Sil

mmmmm Figured i’d try this tonight because i can! actually i’m panicking a bit and just need something to keep my mind focused so new teas it is. I actually kind like this one. it really does remind me of lime jello salad, though i REALLY want to brew this cold now with a bit of sweetener.

Well i thought i’d try this one as a cold brew since it’s a suggestion on verdant’s website. While its not too shabby cold, i still prefer this one hot. I do like how the flavours are just slightly different when they’re cold. Overall not a bad little one.

SIPDOWN!

So uh funnny story? I like this better hot haha. Cold brew from the other day and it’s so much better warm.

Thank you Raritea for this tea try! The verdict is still out on this one since midway through enjoying my cup, my parents called to a) freak out about my impending trip to china that they’re worried about since OMG their only child is going to be so far away in a communist country on her own and AAAHHHHHH! (nevermind that it’s on business) and b) Show me all the tea that mom was awesome enough to pick up while she was in London @ selfridges…namely 3 different teas from Mariages Freres. Yep! I get to have Mariages Freres sometime in the future whenever i can meet up with my parents (they’re about 3 hours away from me).

But anyway this tea? It smells divine and seems to taste mighty swell…but i kind of drank it without paying attention to it lol

I tried the last sample i received from this company today and needless to day i have a bit left over for another round of it. From this one, i’m getting mostly a rooibos taste, which i don’t mind but is clearly lacking the blueberry piece of the tea :) Holding off rating this though since i was at work and not paying much attention to how long i steeped it. That being said, wouldn’t it be nice if the website had SOME information on the tea? lol sigh

I finally found the other half of my sample bag lol At work…so i’m not crazy just forgetful. Had this so i could be in true sipdown status for this particular tea :) Was a good afternoon tea to try and help keep me relaxed and focused.

Yeesh…I probably used water that was a little hot for this one. I wasn’t thinking when i made it that it’s a black and green blend. There’s a bit of bitterness behind it, that may very well be my fault so I’ll hold off rating this tea. I suspect that if this was brewed properly it would sit in about the 75 range. I like the blackberry taste, but i’m not getting a sense of the maple.

mmm another revisit to my upton samples. Today is a good day. Still freaked out with all the things i have to do for the trip – especially if i don’t want my other projects to suffer BUT disney announced the other half of their 2014 itineraries AND i finally have my currency in hand. yeah..simple things satisfy me. This tea however? meh. I’m over it lol. It’s not a bad tea but i don’t feel the need to purchase it again or sing it’s praises :) It’s not a bad tea, and i’d drink it again..but i almost feel like it needs to be blended with something to make it really POP!

hmmmm revisiting this one and I’m less impressed this time around. For that reason alone, not likely to be a staple though it’s not a bad straight black tea. Also…somewhere along the way i hit over 1000 tasting notes so go me! Not that i noticed at the time lol.

My friend purchased tea from red leaf using the referral code from me and asked if i’d be interested in trying some. The answer to that is always a resounding YES! Since I am trying to keep my cupboard manageable i opted to have this right away as my morning smoothie. Since adding milk and bananas changes the flavour enough, I saved a little bit so that I can have it straight as well to see how it tastes on it’s own.

In a smoothie however, this is a delightful little matcha. It’s got a bit of a tangy zip to it while still tasting like papaya. I also love the smell of this one and had it next to me all last night as I was trying to relax and get organized for the trip. OMG THREE MORE DAYS!!!!! FML i’m so busy.. haha I’ll rate this once i get a chance to try it straight :)

So in my many searches through the internet, I came across this company from my old home town and discovered they will send you two free samples if you email them. So I did what any sane tea lover would do, and requested a sample since the descriptions of their teas sounded lovely. Note: one complaint i have about tea companies? No pictures and No steeping parameters…drives me crazy! But i digress…

I popped open this sample first when my package arrived yesterday since I’ve had a few other toffee teas and I wanted to see how they stack up with a tea that many other companies provide. The verdict? Not too shabby indeed. I actually prefer their version, which maybe be the result of the sample itself, or the tea’s proclivity, because i can still taste the base through the toffee and it’s a stronger base than i’m used to in this sort of tea. Woah run on sentence/thought batman. heh oopsy. Well anyway…looking forward to trying the other samples and then possibly placing an order from these folks if i can find some others to go in on the larger sizes. I wish all companies offered samples sizes…i’d rather purchase 50 sample sizes than a single 1oz bag of something when trying a new company. I’m also much more inclined to come back.

