1432 Tasting Notes
2025 sipdown no. 44
There’s plenty of cocoa powder here and it adds a nice cocoa bitterness to the taste. The spices are evenly balanced and come through clearly. I forgot about 2/3 of this cup while working and did prefer it hotter, but still tasty cooled. Thanks for sharing Cameron!
2025 sipdown no. 42
This one is definitely milky, bordering on a bit too much (for me). Perhaps it’s the 2024 harvest. It’s a lovely oolong overall and I’ll have to order the 2025 harvest to see the differences.
I regularly got 3-4 steeps, Western style.
Preparation
2025 sipdown no. 41
The dry and steeped smell is the same, a musky dark chocolate. The taste comes through on the end of the sip, but chocolate teas often leave me wanting more (more like hot chocolate haha). Lex loved this one. I appreciate the unique ingredients, but wouldn’t order more than a sample size.
2025 sipdown no. 39
This is definitely lavender with a softness of vanilla, without much actual vanilla flavour. The chai spices are mostly drowned out by the lavender, but I don’t mind.
Thanks for sharing Cameron!
2025 sipdown no. 38
The reviews of this tea are amazing and I so wanted to feel the same way, but sadly didn’t find this tea as incredible as others. I’m not a huge fan of Ruby 18, so perhaps that’s why? The tea is quite smooth with some honey sweetness. The resteep isn’t anything to write home about and I found it introduced a light astringency that wasn’t in the initial steep.
Preparation
@Courtney, I apologize if my tea notes on Brandy Oolong are partly responsible for your disappointment. For what it’s worth, I have found lot-to-lot variations in this product not only with Tealyra, but also other vendors. And I was similarly underwhelmed by Adagio—Masters’ ersion earlier this week. https://steepster.com/teas/adagio-teas/108904-formosa-ruby-18-black
