Teeccino

peeks out from behind a Batman comic book

Uh… hi.

So, I haven’t logged in for SEVEN YEARS.

Whaaat.

Anyway, I am back. Life got crazy. I got diagnosed with ADHD, which is partly why I just dropped off for so long. I started grad school and coffee took over, but then turns out I have a severe sensitivity to caffeine!

So now it’s been all decaf for a while.

Uh, what else… I’m engaged, I’m in a PhD program now. I still love tea! I just haven’t drank as much of it until recently.

But, my return has been spurred on by signing up for a Sipsby subscription box, and receiving my first box.

It’s cold here, so I opted for the Gingerbread by Teeccino.

My initial thoughts:

Scent dry in the bag is gingery and a bit nutty. Slightly buttery and toasted, too, but not as much.

Scent while steeping and then once steeped, a very muted ginger scent. Very toasted.

As far as taste: it doesn’t scream ginger or gingerbread to me. It has a very buttery mouthfeel and aftertaste, which I love, and it takes cream really well. Cream brings out that buttery flavor.

But, there’s very little of the gingerbread taste. However, it DOES give like… toasted marshmallow? Like a toasted sweetness? Especially once you add a bit of sweetener.

So overall, it’s a flavor I enjoy, even if it wasn’t the flavor I was expecting. I also didn’t time my steep, and got distracted (ADHD, remember?) and so I am going to do a take 2 later with timed steeping, to see if that makes a difference.

Still a decent cup, but I want more noticeable ginger flavor, for sure.

Today’s Teeccino advent is one I’ve already tried (and didn’t like) so I thought I’d break open this one. I think I brewed this one a bit strong, its very minty. There is an underlying mocha taste like someone added too much mint flavored creamer to a strong cup of joe. I don’t mind this cup, I’ll brew it a little weaker next cup, and I’d surely use it as a stomach calming peppermint brew. The second steep is more subdued, its hard to tell sometimes, do you need more chicory (I hesitated to use leaf here, because its not) to get the taste as in hazelnut and gingerbread, or does a little go a long way as in chocolate mint and candy cane. I have a whole bag to figure out this ratio and the second steep is closer to a mint peppermint patty, a decent cup.

Day 15 of the Teeccino advent calendar. I’m going to have to circle back to day 14 – it’s something more adventurous and I can’t handle that at 6am. I had to get up super early for a medical appointment, so I’m sneaking in a cuppa before I leave. This one has the familiar and tasty Teeccino coffee-like base. I wish the “gingerbread” aspect was stronger though. It’s very faint, like a shadow hanging out in the back of the sip. I liked the candy cane flavor more, as holiday flavors go – that one was stronger and truer to its namesake.

Teeccino advent calendar Day 13. Another one that I really enjoy from this calendar! I don’t know that it tastes like a macadamia nut per se, but it does taste nutty and sweet and makes a delicious latte. It tastes to me like macadamia nut flavoring/syrups, but not necessarily like actual macadamias. Makes a delicious oat milk latte though.

Sipdown, and a favorite bagged tea for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge! Made this as an oat milk latte while I got started on my Taiwan scrapbook. I’m not generally a scrapbook person but am making an effort for this trip so we’ll have something special to treasure and remember it by. Plus, since the trip was so heavily tea-themed, I get to use one of my Tea Thoughts journals for it and a lot of my extremely specific washi tape. The whole concept is just very cutesy but it pleases me. Tea itself remains delicious – creamy vanilla to the last drop, both hot when I started and cold by the time I finished.

Day 12 of the Teeccino advent calendar. This is so much better than French Vanilla. The vanilla flavor is really round and sweet and carries throughout the sip, lingering pleasantly afterwards. The only catch is that I had to (oat milk) latte this to really bring out the flavor fully. But I don’t mind that. I started my day with this and it was a really great start to the day.

Oh no! just no. DNF. Smells like decorative soap and I couldn’t ignore that.

This smells way over the top minty, but steeped it is just refreshingly so. I confess I gave the first steep to Ashman and took the second steep myself, added milk and sugar to both and topped with whipped cream and Christmas sprinkles.

It was good, but I am not the world’s biggest fan of mint, although I enjoy the scent and even made a peppermint mask spray to help me stay fresh and focused when I was having to mask a lot.

Of the three holiday blends of Teecino, I think Gingerbread was my favorite, but I do prefer their darker, roastier blends that are available year ‘round.

Day 11 of the Teeccino advent calendar. There was a time I used to happily drink my coffee black. Now, alas, I can’t drink coffee at all. So I was a little reluctant when I saw this blend – would it taste like black coffee? Would I even still like that taste after all this time? Would it hurt my stomach? Turns out the answer is yes, yes, and no! This is spot-on for delicious, wonderful, dark roast coffee. I’m really glad that I opted not to add anything to it – it’s so satisfying exactly as is.

Day 10 of the Teeccino advent calendar. This blend is good, but I’m not enjoying it as much as I’ve enjoyed the other classic coffee flavored Teeccinos. It’s just not as striking. The vanilla doesn’t hit until the tail end of the sip rather than being evenly distributed throughout, though it is on point and does linger pleasantly. Adjusting the steeping length (probably shorter) might help with the balance if I have this again. Overall, I’ve just enjoyed other Teeccinos more, and if I want a vanilla tea would be inclined to reach for a vanilla oolong over this.

