Utopia Tea

I had an awful experience with the caramel popcorn tea from utopia tea so my hopes weren’t high for this one. Luckily, this is actually pretty tasty. Definitely has a ‘fake-y’ flavor to it, but that doesn’t ruin it. The second steep is actually my favorite as most of the fake flavor has washed away and a subtle cinnamon almond snickerdoodle flavor remains. I think I may reorder this!

Sipdown! Yay!

Ok, umm. I like this tea, but I like Florence by Harney and Sons more. This one has a bitter nut flavour I Do Not Want. Otherwise, it’s nice. If you don’t mind that nut flavour, then definitely check this one out. It’s toffee and nutella, so it’s pretty darn good.

This smells delicious and wonderful this.. uhh.. morning.

Yeah, my sleeping schedule is completely out of whack. And surprise!! Tomorrow I’m working at 7am! Should be interesting. I need to plan my teas, so I don’t get sucked into drinking coffee.

This is a delicious dessert tea to celebrate Real Work. By Real Work I mean work I don’t do sitting around my house in my PJs.

Sadly, I think I understeeped or under leafed it. The tea isn’t coming through so well, although the chocolate, toffee and hazelnut are.

A good cup to absentmindedly drink as I organize for tomorrow. Thanks, CrowKettle!

From CrowKettle (I swear I’m randomly grabbing teas from my sample box!).

Bitter nut note, indeed. However, there is some toffee flavour, and the chocolate flavouring is actually good in this tea! Yay! In my mind, it does need milk and a little sugar to offset the bitter nut (My first thought was that something was wrong with the hazelnut in my brew basket, but maybe not.). The tea base is nice and a little toasty which goes well with the idea of toasted nuts and toffee. Not necessarily one I’d rush out to buy, but I do like it and I appreciate the opportunity to try it!

I’ll have to try it as a latte once I get more almond milk.

(Edit. It smells strongly of toffee once it significantly cools, but it doesn’t taste strongly of toffee. Huh.)

Well the good thing about just drinking peppermint tea because I can taste it is: SIPDOWN! I still have over 800 teas…lawd.

I’m going to switch back over to spearmint now. I have to say that I like spearmint a lot better. No matter how short I steep, I get that peppermint burn from it. Spearmint for some reason I can better control how I steep. I’d love to have had this cold one last time but I woke up around 3am coughing uncontrollably so hot drinks sound great right now. Even though it’s on its way to being 80 outside.

I used up the last of the 1/2 oz bag I had and didn’t really measure, but made sure not to steep more than about 3 minutes. It’s thankfully not as strong as it was last night when I know I made sure to only steep it for about 4 minutes.

And of course it tastes like mint. Nostril clearing mint.

ooh by the way I finally got go to see my garden yesterday, after almost a week. I started an album now: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4985004551900.1073741828.1503090120&type=1
I really need to take care of the stuff on my patio a bit better now, oddly though the cucumber plants in the garden plot are way smaller than the ones at home. I almost want to switch them out haha. I’m getting sad everything else on the patio is very slow, I would love to use fresh spearmint for some tea too.

The other tea Utopia sent me. I haven’t had peppermint tea in FOREVER, and when I did, it was bagged. This is strong stuff if you haven’t had it in ages. As soon as you take a sip, it’s sinus clearing strong.

I love the taste of real mint, because it has that green herb taste behind the great and powerful minty flavor. But it gets to be too much. So I iced the rest, and it really cuts down on the sort of burn of peppermint power when cold, and I think it brings out the herbal flavor more.

And my stomach had ended up feeling upset after lunch, and this definitely fixed everything up. Yay, peppermint!

Utopia sent me a couple teas to review on my blog and since I’m supposed to be studying for finals, it made more sense to drink and write about tea, clearly.

This is the first straight Ceylon I’ve ever had, and I’m enjoying it. It’s nice and smooth, with honey notes to it. Definitely no need for any sort of sweetener, at least for me!

I also iced some of it, which I think I like even better. Ceylon does make a fantastic iced tea, after all. 4 ounces of this is $9 so it’s definitely an inexpensive option for iced tea.

Got this in a swap, can’t remember from whom though. Thank you, whoever you are!

I want to like coffee tea, I really do but I cannot seem to find one that I fancy. I’ve tried JavaVana and Serene Teaz’s Cafe Latte and they’re just not for me. This one is no exception.

Granted, this probably would have been better had I not ruined the first steep with some creamer of questionable freshness (I don’t think there are supposed to be chunks in there!) but it was just meh to me. I think the first steep would have been better but I’m pretty sure I still wouldn’t have been a huge fan. Perhaps that’s because I only like “coffee” beverages loaded with sugar and other flavors.

The Serene Teaz cafe latte is up for swap if anyone’s interested.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2024 Tea #8 – A CTC tea

Still my only CTC tea, I believe.  And every time I drink it I’m always surprised the rating is at a 71.  So I’m raising it!  This little tea sure has some longevity… it’s over eleven years old now.  yikes.   A nice strong flavorful breakfast tea.   It seems it’s actually hearty and filling, like the qualities the best breakfast teas should have.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – August 2023 Tea #4 – A CTC tea

This must be one of two CTC teas that I have left in the cupboard!  I don’t know why… I like their strength and don’t mind any CTC in the cupboard.  This one is GOOD even still.  It definitely tastes like assam.  I love a chewy tea in the morn.  I’m not in a rush to finish this one! I’m actually surprised my rating from many years ago is only 71. I thought it would be higher.

