Davidson's Organics

My dad got me this one. It makes for an amazing chai latte with a bit of creamer and brown sugar. I have made multiple french presses worth of it in one day and unlike some other teas, this one is just as good on the third brew as the first.

From the Sips by autumn box.

Last one from the autumn box! This smelled very sweet and candylike dry, reminiscent of Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice. I do find it much mellower steeped up though – the cinnamon is still the main flavor, and it is a bit candylike, but it’s not overly sweet and it doesn’t hit you over the head. I’m wishing for more apple (which always seems to be the case with similar teas), I only get a hint of it in the background. But I will say, the base is quite nice and flavorful, very smooth and equal parts malty/bready and earthy, with a finish that almost makes me think of a second flush Darjeeling.

So really it’s more of a cinnamon black tea, but both the cinnamon and the black tea are nice and well-balanced, so can’t complain ha ha. :)

Sipdown! (48 | 300)

Another Sips by tea.

To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled to see this one, because I don’t generally love creamy Earl Grey teas. But this is really lovely. I have another version from JusTea where the cream is so rich and custardy, and I love that one. This one is the total opposite – the cream is so light and fluffy, it reminds me of a vanilla-flavored chantilly cream. Overall this tea is so soft, the base is smooth and somewhat light but still tastes like tea, the citrusy bergamot is present but not too strong, and then that airy vanilla cream just floats on top like a tasty cloud.

Would consider ordering this one… Am I becoming an Earl Grey Cream person?! O.o

The first time I had this, it tasted like weak red hots steeped in water. This time I went with an aggressive ratio.

Now it tastes like strong red hots in water. Really not my vibe so I poured it out. I will stick to other options.

Why would you have two teas named almost the same thing? Between constantly getting Herbal Seasons and Herbal Christmas mixed up already, I really didn’t need a separate Organic Christmas. This is why I write tasting notes; I’d mix it up too often.
(So I have it written somewhere, Organic Christmas is weaker mulling spices on black tea, Herbal Christmas is mulling spices on rooibos and just basically tastes like straight-up cinnamon, and Herbal Seasons is the mulling spices on a hibiscus base that’s my favorite holiday tea.)

This is a weird tea and I’m not sure what to make of it. I’ve already described it as a lot like the herbal Christmas though milder, but I don’t get really any tea flavor at all. It’s cinnamon, and somewhat strong in the spice front. The finish is all hot water. I wouldn’t have guessed black tea from this at all. It’s not… bad? But it’s not great.

sipsby bagged advent, day 10

I know we haven’t been at it long, but this is easily the worst tea I’ve had this advent season, and it’s not even close.

I get no cranberry, no orange at all – just hot water that once whispered to some chamomile. I tried, but I couldn’t finish it.

sipsby bagged advent, day 2

I really like this tea. I like the mixture of spearmint and orange. It’s a nice change from mint tea. Really good with honey. I bet this tea would be good iced. Unfortunately I only have one tea bag. I would definitely buy more.

Really good herbal tea. I love the intense cherry and almond flavor. Can taste the chamomile and rooibos. I only have one tea bag but I would get again. I bet it would be amazing iced.

I’m not into fruity teas it seems so ignore this if you do.

I’ve been getting so many variations of chai from sipsby that while most of them are fine I had no real expectations for this particular tea. It was a pleasant surprise. This is spice-forward in the best way. I love a heavy hand with spices and rank some other Davidson’s teas among my favorites for this reason. The blending on this is done well in particular; no one spice completely overwhelms the others, and I do still taste the tea both hot and as it cools.
I completely forgot to set the timer for steeping and wonder how much that factored in here! I’ll have to get more and experiment.

I don’t know. Sometimes certain tea actually tastes like paint thinner. I don’t know why but this is one of them, unfortunately.

Forgive me for not being around the past 8 days. I found out that my beautiful kitty Pachinko, a siamese longhair mix, looks so healthy. but had a little cough, so I brought her in to see the vet. The X-rays saw something scary in her lungs. A few days later, she had a full-body CT scan. She has cancer that has metastasized in her limbs, shoulders, back, and lungs. The oncologist told me that the prognosis is very poor despite her chubby and healthful appearance. I’m giving her daily steroid shots, and medicine to add palliative care. Once she shows ANY sign of pain, I will send her to cat heaven where she can be with my beloved Fushi who died 2 years ago. I can’t tell you how devasted I am. I am not even over Fushi’s death.

And so it goes…

:(((((

I did a thing. I decided to get a Sipsby subscription as a way to keep trying new teas without getting overwhelmed with a huge amount of tea. My monthly box should be a good mix of black, green, oolong, and herbal (all things I enjoy). Of course, I then proceeded to pick up their pumpkin tea box, one of the seasonal boxes, so now I have lots of new teas to try. My hope is that I can keep my “core” teas to around 10, but still try something new each month.

