Silk Road

Dropped by Silk Road on a ridiculously short cruise ship pit stop in Victoria, BC. I wasn’t planning on buying tea but once I started walking up Government Street my feet just led me to that Fisgard Intersection on autopilot. And then there I was.

When I used to go to school here a few years ago I’d blow all my money in this store; it’s not that their teas are amazingballs but the shop has this Atmosphere, you know? The kind that makes you feel relaxed, clean, and ready to empty your wallet on jasmine teas you don’t need.

The use of Dai Bai (green) leaf means this tea is incredibly light and subtle, and probably not the best tea to try after eating a Donair. I’m having a hard time picking up notes besides the lovely jasmine, which isn’t sickeningly strong to begin with like in some jasmine blends. I want to say the tea base has a cucumber note? Possibly melon? Maybe some subtle notes of savoury-sweet pandan..

I’ll have to revisit it when my mouth isn’t a big garlic hummus bulb!

I’ve had this a few times over the years, and remember when Silk Road first started selling but apparently I never made a tea note? Huh. This is what happens when you only drink your tisanes and rooibos right before bed!

I generally don’t like cocoa or chocolate in my teas; I find it adds a powdery/chalky texture that I associate with stale candy bars. While that vibe doesn’t go away here I find the mint and anise clean it up a bit, preventing the Chocolate Panda from becoming the Muddy Trash Panda. The vanilla swings the mint into peppermint or chocolate mint territory.

I think when I first bought this years ago I thought it would be a creamy chocolate rooibos, but it’s more of a herbal palate cleanser, which isn’t a bad thing! I’m appreciating it more this time around.

Homemade advent day 14

I tried to brew this strong (15+ minutes steeping in hot water, then splash of soy milk) but it tastes lackluster. A 65/100 at best. The black base is fine but nothing remarkable. The berries are more of a generic fruitiness today instead of specific berries. I love the idea of this blend, but this cup just isn’t great. I’m not changing my rating just yet because it is possible my microwave didn’t heat up the water as much as it should have (it acts weirdly sometimes)

The black base is kind of “meh”, but I like the idea of this tea. It has all sorts of neat local native berreis in it: salal, salmon berry, black raspberry, thimbleberry, blueberry, and cranberry. I was expecting this to be sour because I could see quite a few cranberry pieces, but I didn’t find it sour upon brewing. Overall, I really enjoyed the cup I have had, however it does not go with milk (that was a mistake…berry + milk just tastes like fake strawberry milk to me)

Iced Tea Sipdown (629)!

Unfortunately, this wasn’t really a shining example of how good this tea can taste. Instead of the usual sweet/ripe mixed berry profile this one tasted slightly bitter and was also very astringent; combine that with the fact that the cranberry was the strongest berry flavour and that equals a pretty dry/tart and mildly unpleasant cranberry black tea.

Noooppppeeee…

Made this earlier in the evening; I added in some French Vanilla creamer to it and it made for a very thick, creamy berries and cream type of flavour. Notes of blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry. Really robust. It basically tastes like an entirely different tea; it’s amazing how much difference one extra ingredient can make to a blend.

Early evening tea.

Hmm, not enjoying this one nearly as much as I did the first time I tried it. It’s still a nice mixed berry soft or flavour all around, with some emphasis on the blueberry and cranberry. Actually, maybe more so on the cranberry? There’s a bit of crisp tartness on the top of the sip that I don’t think I experienced last time. The big change that isn’t working for me isn’t the cranberry though; it’s that overall the cup has quite a bit more astringency and I don’t like that it’s not as sweet and smooth. A little bit of astringency I can handle, especially with things with cranberry in them, but this is just taking over my mouth and it’s not the best sensation.

I mean, it’s still a very nice tea overall but if my next cup leans more towards this experience than the first I think I’ll have to bring my rating down and blame the first cup either on ‘new tea excitement’ or just call it a fluke overall.

Got a late start to my tea drinking today, but at least I kicked it off with this really pleasant cup of black tea! I think this is the last tea I needed to try from my Silk Road order aside from the straight Dragonwell I got – but I’m not opening the package of that one for a while, likely…

I’ll be honest, I don’t have a TON of familiarity with many of the berries in this blend such as the Salal berry, for example. I am really enjoying it though and I think it’s a very nice, full bodied mixed berry flavour overall. I taste blueberry/raspberry more than anything else but perhaps that’s because those are just the two berries in here that I have the most familiarity with? There’s also cranberry, apparently too – I’m not tasting that so much though.

Good sweetness; like jammy berries or even berry juices from overly ripe berries. This would make a lovely “tea syrup” – either for cocktails, or even just straight up syrup for waffles and such. I get some malt from the base, and floral notes – I like that it’s holding up very well to the many fruit notes. It’s not quite as good as the Black Currant black tea carried by Silk Road in my opinion, but I think I am enjoying it more than Berry Victoria which is another black berry tea from Silk Road.

