Tiesta Tea

This is a very utilitarian tea for me. If I need a quick pick-me-up, this works. As a part-time coffee drinker, this is like taking Folgers when you prefer freshly-ground whole bean local roasts. Its greatest boon is being a widely available, loose tea, and if I’m all out of something decent, I can grab this at my local grocery.

Sipdown (1025)!

Adding the last of this to the travelling tea box, since it was requested. Decided to have one last “goodbye” mug though before sending it along to be tried by others. I found it pretty generic fruity, maybe a bit more papaya and strawberry? Having never tried Fruity Pebbles cereal I’ve never fully been able to speak to the accuracy of the name but for a fruity green tea this is very inoffensive.

I was fighting off the last of my Winnipeg cold this week, so I tried to make a bit of a conscious effort to drink some of my older teas or teas that are lower quality/that I don’t love all that much, as a cold is a good opportunity to put a dent in some of those since my tasting is still off – this was one of those teas I pulled, and it kind of ticks all three of my aforementioned boxes? I was somewhat surprised that it was still an ok cup though; I think it’s actually kind of decently balanced and the fruity note (while INCREDIBLY generic) isn’t unpleasant or overly sweet. It’s a mediocre tea, but you gotta drink one of those every now and then to really appreciate the good stuff!

Cold Brew!

Set this one up to cold brew because I was craving it, but by the time it was ready to be strained I wasn’t craving it anymore so I just let it keep sitting. For nine days, because that’s how long it took for me to feel like maybe I’d be in the mood to drink it. Probably goes without saying, but after nine days of brewing it no longer tasted drinkable. Just weird sour grassiness, and far too intense perfumey florals and fruit notes. I’m not surprised; I’ve done this to myself enough times that I should know better by now – but evidently I just don’t learn from past mistakes.

Cold Brew.

So, you know what happens when you forget about this tea when it’s cold brewing and let it cold brew for a solid eight fucking days? You get a liquor that tastes EXACTLY like grass, and strawberry scented soap. It’s kind of the worst.

Obviously didn’t finish the cold brew. It was nasty.

My cold brew game is slipping; I need to get to my brews more promptly! That was 100% my fault for putting off straining this one/forgetting about it. Poor, poor ruined tea…

Iced, with the smallest smidgen of honey to brighten it up a bit.

This was REALLY good iced; it almost entirely tasted like really ripe, sweet strawberries but there was a pinch of something more tropical in the undertones. More pineapple than papaya, I’d say – there was a juiciness that I just don’t associate with papaya typically. Touches of grassyness in the finish; nothing too strong though.

Overall, I found this one REALLY refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day.

Tea Popsicles!

…gross ones though.

For the added fruit, I mixed in chunks of apple and orange segments that I thought would add to the fruity frlavour of the tea, and honestly the only thing that ended up tasting good about the whole creation was the added orange segments. The apple just turned to nasty mush, and despite the tea being a really fruity one and having been cold brewed instead of steeped hot it just tasted very bitter. No one wants a bitter popsicle; that’s just a sad time…

Cold Brew!

So, I spent the better part of drinking this trying to figure out why it tasted so painfully familiar to me. It took the better part of 25 oz, but eventually I landed on the fact that it’s really similar to DAVIDsTEA’s Strawberry Shake! I mean, I even went and double checked the ingredients to see how much overlap there is… and there’s quite a bit.

This has the green base, papaya, and the strawberry. Only thing missing is the yogurt, and then of course this has pineapple and rose which the DT blend does not.

That makes sense to me because the sweet strawberry and papaya notes were both really present but I didn’t get the light creaminess that’s in Strawberry Shake. I do enjoy the creaminess in DT’s tea, so the absence was a bit odd. However, I think because of the additional pineapple the fruitiness in this tea is a lot more robust and distinctly tropical tasting so the trade off is more than worth it. I couldn’t taste the added rose, though.

Overall I liked this one! I thought it was fun and rather appropriately Spring/Summer flavoured. I do think the choice to name it after a cereal is kind of odd? I guess I’ve never had Fruity Pebbles before so I don’t know if the comparison is realistic, but nothing in this reminded me even remotely of cereal and I can’t see it going well with milk either. As a dupe for DT’s Strawberry Shake though, I think this COULD work if you were looking for that kind of thing.