This tea… it’s bagged and very powdery. I brought it to work with me this morning, and I’m not mad about it. The tea is light with a faint spice smell. Unsweetened this had a note of nutmeg and clove. The base tea was… nothing. Sweetened there were notes of nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and apple. It reminded me of spiced cider but muted. Easy to drink, but nothing I feel deserves my time and attention which makes it a perfect work tea.

Didn’t love this one, but I didn’t hate it either. I’ll bring the other three tea bags to work with me and use them up.

This is pretty standard for an herbal pumpkin spice tea. It’s heavy on the pepper and clove. You get a little rooibos. It works well with milk. The second steep was just as strong as the first. I would have liked to see a better balance of spices, but I was still a fan. Sips by only provided enough for two cups of tea, so it disappeared much too quickly! I don’t have anything like this on my shelf right now, so I wouldn’t mind some more. The spices were really strong, making such a pleasant latte.

Finally coming to the end of the tea bags I grabbed from a tea box a few months ago. This tea is pretty mild. Very light fruitiness, nondescript base. Not too tart, but not special at all, to my tastes at least.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #40 overall / Tea #7 for February
#drinkwhatyouown January slot 18/25 (will update when I consult my scratch paper/photos LOL)

Wednesday 2/3 — So today is a double (1st shift one hotel, 2nd shift one hotel)… I drank an entire pitcher [I think those DT perfect pitchers are 64 oz? I drink on average at least one of those pitchers a day plus misc other teas] of cold brew second steeping of @white2tea oolong during my 1st shift. When I was chilling between shifts I wanted to have something hot this afternoon/evening with a different flavor. Grabbed my trusty travel bag o’ tea…another older 4 tea bags from a @sipsby box yeas ago, used two to brew hot and plain in my DT tumbler. This tea tastes like a black tea with some faint autumn spice to it.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #185 overall / Tea #9 for May
Tuesday 5/4 — Davidson’s Organics Rooibos Spiced Chai 2 tea bags. Another tea hot & plain at work during the end of the shift. Thanks Sipsby (from a box a long time ago, probably a few years?).
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #34 overall (JANUARY SIPDOWN TOTAL: 33) / Tea #1 for February 2021

Monday 2/1 Have 4 teabags of this I think from a @sipsby box? Had 2 teabags hot plain cuppa last night and it was fine, but nothing memorable or would purchase.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

When I pulled this out of the sipsby advent calendar I was so pleased, because after all, this is my favorite holiday tea – I thought. Turns out my favorite is actually called Herbal Seasons and is slightly different. Ah well.

This one really brings the cinnamon, making the rooibos more of a background flavor. But I mean it REALLY brings cinnamon (though clove is not far behind). It almost felt like a bag of mulling spices mixed in with some tea. Feels very festive to me. Could easily be overwhelming for others.

This is a perfectly serviceable EG. Again, nothing offensive, but nothing special either. Bit disappointed with my Sips By box for this month.

Very disappointing. Fairly bland flavor and LOTS of stems and other debris.

I’m still nowhere near the end of the bag of this Keemun Congou…in previous reviews I think I was more polite and complimentary than I really feel about it. Definitely has the burlap and leather thing going on, but the burlap and leather were left out in the rain too long, know what I mean?

So this morning, I tried it half-and-half with some generic bulk China black (Frontier Coop) to cut the sharpness. That helped a little, but I need to work with the proportions a little in the future … somewhat like Monica’s “Mock-olate” recipes on Friends. I’ll let you know if my hair starts falling out.

We’ve finally hit the Christmas break point where I wake up thinking, Now what day is this? Today, you can add Is it morning yet? Sky is the color of an old bicycle tire.

The plus side is time to sneak in a good contemplative morning steep instead of grabbing a bag and flying out the door.

After nearly a year (and a huge bag, gift from husband, that I am honor-bound to appreciate), I still haven’t contemplated this enough. I like Keemuns that lean toward the grass-hay-and-burlap spectrum; this lands more in the wet wood and saddle leather flavor family. It isn’t terrible, it’s just puzzling.

Sunday serendipity! Weather forecast was dire and threatened a rainout; the showers passed before sunup, so I was able to drag out a dry lawn chair and enjoy tea on the veranda (ahem…back patio with cracking cement that I am choosing to ignore for now…)

The additional serendipity was an unhurried morning to ponder the change in flavor when I increased both the amount of leaf and the amount of time—instead of cherry wood, we’ve got subtle, fresh saddle leather. I think my sweet spot will be somewhere in between, but there’s plenty in the tin to continue tweaking the recipe.

Oh, delumptious day of sunshine! First morning-to-evening day with sun and mild temps since…well, ever. To celebrate, we did a breakfast date at First Watch (carrot cake pancakes) and Walmart (when you’ve been married 34 1/2 years, it doesn’t take much to qualify as a date).

I made a pot of this Keemun Congou before we left, took a travel mug along, reheated some when I got home for writing inspiration, and threw the rest in the fridge to cool me down after some housework. Each iteration was woodily sweet, and after nearly a full day of recycling, was still pleasantly drinkable. A good all-day tea.