Boxty With Honey Soom Darjeeling from A Quarter To Tea. . . .

Dag nabbit! I tried this Irish-themed tea too late for Saint Patrick’s day! That is so disappointing! I love a theme!

Unlike my timing, this tea is NOT a disappointment. It’s a potato pancake flavored Darjeeling with vanilla and honey. Sounds cool, right?

In my home, we call potato pancakes “latkes,” but I doubt that’s what the Irish call it. My brother dumps cheese and salt into his latkes — but it appears that the Irish take a sweeter route.

This flavor tends more toward butter and cream. It’s very sweet, smooth on the tongue. It also has a robust Irish darjeeling base keeping it on track.

It feels like a liquefied hangover-breakfast. You’ve got the tough tea with your fried carbs to re-fuel your body. (The fried carbs, in this story, are obviously made by someone else. Someone who made better decisions than you did last night.)

Judging by how sweet and yummy this tea is, if it were me (and I’ve been there), I’d dive right in to such a meal. I’d eat it until there was nothing left and whine for more.

Maybe THIS is what’s at the end of a leprechaun’s rainbow!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Black Tea
Where to Buy:  A Quarter To Tea
Description

All the flavors of a  creamy potato pancake with a malty base, with a heaping helping of vanilla and honey.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Miss Figgy from Tea and Tins

So, I have to say this first: the piggy sprinkles are DEATH-DEFYINGLY cute! (I think that’s a thing?) Also, I appreciate the fact that this is an extra-punny tea: not only is the name a pun, but the tea itself is both figgy AND filled with sugar-based figgy piglets. (Yes, the sprinkles do absorb fig flavor over time. I checked.)

miss_figgy_-_spoon_largeAlthough you can smell the sweet flavor of figs through the packet, it gets even better while steeping. After steeping, the tea is a nice hazy cedarish amber color. The overall taste is a bit less figgy than I expected from the smell, though the flavor does build up towards the end of each sip. This tea is sweet enough to not need sugar, although it’s good with sugar too! And it’s quite smooth, with no more than a teeny hint of astringency.

For best flavor, I recommend adding a pinch of sugar and some milk (but you know me, I recommend that for basically all teas). I also recommend using generous amounts of leaf. The first time I sampled this tea, I used a heaping teaspoonful for about 10 oz of water. I tried it and found myself wondering if it would be even better in a stronger infusion, so the next time I tried two heaping teaspoonfuls in about 8oz of water and found the flavor much improved. Again, it’s a matter of taste, so go with your instincts and feel free to experiment!
I really enjoyed drinking down my sample of this tea, and it’s made me consider adding a figgy tea to my regular rotation. (I’m also considering buying some of this tea as a Christmas present for my little sister. It’s both cute and yummy, and thus it’s likely to be an instant little-sister favorite.) If you’re a serious fig fan, you might have to steep this tea especially strong to get as much fruit flavor as you’d like; still, if you’re looking for a nicely fig-flavored black tea with the cutest sprinkles EVER, this is most certainly THE one for you.

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:
Where to Buy: Teas and Tins

logoDescription

Loose leaf black tea, nicknamed Miss figgy!

Ingredients: black tea, fig taste with dried figs and pink pig sprinkles.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Falling Leaves from Fava Tea Company

Today is finally the day! I have had so many new teas to try lately and because of a pesky cold I couldn’t taste any of them. However, the cold is finally (mostly gone) and I can taste tea once again!

Before I get to the taste of this particular tea, I want to talk about the adorable dry leaf. Falling Leaves is definitely accurate because the cute little leaf sprinkles among the rooibos leaves actually looks like an Autumn leaf pile. It is quite fun and makes me that much more excited to start sipping.

Speaking about exciting, the maple smell that fills the air as soon as the water hits those little leafy sprinkles is mouthwatering. Even the dry leaf has a great maple scent.

That maple does transfer to the taste of the tea as well, albeit not as strong as it is in scent. Unfortunately it gets slightly muddled among the sugar sweetness of the melted sprinkles. In addition, the rooibos base is adding a sort of honey-like flavor which is just adding yet another layer of sweet with a slight bit of wood lurking around the bottom of the sip. With that said, that woody component helps balance the other flavors and keep it from becoming cloying. It is smooth and dessert-like but I just find myself wanting a more concentrated maple flavor as opposed to the collection of sweets I am getting here. As a whole, it is coming off more generic than maple.

This is the same issue I had with the very similar blend, Oh Canada! by DAVIDsTEA. The two teas are very similar, though the DAVIDs tea had a stronger rooibos base from what I can recall. In light of this comparison, it would be interesting to see how this blend fares cold brewed which was my preferred method for prepping Oh Canada

All in all, this is by no means a bad blend just a little lackluster when compared to the decadent smell. However, if you are looking for a nice and gentle sweet tea, you will find it here.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Herbal/Rooibos
Where to Buy: Fava Tea Company

fava-tea-logoDescription

This an outstanding seasonal blend is a festive combination of rooibos tea and rich maple flavor! Colorful sprinkles add to the fun. Enjoy this on cool fall and winter evenings. It’ll warm you right up, and make you smile!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!