Anyway, as i enjoyed this offering from this company, i’m looking forward to trying the sample that is a tea that I haven’t seen nearly everywhere :)

steepster is feeling the hate for me..so in the interest of time. had this, it was good. yay tea.

Ugh steepster is fighting being good today. log from this morning since it’s been a crazy week and will likely be an insane week with all the last minute work and prep to do, i foresee some crappy tasting notes this week. BUT i did get my samples today from a tea company out in edmonton so i have those to look forward to tonight!

Backlog and sipdown from the weekend. Had this over the weekend to remind myself of why i love this straight as well as in addition to other flavours in my morning smoothie. I’ve got a few packages in my cupboard, so this might be a technical sipdown but i for sure need to got through and see where i’m at so that i can place another order :)

SIPDOWN! woot woot!
One more matcha finished up, just in time for me to try and make a decision on what matchas to re-order from the referral program. I do love this blueberry matcha in my morning smoothie. It’ll be a tough decision on what to pick up for my next order :)

SIPDOWN!

Ok so i set this up to cold brew a few days ago to see if the cold version would be similar to lemon chiffon, since the hot brew is more lemon than anything to me. As it turns out? Cold brewing this makes it very much more like an earl grey…which means um NO thanks! I’m glad i tried anyway as the hot brew is pretty tasty.

SIPDOWN! Thanks to Indigobloom for this sample. I don’t think i would have otherwise picked this up on my own from verdant, but now that I’ve had it, i might consider keeping a small stock of this one around. I am digging the way the basil and mint blend together! Really glad i jumped at the chance to give this one a whirl :)

SIPDOWN! oh yeah baby! One of the first 52 teas i ordered and i’m finally finished the bag. While i thoroughly enjoyed this one, i find that i like the balance the strawberry pie gives to the cinnamon so that will likely be the staple in my cupboard instead of this one, though this is pretty darn delicious!

Sipdown! And thank you again to the lovely Hesper June for letting me try this one. Still not my favourite cup of tea but it does give me hope that I may enjoy some of the other blends that Whispering Pines tea company has to offer as i can sense the potential in the tea, even if this one seems all over the map resulting in a kind of boring tea. One more down..and technically one more to go to hit my goal for this weekend! woot woot!

SIPDOWN!

Yay for getting through a few teas this weekend though i’m sad some of them are gone. At least this way i feel a bit productive…sort of.

SIPDOWN!

…and i’m sad to say while this is the most wonderful smelling tea that i’ve ever smelled…i managed to go through pretty much the entire ounce without ever finding the tea to go with the smell. I’m not sure if this ounce was just a bad batch or what, but Kittenna had the same issues that I did when she borrowed a sample. It makes me sad as this is the first Butiki tea that i genuinely don’t like. (teas that aren’t to my taste don’t count, since those i can appreciate for what they are…this tea on the other hand is everything in a tea that i should love.)

I’m glad that others have found this enjoyable but there’s a bitterness to it that doesn’t equate with the deliciously amazing orange and chocolate smell. Even with a bit of sweetner or with milk it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Ah well, at least i tried…and there’s always creamy sweet wonderful amazing eggnog…right? :)

Farewell my dear green caramel! SIPDOWN! This was one of the first teas i ordered when i was exposed to so many different teas through steepster. I have to say over time it hasn’t lost it’s happy place with me. I still find it quite enjoyable, though there are many other teas out there that i prefer. So far though, in terms of green caramel teas – The Persimmon Tree is my go to.

Thank you raritea

I may have over steeped this one so i’m holding off on rating it until i get a chance to sit with it some more. I feel like this is a brew i should really enjoy, though it’s kind of all over the place at the moment and as a result it’s slightly strange tasting.

SIPDOWN! because the rest is going over to Kittenna who loves this cup so much more than i. ick. There is just something about this brew that says no wai! so off it goes!