Daniel Scott

Third of the “top six” of the new teas. I will finish the top six, I think, and then get to the rest.

If I have to knock this one down a few points for anything, it’s unoriginality. Berries. White tea. Yawn. Seeeen it!

Still, this is a much better version of a berry white than Imperial Acai Blueberry. Kind of a shame, because blueberries aren’t the strongest note here, and that means I’m still looking for a damn blueberry white that I really like. (Lord, I think I may never find one…) But good, because Imperial Acai Blueberry is just so fussy and prone to bitterness, and this one doesn’t seem to have that flaw. It’s not bitter after a two minute steep, at least.

I do wish that whoever it is at Teavana that sleeps with hibiscus flowers under their pillow would find a new foodstuff to be obsessed with, because at its hottest, hibby is the first thing I tasted in this tea. (Is that normal? For hibiscus to be the most prominent ingredient at a higher temperature?) As it cooled though, more berries came out.

I’m finding myself now sipping it comfortably and rather thoughtlessly, which is nice. Actually, I’m finding the sweet and sour more balanced now (with the caveat that I did add sugar to this, albeit less than I usually do). I’m afraid that I don’t know what either elderberries or black currant taste like on their own, but I can definitely taste the grapes.

Not outstanding, but solid. If I didn’t have so many teas already, I might consider adding this to my collection. It would be a good lighter morning tea (for mornings on days off, when you don’t need something strong to wake you up), or maybe with lunch.

…Y tho.

Seriously, this is kind of weird.

One of my coworkers and I tried this (hot and unsweetened first, and then with some sugar) in the store the other night (this was the same night we tried the Watermelon Mint Chiller) and thought it was vile. We discussed whether or not it might luckily be discontinued at the end of the year, and who might get a Christmas present of a pink slip for coming up with this one.

I’m trying it again at home (sweetened), and it’s not quite as bad as I remember it being. I wouldn’t buy it, but I can drink it. I need to think back to a time that I tossed together a tasty salad with juicy chunks of strawberries and bits of fresh basil…and then I go, “Oh yeeeah, okay, it tastes a bit like that, that was the flavour they were going for.”

It’s really a bit of an odd flavour for a tea though; at least, in my opinion. But some flavours that I think are really wrong for tea are flavours that others go for (maple, for example, which has a tendency to literally make me queasy when I taste it in tea), so perhaps other people will like this. It’s nowhere near the top of my list of personal recommendations, though.

I will chill the rest of this cup and update.

Chilled Update: Okay, I thought icing this tea would improve it, but I think I was wrong about that. You know how I said that the mint is more noticeable in the Watermelon Mint Chiller when it’s iced? Well, the same thing seems to happen to the basil here, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Ever had a fruit-and-basil salad that was too heavy on the basil? Yeaaaah.

There’s something else that comes out towards the back of the sip, but I’m not sure what it is. Lemon, maybe? Okay, actually lemon and basil aren’t that bad a combination, but having them follow the berries too strongly is having that making-me-queasy effect. Nope, nope, nope.

Wheee, our teas came today!

“Unlimited staff drinks,” right? So I took a cup’s worth of leaves of all the new ones home in little snack baggies to taste and review, and marked them all off as staff drinks. (So now it looks like me and the other three people who worked today drank 20-some drinks on our shifts. Yep, that’s all we did today – drank tea and peed. Also sold about $1200 worth of tea and merch, but mostly just drank tea. And peed. Hey, nobody gave me a limit on “unlimited”!) I mean, there was no way that I’m buying 50g of 17 new teas when I’m already so full up on teas at home!

I’m starting with this one – a white which is considered part of the “top 6” out of the new teas. (I’m honestly not entirely sure what that even means yet.)

I will admit that I didn’t have high hopes for this one at all. Not sure why, but I was having trouble imagining this flavour combination being done well. I will also admit that I was wrong, because out of the couple I’ve tried so far, this one is the best!

A co-worker and I first sampled a few sips of this hot the other day in the store, and agreed (and were surprised) at how good we thought it was. “Watermelon is a tough taste to achieve in a tea,” she said, but we also agreed that the melon taste here is pretty legit, and that it seemed like it would be amazing iced. This is especially interesting because it is a white, and isn’t getting much of a lengthy steep, so you’d think the melon flavour would be a bit of a letdown, but I didn’t feel particularly let or down after trying this one.

Also, we noted that it was pretty passable without sugar. Okay, “pretty passable” may not be the highest praise, but it’s usually the most I can bestow on even the best flavoured blends. And it’s rather surprising to note this about a Teavana blend, because even the staff have to admit that many of our teas need sugar (which might be considered inept blending, but which just as often seems like it might actually be a German-rock-sugar-selling tactic). It’s so much better with sugar (if you ask me), but I didn’t mind it at all unsweetened.

So of course I was actually pretty excited to get this one home and ice it. And wouldn’t you know, I botched it! I’m not entirely sure how I messed up the proportions, but I ended up with ice cubes and watery tea all over my counter. Siiiigh. Long past week, okay?

It’s still pretty good though, and really refreshing. Not as good as it was in the store, but that’s probably because I screwed it up! I notice more mint coming through in this cup, it’s got this nice chilling bite to it at the back of the sip that I really like. Makes me think of some sort of summery mixed drink! Actually, it’s weird that this tea is coming out now, because it clearly seems like some sort of “summer collection”-type tea. Still, if you tend to miss summer in December (I don’t, but you know, that’s because I despise summer), this would be a good summer-in-December tea to remind you of sun and fruit!

If you aren’t personally boycotting Teavana for…one reason or another…this one is a must-try.

I used to love this tea! LOVE. It tasted like cinnamon hearts and was my go-to “school tea” because it had a strong enough flavour that I could steep it in one of those nasty paper cups from Starbucks and it wouldn’t taste like cardboard cup.

But something has gone terribly wrong since then. Quite possibly it is just too old, but the last five or so cups I’ve had of this made me feel more than a little ill…so it’s not just “wasn’t what I was in the mood for after all,” it’s really not good to me anymore. Could it really be the age? I swear that I have teas from DT that are even older and still taste delicious, but this…no. The tea that I can taste in it tastes terrible and cheap. The cinnamon is sharp and unpleasant. I wouldn’t even give this away.

