DaisyChubb

Thank you LiberTEAS for the 6 delicious pearls of wonder that I am enjoying this morning!

Wow, I can see why this tea is a favourite to many – it’s so smooth and the quality is definitely there. The smell is sweet with hints of cocoa and the taste is indeed smooth-bodied, a perfect amount of malt and a bit drying. I’m getting no aftertaste after the sip, but this is just the first steep so I’ll have to see what happens on the next.

This tea was really the perfect way to start my day – and after my sample is finished I think i will be seeking out a Black Dragon Pearl to add to my collection. This tea warms me to the bone with it’s gentle chocolate-malty tones, without kicking me in the face with astringency.

Ah I’ve got it! Similar to the way the pearl itself unfurls, this tea is gently waking up my senses. Sometimes that is preferable to a kick in the butt morning assam – especially this Lazy Sunday.

And now for steep #2, with a pinch of sugar!

Man I wish I still had this cookie dough in the freezer.
Tropicalia Cookies!!!

http://www.daisychubb.com/recipe-tropicalia-cookies-the-summer-wall/

They seriously taste like a Pina Colada cookie. Really inspires me to keep baking with tea – I haven’t been disappointed yet!

I’ve been saving this sample from Butiki (thanks Stacy!) for the perfect day.

Today was the opposite of a perfect tea day. Not in a bad way! Just not ideal haha – I’ve been taking tea to work every day but it’s been a huge travel mug of various black teas. Every day for the past 2 weeks! This morning I had 4 minutes to make tea, and I know I didn’t have time to boil the water all the way to 212 AND wait for it to steep! I searched in my dwindling sample drawer and pulled this one out.

The reason it wasn’t ideal was that I wanted to sit and savour this tea, not throw it in a teasac and run! But throw it in a teasac and run I did! The water was around 170, because the bus ride is a half hour long and I didn’t want to torture the poor tea!

Well now I’m at work and the liquor is a pale gold. The smell is sweet strawberry and buttery green oolong – no mistaking it for anything else imo. The taste echoes that. Wow this is glorious – smooth and savoury, no additions needed. The quality of the oolong is so apparent with every sip – there is not even a hint of bitterness. The strawberry flavour is also expertly blended – it doesn’t overwhelm, instead the flavours mingle together like a perfect match. Instead of chocolate dipped strawberries, it’s strawberry dipped oolong.

I could drink this forever, and in fact – I will be making a Butiki order asap so I can drink it forever – as well as other flavoured oolongs and that watermelon dragonwell, hello!

Granny Smith is my favourite kind of apple! I love how in a candy apple, it peeks out and holds its own with a juicy tartness! The flesh is refreshing and never mushy as with some unnamed Red/yellow varieties. Second only to the Granny Smith is the Crab Apple! Ohhh Crab Apple trees of my past, how I miss you! How is it that each of these flavoured matchas reminds me of my childhood in some way? Haha way to be Matcha, way to be.

When I opened up my matcha package I was greeted with the strong scent of apple! I knew my only challenge with this tea would be making it tart instead of just sweet. It’s easy to sweeten a tea – just add sweetener! Has anyone tried the Hibiscus Matcha from RLT? I am really curious to see if it is tart – because it would be the PERFECT addition to this apple tea!

I used my usual 175 degree water – ah, perfectly smooth, vibrant green and SO much frothy foam. Of course I’m not surprised by this – I’ve come to expect this level of quality with my Red Leaf Tea orders and, as usual, am not disappointed. The scent is strong (I went with the normal amount of flavouring) and very apple-y. It is akin to an apple candy, but not super sweet like you would expect it to be. Actually, it’s more in between a Granny Smith apple and an apple candy (minus the tartness). I added a bit of sugar and drank it down – my matcha cup is always empty before I can blink it seems!

