SerendipiTea

I’m finishing off the last bit of this tea that I have. It has that very familiar fruity scent that so many of these fruity blends have. It’s nearly impossible for me to separate the individual fruit from the hibiscus, but this blend seems to be a jumbled mess of hibiscus + fruits, all topped with strawberry. I don’t mind hibiscus as long as it doesn’t overwhelm all of the other flavors in the cup.

Sipping… to be honest, I don’t taste anything all that different from other fruit blends. The only thing that distinguishes this one from the others is the presence of the strawberries. The strawberries are actually very nice and sweet. The hibiscus adds a very tart note, but it doesn’t smother the other flavors. It reminds me a little bit of strawberry lemonade only without the heavy lemon. Overall, this is a nice blend for those who like strawberries. I don’t think that I will be buying any more of this tea, but it definitely made a very nice cup for the summer.

Well, perhaps I overleafed, but in my opinion, there was simply too much jasmine in here. I have to say that the pu’erh is an interesting touch to pair with the jasmine, but I really can’t taste the pouchong at all, which is the flavour I was hoping would come out the most. I’ll try a bit less leaf next time to see if I can get a lighter, tastier cup.

The second infusion pretty much tasted just like a reasonable shu pu’erh, and since I wasn’t really in a pu’erh mood, I didn’t bother to resteep the leaves further, although they probably could have gone another couple infusions.

The weather has been SO hot here for the past few days.. It’s the kind of weather that makes it nearly impossible to have hot tea…a dry sort of heat that lingers! I’m still not out of hot tea mode and much prefer it to any sort of iced tea. It’s night now and I can drink a cup of tea whilst in front of a fan. I have an early morning tomorrow so a decaf blend it is!

I am usually not a fan of peppermint teas… and when I do drink minty teas they are typically mixed with other things. I thought I’d give this one a try since I like SerendipiTea. They usually do a fine job with dessert teas. Sipping… this one isn’t actually all that bad! It’s got a rather floral peppermint note that is nicely toned down by the creamy vanilla. The first part of a sip actually reminds me of a swimming pool.. I can’t tell you what it is, though. Maybe it’s the scent… something that so clearly reminds me of chlorine. The tail end of the sip is the best part – smooth, minty and soft. Would I repurchase? Perhaps. I still think I owe this blend a few more cups before coming to any solid decision.

Lately I’ve been trying to recreate the incredibly delicious cups of tea that I had when I first tried this blend. I haven’t really been all that successful.. something is just not right. It’s much more.. tart and there is less of that raspberry/chocolate cream that I had tasted originally. I’m glad that I didn’t buy a ton of this blend as I would probably be even more disappointed! I’ll continue to experiment and see if anything changes. It’s not undrinkable, just not the lovely tea I remember!

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

My afternoon tea is also a swap from My Friend Rashad! (thanks again!) The black tea base on this one is very earthy (almost too earthy for me) with a punch-you-in-the-face fruit flavor on top. Drinkable but not going on my shopping list or anything.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

First tea I’m trying from the teas I got from the Victoria (and Vancouver) tea crawl and swap. Of all the teas I got from the swap, why this one from OMGsrsly? Because it is almost 10:30pm and I work tomorrow, so it was really a caffeine thing. I could have opted for some Bear Trap from ShayneBear, but I wasn’t in a fruity mood, and I was tempted by either the Browncoat Genmaicha or Cantaloupe and Cream from CrowKettle, but opted for this due to the low caffeine count (there is black tea with the rooibos, but it is the last ingredient) and because it sounded rather cozy. So, it is brewing…

It smells nice and chocolatey and coconutty, and I hope it isn’t too strong a rooibos flavor. More details coming…

Mmmmmm….smelling gooood. Too hot to sip still. I did add some milk and sugar to this…the other tastings report this is good as a latte, so I added the milk.

Used to much milk as it is overpowering this tea, but not too badly. It blends well with the other flavors well so I am not too concerned, though next time I might skip the milk or use less. I found that with Orange Blossom from DAVIDs, I had a fine line to where there was enough milk to enhance, but not too much to hide the taste.

All in all, a good choice to start with and have tonight.

My roommate Shwee found a new bakery in her town called Heavenly Buns which apparently has a sign of an angel mooning the pedestrians. She found this tea and thought that I would enjoy it so she sent me a sachet of this.

I wasn’t sure what it was because I didn’t look it up before hand so I brewed it for four minutes. It smelled divine and it brewed up to be this pretty pale pink! Plain, it didn’t taste like much so I added a little bit of sugar to my cup. Then it started to taste a little bit like grapefruit but not quite. Nice and light and mild.

Then I looked it up after finding the store on the label and discovered that it was a blood orange blend. Wow. I thought it would have been stronger than this but this was a very nice light tea. I have an awesome friend who thinks of me when she sees tea.

