1391 Tasting Notes
Day 6 of the Inoki Bathhouse advent calendar. Tbh, I’m just generally not a fan of ginseng. It’s like ginger’s more earthy, less zingy cousin. This seems like a decent, even good ginseng to me, but I’m not a good judge and I still don’t like it because it’s just not to my taste.
Migraine day so I just wanted something fun and caffeinated. I recently bought a cute glass bubble tea mug and a couple packets of this were kindly included. It’s surprisingly good for an instant milk tea. The boba came out the right chewiness and consistency, though a few pearls were too hard in the middle.
The tea itself dissolves well. It’s not the best milk tea I’ve ever had, both in accuracy of flavor and because it’s too sweet for my preference, but it’s probably the best-tasting home boba powder I’ve tried. Bonus points for it being dairy-free and vegan. For an at-home option, especially if you don’t have a good boba shop near you, this is a respectable showing.
2025 TTB.
Yoink! I love this blend and I’ve been out of it for two years, so I’m going to selfishly keep the bag from the TTB. Just a bit of brown sugar makes the flavors pop even more. Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, and I could swear there’s a whiff of alcohol at the end of the sip. Not alcohol in the “this tastes like rubbing alcohol” way, but in the “this has a liquor flavor” way. Hands down the best TTB blend I’ve had today.
TTB 2025. Yay, another tea company I’m getting to try for the first time! This blend is extremely hibiscus heavy, to the point where I’d actually suggest a two-minute steep rather than the recommended 3 minutes. As it is, I’m just getting tart and sweet that’s reading as “hibiscus” and not much else. If I didn’t have other teas in this box that I still want to get to, I might play around with this some more, but it just doesn’t seem worth the time/caffeine at this point. I hope someone down the line likes it more, though, and does play with it!
TTB 2025. Have I ever tried anything from necessiteas before? Not sure. I’m not a big fan of blueberries but this looked interesting enough to give it a try. Made as an oat milk latte. Mostly I’m just getting maple syrup, with just a faint whiff of blueberry that I might not have noticed at all if I didn’t know it was there. I enjoyed this more than I expected to, but someone who likes blueberries might be disappointed.
TTB 2025. I’ve gotten on my soapbox about this company before, so I’ll spare y’all the screed this time. Suffice to say, I find their framing extremely pretentious and disrespectful to the history and tradition of tea as well as other companies that have been innovating in the fun-flavored-tea realm long before August was even an idea. I’ve had some good blends from them, so I’m not opposed to trying one that’s new-to-me, but I have no interest in giving them my money or space in my cupboard.
That said, this blend is pretty tasty! The strawberry note hits first, followed quickly by an apple-y chamomile. Some gentle tartness at the end of the sip. I don’t know what kind of bubblegum they’re chewing, but I’m not getting anything bubblegum-like. I also can’t really pick out anything about the base green tea here. A very easy drinker.
I also find their marketing to be a bit much, but also I think there are only 2 or 3 teas that I’ve ever liked enough to reorder from them, and plenty that I’ve really disliked ha ha.
There seem to be a lot of newer companies now that actively try to distance themselves from existing tea norms because they want to attract young and hip people by “reinventing” tea. Not necessarily a bad thing if it gets more people into tea, but they never fail to elicit an eyeroll from me… :P
TTB 2025. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got. I literally grimaced after taking my first sip. Then I made my poor partner try it; he grimaced and asked why I subjected him to this. Safe to say that this blend is not a winner in this household.
The spice combo itself is fine, it’s just that it doesn’t really work as a tea. This could be good as a broth base or for cooking grains with. Just not on its own as a beverage – the flavors are just TOO savory and strong for that.
TTB 2025. We have replenished our oat milk supplies, so I decided to give this blend a proper try. Unsurprisingly, I like it even better as a latte. The brisk base and tart bergamot are still very present, but smoothed out a bit by the oat milk. And the “glazed” part is amplified. Yummy.
