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Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #5- A tea you hoard

Well, even though I’m still hoarding two small samples of this Very Good Tea, I went and ordered from Golden Moon anyway.  I noticed they still have their Madagascar Vanilla tea, still with real vanilla, so I couldn’t resist.  Anyway, I have tried this a couple of times with various levels of leaf in the mug.  It just isn’t as molasses/berry special as it once was.  It was once such a unique leaf.  Now, it isn’t exactly a BAD tea but now it’s just kind of decent.  Nothing very unique about it. It’s still tasty, especially for a Ceylon leaf and Ceylon isn’t usually my thing.  ah well… It’s all a gamble when it’s new tea harvests, I suppose.  And the other samples of Sinharaja I had are probably some of the oldest teas I have, so I certainly couldn’t expect it to be the same flavor after all these years.  The WORLD has changed since then.  Ceylon has changed. The tea must change.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #4 – A spiced tea

A new tea, gifted!  I have only had a couple blends before with cascara cherries.  Mainely Coffee claims that cascara cherries have about as much caffeine as green tea.  Here, the cascara cherries are blended with some excellent spices… some of the spices quite big.  Huge pieces of cinnamon.  A great balance of spices.  This is a very tasty cup.  Certainly spicy enough, but there is also a sweetness there.  I’m not really sure if I can tell if the cascara cherries make a difference in the flavor. It certainly doesn’t taste like coffee (though they haven’t in the past either.)  Not really sure the purpose of including coffee cherries, except that Mainely Coffee is very much a coffee company that also has teas.   But this is a nice addition to the tea collection, regardless.  It’s a great chai!  Guzzled too quickly…
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 2 minutes after boiling // 8 minute steep

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #3 – February 14 – International Book Giving Day – have a cuppa and enjoy a nice read!

A blustery yet sunny day.  The perfect day to READ. (Like I need an excuse to read, or a prompt in order to read. hah.) I am currently attempting to read maybe seven or eight books in a row for the Morning News Tournament of Books that begins on March 6th. That’s my mention of the Tournament for this year.  I decided this tea was the perfect tea for the day – Chai but super cozy!  Cozy because it’s toasty!  I had to stock up on a couple of 52Teas marshmallow treat blends when I saw them.  I am occasionally on the lookout for them and a Chai marshmallow treat is definitely my sort of tea.  It’s good stuff!  A nice balance of sweetness, spice and the classic flavor of genmaicha.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  30 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

additional notes: This one almost ended up in my last order, but didn’t. Then I just had to place another recent order on a few of S&V’s retiring teas. This is retiring. noooo. I will always need a rooibos vanilla around, I think. This might be my favorite rooibos vanilla. I’m sad they are retiring this cupboard staple. The vanilla DOES seem like vanilla extract. It’s just so smooth and cozy.

Now that I have NOT mistakenly thrown this tea into the infuser with another tea, I can write a proper tasting note.  This blend sounded intriguing, so I just HAD to buy a sample of it.  Mango and coconut!  Such an abundance of these fruits are in the blend itself — huge pieces of coconut.  Huge cubes of mango.   I wanted the starchiness of these fruits to shine.  Sadly, not much starch in the mug.  Really, the fruits here somehow mostly tasted like apple to me (though there is no apple in the blend and no apple flavoring).  If I had to guess what tea I was drinking, I would almost guess it was Simpson & Vail’s Apple Cinnamon French Toast blend —almost exactly.   That was surprising!  A good flavored tea, but not really what I was expecting, as 52Teas flavoring is usually very on point.
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #2 – Your oldest black tea

FACEPALM.  I really didn’t want to finish this tea, as I like it, and then I went and mistakenly added it to the same infuser as another tea.  argh.  So hilariously enough, the oldest tea I have of Frank’s went into the infuser with one of my newest 52Teas from Anne.  arghhhh.   Mango Coconut Pancakes, to be exact.  So I guess there are other flavor combinations that I could have added to the infuser together that  COULD have been worse… These two teas are fine together, if a bit jumbled. :/
2025 sipdowns: 9

This was JUST OKAY. I expected an extreme amount of sweet cinnamon, possibly because I have been spoiled by other similar teas. The cinnamon here though was mostly earthy tasting. Not really sweet. Only a hint of spices for a chai. Maybe this is because there isn’t much in the teabag… definitely not as much as I would usually add to an infuser.

A sample from S&V! I love to try as many Chinese black teas as I can. The leaves here are gorgeous – twisty and equal parts gold and black. The flavor is honey, milk, cream and butter, a bit of black pepper. Obviously lighter notes on the first steep! The brew itself is the color of honey. I love how a second steep of this sort of tea is entirely different, if I baby the first steep and stoke the second one. The brew is much darker and murkier and the flavor is almost like molasses. A bit of chocolate. Still pepper. All things I love about a great Yunnan. Maybe not the best Yunnan I have ever had, but it’s quite good and meets my expectations!
Steep #1 // 2 loose teaspoons for a full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 minute steep

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #1 – February 2 – Groundhog Day – drink the same tea twice! (Just like last year…)

Forgot to post the prompt with only an hour left for Groundhog day!  Nothing exciting… but just drank a second steep of this today… but I usually do drink a second steep of most teas. This one is a must though, as far as resteeps go, since there are just so many leaves packed in a dragon ball. 

This was a cheap option from S&V, so I figured… why not try? $1.90 for an ounce! The flavor isn’t great, isn’t bad. It initially tastes like a bit of gasoline to me. Maybe oats/cereal… a little like cardboard. Then I read the description and forgot this was black tea but also oolong, and that makes sense for these flavors… if it’s like a formosa oolong. I forgot all about those, as they aren’t my favorite, so I don’t really drink them anymore. The second steep was a bit more charcoal, a little harsher, metallic. I don’t regret TRYING it. Now at least I know it’s just an okay tea. A sad update about S&V: I reached out to S&V and they don’t offer rewards points for reviews anymore…. only rewards points for purchases. boo.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep