Courtney

Yet another lovely sample from jessiwrites :)

This one is fascinating with the jasmine and mint battling. It’s a light tea, great for after a heavy meal. The taste comes off almost like a peppermint candy – perhaps because of the jasmine trying to overtake the mint.

Thanks jessiwrites for this sample :)

This one is quite lovely. A very creamy, buttery oolong.

Now I’m enjoying the second steep of this treasure while contemplating whether I should study of watch Skyfall. Hmm. Daniel Craig does make a compelling case.

Third steep, still delicious.

Well my stomach is not a happy camper tonight. So I opted for some spearmint tea. This is a lovely variation to peppermint. Much gentler on the nose with an inherent sweetness not found in peppermint.

Hopefully this will work some magic and I can go back asleep.

I added some unsweetened shredded coconut to this today. I love, love, love coconut and I wanted to see how it would taste with a straight white base.

Oh yes. I’m really enjoying it. All coconut.

Update March 5/13: Having this lovely mix again. Man I love coconut. I’ll have to keep this tea on hand just to have a coconut white à la Courtney. Perhaps I should try it with David’s White Peony and save myself some money if that tastes just as delish.

So apparently I’ve been drinking LIME not LEMON the entire time. Gah.

Alright Lime Chiffon, let’s hope you are the rooibos that stays.

Well I can barely smell the rooibos – off to a great start! The lime is perfect in this blend. Not too too much but also not overpowering. I’m excited for the second steep of this.

Thanks jessiwrites!

Thank you jessiwrites for another awesome sample!

Whoa. The scent of cinnamon nearly blew me away when I opened up this treasure.

Lately everything with a ton of cinnamon just smells like cinnamon hearts to me. Not that I’m complaining, they’re delicious. Just making an observation.

This one’s quite lovely. Leaves a nice heat from the cinnamon.

Thanks to jessiwrites for all the Della Terra samples you sent my way :)

Thus far Della Terra hasn’t been too exceptional to me. The teas are good, but nothing amazing. I’m hoping this one will be amazing since I love coconut.

Mmm. This one has a flavour I wasn’t expecting. It’s reminding me of Lucky Charms. That’s always good though!

Now I shall enjoy a toasted open-face cucumber sandwich with my Lucky Charms tea while I read yet another psych journal article.

Update: Resteep is alright, definitely less flavourful.

Well I got absolutely nothing done over reading break. Not a single thing. And I had a rough night for sleeping last night so I feel like a zombie this lovely Monday morning.

Guayusa to the rescue. So now I’m sitting in my morning biology lecture, which I normally love, sipping my guayusa, as I watch the clock until I go home again.

I found a neat recipe for sweet coconut guayusa that I will try later on as well. I’ll update to let you know how it goes :)

Update: I tried out the sweet coconut guayusa recipe and it was pretty tasty but the scent of it really turned me off. I find it difficult difficult when I’m sipping away at something and the scent is right there in my face.

Here’s the recipe if anyone else would like to try: http://www.guayusatea.com/preparation/

Ahh so happy I finally scored a tin of this. It’s been essentially the only tea I’ve been drinking for a week. Last night I actually added a bit if pineapple juice to it. Delish!

This morning I’m having a resteep as I read psych journal articles. Bleh for the articles. Yay for the tea.

So I got this treat in the mail today from jessiwrites :)

And hello maple! The medicinal taste is definitely lessened, I’m thinking from the from the sheer amount of caramel and toffee that must be in here. This one is up there for the rooibos’ I’ve tried thus far. Whenever that medicinal taste is diminished I have hope.

I’m going to try a second steep to see if it’ll will be better for me. Thanks again jessiwrites for the tea and the second steep tip!

So this one smells like cinnamon hearts, yum right? But once it steeped there’s that pu’erh scent underneath it all. I steeped it for 3 minutes this round, since the suggested steeping time of 4-6 didn’t seem to be working for me.

It’s definitely more cinnamon heart than pu’erh but still there’s that faint underlying taste I don’t care for. I suppose I could try steeping it for less again.

