75

This was without a doubt the worst cup of tea I’ve had in a long long time. It even surpassed Adagio’s white cucumber concoction in terms of vileness. And it probably wasn’t even the tea’s fault.

See, this is a backlog from this afternoon on the way home from work. I’ve got a 45-50 minutes train commute and sometimes I buy some sort of coffee drink to go for the trip. Today though, I was super-sleepy (through every fault of my own) so I thought it would be good with some caffeine on the trip. Coffee does indeed have plenty of caffeine, but cappucinos and cafe lattes also have lots of milk, and milk is not all that good at keeping people awake. So something without milk and with caffeine in it. I thought, “hey, this place has Numi teas! Why not give that a shot?” Of course they only had a smaller selection and not the chocolate pu-erh one, so I picked this one because it sounded nice with a vanilla tea.

Erm yeah. Staying awake. Decaf. NEVERMIND!

So that was the first mistake.

I get a to-go cup of water of a temperature that means business, but with my mitten on it was possible to hold the cup. I steeped and then removed the lid from the cup, so I could drink it and get the benefit of the aroma as well. And this is where is started to go wrong, Steepsterites.

The aroma was extremely fruity and sweetly berry-like. Vanilla was there as a hint and I think the thing that added the sweetness.

The tea itself was pretty weak in flavour, and what flavour that actually was there was largely cardboard-y and rooibos-y. Very much on the rooibos, actually, in spite of the bag wrapper not saying anything about it containing rooibos. In fact nowhere I look does it say anything about it containing rooibos so I can only conclude that it’s not supposed to be there.

There was no vanilla in the flavour at all. Not one bit. As a matter of fact there wasn’t even any black tea in the flavour either. Nothing. Not even a hint. All I could pick up was a watered down plain rooibos, which a) wasn’t what I wanted, b) I don’t even like that much and c) doesn’t exist in this place. In fact you could have blindfolded me and let me taste it and I would have said it was a rooibos and I probably wouldn’t even be
the slightest bit in doubt.

How in the name of all that is sweet and wholesome could this have gone so dreadfully dreadfully wrong? I wasn’t expecting perfection but I thought I’d at least be able to get a mediocre cup of tea. I think I know the answer to this.

Cardboard. Cup.

I’ve had that happen before. A cardboard cup that stole all the flavour from an otherwise strong and oversteeped teabag. It was like drinking just hot water. I think this phenomenon was at fault here too. It stole most of the flavour and warped what was left of it into the rooibos-y stuff.

I’m not going to give this a rating due it the nature of the taste-thieving cup. Under other circumstances this might actually have been a lovely tea, but right now after having tried it, I still have no clue what it tastes like.

Let this be a lesson for you, Steepsterites. Cardboard to-go cups = Eeeeeeeevil! Beware!

JacquelineM

I agree 100% – cardboard to go cups “steep” and you get cardboard tea (and if you leave the wooden stirring stick in you get that too) UGH!!!

Shanti

Oh gosh, I’m sorry you had such a sucky experience :( maybe it was better you avoided the pu-erh…I read that pu-erhs have almost zero caffeine in them! At least decaf tea (if it was tea and not rooibos) has a couple of mgs of caffeine… :)

Angrboda

Shanti, they don’t even have the chocolate pu-erh. If they had I’d have bought a whole box. And it wasn’t rooibos. It’s not supposed to have rooibos in it according to the wrapper. Just black tea and vanilla flavour.
Avoid. Cardboard. To-go. Cups. At. All. Costs!

JacquelineM, at least I didn’t get a stirring thing, I don’t think they have those at that particular cafe, but I have noticed the phenomenon in one of the other ones I frequent. You think you get a cafe latte with hazelnut syrup and what you get if you forget to remove the stick is a caffe latte with… wood.
To-go beverages. The bane of my existance!

Shanti

Ohhh, I get it. Heh, sorry, I misunderstood what you said. And boo to cardboard to-go cups that make black tea taste like crappy rooibos!

