Tea Desire

So far being back to work hasn’t interfered too much with my tea drinking. It has interfered with checking Steepster, but next week I’ll be in a new office and hopefully I can position my monitor away from the very busy hallway behind me.

Sipdown! Thanks Lynne-tea!

This mostly tasted like a light, pleasant jasmine to me last night. Sometimes, I do quite like jasmine, and it really worked for me yesterday. I wish I could taste a bit more of… anything, though. Couldn’t really taste the oolong, and although there was definitely at least one goji berry in there, I couldn’t taste it either. Oh well! One more tea down, over 800 to go…

Thanks to Lynne-tea for a sample of this one, which I think I’ve had previously, though not brewed myself.

This is a lovely example of an earl grey cream. Light on the bergamot, heavy on the creaminess and vanilla; I would swear that someone put cream in my tea. No bitterness at all with a 3-minute infusion. This is pretty darn delicious – delicious enough that I may very well pick this one up as my go-to EGC once I drink down what I have (which consists mostly of small samples from various places, including Upton).

Very tasty. Thanks again for the sample, Lynne-tea! Much appreciated :D

Ahaha, apparently I’ve also tried this one previously! Pretty much the same comments as last time; it’s smoky but a bit sweet, and quite nice to drink without additions.

Thanks again to Lynne-tea for a delicious tea sample :D

I was most interested in this tea because it contained dragonwell (and I adore dragonwell), but now that I’m a bit more knowledgeable, I know that the flavours of dragonwell really don’t lend themselves to flavourings. However, this tea works quite well. It’s basically coming off as a strawberry-flavoured green, which is quite pleasant (although…. tiger town???) There’s a hint of green tea flavour lingering in the aftertaste, but the base really isn’t very prominent. Overall pretty tasty, but not something I’d purchase myself.

Thanks to Lynne-tea for some of this one! I’m making a good effort on my box from you today :D

So, lately I’ve been off of cinnamony/orangey teas, but I figured I’d give this one a shot anyways. And to my surprise, I really like it! I suspect the flavour is a bit muted due to age, but for whatever reason, I am really enjoying how everything works together. I’m tasting chocolatey flavours plus just a hint of spice and floral. I suppose that I haven’t actually ever had a cinnamon/chocolate/rose tea before. There was one “loop” in the infuser for this cup… I’m not sure what flavour(s) it may have contributed.

Either way, this was pretty tasty! I’ll probably enjoy my second cup of it in the rather near future, since I found it to be so enjoyable. (Yay, that means sipdown is imminent! The only problem is that none of these teas were in my cupboard count, as this swap arrived when I was very busy last year, and I just didn’t get around to noting down everything that I was sent. Sigh.)

Thanks for this one, Lynne-tea! I’m hoping to get through everything you sent at least once by the end of tonight (assuming nothing has been misplaced elsewhere. There was a random sample from momo in the box too, which was odd.)

Yummo. I made some of this for my morning breakfast tea. I’m just getting a cold so I figured the smokey sweetness would be a good choice.
I also used this to make a pork tenderloin last night.
Oh My Word. So good. So So good.

I happened by this store in Metrotown and decided to pop in since I’m always on the hunt for new teas – specifically coconut teas. I saw this one, which evidently isn’t on their website.

The scent of pina colada type teas always intrigues me. I’m not a huge fan of actual pina coladas but pina colada flavoured things usually go over well. I found this to be quite similar to David’s Tropicalia. I’m thinking the Tropicalia is slightly more flavoured (but not necessarily in a good way) than this one, but I also haven’t had it for at least a year.

I’m happy I picked up 50g, I can’t wait to try this one chilled.

Love it! You can really taste the mango bits in it.

So I got this tea in our tea crawl and swap. I grabbed this one up when it was offered, and I am glad I did! I love the Coffee Pu Erh from DAVIDs, and this is similar, minus the coffee beans, so it is a bit less acidic in that respect.

What I love about this tea is seeing the bits of caramel. I’m a sucker for that, heh.

