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This is my “Health” tea for one of the April Sipdown teas. Contains ingredients that have been historically used to alleviate symptoms but claims have not be validated by the FDA for accuracy. That being said this is a “health” tea, and a decent quality for being able to find it at my local co-op grocery store. The size of the leaves are very voluminous and fresh smelling, much nicer in comparison to a few leafy herbals, I have had in the past —some loose leaf and definitely the ones in tea bags. The company’s teas are grown in Wisconsin so much more local than most teas I buy.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: So I don’t have enough experience tasting herbs separately to give the best description of this but I will do my best. The best aspect of this is the chocolate mint, it reminds me of Andee’s Mint chocolate. Other than that I think I get some milk texture from the milk oats and an earthy taste from the beet root. There is a slight fruitness from the raspberry leaf and apple but not enough to be in conflict with the chocolate mint. I don’t normally love peppermint on it’s own but the chocolatiness from this variety is much more palatable to me. It’s a nice pick-me-up for the evening, without the caffeine.

Chai Tournament: Sunburst (Chroma) v Warrior Princess (the tea girl)

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: So I may have oversteeped this one, this cup tastes pretty gingery hot. I forgot to put on a timer when I started the steep.

However, when the tea cooled down more of the fruit flavors, cinnamon and lemongrass came out more and was more well rounded. Overall, I think the tea is pretty good when it is cooled down.

Serving this chai as a latte as I usually do. The showdown for this blend is against Vanilla Chai from the Hugo Tea Company which is yet to be tasted.

Preparation: Western, Latte, Honey and Oatmilk
Tasting Note: The blend isn’t as strong as other chais I have had in the last two days (Azure from Chroma tea- has a really strong anise and black pepper taste and Calming tea and Sienna have more ginger). This has slight anise and black pepper notes with a slight after taste of cardamom. Outside the “Chai showdown”, I don’t think I would repurchase this again, it is very mild in the first place and I am not a big fan a black pepper in tea in any capacity I am finding out.

My rating is mostly due to personal preferences on black pepper, I think, so if you enjoy this note, this might be more enjoyable to you.

So I am going to say it probably wasn’t the best to brew this specific chai blend as a latte. I think that it was meant to be drank straight. For that, reason I am not going to rate this one this round. I do have to say that it smells super interesting brewed straight: licorice, smoke, incense. Drank as a latte, the black pepper and licorice were mainly present.

John requested some caffeinated tea today :D, he is normally a coffee drinker but needed something lighter today. Chai black tea it is!

I am feeling slightly better today and so I partook in the chai as well. Mostly resting today though.

Preparation: Western with oatmilk and honey
Tasting note: Not a fan of chai straight, unfortunately, so I had to alter the tea right away. After adding oatmilk and honey, the tea reminded me of a dessert spice mix for a pice, maybe pumpkin or my family’s custard pie or egg nog maybe. The tea definitely gave me holiday vibes though and was really soothing.

Side note: I noticed on the website that 2 blends were out of stock. Also, that the it was a local business. Yay! Unfortunately, it did not look like they listed any local retailers or have a brick and mortar shop I could buy from. The blends seem to have been out of stock on their site for a while as I have looked up this site last year too. Might have to ask if they will restock those blends in the future.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: Right away, I get a sweet cherry and sweet warm brown sugar notes from the cinnamon and brown sugar. The brown sugar in this has really done a lot to ensure that the is a sweet cherry note and not a overly tart one. The lingering note on my tongue is a cherry creamy one which the oat come through.

I think this is one, if not my favorite blend from the Necessiteas. It really feels the cherry crisp in tea form because of that, I want to drink it all the time.

Currently, it is out of stock on the website but, I think it is one that I will hang around for.

So I had made a really fun tournament bracket for all my chai teas to face off and then I woke up having an upset stomach today. :p Basically I will be going through some non-caffeinated stuff for the next few days, I think.

Preparation: Western + oatmilk
Tasting note: Plain the tea what pretty powerfully rooibos flavored, it had a sweetness and some vanilla notes. Like usual, I added oatmilk pretty quickly. This helped mellow out the rooibos and made it much more creamy like a flan. There was a slight caramel note, not in a candy like way just in a richness from the rooibos that I sort of get the feeling of this creamy, caramel custard. I think I would try it was a latte to see if it felt close to the caramel taste.

I think this was a nice herbal tea, the rooibos on it’s own was pretty potent but I could scale back on how much I use and the steeping time.

Ran out of steeping baskets for mugs this evening so, we did a teapot steep tonight.

Preparation: Teapot/ Western
Tasting Note: It has a spring water taste but also a slight fruity sweetness (tangerines or clementines) with a little savoriness. Tonight we had a big dinner so it felt nice to drink a large glass of this in evening, to have a little more soothing digestion.

John requested this one as a “creamy tea” aka oatmilk tea. I haven’t had this one really one its own yet but I would like to try that next.

Preparation: Western with oatmilk
Tasting note: The butterbeers I have had in the past at wizarding world and a friends rendition have mainly been extremely sweet and butterscotch and whipped cream. I would say that is something I dont typically love. This tea did not remind me of that luckily. The tea with oatmilk reminded me mostly of a rootbeer float with vanilla ice cream. The sasparilla was mellowed by the oatmilk but I don’t always detect the butterscotch. It’s there just ever so faintly. I enjoy the rootbeer/float flavor without the crazy sugar buzz and if I had the tea without oatmilk, I think, I would note the butterscotch more.