RiverTea

In my timolino, at work.

I’m actually getting really sick of this one; I just can’t take the spices in it! At least I only have one more cup left of it – so I can finish it quickly and then not have to worry about it at all.

I’m nearing sipdown level with this one! Ooh!

BBCan feeds are back, and the house guests just finished cleaning the house in pairs – with one in the pair blind folded. I guess it’s part of some three task challenge where the prize is booze or something like that? They’re waiting right now for challenge #2, so I took the time to make more tea, and am sipping at it while watching them.

I must say; Jon has grown on me as a person (not just a player). He has such pretty eyes, and seems really fun. Plus, his nails are painted black. Umph. I want Scott to make it out of isolation and get him all dragged up!

OH! Second task! They have to stand on a sheet (all 13 of them), and completely turn it over without anyone stepping off or being lifted up. And they have one shot…

But anyway – the tea. Something sweet and spicy (this one; and man do I mean spicy), paired with something “cool” and icy (Cuppa’T Specialty Tea’s Ice Princess). Gotta love “themes” and shit, right? I thought it was witty, anyway.

Oh. OH. OH! Hey, the houseguests just finished the task! That took ’em no time at all. And of course feeds promptly shut off while they await the verdict…

So, I kept the steep time on this one short and the result was some tea which was pleasantly sweet and indulgent but not overwhelmingly spicy! Hooray! Downside is that it also made me realize that I’m starving and maybe need to finally eat something a little bit more substantial than an apple.

That’s the only food I’ve had all day. Oops. I got kid of distracted by tea and the computer and such… Heh.

First review, again…

This one smelled really interesting so I made it up to have as a sort of indulgent dessert like tea while binging on Nutella straight from the jar and applying to Fast Food restaurants. I also just got the sad news that my friend wont be coming up this weekend (though perhaps later in the month) because a family thing came up. I hope all works out for him, but I’m sad I’m gonna be on my own again this weekend.

I also just looked in my bank account and am really depressed about the lack of money considering I need to do some serious grocery shopping. I really need some call backs at this point. Just one really good interview.

I’m considering selling my art right now, but I’m not actually sure who would even buy it. Most of it is sculpture work, and not all of it is “top” quality. I do have a handmade teacup and teapot that maybe someone here would be interested in.

But anyway, I’m sure not everyone or probably anyone wants to hear about that, so on to the really interesting tea! This one has a really long suggested steep time: 10-15 minutes. I ended up going in the middle of that, with a 13 minute steep total. It seemed like a really long time, but I guess this is a fruit tea so no worrying about bitterness or anything.

Taste wise, it’s definitely a very rich fruit taste initially with notes of dark chocolate dipped dates and hints of currant – but mostly the tastes. It’s nice, and then is quickly heats up to this fiery hot pepper loops. I know this is meant to be hot – I mean “Chili” is in the name, and I can see the chili loops in the blend, but man is it a fast transition. It’s a really interesting and sort of unusual flavour palette.

At the moment, I’m appreciating it but I don’t think this could ever be an everyday tea for me. Definitely something fun for when I want something totally unusual and unique. So, we’ll see how I feel about it the next few cups in regard to restocking. Maybe I’ll use my better judgement and steep for a shorter time period next cup. An interesting taste experience for sure.

Sipdown (107)!

My “at work” tea from yesterday: it was the only tasting note I didn’t have time to catch up on during my shift yesterday. I was having a small panic attack about it because I thought that I was finishing off my last RiverTea blend, but then I got home and saw my tin of Mulberry White and all was good in the world again.

I don’t know what it is, but lately the smell of straight spearmint (especially hot) has been making me feel super, super nauseated. I got REALLY close to just dumping this one out after I’d steeped it up – the smell was, for whatever reason, making me dry heave even though there really was nothing wrong with it. And because of that, this sat on the edge of my counter at the Kiosk for the bulk of the morning, untouched.

Finally, like half an hour after before I was done for the day, I had a sip of it while it was stone cold. Much better; I was able to finish it off with no problem and it was really tasty and refreshing. I still have no clue what about it initially made me feel so queasy.

I have to lower my rating on this one: even though I can’t figure out what aspect of the tea makes me feel ill, the fact remains that while I did originally love this one, that’s no longer true and I can’t justify a rating of 90 now.

Does Spearmint turn?

I cold brewed this days ago, and when I strained it the smell immediately made me feel really, really nauseous. And, it wasn’t just me being sick or anything because ALL DAY this was the only thing that made me feel ill. I was ‘the picture of health’ otherwise.

Anyway, I did manage to get some of it down at work in a moment where it really wasn’t making me feel so bad. It was insanely spearmint with a very floral edge to it. But after about half the thermos it started making me feel queasy/nauseated again so I just tossed it. The struggle was not worth it.

But seriously; what the fuck!? Normally I love this one. Adore it even. Maybe it’s just the fact it was cold brewed (which is not how I normally prepare it), but this one did not sit well all day. No no no.

