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Teanzo 1856’s Advent Calendar, Day 11
What can I say? Everyone who has ever made a Steepster account has had chamomile at some point in their lives. What I do like about this tea is that it is organic and the size of the flowers are large and in charge. If I am going to have an herbal staple like a chamomile or a peppermint in my cupboard, I do feel better knowing that is organic.

As a lover of oolong, I tend to shy away from the higher oxidized ones as much as possible. Their flavor has always been weakly barley-esque. The one note teas that might as well be weak black teas. This oolong though may be the one to change my mind forever. This higher oxidized oolong has just as much complexity and subtle balance as any of it’s lighter cousins. The dry nose on this copper penny colored brew was light and fruity, like nectarine and honeysuckle. The result brew was a different story. I got a smell of warm cinnamon sugar on buttered multigrain toast. That was a theme that stayed consistent throughout 4 steepings in my gaiwan. On the second infusion I thought I detected a butterscotch element, but I lost it on the rest of the infusions. Oddly enough, I go an acidic smell from the brewed leaves that never transferred itself to the liquor. Lucky me! Although I was not able to brew it as many times as my other lightly oxidized oolong, I did have fun with this one until I got to that mellow black tea quality.

Teanzo Advent Calendar, Day 10!
There was a time when I did not like coconut as a flavor, or as an ingredient at all. I was blinded by the horrible texture of Almond Joys and Mounds and sugary, gritty, coconut shreds my mother ate by the mouthful. All that changed when my grandmother made her sweet sticky rice pudding with a can of coconut milk instead of regular milk because she had ran out without realizing it. To this day, Christmas is nothing without that sweet, cinnamon-y confection. I can taste that cinnamon-coconut sticky rice in this tea. I have come to love coconut in all of it’s forms and this is the first time I have had a coconut chai. My only regret is that it was not nearly as powerful as a chai.

I like to approach this tea as more of a kind of instant soup rather than tea, even if it has decaffeinated green tea in the blend. I think the green tea is a little bit pointless in these savory teas. I could not detect it at all. Nonetheless, there is so much going on in here, and I quite like it. I am drinking this in place of eating actual soup, simply because it is way more convenient to carry in my bag. The package directions instruct me to steep for 5 minutes or longer (?!) and that is exactly what I did. I would not EVER leave a teabag in the hot water forever, but seeing as I am no longer thinking of this as tea, surely enough, that is exactly what I did.
And nothing bad happened.
The onion and peppercorn flavors are a bit more prevalent than the carrot and curry. But they are present, and give this non-soup a thicker mouthfeel. This tea is strange. It’s like a weak soup with sweet onion and carrot flavors as well as aromatic peppercorn and fennel, as well as a little ‘curry.’
Would I drink this again? You bet your squishy Ass.

Day 9 of Teanzo’s Advent Calendar!
I quite like the combination of cardamom and rose. adding other spices to this blend made it more complex than I had anticipated. The licorice root adds a touch of natural sweetness than could have easily overpowered everything else if I had not been paying attention to my steep times. This would be a perfect after dinner tisane just for the fennel. I used to eat candied ginger and sugar coated fennel to ease nausea, and i am sure that this blend of not-quite-herbal-chai would definitely help those who have an upset stomach. I did indeed like this blend much more than their herbal spa, and not just because it had no hibiscus in it this time!

Day 8 of Teanzo’s Advent calendar:
I liked this green tea quite a bit. I read the back of the package last night and got excited. Acai berries are one of my personal favorite flavors. I use Sambazon’s frozen acai smoothie packs in my green smoothies as often as I can stand. It’s really one of the few ‘superfoods’ with a flavor that I doesn’t make me gag. (Don’t get me started on the time when I thought it would be a good idea to ‘lick’ some spirulina off my fingers….)
As for this flavored sencha, I don’t get too much authentic acai flavor. it is closer to a grape or a blueberry. With that aside, I rather enjoyed the taste regardless. It is a refreshing change to the past two days of traditional flavors. It’s bright, fresh, and fun to drink. Kinda reminded me of drinking juice, in a way.

Teanzo advent calendar day 6:
Yay, a Darjeeling! the muscatel notes were the first thing to hit my nose and my tongue. the two infusions i made in my western-style teapot were even and smooth. They definitely satisfied my tea thirst for the day!
Fun fact: the 1856 in the company’s name was inspired by the year that the first Darjeeling estate opened up for business.

I drink tea to transport myself to far away lands. When I take a sip of tea crafted with intent, I find myself transported to another place. Throughout the five steepings I got in my gaiwan, I felt as if I was sitting in a rustic log cabin, the smoky fireplace keeping me warm from the cold fog hugging the mountaintop (pardon my cheesiness, I daydream too often lol)
The dry nose had strong notes of dark chocolate-covered cherry. I revisited the cherry flavor on the brew, this time they tasted more like dried cherries. I also got a toast quality as well as a molasses-like sweetness.
All in all I am glad I got more than just a sample of this tea! It’s an enchanting black tea that is not too pretentious to drink every day.

Teanzo 1856 Advent Calendar day 7 –
A week into my first advent calendar, yay! This is quite a refreshing tea. I think Gunpowder was a great choice for this blend. The hardiness could not be drowned out by the ever powerful peppermint. I had this iced today, and I was pleasantly pleased by how it turned out. I used 20 oz. of cold water and the whole sachet of loose leaf, leaving it to steep overnight for about a total of 6 hours. The resulting brew was non-tannic, balanced and naturally sweet. This would be a great summer iced tea!