Magic Hour

Interesting one from the Wanderlust subscription. I’ve only had it straight western on its own or with a splash of cream so far. The smell of the tea is incredible, and though I thought it was going to be a more Chai leaning kind of tea, the star anise, vanilla, and turmeric are the main leads for the arom and flavor a, hinted with the clove and cardamom. It actually reminded me more of Eggnog in the combo of vanilla and spices, especially the anise. The blend of black and shou also makes it earthy without any astringency, and the color of the tea is a bright amber orange. I wouldn’t say the tea itself is spicy though. It’s very mild and more in the creamy dessert spice side of it’s ingredients rather than chai.

I actually like it on its own so far because of how earthy and comforting it is. I need to get some sweet and condensed milk for sure to brew it properly, but I’m enjoying it thoroughly. It’s got compliments from each ingredient to make it more cozy than spicy. It definitely resembles a Thai Iced Tea, but I think tamarind may have helped push it to be a little bit more in that territory. Then again, the tamarind may have made the tea too spicey when it’s really balanced as is. I can see myself finishing this month’s tea quickly. I’d rank it as one of the higher wanderlust teas so far personally. Ravello and Provence are my favorites of the bunch overall.

Wow.

Sipping this was almost painfully nostalgic for me. I feel like it’s the closest blend I’ve ever tasted to Butiki’s Watermelon Xylophone – which is such a beloved blend to me. It’s that same type of incredible fresh, natural watermelon flavour on top of a smooth, and almost brown sugar tasting silver needle base that has such a constant yet delicate floral undertone to it. There’s some other stuff going on in the blend too, like a hint of pomegranate and mulberry, so it’s definitely not as straight forward as that incredible Butiki creation – but the watermelon is by far the focal point and I just can’t compare it to anything else…

This Month’s Wanderlust, and an easy winner. I like oolongs, and this is very Limoncello vanilla lemon leaning tea, but has a bit more complexity from its other flavors like the rose and the figs. Apricot makes it tarter and sweeter. I kept brewing it up, and it rebrewed nicely. It’s similar to the Harney and Sons Chinese new years lychee oolongs, but I like this one a little bit more . I’m basic and like vanilla, but it smoothens out everything else without being cloying or overly tart. Not rating it yet,

I tried it again with less leaves, making it for my girlfriend as a butterbeer stand in when watching Harry Potter. There were more apples this time making the tea more interesting. More butterscotch and vanilla for sure, but the apples balanced out the rooibos. My opinion has been improved.

I got this for my girlfriend’s birthday. I was a little disappointed since it was primarily rooibos tasting, but the vanilla and butterscotch did have some extra dimension. This one really needs cream and sugar to draw out the flavors. It’s good, but it needs to grow on me and is a little bit more generic compared to the other blends I’ve had. Tulum is one I’d substitute over it, though this tea is far from bad or mediocre.

Coldbrew makes this one SIIIIING. It’s like drinking melted mint chocolate chip ice cream. SOOOOO good, and soo cooling.

This was the primary Xmas themed tea I wanted and hesitated about since it’s a while combo of silver needle and matcha…with vanilla mint flavoring. It could either be great or terrible, and it was great. The actual tea is not as green as the picture, but it’s smell is incredibly and very similar to the Retrograde Remedy tea. I thought I’d like that one more, but this is so close in profile and a lot smoother. The green tea can be a little distracting muddying the water. However, the vibe is there and the flavor itself is seamless hot western. I liked it a little more than the Pu-Erh blend, and I have a feeling it’s going to be better iced. I’m a sucker for off the wall blends anyway.

I got too much of this because it was on sale from 33 to 25 us bucks. I hesitated for a while, but I’m actually really into it and easily see myself finishing it off. The puerh blends naturally with the cocoa and the mint, and the vanilla smoothens it out. It’s ideal as a latte or cream in sugar in style, but when I’m craving something darker, it’s not bad straight. I’ll just say this was a frivolous tea that I am surprised I don’t regret because of how smooth and easy going it is.

I’ve had some of the herbal with honey, and served it to my dad. It really helped his throat, and I’ve had some myself with and without honey as the rooibos herbal blend. It’s grown a little more on me. If it weren’t for the price, I’d easily reorder more of this one. The lavender white chocolate and mint profile would have me keep coming.

I’m heading over to the 89% territory for the black/day version of the blend. I keep coming back to it. I hope I don’t regret not splurging on another serving of this one since I got two more mint teas in bulk from them….a Pu-Erh Peppermint Bark and a Matcha/White Tea Candycane tea that I hope are amazing, because this one was something that worked really well for me.

I got the combo to try it out in my last order. It was a fun set of blends that surprised me.

I’m not usually huge into mint blends, but I use them when my stomach is off or I have a headache. The last good one I had was the Bedouin Blend from Adhara, and there’s similar vibes in this one.

