Post Advent Calendar Clarity

Would I get three drink advent calendars again in the same year… no, no I would not lol.

This advent calendar journey really started to feel like more of a chore and less of a fun thing I got to do each day since my December got so busy and there were so many drinks to make each day. And once I started missing days, it was SO HARD to catch up as there were already so many each day to do.

So… What would I do differently next year? Just one calendar and be MUCH more mindful in my choosing. This way, I think it would still feel like a treat each day and be easier to make time for in my unpredictable days.

These Advent Calendars were also expensive, as I’d stated in my day 1 post:

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.

Overall, I think the one I would be most likely to repurchase would be the Vahdam one as I enjoyed it the most overall with 11 first place rankings over the 24 days.

I think if The Boathouse had packaged their Advent Calendar better, the teas would have maintained their flavours better. They were very dull in flavour as the calendar went on. In other loose-leaf tea advent calendars I’ve had in the past they’ve come in tins to preserve flavour and I think that these teas would have benefited from that. The Boathouse had the most first place spots in the first half of the month then they fell off as their flavour was lost.

In the past I’ve done David’s Tea and The T.Kettle as well but they tasted like they used artificial sweetners in their teas which is why I tried other ones this year. Overall I think I will be doing some reading up on some tea companies this year and pick either a matcha calendar for next year or see if I can find one that is all sleepy time teas, or maybe put one together myself, as night time is when I seem to have the most time to sit down and enjoy a mug of tea.

I won’t ever do the Nespresso calendar again as I think it is too expensive; you end up paying almost double per day on each pod. I also learned that I don’t even really like coffee while doing this calendar LOL. Live and learn, I suppose.

My Silly Goose coffee and tea room in my house was well used this past month 🙂

If you have any tea company or advent calendar suggestions for me, let me know!

Cheers!