Buttermint

Homemade Advent Calendar from Arby: Day 4

A green tea blend came out of the box on my random pull this morning, and although I fully intended to drink it, suddenly it was 6:30 p.m. and too late for anything caffeinated. Soooo I chose this one instead.

I’m a sucker for all things creamy peppermint, and butter mints are very nostalgic for me, so this tea is always going to be welcome in my household! I’ve had this one a few times before and it definitely hits the spot. A very calming and pleasant nighttime treat.

Anyway- the tea itself is as expected. Pretty much peppermint with a very subtle vanilla flavor. It really does taste like a buttermint.

I like this one alot, nice creamy minty flavor. Nothing too harsh about it. Tastes great with or without sugar hot or cold

Tastes just like the little mints they had by the register at this little Italian restaurant when I was a kid. Also, people always had them in a little candy dish when there was company, or for the Holidays. This tea is a relaxing wonderful memory.

Nice mint flavor with a bit of creaminess. They could get away with amping up the creaminess even more, but the flavor was pretty good. Some murkiness appears as it sits. Overall, a solid bagged choice from the tea box. I grabbed a few bags and finished them all in no time.

Happy birthday to my bestie Todd! And Happy National Mojito Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea with either lime or mint flavor notes. At one point in time I actually had a lime and mint “mojito” inspired tea, but it has been long gone from the cupboard now. I couldn’t find any teas in my current stash that combined both, so I’ll be drinking a mint tea and a lime tea today!

I’ve had this box for a while, after my local grocery sent me a dollar off Twinings coupon and I felt the need to use it, but this is my first time breaking into it. I do like mint tea to soothe my tum on bad GI days, and was curious how I’d feel about this one that mixes a vanilla flavoring with peppermint, as opposed to just plain peppermint whole leaf or a good peppermint/spearmint/lemongrass blend.

A single teabag in 350ml of 205F water, left soaking. I really enjoy the aroma coming off the cup; there is a sweetness to the peppermint that does remind me of a peppermint candy or the namesake, a buttermint.

Mmm… yes, this is quite nice! It isn’t as crisp as drinking a full leaf peppermint herbal (this is peppermint fannings with a lot of the mint taste coming from flavoring), but the mint flavor is pleasing and I do like how it pairs with the vanilla flavoring. Neither flavor is overbearing and they meld together nicely. As my cup cools a bit and I continue to sip, I have a nice cooling sensation building on the back of my tongue and throat, and the sweet vanilla does lend a sort of sweet cream note that really does remind me of a buttermint.

Would buy again in small quantities only. 1tsp of sugar/8oz. Tastes nice but leaves a metallic and unpleasant mouthfeel, but still worth drinking.

The particular bag of this I brewed from spent a not-insignificant amount of time in a hardhat. While that probably didn’t add to the flavor, it sure did add to the feeling. The bag resisted opening like some loving god was doing its best to help me. I fought it, exercising my right to screw up royally, and won. My prize was the definite odor of dentist toothpaste, so strong and true I felt the grit in my mouth and winced. The steam smelled better; had the heat burnt off the dentist toothpaste? I detected a hint of creamy vanilla in the steam, but was hesitant to believe it.
In the end, it left me confused. The leaf smelled horrible and brewed a particularly unappealing hue of yellow. And yet, it only tasted of mint and a non-descript fattiness that I suppose is meant to be vanilla. It reminds me of when you eat an avocado, that smooth not-quite-buttery flavor left in your mouth after you swallow. Butter’s isomer? Unpinpointable. Slightly plasticy, but I wouldn’t notice if I weren’t drinking out of porcelain. Buttermint hurtles towards you like a runaway train and dissolves into mist. It’s kind of nice- after the first few seconds of preparation.

When I think of mint tea with a spike of vanilla, I really don’t want to think of it as “musky”, but that’s what Twinings Buttermint has brought me to. The “Natural Flavour Vanilla Type” was ominous, and after drinking it, I’m convinced that the vanilla type flavor here was modeled after a glandy beaver. It’s a mediocre peppermint tea with an odd, waxy, musky artificial vanilla kick to it. However, that hasn’t stopped me from buying and drinking two boxes of it, because I always forget just how bizarre it is.

348/365

I love a good vanilla mint blend, so I had to revisit this one before completing my challenge. I tried it in its previous incarnation, when it was one of the Sensations range – that was a long time ago! I kept seeing it in the supermarket, and it was calling to me, so I gave in and bought a box for old time’s sake.

It’s simple, but delicious! There’s lots of peppermint, as you might expect, and it’s cooling and refreshing in the way only peppermint can be, considering it’s actually hot. The vanilla adds a creamy sweetness, very reminiscent of toffee at times. The flavour is spot-on murray mint, which I think is the intention.

I’d say this is easily one of my favourite herbal/caffeine-free blends. I’d forgotten how much I liked this one, but I think in future I’m going to try and keep it around. It’s well balanced perfection. Considering it’s a bagged supermarket tea, it would be hard to give it higher praise!