So if you’re going to be alternating between a cup of black tea and a super light, fruity oolong you probably want a palate cleanser between sips. For me that’s where this one comes in; it’s absolutely my favourite palate cleansing tea and it also just tastes super good too!

It’s fresh and minty and breezy, like chewing on a piece of Spearmint Gum and then inhaling a large mouthful of crisp outdoor air. Your mouth gets all tingly but in a really good way. Mmm!

Overnight cold brew for work! Something like 13 hours?

I missed the bus today, so I had to hustle to get to work on time (I just made it). Thankfully I live a reasonable distance away, but since I had planned to bus it and take advantage of my monthly pass I didn’t leave myself much walking time.

When I did show up I was really parched though, so the majority of this was chugged almost immediately after arriving. It was the perfect thirst quencher and, if I may indulge in a horrible pun, ‘absolutely’ amazing tasting.

Yeah – that really was horrible. Sorry.

But really, I love that this one is just simple, straight forward and delicious.

This blend is so simple, and yet so so very perfect!

Like I mentioned in a few other notes today, I feel like I’ve been burning up/over heating the last few days despite wearing as minimal of an amount of clothing as possible (while still being clothed, because roommate and all) and letting 80% of the teas I’ve been drinking go stone cold before getting to them – so I thought that maybe some crisp mint would make me feel better.

It’s not, but at least it’s deliciously on point!

Spearmint is my favourite kind of mint – hands down.

I’m so happy to have this one in my possession. Right now, I’m using it as a palate cleanser while I switch back and forth between my Peach Bloom tea and Chocolate Orange (both from DT). The Chocolate Orange is really oily and sort of sweet and strong, and the Peach Bloom is very delicate and floral so I don’t want to jump right between the two. This is a very tasty and refreshing transition.

Take a sip of Peach Bloom, take a sip of Absolute Spearmint, take a sip of Chocolate Orange, back to the Spearmint, and repeat…

Plus any excuse to enjoy Spearmint is something I can get on board with.

Also – I just discovered this very neat show called Intelligence a few hours ago and I’m on episode 2 now. It’s basically about a crime solving type dude, but he has a very high class chip in his head that allows him to connect with the internet at all times in his mind. So, he can access all sorts of things that are useful for solving crimes (DMV records, as an example, or building layouts) so long as he’s in internet/satellite range.

Bonus points: The protag’ is played by the highly entertaining, amazingly skilled, and overall very attractive Josh Holloway, who LOST fans will know as Sawyer. Be still my heart; I’m sold!

First Review… No pressure, right?

I was so ridiculously happy when I got my RiverTea order today! Everything looked and smelled great, and I got another one of their beautiful steeping ball type steeper things (yay for wording!), though this time a black swan with a larger space for expanding leaves instead of the clear musical notes I got with my contest package! If nothing else, it’s very pretty.

I was sure I was going to be starting with one of the fruit blends, but this one smelled absolutely to die for delicious! It has an incredibly strong, mouth watering spearmint smell that reminds me of spearmint gum but also real spearmint extract. I had to try it! So, this got steeped up over the fruit blends which I was dying to give a go.

I was very diligent about how I steeped it, and I stuck to RiverTea’s steeping guide. It smelled very good while it was steeping, too!

Taste wise, this was a very clear, light, and crisp spearmint flavour. There wasn’t weight to the flavour, but it was full regardless. Does that make sense? If not – try it! I was very impressed, slowly sipped away at the cup and then when it was done immediately resteeped. The resteep had no flavour deterioration at all, and I was also very impressed with that as well. That cup was very quickly guzzled down, not slowly sipped at.

So, this one was exactly what was promised: Absolute Spearmint flavour. Nothing fancy or elaborate, but very well executed. I can see this becoming a staple for me to just drink when I want a straight Spearmint type tea since the closest I have otherwise is my Mate Mint from Tea Desire, and obviously that has a much higher caffeine amount, but it’s also a lot earthier and not as “clean” tasting. This will be a great “palette cleansing” tea.

So I just drank Mandala’s Special Dark yesterday, so today may have been a bad time to try this. It just tastes like puerh. Good puerh. Maybe even great. But it’s not blow-my-mind with your earthiness and super rich chocolate notes.

It’s earth. It’s dark. It doesn’t taste like dirt. I could drink a fair bit of this, but I think I’ll pass the rest to Sil!

oh now, THIS is tasty tea! rich, deep, dark, beautiful. simply astounding straight up hot, and a decadent treat with added milk and sugar! kept me going all morning, too, three steeps’ worth, and i had it both ways, baby.

Backlog: So, it figures I’m the only one to rate this one and I was sorta distracted while I drank it. I remember it was spearmint and orange, as was promised in the description, and that I liked it.

Not much else though. Sorry. That’s the hazards of drinking tea at work I suppose.

