357 Tasting Notes
The tea:
I made this with a slightly cooler temperature of water than I usually use, but by time I finished my morning tasks and got around to making tea it was starting to get a little late. I wanted to make sure I’d have time to get a few steeps out of it before my caffeine cut off time.
The smell of it is a little too much like dry baking coconut, which I’m not particularly fond of. If you’re a coconut lover, I’d say this is worth trying. The flavors of the pineapple, the coconut and the tea are all there. It’s not a bad tea, the flavor is just not for me.
The life:
It’s been a long day, my hubby is out of town for the next few weeks on business, and I miss him. I also dealt with a family issue that has been going on for far too long. It was quite a monumental blow-up, but I think that it will finally be put to rest…fingers crossed.
Now I’m really looking forward to going to work tomorrow – it will be a good distraction of the home stress. I know it’s unrealistic, but I hope I’ll always be this excited to go to work. Hopefully, I’ll also get the chance to drop by our house on the way home from work tomorrow, to see how the reno is going. The reno team we hired has done a phenomenal job of the project so far, and I’m always excited to see the progress. Tomorrow will be a better day, I’m sure of it.
Today was my first day back at work/at the new job. Everyone was super nice and I ran into so many people that I worked with in years past, which made it an even easier transition. I took a travel mug full of this tea to work with me along with a thermos full which I stashed in my purse for refills. It’s a lovely balance of tea and cotton candy flavor. It’s yummy, but like many black teas I don’t always find them thirst quenching when the weather heats up (I suppose it’s the caffeine?). Nonetheless, drinking this today, I just couldn’t help but smile all day. I think I’m going to have to get another thermos and travel mug though. My mug is starting to feel like its giving way, and I need another thermos to fill with tea and to keep me smiling even longer.
I feel a little nervous. Tomorrow is my first day in my new work position, so I decided to stop drinking caffeine a little earlier to help me get a good night sleep.
I’ve been hoarding some bits of my various honeybush blends for the past few months because it’s just too difficult to say goodbye…so I won’t. Instead I’ll just say “until we meet again”. I feel certain that this will be made again (right 52teas?); it’s just far too good to be permanently archived. I enjoyed this one hot, cold and even when I was really ill I still enjoyed this one mixed with club soda. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Honeybush, you’ve been with me through the good, the bad and the ugly…until we meet again…
Finishing this sample off this morning from my taste of Fall try me pack. It’s a yummy spicy pumpkin pie filled cup of goodness. Not an absolute top favorite for me, but it’s still quite high up there, so I’d get it again if it were on sale or in a sample pack, which is saying something considering all the new teas that are constantly coming out. (A sidenote to new Steepsters – I recommend trying to keep down the number of full size teas in favor of samples unless you really really love the tea – I guarantee that with all the tea companies out there, there’s a constant flow of new teas that you will want to try.)
I’m not sure if I’m remembering wrong, but I could have sworn Della Terra was one of the few companies that used to offer free shipping to Canada if you purchase a certain dollar’s worth of tea? It seems shipping costs are going up everywhere, which is just plain sad for small companies everywhere. I’m glad I had the chance to try Della Terra while they could offer the free shipping. Now I know their teas are worth the extra shipping bucks, otherwise I could have missed out on a good thing.
When I ordered from them this year, they didn’t offer free shipping. But they have 30% off sales, and that generally covers shipping + a bit of the order.
I’ve had this one for a while, but I’m just getting around to logging it now. I never realized how picky I am with flavors until I started here on Steepster. I frequently find myself typing “I don’t really care for (insert flavor), but I ordered this anyway”. The thing is, in the past I’ve been pleasantly surprised (particularly with 52teas) for making teas I enjoy in flavors that I don’t typically enjoy.
Coconut is yet another flavor that I don’t care for, but since it is a honeybush I decided to give it a try – I’m always looking for new bedtime teas. Sadly, this one is truly not for me. Considering I don’t care for coconut flavors it’s still pretty good, it’s just not one that I’d reorder, there are just too many more suitable options available to me. If you like coconut, then this would be a nice honeybush for you. The flavor of the honeybush and coconut are nicely balanced, particularly when it cools, there’s a creaminess to the aftertaste that lends itself to the cheesecake flavor, or even coconut cream pie.
I used almost twice the amount of leaf I usually use with rooibos/honeybush blends – I was finishing off the remainder of this sample from my Fall Try me pack. It seems less flavourful than I remember. Maybe it’s because it’s springtime, but there’s a faint part of the sip that reminds me of the smell of freshly cut grass, but sweeter. I’m glad I got to sample this, but it’s not one I’d likely repurchase.
My stash of honeybush was starting to look a little thinner than usual, so I decided to try this one when 52teas had their last sale. This flavour isn’t something I normally would select, but I figured a sale was a good time for me to branch out and try new things. The smell of the dry blend reminds me of artificial lime flavoring, which is not usually something that I go for. I tried it hot last and was still unsure of it, if I think about it, I could kind of taste kiwi, but if I didn’t know that was the flavor, I wouldn’t guess it. I decided to wait until this morning and try it cold before I formulate my opinion, because let’s face it, both kiwis and cucumbers are better when they’re cool, otherwise the saying would be “as warm as a cucumber” :P
Fast forward to this morning:
Now that it’s had the time to cool, the kiwi and cucumber flavors are truer to my expectations: bright and cooling. For some reason I’m still getting that artificial lime scent that I don’t love, but there’s no lime listed in the ingredients. It’s probably just my imagination?