So although I’ve yet to have thrown out more than the last few broken leaves of a tea, I think it is the right decision this time to chuck the last of what I have of this one.

Also:

I can’t start reviewing the new Teavana teas as planned, because last I checked (when I stopped in this morning to pick up my poor iPod that I left behind at the re-merching last night) they STILL had not arrived. Apparently this is the case across Canada; I don’t know if it’s every Canadian location, or just some of them, but SUCK.

Our regional manager is currently in Atlanta, apparently to let H/O know that Canadians are not second-class citizens, thank you very much and we. Are not. Impressed.

Hope they smarten up!

I’m stupidly obsessed with this blend right now.

I’m not actually sure just how that happened. I was walking around the store sometime a few weeks ago adjusting things and I felt a bit thirsty for something cold so I snagged a sample cup to sip. I’ve had it many times before, of course, but that time something happened and now I’m seriously addicted to it. I fill my Timolino with it every night before I go home, and make it in the mornings before I go to work.

And it’s AT work. I’ve lost my MIND.

Also, I’m THIS many. holds up four fingers Everyone else in the store likes the chai/chai blend best or something, but me, no, give me the one that tastes like JOOS.

I had a mom in with her son in one of those packs on her back buying a pound. She admitted to also being obsessed with this blend, and says that her son loves it as well and that they go through big pitchers of it. He was SO cute – just old enough to be speaking a bit and he kept anxiously squawking, “Where my TEA? Where my tea?!” Not old enough to be patient through a five-minute steep, see…

Sorry that I’m not around, guys. One of our core staff developed some sort of family problems, and all his eight-hour shifts got cut, so we’re all pulling overtime right now to cover him.

Only two days left until I can officially review the new ones!

MY MATCHA IS HERE! MY MATCHA IS HERE!! My cats are staring at me doing a dance around the house like, “WTF IZ U DOIN’?”

I was sitting at my computer doing some training manual prep for work, and I heard the mailman drop something in the box. So I trudged upstairs to see what bills we have…I thought briefly of the cheesecake matcha I ordered from Red Leaf Teas eons ago at the end of August, but I dismissed the thought because I had basically given up on ever seeing it.

(I would like to note here that I do not blame Red Leaf at all for the lengthy shipping time. In my limited experience, the customer service at Red Leaf is great. I once emailed the company about Amaretto not being listed as a flavour on the 2-in-1 custom matcha page – I didn’t realize that it was a new flavour – and I had an email back about it being corrected within an hour. When I ordered this matcha, I got an email confirmation that it had shipped the same day I ordered it, and the USPS tracking number indicates that it was shipped to the border in speedy time indeed.

So, Canada Post, where exactly has my matcha been in the two weeks PLUS since it crossed the border, hmm? Were you guys checking it for BOMBS, or something?!)

But now it’s here! It’s even here on the day that my mom is taking me out for Indian for my birthday. Since it got here in time for the birthday celebration, let’s just count that as arriving in time for my birthday. And it’s in my favourite birthday cake flavour!

Here was my order:

Cheesecake Matcha (Which you can get yourself here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cheesecake-matcha.html)
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Size : Small
Flavor: Robust

The small because I already have a ton of tea and just wanted to try it, and robust because I am so new to matcha and a little intimidated by how strong the flavour of it is. (Translation: I tried it straight once and nearly spat it out.)

I also separately ordered a little tin, because I had heard that the bag the matcha arrives in is not reseal-able. This is true, but, also true to what other reviewers have said, it poured from the bag with little trouble!

The scent of this tea is strong – the moment I snipped the packet open, I got a good whiff of delicious sweetness. Although to be honest, I’m not sure it actually smells like cheesecake – my first thought is more along the lines of buttercream.

The color of the matcha is not like the matcha I’ve had before (which is brilliant green) – there’s more yellow to it. I wonder if that is because of the flavouring changing the color?

I debated how to try this the first time, because I’ve not had matcha before without plenty of sugar and milk to tone down the flavour, but that doesn’t seem like a fair way to review it. I settled on a scant teaspoon of rock sugar and a splash of milk for this. At some point I will review it straight up, but I’m not brave enough to do that yet.

I got the rock sugar dissolving while I sifted a teaspoon of this into my bowl. I was surprised at how well it sifted…the matcha I’ve used before seemed somehow sticky, almost as though it was a bit wet, and tended to coat my strainer. This stuff all went right through into the bowl.

With water added, this matcha turns an amazing and hilarious swampy green. Why has no one mentioned this in other reviews?! It’s really quite a color; pretty cool if it doesn’t freak you out.

The flavour of this is so interesting…it’s definitely matcha, but also definitely cheesecake. It’s very creamy throughout the sip; you don’t get a nasty surprise at the back. It’s sweet with just the tiniest hint of a cheesecake tang to it…it may well be tangier with less sugar in it, it may be entirely my fault for overwhelming the flavour that the tangy note doesn’t come through as strongly as the sweet notes. So that gives me another reason to try it straight. The description mentions the matcha having a spiciness to it, which is absolutely accurate…there is indeed a spice to it which really lingers pleasantly on the tongue.

This is so good and warming, and probably just the kick in the butt I needed today, because I’ve been kind of sleepy after a long week. I will definitely be ordering more stuff from Red Leaf! (Especially since I noticed they sell my favourite Finum filters. Teaopia used to sell them, but now that Teaopia is no more – near me, anyway – I’ve been at a loss as to where to get them.) I also have told my coworkers and the girls at DAVIDs about Red Leaf – my tea came with a little brochure about the tea, so I will have to show that around.

Did I mention I got my key and a promotion to team lead? Oh yes, I did!

So: Promotion. Birthday celebration today. AND MY MATCHA CAME.

Life is good.

WHAT A DAY YESTERDAY, HOLY BALLS.

LONG VENT:

Went in to work yesterday afternoon stressed because I’m not scheduled for Saturday, so I needed to be pulling $95/hr Friday and Sunday to make my week…no pressure. Got there only to find out that one of our keyholders is still sick with food poisoning. Unfortunately, he happened to be closing with me. Who is. You know. Not a keyholder.

As it so happens, I had assured our new manager with some confidence that I can close the till. This is because I badgered the AM into showing me how, and then badgered a keyholder into letting me do it by myself while she basically watched over my shoulder. I didn’t have much of any trouble, because I have a good memory (for certain things…) but that was like…at least a week ago. I never thought I’d be put in a position to close by myself without at least one more practice run.

