Almost Tea

I had the bright idea of leaving the sachet in my mug whilst drinking this tea and I think it allowed the brew to get overly potent to the point where the flavours picked up a rather chemical and almost “numbing” quality. It was hard to tell if this was the same raspberry flavouring that’s been used in other Almost blends. If it was then I think a shorter steep time and this sweet lemon flavouring could have the potential to produce a really nice cup of tea. It even had just a bit of a zingy acidity to it, to play into the lemonade elements.

There’s a very nostalgic “instant lemonade” vibe that I got from this which is nostalgic. I want to like it a lot. I think that puts a lot of pressure on my next cup of tea (which I will steep a reasonable length of time) to deliver. The question will be whether it was my preparation or the blend itself that had that fake-y quality…

SIpdown (2731)!

This cup reminded me a lot of DT’s “Read My Lips” which is also a mint chocolate black tea. Similar body, balance of milk chocolate and mint, a touch of a not unwelcome slightly alcohol-like note, and pretty smooth. However, this was very oily to me both in taste and texture and I found that pretty off putting. I know that it’s probably from the fats melting in the chocolate drops, but it was just really noticeable. I could have gotten over the texture, but for it to be so strong in taste was a hair too much. Especially when I own other mint chocolate blends I find stronger. Won’t miss this one.

Have to say that I kind of disagree with Dustin on this one! I suppose the chocolate flavour could have been stronger, but overall I actually found this blend to be pretty cloying. I wasn’t sure why at first, but double checking the ingredients list I’m pretty sure licorice root was the culprit. Plus, the chocolate flavour that is present was very much the sort of artificial chocolate liqueur type that’s just a touch boozy. The mint was the nicest part IMO, and I’d be curious to see Almost tackle a different profile using the same mint.

Last cake tea, but not the least!

In general I’d been a bit unimpressed by the chocolate teas from Almost, but I liked this one a lot. Definitely my favourite of their chocolate blends so far! Here’s the thing though; I actually kind of didn’t think this tasted like cake. I mean, it was definitely chocolate-y but it made me think of marshmallows! I think that’s my brain interpreting the combination of creamy coconut and toasted coconut in a very… interesting way.

‘Cause, fact is, aside from the notes of chocolate this was creamy and toasty but more of the fluffy vanilla note of a marshmallow than coconut. At least to me, anyway. The only thing I didn’t like was that it was a very oily liquor from the coconut pieces, but the taste was great even though I didn’t find it accurate to the name. Fascinated to see if I feel the same way when I drink the last sachet!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CpxoE_fuAkC/ (5th Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6T_1FJlazY

This has a very rich scent to it when dry! Like many of the Almost teas, this has an oil sheen on the surface of my tea. My first few sips were soapy and I was worried that the coconut may have gone bad. A few more sips in and that lightened up a touch. Each sip is a muddling of flavors that is hard to decipher, but there is something with a slight fruit tang for a second. The finish is nice and has a chocolate cake like feel to it and I wish the sips conveyed the same. I’ve noticed one or two other Almost teas having something that gives a scratchy tickle to my throat. I’m not sure what my body is reacting to. I haven’t been super impressed with most of Almost’s chocolate flavoring and this one falls into the same grouping. I probably won’t even drink my second sachet of this.

Holy flavouring, Batman!

Opening up this sachet I found myself just blasted with an intensely strong alcoholic aroma from the fresh flavourings used in this tea that clearly hadn’t had a moment to air out. I had a coworker who used to make Cinnamon Apple Moonshine, and that’s what this smelled like to me. Just dangerously boozy and bordering on paint thinner…

Thankfully, that alcohol carrier basically ‘burns off’ during the steeping process and the taste gets a lot more reasonable with a much more manageable aroma. In general, I think I liked this cinnamon apple profile more than the “Spiked Apple Cider” from box one which was kind of just a simple and sort of weak apple rooibos. It produces a decently strong tasting cup, with a more sweet and punchy apple note that actually feels more fitting for a Spiked Cider than the actual Cider blend Almost Tea carried…

I will say that, aside from general sweetness, I do think the “Caramelized White Chocolate” component of this blend is missing. It feels like maybe they just bit off one too many elements for the profile than they could chew.

Sipdown (2377)!

