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Been keeping this one in the back of my cupboard for a minute. I remember the last two times i had this tea that the flavors were unexciting. Decided to give this one a final try before adding it to the Everything Jar, where all my meh tea goes to mingle. Can’t wait to try it once there’s a few more tea crumbs in there hehehe.

Was very pleased to find that this tea had some great flavors hidden in it still. I must have not brewed it well the last time, because I’m getting some lovely mingling of cinnamon and pastry on the forefront, with a floral touch in the back of the palate. It’s reminiscent of a cinnamon babka, complete with the raisins. Babka, for those who have never had it, is like if a croissant and a shortbread cookie had a child. It’s typically rolled in layered swirls with chocolate (my favorite) or cinnamon with dried fruits (also amazing).

This tea is sweetly dessert like, and I’ve got about enough tea to make a sipdown the next time i visit it. Can’t wait to bring it with me to work to finish it off!

Been using this tea a blend-making tea, just realized that I haven’t tried this on it’s own! I’ve made myself some smoked early grey, smoky vanilla black, and am plotting making a chai with this tea as well. I’m a huge smoky fan, so it’s very satisfying to have an everyday LS to mix with other teas.

On it’s own it’s fine. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it is a good base tea. The chopped leaves have longevity while steeping, and the BBQ smokiness is complimented by a lingering sweetness. It’s a great, blendable tea!

And just like that – it’s a sipdown folks!

Got a few more genmaicha’s waiting for me on deck, it’s become an afternoon staple for me

Teary-eyed sipdown. Didn’t know that i had so little of this tea left in my canister until I brewed some up last night. Took my time saying goodbye to the best hojicha i’ve ever had. On the other side of the bittersweet coin, I can now crack open the new hojis I got in my last Yunomi order :)

Simultaneous first tasting note and a sipdown!
This tea came in a small amount in a beautiful tin, so I must have gotten this with Young Mountain Tea kickstarter waaay back in 2016 lol. Found it in the bottom of my stash and brought it to work to replace my daily black tea.

The leaves are absolutely gorgeous. Long, thinly rolled, smooth needles, with a few silver tips floating here and there. I split the small amount (probably 5g) into my all purpose work kyusu, spent some time with the leaves before finishing up the sample after the first half of the leaves were spent. The tea was so delicious, but I’d rather move on to another equally wonderful tea and keep the ball rolling than to hoard 2.5g lol.

The brew is a warm golden honey, smooth and thick in body. I get classic dark cherry notes and raisin, with only small hint of astringency at the tail end. It’s very clear that this tea was made with skill and love. Gotta love black tea for keeping it’s profile locked away until you’re ready to drink it. I’m adding this to my re-order list for sure.

Drank some DIY herbal for Ashmanra’s monthly prompt: April 17th – national herbalist day!

I have so many random herbals lying around, gifts from others a homegrown mix here and there; and an old roommate of mine got into herbalism while we were living together so I have a lot of their test blends hahaha. For this prompt, I chose to go with something a little special – my partners old roomie now has a house in central MA and has a lush butterfly/tea garden. He gifted us a little jar of his personal blend – red clover, mint, rose, lemon balm, sage, and lavender. Sounds like a chaotic blend, but all the flavors were pretty subdued and thus made for a very light herbaceous brew. The lavender, lemon balm, and clover were the stronger flavor players in this blend, and I certainly didn’t hate it! It made my allergies and scratchy throat feel so nice :)

Made this iced with McNulty’s Kenya tea mixed in. So I’m using this moment to call it for ashmanra’s monthly prompt – A Tea From Africa!

Sort of wish I still had my Zomba pearls for this prompt. Ah well.

I did a 50/50 mix of this tea and the Kenya tea. brewed it western style, hot, and cooled it into a pitcher with some lemon and sugar. It’s one of my favorite summertime teas! The Kenyan tea adds a brisk tartness that really lends itself to the lemon in this iced tea. So refreshing.

For how cute the packaging is, this blend is very meh. The matcha is a pale sage green, which didn’t give me much hope that the flavor would be too pleasing. The added sugar doesn’t bother me, and the peach flavor is really nice, but it seems to me that those two are masking the weak sauce matcha. It’s not at all similar to the Kane Tea Factory matcha I tried before, which had far better matcha that was complimented by the flavoring and sweetness.

I will make this iced and report back!

This is a perfect afternoon tea! Not too funky and vegetal, this tea is a delicate balance of light veggie flavor with a comforting nuttiness. I even caught a little spiciness on the first steep. I always assumed that bancha was trash, since it wasn’t the first flush of tender leaves, but rather a second harvest of lower leaves on the bush. Tasting this tea is proof that my prior thoughs were unbased. The tea liquor was silky smooth and thick, giving me a slight tingle on the top of my palate. Perfectly comforting on a wet spring afternoon, this tea is seriously making me rethink my preconceptions of bancha.

Aaand just like that, the tea is gone! Sipdown.

This tea just kept going and going all day at work :) I’ll miss it!