Nope! GM and the GM from another store who came in to help today both left before close (long hours), the girl who is a keyholder had to leave (long hours plus school tomorrow), and the GM called in Hopeless Guy to help me. Uh, yay? So I had to close with no key, and pray I screwed nothing up (particularly not locking the gate, since I wouldn’t be able to unlock it).

I initially felt bad about calling Hopeless Guy that just because he is a slow learner, but he is back to being called that since I discovered today that a) he still basically doesn’t know how the scale works (he selects the tea first – which should be almost the last step – and then puts the bag/tin on the scale and struggles to fill it…which results in tea going absolutely everywhere, plus he never wipes it off the scale before printing the label (THE EXTRA LEAVES YOU SPILLED ALL OVER THE SCALE ADD WEIGHT, DUMBASS); b) he’s been there with me for a month, worked at two coffee shops before Teavana, and still doesn’t grasp that ICE IS WATER, so I had to hastily remake one of his iced teas before he poured 16oz of tea over 8oz of ice in a 16oz cup and we had a horrible mess everywhere; c) he denies stealing sales deliberately, but also claims he knows how to properly attribute sales, despite the fact that he is apparently making almost 50 dollars more per hour for two weeks running than the AM. We try to help each other out and give our sales to each other when someone is struggling, but that’s ridiculous.

Needless to say, I ended up running bar like a madman (latte with soy, latte with skim, latte with skim and a shot of chocolate – sorry, what was it you wanted? a latte? one minute, coming riiiight up) while he took a half-hour at a time to close a sale at the counter, and then he half-assed cleaning the FetCos and did a half-assed sweeping job before bombing out and leaving me to struggle with the till and re-do all his “work” before I left. At least he was THERE, which I thanked him for – we made almost 400 dollars in our last hour-and-a-half, and I think I may have broken the Top 40 again – but I kind of want to hurt this guy.

By the time I got home I was so tired and stressed. I did so well that I technically only have to make $26/hr on Sunday (haha!), so that’s not a worry, but the whole day was tiresome. I worked an hour and a half worth of overtime closing the store and still didn’t manage to do all the dishes or clean to my standards, and too many people were kind of rude today in a way that really sticks in your mind. I decided that I wanted a peaches ‘n’ cream latte – I considered the very last of Birthday Cake (which I actually didn’t drink yesterday), but I didn’t think I had enough for a latte and I couldn’t handle a disappointment at that point so I decided on this combo.

Then I almost couldn’t find my Peach Tranquility! I don’t cry easily, yet I was literally almost at the point of bursting into tears, like All I want is this peach and cream latte, and now I can’t find my peachy tea, WAAAH, but I managed to hold it together and did find where I stuck the damn bag on my bookshelf.

And then, because it was so late by the time I did find it, I heated the milk on the stove instead of in the microwave. WHAT AN AWESOME CHOICE. This was the most amazing latte I’ve had in ages. Not too sweet, not too creamy…basically just perfect. Made me so happy! You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy tea… So I had peaches and cream tea, and curled up with my peaches and cream cat, and we went to sleep.

I’m waiting to hear now if they’re going to call me in today, but it’s already nine and no call, so hopefully not. If not, I’m going back to bed.

It’s my birthday today! Actually, the time I was born at was about an hour ago…so I’ve been 28 for an hour now, heh.

So I thought I’d dip into this one. I think I have two cups left; may as well drink them today.

I originally was not interested in this one out of DAVIDs’ “cake” teas. Mainly because I was informed that it tasted a bit like Oh Canada, and I truly did not like Oh Canada at all. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I just plain don’t like maple teas at all. Despite the fact that I like maple syrup (what kind of Canadian would I be if I didn’t like maple syrup?), maple flavoured teas make me feel pretty ill.

Then I heard some conflicting reports about how it tastes. Maybe not so maple after all…? I ended up picked up 10g to decide for myself.

I’m a bit stuffed up, so I cannot comment on the smell of anything much, but it does smell a bit like Oh Canada. It has sprinkles rather than the little maple candies though, which is an improvement.

And…I genuinely don’t know what in sam hell this actually tastes like. I can totally see where people are getting “gentler version of Oh Canada” from, but it doesn’t truly taste like maple. It doesn’t taste like vanilla, either…not really. It’s like the love child of vanilla and maple, really. Kind of creamy, but mostly just sweet. Not overbearingly sweet though (which I think is actually my biggest problem with most maple teas).

It’s really a comfort tea…not one that will blow your mind, but nice to have when you’re down or need something a bit celebratory that also isn’t too fancy or over-the-top.

So happy birthday to me! And to anyone else who has a birthday on the 13th of the most awesome month of the year.

P.S. Although it’s not a good birthday present to find out that your Red Leaf matcha order was apparently “delivered” to MINNEAPOLIS. (It normally takes about 10 business days to deliver here, and it’s been 11, so I finally checked the tracking number. Apparently it was “delivered” last week.) YOO-HOO, USPS, Canada is UP HERE!

Is there nothing I can do, guys? I haven’t had this ever happen before. :( At least it was cheap…

PEACHES.

AND.

CREAM.

Sure, I actually have a “peaches and cream” tea. Possibly two… But that’s no fun.

So. Funny story about this tea:

At a staff party a while back, I asked my manager about the fact that there is a huge stash of tea stuck behind the water dispensers – some that appear to be those resealable bags from the gift sets, and a huge school-bus-yellorange Teaopia bag marked, “Blackberry Mojito.” She told me that it was all tea that the staff had been forced to damage out for some reason (the Blackberry Mojito having been dumped into the wrong tin, nothing else wrong with it), and that if I wanted some to take home to go hard. “TAKE IT! Get rid of it!” Well! Sweet.

So a few nights ago, the keyholder I was closing with and I went though them (there was at least two sets worth – what on earth happened to those gift sets? dropped in puddles of tea?) and took some bags, as well as measuring out bits of the Blackberry Mojito into smaller bags. We left the rest for others to ransack.

You know. Because I needed more tea.

Then we had a big staff meeting this week in which our regional manager asked us if any of us had taken damaged goods home, because that’s utterly Against Company Policy. (This wasn’t prompted by the water dispenser stash, incidentally – I don’t think she even knows it’s there.) Our AM jumped in to assure her that such a thing never, ever happens! No one has ever been allowed! Absolutely not!