I would be lying if I said I didn’t buy this solely to mix with the Caramel Matcha. Inspired by the infamous aisling of tea who came before me, the Caramel and Apple matchas were meant to be together. Now Red Leaf Tea has a great system where you can order your own mix of flavours! I’m tempted to make an order of Coca Cola and Cherry – it may just make my summer matcha list ;) That said, I probably still would have ordered these two teas separately. I like the option of playing with my own ratios and finding the perfect combo! I definitely have enough of these teas to play to my heart’s desire. Now if only I could find an easy way to add a tartness to this matcha – that would add the perfect 3rd dimension to the caramel apple matcha mix! You can find this Green Apple matcha here at Red Leaf Tea: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/green-apple-matcha.html

One last note about this tea – as I’ve said before, I’m collecting fruit matchas for all of my smoothie needs. I’ve tried this one in a few different combos. So far it goes really well with both Blueberry and Mango. I can’t wait for my next order, where I will most certainly try out some tropical matchas and find my paradise gateway matcha. Hello vacation in a glass, momma’s coming for you.

Banana!!! I am going to tell you a (probably too long) story about my relationship with Bananas. I think it’s important to see my thought process that lead to choosing this matcha! Haha bear with me.

Bananas and I have a curious relationship. I don’t particularly enjoy them. Or their flavour. But sometimes I do. I crave them! What?! I loooathe those banana marshmallows, and banana runts were my least favourite! But that was when I was a kid – now I crave them! I despise the texture of eating a mushy banana, but I have fond memories of a Banana Curry I once had in Tonga. Sometimes I crave a peanut butter banana sandwich on soft white bread – oh, and I always love banana bread of any kind! I slather it with butter, yes, but I always love it! Bananas Foster in Cuba – that is also on my good list. Banoffee Pie? Yes. Frozen Banana from the fair? Yes. Banana in a smoothie? No. Somewhat strange and phallic cheesecake/phyllo banana dessert? Absolutely.

Phew – there’s my banana history in a nutshell. So I like bananas sometime! That’s the moral. Anyways – I was very curious about Red Leaf Tea’s Banana Matcha. I wondered what the flavouring would taste like – more like a banana-bread or more like a banana candy? Either way – I’ve been on a fruit flavoured matcha kick, and I knew I would prefer throwing some banana matcha into a smoothie as opposed to a real banana. Or even both – maybe I wouldn’t mind a real banana in there if there was some matcha too! A delve into the confusing workings of my mind x_x

Well! I do conclude that it leans more towards the sweet candy side of bananas – and for that I am a very happy camper! It smells so so sweet, just like the banana marshmallows I’ve come to crave – but the genius part is that you are in control of the amount of sweetener you add. Drinking a cup of this won’t have the same effect as eating a giant bag of candy marshmallows – although you will get a different kind of energy from the matcha :D
As always, you can find this matcha at Red Leaf Tea! ( http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/banana-matcha.html )

This matcha is amazing on its own, but I’m a masochist so I like to add just under a tsp of sugar. JK. It’s a perfectly acceptable amount of sugar and I do what I want. ;) As with most matchas, my favourite way to enjoy is in a hot latte. I’m still figuring out the logistics to a perfect iced latte or frappaccino, but when I do rest assured I will take a ton of pictures and blog it immediately :D

Made icing with this Matcha!
Madagascar Vanilla Buttercream. I almost wept!

There is no bitterness at all when you make this into an icing for a chocolate cupcake. Just saying – if you want to try it, I will high five you.

Here’s the recipe/pictures!!!
http://www.daisychubb.com/recipe-chocolate-cupcakes-with-matcha-buttercream-chocolate-ganache/

I looked into my sample drawer today… um I can finally see the bottom! Yay! Time for more swaps :D I just need to get paid so I can afford to send out a package. VERY excited for my next swap with aisling of tea though. Just so you know ;)

With my stash drawer low I’m feeling almost frugal with my tea, so I didn’t want to waste the leaves of Razzmatazz and Sweet Strawberry from DT. I combined the 2 single steeped leaves into my pot and cold brewed overnight.