Angrboda

I can see how you got confused. I’ve edited the note a bit now to make it clearer that it’s not a flavour that was supposed to be there at all.

Cinoi

Wow, sorry, no chocolate pu-erh and to go cup disaster. I bought this one silicone to go travel mug (two of them actually)(Bed Bath and Beyond: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=16746231) two weeks ago. I know that sometimes they can give off flavor especially to hot brewed teas, but after the second brew, I had no adverse flavoring. When I am on the go, you bet I ask them to fill my to-go cup with hot water for tea because I loathe using cardboard. And helps the environment ;)

Jillian

I think I sent you another bag or two of the chocolate pu-erh with the Iron Goddess of Mercy I just mailed a few days ago.

Angrboda

Cinoi, yeah, I have one too that I use in the morning, but I didn’t feel like handing that to the woman in the shop. I did find a quieter place to put in the teabag and wait quietly while it steeped, so if I had been smart I could have just poured the hot water over into the other one.
…Oh, why didn’t I think of that???!

Jillian, awesome, I’m looking forward to that. Then we’ll see if I still find it uber-yummy or if it was my christmas spirits speaking. :D

takgoti

I shall remember this. And keep my travel tumbler close.

__Morgana__

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the cup. There is something cardboardy about this even when drunk from porcelain….

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Comments

JacquelineM

I agree 100% – cardboard to go cups “steep” and you get cardboard tea (and if you leave the wooden stirring stick in you get that too) UGH!!!

Shanti

Oh gosh, I’m sorry you had such a sucky experience :( maybe it was better you avoided the pu-erh…I read that pu-erhs have almost zero caffeine in them! At least decaf tea (if it was tea and not rooibos) has a couple of mgs of caffeine… :)

Angrboda

Shanti, they don’t even have the chocolate pu-erh. If they had I’d have bought a whole box. And it wasn’t rooibos. It’s not supposed to have rooibos in it according to the wrapper. Just black tea and vanilla flavour.
Avoid. Cardboard. To-go. Cups. At. All. Costs!

JacquelineM, at least I didn’t get a stirring thing, I don’t think they have those at that particular cafe, but I have noticed the phenomenon in one of the other ones I frequent. You think you get a cafe latte with hazelnut syrup and what you get if you forget to remove the stick is a caffe latte with… wood.
To-go beverages. The bane of my existance!

Shanti

Ohhh, I get it. Heh, sorry, I misunderstood what you said. And boo to cardboard to-go cups that make black tea taste like crappy rooibos!

Angrboda

I can see how you got confused. I’ve edited the note a bit now to make it clearer that it’s not a flavour that was supposed to be there at all.

Cinoi

Wow, sorry, no chocolate pu-erh and to go cup disaster. I bought this one silicone to go travel mug (two of them actually)(Bed Bath and Beyond: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=16746231) two weeks ago. I know that sometimes they can give off flavor especially to hot brewed teas, but after the second brew, I had no adverse flavoring. When I am on the go, you bet I ask them to fill my to-go cup with hot water for tea because I loathe using cardboard. And helps the environment ;)

Jillian

I think I sent you another bag or two of the chocolate pu-erh with the Iron Goddess of Mercy I just mailed a few days ago.

Angrboda

Cinoi, yeah, I have one too that I use in the morning, but I didn’t feel like handing that to the woman in the shop. I did find a quieter place to put in the teabag and wait quietly while it steeped, so if I had been smart I could have just poured the hot water over into the other one.
…Oh, why didn’t I think of that???!

Jillian, awesome, I’m looking forward to that. Then we’ll see if I still find it uber-yummy or if it was my christmas spirits speaking. :D

takgoti

I shall remember this. And keep my travel tumbler close.

__Morgana__

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the cup. There is something cardboardy about this even when drunk from porcelain….

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Introvert, crafter, black tea drinker, cat lover, wife, nerd, occasional curmudgeon.

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Bio last updated February 2020

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