Update
Drinking this again tonight and I still smell and taste lime when it’s hot, but now it seemed to have mellowed down to taste more like kiwi now that it’s cooler…hmmm…it’s growing on me
I was distracted when I drank this in the morning, so I will delay rating this until the next time I brew it up. I do remember hints of baked notes which reminded me slightly of vanilla pound cake (I’ve never had butter brandy cake, but it sure sounds good). I’m sure this tea is delicious, and the next time I drink it, I will have to give it more of my attention…I’m sure it’s worth it.
The distraction:
I was going through the pictures of the renovation/addition project of our home so far. The weather hasn’t been the best this past week, although I know it could always be worse, so I’m not going to complain. I just feel sorry for those poor guys working up there to remove those slippery shingles. The weatherman promises that it should be warming up soon – I hope he’s right. Here’s a link to a picture of the house without the roof, and our hard working construction guys http://canadianadia.tumblr.com/image/51820541942
Geez, major renovation that is! Are you serving them iced tea? Judging from the hard work, they’d pobably go for a nice cold beer instead :-)
@Teafairy – I’m not there often while they are working, but I did drop by with some bottled drinks to keep them going. They were very grateful, but I’ll bet you’re right, they probably would prefer cold beer :)
@Nicole- I agree, living in that would be difficult. The mess is one thing, but the missing roof, ceiling, partial walls and floors make it unsafe for living. We are lucky to be able to stay with family during this reno. The reno company we’re using has done a phenomenal job of minimizing the stress so far. Also,I think since this isn’t our first reno (although it’s our first one of such a huge scale), we are less sensitive to some of the stressors that naturally come along with renos. So far so good, but we have several more months to go, I’m sure there will be points in the not too distant future that I will be wishing it was all over with. :)
So I followed the advice some of you recommended and I added more leaf when I made this, and it was definitely better. Much better. Thank you for your suggestions. I still prefer a heavier base, so following another tip that one of you dear Steepsters mentioned, I decided to add another tea to strengthen the base. I unwisely selected Infusion Bouteaque’s Pumpkin Spice Flavored Black tea (which is another tea that I don’t love). I think I should have chosen more wisely, because I made it worse. Much worse. DOH!!
I guess my experiment proves…two wrongs don’t make a right, but two Wrights made an airplane –HAHAHA!…get it? the Wright Brothers?…yeah, I laugh at my own dumb jokes….and then I explain them :P
I’m so glad I returned the other pouches of this. I’m pretty sure the next person who buys them will enjoy it more than I did. I think I’ll just chalk this one up to a combination of not suiting my taste, and user error.
I love this tea. It’s sweet and satisfying and it’s another one that tastes best when made with water heated just to the point where it is still sippable (not boiling). This reduces the wait time from when I start making it, to the point where I can enjoy it. The perfect remedy for my morning case of the “gimmeteanows”.
I took this to today’s meeting/errands in my stainless steel travel mug and it was the perfect accompaniment to a fantastic day.
It was supposed to be sunny. The weatherman was wrong again (for most of the day), but interjecting sips of hot butter-caramel-like flavor into a gray cloudy day seems to make it all seem better. The only thing I struggled with was trying not to say “mmm….this is good” after every sip. I finished my pouch of this today, but I thankfully have another one on standby. It’s a good thing too, I start a new work position on Monday, so I foresee many more morning cases of the “gimmeteanows” in my near future.
I don’t see DAVIDs buttered rum in your cupboard, have you tried it? If you have, care to compare the two for me? I wondered if I should buy the 52tea version. But I love DAVIDs so at this point I am not in a hurry.
Thanks Rie :)
@Nxtdoor- I tried Davids buttered rum several months ago so I will try to do a bit of a comparison from memory. First off, I should warn you that I believe I’ve developed a preference for 52teas black base over Davids black tea base. From what I remember of the Davids version the taste of both the tea and the additional flavors are lighter and have different notes like vanilla blended into the buttered rum taste. It’s good, but I would describe it as more watered-down in comparison to the 52teas version. However, that could be the result of what I got in my scoop, or maybe I did something wrong?
In my opinion, the 52teas version is deeper, richer, and I feel the notes in it lean more towards the caramel side. Because of the depth of flavors I do find that perfecting the 52teas black teas can be a bit of an art, and one slip can turn the tea bitter. Using the appropriate amount of leaf and making sure that the water is not too hot can really make or break their black teas. The Davids teas tend to be more forgiving, but they just rarely get a “wow” out of me.
Having said this, if you tend to prefer the DAVIDS black base you may have a completely different opinion to mine. The good thing about Davids is if you buy straight from the store (rather then from their website) you can buy a small sample size of 15-20grams for about $3ish and some change. 52teas can be a little trickier to time when it’s in stock, and there is less flexibility in size.
I hope my little comparison helps? I look forward to hearing what you think, if/when you try one or even both of them.
tomorrow WILL be a better day :)
Thanks Sil – you were right! :D
YAAAAY!
I hope tomorrow WAS a better day :-) And missing your darling is the worst feeling!
Yes, thank you TheTeaFairy it was much better