84
drank Blueberrie-zzz by 52teas
1249 tasting notes

An Ode to Tea, Z entry.

While my librarian heart applaudes that most folks are actually drinking their tea in alphabetical order rather than just drinking one from each letter of the alphabet for the Sipdown Challenge, with the particular way that tea fits into my schedule I need more flexibility than that, so my goal is just to hit one sipdown per letter this month (in no particular order). I’m missing Q and Z and decided to get poetically creative, so this is my “Z” tea… I figure any tea that has three z’s in the title is good enough!

I am not a fan of chamomile at all, but am surprised by how the dry leaf aroma just smells like blueberries and cream, and not the dreaded sleepy-flower. Brewed 5g grandpa-style (teabag left soaking) in 350ml 205F water. I am getting the chamomile a bit in the aroma coming off the steeped cup, but the main aroma is still the sweet blueberry scent. I was also getting this faint herbaceous sort of note beneath the blueberry, and I had to really focus on it to realize it was lavender, just much more subtle than I’m used to it (I’ve been drinking a lot of lavender lattes lately!) Berries + lavender are one of my favorite flavor combos, which I use in smoothies quite often, making it a very pleasant aroma.

Oh, I quite like this! Again, I’m mainly tasting a rich blueberry flavor, with a cream sweetness, with the end of the sip filling out with a nice lavender that is trending on the minty side. I’m actually not picking out the particular chamomile taste which I always find so unpleasant. Getting a pleasant hay/herbaceous/honey note from the green rooibos base.

This isn’t the sort of tea I would’ve ever selected for myself due to chamomile being an ingredient, but it was kindly included by Anne in a past order and I’m so glad now to have tried it! That blueberry/lavender flavor combo is exactly the sort of thing that is right up my alley!

Flavors: Blueberry, Cream, Floral, Hay, Herbaceous, Honey, Lavender, Mint, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 5 g 12 OZ / 350 ML
tea-sipper

Yep, this is a great one!

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Comments

tea-sipper

Yep, this is a great one!

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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