…And we all kept up our best poker face. I’d be really, really surprised if there was someone there who didn’t have a chipped/scratched/slightly busted mug or pot at home that they got for free… But I guess we won’t be doing that anymore.

(And yes, “don’t take damaged stuff home,” has been the policy at every job I’ve ever had, but I also probably ended up at least a hundred bucks worth of free stuff from every job regardless, all okay-ed by management. I mean, waste not, right? And no, I’d NEVER sell it for a profit; I’m not that much of a dick.)

Hopefully she doesn’t find out about this tea, because I don’t want to get in any trouble for taking it. I was told it was okay to take…

Anyway! Tea! The brewing instructions are…baffling. Seventy-nine degrees, okay. One-and-a-half teaspoons per eight ounces, okay. Four to five minutes steeping time – HOLY BALLS WHAT. WHAT.

Who steeps a white tea for five minutes?! And of course it’s one of the tea types which is “highlighted,” meaning it will get bitter if steeped too long. Um.

Then again, “The Tea Companion” (a book we sell) which I just consulted says that Yin Zhen should steeped for 15 minutes(!). Hmm.

So I’m kind of experimenting with this one, eight ounces at a time. I’m starting off first with 1.5 teaspoons of leaf, steeped at two minutes, which I will try two infusions of. Then I will compare that to an infusion of new leaves steeped the recommended time.

The leaves smell very earthy, with a sweetness riding on top. I brewed my first spoonful in my TeaMaster to give the pearls lots of room to unfurl. They look super-cool unfurling…like little snails coming out of their shells at first, and by the end of the steep there’s a little garden growing on the bottom of my TeaMaster! …Although floating on top, there is a…I can’t even legitimately call it a “twig,” it’s like a damn tree branch. Admittedly, I didn’t even catch it in my spoon. How on this green earth did I miss that sitting in the spoon?!

First infusion: [Two minute steep.] Um. Well. First impression: tastes like water. Second impression as it cools as bit: tastes like liquid hay. (Hallo, China!) The second impression never fades. I feel like a horse. CHOMP. CHOMP. CHOMP.

Second infusion: [Two minute steep] …Okay, this is better. Gosh, maybe it should be infused longer! It’s a bit bitter, especially when hot, but that’s my fault. I was kind of lazy about waiting for the water to cool a bit, and I’m pretty certain it was too hot when I poured it over the leaves, so they took a beating. Slap my hand! (Oh variable temp kettle, wherefore art thou?) There’s more body. It’s still earthy and hay-like, but a bit sweeter. Admittedly I added two rock sugar crystals to try to bring out any sweetness, so it might just be that. (I know, I know, I’m such a lazy poop, I should have kept the variables the same, but I can’t be arsed to drink more than 3 cups of the same damn tea in one day!) The bitterness isn’t as bad when it cools.

Five minute steep: I was relatively precise (it’s not an oxymoron, shush) with this one, so I can’t be accused of mucking it up. I used a thermometer to get the temperature to 82 degrees (because I didn’t think to hot my TeaMaster before spooning the leaves in, so hopefully that evens out to around 79) and hit my timer at the moment the water touched the pearls. No sugar.

I spent the whole time watching the pearls unfurl. Some of them sort of swam around like ships in space, which was fun. One sank, and then immediately bobbed back to the top and unfurled at the surface. The physics of that baffles me; but then, I’m working full time in retail right now because I flunked physics, so…

The smell of the liquor is really strong, very earthy. I’ve honestly not run across a white tea yet that smells like this. It’s a little odd to me. Is this odd? Is this just me being a newb?

The taste, again, is earthy and hay-like. There is definitely some sweetness to it, but I have to concentrate fully on the taste to find it. This isn’t one I’d drink while distracted, that’s for sure. To be honest, there’s startling little difference between this and the second infusion of the last set of leaves. It’s drinkable. I’m finding it better as it cools, actually, and although the liquor is earthy when it’s in my mouth, there is an aftertaste which is light and sweet that I’m actually getting to really like.

Unfortunately, I don’t see most of the bottled Arizona green tea lovers who come in to the store for the first time liking this one at all, and I’m distressed that I’m meant to push it hard. If I push any straight white, why the hell not the Silver Needle? I’m sure it would go over better. Teavana, why do you hate repeat customers?

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Regarding that staff meeting, we are getting a bunch of new stuff soon. New stuff going on the wall, some of which I think will really take off… I don’t think I can get away with saying more than that (nothing’s on the web site yet), but we’re genuinely excited. We get to taste-test this week. And new merch soon, some of which looks really good. Mom already wants some, ha! We also discussed more about how the hierarchy of Teavana works, because it is different from Teaopia and we are getting new management. Then we had a fun time cleaning the store in preparation for rearranging the merch and hanging out.

We did, towards the end, role-play the selling process some more, and a bit of a fight broke out between the associates and the RM. We tried to explain that the selling process feels too American and aggressive to us, not in keeping with Canadian culture. We ended up having a long, loooong talk about how to meet the standards of the selling process without ever accidentally confusing or deceiving the customer. She told us that if anyone ever gets to the till and reels in shock when we announce the price, then, “You have not done your job communicating the price of what they’re buying to the customer in the first place. That’s completely your fault.” Which seems like a fair criticism to me. I don’t entirely know how to feel about what we discussed – the RM sells like she does it in her sleep, and never by confusing or pushing the customer, but she’s also one of the most persuasive people I’ve ever met. I think we all feel like we – as individuals – don’t have the skill or talent to pull it off the same way, but I guess I will try to copy her and see what happens.

Also, I told her I am looking to apply for Operations lead (e.g. keeping track of supplies) – she originally asked me to be Merch lead, but I don’t want that job so much. She seemed excited that she has someone outright asking for the more “boring” job, heh. I haven’t got the position yet, but I think I will start an Operations notebook to keep track of supplies, and maybe rearrange our (messy) storage after my shift tomorrow night. I think that will look good.

One of the heavy ironies of my new job is that I seem to be drinking less tea. Sure, I’m surrounded by it; but I don’t drink more than the 1-3 cups I’ve long had at work, because there’s no bathroom in the back and I hate public washrooms. (Plus, I’m working!) And my hours are so much longer now…which is good, but it means less time to drink tea at home!

