The Tea Girl

Sipdown (2652)!

I was really craving chocolate yesterday and I didn’t have any in the house so I ended up looking for a super rich chocolate tea instead. I landed on this one because it let me sneak in that extra sipdown. It was very, very good. Super dense and fudgey with the right balance of sweetness and slight bitterness. Reminded me of very good slice of moist chocolate cake with perfect icing slathered on it. I’m not usually a pure chocolate kind of person, but dang this hit the spot!

I’m still trying to decide on one last advent for this year, and The Tea Girl is one of the ones in consideration for me so I decided to make a cup of one of the teas I have from there to see if it helped me decide. I think I originally got this one from Sil via VariaTEA, so thank you both! It was a perfectly fine tea. Rich chocolate in a pure play/straight forward kind of way. I appreciated that it wasn’t so much chocolate that I couldn’t taste the tea base, but at the same time the pu’erh had a touch of that “fishy” wet pile funk that didn’t feel fully aired out.

Didn’t really help me decide though.

I’m conflicted about this tea! I enjoyed it so much at first. It is warm and has a nice coconut flavour. The coconut oil that happens when the little flakes are steeped means that the tea becomes sort of buttery and creamy in a very palatable way. But then, as it cools, the coconut oil becomes…very oily, and then it sucks. So I would love this tea and then be totally sick of it for a long time, there was no in between, really.

Sipdown (1710)!

I believe this was gifted from either Sil or VariaTEA so thank you to whoever passed it along! I’m sorry that I don’t remember who…

I feel like I should have probably tried it back when I got it because as soon as I opened the sealed packet the tea immediately smelled like soured/off coconut. I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be as funky when steeped but sadly this was just unpleasant with that rancid sort of coconut note that comes off as unpleasant sunscreen lotion. The add salt to the wound, it had the sort of fatty gross liquor that I really hate in coconut teas…

Not rating though because it’s pretty apparent that I didn’t try this tea in its prime, and who knows how my experience would have been changed if I had!

Sipdown (1708)!

I had this one in the morning and it was definitely nice and very agreeably flavoured. Not too much chocolate in taste or texture, and the strawberry was very even throughout the sip though maybe just a hint more artificial tasting. I definitely don’t think this is something I’d seek out again as it’s not particularly unique, but if this is a profile that you like then I imagine it would make for a really good “everyday” cupboard staple option where you’d be able to produce the same tasting cup over and over – and that’s definitely not something to write off.

I have been doing a rapid sipdown of ‘the tea girl’ sample tins this week. Taking 4 hour online lectures has proven to be a great motivator to cruise through some quick accesible tea (ie tea samplers). I drink out of fairly large mugs or like my tea stronger so i just put an entire tea tin (about a table spoon in size) in my steeping basket. So far I think I have drank a half of the tea girl samples I have received. Hoping to polish the rest off next week.

Prep: Western
Tasting note: I think my tea was a little muddled, I got a bit of rooibos, but the cranberry and other “foresty” flavors were faint. This tea didn’t stand out as much as I thought it would in the flavor department.

Sipdown down theme from a previous month: An Earl Grey tea

I forget how much I like earl grey blends. It’s probably because I have accumulated more tea than is manageable for one person that it isn’t as much of a priority anymore. Looking at some of the past 2022 sipdown prompts, I think there is another earl grey blend that would apply for “tea that makes you happy” theme. It just reminds me when I was first getting into tea as a young teen and it felt both “sophisticated” and tasty. My household was full of coffee drinkers so it felt special to be able to enjoy something they didn’t know a lot of about.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: I would say that this is slightly creamy in mouthfeel more than taste. It still has the slight astringency of a bergamot flavored tea. I don’t think it is the best earl grey but it is certainly not bad. I am not getting a lot of jasmine since the bergamot and black tea is stronger.

Been taking a Lead Internal Auditor course this week for an ISO standard for med devices and it goes until next week. It is so much more work than I thought it would be. I feel like I am in college again but it is condensed into two weeks. :P I am so rusty.

Anyways I have been trying a lot of samples this week without really having time to write up a tasting note.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: This one was pretty good, I don’t think it was too tart and it was really rich like a blended red wine or fruit wine. I didn’t add any sugar to my cup. If I ran out of my current supply of hibiscus tea, I think I would get some of this again. I think that it was a good red fruit blend, the different fruits weren’t overpowered by hibiscus but the savoriness of the hibiscus came out a little bit in the background which was interesting. I think this is one of the better hibiscus blends I have come across.

Sipdown theme: April: Favorite Jelly Bean flavor

I am actually not sure what my favorite jelly bean flavor is, it has been way too long since I have had one. So my tea pairing today is riffing off what teas remind me of fruity candies. So Watermelon Sugar sounded like a good option. I was really excited when I looked over the ingredients for this tea, it was Tieguanyin, apples and watermelon flavoring. I haven’t had an oolong blend in awhile.