The brew is a bit watery, due to being the second steep of both leaves I’m sure, but it’s really nice and fruity! The lemongrass/rooibos flavour of Razz is gone and just the sweet raspberry & strawberry flavours remain. I like that! The white tea lends a nice body to it and the 2 flavours go very well together, despite the bases/blends being totally different!

Happy summer fruity tea, aahhh.

This one smells and tastes like Blue Raspberry! Well, also like fresh raspberries, but I’m loving the tartness that is like a slush puppy with a squirt of shocker. Yum.

The lemon verbena imparts quite a bit of lemon flavour – it took a little getting used to, but I can see why this would be delicious as a fizzy drink. Sweet and tart and refreshing, with a squeeze of lemon in your sparkling water.

All in all, I found the taste a little too “herbal” (maybe the rooibos?) for my tastes, but we will enjoy the rest of this 25g bag!

Also enjoying it iced with a squirt of sweetener. Looking forward to making a tea sangria with this one and lots of fresh respberries!

In comparison with the Strawberry White of old, I find this one very similar (of course), but with more Bai Mu Dan-taste and a bit more strawberry in the taste! Actually, more than a bit more – quite a bit more.

It’s still not the prominent taste of the tea – but that’s what I did like about Strawberry White – it was a delicate white tea with a hint of strawberry. This one fits the bill a bit more in terms of tastiness, but it is definitely similar to it’s mother-tea.

Enjoying it over ice with a squirt of sweetener.

EDIT: Tasting note 300!

Yum! Picked up 25g of a bunch of new teas from Davids today… to celebrate the first paycheck of course :D! (So happy there is no tax on tea here) Also picking up some last minute teas for the tea swap aaand some awesome cute kids stickers! Yay!

This is a pretty decent caramel black. Good job Davids. It’s creamy and sweet – and I looove the addition of the sea salt with the toffee bits. Brewing it at home was great – not bitter at all after steeping for about 3 minutes, and when I accidentally walked away from my resteep for 10 minutes, it was also not bitter! That was very lucky. I added milk anyways :P

Man I am rambly lately. Ramblo. Anyways! Right now I don’t need a caramel black in my cupboard, but when I do I think this one will be it. Lots of toffee chunks, and I loved the rounded flavour the coconut gave it (coconut sucker alert).

Maybe I will try it as an iced latte – but I might just stick to hot. With a dash of rum. OR Caramilk Liqueur? hmm

Would you look at the time? It’s 10:22 am.. whaat? You know what that means?
I have a job where I can pop on Steepster on my breaks! Yay!
Unfortunately I really only have the resources to drink one tea a work-day – the tea I make and bring in the morning. The reason being I can’t leave the reception desk except at lunch time! But anyways – Steepster access is one good perk about my job.

Oh, and this is one good tea! Wow I’m as bad as Rich Terfry at segues! CBC Radio 2 anyone?

I have to jump on the bandwagon with this tea – it is extremely well balanced. It’s what I expect a chai to be when I order it from a coffee house – not too gingery, or clovey, or cardamom-y or spicy! Phew. I would have loved to simmer this in hot milk instead of adding cold milk to the brew – that always brings out a whole other depth of flavour, but this is very enjoyable this morning with some milk and sugar. I do wish it had a little more kick in the butt this morning, but that’s just me being a tired panda ;)

Humongous thanks to LiberTEAS for giving me this tea in our recent swap! It’s been a great treat to try these offerings from Steven Smith Teamaker! Thank you!!!

I am loving this one – it’s such a smooth blend.

The Yunnan base provides such a nice change compared to my usual chais. This chai is lighter (golden!) and I find myself craving the slight kick from the ginger. The brew is sweet and delicious on it’s own – but with a bit of milk and honey it warms me fully from the inside out. The fennel and citrus play together so nicely – they seem to dance over my tongue and make it tingle. Feels like a warm hug from a missed friend.

I can’t say anymore – what is it about Verdant tea that always makes me speechless. Makes for tough tasting notes anyways!

