Violin in C Sharp

 I was surprised to get another mint tea so soon after the Moroccan Mint blend a few days before - but I admit that this is different enough to hold its own even against that lovely Moroccan Mint blend that I enjoyed so much. Unlike the Moroccan Mint, this actually doesn't have any tea in it.  It's a tinsane.  I've had more than my fair share of mint tinsanes, but honestly, I think this may be one of my favorites.  The liquorice root and toffee flavouring gives an added depth and complexity that I really enjoy.  Mint tinsanes can get a bit one note for me after a while, but this one was fun for the whole cup.  The toffee also combined with the mint to make for a surprisingly festive flavor. Final thoughts: Delightful.  A wonderful way to wind down at the end of a winter's day.

  As already established in a previous post, I love, love, LOVE Earl Grey variations.  As such, I was terribly excited to see what I assumed from the name was another Earl Grey variation.  So, I read the description and YEP another variation. I made a pot instead of a cup. I regret NOTHING. This is so damn good.  I usually prefer cream in my Earl Grey and derivatives, but this one is good either way.  The sweetness from the honey and the extra floral from the lavender softens the tea enough that I don't NEED cream.  Still, it's luxurious and tasty with the addition of cream as well.  I felt posh and fancy through the entire pot. Final thoughts:  OMG I may need to order a tin of this.  So good.

  When I opened this one, I was squealy happy because I was expecting it to be similar to a Harney & Sons blend with a similar name.   Alas, this blend did not have the depth or warmth of flavour I was hoping for.  It was mostly hibiscus and apple and.... nothing else much came through.  As such it was... meh. Final thoughts: Not memorable.  If you want a good spiced plum flavor stick with the Harney & Sons far superior version.

  Disclaimer - I don't like Chamomile - like... at all.  Chamomile tea to me tastes like water that's gone stale and dirty.  So, needless to say, when I saw the flavor on this day, I was NOT excited.  I made it anyway. So, on my first sip, the camomile was almost hidden completely by the bee pollen.... which.... is like honey in flavor but... not.  The write up is correct, there is a sweetness to this tea... as well as a waxy note... which builds with each sip.... and that I did NOT enjoy.  Unfortunately for my palate, as the waxy note builds up, the honey flavor fades and the camomile starts to peek through more and more.  What that meant for me was that half way through the cup I poured it out. Final thought:  Not for me.

 Hey look!  More word salad like we had on  Day 12 ! Only this time, it's with Darjeeling instead of Assam Ok, so as we learned on Day 12, the letters after the tea name are a rating of the quality of the tea.  However, you might notice that this has one additional letter in the word salad than the Assam did on DAY 12.  Yup, this is a grade higher in quality than Day 12's Assam.  FTGFOP stands for Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. The write up on the tea describes this as the "Champagne of teas" because Darjeeling is far more prized than most other regional teas.  It's the altitude and what it does to the flavor of the leaf.  Darjeeling has always tasted more earthy to me than other teas, and this blend is no exception.  It almost has a bit of a petrichor taste to it, which I do not find at all unpleasant. In all honesty, I had to look up what a "muscatel taste" means.  I read the word and immediately thought of muscatel wine, wh...

 As I've said before, I'm not the biggest fan of English Breakfast blends - but I do like Irish Breakfast, and Scottish Breakfast blends - so when I opened the little door and saw "Breakfast Blend", I decided to risk it again and make a full pot instead of a single cup.  After all, I've really been enjoying this blender's palate when it comes to their balances in the black tea blends. As was the case with my last bet/risk on making a full pot, I was not disappointed.  No regrets.  I enjoyed the entire pot for hours with the help of my little electric mug. So, was this a mind blowing blend worth writing home about?  No.  Still, you can taste the boldness from the Assam and it's a good wake me up tea.  It's a serviceable upgrade from a basic builders since it's got a higher quality tea than say PG Tips or Builders or Typhoo, and as such isn't as astringent or dusty in the flavour.  It holds up to milk better too - tasting more of tea with cream t...

