Advent Calendars Day 1

As Mariah Carey would say… ITS TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I love the holiday season and having a little present to open each day is so fun, especially when there is a foot of snow to shovel and it is dark by 5pm lol.

This year I have ended up with 3 advent calendars, 2 tea calendars and 1 coffee calendar.

The coffee one is Nespresso since that is the coffee maker I have and I got a Vahdam tea calendar (I’ve never tried this brand before to be honest) and my husband got me a tea calendar from a local shop called The Boathouse Tea Room (they do afternoon tea and half their shop is an ice cream stand in the summer! It was a staple for us when we lived more in that neighborhood.)

I’ve decided that each day I will rank them in order of my favourite to least favourite of the three calendars. Each calendar is 24 days.

First, prices!

Vahdam: Each day has 5 tea bags and it costs $128.00 usually but I got it on sale for $68.00. At the original price this is a price per mug of ~$1.07, but with the sale I got it on it is actually ~$0.53 per mug. If it hadn’t been on sale I likely would not have purchased.

The Boathouse Tea Room: Each day has 1 tea bag and cost $40.00. This has a price per mug of ~$1.67. This is pricier per bag of tea than the first one but it is a small local shop so I had no issue with this personally!

Nespresso: Each day has 1 coffee pod and the final day, I think, has a mug. This cost $70.00… This one I am least impressed with the price as each pod with Nespresso is usually ~$1.00 and the mug on the site that I think is part of the calendar is $25.00. For the price per mug of coffee I am subtracting the $25 of the mug cost so we can more plainly compare the cost per mug of tea/coffee better, so price per mug of coffee is ~$1.88 making this the most expensive calendar per day.

Todays contenders were a turmeric spiced herbal tea from Vahdam, a Canadian blueberry tea from The Boat House, and a double shot of espresso from Nespresso’s holiday line.

1st place goes to Vahdam today! This tea was lightly citrusy and wasn’t too punch-you-in-the-face turmeric-y. Overall a very pleasant drinking experience and I am very happy I have 4 more bags of this to enjoy!

2nd place goes to The Boathouse! This tea was a beautiful dark purple colour from the blueberries however since there is apple in it and blueberry is such a mild flavour I found that the apple overpowered the blueberry. Blueberries are my favourite fruit (and pie flavour!) so I had higher hopes for this one.

Lastly, in 3rd place (even though this latte was beautiful) is the holiday double espresso. It just didn’t seem any different from the usual double espresso… The latte was delicious because I steamed vanilla milk and added brown sugar to it but there wasn’t any holiday pizzazz, unfortunately.

See you again tomorrow!

Cheers!