I have been on the hunt for a rose, lavender and peppermint herbal blend for a while, so when I got home from my meet with Mercuryhime and saw that she’d put a whole ounce in my goodie bag I nearly squealed with joy. Secret Garden, are you the tea I’ve been looking for?

This is not a pure rose/lavender/mint blend—there’s chamomile and rooibos in there as well. The chamomile I don’t mind at all since it’s good for getting sleepy, and there’s so little rooibos it’s not enough to trigger a headache. So far so good! I made up a cup of this last night and actually fell asleep before I could finish it so I guess that is definitely a good sign.

This is a really floral blend. I mean it has 3 floral elements! The rose is quite strong but there is not a ton of lavender, just a soft backing note. The chamomile is more in play than the lavender I think. The mint is almost as strong as the rose, which being a peppermint fan I love! And then finally there’s my old enemy Mr. Rooibos, which thankfully is doing little more than making the cup kind of red. There are some woodsy notes that I associate more with honeybush and no gross medicinal taste (or headaches, yay!).

All in all, a success! I would eventually like a blend that is just mint, rose and lavender… though probably it would be easier and cheaper to blend it myself. Thanks Mercuryhime!

I’ve been drinking a lot of the same teas over and over lately and haven’t been logging them, because, well, who wants to see the same teas with the same notes, from the same person, everyday for weeks on end?

Since I have been drinking so repetitively, I decided a change was needed and began scouring the internet for ideas. I kept seeing Starbuck’s Passion Tea Lemonade copycat recipes in the results, read a few, and decided I could mix up a similar beverage with the Ruby Sipper sitting in the cabinet (since I’m forbidden from buying more tea and don’t really like most Tazo).

I brewed up a double strength 16 oz of Ruby Sipper, added 2 tsp of lemonade mix, and two pumps of Vanilla syrup to a big glass full of ice. It was good, but I’m not sure I need to add lemonade mix next time. Ruby Sipper is plenty tart on its own! I think I should stick to regular simple syrup or just sugar if I make this again; the vanilla didn’t seem to hurt, and I picked up subtle vanilla hints drinking this, but it didn’t enhance it either.

Another mad grab from this morning. Not too bad of a choice; a reasonably tasty coconut black. It’s a tad soapy-ish, but I really think that coconut going off turns into a soapy flavour; luckily it’s not too bothersome here.

Anyways, tasty enough for me to drink down! Out of 5 mugs this morning, I still have 4 on the go, although at least one is nearly empty. Mmmm, tea. Hopefully I can try some sample sizes of things tonight, and perhaps get in a sipdown or two…

I finished my stash of this last night. This is a relaxing caffeine free tea. See previous notes.

Inspired by Kittenna I decided to have a cup of this tonight, before I turn to wine or gin. It’s so good! The chocolate and vanilla flavours go so well with the coconut, rooibos and black tea. Yum!

As per usual, I’m drinking it with a tiny bit of (unneeded) honey, and some soy creamer. Next I think I’ll have a G&T to help me get through this calculus and the other readings I have to complete today.

Sipdown! Although regretting brewing this a) at work and b) in a teabag. Poor abused tea. At least it doesn’t taste too bad (Checkmate is worse), so once it cools I should be able to gulp it down reasonably well. This is definitely more…. fruity than I remember, which I think is actually the rooibos, since this doesn’t have fruit in it. Not really tasting the cocoa, but the coconut is present as a nice creaminess.

10 teas to go!

No notes yet.

Oh man…this tea…steeped in vodka (grey goose)…added to cran/raspberry juice with some gingerale is mighty tastea! I am going to miss this when i run out of my vodka infused tea…or is that tea infused vodka. Either way the blueberry-ness of this tea makes for a delicious blueberry cocktail!

This was like drinking a floral bouquet. I tasted no hints of fruit or anything except overpowering flowers.
It smelled divine, however.

A very yummy beverage. Great caffeine free mid afternoon pick me up.

Very tasty tea. Tastes a bit like cookies. Fantastic substitute for a dessert!

This is one that I requested/signed off on in my swap with Tunes&Tea. I think it was because the name was fun and it was from SerendipiTea, because I’m not the biggest rooibos fan, though I have found a few I have enjoyed. So mint and rooibos, very simple and yes very refreshing. The peppermint is dominant in the taste but the rooibos grounds it. Nice palate cleansing, which is exactly what I needed right now! I think I shall take JacquelineM’s advice and add honey next time. Thanks!

Totally just had a hot brew of this tonight to finish it off! Operation sipdown! GO GO GO! I’m going to miss this one as it’s one of my fav blueberry teas so far. We’ll see if i manage to find another that compares before i get around to placing an order with this company haha