Update: As it cools, the cinnamon comes out much more and the pu’erh is almost gone. There may be hope after all!

Not even done steeping and I can smell the medicinal scent.

Well there’s vanilla there, which helps to mask the medicinal taste. But unfortunately I can still taste that taste underneath. Bleh, bleh bleh.

Well this one smells awfully sharp. I picked this one up despite my better judgement so let’s see how this goes over.

Oh dear. The dreaded deep pink steep colour. Though the sharpness in the scent has diminishes a bit. Hmm the taste is kind of spicy. Like actual spices. This one isn’t for me.

This one has a nice fragrant scent. Very jasmine. The taste is quite nice. This is my first jasmine green tea I believe and I’m really enjoying it. Light base green tea with slightly more than a hint of jasmine.

This one smells like so much berries! Yum. I generally only like berries as they should be eaten. Off the bush, into the mouth. I don’t care for berry-flavoured anything but this one smelled delicious and I did enjoy Prairie Berry. Maybe because there’s real berries in there!

I’m enjoying this. Excellent. I could see it being good cold. Someone described it to me as a “watered down Prairie Berry” but I’m not getting that. I think it’s quite flavourful.

Update March 11/13: I cold brewed this one all day (just over 7 hours) and it’s pretty good. Like a berry juice. I think it could use a little sugar but I’m reluctant to add any in case it ruins it.

Dry this one reminded me of Guayusa – which I love. It has a slightly different scent steeped – not so much Guayusa but still I’m excited to try this.

Hmm there’s something smoky in there that I’m really not loving. Yeah, nope that smokiness is way to much for me. Oh darn, I had high hopes for this one.

So this smells very orange-y. And there’s that pu’erh smell underneath it all. I like the orange smell at least. It’s refreshing.

Meh. The pu’erh just takes away from the awesome orange. Evidently pu’erh and I just don’t get along.

So I offered to cover someone’s shift at the yoga studio this morning but I also wanted to squeeze in a class before I started so that meant no time for tea. However there’s a Good Earth across the way so I just ran out to grab a Vanilla Bean tea misto. So yummy!

A little treat after my early morning class. Ahh. Now to sit here in peace.

Having a cup of this before bed. I know black tea ahh. But it says low caffeine so I should be good. And I got one cue card done today for my biology exams. Yep, one. Productive, I know.

Ahhh! This is heavenly. What an amazing oolong. I know why it’s so expensive GEEZ!

Perfection.

Update: Resteep still amazing.

Update February 21/13: This shall be my study tea today. Let’s see how many resteeps I can get.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one but I’m enjoying it. It’s a nice mango flavour with a little kick of spicy at the end. Much better than mango madness where I didn’t even taste mango.

Update: Not so great cooled. At all! I’ll be sticking to hot for this one. I wish I could find a genuine MANGO tea though. Real mango taste, lots of it haha!

This one smells quite almond-y dry, though now that it’s steeped I’m getting a scent of…pencil lead? That can’t be right. Perhaps weapon is the key word here.

The taste is not so bad. But I’m finding it difficult to get past that bizarre scent. I go to take a sip and all I can smell is pencil lead. What’s up with that? May be a deal-breaker Secret Weapon.

For all the floral going on here it smells an awful like like apple pie.

So it does taste like apple pie as well, but with a hint of floral at the end of the sip. I enjoy the apple pie taste but not so much the floral. However, I thought this was going to be all floral (and I have determined I do not care for floral teas) so I’m excited it tastes like apple pie at all :)

The fiance said it tastes like cinnamon. He said he didn’t taste apple at all and it’s only because ours minds are trained to pair apples with cinnamon that I tasted apples. I still think it tastes like apple pie.

Well this smells…interesting. Like something from the sea. But not like ocean air, which I love. Something else from the sea, that doesn’t really smell all that great. I didn’t get that at all in the dry scent, only once it steeped.

Yep it tastes like something seafood-like as well. And despite growing up next to the ocean my entire life, I do NOT like seafood.