WOW this one is going on my list for sure!
I mean, the eyes didn’t roll up into the back of my head in memorable pleasure – but for the taste alone I would stock up. Because this tastes SO good!

The aroma isn’t very strong, but the taste is full, sweet and oh so creamy. I can hardly put the cup down long enough to tap out this short review! And short it will be, but honest.

The aftertaste is mild, but honey-like! I loooove honey notes – I love that I don’t have to try to hard to coax it out of this tea. It’s very prominent. I would serve this to anyone new to green oolongs, in hopes they would fall as hard as I am for it. :)

Thank you FONG MONG tea for this extra delicious sample!

Sipdown!
I had a good time with this tea – I’m sad to see it go, it was so sweet and cherry and delicate! Delicate but with a very distinctive flavour – creamy icecream aftertaste! YUM!

I enjoyed my last cup – I even shared it. Too kind, I know ;)

Had a group interview for LUSH today – I have been looking forward to it all week. Frick. This job I have now.. well.. it is NOT what I thought it would be. It’s just that I thought it would be different. Also, I was training to use the computer. And I found out on Friday that I won’t be given computer access. Um, what? So that’s interesting! So I went to this LUSH interview and unfortunately got lost in the crowd. Ah group interviews. But man I want to get out of this job!

SO – I speedwalked to DT to get some crack. Happy crack tea! HAD to try this one after smelling it – a nice frothy hot latte. Thank you DT for some happiness haha.

It tastes a lot like toasted walnut/secret weapon. Reminds me a lot of those anyways! But the ingredients in this one are unique – there is a sweetness from the raisins that is so pleasant, but doesn’t necessarily give it a “raisin” taste.

Anyways! Sorry to make Steepster my blog again… don’t I have a blog for that kind of thing? ;)
J’adore my Steepster friends!

This morning was my much needed attempt to recreate DavidsTea’s Love Tea #7 with what I had on hand. I needed a chocolate strawberry rose tea!

I’ve tried a combination of Dreidles&Donuts and Rose Congou before, but a 1:1 ratio was too much rose. This one worked perfectly though for my 45 oz pot!

3 perfect tsp Dreidles & Donuts: 1 perfect tsp Rose Congou.

It really is spot on! Well – at least enough to use up some of the tea I have on hand and satisfy my craving. It’s smooth and chocolately with a hint of strawberry and the perfect amount of rose scent. Love!

Can’t wait to ice the rest!

Thank you Fong Mong tea for this sample!

This was a very nice oolong tonight – I had no idea what to expect but it was quite a unique experience! The first thing that hit me was that it did not have a creamy aspect to this oolong. Liberteas also picked up on this! It was definitely a drastic change to the Alishan I had the night before.

There are some very light floral notes and something almost fruity to the taste. I couldn’t place the flavour, but it was quite pleasant and calming.

This was not my favourite offering from Fong Mong, but I appreciated the uniqueness and the chance to compare!

No notes yet.

Finally gave this one a try!
You know, it was different than I expected. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from the smell (mostly cinnamon) and I knew it would be quite tart with the first ingredient being hibiscus.

I quite enjoyed it! But it’s not a keeper (I’m not the hugest papaya fun), I’m glad I only got enough for a few cups. I had it iced, as is my wont, and couldn’t help but compare it to Kanpe. Even with the strong cinnamon association – the two teas are quite different to me.

The taste of this one is most certainly papaya! It took me a while to place it, but once I got it, it tasted just like the fresh papaya we ate at the sparse but satisfying buffet breakfast in cuba. Whoo do I win the longest sentence award?

haha well I’ll stick to Kanpe as my favourite tart iced tea – but I enjoyed this one and was pleased to find it unique and it really does stand on it’s own! I would definitely recommend it to papaya lovers.

Oof sour! Wow this tea was a bit too tart for me.
Even all sugared up :)

I’m not going to rate the tea because I really don’t like pear! But I loved it in the Cranberry Pear blend! Ah well. All i got was a sharp, super tart taste. I added lots of sweetener and it was iced, but no go! Oh well

So, aside from this tea being sweet and perfect to drink (aka I will be bringing it to work tomorrow), I wanted to bake with it!