My friend left samples of this, Gingerbread, and Candy Cane for us to try. I figured this would be Ashman’s favorite so I made us each a cuppa to go with story time and the lighting of our daily advent wreath. (We are using the Cradle to the Cross Advent spiral from The Keeping Company. I loooooooove candles.)

This smelled so good, and it was fine, but honestly I am disappointed. There was a bit of a fake chemical taste somewhere in there, and while the aroma really did shout Snickerdoodle it didn’t really taste that much like the cookie to me. It wasn’t terrible, just not as good as I had hoped and not as good as other flavors from Teecino I have tried. Glad to have tried it, but not one I would purchase.

This Advent tea was supposed to be yesterday but it didn’t seem sweet enough for an evening cup so I’m having it this morning. This is a good substitute for a dark cup of joe if you like that taste and want to eliminate the caffeine. I prefer the nut and caramel flavored blends from Teeccino as they blend the sweet with the chicory. Glad I got to try and I would drink if it were offered.

Day 9 of the Teeccino advent calendar and my 800th tasting note! I way overdid it with the caffeine yesterday and then couldn’t fall asleep until 5am, so I had to take it easy today. As terrible as Day 8’s Chaga Ashwagandha Butterscotch Cream was, this is all the way at the other end of the spectrum. It’s absolutely delicious, with all of the flavors complementing each other wonderfully and no harsh edges. The toasted coconut aroma and flavor is on point. Technically it’s supposed to just be coconut, but it’s coming across as toasted to me, probably because of the carob/chicory/dandelion root base. I made this as an oat milk latte and it was just a liquid macaroon. Marvelous.

January sipdown prompt – drink a coffee flavored tea

This is a sipdown of the samples my friend brought, although I never added them to cupboard and so will not count them toward my total.

This was positively delicious today. I think it has the least coffee flavor of the Teecino blends I have tried, but made as a latte with milk and sugar is delicious and satisfying, even though I skipped the whipped cream this time. Drank it with lunch which was homemade veggie beef soup.

My friend ordered the three holiday flavors and three gingerbread teabags were in the box! She brought them to me to try. I often double steep Teecino and then add milk, and it is usually very dark and strong. I made only a single steep of this one and it was the palest, mildest Teecino I have ever tried. There was far less “coffee” aroma and flavor. I added milk and sugar and topped with whipped cream because this was my alternative to the caffeine and sugar laden hot cocoa that Ashman and middle daughter wanted and I would love to sleep tonight.

Ashman tried a sip and really liked it, and I like it, too, but I am a little surprised at how much weaker the “coffee” aspect is than all the other Teecino blends I have tried. Will definitely enjoy the remaining bags up to Christmas. It is good, just far weaker than I thought it would be, which is probably Ashman’s preference.

I got a sample size of this with my recent Teeccino order so this is my second cup from the pack. This is in your face peppermint, sweetness and chicory underneath. Can I handle this much peppermint? Maybe? I do like this one, but it maybe a seasonal cup only, not a cupboard staple.

Day 8 of the Teeccino advent calendar. I think I might actually be more offended by the addition of the butterscotch flavoring than if this were unflavored or just had a cream flavoring. The base here is just very bitter. Then there’s a layer of creaminess, which helps cut the bitterness. But the butterscotch layer on top of it all somehow doesn’t meld well at all with the bitter base. It just sits there. It’s like frosting a burnt cupcake – you can still tell the underlying thing tastes off. Just truly awful, and worse the more I drink it. Even the aftertaste is bad. This is one of the rare teas I wasn’t able to even finish the mug of. I had to force each sip down. When I actually looked into the mug after giving up and deciding to pour out the rest, I realized I hadn’t even made it through 1/4 of an 8 oz mug even though it felt like more. Definitely not for me.

I’m liking yesterday’s coconut addition to the chicory more and more. This one one has swung the chicory pendulum too far and it is out of balance. Not enough ginger, not enough sweetness. I guess they can’t all be winners.

Day 7 of the Teeccino advent calendar. This smelled beautifully of chocolate the minute I opened the packet. I made it as an oat milk latte for extra creaminess. It’s got big mocha latte vibes. Super delish.

Part of the Avent tea, but I’m not sure which day this was supposed to be. I am not drinking them in order. This smells very coconutty, and the toasted coconut blends very well with the chicory and date flavors. This is not my least favorite Teeccino flavor, I think this toastyness is growing on me.

It has been SUCH a long day. This is Day 6 of the Teeccino advent calendar. I made it as a latte in the evening between meetings. Sadly I missed out on savoring it because I was drinking it during a meeting. Which is a shame because it was delicious! I gave my tea-skeptic partner the first sip and even his first response was that it was tasty! I remember the hazelnut flavor in this being good, and going well with the Teeccino base.

Day 5 of the Teeccino advent calendar is… unpleasant. The tulsi flavor is on point, but pairing it with the tremella is an odd combo. It’s mushroomy and sort of brothy, and not in an enjoyable way. I tried, but I really couldn’t finish this and had to give up about halfway through my mug.

I dragged this one out for as long as I could, but sadly I’ve reached the bottom of the bag so this is a sipdown. I did send it out in style though, as an oat milk latte with an apple cider donut. This is probably one of my favorite Teeccino blends! Great dupe for a coffee shop peppermint latte.