1305 Tasting Notes
Arbitrarily selected day 6 of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. Who knew pear and chestnut would go well together? Even more surprising, I liked this better cold than hot. I think of chestnut as more of a hot-tea flavor but the fruity pear here seems to portal it into iced-tea territory.
Day 25 and final day of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free advent calendar. Bit of a bummer that this is the last one, just because it’s not my favorite. I can see why it was chosen, though – spicy orange is a pretty classic Christmas flavor. I like that this goes for ginger instead of clove. That makes it a little different than the usual, plus I generally love ginger. I don’t know though, this just isn’t hitting the spot for me. And the base is one that I’m sensitive to, so it doesn’t really seem worth continuing to drink this if I’m not enjoying it. Folks who like orange-clove blends and don’t have issues with black tea would probably like this, though!
Did every tea in this advent calendar bowl me over? No. But I consistently found myself pleased to have something from this calendar for my evening cuppa and drank through it pretty quickly. There were some particularly notable blends – candy cane herbal, chocolate caramel macadamia nut herbal, and warm hibiscus herbal come to mind. I’ve bought this calendar in the past and something I appreciate is that they don’t do a lot of repeats year-to-year. At $48 and free shipping on my order, this came out to 96 cents per sample bag. Each bag had enough leaf for either two regular-size mugs or one large mug. This year, for both convenience and in order to avoid dealing with a bunch of little opened baggies, I made every sample bag in a large mug rather than deal with portioning it out. It’s not an incredible value but I’m ok with that price point. It’s nicely packaged in a lovely tin, individual numbered envelopes, and some useful tracking tools. And it’s a nice way to try out a wide variety of their blends, which is ultimately what I get these calendars for. Very likely that I’ll get it again next year.
I’ve enjoyed the caffeinated so far, haven’t tried them all yet. I’d consider doing both a caf and a decaf next year just to get variety.
Maybe I’ll try one of theirs again next year, it’s been a few years.
The only thing that actually bugs me about their calendars is that sometimes the plastic baggies get staticky and the tea leaves stick to them, though for whatever reason that’s been less of a problem this year.
Day 24 of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free advent calendar. I tried this one both straight and as a latte. I think I liked it more as a latte, but it was surprisingly tasty straight and cold too. Plum Deluxe has a pretty yummy maple flavor that I enjoyed here. I have never actually had cherimoya so I don’t know whether this is a fair representation. But this has a tropical-fruit note that goes surprisingly well with maple. I wouldn’t object to playing around with this some more. Also now I’m keeping an eye out to try custard apple!
Randomly selected Day 5 of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. With a long steep, the hibiscus was too strong. So I tried a four-minute steep for the second packet. That didn’t get me great results either – the flavor was overall a bit thin but still primarily hibiscus-tart. Mostly this just tastes like a hibiscus blend with a creamy, almost vanilla element. I like hibiscus so it was fine, but definitely not one for the anti-hibi crowd.
Randomly selected Day 4 of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. I liked this in last year’s caffeine-free advent calendar and I like it now. Tonight it’s reminding me of those little after-dinner mint candies that diners often have at the front. Pillowy, lightly minty, simultaneously refreshing and comforting.
Randomly selected Day 3 of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. Not sure what’s tranquil about this blend, but it is nice and peachy! It reminds me of those peach gummy candies, just not quite as sweet. Particularly enjoyable as an iced tea. A year ago, I found the chamomile in this too earthy and felt it clashed with the peach. I don’t know if there was less chamomile in the blend this time, or the chamomile itself wasn’t as earthy, but I did not experience that problem this time around. Upping my rating accordingly!
Day 23 of the Lupicia advent calendar, a single sachet. Lupicia recommends having this blend with milk, so I added a splash of oat milk. Despite my hesitations due to this being an Assam and likely to hurt my stomach, I’m finding it hard not to finish the whole mug! It’s just a very smooth, easy drink. Nutty, malty, with a caramel note that really rounds it out. Bad for me but I’d recommend it for others!