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#VacationTea

This one was a free sample in my Silk Road order; not really something I would have picked out for myself but since it was a single sachet sample I thought it would an easy sipdown to bring along with me for my vacation.

It’s easy enough to sip on; a straight forward lemon and ginger flavour. Maybe just a fraction more weighted towards the lemon than the ginger? A little bit of honey would be a really nice compliment. It’s smooth, and peaceful. Actually, it’s honestly a little too peaceful. I’m finding myself quite tired as I near the bottom of the mug. It may be time time switch to something caffeinated, though lightly so, after this…

Kind of a boring/forgettable flavour overall – but convenient for travel, and it was free so no complaints on my part.

This green tea is very nutty. It tastes roasted without that bitter smokiness you often get from black teas. It was very cooling and calming. It smells chocolatey but does not taste sweet. The color is a light golden green. I would recommend for its richness and smoothness.

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Glad to clear this one out; this last cup was actually pretty smooth with some good juicy, and bright ripe mango notes but the lemongrass was still really intense and there was some dryness to the finish that made it an average, at best, cup overall. This was probably the most pleasant cup I experienced of it all in all as well, so if the best cup is still only average then it’s not something worth keeping around…

With a hint of agave.

As a hot tea, I definitely liked this one better than I did iced. However, to be totally honest I don’t know how much of the improvement came from the prep style and how much was due to the added agave. It was still wicked full bodied and brisk, with a whole lot of malt. It also still had a ton of overall astringency, which was the most unpleasant part of the cup. However the big change was in the brightness and sweetness of the top notes: very much like an overripe/juicy mango with hints of the lemon in the top note undertones and throughout the body. I don’t know if those notes were made better/more pronounced from the agave, though…

It could be really good, if it just weren’t for that bloody astringency.

Iced tea.

I thought that based on the name, this would be a great iced tea. The dry leaf smelled really promising; hints of lemon and fresh mango. In reality, I wasn’t very impressed with it. It was really brisk and full bodied, but also quite astringent and a little bit bitter. Also, none of the fruit notes tasted all that fresh or light despite what the dry leaf smelled like.

I mean, it was a whole lot of lemongrass. Like, tons of lemongrass. Lemongrass can be good in moderation but straight up? I’ve never been a fan of the flavour. It’s just too much, and it’s NOT the same as actual lemon. The mango? Didn’t really taste it at all, to be honest. So, it was a let down for sure.

I’ll totally revisit it, but probably as a hot tea. I hope it’s better that way, ’cause this pairing sounds so promising. I was so excited about it…

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Super awesome cold brew; really rich and clear flavour and a very crisp/cooling finish that highlighted just how refreshing the whole brew was. Strongest flavour was spearmint by a landslide, and then strong but not perfumey or soapy body notes of lavender. Just a hint of the red clover in the finish, which was interesting to me because it’s not an ingredient in the blend that I’ve really noticed too heavily before now.

I don’t think I’d go out of my way to get this blend again, but I definitely enjoyed it while I had it around!

It’s raining really heavily right now, and I’m just curled up on the couch with a mug of tea listening to some new Indie music alongside the sound of the rain outdoors. I have the window open just a little bit so that I can smell the rain. The tea is sweet and smooth, and hot on my throat in all the right ways. It tastes heavily of spearmint, with lavender undertones.

I feel at peace.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDrx1rsdQkk

Hot mug, grandpa style.

First half of this one was just fine; sweet, and refreshing spearmint with floral undertones. I liked how fresh everything was and the crispness of the flavours. Grandpa style was a mistake though because it was a good twenty minutes until I could get back to the mug to finish off the second half and by then it was so intense and cloying. The lavender was soapy, and the spearmint so rich that I was kind of gagging on it. Such a big, negative turn around – but it all comes down to the steep method and not the tea itself.

Midday tea earlier last week, meant to break up the several caffeinated teas I was drinking that day. It was soft, soothing and calming with A LOT of very sweet spearmint notes to it. That’s not a bad thing at all, I just know that there are quite a few different things in the blend so it’s always just a little weird when you get such a concentrated blast of one of those ingredients and not the other ones. I mean, I got a little lavender but honestly not a lot. Just TONS of spearmint.

Evening cuppa.

The dry leaf for this tea is just beautiful; I fucking adore the contrast of the pink and purple floral elements against the rich green of the spearmint. It’s so pleasing to look at!

Steeped up, this is nice – very soothing/relaxing. In particular, I really love the sweetness of the spearmint. I’ve always loved spearmint in teas – it’s just mint at its best. Refreshing, sweet, relaxing! The lavender in the tea is actually really nice too. I’ve been challenging myself with lavender teas as of late; traditionally it’s a flavour I don’t like at all but lately some experimentation has shown me that in mild quantities. That’s what it is in this blend – mild. A nice soothing, spa like blend/mix of spearmint and lavender with rosey undertones.

