Sil

mmmm another tasty tea for this evening. I have a large number of rooibos samples that i need to get cracking on especially if i’m going to get this cupboard under control! So i’m going to try and do my best to have 1 or 2 in the evenings so that I can work on those. This apple caramelish flavour grows on me each time that i have it. :) Thanks again Kallieboo!

Sipdown! (276) Yes..that’s 2 higher than yesterday but i found a couple of teas i hadn’t logged in my cupboard and since my verdant cups arrive today, so did the sample that i tucked into that order to get free shipping lol.

I still like the taste of this one. Vanilla and cinnamon…this is a really smooth blend.

thank you lala! I need to try this as a cold brew…as a warm brew it’s really nice. The strawberry blends nicely with the green tea without turning artificial….aaaand work just interrupted this a whole lot. will rate this and provide a better tasting note next brew. Stupid work.

mmmm thanks lala I’m not yet sure how i feel about this tea. I’m not overly a fan of white teas most of the time but this tea has enough flavour going on that i think i can get behind this.

There’s a citrusy smell to the dry tea that is quite enticing. Brewed, this isn’t overly tangerine like but it’s not bad either. There’s a sweet and spicy taste going on here that is unique from a lot of teas that i’ve had. I’m not sure what about this tea is supposed to make it “parfait” like, but i’m fine with that lol. I quite like this, though i also really want to try it cold brewed to see what happens. thank you lala

thank you lala! so uh…i’m going to have to give this one another shot. I totally lost track of brewing it..so i’m pretty sure it sat there for about 15 mins. End result? um sour that makes the side of my mouth do that watering thing. lol so yeah… potential for good things here, ruined by my inability to pay attention tonight haha sorry lala! luckily i have more to play with so thank you for that!

thank you kittylovestea for this one in our swaps! So not only did Kitty send along this tea but she was also amazing and sent along a package of jaffa cakes for me to try since they aren’t a thing out here in Canada. Can i just say we are missing out! But i’m also glad because i would eat them all the damn time.

This tea is delicious! Those who have been following know that i love chocolate orange…it’s one of my favourite flavour combinations. This tea is more chocolate than orange but that doesn’t take away from it’s deliciousness :) I like the chocolate in this tea. It’s lacking that weirdly artificial taste that a lot of teas have. I just wish the orange was a weeeee bit stronger. Overall though, looking forward to drinking up more of this! :)

Awe…I feel a bit bad that this is the first tasting note on this one. Especially because i don’t like it. This is another sneak taste from Cavocorax

The blend starts out lovely, but then quickly turns to a whole lot of too much clove. If the clove isn’t in the sip then there’s an abundance of hibiscus/sour taste. I think that this tea has potential if the hibiscus were cut back and the clove taste was WAAAAAAY less. I know i tried to get a teaspoon of tea that had a little of everything but this is just too much clove and hibiscus.

Every now and then, there was the promise of a wonderful taste of a well blended black tea but then one of those two flavours would ruin it. Ah well! Another tea off the list of all the teas to try :)

So i’m not sure if i’ll get to a sipdown today but i figure the next two tasting notes ought to count as sipdowns because they aren’t being added to my cupboard lol. This is another that Cavocorax let me steal a bit of before sending it off to her.
So this smells delicious…chocolatey and malty? Not sure what the undertone smell is but it’s very familiar. Sipping it, it’s a taste i’ve had before but just can’t place. I’m not sure if it’s “milkshake” that i’m tasting but the entire cup is a familiar cup or something. I just wish i could place the taste. It’s pretty much driving me crazy right now. I may have to order a bit more of this another time just to drink it until i figure out what the taste is. Overall though? this is a pretty decent chocolatey, creamy tea. Thanks Cavo! :)

Soooo close to a sipdown on this one, but not quite! inspired by the recent talk of black pearls and yunnans, i pulled this one out this morning to see if it was as delicious as i rememeber. Turns out i actually like this one a little better than i originally did, not that i ever thought it was bad. It’s got a smoothness to it that i really like, while maintaining that black malty delicious goodness. YAY!

Man! I haven’t had this one in ages! I pulled it out this morning because i didn’t have time to go through my swap box to find an “almost sipdown” tea. I have to say this is one of the few blends frank’s come out with recently that i really like. There’s enough of a raspberry cream like flavour here and none of that bitterness from the black base that some have found with other blends. This one’s a win in my books still!

…and it’s time for another round of Sil plays catch up! Holy crap is work busy these days. We’re getting ready for another release weekend on top of having to interview folks and try and finalise a multitude of projects. I’d love to get home before 5 any day now! On the plus side, I have tea with Raritea to look forward to this weekend plus a mini swap and dash with her and Kittenna woot woot! Only downside? My cupboard increases yet again! haha

Same old with this one, though it was a little different this morning. I accidentally mixed it with no.18 from Steven Smith. Yeah i was tired while making tea. The mixture? not half bad as the SS tea but through the cinnamon and delicious just a little. Not much of a change, but a minor change nonetheless. Still a favourite though! woot woot!