I like this one, yet I don’t. I don’t know. It’s chocolate-y, but not too much. It’s got a nice strong cinnamon overlay, but it’s not overwhelming. The flavours blend fairly well. It won’t exactly bowl you over, but I’ve had it as a latte, and it was really good as a latte.

And that’s really about all I have to say about it. I don’t know. I guess I’m tired today. And somewhat tired of sweet/chocolate/“cake” teas today, for reasons I can’t identify. I’m feeling the tea equivalent of blue balls at the moment. Nothing is satisfying me at the moment, and I don’t know why.

Maybe I’m just wiped out. One of our new staff has been a bit of a no-show lately, and I’ve had to pull overtime hours on top of full time. So yeah, maybe just too tired to really absorb the stuff I’m drinking lately.

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Not that I’m complaining! Work has mostly been fantastic. Although yesterday was so slow that I don’t know if we even made enough to cover staffing costs. It’s not even like we could really sample much, because the mall was so dead that pretty much only FedEx and UPS guys were walking by in the hall! I’m scared we could get into trouble for that, but I don’t know what else we could have done. We only got a shipment of one box, and ran out of things to clean. So I just worked on my training manual, my coworker read some Sherlock Holmes, and I said to him at one point, “You realize we’re getting paid to sit and drink tea? What a great job.”

Then the most awesome customers came in! A white guy and his [presumably] Chinese wife who told us that they’d been living in China for 10 years before coming back to Canada. They were curious about Japanese tea – especially matcha – and looking for a variable temp kettle. I tried hard to sell them on either the Breville One-Touch or the Zojirushi. They seriously considered both, but agreed that neither worked because they need something with a longer spout for the Chinese tea ceremony they do, which I’m afraid I didn’t recognise.

Then they spent an age talking to us about tea! They told us horror stories from other tea shops they’d tried farther north in the city, then we talked about matcha. I was blunt about the quality of mall tea, and the fact that our matcha is not exactly top grade – which they didn’t seem surprised by, haha – but they wanted to try it anyway. So we did them up a couple of matchas on the house to show them how it works. I made the husband a ceremonial bowl (and I was super stoked to get really pro foam when I was explaining it!) and my mix master co-worker whipped up some flavoured combo of oolong and matcha. They thanked us and told us we were doing really good for people so new to tea and working in a tea store, way more professional than other tea shops in the city, that they appreciated “all you do,” and that they’d be back with some Chinese greens for us to try. YAY!

They didn’t buy anything, but you can tell the difference between a customer who truly wasted an hour of your time with no intention to ever buy, and a customer who will definitely be back. They’ll be back, and I look forward to seeing them again.

1) I just had an old tasting note jump to the top of my feed. What?
2) My stomach is giving me crap for the pizza I ate tonight, and so I am having this. And it just does not work as well as New Delhi Delight, which makes me sad. I will have to pick up the other soon.
3) No other comments because I had booze at a party tonight and I don’t want to have to erase shit in the morning.

So there’s a wee bit of a smokey note to this tea. I say “a wee bit” because I noticed it but it didn’t set off my asthma. My mother may disagree though, because she said she came downstairs from her bedroom afraid that something in the house was burning. The ingredients just say “black tea” though, not “lapsang souchong” so I think it’s just the flavouring. It does certainly catch a hint of smoke in the smell though, as well as something else which reminded me strongly of some sort of hard booze. Unfortunately, I can’t place what. Rum, maybe?

I was perturbed by the sheer number of twigs that appeared to be in this blend until I noticed the ingredients also listed “kukicha.” OH. Well, then. Of course, thinking it was solely a black tea at that point, I had already poured just-boiled water over it, but it seemed to hold up well regardless. I am totally unfamiliar with kukicha green tea by itself, unfortunately, so I have no idea what it is contributing to the taste.

The tea itself is surprisingly laid-back and mellow. I really expected more punch to it, but it’s not there. That’s okay; it’s quite nice regardless, with a mild sweet spice to it and a creaminess at the back. I felt it was a little weak though, even at a 4 minute steep. So I naturally did what you’d do to any weak black tea – right? – and poured milk into it. I mean, why not?

It’s great with some milk, warm and comforting. But…overall, it’s just a wee bit bland, oddly enough. I’d take either Pumpkin Chai or Glitter & Gold over this one, yet I also feel like this is maybe one that could grow on me. I don’t normally review on the first cup – I like to let the impressions of several cups come together – so I may come back to this one and re-review anything about this tea I may have missed.

No tasting notes yet? Not even from DAVIDs? …Odd. I’m the first!

And this is my last $1 summer tea before Labour Day, so time to retire that rather leaky but money-saving mug. I’m pretty sure I got my money’s worth out of that mug, so I’m satisfied.

As my new manager would say…HOLY BALLS GUYS, this is amazing! It’s an herbal, and I’m trying to mostly stick to actual camellia sinensis for the most part these days…but what a winner of an herbal! If you don’t like this one, you are wrong. Yes, you are wrong!

Strawberry and rhubarb are maybe not two flavours I would think to put together, but that’s just more evidence that I shouldn’t be a tea blender, because they go perfectly together!

This tea is tart, naturally, because it contains both rhubarb and hibby. Actually, hibiscus is the second listed ingredient…which would have scared me if I had seen that before I bought it. But no, this is not a tartness which is badly blended and out of control. This is a perfectly balanced tartness! I am, as you know if you’ve read maybe two of my reviews, a freak for sugar, but I drank the unsweetened sample in the store and practically chugged it down! It was nice and refreshing and not too tart even without DT’s agave, so if you drink your tea without sweetener and are cringing at the listed ingredients – have no fear! It is perfectly drinkable without sweetener.

With agave though, I had a hard time rationing my mug on the way home (don’t want to run out of fluid when it’s still pretty hot out). Agave brought out the sweetness of the strawberry just that little bit more. Although I should note that it seems like a very natural strawberry flavour to me – sweet and tiny bit tart in and of itself. Any of you guys remember the cloying artificial flavour of the strawberries in Strawberry Shortcake? Well, it’s not here.

I’ve only had this iced so far, but I bet it would be amazing hot! Like strawberry rhubarb pie, or something.

The best herbal from DAVIDs since Tropicalia! Color me very impressed.

