I cannot believe that we’re in Week 3 of Advent AND I’ve finished one calendar. It feels like the time is going by way too fast, but on the bright side, I see COVID-19 vaccinations being approved – hopefully that helps the global pandemic.

I’ll not waffle on about the state of the world because I’m sure everyone is already hyper-aware about it, so let’s talk about happier things (i.e. tea).

Bird & Blend Matcha Advent

Pina Colada – This smells really fruity. I couldn’t whisk it into a layer of foam but it’s I think that’s due to the tea because I manage to whisk up a normal bowl of matcha without any problems yesterday. The tea tastes a bit like a mix of fruit candy flavours and it’s yummy. I think it would be nice as a latte.

Cocoa Matcha – If you follow me on Instagram, you might have caught stories about me trying to make a matcha hot chocolate. I’ve put that aside while I do the advent calendars, but this reminds me of those experiments. The chocolate taste is pretty strong and it just needs some sugar or honey to sweeten it, and then I could see myself really like thing.

Toffee Apple – This smells like apple when you open the tin, but has a smell best described as ‘musty’ appears after the tea has been whisked. The tea is somewhat sweet and you can tell there’s apple, but there’s also that musty taste and I didn’t like this one at all.

Mulled Wine Powder – This is when not knowing what mulled wine tastes like (I’ve only had it once) is a disadvantage. I’m not sure what I was expecting because the powder smelled like some sort of candy that I’ve had, but the tea was slightly spicy. It wasn’t great (still liking the fruit-flavoured ones better, on the whole), but it was a step up from the Toffee Apple the day before.

Mince Pie Matcha: I’m pretty sure you can’t call this matcha because it’s a rooibos-based tea powder, but this is a pretty nice tea. I enjoy the spices in this (even though I normally don’t like cinnamon) and the tea was just sweet enough that I didn’t feel like it needed anything more than a drop of milk. I haven’t had that many mince pies, but this reminded me of them.

Nordic Berry Matcha: This is the last matcha of them all and I really enjoyed this! I still don’t know what makes this Nordic, but I definitely enjoy the berries (plus I can actually whisk this so that’s more points in its favour)

Conclusion: Would I Buy This Again?

Now that I’ve come to the end of the calendar, it’s time to ask myself: would I buy this again?

The answer is… not really. I’ve found that I really enjoy straight matcha better, so while this is fun and I may pick up a few new flavours if I ever visit another Bird & Blend Tea store, I don’t think I’d sign up for another twelve or twenty four day calendar. That said, I do like the Bird & Blend Tea flavours in general, so I would definitely be interested in trying their regular Advent Tea calendar in the future.

The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. Advent Calendar (+ Tea Bar Mocktail Review)

Today was Day 1 for The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. Advent Calendar, so I only have one tea to talk about.

Longan Paradise: To be completely honest, I’m not really getting longan specifically, but this is a very fruity tea and I’ve come to recognise this combination of flavours as “1872 Clipper’s Longan Paradise”, which I guess is close enough? My mum is very happy about the fact they have two individually wrapped teabags per day because she loves the fruit flavours (especially the Lychee) from this blend.

I also managed to visit the 1872 Clipper Tea Co. store at Ion and have a drink at their teabar! I had their Merlion Dreams Tea Latte, a special mocktail created for this year’s National Day. It’s very lemongrass and pandan, so if you like those flavours, you should like this tisane.

Sadly, I have not finished any teas this week so there is no sipdown update. I’m hoping to be able to finish at least a packet or two next week!

I hope your Christmas preparations have been going well, even if it’s going to be an unusual Christmas.