Sort of a mini sipdown since I used up the last of my sample from lala sadly also likely the last cup of tea for the evening since the power just went out lol. Really glad that I had the chance to try this one and of course pick more up a the sloane sale the other week. I should be just about done with it by the time I run out :) still need to try this cold brewed but I’m still loving the creamy peachiness of this!

soooo this is an oolong alright. a milk oolong at that but it’s nothing amazing, wonderful or otherwise OMG over the top imo. I’ve had better milk oolongs and worse. At the end of the day i think i prefer Sloane’s oolong and there’s at least one other that i’ve tried as well. Not sure what else to say about it besides milk oolong? check. :)

SIPDOWN!(274) I’m still trying to make sure i get at least one sipdown a day to help get my cupboard to a manageable state so that i can do more swaps and try more of ALL THE TEA! I quiet enjoyed this one from me swap with kallieboo, though it’s not something i need to have in my cupboard or love like some others do :) still though, the base is smooth and complements the minty marshmallow goodness well.

thank you kittyloves tea for a sample of this. sadly i’m gonig to hold off rating it as i think it was contaminated by either teas in the house or by it’s travels. I pretty much took a sip of this and held it in my mouth until i could get near the sink. It tasted like a mouthful of perfume..which this tea is CLEARLY NOT. so i’m fairly certain i can chalk this up to contamination. Ah well! another time! i still appreciate the share :)

awe yeah! cinnamon swirl bread is in the house! 4 oz of it. So yes…i’m a happy camper, especially with the resteep value on this one. It was the perfect tea to go along with today’s work fiascos in the morning. I’m really glad i have this now when i want it instead of jsut the memory of it from my swap with tastybrew :)

trying to catch up on my logs. sadly work has been increasingly busy meaning i have time to DRINK tea, most of the time, but not time to write about it.

hallieod sent this one to me in the hopes that I would enjoy it more than she did. I’m pretty sure that experiement was a success since i’m finding this one really nice. Now is it a better tea than #49? hells no! but it’s still a nice black and more than suitable for my morning rotation. This is slightly malty but not overly so. It’s a robust tea that might have a bit of astringency but i’m thinking i steeped this for way less time than most. I’ll have to have more of this one the weekend when i can dedicate more time to it.

thank you so much for sending this my way hallieod

not quite a sipdown unless someone wants the last of this to try lol. Still not a bad rooibos, though it’s not my favourite. It’s not a rooibos with that distinctive “rooibos” taste so it’s good in my books :)

So i have a confession, which isn’t that big of a deal, but i hate white chocolate. it’s like chocolate, only without the “good” stuff. Cavocorax was awesome enough to let me steal a cup of this tea from our order with Janet at the steap shoppe (big shout out to janet for her amazing customer service by the way!).

The dry blend smells delicious. It’s chocolate and yet not quite the chocolate smell that i associate with white chocolate. There’s an undertone of vanilla in the smell as well. There is rose hip in here, but there is nothing floral about this blend.

The liquid form of this tea could be called white chocolate, but i’m not sure if i’ve ever had white chocolate that tastes like this :) My other half says that this does taste like white chocolate, at the end of the sip. I’m getting more of a vanilla chocolate taste, but it’s still pretty good and the tea base is nice. I think this could be one of those teas i enjoy from time to time while not a regular member of my official lineup lol
thanks again cavo for letting me sneak some of this before i send it to you! (also yay for not having to add it to my cupboard)

sipdown! (276) as I’m pretty sure this is a tea my friend would love. Thank you Kittenna for sharing this one with me. This is a tea that tastes like peach. it’s not a bad tea…there’s no astringency or bitterness and it’s pretty smooth. But it’s not a tea i love, or need in my cupboard. It’s a fairly average tea with not a whole lot going on. there are better black peach teas out there that i’d pick before reaching for this one.

sipdown! the last of this is going to a friend who really wants some more early grey tea. But for the record…this is NOT a sign that i am coming over to the dark side with earl greys…but i do like this tea. The bergamot is really soft in this one and there is that lemoney cream taste that it’s got going on. That you Hallieod for sharing this one with me.
(also, sipdowns + parents tea + steapshoppe order i was allowed to place from may showing up = back up to 278. eek!)

this is another backlog from yesterday. A tea my dad purchased in Paris that i forced him to open and consume because otherwise it would still be sitting there the next time i came to visit, unopened. So i brewed a cup of this for him to try and let mom have a sip…who exclaimed she wanted a cup, so i gave her the cup i was making for myself (resteep) and warned her it would be a little different tasting. Went back to resteep it again for myself, at which point my dad came back in the the garden to announce that i should make him another cup for dinner…so i gave him my other resteep…

Yeah…we steeped this 4 times and i took the last steep so my parents could enjoy the “better” steeps. I also used this tea to show my parents that you CAN resteep some of the teas that dad has purchased without losing too much flavour.

Did i mention that this tea is EIGHTY FIVE EUROS for 100 grams… yeah. I think this is officially the most expensive tea that i’ve had to date. Now, those who know me, know that white teas are generally not my thing. However this tea was pretty darn delicious. I’m sort of hoping that dad decides he doesn’t like it and sends the rest to me later, though that’s not likely to be the case given how fast he drank his two cups.

This tea is light and refreshing and totally not floral. It really does have notes of honey and vanilla in it. The liquor is a beautiful pale golden yellow colour that faded to a dull yellow. I wish i could tell you more, but i didn’t get a chance to jot down too many notes, since my parents kept wanting me to make more heh. If i get the chance to go back and have more, I will write a better note. Promise.

SIPDOWN! and backlog – another from yesterday. This one was not only packed in a travel mug for the drive home but i also shared a few of the steeps and re-steeps with my parents before i left. This is something i should have as a permanent fixture in my cupboard, or some variation of. I really like the chocolatey/malty taste of this one AND a little really does go a long way. Really appreciate the share tattooed_tea

long story short since this is a backlog….had this last night driving home from ottawa while watching the lightning storm happen around us in the car. Dark skies with lightning and no rain..it was really cool to watch the flashes of light and streaks across the evening sky :)