Tealish

Oh steepster, it has been too too long.
So for some reason I couldn’t find this tea in the database? Anyways, thanks to some of your suggestions I visited Tealish while in TO for the week! Holyyyy I love this place, so nice and light and open and the teas smell sooo good. Unfortunately you can only buy them in 50g or more, so I had to make sure I got some good ones!
So this tea – nice and sweet. I definitely get the banana bread taste – more so the smell of it, but the banana is a pretty subtle taste.
I wish it was a more prominent banana taste – but overall nice and I can definitely make my way through this 50 grams :D

I was given this by a friend who didn’t like it. She agreed it DOES taste exactly like a pina colada, but she felt something was missing from it.

My first steep was a bit too strong. Admittedly, I did add in an extra 1/4 tsp, plus I let it steep a little longer than I should have. (I had just tried Blueberry Lagoon and found it very weak) It tasted strongly of a fruity flavour and then left a lingering creamy coconut taste in my mouth.

I just resteeped it, and it’s definitely an improvement! I can’t wait to make this into a latte.

I found this straight black tea lacking. It wasn’t smokey enough and It didn’t seem to pair well with cream…

I love the smell of this tea! I like the taste of this tea. I find the rooibos can be a bit overpowering about halfway through the cup, even as a latte, and I’m not a fan of rooibos. I tend to drink this as a latte in the evening. It’s delicious :)

Dulce De Leche is one of my favorite things on this planet, when I heard there was a flavored tea I had to try it! meganxpink was nice enough to share some and it was quite the treat, the hints of caramel taste being my favorite part of the experience.

I tried this tea a long time ago because I was trying to replicate Harney & Sons ‘Paris’ tea. This is nothing like that. So I’m reviewing it again because a) I wasn’t on Steepster when I had it the 1st time and b) I want to give it an honest chance.

Aroma both dry and steeped is very vanilla-y. I’m having it black, but I suspect this would be good for a latte. A friend passed by my desk and I asked her to smell the steeped tea. She said it smelled like a pastry, which to me seems like a good thing. ;) The taste is definitely bold because it’s a black tea. The vanilla is very pronounced and there is no nasty lingering aftertaste. Much better than I remember this tea being.

I added a spoonful of honey which smoothed out some of the sourness and helped bring out the almond a bit more. But overall this tea is still incongruously tangy with not enough of the creamy nuttiness I was expecting. A bit disappointing, particularly given how delicious it smells.

When I saw how red my tea turned my first though was that it contained the dreaded hibiscus. Fortunately the colour was from the beetroot pieces instead. Out of the three tea in the sampler it was the smell of this one that really drew like some delicious freshly-baked almond confectionery. It starts off sweetly nutty with a bit of a spice undertone, but then it trails off into something tangy and slightly sour which I’m not sure I care for. I’m going to see if sweetener improves matters.

Yum, this is so good with a spoonful of honey, it make the whole thing very dessert-like.

I work in receiving at the bookstore, unpacking stock and shelving/displaying it. I could smell these Tealish teas as soon as I opened the box they were so fragrant and I knew right away I would have to buy them. Thankfully some of them at least come in a sample pack and I quickly set one aside because I knew these were going to be snapped up quickly. Tealish is a new brand for our store as we usually just stock Harney & Sons and Tea Forte. Now I like H&S as much as the next person, but it’s good to see some Canadian brands get in on the action too.

I’m not a huge rooibos fan but this is such a tasty tea. It has the fresh tang of lemon but it’s sweet as well like lemon candies – or lemon meringue pie, the sort that’s made properly with lots of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and a dollops of lightly-toasted meringue on top.

Perfect on a winter afternoon, when you have a dessert craving but a resolution to keep.

Went into a colleague’s stash for this again. The first notes are of baked goodness and hints of almond. Was trying really hard to put my finger on what specifically the smell combination reminded me of and I finally figured it out – it smells like almond biscotti in a cup! Nutty, twice baked goodness.

I let it steep all the way home in my thermos and it was still great, no worries about oversteeping at all.

In an ideal world with non-existent budgets, I would definitely consider buying this for my stash.

Having now tried a handful of Tealish flavours, I can’t help but notice that they all come across a bit same-y to me. The upside of that is that they all taste perfectly pleasant, but nothing stands out to me as being particularly amazing. Like the other Tealish dessert teas I’ve tried, this one has a thin but agreeable generic taste of “sweets”. The flavour reminds me of the smell that wafts up at you when you open a tin of Quality Street. This tea is pleasant but ultimately forgettable; I will enjoy what I have and move on.

I can’t get over how amazing this tea smells. In the bag it’s all intense, sweet lemon, but once it’s brewed, the liquor smells like a lemon meringue pie. There’s desserty lemon, meringue and pie crust! Wow!

I couldn’t stop smelling my cup as it cooled, and I was starting to worry that the flavour couldn’t possibly live up to the smell. And it’s not as complex or amazing as the smell, but it is delicious. Smooth and gentle lemon, with a hint of creaminess, sweet, not tart. Maybe the most subtle pastry note. The flavour intensifies as it cools a bit.

I think I might have died of joy if this had tasted as good as it smells, but I can’t complain. I may need to bake a lemon meringue pie soon.