This was the last tea in this calendar. Day 22 was a small handkerchief bag with a pattern similar to the calendar graphic. Very pretty, very cute, definitely going into the rotation as a tea towel (it can be folded flat). Day 24 is a tiny ceramic plate with a dove holding a holly branch in his beak. It’s beautiful and precious. I’m not sure what its purpose is, tbh. Maybe a spoon rest? It’s a bit too small to be a teabag rest. Pretty enough to just be something I add to my teaware display shelf more than use practically. Or maybe use it as a plate for a small tea pet.
This calendar turned out to be delightful! When I opened the first couple of days and they were just single servings of tea, I started to worry that I had radically overspent. Including the cost of shipping, etc., this ran me about $130. If it turned out that I had paid $5.42 for a single serving a day, I would have been… disappointed. But that wasn’t the case! This turned out to be full of variety and surprises – tasty snacks, fun items, and a tin. There were blends in here that I can’t get in the US at all. The packaging itself is stunning and sturdy. The boxes make a beautiful image when they’re all turned around. I’ll probably keep the box and refill it myself next year – it’s too pretty to only use once. I’m not really sure how to assess whether I got my money’s worth because so much of this is unquantifiable. How do I calculate the monetary value of trying a tea that I otherwise can’t get? Or a calendar-exclusive item? In an objective sense, it probably wasn’t quite worth the money. In Lupicia’s defense, the cost of the calendar sans shipping was $76, which it was definitely worth. Subjectively, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this! I won’t pretend that I actually regret spending the money. If it wasn’t for the shipping cost, I would put this on my list for next year, but given that added expense I’ll probably try something different in this slot next time.
Night 2 of Hanukkah, and the second blend arbitrarily chosen from Plum Deluxe’s Hanukkah sampler. I took the day off work to spend time with family. The day went much better than I expected, so I’m taking the win. I also had a truly wonderful time visiting the Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum. It’s small but charming and I had a lot of fun learning from our tour guide!
By the time I got home, I just wanted something cozy to drink. This fits the bill! It’s got that almost alcoholic almond flavor taking up most of the sip, with the verbena sort of layering on top just to brighten things up a bit. The woodiness of the rooibos complements the nuttiness well. If it wasn’t for the twinge of an alcohol note, I’d like this even better. Possibly that might fade if the dry leaf had more time to mellow, but by the time I figured that out I had already made all of it.
Happy Hanukkah! I do adventaggedon because it’s fun, and it’s a community thing, and it’s a great way to try out lots of new teas and companies in a fairly short period of time. But I’m very aware that it is, at best, a borrowed tradition – like wearing your friend’s clothes. Having Hanukkah teas and Hanukkah-specific samplers is like wearing my own. I went for Plum Deluxe’s Hanukkah sampler again this year, but this time I opted for the fully caffeine-free option. There are four regular blends in here and four unique to the box. They’re not numbered the way advent calendar teas are; more of a choose-your-own-adventure. So I chose one that I’m hoping will help me digest the latkes I ate tonight after a big Christmas meal earlier today!
Good chunks of ginger in the dry leaf translate into a lovely ginger bite at the front of the sip that lingers afterwards. Sweet, tangy fruit notes dance around the ginger. I actually had to double check the ingredients for hibiscus because it reminded me of the flavor made by whole hibiscus flowers, which I think is generally sweeter than cut-up hibiscus. No hibi here though! Just the sweet-tartness of the strawberry playing tricks on me.
Happy Hanukkah! I had no idea there were Hanukkah-specific tea samplers and now I’m intrigued. I’ve also just learned (thanks Google) that Hanukkah starts the same day as Christmas this year, super neat! I hope you enjoy your celebrations!
Thank you! The only ones I’m aware of this year are Plum Deluxe, DavidsTea, and Nerdfelt. They’re generally pretty rare. Nerdfelt also does a Yule sampler, which is the only such sampler that I know of.
Neat! I never knew about those!
I’m wearing my Hanukkah socks today :)
Yay, happy Hanukkah gmathis!
This is technically the next day in most time zones, but wishing everyone a merry Christmas/hope you had a merry Christmas!
We did Christmas with my partner’s family and then Hanukkah at home. It’s been a long day and I’m just now getting around to tasting notes. I knew Christmas was going to be a big and heavy meal, so I chose this blend from this year’s 52teas advent calendar as my take-along tea. I hoped that the tart fruity flavors and the slight briskness of the base tea would cut the heavy meal a bit, and they did! mission accomplished.