I love adding milk and sugar to pu erhs because they are so dark and rich, they really holdup well to it. This one is pretty sweet by itself, but not for me, so I did use sugar, but less than normal.

I’d rate this pretty good, pretty comparable, but it is so close to DT’s Coffee Pu Erh, and I can get that locally, that I probably wouldn’t purchase this unless it was local too.

Thanks to Morgan, who I don’t think is on Steepster, but came over from Vancouver with OMGsrsly.

Cold brewed overnight – very nice!

I steeped this for 12 minutes by mistake.

Guys: DO NOT DO THAT.

(This is not a tea that oversteeps well). I took a sip and it burned my mouth with all the smoke. I had to dump it, and I wasn’t ready to try that again)

SIPDOWN!

this is a smelly tea that gives me a headache lol so it’s been lockewd away in a tupperware container since kittenna was kind enough to let me steal a sample haha.

This is…..interesting lol I actually wish the smell wasn’t so intense because i think? it’s a blend i’d really enjoy drinking. it’s just hard to tell since the smell is telling my taste buds conflicting things.

This is a sweet blend with just a hint of chai spicey flavour at the end of the cup. I would drink this again but for the smell of the tea that I just can’t get past. It’s quite delicious.

This is okay. It’s been a while since I’ve drank it… which was when I was just getting back into loose leaf tea.
This time around, it’s got an added element of dirt to the flavour profile.
Not sure where that came from. Maybe it’s because I left the leaves to sit out in their brew basket before using them to steep. (aka.. I put them in the basket, but fell asleep and didn’t brew it until 2 days later…)

oops. You win some, you lose some. I won’t change the rating simply because the flavour could be attributed to oxidation from being left out for a while. I would rate this steep a low 70s though.

No notes yet.

This is a really mellow/subtle flavour with a really strong black tea. So don’t go in expecting dessert tea. :P It’s good though, but not cupboard-necessary.

Drinking this again. Yeah it’s good. Too bad the name keeps making me think I won’t like it. I should just give it a new name/label so that I drink it more often.

sip down! Goodbye Choco Cinnamon and its cute little chocolate stars. Last cup is so so as I got mostly dredges and not many chocolate stars.

I’ve been sipping down quite a bit lately, I should do a new tea order! haha!

This one is another quite sour, rather acidic fruity tisane. Unfortunately, it makes my tummy upset, so I’ll be giving away most of what I have left to a friend who likes the sour fruity ones.

The strawberry and apple flavours mix really well with the vanilla, but the sour acid flavour unfortunately ruins it for me. I had high hopes for this as a hot tea, but I think it might do best as a cold infused iced tea. I’m keeping some just to try the other brewing method out.

I think I figured out why I don’t love this tea – it’s the chocolate flavour again.

I ran out of David’s Birthday Cake, and had to order more online because the local shops have been out of it for a few days. I’ll drink this one in the meantime, but I definitely prefer the intense dessert flavour of the birthday cake.

Finished this off as well. About as fruity as I remember it, and as drying.

With a name like this, I wasn’t sure I would like it; it sounds medicinal and ’it’s good for you so shaddup and drink it.’

It tastes like a refreshing mix of licorice and spices, with a bit of a kick that’s probably the cardamom. If it didn’t have the mate in it, it would make for an agreeable evening tea!

Oh, I’m describing things as ‘agreeable’ – must be because I’m reading Jane Austen again. I haven’t read Northanger Abbey before, but I’m enjoying the satire immensely. It’s also a nice change from Anna Karenina, which I finally managed to finish for the Steepster book club, as this is much lighter.

This tea is just okay. I prefer DavidsTea Organic Silk Dragon Jasmine to this. I feel that this tea is just too much Jasmine and not enough anything else. Also a very fickle tea, goes bitter quickly so it is important to watch for temp and steeping time.

Overall, I’m very happy with this tea. I prefer greens that are strong and bold in flavour, and this one fits the bill. Tart, without being bitter.