The lavender and jasmine actually sweeten these up and give the tea a denser body than a usual herbal. Both have the same vanilla mint profile that you get from those pastel colored mint white chocolate candies you get at Christmas or from a grandma. My girlfriend thought of buttermints when smelling them. Tasting them, the profile is the same as the smell, and a little bit richer.

I preferred the daytime tea a little bit more because the black tea thickened the body just enough to add a hint of malt, but it’s more butter mint floral combo instead of malty black. The nighttime one is a bit thinner, and is a little bit more satisfying as a coldbrew.

I feel boring in how I’m describing them, but I really like these blends. The candy profile got me going through half the daytime bag and it’s helped with cravings, so it’s a bonus. It felt atypical to me and combined things together that worked really well. It was not overly drying, and it was very refreshing and creamy for an herbal style tea.

Got a sample, and I’m pretty pleased with it. I thought the Mango was a little bit more muted than I like compared to the peach, but the profile was balanced well with the Gayusa. I liked the Renewal a little bit more because of its rose, but this one can grow on me. I’ve mugged it western, and it’s super refreshing. I’ll finish it easy for sure even though I’m not ready to rate it. I think I like Momo a little bit more too in terms of price.

I’ll likely change my mind again. The leaves probably need more room to breath.

I’m really enjoying this one. It’s good hot or coldbrew in a thermo. I’m still looking at my stash and feeling overstuffed. I’ve got so many good black teas I’ve snubbed because I don’t want just malty teas. I’ve gone through my oolongs fine and almost too quickly, and I’ve actually gotten through my green teas fine too. White teas, I’ve been too slow on, and I’ve gone through moods where I prefer flavored stuff. I feel like a traitor sometimes, but then again, I won’t passup my green oolongs…which is why I’m running out.

This one does stand out because its a remarkable balance of flavors I really like. I ended up doing a massive order from Magic Hour for their limited holiday teas I didn’t get to try since they were on sale for memorial day. However, there were other teas I went over that I planned on ordering to restock. I got one of them, but didn’t get the Epiphany or the throat chakra one like I planned. And the holiday teas were an average between 3-5 oz EACH, so, they better be amazing. Otherwise, I’m a moron.

I thought this one was intended to be an oolong, but no, it’s a white tea for this month’s Wanderlust Collection. I was surprised there was no vanilla and expected a potpouiri vibe with all the flowers in it.

Trying it out, it actually nails a very balanced floral boquet in a clean glass of butterfly peaflower blue. Rose, red currant, bergamot, and lavender are the overall flavor with the chamomile base mending with the white base in a smooth clean body. The chrysantemum sweetens it, but thankfully, is not more dominant than the other florals. I kept coming back to it with just two teaspoons gong fu and tumbler style. Fortunately, I got a generous amount in my sample bag this time. It’s comparable to the Cancer blend and the Crown Chakra blend. This was actually what I wanted and hoped the crown blend to be like, so it’s a win.

It’s good coldbrew in a lazy tumbler style to. I could see myself finishing this one quickly. I still like Ravello a little bit more, but I also could grow more fond of this blue gem.

Drank this earlier in the week but, unfortunately, it was right around the height of when I started to feel sick. Now, I don’t in any way think the tea is related to that but it definitely wasn’t a cup I was able to get into and enjoy because of how I started feeling as I was sipping it…

Cold Brew!

Not gonna lie, when I went to steep this cold brew I thought I had grabbed Magic Hour’s Queen of the Tropics blend which is much fruity. However, the minute I dumped some of this into my newly washed cold brew bottle and saw all the guayusa leaves I knew I’d fucked up. At that point it was too late though, and all the leaf I’d poured was already damp and stuck to the sides of the still wet bottle. So I went for it…

It’s pretty weird. Mostly it tastes like chocolate but a much more naturally fruity leaning chocolate with berry and almost nutty undertones. It’s drinkable, but it’s so far off from what I had wanted to make and it’s just not a flavour that translates well to being made cold. Womp womp.

Had this one last week, but to be honest it didn’t make a massive impression on me which is sort of surprisingly because all of the other Magic Hour blends have honestly been preetttyyyy striking! I recall this was more medium bodied and I remember tasting cocoa, but also it being pretty fruity. Sort of all of the place, without a lot of distinct and stand out flavours…

I’ll try and be more mindful whenever I next brew it up.

Currently sipping on the last bit of a mug of this tea.

I sort of forgot I was steeping it because I was caught up in writing tasting notes, so there’s definitely a slight bitterness from my over brewing. However, I’d still describe this as both a rich and smooth chai. The spices are very warming, which is good because I’m still at the tail end of this cold and i have some sniffles I’m still trying to kick. The coconut comes through more in its creaminess, especially in the finish which is like a coconut custard. Nice a sweet, but not cloying. So complimentary with the cinnamon, ginger, and other spices.

