Uniquity

My tea arrived!

I still get a sweet lemon flavour (if that makes sense) but this was perfect for me and my cold. I still can taste things (I think!) but the lemon was a little mild and nice for my throat. Yay!

Backlog:

Yummy nummy. Don’t know if it will help make me healthy, but it tasted great (since I could still taste this morning). Big travel mug kept me warm on my way to work. Perfect!

This cup of tea has one job and one job only: to kick my cold’s BUTT. I thought (two weeks ago) that I was getting sick, but my body saved it all up for after the wedding/first day at the new job. So, electric lemon, please make it go away, or at least numb my throat to the pain it’s currently feeling. I hope that you and detox, with a small supporting crew can make me well, double quick.

As for the taste, I’m not the best judge today, so I’ll leave it where I last rated it. I could have steeped this longer, but the beau is sharing and he is leery of an over-strong ginger taste. Oh well!

Backlog from last night:

Had a cuppa this after getting home from the weekend/wedding (not mine!) :D

We threw a little extra in there to temp out the cranberry flavour, and it almost worked. Not terrible, but I’ve got so many better..

Yum yum – Didn’t heat the water enough, so I’ve got a very mild cup here, but it’s super delicious. I also realized that the weird smell I get from the cantaloupe bai mu dan must just actualy be the smell of white tea because I got it from the apple vanilla white this morning. Yay for learnign!

Had a nice bright yuellow cup of this today, my last day as the receptionist. Yay!

Currently drinking…

I just got an e-mail from Harneys saying my order had shipped today. It’s been 8 days since I placed the order. Two days since I e-mailed them saying I am disappointed. I never heard back. Harney’s loses points for terrible customer service in this situation, but I’m glad my tea is on the way. I don’t think I’ll order from them again, but a pound of vanilla comoro should last me a while!

As for the tea, it is the second steep from my earlier cup. So delicious – I love the second steep from this!

Backlog:

This was my morning tea – Yummy nummy goodness, reminds me of a cappuchino (in smell.)

Re-steep from earlier. Switched to my more conventionally sized mug, so I can wrap my hands around it. This is the third day in a row that I’ve had a headache after lunch, so the extra mint will hopefully help with that. if not, I took an ibu, because working and smiling at people with head pain is not fun.

Mojito is delicious, at least!

Didn’t know what I wanted, so went for mojito. It’s the only loose tea I have at work right now other than spearmint, so I popped some in my travel mug and I’m off to the races.

Unfortunately, the new travel mug (being plastic) retains smells far more than previous one did (also plastic). Tastes don’t transfer over, but it’s a little freaky.

I threw an extra half spoon of spearmint in here because I love it and because I can. Yummy!!

Swamp, swamp, swamp, swamp water.

Tossed a spoonful of this delight into my travel mug. There is a lot of fruit taste coming up this morning. with the sugar of the candeis on the end of the sip. Love!

Way way Backlog:

The beau did up some of this sometime last week. Will do a proper tasting note later, but my recollection of this went as follows:

-Accurate smell
-Accurate taste
-It’s weird to taste cherry vanilla coke HOT.

Definitely need to try iced (and I’m NOT much of an iced tea person). Will also definitely try hot again. If I could get used to those flavours hot, it would be fab!

Enjoying my spearmint lava lamp, paired with a mint aero bar. Parfait!

Didn’t know what I wanted, so went with what I love. My work selection is pathetic. I think what I really want is some of the aged herb and garlic gouda in my fridge, but that isn’t tea and it isn’t here, so oh well.

Yummy blueberry flavour, pretty blueberry colour, great smell, all is good. The only Celestial Seasonings tea I truly enjoy.

EDIT: This cup got really tart. What the?

This mug tastes a little different today – I love the way this is slightly different every time, depending on how much of each component lands in my cup. I am getting something very creamy sweet, mainly with a hint of tartness (maybe the hibiscus). The main flavour has an almost vanilla tone to it, and is really nice and refreshing. Yum yum love love.

