Nabo

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 21
Day behind. But just posting day after :)

White tea with apple flaovur and, and sadly again, too much cinnamon. I guess the cinnamon flavouring is the reason, and sadly, it ruins overall nice experience of apple white tea.

Nabo 2023 Advent Day 4: Citrusfest

This is giving bergamot and lime peel. Not a fan.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 20

Orange with spices on black tea base? Fine for me!
Eh, again overload of cinnamon; thin orange and that’s it. Sad.

Oh dear, why teas with high expectation turn out just mediocre (like this one) or bad?

Nabo 2023 Advent Day 3: Skogsbär

Far too rooibos-y and too cinnamon-y for my liking. I left this sitting on the counter and thought I’d give it another chance before dumping the remaining half mug, but the liquorice root had come out full-force and was cloying.

Nabo 2023 Advent Day 2: Rom och Kako

This tea has captured the rum, but mellowed it out significantly with a real creaminess that I’m assuming comes from the cacao shells. The combination means neither flavour is super prominent, but it’s a lovely cuppa to enjoy as my breakfast tea today. I might consider ordering this one as an easy tea to have at work.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 19
Back on track! Yay!

Oh dear, this is a winner from Nabo so far! Lovely, genuine, fresh strawberry taste in the middle of December. Looong aftertaste and maybe a little creamy? So smooth, so highly drinkable, so great. They say it is like a strawberry juice and I say it is! and I want more!

Nabo 2023 Advent Day 1: Sweet Chai of Mine

We had kind of a rough year and I wasn’t feeling at all festive and didn’t order any advents. But, we were delayed at the Toronto airport for 12 hours on 30-Nov and I emailed Nabo on a whim to order these advents for when we got back. I’m feeling much better that I ordered them and now I can join in the advent fun with everyone here. :)

This is an interesting chai. The lemongrass isn’t coming across as lemongrass, but is adding a lightness and smoothness to the tea. The cinnamon is dominant , mixed with the pink peppercorns to make it almost candy cinnamon heart-esque.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 18
Correct day! Yay!

A blueberry flavoured black tea is exactly up to my alley! But sadly, it seems I have oversteeped that a bit… there is some harsh edge of the lovely black tea with jammy blueberry note. There is also hint of vanilla maybe? It was a bit creamy and smooth. But that harsh edge… because my fault, that makes me a bit bitter.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 17
Day behind

I am super happy to find a green rooibos blend and well, this base is great for this tea. Well, it is not sweet per se as I have thought based on the name. It is peach-y, but definitely expecting more of this stonefruit. On the other hand it is a huge step towards peach flavour compared to last year.
Maybe I have been expecting candy-like peach, but it’s not here. The green rooibos base fits this blend well as I have already wrote and yep, it is definitely peach-y tea.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 16
Day behind

This had a lovely aroma when dry and when brewed; but in flavour it falls a bit short. It was tangerine indeed; quite nice and nicely spicy, but somehow simple and there wasn’t anything that made me say wow. A decent cup, but nothing I need to re-order.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 15
Day behind

Well, rose bud tea is flavoured with rose, so that’s good start. And rose is strong here. But there is also a fruity element from litchi aroma (sadly only a aroma) but definitely noticeable.

I remeber seeing rose tea for first time a few years back. I thought it is not something I would ever enjoy. Then I have tried it… and I actually quite like it? Not a flavour profile for daily drinking; but this cup was actually quite lovely.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 14

Sadly, it seems I have bad Advent tea day. This doesn’t even sound good to me and the flavour agrees with me. It is nicely refreshing and then muted quickly by sweetness of licorice root. And long, artificial peppermint flavour stays in mouth. It’s like a mouthwash.
And the color is weird too. Because beetroot it is rather orange than green.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 13
Based on the ingredients this tea seems to be another fine and winter-related tea. Definitely it smells very nice when dry, full of interesting and genuine aromas of cardamom and saffron, too.

When sipped I think that cardamom takes most of the mouthfeel. Slightly spicy, slightly piney and slightly refreshing. Saffron is behind but makes it slightly spicy in their own way.

Definitely a winter tea and interesting ingredients used in this tea. I liked it.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 12

Ehh, no, Nabo, you made me so sad again. Well, dry leaf aroma should warn me a bit. It was somehow soapy.
Steeped, in smaller cup than usual, for 2 minutes only; and it smells wonderful. Peach was there, so was ginger.

Sipped… I drank a soap bar? Sweet cloying soap bar? Bleh… Just no… Sadly, dumped.

Plus points: nice aroma when steeped.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 11

This smells so nice. Full, fresh and juicy clementine aroma. I have steeped it for maybe 5 mintues and think… I have oversteeped it? They suggest 5-8 minutes though!

The level of rooibos woodiness was fine. The level of tangerine… orange… clementine note was just right. But level of licorice root was too damn high! Cloying aftertaste of that ruined otherwise pretty nice experience of caffeine-free cup.

