Clipper

final brew!
this infusion is pretty inoffensive; would I hate it if someone handed it to me? no; would I run to add this to my cart? no as well; but if I find this at a good discount, or if I’m running low on herbal blends, this would make its way to my home once more
not only that, it’s a good tea for when you have guests over and don’t really know what they typically like — in Portugal, we always serve lemonbalm; this is close enough to be a crowd pleaser, but different enough for people to notice
(kind of like wearing really flashy socks and long skirts, it looks the same, but if the wind blows a certain way, there’s something different there)

working, already have spots in the classes I wanted for the PhD, and now I’m realizing I probably havent’ really been describing this tea very well!

It reminds me of a regular lemonbalm infusion, but there’s clearly other stuff here, an added freshness and earthiness; it has a sweetness that sort of clings to the tongue, kind of coating it like a cough drop
I find this brew incredibly cosy, but not in a ’let’s huddle with blankets’ way; instead, it’s more so crunchy leaves, some breeze but all you need is a light jacket — early autumn instead of the middle of winter

having this at work, it’s another week but there’s still excitement!
I’m actually working on development again (yay! out of writing!) and, more importantly, I talked to the head of the PhD program and… I’M IN!! They have to deal with the bureaucracies and everything to make it official — hence the lack of official news
either way, happy times! I’m in! I’m going to be a student again! I’m going to teach!!

funnily enough, this is a joint programme with my uni (Aveiro), Porto and Minho — when I was younger I REALLY wanted to be a FEUP (Porto) student, but eventually I changed my mind; well, turns out I AM going to be a FEUP student either way — funny how these little coincidences happen, right? feels like I had the right dream, just timed poorly
as my mom’s grandfather used to say, what is meant to be yours will come to you and, well, turns out this really was <3

made this for my mother last night, and some for myself this morning; she also thought this had mint! I think the freshness comes from the elderflower, as I once had some elderflower juice at Ikea that also had this freshness
(in our defense, in Portugal we don’t use elderflower in anything, although the trees are pretty common )

sipping while working, I’m quite enjoying this brew! transitional weather means transitional tea :)

we have rain!!! the fires have pretty much all been controlled now, thankfully, and it’s a matter of time for the situation to be normal again

regarding the brew: this is quite nice for this weather! warm enough for the slight cold, but fresh enough for the slight warmth! does anyone else struggle with choosing clothes and tea in this transitional weather?

only good things today — all recommendation letters have been sent, the fires have seemingly calmed down, and even saw flamingos on the way to work
to note: we are not out of the woods yet! there’s a pretty big fire where the rest of my family lives, my “little” cousin’s school closed so it could be used as support for both firefighters and victims
the air, however, is quite breathable, and I got an additional pep in my step with the good PhD news
the fact that I’m brewing new tea is also fun! I hope that this semester I can clean out the cupboard a bit more, get it to a more manageable level

regarding the brew itself, it’s nice! there’s something fresh here — lemon? mint? that gives this floral a nice twist

I love the minty aftertaste on this! it’s great not to have an annoying inner voice saying that anything mint tastes like toothpaste

Finished my box yesterday night and didn’t even realize I hadn’t logged this yet!

This is a pretty standard night tea, I found the taste pretty standard and almost boring.
It’s not offensive at all, but I’ve found other teas that both taste and knock me out better

Cupper Advent calendar #8
This is the only infusion I missed when I first had it (on day 8), but I remembered to write down some notes on day 20, when I drank it again.
On 18th December i left for my home country to spend Christmas with my family and no, I didn´t forget the teabags left from the Cupper advent calendar.
At first, the brew reminded me of the herbal infusions my mother loved to prepare (very often nettle based), which I must admit weren´t exactly what I used to like to drink, but then it opens up, with a bit of mint in finish. Both mint and even chamomile (at 30% even) are dosed to give a well balanced blend, which I can certainly approve of. Presence of lavender also very subtle.

Advent Calendar Cupper #12.
Another infusion I tried blind, another one where Cupper fooled me partially ;-) …I wouldn´t have guessed this blend contains 35% of cinnamon and 25% of chamomile! No, the rooibos base together with the melissa and orange aroma´s make this a nice “different” Xmas blend, according to me, where the sweetness in nose fortunately turns into much more subtle in mouth, with sweet&spicy notes from something I thought might have been vanilla, but there I was wrong. I definitely look forward to 24th December to try this blend again!

Advent Calendar Cupper #11.
I needed to look quite thoroughly through the Clipper teas already in the Steepster system and compare ingredients as the Cupper version indicated on the box states “be happy” instead of “happy mondays”. Then I also drank this tea/infusion blind, thinking the blend was herbal with added citrus. Moreover, I thought the infusion was soft and subtle (I didn´t get the peppery notes). As my stomach afterwards started to protest a bit, I even mistook this to imply the infusion also contained chamomile (although I hadn´t tasted it), and now seeing the ingredients listed on the box, I wonder where the cinnamon and ginger went…I´ll need to pay more attention when coming to #23.
And, the white hibiscus on the list of ingredients is a bit of a mystery to me too…I believe I´ve never encountered it before.

Advent calender Cupper #9.
Ginger in nose and especially (natural) lemon in mouth. As someone who´s not exactly keen on ginger nor lemon, I found this infusion tasty and refreshing, and I could certainly enjoy it more often.