I’ve got a headache from the small troubles of life (and too little sleep, thank to my neighbours’ decision to play very loud music with a great deal of bass, not thinking or caring that their living room shares a wall with my bedroom. So far it’s a one off, but if it happens tonight…)

SO! I’m drinking a big mug of hot chocolate, with a T-Sac of Spearmint thrown in. Delish.

Nothing more to add, other than that the teabag will make an impressive second steep. Smelling the bag before tossing it, I got a big whiff of the cinnamon I failed to notice earlier. Strange tea.

The most exciting thing happened to me this morning (Okay, exaggeration – an exciting thing happened, not the most). I’m at work, being a receptionist (one more week!) and I’m opening one of the magazines we carry – and with the magazine is free tea! Granted, it’s Tazo which I have trouble getting behind because I loathe Starbucks and most of what it stands for, but free tea is free tea.

Dry, the teabag smells of rooibos and something else – not vanilla though. Maybe peach? There is definitely “full leaf” in this bag – the rooibos is larger than I’ve ever seen it, and I’ve got a lot of rooibos teas. The little sticks actually happen to be poking through the mesh which I find frustrating, but it could be worse.

The steeped smell is similar to the dry – surprisingly powerful. Again, not of vanilla but of something else. Something sweet. Maybe fruity. Kind of artificial. I have no ingredients list, I’ll have to look it up later.

The liquor is fairly orange and there is a little (very little) dust at the bottom of my cup. To be expected with a finer ‘tea’ like rooibos.

First tastes: Rooibos, with that weird strong smell. Sweet, maybe fruity. Not vanilla. No vanilla involved. Maybe it’s like chicken broth – the vanilla walked through the tea, but it isn’t IN it. Something about it makes me grimace a little bit. Maybe sour? I don’t know what this is… Wandering off to find ingredients list on internet

AHA! There ARE peaches. That must be what I’m getting. Apples were in the ingredient list, but I’m not picking up on that. If this were named something else, it might get a higher rating, but a vanilla rooibos it is not. 10/100 for being vanilla, but somewhere in the 60 range for being a regular fruity tea. Would drink again but would most likely not purchase.

I do appreciate that this is as close to loose leaf in a pre-packaged bag as you can get though. Better than many of my PC bagged teas, but I just can’t support Starbucks, not even in tea ventures.

I realized this morning why this always comes out a bit bitter for me – I was too busy following the instructions to actually look in the tea. There’s green tea in here! I was inhaling the scent as usual, when I finally opened my eyes. The base is a mix of black and green tea, so boiling isn’t really the way to go. For shame, David’s Tea!

Anyway, I used water that was NOT boiling and none of that burnt/bitter flavour appeared. Lesson learned – Look at your tea!!

Having this while at a friend’s house helping to set up their DVR. I was a little suspicious – the good ole hibiscus pretty prominant in the ingredient list. The taste is rooibos upfront, with a hint of strawberry and a smack of hibiscus. That said, it’s not very well balanced and I’m actually not enjoying it that much. I think I’m getting a hint of that woody flavour that so many get from rooibos. Makes my mouth feel dry. Of course, this isn’t what I was looking for flavour-wise at all, so that could explain it too.

Excellent fruity sweet Sunday morning breakfast tea!

Second steep was impressive. Nearly as strong in peachy flavour, I actually lost/got used to the buttery aspect of oolong. The liquor was not as dark, but I also under-heated the water accidentally. Keeping the leaves to try a third tonight or tomorrow.

Gave myself a little while to recover from the last/first time that I made this tea. This time, apparently, I did it right. Either that or my palate has expanded since then – both are possible.

The tea smells amaznig unsteeped, as always. This time I got the steeping right thoguh and my first cup is delicious – I get the sweetness of the peach and a hint of the almond, but I also smell and taste some buttery oolong taste. I am getting better at identifying that taste, thankfully. I really want to like oolong, and I think I really might. It’s a shame that it tends to be so expensive.

Anyway, this cup came out lovely. The leaves are very large, for David’s Tea, and I am going for multiple steeps once this one is gone. I am hoping for a big number, but the beau is steeping along with me, so it won’t be as many as if I flew solo. Mm, that peachiness is really up front right now. I expect the oolong taste will come out stronger next time.

Resteep! Smooth, sweet and delicious