Funnily enough, I have returned late from work today so I wanted some caffeine-free teas. And both advents are!

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 10

This is supposed to be caramel-like? Cream caramel? Well, for me it was cocoa coconut balls as a Christmas cookies.

It was a bit bitter from the cocoa and not from black tea base, also I have noticed coconut and overall a bit pastry like.. but I would not expect caramel. I noticed nothing from that and also there was a weird floral-herbaceous aftertaste, luckily not much noticeable. To be honest, I haven’t noticed it; but my brother did and then I have as well.

The aroma is boozy, but that transferred into the flavour just a little bit.
Again, fine tea, but nothing I need to retry. Festive though!

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 9

Plums and cinnamon? That is indeed a wintery blend for me! Green tea base? That’s a bit strange… I would expect black tea. Or maybe even a rooibos.

Well, it’s full of cinnamon. It seems that Nabo overdo they cinnamon teas. This was so cinnamony I though I am sniffing a cinnamon-bun instead.

When I have brewed it, the aroma of cinnamon faded a bit and it was fruity (stonefruits) a bit more.
But when sipped, it was all cinnamon again sadly, with mineral and plum notes. But those plums were quite unripe and green… as the tea was. But that cinnamon flavoring Nabo uses covers everything and I am not such a fan, especially when it contains cinnamon itself.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 8
When brewed, this tea smells like a mulled apple cider with the spices. When sipped, flavours changed a bit, it delivers mish-mash of spices, cinnamon being strongest, cloves and ginger being a bit behind. I assume it is because they have used also the cinnamon flavouring.

Actually, in this tea the black tea base isn’t noticeable at all. Instead I notice mentioned cinnamon and somehow, orange. That’s so strange after noticing apples in aroma, but none being there!

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 7

I really like the name of this tea; it is kind of childlish, cute and cozy in one single Swedish word.

The tea is definitely childlish too. Very berry forward, there are lots of fruits; and some tartness from the hibiscus. The fruits are just some mix of berries; can’t point on the exact fruits. Definitely easydrinking and extinguishing the thirst well.

I get it, Christmas time is Fairytale time, isn’t it?

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 6

Well, sadly… this tea seems nice, but not for me. They used too much cinnamon in this tea, covering fruity line of apricots in this spice; and I could not notice anything else but cinnamon. Not vanilla, not apricots, not base black tea. It was like a cinnamon tea only instead of apricots with cinnamon and vanilla, which roughly translates to me as a vanilla custard sundae I used to eat as a kid. It was a glass of custard with fruits and spices beneath.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 4

Get all possible citruses you think of. Orange, lemon, bergamot… add ginger and apricot kernel (what?) flavouring to make it a bit festive and voilá…

Yes, that what Nabo was thinking about this tea. Well, it works, somehow. I did not notice any of the flavoring I wrote above, and in aroma definitely dominates lemongrass, but in flavour it is indeed like a mix of citruses and maybe if steeped for longer, the base black tea would take part too in this festival of fruits. But naturally, the flavour was muddled.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 3

Well, right after I opened the bag with this tea, I found out there is something wrong. It struck me in my nose with strong awful medicinal aroma. I let it evaporate it for half a day, before brewing in the afternoon and sadly… it’s just not good.

The tea brew was also very medicinal, combined with very woody rooibos; so woody I couldn’t notice the berries at all. And if you ask me which berries are in, I have no idea based on the flavour itself, because rooibos being so strong.

A miss for me, which is especially sad as nordic forest berries could be so nicely flavourful. But they aren’t, at least not in this cup.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 2

Well this sounds so interesting and using a white tea base is certainly something I won’t expect in rum-flavored tea. And it is quite ironic drinking it today — we’re celebrating my brother’s birthday. Everyone had a wine, but me. It has got very same hue as offered white wine, so it made a few people giggle that I drink wine from a glass mug and claiming it is a tea.
And moreover, it’s boozy-intended tea. I am always sceptical about those flavourings; and rum and cocoa together doesn’t sound well together for me.
I guess I have been wrong… again. It was slightly woody and definitely sligtly boozy in the flavour, cacao was adding the sweet element and overall it was mellow and warming tea, highly enjoyable in the day of 15 cm of new snowfall (it’s snowing now again, with total being around 25-30 cm (9-12 inch)) which is highly uncommon here for the beginning of December.

Advent Calendar from Nabo: Day 1
Advent season has started and well, chai sounds festive indeed for me. I like the play with words by Nabo here, and it was nicely smelling pouch too.

Same as last year, I am using whole pouch for a session, I am not splitting it up somehow.

So, this is a nice warming chai, though the spices flavors are bit clashing each other. Also there should be citrusy notes and they are hthere, but it gives even more of the muddled impression and thus not so great. Maybe the skimmed milk they suggest can make the lemon caramel as they suggest , but without that it is mudded spicy-citrusy black tea. Not so great start, but definitely festive for me.