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On another note (and this is a vent about my job, so skip it if you haven’t been reading that)…my local DT is finally, finally hiring.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CHOKED I AM RIGHT NOW. Seriously, only a few weeks after I got a job at a different tea store? The universe hates me!

Part of me wants to up and quit Teavana on the spot and apply to DT, but…I won’t do it. I discussed this with one of the girls there (cute and very friendly and chatty with me, I was her first “big sale” if I remember correctly) and she told me that because the job is SO great (rub it in, right?) no one ever quits…which has the downside of actually meaning that so many people work there that no one ever gets really good hours, and full time is out of the question. I really need the money I can pull doing full time right now, so I guess it’s for the best. (And I was just getting the matcha smoothies down!)

Plus, now I know for coming years that the “tiny blip” of time when they hire is at the start of September. Did my paperwork from Teavana mention a grace period before working for a competitor? I think it did, so I’ll have to double-check.

My last day at Other Job was yesterday. They didn’t even try to keep me – practically kicked me out the door, in fact – even though, a) I have the highest seniority of any associate, am the most knowledgeable and competent person currently working there, know our complex POS machines like the back of my hand, and constantly bail out the management when they don’t know how to handle a situation, so I’m a horrible person to lose for the coming Christmas season, and b) they’ve begged every other recent quitter – including high school students – to stay. Now they don’t even have a cash desk supervisor (because, you know, that was me) and the one girl who could maybe do it is quitting.

An old friend who transferred away from Other Job’s location when we got new management warned me months ago to bail on Other Job because the new management is very politically conservative, and he felt that both he and I, as queer employees, were being used for our competence but otherwise treated like dirt out of their homophobia. I wasn’t sure then, but now I really have to wonder, because they are the only management of that store that has ever seemed to dislike me or think I was anything other than awesome.

Oh well. I’m angry, but it’s their loss and it’s done. Now I live in Tealand (as the staff calls it), for the time being and for better or worse!

Used this to make Cream of Wheat this morning. I have no complaints whatsoever about the maple-and-blueberry taste I ended up with, but I have to note something odd…which is that my CoW did not thicken. At all. Not even slightly. Not even after having the crap boiled out of it.

I was so confused that I tripled-checked the amounts of everything I had used, and they were correct. Hell, I even used the deep-bowled TEA spoon to scoop out the CoW from the box, rather than the flatter kitchen teaspoon which spills it everywhere, so it should have been even more accurate than usual. It’s not that the CoW is old, because it’s a relatively new box…but I’ve made it from this box before with no trouble. And I’ve made it with Oh Canada before with no trouble. The only new thing is Teavana’s tea. Surely there’s no ingredient in it that would cause the CoW to fail to thicken? I will have to experiment.

This is weird, though. It’s cooked and everything, but 10 minutes after I made it…still soup.

So.

Matcha + raspberry agave + chocolate milk…

= RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE MATCHA LATTES, y’all.

I know, I know. I’m a genius. No need to thank me.

(Celebrating my first cast iron sale – I honestly do think my customer will be happy with his pot too, and I came as close to falling into his budget as I could – and being sort of caught up to the other new guy who has already sold some. Now I just need to get on the daily top 40 list a few times, and we’ll be even. Also, everyone at work is going to praise my obvious geniuosity when I tell them to try making matcha lattes with chocolate milk, so life is grand.)

So I tried this iced a while back, and really wasn’t impressed at all. I’m not sure if that’s because I accidentally watered it down too much, or what – I’ve got a bit of a routine down for flash-chilled tea, but I haven’t exactly got it down to a science or anything.

But I haven’t tried it since. I think mostly just out of subconscious fear that it would end up being a real disappointment, hot or cold. I mean, I did have to buy 50g of this stuff, what if it sucked?

Well, I finally gave it another go tonight, hot. It doesn’t suck. It’s not the best fruity white I’ve ever had, but it’s quite nice. The dry smell is lovely and peachy, and while the taste doesn’t exactly punch you in the face with peaches…it’s still satisfyingly peachy in a lighter and subtler way. A peach-flavoured white was one of the few things that excited me about Teavana coming to Canada, because I’ve never had a peach white before, and I think I’ve made up my mind to be quite pleased with this one for the time being. Although I’m also thinking I want to try blending it with the Imperial Acai Blueberry (blueberry whites, one of my other fruity white obsessions) or a strawberry white (the number one fruity white obsession right before blueberries).

OOH. Actually, hell, I think I’m going to go try a Strawberry Fields/Precious White Peach combo RIGHT. NOW.

Although I might have to backlog that one, because it’s getting super late here, and I need to work at 11 tomorrow. Which is early for a non-morning person like me.

I give up. I give in. I am drinking matcha now.

My wallet weeps.

Not rating this for now, because my previous experience with matcha straight was something that tasted like grass drenched in dog urine, so I’m not sure I can handle this straight. But it’s nice added to other teas, and it makes an amazing vanilla green tea latte. Actually, we were so low on milk this morning that I made a latte with this and cream instead, and that was stunning.

I passed on picking up a whisk for this, and that was such a mistake. Basically nothing I tried at home works as well as a proper whisk, so I will have to get one after all. Even though I got no foam out of this before I added the cream, that didn’t seem to hurt the tea any.

It’s clumpy, so make sure you sift it first. I was looking for something to sift it through that I wasn’t too concerned about getting stained bright green, and realized my old tea ball from Teaopia would work. I basically haven’t used the thing in, oh, two years! So I grabbed it and twisted on the middle catch until the two halves came apart, and then re-purposed one half as a strainer to sift the powder through with the back of a spoon. It’s a bit small, but it worked!

This one’s great! My new favourite mate, besides Chocolate Rocket, but who knows…I haven’t tried the other new chocolate-y one yet.

Hot, this basically tastes like orange juice, although it lacks something very particular to orange juice…some of the acidity, maybe? I think the other fruits sweeten it a bit. Underneath that you can taste the mate, but it blends well; although a bit of a bitter roasted flavour comes out as it cools to room temperature, so definitely drink it hotter.

Or maybe colder? I only got 10g of this, which makes about three gourds, so I haven’t iced it yet; but I imagine it’s going to be amazing iced. I’m definitely going back for a tin of this to have in the mornings with toast and eggs!

