World Tea House’s ADVENTureTea Calendar (My Top 5) | Tea Review

Since I spent the better part of December tasting this tea advent calendar, I wanted to highlight some of the teas and tisanes I liked the most!

The World Tea House’s ADVENTure Tea Calendar came in a red cardboard box with 24 red and green ziplock bags and a recommendations brewing guide. Each tea/tisane had four servings. The box was advertised as focusing on single-origin teas. The calendar had the full spectrum of tea types ranging from white to herbal blends. I decided on this advent calendar because it was from a small independent Canadian company.

I should note that there was a mix up with my box when it originally arrived, but Phil, the owner, quickly sent me a replacement box and it made it in time so I didn’t miss a day! Phill also kindly agreed to replace any of the cinnamon or smoked teas due to my sensitivities. So, my box is slightly different from the standard box. The staff labelled the replacement teas/tisanes so I knew which was which.

With that being said, let’s see what arrived in my box:

Note: * denotes that it was a replacement tea/tisane

1. Assam TGFOP – Jalinga Tea Garden [Black]	2. Kenyan Gold – Nandi Hills [Black]
3. Zzzzz (Sleep) [Herbal]	4. Sencha – Common [Green]
5. White Peach [White]	6. Turmeric Zest [Herbal] *
7. Cardamom Vanilla [Black] *	8. Darjeeling – Sourenee Tea Farm – Spring Punch 1st Flush [Black] *
9. Diamond Green – Doke Tea Easte [Green]	10. Fruit Berry Blend [Herbal] *
11. Vanilla Berry Truffle [Herbal]	12. Earl Grey [Black]
13. Sencha Mint [Green]	14. Citrus Green [Green]
15. Wuyi Oolong – Rock Oolong [Oolong]	16. Kenya Oolong – Nandi Hills [Oolong]
17. Coconut Cocoa [Pu-erh and Black] *	18. Apricot Escape [Herbal]
19. Tulsi – Krishna Holy Basil [Herbal]	20. Gunpowder – Pingshui [Green]
21. Cranberry Orange [Herbal] *	22. After Ate [Pu-erh]
23. Candy Cane Rooibos [Herbal]	24. Candy Cane [Black]

Now that I have tasted all the teas, I am pretty happy with the selection. I felt there was a good balance between orthodox/straight teas in comparison to blends. I decided in this post I would focus on my Top Five! The five teas/tisanes that stood out to me were: Assam TGFOP – Jalinga Tea Garden, Cardamom Vanilla, Wuyi Oolong, Tulsi, and Candy Cane Rooibos. Since I have only tasted each of these teas/tisanes once, I will not be giving them individual scores as these are my initial notes.

So, let’s go and recap each tea/tisane!

Day 1: Assam TGFOP – Jaling Tea Garden

Description: “This robust organic black tea brews a strong dark malty cup with a natural sweetness from it’s golden leaf tips.”

Instructions: 1 tsp per cup | 98°C | 3-5 minutes

Review: I am always a sucker for Assam teas – I enjoy the malty sweetness, so this was a pleasant surprise for Day 1! The dry leaves were small and broken with sweet earthy notes. After 4 minutes, the liquor was a dark reddish-brown colour and had a nice rich malt smell. The taste itself was sweet, malt, and woody but on the delicate side. When cooled, the liquor had a stronger profile with more woody and malt notes, followed by briskness at the end of the sip.

Day 7: Cardamom Vanilla

Instructions: 1 tsp per cup | 98°C | 3-5 minutes

Review: Cardamom isn’t an ingredient I taste a lot, especially not as a key ingredient since I normally only have it in chai blends. Smelling the dry blend, there was a strong cardamom and vanilla smell, which was slightly spiced, woody, and sweet. The blend was made of CTC (Cut Tear Curl) black tea and full cardamom pods. This blend tasted like how it smelled, strong cardamom followed by sweetness from the vanilla, and then some earthy notes. The blend was lovely and cozy. I need to find more cardamom blends to try!

Day 15: Wuyi Oolong – Rock Oolong

Description: Varies. Light oolongs brew as green tea, dark oolongs brew as black tea | 1 tsp per cup | 98°C | 3-5 minutes

Review: When I saw this, I didn’t think very much of it when I brewed it but, this was an unexpected delight for me! The dark twisted ashy brown and reddish brown leaves had a roasted nutty and dates smell. Once brewed for 4 minutes, the liquor had a lovely rich roasted, toast, mineral, woody, caramel, and cookies taste. This was a really enjoyable tea and I would like to explore it more in the future!

Day 19: Tulsi – Krishna Holy Basil

Description: “The flavor is crisp with slight peppery notes and a grassy clean finish.”

Instructions: 1 tsp per cup | 98°C | 5-7 minutes

Review: Similar to cardamom, tulsi was an ingredient I only had ever tasted in other blends. The dry herb was light and airy and smelled citrus, peppery, and floral. Once it was brewed for 6 minutes, it had a very herbaceous and minty taste. It took a few sips, but the more I had it the more I enjoyed it! The liquor did leave the throat slightly dry.

Day 23: Candy Cane Rooibos

Description: “South African Rooibos with vanilla bean, mint and crushed candy cane make this herbal blend an evening Holiday favourite.”

Instructions: 1 tsp per cup | 98°C | 5-7 minutes

Review: For many years, mint made me think of toothpaste. Thankfully, over the last couple of years, I have started to enjoy mint! This blend lived up to its name and tasted exactly like a candy cane – sweet vanilla, mint, with some nutty notes from the rooibos. Even as someone who isn’t always a fan of the taste of rooibos, it complements the mint and vanilla very well and isn’t obtrusive.

Final Thoughts

This advent calendar was an adventure! A few things key highlights were that the packaging was minimal, the range of tea types and tastes and that there were multiple single-orgin teas. Some of the teas were also organic and fair trade. One big win for me is that each tea/tisane came with more than 1 to 2 servings so, now I can go and taste everything again!

I had a few minor issues with the advent calendar. One main one was that the zip lock bags were sometimes difficult to seal shut and leaked smell. I also couldn’t find every tea in the company (such as the Wuyi Oolong that I wanted more of), so some teas may have sold out. Lastly, there was some minor discrepancy between the labels on the zip locks and on the website regarding ingredients (mostly related to the order of ingredients).

Overall, there was a lot to like about this advent calendar and I feel the issues pointed out were minor. With that being said, I am very excited to taste the teas/tisanes again in the new year! Be on the lookout for a full review of some of the teas from this ADVENTure (4/5 rating)!

Edit: Phil, the owner, reached out to me to clarify a few things:

The question of the post: Which tea/tisane would you have tried?