Just what I wanted from it!

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Finished off as a latte with vanilla agave; in true ‘London Fog’ fashion! It was very rich, and obviously also very sweet. The vanilla was actually the strongest flavour overall, with more of that deep, citrusy/bergamot undertone. Perfectly fine; but I’ve never been the biggest EG fan in general so this one was a relief to finish off more than a sad thing.

Decent EG for sure; but it’s just not something I need around.

Evening cuppa, while playing games with the famjam.

I added some vanilla agave to this one – I don’t know why but I feel like every time I’ve made this one since first getting it it’s tasted less and less like vanilla, which is sad ‘cause the vanilla is 100% why I wanted it in the first place. It’s weird for a tea to degrade that fast though, so I don’t know what’s up. Added vanilla agave helped a lot though. It was still kinda astringent though, which was a little bleh.

Tea Press.

Yeah, I messed up and oversteeped this by a lot. I was making it in the morning before I left for work to bring with me and I got really caught up in getting ready and forgot the teapress was on the counter waiting to get pushed down. I don’t know how long it steeped in total.

What I do know is that this had a very bitter/astringent edge to it and I wasn’t able to taste any of the beautiful, silky vanilla notes that this tea should have. So that was a big disappointment. It wasn’t so bad I couldn’t drink it, and I did eventually add some milk and that helped soften some of the roughness. Totally not what I wanted from this one though when I chose it this morning.

One of about ten teas I recently picked up from Silk Road; most of them were sample amounts (including this one) but a couple were larger restocks. This wasn’t a planned sample though; generally I don’t really go for Earl Greys and I’ve had so many vanilla Earl Greys now that there’s just nothing really exciting about them to me…

So why did I end up with a sample of this one? I think I must have just been really craving vanilla the day that I ordered – otherwise I would have skipped over this one like I normally do when companies offer vanilla Earl Greys. When I cracked open the tin it smelled really good though; strong whiffs of vanilla bean with mild, fresh bergamot undertones to it! I’ll admit, even I was excited to try it.

I steeped it up this evening to watch while checking out Netflix’s new Magic School Bus reboot! I was totally excited to talk about the new show with The Boyfriend but he hasn’t started it yet, and apparently he’s excited enough about it that he’s placed a ban on discussing it with him until he catches up. I didn’t realize Magic School Bus was such a big deal that ‘spoilers’ would ruin the experience.

Since I was riding the nostalgia wave watching the new reboot, this was a good tea to sip on since it provided a sense of comfort and familiarity even if this was just my first time trying it. Unlike the dry aroma, I think this is more bergamot than vanilla but both are really pleasant flavours. I like that the bergamot doesn’t seem to push past being a medium bodied flavour; that doesn’t make it too intense/make me feel like I need to add milk to it to soften it, but it’s strong enough that if I DID add milk I don’t think I’d lose the flavour. The vanilla is so creamy and fresh tasting, I really liked it too.

I think for this to be a perfect London Fog kind of flavour representation for me it would have had to be a little bit sweeter though, but all in all it’s a satisfying enough flavour and even though it’s not something I generally find myself craving I think it’s pleasant enough I’ll be able to finish it off no troubles.

And I guess I should give you all a spoiler warning since I’m going to let out my thoughts on the first few episodes of the Magic School Bus reboot here since The Boyfriend doesn’t want me ruining anything for him and I REALLY want to talk about it:

- Not digging the new animation style thus far, though I’m sure I’ll adjust
- I absolutely LOVE the redone theme; Lin Manuel Miranda singing it is PERFECT
- The new Mrs. Frizzle is great; and I love the explanation for WHY she’s taking over
- The fact they got Lily Tomlin back for the OG Frizzle is equally wonderful
- And based on the few episodes I’ve seen, she IS reoccurring throughout the show
- That or they’re just gently easing us into the new Frizz, which is fine too
- THEY KEPT THE PHONE SEQUENCE AT THE END OF THE EPISODES
- Where they explain more of the science/things they depicted that were a bit inaccurate
- OG Frizzle’s new sidekick “Goldie” is the fucking best
- Arnold’s cousin Janet is in episode two which is pretty cool!
- The new kid is neat; I liked the ecosystem explanation/tie in for her & new Frizz
- Is that really the only explanation we get for Pheobe being written out!?
- Like, it’s realistic but also unsatisfactory…

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Finished this one off early in the afternoon along with the first chapters of a new book. This one was a sipdown that felt good; green tea isn’t usually my jam so finishing off a small tin of if definitely feels like an accomplishment.

Flavour wise, it was fine. Nothing different from what I’ve experienced from it the last few months so I’ve got to praise the consistency. That said, I think I just wasn’t in the mood for green tea today because it took me forever to finish the mug. Not because I was distracted or anything, but just because I didn’t feel overly compelled to to take that next sip. There was no ‘draw’…

So mixed experience today overall.