Well – I wanted to bake with matcha, I was working on a cinnamon bread recipe and remember the caramel! Oh perfect match! I really wish I had some cinnamon matcha to use as well, but the caramel worked just fine for my gooey pull apart cinnamon bread. Happiness! It wasn’t as GREENTEA tasting as it was in my matcha cookies – I think because I got the robust flavour.

Well either way I will be bringing this tea to work tomorrow. It was my first day today and I am completely overwhelmed. How do I be the receptionist in a building of 450 people? I have to know all of their names or they snarl at me. God forbid I transfer a call to someone you’re not supposed to transfer to (hint: there is no way to know who doesn’t like calls transferred to them! No list! You just have to know!). So yeah I’m super stressed but it took 2 months to find a job so I think I just have to suck it up.

Blah! Well, recipe for the matcha bread is on my website. Somehow I’m still finding time for it. ha! http://www.daisychubb.com/recipe-caramel-matcha-pull-apart-cinna-bread/

Wow this is blueberry!
Out of all the teas I picked up today, this one smells the strongest and most true to it’s flavour. Opening the bag filled the room with delicious sweet blueberry!
I made it iced in our new children’s leakproof togo cup… what? My boyfriend spills a lot. haha! It’s super cute though. Sadly they were out of the stickers :(

Oops got off track. Okay this tea was pretty good iced (awesome sweet blueberry flavour, no crazy stevia aftertaste. Honestly when blended right I consider stevia the same as any other additive like chamomile or mint leaves, and this is blended perfectly) BUT – it is just screaming at me to be an iced latte.

I’m a sucker for milk with a black base. So next time – latte it is :)

Edit: Oh yeah – the reason we went on a mini Davids shopping spree?
I got the job. :D
I am now secretary to the Education dept! Not the highest of jobs, but I should be promoted within the year so… yay!

First of all – the name of this tea is awesome and empowering. I love strong woman characters – pair them with tea and I’m passionate.

Short steeps in the gong fu teapot.

The first steeping was so sweet! Wow – it took me by surprise and brought a smile to my face after a long day of visiting with the inlaws (they’re here all week) AND I had a very important job interview today – have to figure out how to rearrange my life from jobless blogging to 40 hours a week, 9-5 super stressful job (if I get the job). So that’s where I was before i took the first sip. Afterwards was just a goofy grin, sipping the syrupy fruit/chocolate notes out of the first steep.

2nd & third steep – super savoury. It changed way more than I expected – but I’m definitely getting a well seasoned, thinly cut potato – fried crispy. I’m even getting the sensation in my chest of when I eat potatoes – a filling and satisfying feeling with an earthy, but savoury aftertaste. Homemade kettle chips! It really hits home and now I have all sorts of kitchen memories.
Oh at the end of the sip there’s a hint of sweetness in the 3rd steep – it almost tingles and when I breathe in with my mouth open it feels so refreshed! Like after chewing a piece of mint gum – but no mint flavour. Just the sensation.

On to more steeps :)

(My rating is based on the fact that Yunnan Blacks aren’t my favourite flavour profile right now – but this tea is so nuanced and full of surprises that is it by far the best I’ve tried so far! A great experience.)

Finally bought a big tin! Make a huge pot – it’s totally what I crave in the evening when I don’t have a sick amount of baking around :)

Also I made a giant pot and attempted to drink it all. Got up to go to the bathroom 3 times in the night. Bad side effect! So the next time I made a huge pot, I put the last half in the fridge for iced tea the next day. Um, wow. It was 10x more flavourful and so freaking delicious. So because of the sprinkles I won’t make this one hot over ice – but I will make pots and put them in the fridge to cool. Because it is out of the world good!

Sweet meets refreshing in a way that Nestea just can’t do. That’s this tea iced. YUM!