All my blends from Almost are sitting in a little cube on my desk, and many only have a single cup left – so I’ve been trying to break the impulse to hoard that last cup of each. Starting with this one.

Like the last time I had it, I find there’s almost too much oolong from the size of the tea bag. As it unfurls, it looks like it’s trying to burst out of the bag itself. The flavour is nice; very floral and woody from the base with a nice, smooth almond note. Not as sweet as amaretto, but definitely very nutty and complimentary with the oolong itself. Though I appreciate it as is, the name does set an expectation for a level of sweetness that I don’t feel the blend lives up to.

I was also really excited for this one in this month’s box. I know Amaretto is mighty polarizing, but I love it! Sadly, this was another blend that I thought was missing a little ‘something something’ to help push it over the edge. There was a lot it got right though! The oolong base itself seemed very pleasantly smooth with a medium body and a great balance of floral lushness and nuttiness. I especially liked that it was a bit of a nuttier oolong with an amaretto inspired blend; it seemed like a great way to bridge those flavours. Is this Almost’s first oolong!?

Simply put, the amaretto just wasn’t strong enough though. It was there, but felt secondary to the oolong. That’s maybe a controversial statement because I know a lot of people want to taste the tea base – and I do too – but for a blend named after amaretto (which has such a stong flavour) that also has sweet in the name I expected the taste to punch me, not just give me a peck on the cheek. I think Almost could have found a happier middle ground, but instead this reads as a little weak/watered down.

(Also, I was worried about the licorice root but I couldn’t taste it!)

Sipdown (2318)!

Finished this one off with a splash of milk. The milk actually made a marked difference in improving this profile. It was still bright and sweetly lime flavoured, but the lime didn’t eclipse the other flavour notes anymore – instead I tasted the creaminess of the filling as well as a distinct graham crust note. It was the graham note that really took this over the edge for me from being not just one in a sea of creamy lime teas but a distinctly key lime pie profile.

Would I buy this again? No, but I’m very satisfied that I ended up getting a cup of it that was pretty close to perfectly aligned with what my initial expectations had been!

Received the most recent Almost Tea box yesterday and immediately dug into some of the flavours! This is the one I was most looking forward to, so I started here! I have to say, the imagery on the overwraps for this month’s box is the most appetizing yet. Every single cupcake looks mouth-wateringly delicious.

As a quick side note, I finally reached out to Almost because I still hadn’t received my second box; the one with the banana bread, lemon meringue, and boston cream – among other flavours. They confirmed that it seems to have gotten lost somewhere in transit. However, they shipped a new one out almost immediately. Kind of a bummer, but just wanted to acknowledge that the customer service was REALLY good!

As for this tea, it’s fine? It tastes mostly like a semi-sweet bright lime with a vague ethereal creaminess. Which is, I guess, kind of Key Lime?? I think Dustin was really spot on in comparing this to Della Terra/East Indie’s Lime Chiffon blend – same notes, just a bit weaker in this case. As it cooled there was a hint of something that gave me the loosest impression of graham cracker though, which I thought was a nice hint to a pie crust.

Anyway, I liked this well enough but I just feel like it was missing something? Body, perhaps? I don’t know, it just didn’t have the “wow factor” that Key Lime Pie should have and it’s hard to say why.

This one is a little underwhelming. The mint is very mellow, not sharp or bright. There is something a little ashy in the sip. The chocolate notes are very muted. I get what they are trying to go for here with the thin mint type cookie on the wrapper, but I think they missed the mark with watered down flavors.

I appreciate that several of Almost’s rooibos blends are on a green base! Did you ever try Lime Chiffon? Della Terra had it and I’m sure a few other places. This smells very much like that (which I can’t recall if it was a green or red rooibos base), minus a bit of the creaminess. The lime smells bright and well rounded. I would say it tastes the same too, a nice lime base without the creaminess. The lime is strong enough that I don’t get much of the rooibos flavors in there which is fine by me! It was a nice cup, but I decided to try adding creamer because I recall the Lime Chiffon being tasty with cream. It did not do good things for this tea and I didn’t even put that much in it. The lime flavor is muted quite a bit and I’ll make sure not to mess up my next cup of it. I like this tea well enough that I’d buy it if the price were a little lower than $1 a bag.

New teas to try! This has a really rich caramel coconut smell to it. A little bit of oil on the top of my tea, which seems like is the case for a lot of these blends, but no hints of artificial chocolate and I appreciate that! The first several sips tasted good, but the honeybush was distracting and woody. That taste faded as I drank further into my cup. I taste the caramel most predominantly, then coconut, then chocolate. The flavors are all in there layered on each other. I am getting a little of the dry mouth sensation like I get with rooibos. The flavors are good, but it seems a little light and ethereal when I’d prefer a chocolate cupcake tea to have more depth and base to it. Maybe a little cream would do the trick, but I hesitate to mess with what is already a nice cup. I’d for sure drink this again!

I can’t recall the last time I had a Joy bar, but I’m a little confused because I clearly recall the advertisements saying “Almond Joys have nuts, Mounds don’t.” so shouldn’t this be more of a Mounds tea since the coconut is the main focus? Or are Joys just a general term for a type of candy and some candy company in the 80’s was killing it on the misleading advertising?
Anyways… the instructions for all this tea say to use just cooled boiling water and it makes me wonder how much R&D they did on their teas. I steeped this at 175F instead. The bag smells both chocolate like and artificial at the same time, but I couldn’t tell you what is making that impression. There is a light sheen of oil on the top of my tea, which I’m not a fan of. The cacao shell flavor is what comes through strong. There is a hint of something fruity in there, but it’s very fleeting. The coconut is hard to find. The green base is undetectable. This tea isn’t bad, but it doesn’t have much of anything going for it either. It’s quickly forgettable.

I love the artwork on the little sachet overwraps for this tea; the hexagonal chocolate with the bee pattern is as delicious looking as it is cute and whimsical. Steeped, the tea was fine. It was sort of what I expected; a sweet chocolate profile with the faintest hint of honey on a bland black tea base. Not bad tasting, but since this whole box is chocolate themed I’d have rather had a stronger honey flavour with a hint of chocolate to keep this more unique/distinct from the other inclusions. It’s especially similar to the Double Chocolate Chunk tea from the prior month, too.

The tea base was bland because it’s decaffeinated; the decaffeination process strips flavour at the same time is does caffeine. Since there’s natural caffeine in the cacao shells in this blend I really don’t understand the thought process behind using a decaf black base. It just tastes shittier, and you’re still consuming caffeine.

Clearly not a favourite of mine overall, but I guess it could have been worse.

I really like this tea. The tea bag smells amazing. Nice buttery caramel flavor with chai spices I like it even better as a latte with almond milk and maple sugar. The maple sugar really brings out the other flavors. I would buy again but I have a lot of herbal and decaf teas to sip down first.

Sipdown (2456)!

Finished this off while working late at the office last week. Definitely very bright fruity with a combination of passionfruit and banana that reads a lot like a tropical smoothie. Heavier on the banana, though. It’s a bit thin in terms of mouthfeel, especially for this smoothie like flavours, but it is very delicious. This was one of Almost’s better blends in my opinion…

I haven’t enjoyed this box quite as much as the first I tasted through, but I did really like this one and I found it delightfully different from anything else they had included thus far. Unlike Dustin I thought the banana was more prominent than the passion fruit, but there’s certainly an acidity and tanginess from the hibiscus and flavourings that reads really playfully like tropical passion fruit. The banana note was really fresh and, indeed, stayed away from the candy-type of creamy banana flavourings that are most commonly used in tea. It was so fresh and lively, and I feel like it almost gave me tutti-frutti sort of vibes? The green rooibos base is smart too; it adds some body and a hint of fruitiness but mostly just really creates a great canvas for those fruity flavours to really pop and come to life in the cup.

I’ve been getting the smaller size of Almost’s boxes so I only have the one tea bag left of this, but it’s been hard to not just immediately make it again – I just enjoyed it quite a bit!

Of all the teas in this box, this is the one I was most intrigued by. It’s just such a unique idea and I pictured it being really buttery, maybe a little roasty and just deliciously starchy and corn flavoured.

Sadly, I think this is the most disappointed I’ve been by any of the Almost Blends. It was very, very strange as a tea and not in the way that gives me that pleasant kind of “buzzing” feeling of obsessive curiosity and intrigue in the back of my head.

Firstly, the flavour was very weak and watery. Though it did build and accumulate on the palate over the coarse of a full mug I just thought it was quite lacking overall. The corn note was better in aroma; kind of like a slightly toasted corn vibe. Steeped it was like a mix between some type of corn based cereal and fresh, uncooked sweet corn. There was also a flavouring that I’m assuming was either white chocolate or meant to convey the feeling of white chocolate, and because the corn note that was present was so “raw” and vegetal tasting there was an unpleasant disconnect by this sugary cream flavour it was coupled with. Like someone drizzling white chocolate syrup over a can of corn niblets, but watery.

Yeah… I appreciate the swing with the flavour innovation, but it’s a no from me.

Sipdown (2165)!

Couldn’t taste the tea base at all, but for me in particular that was mostly a win. The blend itself is pretty sweet and reads very boozy. That’s for sure coming from both the chocolate and almond flavourings I’m confident are being used. I didn’t mind how artificial and liqueur-like they tasted at first, but it was a bit much by the end of the cup. Honestly, I could have used more coconut.

It was a fine enough blend.

Sipped on this one over the weekend!

Of the blends from Almost Tea that I’ve tried so far, I think this one falls almost smack dab in the middle for me. There were elements I liked a lot and things that were different from my expectations – not in a necessarily bad way, but those deviations made the tea feel further from what the name/imagery on the sachets seemed to want to convey. The coconut note was present and I thought the style of coconut was really nice; it reminded me a lot of the sweet coconut filling in a Mounds chocolate bar. I also liked that there was a chocolate note but it didn’t dominate the cup. Since this entire box was inspired by a chocolate company, all the teas have chococolate or chocolate flavouring in them and I think I would have been very frustated if that meant just getting six super chocolate forward blends. The variation in level of that flavouring isn’t lost on me.

The thing that I guess was the deviation (in my mind) was just how much of an almond note the blend had. I thought it was actually stronger than the coconut. In hindsight, the “joy” part of the blend name is probably referencing an Almond Joy but I just really wanted more of a coconut flavour from the tea since that’s the ingredient they had chosen to focus on with the name. Plus, the almond note wasn’t very natural to me. It was really more of an almond extract type flavour than the blanched or roasted almond you’d associate with an almond joy.

This is smelling very perfumy when I open the pouch. Once it’s steeped my first few sips were very baby powdery. That taste would fade at the back of the sip and spiced apple would creep in the finish. The powder went away a few sips in, but there is something very perfume like that flashes at the start of the sip. I can pick up on the caramelized part of the apple, but the white chocolate flavors are eluding me at the moment. As it cools the perfume comes in a little stronger and the powder came back when I started sipping again. It’s very light and airy and I’m not getting white chocolate in there at all, but I think it’s likely a hard flavor to nail down in a tea. This is a really weird cup and not in a fun way, but an “I don’t know what to think about this” sort of way.

Very good banana tea. Does not taste artificial at all. Nice creamy texture. Tastes like banana bread. Has a cakey taste. I have tried a lot of banana teas. This is one of my favorites. Glad they used a green rooibos base. I will have to try it as a latte too.

My second Almost Tea box arrived on Thursday so I’ve started tasting through that one now. I ordered all three available boxes on the same day and so far two of three have arrived, though more than a week apart from each other. It’s been a weird experience since the tracking on all three boxes (including the delivered ones) hasn’t updated once. I’m not sure why they’re all arriving so staggered considering the orders were placed and fulfilled at the same time…

Anyway, I started with this one because the Raspberry Caramel Fudge from my previous box was probably my least favourite of the teas because of the raspberry flavouring used. I assumed it would be the same flavouring used here as well, so probably in my best interest to just get this one out of the way.

I do think it’s the same somewhat chemical tasting raspberry flavouring, but I still like this blend a lot more overall. The flavouring seems more light handed and balanced and while I still don’t love it I find it a lot more tolerable. Plus, the chocolate flavour coming from all the cacao shells is really nice. It very much has a more “raw” cocoa powder type of taste to me that makes me feel more like I’m drinking a raspberry hot cocoa. One made from scratch, not something instant.

The only thing is, like Dustin, I can’t taste the pistachio at all. So, while this might be somewhat of a redemption moment for Almost’s raspberry flavouring it’s certainly still lacking because half of the tea’s namesake is just fully absent.