Oh yes, and I also got the little ceramic gourd and teeny bombilla DAVIDsTEA is selling right now. I’ve seen traditional ones for sale before, and never got them; mainly because I didn’t trust myself to care for them properly, and because the bombillas were severely marked up.

Then I saw this guy in DT: http://www.davidstea.com/ceramic-mate-gourd

And I thought, naw, I totally have to do this cutesy-wutesy easy version. I love it! The only complaint I have is about how the ceramic gives off heat, which makes it very hard to hold until it cools down. But it’s very easy to clean, and the teal silicone attachment holds the bombilla perfectly in place so it doesn’t go all over the place. The bombilla works fine, too; I left the mate to swirl around in the gourd, and the bombilla sucks up all the liquid without getting clogged.

Since I am internally six years old, I delight in now being able to drink tea through a straw. So naturally, I started experimenting with said straw. (Which I’m also going to have to buy replacements for, because I just know I will use this thing until it breaks.)

Back when all the stuff at my local Teaopia was 75% off, I picked up this thing which looks like a plastic coffee cup to-go lid with a removable infuser attached to the bottom. The infuser isn’t large, and is mostly kind of useless, but I discovered yesterday that the lid part fits PERFECTLY on (what else?) a Perfect Mug. And the bombilla? Fits neatly through the little drinking hole in the lid.

So I’ve now discovered a way to drink hot tea in a cup with a lid and a straw. I don’t think it gets more Westernized/Western bastardized than that.

Thank HEAVEN, this goddamn awful tea is finally de-cupboarded. God, I thought I’d never drink it all.

I swear that I tried damn near everything to save this tea. Drank it hot, drank it cold, cold-steeped it, really short steeps…all around, it tasted gross. I finally used this up by making a vanilla green tea latte with it (using vanilla flavoured agave). Oh hey, THE VERY LAST CUP WAS DRINKABLE. Yeah, that was money well-spent! At least it’s done now…

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Also, a Teavana update for anyone who was curious (stop reading now if you’re not!): Had three shifts now. Things seem to be going quite well…maybe.

My sales last weekday shift were a bit under 100/hr, which is around what my managers told me they aim for, so I think that’s good. That’s without having the faintest idea what’s on the wall, so I think when I know the product better 100/hr will be simple to aim for most days. I haven’t reviewed all the teas I’ve tried in the store – I prefer to only review things I’ve taken home and made a few times under conditions I can totally control – but I’ve liked most of what I’ve tried and so now have things to recommend to people.

I had the scale almost entirely figured out my second shift, so that’s not a problem anymore. Also, I finally got a glimpse of the training manual, which is hilariously stupid in a really corporate way which is hard to explain to someone unless they’ve seen it for themselves… But I can laugh that off, as I’m used to corporate stupidity. (Oh, the stories I could tell you about the other job I have!) Other than the cast iron (which I’ve never been disposed to really like that much anyway, although I kinda like the hobnail and the elephant ones from a design perspective), I like a lot of the merch in the store, and I now have a neat little milk frother which helps me make awesome lattes at home (including the one I’m having right now).

I’ve worked with one other new guy who seems very personable but is otherwise hopeless so far, which is somewhat funny because we had the same training shift. Just a slow learner? He seemed to defer to me as though I was his superior, which was odd and funny.

The only thing which still feels really awkward is sampling. But I think that’s because it’s just a plainly awkward thing to do. It’s a lot like the pushy “greeter” position at my other job, which has never stopped feeling awkward in the two years I’ve worked there…although my managers tell me I’m fantastic at it. I guess I shouldn’t hope for sampling to become less awkward; it’s just something you have to suck up and do.

Overall, I just like Teavana so much better than my other job right now. I was originally going to work three days there and three days at Teavana with one day off…the plan being that way because of all the horror stories I’ve heard about Teavana. I was planning to see if Teavana was a company I’d need to bail on before my probation was up, see. But I am so tired and depressed and frustrated with the other job, and so much happier talking to people about tea all day. So I asked my manager what she could give me in terms of hours if I could give her 6-7 day availability. Her response was, “You’re awesome. You can have whatever you want! Want to move up to full time? I’d love to have you on full time.” Great! Well, Teavana pays even crappier than my other job…but I haven’t gotten much more than 20hrs a week over there in 9 months with no sign of that changing any time soon, so it’s a moot point. More hours on shitty pay still works out better than practically no hours on slightly-less-shitty pay, and it also looks like I might have a better chance of climbing the ladder at Teavana…something I always keep an eye out for.

So I gave my notice at my other mall job on Sunday. I then went downstairs to deliver the news at Teavana, only to find out some disturbing news about staff change-overs. The kind of thing that inevitably makes you wonder if you’ve made a terrible mistake.

Dark cloud? Just a blip? Time will tell.

Other Job will probably beg me to stay at least one day a week (they’d be idiots not to), and if they do, I think I will suck up continuing to work there on one weekday. Just in case.

Okay, so I had NO idea how to prepare this one. And the instructions I found, uh, a bit on the baffling side:

Steep one teabag in 16oz boiling water for 3 minutes, strain tea into 2-qt pitcher, fill with cool water, serve over ice.

Okay, from reading Frank’s comments about these bags making “two quarts” of iced tea, I figured the “2-qt” thing was two quarts, but that still leaves me with the following questions:

-If it makes two quarts, why not make that amount hot and then chill it? Why prepare 16oz first and then water it down? Is this basically instructions to make a concentrate with the idea that the added cool water will make it instantly ready-to-serve?
-If it’s in a teabag in the first place, why would I need to “strain” it?
-Dear goofy Americans and your goofy measurements, WHAT ON THIS GREEN-BUT-OZONE-DEPRIVED EARTH IS A QUART?!?

I had to consult several cookbooks (the internet machine was being used by my sister, unfortunately) to determine that this “quart” thingie is apparently a [baffling!] measurement of 1.89271 litres. (Okay, I actually figured out that it’s a bit under two litres, and the internet machine gave me the exact number just now. Shush.)

Which, I’m sorry to say, reminded me quite a bit of this: http://i49.tinypic.com/14v63rn.jpg

I’m sorry America, but why. WHY AMERICA.

Anyway. Unfortunately, I do not even own a “2 quart” pitcher. I have a 1.6L pitcher (that’s 1.6907 quarts, for those of you following along at home), and that’s the biggest pitcher that will still fit in my fridge. Okay, I figured, that’s okay – the tea will end up a bit concentrated, but it’s RAINBOW SHERBET flavoured, so how could that be a bad thing?!

