Mad Tea Party Blend

Operation Sipdown is in full effect! I’m trying to get through as many of the teas that I can before December hits, as I forsee christmas tea purchases in my future. I’ve managed to sort through my cupboard this weekend and now I have a pile of teas that are older or close to being finished that I can work on over the next few weeks :)

I still enjoy this tea as an every day sort of tea. It’s got a bit of flavoring without being overpowering so I won’t get tired of it.

It’s been 3 years since I have sipped on this tea! Thanks to Azzrian I was able to revisit it! Thanks so much! I’m still LOVING the Apricot notes! And Peach! The Black Tea Base is still a nice-even medium-strength :)

Finally, my blog review of this tea!
http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/mad-tea-party-blend-from-disney-wonderland-tea-tea-review/

I did it purely to show off the awesomeness of the tin the tea comes in, lol!

I did have some MTPB iced, it was okay. I wish there was less bitterness in the black base, and better, more natural ginger peach flavoring. Pretty ho hum overall.

I am going to need a Mad Tea Party today…but I won’t get one. I couldn’t sleep, as usually happens before a major election. I fell asleep just after two and woke up at four and I have a fifteen to sixteen hour workday ahead of me.

My daughter brought this tea to me as a gift from her Disney trip. It is very similar to Madame Butterfly or Fuzzy Navel, but with a black tea base instead of green. We drank it sans additions and it was very good. I bet it is fantastic iced, too!

I won’t be making any tea today. It will be far too hectic. Hopefully the activity will keep me from feeling sleepy or tired. Before I know it, it will be time to have a cuppa at home and get in bed. I can hardly wait.

Say a prayer for us all if you think of it, please! We need it!

Emptied my cute tin and enjoyed my last pot of this tea. A great blend that I will miss in my cupboard

This tea was blended just for me. That is what I assume anyway because it is delicious! I was quite surprised because I did not have the highest of hopes for a Disney blend.

Thanks to Nicole for generously sending this to me from her recent stash reduction.

The dry tea smells deliciously candy like. I can smell candied peach and apricot. There is also a very nice sweet spice to it from the ginger.

The brewed tea tastes just like it smells. The apricot is artificial but it is still delicious. One of the better apricot teas I have tried, and I have tried many. The ginger gives it a very nice spice that blends well with the sweetness. I find the black tea base to be fairly light. I am tasting more the flavour and not so much the tea.

I am hopefully going to have to try more of the Disney blends.

First cup of the day. I was so excited to try this tea that I actually made a cup a few days ago, but did not like it at all. I’m trying it again and hoping that I enjoy this cup more. It smells very fruity – of peach and apricot, and there is a strong gingery aroma noticeable from the steeped tea. The flavor is mostly ginger – I can only taste a tiny amount of the fruitiness in the aftertaste. This tea isn’t terrible, and it would probably be good if I liked ginger more or if the peach or apricot flavors were a little stronger, but it’s a little too gingery for me. I’m glad that I got to try it though (thanks, Nicole!) and I will take the rest of this to my mom, who will probably love it.

I am officially on fall break! Yesterday was actually the first real day of my break, but I spent the day reading and napping. I think that I am just so worn out from my crazy day at the hospital on Thursday and my whole clinic group actually felt pretty poorly, so I think we’re all fighting off some kind of sickness.

Our little parakeet also passed away yesterday. I’ve had him for 5 years, and he came from the shelter as an adult, so we think he was probably older when we got him. He hadn’t had any outward signs of illness, just gradually was getting a little more quiet and losing a few more feathers than normal. He started chirping really strange yesterday and when my fiancee and I ran in there, he was on the bottom of his cage. We tried to pick him and sit him back on his perch, but he went right back to the bottom. Thankfully it was very quick and he didn’t seem to suffer terribly. Yesterday was the first day in weeks that my fiancee and I were both home at the same time, so I can’t help but feel like he was waiting for us all to be there with him. The dogs, cats, and my fiancee and I sat next to his cage so he wasn’t alone at the end. The house is unusually quiet this morning, and I’m missing his cheerful chirping already.

Today I have a nice and clean house to myself, so I plan to spend the day with my pups/kitties and read and drink tea. I also need to get half of my paperwork done for clinic so that I don’t have to worry about it on my actual days off (Monday and Tuesday). I’m going to savor every minute of this fall break!

-Dry blend has large black tea leaves and twigs with small petals and small pieces of dried fruits.
-Dry leaves smell like fruity apricot and peach. Tea liquor aroma is of juicy peaches with a strong hint of ginger.
-Tea liquor is a clear very dark brown color.
-Overwhelming ginger flavor and finish. Faint fruity aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Fair tea. Flavor is overwhelmingly ginger.

Aaaaaand another backlog. (And cold steep).

This was kind of a mystery tea last night. I couldn’t for the life of me rememeber what it was until this morning. But after drinking the other tea in the fridge (most of which was labeled) I figured it out.

The bitterness and astringency in the base disappears this way (for the better). I really like the apricot notes with the light peachiness. It didn’t seemed quite so dessert/candy like this way either. The ginger was also more subtle and added a bit of depth.

Thanks to Sil for a generous sample of this one!

My first impression when drinking it was that it tastes like a black flavoured with tasty tropical fruits! Well, apricot and peach aren’t terribly tropical… but I think it was just the slight hint of ginger throwing me off, because now that I know what ingredients are in it, I definitely feel like I’m tasting apricot/peach and ginger. Overall, pretty tasty! Lacking in astringency too, which is always a big plus for me + black teas.

Thanks again, Sil! It’s great trying all these totally random teas that I would never have access to otherwise! :D

Hm.

Hm.

This was gifted to me about a year after it was purchased (yeah, in my family we sometimes lose track of things…) so I don’t know if that has anything to do with the flavor I’m getting.

First sip was floral for some reason. Second sip was fruity. After that, it now tastes like Smarties. Not the chocolate Smarties you get in countries other than the US, but the US Smarties – the chalky, vaguely fruit flavored discs that come wrapped in a tube. Everyone gets them on Halloween and most kids don’t eat them. Not that they are bad, they just aren’t that mother load of Halloween – chocolate! Now they have all kinds of brands and flavors, even SweeTart ones. But the ones this tea reminds me of are the original Smarties.

As it cools I get some of the ginger peach flavors back. Not a bad black base – mild and unintrusive. Might be quite good cold. Not sure how fast I’ll work my way through this tin with all the other options available to me. :) I have plenty of it, though, so if anyone wants any, speak up! (just like with any of my cupboard teas…I’m always up for swap or flat out reducing my stash through giving!)