Eggnog

Adventaggedon Day 16 – Tea 1/6

I got home from work today and all I wanted to do was have a nap, which ended up being a four and a half hour nap – so now I don’t have much time to crank our my advent notes for the day. So… short and sweet it is.

I wanted to like this tea, because I like eggnog, but it definitely doesn’t taste a damn thing like eggnog at all. It’s not even creamy! I would describe it as a sweet rooibos with a pleasant, but out of place, citrus/orange note. Like, it doesn’t taste bad but it was such a massive let down.

Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CI4C7sbgyfh/

Bird & Blend Advent Day 16 (16-December 2020)

The dry tea smells like grapefruit? Steeped, it smells like cinnamon and rooibos scent. This tastes like rooibos with a hint of cinnamon.

I’d been wanting to try this tea for a while, so thanks to tea-sipper for sharing! It definitely has that bit of a tang that you find in eggnog. The spices are mild, and it’s randomly rather sweet and almost fruity? It tastes better with milk, and I find myself wanting to add extra spices. Cinnamon/nutmeg… I just want some more spices. When I brewed up the last of the bag, there were a lot more spices in that cup. I guess the spices were lurking at the bottom! That cup was pretty delicious. This blend also makes quite the tasty second brew. I actually think I would purchase more of this if it comes back next Christmas.

Yep, I bought some teas for B&B’s Christmas in July sale. But they had Jelly & Ice Cream! And a couple other lovely blends I wanted to stock up on! I never know when Jelly & Ice Cream will be discontinued for good! So I was sipping a couple B&B teas in the last few days. I really wanted to stock up on some 20gram sizes of other teas but their sale is a real pain when their website is down. Then I just end up grabbing sale stuff. They really need to know the demand of these sales!
Thanks Cameron B for sharing this one! I guess I really procrastinated on trying this one, because I know others were finding it a bit citrusy for some reason and eggnog is NOT citrusy. I’d recommend that those that didn’t like it originally try it again, as I’m not tasting noticeable screaming citrus here. At least nothing obvious. Maybe the tea has aged the citrus away… The problem is, it doesn’t really taste like eggnog either. Maybe hints of spices. But it definitely doesn’t have much in the way of egg or cream. The second cup tasted exactly the same as the first. Better than I expected, but I was expecting nothing great.
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 12 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 minute steep

I ordered a holiday set because of this tea, before I heard about people’s experiences with it. Okay, 2.5 grams in the bag, 4 minutes at boiling.

It smells like cinnamon and rooibos. Not a bad smell.

And it tastes like… cinnamon and rooibos. There’s a lime note others have mentioned. But it’s really faint. Setting that aside though, this really isn’t nog-like at all, aside from the cinnamon. Egg nog has nutmeg, and often cloves, and is creamy. This is quite disappointing.

To get it down, I mixed in some Silk Nog and heated it back up. Mmm, that blends nicely. I could use this to stretch out my leftover nog from the holidays. But as an “egg nog” flavor by itself? Nope.

Well, this was disappointing. I actually joined tea club specifically for this since it wasn’t available any other way at the time, and was very excited about trying an eggnog flavor.

This is no eggnog flavor. Sniffing it in the package, it smells very strongly like a floor cleaner, just vague chemical citrus scented thing. In the cup, it tastes like cinnamon rooibos with that kitchen cleaner citrus lightly lingering underneath. Actually, I think Cameron B. is right — it has bergamot in it. Buh. Okay, well, since I AM fond of eggnog (in moderation, because it’s kind of So Much) and this is nothing like eggnog, and I’m not so fond of straight rooibos, and almost never like bergamot, this is definitely not my cup of tea. If I concentrate only on the cinnamon, it’s okay, but Cinnamon Bergamot Rooibos is just never something I would knowingly order. I’ll try again with milk to see if that works better … but maybe not for a while. I need to get over the initial bag-sniff queasiness, which is really messing with my head.

Bird & Blend Tea Advent Calendar – Day 18

I confess, I actually tried this blend briefly last night (I have a 20g pouch from the tea club) just to make sure I didn’t love it. It was for sale today only, so I didn’t want to miss out and then be sad. Spoiler alert: I did not love it.

This is such an odd one. Other than being mildly spiced, it is nothing like eggnog (in my opinion). There’s a peppery note, I’m not sure whether it’s from the rooibos base or the flavoring. It also almost tastes smoked to me? And at the same time, it reminds me of bergamot? WTF? There’s a slight lemony tartness to it as well, especially at the end of the sip.

What a weird tea… I was actually excited to try this blend, but I have no idea what B&B was thinking here.

Holiday Tea-son! So, an eggnog tea in the advent calendar today… I… have never had eggnog. It’s just always kinda looked sort of repulsive to me. I love eating eggs, but something about drinking them never appealed to me, so I never bothered to try it, and the fact alcohol was usually involved meant I couldn’t anyway (migraine trigger). So I have absolutely no frame of reference for this one. I realize as an American I should, but I don’t. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. In fact, when I smelled the dry leaf, it just smelled like lime to me for some reason? What is eggnog even supposed to smell like?

My brewed cup looks like a proper rooibos, and after it is brewed, it just smells like… cinnamon rooibos. I honestly don’t know what else I’m supposed to be getting, nor why it smelled so wildly different before I brewed it. Perhaps some sort of alcohol flavoring is in this? After taking a sip… I’m inclined to believe that must be the case, because I swear I taste lime! I’m getting a nice woody and caramel sweet base from the rooibos, with a cinnamon sweetness that is a strong flavor note but not heated or overbearing, and then this odd, brisk citrus lime flavor on the end of the sip.

It’s… a little weird to me. The flavors just don’t really mesh to me. This is probably meant to be taken as a latte, since the actual drink is thick and rich. But with only a single teabag, I don’t really have enough tea to do a proper latte. I did try adding just a small dash of milk to my cup, but it didn’t really help much… it’s that weird citrus flavor! It just throws the whole cup off for me. It that were missing, I’d be fine with this. I think this is a really nice rooibos base, and the cinnamon is on point, being nice and sweet and tasty instead of overly spicy or that annoying red hot candy flavor. Then that odd citrusy lime flavor — which if it is supposed to be some sort of alcohol flavoring really doesn’t taste like it to me, but then, I don’t drink alcohol, so what do I know? — comes in at the end and sort of mars the whole experience for me.

Is this what eggnog tastes like? If so, I don’t feel like I’ve been missing out on anything all these years.