Advent calender Cupper #7
So, finally a Xmas -y blend! The typical spices of a chai come through from the start, and even now my empty mug smells nicely of them. I normally associate chai to black tea based blends, so this is a bit of a change. But, yours truly isn´t a chai tea lover, so in taste I notice – positive point – that the spices don´t overpower you, as in most of the chistmas teas; however, cinnamon ruins a lot for me.

Advent Calendar Cupper #5.
This morning I decided to taste this infusion blind, and you know what? I was convinced this was a herbal blend with honey…although this last note I couldn´t identify anymore after the first sips. When I look at the list of ingredients (this infusion beats all the other teas included in this tea advent calendar) I see the lemony notes come from citronella, lemon verbena, lemon peel and added aroma´s, and it´s true it never offends. What I thought could be honey must be the orange in the blend, although licorice and rosehip can contribute some sweet notes. Not a bad blend, but a bit unbalanced when considering its name ;-) Maybe, as others indicated, better to drink cold?

Advent calendar Cupper #3.
As the name of this blend was indicated directly in English, it was easy to find the Clipper reference. According to the box, the blend consists of 43% citronella, 23% Yerba Mate and 15% lemon verbena.
I´m not a mate drinker, and even less a mate fan, so it was quite a nice surprise to be able to enjoy this infusion ;-) Verbena and citronella join forces to add a nice citrusy ting to the more herbal backbone. It makes me think of a fresh chamomile infusion, in a good way (chamomile isn´t much appreciated by my stomach), so I should give this infusion a try whenever I´ve overeaten. Balanced blend, “rise and shine” to get going in the morning in a gentle way.

This year I really didn´t want to spend a fortune on an advent calendar, so I bought a cute one – the size of a normal 20 teabag box – from “Cupper”. All ingredients are mentioned in Italian and Spanish, but the list of ingredients says UK and non-UK agriculture so I imagine in UK a similar advent calendar is brought to you by Clipper ;-) !
All teas and infusions are bio, and there are 24 teabags of 12 different varieties.
This lemon and ginger infusion is #1.
In general, i´m not a huge ginger fan, not because I don´t like it, but because it often overtakes all the other ingredients, a bit like hibiscus in fruit infusions. This infusion however is balanced with the lemon being quite discrete and natural while the ginger takes over later on and provides a very long finish at the back of the throat. Nice.

First one from tea bags received before Advent session from postcrossing forum tea tag and well, apart from fruit ones, this sounded great.

However it is a great dismal. First of all, the ingredients list is longer than needed. Why put other herbals in, when it could be plain rooibos with mint mixed in? Why adding fennel, so much (31 %) of blackberry leaves? It tastes just like an another herbal teas, which I had so many this month. That is not an offense against Sonnentor, as I bought that calendar with that in mind.

I could not notice anything from green rooibos and the peppermint is where? Ugh. It tastes so sweet as well and not breezy as their box (and wrapper suggests).

So good in theory, so bad in practice. I guess I need to find it elsewhere (but google search found maybe 3 companies, while at least one was UK based).

Day 12 & 24 of the Clipper advent calendar! Loving this one. The chamomile and cinnamon work really well together. I just left the teabag in, and thankfully the valerian never becomes noticeable. I really dislike the flavor of valerian, so I’ve struggled with it as a sleep/relaxation aid. Can’t guarantee that’s why I’m finding this blend relaxing, but I am finding it soothing after a long and stressful day. Great for a supermarket tea!

Day 10 & 22 of the Clipper advent calendar. I brewed this at 185f, for probably too long, but the long steep didn’t seem to do any harm. The raspberry flavor in this is absolutely on point. There’s also a savory sort of note that’s probably the white tea. It’s not very well defined but also doesn’t really feel like it’s missing? I don’t really go to supermarket bagged teas looking for complex base teas – that’s just not a very likely finding or realistic expectation. So with that expectation, I quite enjoyed this. If it were a flavored loose leaf, I’d probably be asking more questions about where the white tea base is. I would much prefer to enjoy it for what it is, though.

Day 9 & 21 of the Clipper advent calendar. This is basic but enjoyable. The lemon flavor is just the right level of tart and thankfully isn’t candy-like. The green tea base tastes almost like a gunpowder tea, which matches the lemon well. This would probably be good with honey; it was great with a sugar cookie.

Day 7 & 19 of the Clipper advent calendar. I’m annoyed because I distinctly remember drafting a tasting note somewhere, but now it’s gone/lost so I have to rewrite it from memory. So here’s the highlights: I really enjoyed this chai blend! Definitely more than Teeccino’s Dandelion Red Chai, which I had recently had. Not quite as much as Wissotzky’s Rose Chai, which is my all time favorite grocery store chai – but is caffeinated, whereas this one is conveniently caffeine-free. I remember cinnamon, ginger, and clove being the prominent notes. There was also something that my brain was processing as peppery, but there’s no pepper in here – I think it was just a bit too much clove. Would definitely have this again though!

This is Day 6 & 18 of the Clipper advent calendar. Now this puts me in my happy place. I really like the balance of chamomile and cinnamon here. It’s very soothing. The sweetness of the chamomile and spiciness of the cinnamon complement each other nicely, and there’s nothing gunking up the works to add a weird texture or flavor (looking at you, licorice, stevia, and whatever is making some of these berry-flavored Clipper blends so syrupy). I’d happily have this again and even seek this out if I were looking for grocery store teas to buy. Absolutely a winner.