Boozy hazelnut rooibos (kinda sorta) tea!

Like! Yes, I do like this one. Very hazelnut, but not an overpowering flavour unless you consider the booziness. That really surprises me, actually. The rooibos lends itself well to a base for this flavour, and isn’t hugely apparent.

I’ve never had frangelico before, so I have nothing to compare it to. But this is good!

For a hazelnut tea, I prefer Zen Tea’s Bossa Nova, but it’s caffeinated and this isn’t. So there is that.

Thanks for suggesting this one, VariaTEA!

This tea has a ton going on! I could not believe how long the ingredient list was, and that was only the ingredients available to choose! I cold steeped a pitcher of this today. It brewed super fast and the hibiscus was very apparent in the dark pink hue the finished tea took on.

In terms of flavour, it has all the tartness from the hibiscus with notes from the lemon grass and the peach bits. I think it is a peachy tea, but a very tart peach. I am finding it refreshing, but I tend to like a bit of hibiscus in my teas to add that touch of tartness to them.

I can’t see this doing as well as a hot tea, but I have to admit it is pretty amazing cold steeped! This will be showing up more in my pitcher as the weather warms up!

How is it possible that I haven’t logged this?
I drank the last of it last night and just went to remove it from my cupboard and noticed that I’ve never logged it. How rude!!

This is one of my favorite from Cornelia Bean. It’s almond, it’s caramel, it’s something like burnt toffee, it’s oooey goooey sweet. Even better steeped with the MissB lower temp shorter steep trick.
If I’m ever allowed into Cornelia Bean again, I will pick up more of this – awesome desserty type tea.

I double steeped this into a travel mug today, and drank it on my way home from work.

Unfortunately, it does not stand well on its own. Much much much better with milk added. The puerh and the berry are just so distinctly separate, it’s like you’re actually drinking two teas. I’m not a fan. So I think this tea needs to leave my cupboard.

Today, with cream.

Mmm…

A little “flavoured” tasting, as in I am getting a tiny bit of chemical taste. But still, I really like the flavour combo. It’s more earthy steeped at 212F than my usual 195F (I do 195 because my kettle holds that temp for 30 minutes.)

Puerh is definitely a good thing to have with the slowcooker ribs I had for breakfast today. :)

… interesting. Definitely black currant, definitely puerh. I think I quite like it, but it’s not what I was expecting (what was I expecting?).

With almond milk.

Yum yum. So orangey. Also with nettle leaves, for the health factor.

Yum. Another favourite. Good thing the bag is never ending, because the minimum $100 order means I’m unlikely to ever get more of this one!

Lovely orangey sagey nettley tea. It’s super good with honey, but I’m not having honey tonight.

Oh, I’m really really liking this tea. Thanks for the order idea, VariaTEA! :)

So orangey. So sweet and herbal. Lemony as well. I like it best with ~1/4 tsp honey in a 16 oz mug, but it’s good plain as well.

SMELLS SO GOOD. So orangey. And it’s soft and bouncy like a pillow!

Steeping, it smells divinely orangey.

Steeped, it tastes orangealicious. And a little herbally from the nettle and chamomile.

SO GOOD. Well. Unless you don’t like one of the ingredients and then it would be terrible. But for an orangey, nettle-and-chamomile-and-other-things tea? This is really really nice. I bet it would be good with a little honey, and poured over ice, too.

This isn’t my favourite tea because the rooibos is kinda heavy and overly present. However, it smells divine and has worked out really well this evening with half a spoon of Teavana’s Limeade Twist and 1/4 tsp honey.

Yum.

I think I need more.