Preparation: Western- Straight
Tasting Note: This is really interesting, it reminds me of watermelon jolly ranchers and the freshness of Tieguanyin. It’s really nice and refreshing. It is plenty sweet on it’s own which is to say the tea base has its own sweetness and the watermelon flavor does the rest.

I am having a lot of nostalgia with this tea and there is one specific tasting note that almost reminds me of pop rocks, that sort sugary effervesce. Don’t worry- there isn’t actually pop rocks or that fizzy candy, but a part of my brain just is reminded of it because of the watermelon flavor.

I think this is going on my wishlist.

Sip down theme: Caramel tea.

Preparation: Western + brown sugar and oatmilk
Tasting Note: I took a couple of sips of this straight and didn’t love it. Unfortunately, the sample size wasn’t large enough to try another cup with less tea for a straight cup. I immediately added oatmilk and brown sugar to this to make it more enjoyable. The initial tasting note was a rich black with slight chocolate notes. I did notice the lingering aftertaste did have a walnut taste too.

Overall, I didn’t get a whole lot of caramel from this, it smelt more of caramel than it actually delivered. I don’t think I would buy it again because the caramel wasn’t more present.

Serving this chai as a latte as I usually do. The showdown for this blend is against Vanilla Chai from the Hugo Tea Company which is yet to be tasted.

Preparation: Western, Latte, Honey and Oatmilk
Tasting Note: The blend isn’t as strong as other chais I have had in the last two days (Azure from Chroma tea- has a really strong anise and black pepper taste and Calming tea and Sienna have more ginger). This has slight anise and black pepper notes with a slight after taste of cardamom. Outside the “Chai showdown”, I don’t think I would repurchase this again, it is very mild in the first place and I am not a big fan a black pepper in tea in any capacity I am finding out.

My rating is mostly due to personal preferences on black pepper, I think, so if you enjoy this note, this might be more enjoyable to you.

Another dessert tea sample! I was hoping this one would be like the DT creme caramel rooibos that was my original dessert tea of choice. This blend is similar but not quite the same, it is sweeter from the honeybush base and very sugar caramel note. I don’t mind it but it unfortunately doesn’t stand out as overly exciting. Might try with a splash of almond milk at some point, as I’d like more “cream” rather than just sugary caramel, if that makes sense. Good to try though, and it may grow on me since it’s mellow and inoffensive!

Another dessert tea tonight! Having it after a relaxing yin yoga class ..and taking a trip down memory lane with this tea! It tastes almost SPOT ON like my old favorite David’s Tea blend Green and Fruity. Anyone remember that tea? A peaches and cream tasting green rooibos. Man, I drank that tea for an entire year in university when I took a year long caffeine hiatus lol. I’m so pleased to have found the same flavors in a local blend!! So this is very peachy and creamy, not much lychee but I like it nonetheless. Lighter for an evening tea, this is another I could easily drink during the day. Happy to have found it and may order a but more since I have such fond memories of these flavors :)

Short and Sweet note tonight because I’m tired enough I almost bought a random used camera on Facebook by accident when I clicked the wrong button lolol…this smells amazing, and honestly tastes amazing. If strawberry vanilla cake flavours are your jam, this hits it. Loving this as a light dessert tea!!

Dessert tea #3 taste test! So this one passed the smell test, caramel is fine by my husband it’s just maple he can’t handle lol. I quite like the blueberry caramel aroma, reminds me a bit of an alcohol blueberry tea :) I steeped this for 3 minutes, short for a rooibos but matched the instructions! The flavor is interesting indeed! The blueberry and woodiness of the rooibos come out, then the aftertaste is the sweet caramel. I’m digging it, but it’s not quite sweet enough for solely a dessert tea, I could drink this midday with no problems too! I still like the banana one the best of the three, but this is a solid 2nd place and may get a reorder of this!

Also on a sad note – my variable temp kettle is FINALLY on its last legs. Steepsterites – I got this kettle way back like…almost 10 years ago now. Back when I was first on Steepster haha. It has brewed literally thousands of cups of teas and my husband’s daily coffee pretty much every day it has existed. I am sad that the electrical connections are finally nearly worn out, but it exceeded our expectations immensely. So we have now ordered the exact same model and hopefully we get another 10 years out of the new one! It is the Breville IQ if anyone is interested :)

Night 2 of dessert blend tasting! This one is super maple-y. A bit too much for my taste honestly haha. My husband found the smell a bit overwhelming too, definitely one for maple lovers! A nice treat before bed regardless, but the one I had last night is leading for now :) happy to test it out!

Hi Steepster folks, it’s been a while yet again. I miss this community! Anyways I’ll keep this short – I am taste testing a bunch of dessert Rooibos’ from my local shop The Tea Girl, as I need an after dinner treat that isn’t sugar haha. This was the first one up and I’m really digging it! Reminds me of DT’s old Dulce and Banana (sp?). Very sweet cream notes with a hint of caramel banana. Added a bit of honey and it made it even more caramelly. Definitely hit the spot! Off to a great start with dessert teas!

Also #tbt – anyone remember Della Terra teas and their. Rooibos’?? Lemon cream pie, etc…haha oh the memories!