Sil

mmmm brought this in to work this afternoon for a bit of a pick me up! This time around, while the flavours were blending together nicely, i really like how the cinnamon bark added a bit to the blend. It was just cinnamon, the “bark” flavour is present as well, making this a different tea that if just cinnamon was added to this blend. Again, the sparklie tea made me smile, though normally i’m not a fan of additions like that, that don’t add to the tea.

I enjoy this tea quite a bit! It’s also interesting to me because the guaysa base isn’t something that i’m used to drinking with “mint.” A really nice blend!

mmmmm some of this with my delicious lunch! Still digging the taste of this one, though I’m glad i sorted out the steeping with the black base. I still have another bag of this unopened, but I’ll need to decide asap if i want another or if i’m ok to live with della terra’s pumpkin tea once this one is gone :)

Teavivre (not so) random tea of the day!

I picked this one this morning because I wanted to see how it compares to the other keemun i picked up from Teavivre. I have to say that this one is more enjoyable that the other. I sipped this down fairly quickly without taking much time to relish it, which tells me that it’s pretty good. This tea is not overly intense or strong, but it is delicious. There is a chocolatey undertone to this, but not overly so. Hints of malt are also present but again, not as strongly as other teas (laoshan black i’m looking at you!). Overall a good tea.

aw yeah! Another banana, cheesecake, peach, blueberry smoothie for the morning! I have not yet started back at the gym but i’m thinking i still have time this week to get 3 workouts in…tonight, fri and then sat :) Here’s hoping i don’t fail that!

Not sure where i was going with that, but i’m sure it has something to do with starting my morning off with a delicious, delicious smoothie. I really need to place another red leaf order soon but i’m trying to hold out as long as possible for fear that I’ll end up placing a giant order and have a ton of matcha again. My goal for matcha is still to try and get it down to 5-7 flavours i’ve tried so that I can pick up a new one here and there. Cheesecake and caramel are still pretty amazing in my opinion so those will like remain staples in my cupboard :)

mmmmm nice cup of this tonight while i play a little walking dead video game. Really enjoy both it and the tea :)

Sipdown!

So maybe from here on out I can remember that IndigoBloom has provided me with a sample of this. I quite enjoy this one – it does remind me a little of a toblerone but more in the way of the nougat than the chocolate. I’d consider picking this up sometime in the future as a dessert tea to have around.

Sipdown!

Mid morning tea for today and it’s a delicious sipdown. Added a bit of extra leaf to this one in my travel mug and it’s a bit more vanilla-y than before. I’d be willing to pick this one up again in the future with a few others from Steeped and Infused.

YAY for new tea samples! My first random sample from Upton – yes i was going to do the other keemun from teavivire but new teas came yesterday so I can hardly be blamed for wanting to try one :)

This tea is pretty tasty. It’s not one of my all time favourite blacks at first sip but this could be an every day kind of tea. It’s not a strong, bold black but there is a nice undertone to the tea that is almost slightly fruity but then turns to a more vanilla like flavour. It’s not intensely either, but it adds character to the taste, making it so there’s more going on than just a basic black. As i sip more of the tea, i start to notice more of the cocoa notes, though again, those notes are not intense. everything about this is subtle and grows as you sip it.

Looking forward to resteeps on this one and seeing how it tastes sans breakfast muffin, since i made the mistake of eating a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, which I know is affecting my taste buds a little :)

EDIT: Resteep on this one isn’t bad but it gets weak pretty quickly even with less water and more time. still not a bad little tea for me!

Nothing gets you out of bed and in to work stupidly early like your other half snoring in the bed :) Thankfully though, my upton order arrived yesterday which means more finums!!! They were on stupidly cheap so i picked up 3 more so that i have one for the office now as well as 3 for at home if guests want tea – including one of the large ones for the GIANT mugs we have in the house that are so big the medium ones don’t fit. What does all that babbling mean? I can get both my travel mugs ready at the same time! time saver! :)

But i digress…todays smoothie is cheesecake,though you know how when you let bananas get REALLY ripe they taste like POW BANANA! yeah…my frozen bananas today were like that, which means regardless of the matcha flavour, all i will likely taste is banana…so i improvised. in addition to the banana i tossed in some frozen mangos and peaches and this smoothie is divine! Not only did both fruits blend amazingly well with the banana but the cheesecake flavour gives this a really nice creamy cheesecakey base. i’m in love! :)

SIPDOWN!

