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. . . ew.

Burnt, bitter, no hint of creaminess or cheesecake. Just a very poor, very fake-tasting Earl experience.

No notes yet.

Ah, a pleasant reminder of our own Toronto Tea Party today. My first venture into the Tea Emporium’s line up, the name caught me right away. My first steep of this (made in-store) was too bitter, but the second steep was very pleasant. It has a mellow, low-key creamy flavour, with just a hint of bergamot, just a hint of smoky green tea, just a hint of vanilla, and absolutely no back-hint of ass.

Grabbed a little sachet of this at the Blue Banana months ago, but I haven’t tried it until now. Met up with the devilishly interesting Toronto tea partiers at Fran’s and swapped this out for the Red Rose in the pot of tea I ordered. The conversation and the meal was much more memorable than the tea.

Sweet and fruity, maintained its flavour and didn’t go bitter through multiple steeps (steeps varied in time from two to four minutes, maybe a bit more. Tried to keep the temperature low.). No single “tropical” flavour stood out to me, and the green base was a little grassy without being off-puttingly vegetal. I may have to try this again when I can devote more attention to it.

. . . ew.

It tastes like rose-scented shampoo and panda licorice. Neither of those are good things. There are very few teas where I can’t even finish one cup.

This was a beautifully juicy berry black, I’m so glad I tried it at long last.

The black tea base that Red Leaf uses is always a good accent to their blends, but it is very sensitive to timing. It can get bitter quick, but I managed to avoid that, yay!

Tried this in store. I love our local DT. The associates all recognise us, call us by name, almost know our tea stash by its name (Stashy, Devourer of Worlds), etc. I just wish they wore nametags so we could stop calling them Really Hipster Girl, Less Hipster Girl, That Nice One, Hipster Asian Boy, Hipster White Boy, and the manager.

Anyway.

I liked this tea to start, very sweet and spicy, but there was a cloying aftertaste that snuck up on me and stuck in the back of my throat. Actually made me a little ill. I think it might be the stevia? I’m not sure. Anyway, won’t be repeating the experience.

Yum! I wish I could find a description of the tea online (Say Tea! y u no update website?), because this is a very tasty fruit and nut blend. It reminds me of DT’s Forever Nuts without the beetroot. It’s naturally sweet and very delicious.

Been drinking this almost non-stop for the last few days. I’m afraid of burning myself out on it, but I really love the sweet almondyness of it (yes, that’s a technical term).

In related news, it’s another big Stash Cleanse for us today. Cataloging and sorting all our teas and updating our spreadsheet, and then putting together a huge box of swap and destash teas.

Think I should have steeped this one a little longer than I did, but otherwise delicious.

I’m not usually a lover of rooibos teas, I find them too sweet, but I do very much enjoy this one. I was looking for something light and sweet, not too much work. This fit the bill precisely. Always tastes like sugar cookies to me, the ultimate comfort food.

I made two pots of tea, both of which are sitting next to me with a little gongfu teacup, I’ve been alternating between this and Caramel Spice. Similar spice profiles, they make excellent complements to each other.

Bleh. Brewed it again with the proper specs, and the sencha taste was even stronger. Very grassy, fishy sencha with a slight citrus fuss from the bergamot. Won’t rebuy.

I’m glad I rediscovered this tea. Definitely need to refill the little candy tin.

Once again, an enjoyable but forgettable berry tea. Don’t think I’ll be replacing it, but I do enjoy it when I have it. Added half a spoonful of sugar, made the berry a little sweeter.

Brewed it a little weak this morning. Maybe a little too cool, too.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

I think I have done the impossible and actually drunk too much tea.

Anyway.

Dry, this tea smells amazing. I want to just keep a bowl of it everywhere in the house, like delicious Earl Grey potpurri. I want to stuff my pillow with it at night. Guh. It’s a beautiful golden fuzzy tea.

Brewed . . . I don’t know. Rita made the pot and she claims that she messed up the brewing, so I’m going to make another cup in the morning and see how I feel when my eyeballs are not floating in a sea of pu’erh. Going to leave it unrated for the moment.

Our latest shipment of Verdant Tea arrived today, and we couldn’t wait to break into this sample – I don’t know why we didn’t order it in the first place! The spice blend reminds me of his herbal Thai Ginger Fire, but the solid mustiness of the pu’erh really tones down the sharpness of the galangal and ginger into something smooth and delicious.

On the second steep, the spices mellowed out even further and let the earthiness of the pu’erh come through, with a bit of that sweet fruitiness.

This has already been added to our next order. This is a fantastic flavoured pu’erh.

Thermos for the day. I really enjoy this Earl, I think it’s one of the top five Earls I’ve ever had. The darjeeling base is sweet and kept from getting bitter in the seven or eight hours before I managed to finish it off, and it compliments the light citrusy flavour of the Earl well.

Made a pot of this for both of us this morning, and got about half a mouthful of it before I had to run out the door for work with half a poptart in my mouth. Sadness.

Mmmm. This was just the cup of tea I was in the mood for. Straight, simple, tasty. It is a naturally sweet tea, and brewed as I did, didn’t get too bitter by the end of the pot. Brewed this Western-style in our new little teapot I picked up from Staples in their post-Christmas clearance for $3.50, two and a half minutes in boiling water. This tea is light and sweet, but leaves a pleasant aftertaste with just a hint of smoke. Thank you once again to Teavivre for their generous samples; this is going right to the top of my straight-tea collection.

. . . hum.

While I can taste the various fruits, and the mint calmed down a lot from the scent of the dry leaves into the brewed tea, it was . . . weak? Strange? Disproportionate? Yes, let’s go with the last one. Disproportionate. It should have been a lot better than it was. Oh well. We’ve learned our Teavana lesson.

Picked some of this up in their sale, for the price it was hard to resist for a straight oolong. Brewed about two and a half teaspoons in my gaiwan. First steep was five seconds, each progressive steep five seconds longer. Did five steeps, I’m sure I could have gotten many more.

This was an interesting drink. It brewed up very dark, despite the short steeps, with a dark golden liquid and a heavy aroma, vaguely vegetal. Someone else compared it to a pear; I wouldn’t say that, but it did have that kind of heavy fruity-planty quality to it. On its own, it was somewhat underwhelming; blended with dried fruits to bring out that natural headiness it could be very good.