I’ll pass the rest to Sil and you can see what she thinks!

after trying this a few times i’m now giving up on it. With a cupboard like mine, it’s hardly worth holding on to teas that don’t make you happy drinking them. This hsa turned in to mostly a puerh…there’s very little flavour now, which thankfully at least it’s a decent puerh, but when i’m looking for orange…that’s not worthy enough to keep it around. in to the swap box it goes!

Ok for the record, teas that have never been reviewed before have weird landing pages since there are no reviews or anything there to be there like teas that have reviews. It’s like bit empty weirdo space etc. I do not like :)

I pulled this one out to drink today and first off, the aroma of this one is utterly omg insane. It’s strong, and seriously orange in your face. I’ve doubled bagged the tea again, and it’s still strong enough to be smelled through both bags.

Brewed, this confuses me a bit more. Gone is the amazing orange smells, and the puerh dominates. While not a problem for me, I can see some folks not liking this as much because the aroma doesn’t translate in to what you expect the tea to taste like. Instead it becomes more puerh + orange, rather than orange puerh. On the whole i enjoyed this a bunch. I’ll have to see what playing with the steeping times does, and see what resteeps offer in future.

I drank a cup of this tea yesterday, but found that adding sugar kinda ruins it for me. It was way too sweet, which I didn’t really think would ever be a problem for me, since I have quite the sweet tooth! ;) The only other time I had that problem was when I accidentally poured an avalanche of sugar into a cup of blueberry cream cheese danish tea by 52teas. I think with this tea, the little meringue hats provide more than enough sweetness, so today I’m enjoying a cup without sugar.

The raspberry in this tea reminds me very much of lipton’s raspberry iced tea, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. When eating out in years past I always went for that iced tea instead of soda, but now I pretty much only drink water.

I think overall. It’s an enjoyable raspberry tea. It might be a good candidate for iced tea also.

It’s raining, so we can’t go running. Glad it’s raining though, because we need it bad! Guess there’s more time for tea today!!

I had another cup of this to reinforce that i’m not crazy about it. Thankfully that makes a sipdown since the rest of off to Cavocorax, as i forgot to include a sample of this in our last exchange mwahahahaha

hmmmm tonight this tastes a little like cough medicine. Apparently i didn’t get enough pineapple chunks or soemthing in this cup. It looks like this may not be the tea for me if the cups stop being consistently good. Will try a few more and see what the final verdict is later.
Final Count: 160 (i’m thinking i should be worried if that’s 10 sipdowns in a day that i did NOT work from home lol)

I tried cold brewing this one and it’s still pretty tasty. The rooibos doesn’t overpower the flavours, so there’s still vanilla in this. Less pineapple but it’s still a tasty treat. I think this would really shine in the summer with just a little gingerale :)

Another tea from my recent RiverTea order. I have to say, this one is quite nice. The coconut flavouring isn’t overwhelming – instead it’s mostly a juicy sort of “tropical” tasting tea. The rooibos used in this blend isn’t that overly strong woodsy sort of rooibos so that makes me a happy camper. Overall, this is pretty tasty, though next time i think i want to try it as a cold brew!

On a side note, i wish the bags RiverTeas came in were a bit thicker. I’ve had to double bag the flavoured teas i received from them because the smell was seeping out of the bag and the cardboard “tin.”

Another sipdown! This one didn’t last long…it was definitely my favorite tea from my first RiverTea order. Spicy and sweet, it was extremely satisfying. This one will likely be included in any future order. :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!! I knew it was going to be amazing when I smelled the dry leaf last night, and it was so hard not to make a cup last night, but I knew I better wait on the caffeine. To me, this is a chocolate chai done right. There are so many chocolate chai’s where you don’t taste chocolate at all, or in the case of the Starbucks chocolate chai, taste like chocolate soap….ewwww! This one is perfect!

I also have a hard time with chocolate flavored teas, since most don’t taste right to me, but the chocolate in this tea goes perfectly with the spices. I have to admit, I made sure to include a chocolate chunk in the leaf I used for this cup. Hopefully the chocolate flavor translates even when you don’t get a chunk in your cup.

On the spices, they are delicious! I love star anise, as shown by my love for DavidsTea’s Ceylon Star, which I think they are getting rid of (nooooo!). Well, in that case, I think I just found a substitute in this tea!

Overall, I’m very impressed with RiverTea, and this is only the first one I’ve tried! On to the next!!

Another sipdown! This new Breville is really helping me use some stuff up.

For whatever reason I can’t quite find the perfect setting for this, but I think it might benefit from being steeped a significantly longer amount of time. The scent of it is absolutely gorgeous—like a fruity rose—but the taste doesn’t quite live up to it on the standard black tea settings. In general this is a consistently good fruity black tea with a lovely floral lychee flavor. The lychee is unusual enough that this will be an automatic rebuy for me when I’ve cleaned out my cabinet, and luckily Mom loves it too!