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Sipdown

This is a sad sipdown! I feel sure I will order it again sometime. This has powerful aroma, heavy on the fig when dry. When steeped it is a very even blend of fig and lavender in both aroma and taste. The base – hallelujah – is strong enough to let you know you are drinking black tea and not a cup of scented water. The base is not astringent or so brisk as to require milk or sugar.

It is a supremely well done flavored black tea and worth a try if you like these flavors.

Sipdown

February Sipdown Prompt – a tea best for afternoons

This tea has been a go-to for late afternoons, especially on warm days. We try to avoid caffeine after 3 pm because we have become sensitive to it and don’t fall asleep until the wee hours if we have it in late afternoon.This has no caffeine and is light and fruity. We drink it iced and sweet, and I hade two gallons of it in the past week and a half.

Sharedown

A young student has just fallen in love with tea and loves Paris, so I gifted her my tin of Decaf Paris so she can enjoy it in the evening as well. It is still within date and has enough for a number of pots of tea for the kids to enjoy together.

I will eventually repurchase when my stock of decaf teas gets low, but that isn’t a danger right now. Ha ha!

Sipdown

Ashman is still sick. Just a cold but he is sore and a bit miserable. He worked a half day and came home at lunch, so I made an Asian dumpling soup with frozen dumplings and fresh veggies and herbs in chicken broth, plus some red pepper flakes for a little heat to help clear his stuffy nose. We had some spring rolls on the side – again, just frozen ones I heated in the oven and some sweet chili sauce with a little kick. This tea was perfect with it.

I made three steeps with water at about 160F and kept the time to around thirty seconds. Second steep went long as I was multitasking unsuccessfully, but it was still perfect.

Always with this tea there is a lot of particulate matter in the pot but it does not cause any bitterness as “dregs” can sometimes do. This seemed especially mild today, perhaps because it was slightly less leaf since it was the last of the bag. It is so brothy and hearty. I will miss it.

I am so glad I finally got the hang of Japanese green tea. I really enjoy it!

February Sipdown Prompt – your most post-date tea

Sipdown!

Thanks to a really good year of sipdowns two years ago, I don’t have much that is past date. This one managed to go a little past and is possibly my only past date tea, and it only lasted this long because I was given so much tea last year as gifts that I couldn’t keep up with drinking everything even though I gave away lots of tea! Good problem to have.

This is one of Ashman’s favorites so I might get it again one day, but right now I am concentrating on cupboard control. It was somewhat overleafed because there was an awkward amount left, but we got four marvelous and flavorful Western steeps out of it for its last hurrah.

Ashman came home sick. It seems to be a cold so far, so I gave him our old standby Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine and then made a cup of this tea. I decided I would drink some in hopes it will strengthen my immune against whatever he has.

It is surprisingly tasty for a medicinal blend! It smells minty but as I sip I get a lot of ginger. I have never had mullein that I can recall so I don’t know what that is contributing. I was almost sure there had to be licorice root or something because it tastes a bit sweet, but nope, nothing like that in here.

I have chronically swollen sinuses because of multiple allergies and I think I am breathing better than I have in weeks. Hopefully it will do us both some good, especially since I need to be in tip top shape for surgery in 20 days.

This was a gift from our delightful derk, along with a jar of home made plum and cinnamon jam which I have already devoured! Thank you, derk!

I saved this to serve when my bestie next came to visit, and it has been almost two months since we have seen each other. First there was the busy pace of Christmas and then her family kept getting hit with viruses passing around from person to person so it has been a while. Today was our day!

Bestie only drinks green, white, oolong, and puerh tea. My cupboard is overwhelmingly black tea, so I make an effort to have something new for us to try when we get together instead of the same five greens or whites over and over.

My friend loves “food as medicine” and is a fan of manuka honey, so I was very happy to see that this has manuka leaf! I did not read the company description first, so I missed out on the tea turning blue first while steeping and then yellow. Darn.

She really liked the tea! The rose is light and sweet and if you didn’t tell someone it had rose in it, they might not guess. The rose petals were gorgeous and in the steeping basket the petals rose to top and were so pretty amongst the brilliant greens.

The tea is described as vibrant, and I would applies to the appearance and the flavor both. This is a zingy green with lots of high notes. It has a lot of energy. Bestie gives it a thimbs up, and said to make sure derk gets a thank you from her, too!

February Sipdown Prompt – a breakfast tea

This is a breakfast tea that is not at all like you expect a breakfast tea to be. The temperature is low, the steep is short, the color of the steeped tea is light. It does not need milk and sugar and it would almost be a crime to anything to this, but that’s just me.

These delicate buds from China yield a rich and creamy tea that resembles a Darjeeling or Ruby 18 with all briskness completely eliminated. Delicious. Three steeps easily.

No combat boots, here, gmathis. But you might get an afternoon neck rub out of it.

Sipdown

This is a decent rock oolong, but I wouldn’t consider it to be complex and award winning. That could be my fault – maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to it or something but it just hasn’t had a wow factor for me. Deep roasty notes, which I enjoy, are the main attribute of this tea. Most of it was taken to work by Ashman, but I finished the last teaspoon today.

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A delicious Earl Grey cream style tea with rich flavor. All the quality you expect from 52teas.
So glad to have tried it!