I brewed the last of this cold to see if there was any improvement to the way this tastes and it’s better by leaps and bounds. That being said, it’ not enough to raise my rating of it since it’s not particularly “berry” tasting and only tastes good when it’s cold. Not to mention that my other half says it tastes like tiajuana flats "half sweet and half unsweetened tea’ that we get whenever we’re in florida lol

SIPDOWN!

Relaxing tonight and finishing off a few teas while I add 5 bajiillion into my cupboard :)

Sipdown! Mostly because i received my upton order in the mail today and um needless to say I went a little overboard picking up random samples to try their things out. So my cupboard, which was doing so well getting under 150, is now going to be back up, closer to 200 again – especially once Kittenna and Indigobloom and i meet up to trade off our purchases in January.

I could really enjoy this one, even though I’m not a huge fan of David’s tea. The mint is muted by the vanilla and it adds a bit to the tea beyond the whole “read my lips” tea. Thanks again to Sare for sending this one in the 12 days of christmas tea swap!

I’m going to leave off rating this one for now because I brewed it at work. Additionally, this tea isn’t visible on Tea Blendz’s website, so I’m not sure if you can purchase this outside of the store that closed down. I am so far enjoying this, though I can honestly say I’ve never had a rooibos, black, oolong blend before.

This steeping is more fig than apple, though it’s tasty enough. There’s a bit of spice going on as well, but it’s not overpowering. Any interesting tea to say the least :)

mmmm had this over lunch and DID get a chance to try this with chocolate. Really delicious! I’m quite enjoying the full body of this tea and the grape/winey flavour.

Backlogging another review on Red Leaf’s matcha – French Vanilla
My matcha was composed of the following:
Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Robust
I picked this matcha up to see how sweet it was and whether I could possibly use this to add to my other matcha flavours. I’m not a huge fan of vanilla but there are certain instances I just love having a dash of it in my drinks! I opted to start with this one over the Madagascar vanilla that Red Leaf has, having no real sense as to what the difference would be. This matcha has me wondering about the other one as well since it’s really good.
This is another matcha that I won’t drink on it’s own often as I purchased it specifically to add to other flavours. However, since purchasing it, I’ve had a few cups of straight French Vanilla matcha lattes. This is also going to be the first matcha I share with my friend who wants to try it because she often goes to starbucks for a green tea latte with a shot of vanilla :)
I really like this vanilla as it’s not cloyingly sweet even with the robust flavouring. There’s a smooth taste to this that doesn’t come across as artificial which is majorly important to me. I will be picking this one up again in the future, though maybe not until I’ve had a chance to try Red Leaf’s other vanilla matcha!
Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html

Backlogging another review on Red Leaf’s matcha – Belgium Chocolate
My matcha was composed of the following:
Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Robust
This matcha was picked up in part because I wanted to see how the coffee and chocolate matcha would work compared to the mocha matcha. I also thought that the chocolate might be a good one for adding to other matcha to make smoothies like chocolate strawberry!
Oh man what can I say about this matcha? It’s really tasty! Added to my morning smoothie, it tastes like a chocolate milkshake which is just perfect for me. The chocolate doesn’t taste like cocoa, nor does it have that bitter taste that some chocolates have. Instead it’s a delight of silky chocolate sweet goodness.
I have to say, that I usually add this matcha to my other matchas to help enhance or bring out some of the other flavours in my smoothies (cookies n’ cream; mocha etc..) That being said, it’s also a delight to drink on its own. I would recommend this matcha to anyone looking for a nice chocolatey matcha to mix into things. This might even make a good addition to some sort of baked good – the possibilities are there!
Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/belgium-chocolate-matcha.html

Teavivre Random Tea of the day!

Picked this one from my box of teavivre teas this morning and it’s a damn fine tea! I’m looking forward to comparing this with the organic version of this tea, so maybe tomorrow will be a little less random choice.
It’s been a while since i’ve had a keemun and I think i prefer assams now. That being said, this is still a tasty cup of tea. There’s a hint of bitterness at the end of the sip, but it’s nothing that I can’t handle. I don’t get much in the way of chocolate taste like others have. Instead it’s just more of a bold dark black tea taste. I’ll have to spend a bit more time with this one to make a final call on it.