Thanks, aisling of tea, for the recommendation!

Oh this may supplant Teavana’s Berry Mint Cassis as my berry-mint true love. (Which is just as well – I have a fair bit of that one left, but it’s been long discontinued.) Less hibiscus tart, more distinct berry flavour, a lovely, sweet mint that’s not overpowering. Omnomnomnom so delicious.

This is lovely. The rooibos is not overpowering and there’s a lovey fruity taste that combines raspberry, citrus and a bunch of other stuff which I can’t quite identify.

Definitely glad I picked this one up. Thanks for the recommendation, aisling of tea!

This was my morning cup. This weekend I’m at Playground Conference in Toronto. It has been a seriously intense day.

I was up way too late last night, working on my presentation, and so I woke up kind of tired this morning. Grabbed a quick breakfast and this tea with it. I have no idea what water temperature this was steeped at or for how long, but it seemed to be pretty forgiving.

I really enjoyed being able to taste bot the coconut and the floral green oolong notes distinctly. Coconut can be a bit of an overwhelming flavour, but this was nicely balanced. A really good way to start off a day, which included going to the morning plenary session, sitting on a panel on polyamory, presenting on how to organize a successful sex party, a workshop on expressing desire as feelings, and a panel on media influence on sex work legislation.

An absolutely amazing day, and if you have any interest in sexuality, gender, relationships or related topics you should be at this convention. It’s one of the most inclusive, diverse and safe space I’ve ever been in, and the community is warm and welcoming. If you’re inexperienced or new to dialogues about sex, this is a great place to get started.

There’s one more day left, so if you’re in Toronto, I highly recommend coming down to check it out for the last day. Or if not, plan to come next year.

Now, I need to go find some hot water so I can resteep these leaves. Edit: Second steep wasn’t worth drinking, but I think I really underleafed this tea. My travel mug is twice the size of my regular mug and I didn’t put much leaf into it.

This tea is a nice accompaniment on this rainy cold night. It is bright enough in flavour to bring some warmth and light into the experience but has enough death in both flavour and texture to be comforting on a night like this.

The tea once poured is a warm oak colour with a scent of warm strawberry compote, cream, baking chocolate, butter pastry and a savoury note.

The strawberry flavour on top tastes like fresh cut slightly sun warmed ripe strawberries with a touch of tartness over a a slightly fruity and herbaceous base tea with cocoa notes. A dark bittersweet chocolate mixes through both the base and flavouring notes with a touch of cream and vanilla. The tea is heavier and not as creamy as Zen Teas strawberry cream, with deeper bitter notes from the chocolate and base. It is not as thick or dark tasting as Butikis Red Queen Cupcake. It has a flavour that lies somewhere inbetween. The strawberry is bright and fresh tasting and very faintly floral. Chocolate settles towards the bottom of the cup as it sits leaving a more copper coloured brew. There are hints of baked goods and the last sips taste of strawberry flavoured hot chocolate. The tea is mildly tannic with a body dense enough to take milk and other additives. The second steep has richer chocolate notes and a texture more reminiscent of baked goods.

This tea makes a nice strawberry black for any time of the year.
http://instagram.com/p/u1arDCmKwb/

This is my wife’s all time favorite tea, and I’ve curious about doing a second kombucha ferment with tea, so this is my first step down that road. I brewed it strong and added sugar before mixing it with my kombucha and letting it sit on the counter for three days. After the third day I stuck it in the fridge to cool and today I tried a sip while I was pouring it for the wifey. It wasn’t bad at all! I think she’ll really like it. It got just as fizzy as the other brews and I would call it a rousing success!

Virtually identical to Forever Nuts from David’s Tea, to the point that I wouldn’t be surprised if both companies source from the same supplier. It’s not too much of a stretch for many different companies to have an apple/cinnamon/almond blend, but the inclusion of beetroot in both is what makes me raise a dubious eyebrow. In any case, it’s a winning flavour combination that reminds me of apple pie and oatmeal cookies with cinnamon. I initially found this one slightly less cinnamon-y than Forever Nuts, but I’ve noticed that the flavour of Forever Nuts can be wildly inconsistent with each purchase (sometimes it’s more spicy, other times, more nutty), so maybe that’s the case with Toasty Almond, as well. Both infusions suffer if over-steeped, taking on a strange tang, which may be attributable to either the apple or the beetroot. Both are good, but Forever Nuts is more easily accessible to me, so I doubt I’ll pick up Toasty Almond again.

Neither as apple-y nor as caramel-y as I’d hoped. The taste of the rooibos dominates in this blend, and while I quite like rooibos, I was expecting it to play more of a supporting role here.

I love this blend. Creamy and lemon-y, and caffeine-free, so I can have it right before bed. A lot of the Tealish teas and infusions that I’ve tried have been somewhat lacking in flavour, but this one is potent. I’d classify this as a favourite.

I liked it well-enough. Tastes like it says it will: orange marzipan. I feel like this one is kind of a springtime tea for me, when the weather still cold enough for me to crave sweet, comfort-food flavours, but at the same time warm enough for me to start feeling starved for lighter, fruitier fare.