In the end, I decided to follow the instructions as exactly as possible, Just. In. Case. I put some rock sugar at the bottom of my pitcher, filled my 16oz Tea Master up with just-boiled water to get the measurement right, dispensed it into my pitcher and dropped the tea bag in.

Then I was left with the problem of how to fish the bag OUT again. Since it doesn’t have a string attached to it. Or, I guess, a rope, really, since it’s a big tea bag. I guess maybe that’s why the directions say to strain it?

Well, no worries! I figured, I’ll just use kitchen tongs! …But then I discovered (as my timer ticked down) that I can’t get the handle of the tongs past the opening. Whoops. I finally ended up just rolling up my sleeve, reaching delicately into the pitcher and fishing the bag out by one corner. Good thing I have pathetic skinny chicken arms; if I had hammy man-arms, my poor tea would have been screwed. Although I guess I could have tried pouring it back into the Tea Master.

I didn’t add cold water right away, since those darn rock crystals, awesome-tasting though they are, really don’t like to dissolve well. I added some more hot water and stirred until they did…then I added cold to fill, and stuck the whole thing in the fridge to chill for several hours. Whew! A more involved process for a pitcher of iced tea than I’ve bothered with before, but I guess I’ve got the details hammered out now.

So, the tea:

Dry smell is AMAZING. It made my entire kitchen smell exactly like rainbow sherbet from the moment I opened the bag! The wet smell is pretty much precisely the same, so I excitedly let my mother sniff the already-steeped bag, and she said it smelled like department-store perfume. (Sigh. I need to stop letting my mother smell my tea, because she always smells something strange in the leaves. No matter how bang-on the scent actually is, she always comes out with something like, “perfume,” or “paint chips.” Seriously, Mum?!)

Ultimately, it’s not quite as sherbet-y tasting as I was expecting. I was a bit surprised by this (given the strength of the tea’s scent), but there is definitely a smooth black tea coming through first, with sherbet more towards the back of the sip. But it’s definitely there, orange and lime and raspberry and something else that makes it specifically sherbet-like (and not like ice cream). The more I drink it, the more I feel like it grows on me, and indeed, the more I can actually taste the sherbet, too! This, like DAVIDsTEA’s Tropicalia and Root Beer Float is one that I decided to add milk to, because the cream (or something like it) implied by the flavour is so enhanced with a bit of milk. It didn’t exactly knock me over, but it’s still delicious, and I am going to go cold-steep the bag now for another pitcher to see what I can get out of it.

Finishing this one up – I have enough leaf left for one more cup. I think I can finish this one and maybe one or two more before Thursday, which excites me. The more teas I finish, after all, the more room I have for new ones! I have been good after all, and not bought any new teas in a few weeks now.

This one is not my favourite in any way, but that does not mean it is a bad tea – only that it is not so much to my taste. It’s actually a very well-flavoured tea indeed, which delivers precisely what it promises on the tin. The front of the sip is sweet, the middle of the sip is creamy and rich, and the end of the sip has a salty finish to it which is perfectly balanced with the sweet. None of the notes interfere with each other; they work together harmoniously. Really, I think this is one of DAVIDsTEA’s best blends of the year.

If only I liked the whole taste combination more in the first place, I would be all over this one. As it is, I’m weirded out by salty tastes in tea, and will probably not get this again. The rating is less for my personal taste, and more an acknowledgement of how well this tea delivers on its name.

I am home from work for two days, so I thought that I would use these days to compare a few straight oolongs. I decided to start with this one, the free tea I got a few weeks back when DAVIDs had a promo…buy…whatever it was, get 50g of any tea for free. (Unless you were ordering online, and then you got saddled with 50g of backstock of their hibiscus nightmare, Paradise Found. Sorry, online-only people! My condolences.)

I decided to go for this one – because it’s pricey as hell, of course. I don’t know what to make of it…maybe I should have just stocked up on something I know I like.

The dry smell in the bag is very milky, with a fresh green smell underneath.

Steeped, it tastes like…well, so far it tastes like warm milk heavily watered down with hot water. I’ve gone through 3 infusions now – one at 30 seconds, one at a minute and one at two minutes. The first infusion tasted like sweet milky water. The second infusion tasted like…water dipped in tea. This infusion finally seems to be showing promise of something, with a heavy, creamy mouthfeel and a distinctly milky taste. I do like it the best, so although I usually get bored enough to stop at three, I think I will try at least one more infusion to see what happens. I won’t rate it for now.

I still don’t think I’m quite seeing why people are so excited about this one, though. Am I doing something wrong?

Edit: ALSO, has anyone tried the 52teas Southern Boy Teas hot vs. cold steeped? I’m debating between cold steeping, or hot steeping and then cold-steeping the leaves again. Any opinions?

Edit II: Well, now I’m on the fourth infusion, and there is a thick richness to it that there wasn’t before. I won’t give it more than a 70 though, for how long I had to steep it to get any real flavour.

This tea continues to be one of my favourite blacks. Not because I haven’t had better by now – I have. This is just a comforting, don’t-think-too-hard about it tea that I like to have on mornings when I don’t need to go anywhere. It’s light and sweet.

On my last few trips to DAVIDs, I also bought a bunch of their flavoured honey sticks – peach, coconut and lemon – because I am a complete sucker for gimmicky shit like that. I sweetened this with one of the peach sticks, hoping it might come out something like a lighter version of Southern Belle.

It…didn’t, really. I could barely taste peach. I think it might need two sticks, although that tweaks that uneasy part of my brain which is aware of how much sugar there already is in my diet.

And speaking of sugar…I also have a can of Coke in the fridge. You know how they say that once you’re addicted to something, the addiction is forever? I have discovered that my soda pop limit is now something like ONE every few days, and it’s best to keep it to one a week and only sip it a bit at a time. If I do that, I enjoy it. If I drink it more often, the normally-tamed beast of my Coke addiction wakes up and says, “Go get more of that. RIGHT NOW.”

Which I did, the last time I drank too much Coke, too fast. But I have resisted drinking the can I then bought, so now it’s just sitting in the fridge. I’m trying to decide when to drink it, because its presence kind of makes me nervous and I want it gone. And I’m not truly committed enough to clean my toilet with it.