Backlogging another review on Red Leaf’s matcha – this time it’s English toffee!
My matcha was composed of the following:
Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Distinctive
I picked this one up at the prompting of my other half, though to this day he hasn’t been willing to try ANY of my matcha. That being said, I am A-OK with that! More for me!
This isn’t one of my favourite matchas from redleaf but it’s still a decent flavoured matcha. I picked this up with distinctive flavouring, though I’m fairly certain that I’d like it better in a robust flavouring.
My problem with this matcha was that the taste didn’t say English Toffee to me. Instead it was more of a sweet, non descript kind of generic taste. I still enjoyed adding the matcha to my morning smoothies, but if I didn’t know it was English toffee I would have been hard pressed to say YES, THAT is English toffee.
What I did like about this matcha was that even added to milk, there was an overall sweetness to it that wasn’t overly cloying and still reminded me a bit of caramel/toffee. Will I order this one again? Probably not, but not because it’s a bad matcha, but because there are others that red leaf offers that are true to their taste and so wonderfully delicious!

Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/english-toffee-matcha.html

Mmmmmm blueberry matcha!
Catching up on my matcha reviews since I’ve been a slacker in that department. This matcha is delicious! I love blueberries! I’d eat blueberries all the time if I could since a while back some of my favourite fruits started to give me an allergic reaction. I was prompted by steepster reviews to pick this one up – in particular MissLena12 and Ninavampi.
Once again, Red Leaf has managed to create a flavoured matcha that isn’t artificial tasting. However, this isn’t the taste of regular old blueberries. This matcha tastes like wild blueberries. It has a sweet taste but there’s also a strong BLUEBERRY taste! I think with this particular matcha because it’s not artificial tasting, I could bump up the flavouring to robust, though I always err on the side of caution and get fruity flavours in distinctive first :)
As usual, I made a blueberry smoothie with this matcha. I still can’t get into drinking straight matcha so this is the way I do things. I love the way the milk adds creaminess to the matcha and with the blueberry it’s no exception! One thing I would like to try with this particular matcha is adding it to pancakes along with real blueberries!
I’m looking forward to
My matcha was composed of the following:
Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Distinctive

Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/blueberry-matcha.html

In my continuing quest to figure out which Matcha flavours are my favourite, I opted to pick up the strawberry matcha a while back but haven’t had time to do a proper review. Since I’ve managed to do a sipdown today, I figured this was as good a time as any :)
I won’t bore you with the packaging except to say that if you’re picking up matcha from Red Leaf, it’s a good idea to pick up one of their tins as well to store the matcha after you open the non re-sealable package.
The scent of this matcha is delicious and totally like natural strawberry flavouring. The first smell of this matcha when I opened up the package was amazingly delicious! I really love that the strawberry isn’t artificial.
I made a strawberry smoothie with this matcha – frozen banana; milk and matcha! The first sip of this tastes like ice cream made with real strawberries. The kind of ice cream that you pick up from a dairy or one of those mom and pop stores. It actually made me think of the little place up north that Ian and I visit when we go up to the cottage – Kuwartha Dairies. They make the most amazing ice cream and milk related product fresh! It’s soooo delicious and this matcha makes me think of their strawberry milkshakes.
I’d order this again in a heartbeat :)

My matcha was composed of the following:
Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Dinstinctive

Buy it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/strawberry-matcha.html

I picked this tea up on the weekend when tea blendz was closing down their retail store. Three 50g bags of tea for the price of one (think 6$)! This might be the first tea where I’ve tried two versions of the tea. I have to admit i didn’t like the first version of toffee dream that i tried from zen tea. There was a nuttiness to it that didn’t sit well with me. This version though is a pretty nice version. Not only is it a pretty blend with the light blue flowers in it, but it’s a light toffee tasting tea without a nutty feel to it. I’m quite happy with this, so even if i hate the other two teas i picked up, i’ll consider my weekend tea purchase a success!

Edit: resteep not bad but a little week, likely need to up time to 6 mins or so

12 days of christmas tea swap!

Yes i know..it’s a little late, but at the time i wasn’t really feeling that whole mint feeling back then. This isn’t bad tea. It reminds me a whole lot of read my lips, though a bit nicer. A big thanks to Sare for letting us try this one out! I totally miss the awesome packages and teas that everyone pulled together for the swap!

Sipdown! Been drinking this in the afternoon and I’ve come to the conclusion that this might be the second tea from Della Terra that I love. Bumping the rating up a little since it was much tastier this afternoon. I’d consider picking this up again as a semi-permanent dessert tea for my cupboard.

Bumped up the rating on this one a little since adding a bit more tea that usual produced an improved cup. Same story with other della terra teas for me. Enjoyed it but not enough to keep it in my cupboard :)