Y’know, the dry leaf of this really didn’t smell like coconut at all so I was skeptical of this. That is, right up until the water hit the leaves and then it smelled STRONGLY of coconut. More a thick, creamy coconut milk – really similar, actually, to the “rice milk” type notes in Talum Horchata Chai. The spies were very nice and well balanced. Warming ginger, cinnamon, and clove. Actually, a surprisingly strong amount of clove but the thickness and sweetness of the coconut flavoured helped offset. I bet this is a very good latte – hot or iced.

This is the April Wanderlust monthly tea from my supscription that I meant to post before the 2023 week blackout.

I don’t have too much to add on this one. I had some hopes and dig the corresponding theme to the Kyoto season, and I think this is a spring tea, but I’ve had better Cherry Blossom tea. Cherry comes through, and since there is no actual cherry blossom, it comes off as a little generic. There’s cool layer of texture and the aprioct and rose adds more sweetness that could have just been tart. I have only brewed it twice, and honestly lost interest after cup two.

I’m not ready to rate it yet, but compared to the other wild flavor combos, I found this one pretty conventional. I may be too harsh, so we’ll see what I conclude. I’ve got more of this sample to go and I would recommend it as a good tea for sure, it’s just not as distinct as the other blends from the company. Now, I’m enjoying my oolong stash and honestly just want to get certain teas from certain places. That will probably change come summer when the harvests are in, and I’m missing some Bohemian Breakfast at the moment.

It was so hard to pick what teas to bring with me, but I knew I’d want some fruitier and more summery profiles that were still caffeinated so I did bring my little mini jar of this with me. I think that ended up being a good move – so far I’ve enjoyed the juicy ripe peach and mango notes as have both my parents. Seems like a very crowd pleasing tea!

Okay, I think this is my favourite tea from Magic Hour so far!

The dry leaf aroma is really fresh, juicy and ripe smelling. It took me a moment to figure out what it reminded me of, but eventually I landed on feeling it it was a bit of Camellia Sinensis’ oolong blend Madame la Marquise (which is apricot flavoured) and DT’s White Nectarine. Maybe a smidge more tropical from the mango…

Steeped, the tea does have a lighter body than I thought it would but the flavour certainly wasn’t lacking. It’s hard to detach the notes of peach and mango from one another because they just create such an impactful sweet, lush flavour. One one hand there are certainly floral undertones that are boosted in presence by the oolong tea base itself, but the tropical stonefruit notes are also kind of effervescent and candy like. Aside from the fact the body is so light and this isn’t a super syrupy and sweet blend, I felt like this tasted like what I’d picture a mango or peach flavoured Crush soda would be like…

It was really good, and I couldn’t help but feel like the name Peridot was super out of place as I drank it. I mean, the whole tea just embodies the flavour of a soft, warm and kind of glowy orange. Sunset orange, if you will. If it should be named after any gemstone I would think it would be a carnelian. I’ve kind of avoided all the bullshit astrological stuff associated with a lot of these teas, but maybe in this case I’ll have to look up what the thought process was because the green gemstone is really throwing me off with how this blend tasted.

(…and with that, I am CAUGHT UP on tasting notes from the database crash!)

This was definitely pretty different from my expectation for the blend but I liked it a lot! I think I was anticipating more of a sweet apple and caramel flavour with a hint of pear and immediately that was challenged by a fairly strong note of cinnamon. Not the red hot type of cinnamon, like in the VDay candies, but more of a warm and pastry style of cinnamon. Next to that note, I got a lot of sweet baked apple with just a hint of pear. Very, very little caramel but I guess you could maybe attribute some of the overall sweetness to caramel. Feels like a stretch, though.

On one hand I’m a little disappointed because I feel like I have a lot of cinnamon apple teas already. However, the balance of the flavours was really nice, and in particular I liked how the warming, semi-sweet baked good notes blended with the nuttier and more aromatic oolong base. That was super complimentary. It reminded me a lot of the baked apple pies you can get at Fast Food chains like McDonalds or Burger King – but so much less sweet and processed.

Geek Steep S3E3 – Twilight

So, this is the tea that I drank while recording this episode. However, it’s actually not the tea I had initially intended to drink at all. In the end I ended up “trading” teas with Marika and she drank my first choice (which was an homage to the Twilight book cover art) and I ended up with this one. How did that happen? Well, she wanted a tea that matched the image of Edward’s stupid sparkling Diamond skin and we realized that this was the perfect fit.

However, after deciding it was exactly the vibe of what she wanted we both looked at the ingredient list and smelled the tea and realized it was also going to be the kind of cup of tea she would totally hate the taste of. So, trades were made.

I personally loved the tea, and it’s actually almost eerily perfect for the image she had in her head because on top of the name being fitting it’s also got such a sweet, delicate and effervescent tasting champagne flavour that’s complimented with just a hint of floral jasmine and slightly underripe strawberry. I mean, it tastes like sparkles. Perfect for what Magic Hour had in mind with the Diamon motif and perfect for our dumb glittery vampire.