Thanks so much CrowKettle, for sending some of this one with that lovely package you mailed a while ago. I’ve tried one other Utopia tea in the past that I adored. But this one is a crush tear curl, so it was bound to be different. They are tiny little grains of black tea. The fragrance of the dry leaves is grassy but the flavor is very rye bready. Even after a 1 1/2 minute steep, this cup was super astringent. It’s a bit harsh after all these very sweet yunnans & assams I’ve been drinking lately. I like it anyway: I keep these types of teas around when I want a super caffeine brain kick: like when I’m reading a much awaited advance reader of Marisha Pessl’s new book!

Thanks for this one TastyBrew! Ooohh this is a lovely tea. A nice and smooth black base with creamy vanilla. This is one of the better vanilla teas I’ve had. It’s very strong in vanilla and it is sooo creamy. Mmmmm :)

I added a touch of sugar and cream to this one! Oh my goodness. It brings out all of the flavors and makes it a creamy treat! Creamy caramel with butter and salt notes. With the sugar and cream I feel like it just turns into salted caramel. Either way… I really enjoy this one. Yummmmmmmmm

Thanks TasyBrew! I love the pieces of popcorn in this tea. So cute :) the aroma of this tea is so sweet and buttery. The flavor is buttery, salty, and creamy with caramel flavors. I’m surprised I liked this tea. I’m not a fan of actual caramel popcorn. Mmmmm thanks again!!

okay team tea. get ready for lots of little cups of tea today. and little notes for each.
though i will probably cut them all kinda short. lots to do lots to do!
plus i stayed up until 1:30am reading fan fic. again.

thank you TastyBrew for this tasty brew.
it smelled way stronger than it tasted. which i’m happy about. cuz the scent is STRRRRONG but the cup is very pleasantly balanced and mellow!
goes great with my vegan chocolate fudge. yes fudge for breakfast. i know i know.

ps. i accidentally let the remains of my cup cool off, and i can see this tea would make a really really delicious iced tea. nothing added. (i think i know what i’m doing with the rest of my sample!)

I just received a sample of this in the mail the other day and had to try it out immediately because the combination of ingredients intrigued me. This was exactly what I needed for a 7 hour car trip with my toddler.

I like that this isn’t your typical end of the day herbal tea, the licorice is a really nice twist. I was surprised just how sweet this was on its own although after checking out the ingredient list I saw that it contained stevia. That in combination with the vanilla bean and coconut provides more than enough sweetness. The chamomile, licorice, and vanilla bean stood out the most and I thought they worked surprisingly well together.

I did notice a somewhat creamy taste, possibly from the coconut, in addition to a subtle apple flavor. I do think the strong taste from the licorice covered the taste of many of the other ingredients, I really had trouble picking out the lemongrass, but that wasn’t really a problem for me since I like blends with licorice. Overall this was a really nice blend, but I would definitely skip it if you don’t like licorice.

I decided to lower my rating a little. This tea uses the same chocolate flavoring that I’m really starting to dislike. I do still think it is worth trying though, it is a very interesting chocolate strawberry blend. I love how the strawberry manages to be sweet and tart, just like a real strawberry. It is easier to pick this out while the tea is hot, as it cools to room temperature all I really notice is the chocolate flavoring.

When I first opened the packaged I got the overwhelm craving for chocolate covered strawberries. This tea smells just like the big juicy ones my husband buys me for valentines day.

Overall I thought this was a really unique blend and probably something I wouldn’t have thought to order myself. It was a nice surprise finding it included with my order. I find that I don’t tend to like chocolate in my tea (I’m a real snob when it comes to the quality of chocolate) so this one surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. I really think the Indian black tea and Saffron are a great pairing, I really like the combination. Once steeped you can still taste the chocolate and saffron although the strawberry didn’t come through as much as I expected. I did notice it a lot more once this cooled to room temperature.

I don’t think this tea needs to be sweetened, I find that added any sort of sweetener (i tried several) tends to mask some of the more subtle flavors.

I finally tried this tea again with a lower brewing time and temperature. The vanilla really shines with these changes and there is less of a white chocolate taste. The green tea does impart a little bit more creaminess. A nice vanilla tea with a long lingering aftertaste. Upping the rating a little.

The name of this tea is French Vanilla Bean but what it actually reminds me is of good white chocolate (which is a good thing, I like white chocolate). It brews to a clear copper colour and the liquor smells of cocoa butter, mixed with a buttery warm vanilla with a hint of baked almond and coconut over sweet potatoe finished with a soft floral hint.

This tea has a medium body tea base which is sweet and slightly fruity with a touch of mild bitterness dissipating into a mix of cocoa butter and vanilla. I think that for me the coconut and almond seem to be working together to make the flavour that reminds me of cocoa butter as this tea does not taste like coconut and is not strongly nutty. The vanilla in this tea is a little bit heavier and warmer than other vanilla teas i’ve had with a faint aftertaste of vanilla and yam. As the tea cools it becomes less bitter, and bright red fruit tones appear in the base tea. A warm vanilla with floral hints and an intensifying sweetness lingers in the mouth for quite sometime after drinking. The tea is not astringent, but I think I will reduce the brewing temperature and time the next time to see if I can bring out more of the creaminess and sweetness often present in green tea. Very nice.

I try to avoid caffeine in the mornings, but some days you just need it to get going and today was just one of those days for me. I just got a sample of Utopia’s Irish Breakfast tea in the mail and knew that should do perfectly for me and lucky me it was just enough for my travel mug.

I can’t really remember the last time I had Irish Breakfast, it isn’t among my regular teas, but I knew it was a good strong blend and this didn’t disappoint. This was strong with a bit of a bite to it, yet not bitter at all. This is one of those teas that is perfect for a dreary morning like today and it is great with a splash of milk and honey. This also resteeps well, I iced my second steep down for later when it starts to warm up.