 Owl's Brew is a company that I'm familiar with because I've been using their tea mixers for years now.  Hard Ginger Beer mixed with Owl's Brew The Classic cocktail mixer has been a favorite drink of mine for quite a while now.  As such, I was quite eager to taste their take on a hard tea seltzer.  So, I bought myself a variety pack of Owl's Brew seltzers at Trader Joe's.  Before I had gotten around to trying any of them, Sean brought THIS flavour home for me to try. I was hoping for an autumnal cranberry blast of flavour with a tea aftertaste, but that's not what I got.  This is more seltzer than tea on the palate and the cranberry isn't all that strong on the top or mid notes.  Actually, I didn't taste the cranberry at all in the top note, and it was weak in the midnote.  On the finish is where the cranberry really takes center stage.  The spices from the chai, however, are present in both the top and mid notes.  The tea part of the ch...

 Another tinsane today. I admit to not being terribly excited when I saw this one.  Mint infusions don't often do it for me.  And then I read the ingredients and saw that it's 100% peppermint leaves..... I began to worry more. I took the bag out of the foil and was shot in the face with a cannonball of MINT scent.  Oh lord the mint!  My entire kitchen suddenly smelled of mint from the one tea bag!  I mean.... look at that bag, that's nothing but peppermint.  It was like living in an elf house at the north pole levels of peppermint. Ok, so I brewed up the cup and took a sip..... and was delighted.  It was like drinking a hot steaming cup of unsweetened candy cane but ... in a good way.  I paired it with my lamb korma curry and was delighted all the way through the cup.   Honestly, a lot of that is just that the quality of the mint is superb. Verdict:  More please!

 I read the flavor of the day yesterday and a sense of dread made me go a little cold. Expectations for this tea:  1) I expect to HATE it.  2) I expect it to be so disgusting on my palate that it makes me gag. If you were on my tea advent journey with me last year, you will have learned that I despise chocolate in my tea.  Well.... there is a flavor I despise even more than chocolate and that is violet.  Violet candies, candied violets, violet flavoring.... to me, it all tastes like stale soap.  More often than not, the smallest bit of violet flavor will send me running to the bathroom to hurl.  And then, on top of the initial gag induction reaction, the soapy aftertaste always seems to linger on my tongue for hours after making the whole uncomfortable flavor a long term bother.  Hence my expectations for the blend. Looking at the tea bag did NOT help matters. I mean.... LOOK AT ALL THOSE FLOWER PETALS!!!  It's nothing but flower petals....

 Alright, so for those of you not steeped in the world of tea as deep as me, the Day 12 offering may require a bit of explanation. Assam TGFOP?  What on earth does that mean?  Why is there word salad at the end of the tea flavor?  Well, TGFOP is a grade of tea.  In case you didn't know, all tea actually comes from the same plant.  Assam, Green, Oolong, Darjeeling... these don't come from different types of tea plant, they are instead different in taste because of WHERE they are grown or how they are processed.  Both Darjeeling and Assam are named after the regions in which they are grown.  And YES, the region makes a huge difference in the taste. Ok, so then, the word salad - let's pick it apart.  OP stands for Orange Pekoe - which has nothing to do with oranges. I've done a lot of reading, and there isn't a consensus as to where exactly the phrase came from. Some say that the Orange refers to the Dutch House of Orange who helped popularize ...

 Saturday saw me leaving the house super early - too early for me, which made me need coffee.... I ended up having a three coffee morning and didn't get home until evening.  When I saw that the tea of the day was caffeinated, I decided to wait until the next day and play catch up. I've had Moroccan Mint blends from several companies and have never been impressed with the blend.  The idea of it has always sounded good to me, but the theory was far better than the practice.... until now.  This Moroccan Mint blend is what I have always wanted my Moroccan mint blends to taste like!  The Green Tea base was delicious, without a hint of grassy-ness.  The spearmint was far more dominant than the peppermint, but the peppermint was there enough to give a nice cooling end note so as not to end the flavor with the harshness that spearmint alone can leave on my palate. This was a delightfully soothing cup and EXACTLY what I needed and wanted after my long day the day be...

  Hooooo boy did I get excited when I opened the door and saw the name of this tea!  Earl Grey is black tea with bergamot, Lady Grey is Earl Grey with added cornflower, so I was super excited to see what sort of variation Countess Grey would be.  Turns out, Countess Grey is Earl Grey with added orange.  ORANGE!!!  *squee!* I love black tea with orange.  So, I imagined that Earl Grey with added orange would be the epitome of delightful on my palate.  I was so certain from the write up alone that I would like the blend, that I gambled and made not a cup, but an entire POT off of the tea bag. ....... I have NO REGRETS. It was delicious straight off the steep.  A lovely amount of bergamot with the added hint of citrusy orange.  On one of the cups, I added some cream and with the milk there is an added slight floral note that I'm not familiar with which I can only assume is the taste of the marigold flowers on the ingredient list.  It's not a...

  I have to admit to a lukewarm reaction when it was revealed what today's "tea" was on my calendar.  I tend to only drink Rooibos in complex blends with a lot going on, and not just straight Rooibos infusions.  And yes, contrary to the popular belief of many, rooibos IS an infusion.  Rooibos is NOT a type of tea, but is in fact a sort of tea substitute from South Africa.  It's a bush - a shrub called Aspalathus linearis and it tastes NOTHING like tea.  Not that it isn't a pleasant beverage to steep, but I tend to enjoy it more when there are other herbs and berries in the mix. None the less, I brewed up the cup of redbush "tea" to try it out.  After all, just because it's not something I usually drink, doesn't mean that I wouldn't like it!! ....... except that I didn't really like it.  It tasted like shrub water.  No, really - it tasted like I was sucking on a wet shrub close to the ground so that I could taste the dirt too.  I added mi...

 Shame on me - I forgot to write up my review yesterday! Alright, so when I read the name of the tea - I was NOT excited.  I'm not the biggest fan of either Elderflower or strawberry in my teas.  The whole thing sounded like it was going to be cloyingly floral and possibly horribly sweet. I made the cup according to the directions and added no milk. My first sip was like wrapping my mouth around a flower field.  Dear GOD there was SO MUCH FLORAL!!!  I nearly coughed.  It was overwhelming.  However, I learned my lesson well from Andrew Zimmern and his show Bizarre Foods - mainly that you can't judge anything from the first taste because often that first taste is your palate and your brain getting shocked away from the expectations your eyes and nose have given you.  The SECOND bite/taste is far more accurate.  So, I took a second and third sips - and the floral tamed (thank god).  After the third sip, I think I was getting the actual flav...

  This... was not at all what I was expecting. You see, I had an Apricot tea from Republic of Tea a little bit ago (I know, I know I'm slacking on my reviews, I'll get to it I promise) and for some reason, I expected this blend to resemble that one.  It does NOT.  Of course, the blend I was referencing in my expectation was a black tea with apricot, and this is an infusion with honey and lavender - so WHY I thought they would be at all similar baffles me in hindsight - but none the less, in the early morning hours those were my expectations.  Those expectations were shattered upon my very first sip. Upon the first sip, the Apricot came in on the top note, followed in the mid note by the rush of apple coated in the lavender.  The blackberry and liquorice start the end note, but it's the honey that mellows the finish.  The aftertaste is a mix of the apricot, the lavender, the rosehip and the lemon peel.  The apple and honey bring an AMAZING amount of nat...

 When I opened my tea today, I smiled when I saw the flavor, but I didn't immediately make myself a cup.  I've had many genmaicha blends before and knew that I simply wasn't in the mood for that flavor.  So, I put the bag back in its little pouch and went about my day. At 11pm, after a full day of D&D, I decided I wanted a cup of something warm as my roommate and I sat down to continue our journey through all the Hobbit and Lord of the Ring extended cut versions in story chronology order.  That's when I remembered, oh hey!  I still have today's advent tea!  And right then, genmaicha sounded like exactly the warm toasty flavor I was craving. I was not disappointed.   The roasted brown rice in this blend is such a delicious toasty note, and the green tea in this blend isn't at all grassy.  The write up is correct, it is on the sweeter side.  The slight sweetness of the green tea plus the toasty note from the rice made this pair perfect...