This is a fantastic, very flavorful herbal tea! I’m currently on day 8 of a 10-day diet detox for which I’ve had to cut out gluten, meat/animal products, dairy, alcohol, sugar, and – you guessed it – caffeine. This tea has been one of my saviors over this period, because it’s delicious without sugar and really easy to steep on the go, since the fruit doesn’t need to removed from the water after a certain period of time. Drunk hot, this blend reminds me of orange juice, and there’s an underlying sweetness from the mango that I really enjoy. I can’t wait to try this one iced!

Sipdown (343)!

This isn’t really a sipdown I’m upset about, like at all. In fact I feel pretty accomplished having now finished off 50g of this – a tea that on the whole I really didn’t like. I just ordered some new rooibos blends as well, so out with the old and in with the new!

It’s a very, very tart hot brew with really sour hibiscus notes and then undertones of equally tart/sour and acidic cranberry and currant. The only reason I’m not totally against it is because it’s Thanksgiving and the cranberry notes actually feel really on point/fitting for the holiday. Like cranberry jelly, without the sweetness. That, and the bright red liquor looks REALLY pretty in the new glass ghost Nordic I picked up from DT’s new Halloween collection this year. This is the first tea I’m trying in it, and the while ghost outlines really pop against the dark crimson liquor.

But yeah – glad to be done with this one.

Iced, at work.

I’m just trying to sip this one down right now; I don’t really enjoy it so there’s zero point in hoarding it at all. Iced goes through the leaf pretty quickly…

On its own I found this too medicinal/cough syrupy: probably from the excess of currants in it, in combo with the hibby. I added quite a bit of the strawberry kiwi cocktail sugar we have at work to try and soften it some more, and that made it drinkable. Not really ‘good’ but alright enough. Still very currant heavy, with some elderberry and then strawberry flavours – the latter from the flavoured sugar.

Meh.

Made this one iced at work.

I still hate this one; it’s basically a vile hibiscus ‘punch’/concentrate. At times though there are bursts of currant (red and black) that poke through all the terrible hibiscus taste. I even tried adding some agave in the hope that would soften it a little bit, but it really didn’t do much except make this a hibiscus explosion with a cloying finish. Bleck.

Of course, my coworkers loved it. They also steep their Queen Of Tarts for forty minutes though, so I mean that doesn’t mean too much to me…

Hot Cup – underleafed and a little understeeped to try and cut back on tartness.

It worked! This cup was very fruity, but not very sour/tart. In fact, more than anything else it tasted strongly of red currants! It also had a touch of rooibos woodyness to it, and the faintest “red wine” flavour. Like, a dry red wine though.

Not half bad. An improvement, to be sure.

Cold brew, and then turned into a tea pop with the soda stream.

I split this one three ways to share with my sister, mom and myself. We all had rather different reactions to it as well so I think I’ll just do a blurb on what we all thought…

Roswell Strange:
Personally, I was relatively “meh” about this one overall. There was definitely both a sourness and a medicinal quality to it which wasn’t pleasant, but the taste of the red fruits was pretty nice. It gave off sort of a sour red fruit/berry punch sort of vibe? But, you know, fizzy. The rooibos base was ALSO very strong/intense. Cranberry was the strongest fruit note, and then the currant which I think was also what gave this a medicinal quality.

Sister Strange:
She pretty well hated this; she said it was VERY bitter. I’m gonna guess that what she was actually referring to was the medicinal taste though because I definitely didn’t get bitterness at all. Despite hating it, she drank the whole cup. In her words, “it’s like that car accident affect thing where you can’t look away, but with pop”.

Mother Strange:
She loved it, and finished her cup quicker than either my sister or I. She said it was fruity, but also reminded her of a really good, dry red wine or sherry. I was definitely surprised she liked it as well – I would have pegged it for too sour for her usual tastes.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbnN5bA-iUM&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=29

Sipping on this tonight while I try to wind down before bed.

This is another one that my mom picked up for me, and when I smelled the dry leaf I kind of knew that despite interesting sounding ingredients this was going to primarily just be a cup of tart hibiscus. When I measured out the leaf, those fears were reinforced yet again because there’s just so much hibiscus in this tea.

And of course now that I’m drinking it, it’s just really tart, hot hibiscus. The liquor itself is even so opaque and dark red that when the mug was full it basically looked black. The only other thing I can say about this one that’s positive is that the finish does have very light hints of cranberry. It’s just so light though, and getting through the hibiscus for that cranberry note isn’t super worth it.

I’ll try this again cold brewed though ‘cause sometimes that can decrease the intensity of hibiscus heavy blends enough for other notes to be more present and enjoyable. It’s worth a shot, at least…

Sipdown (527)!

Cold brew made from the last little bits in the bag. Somewhat of a cucumber taste, but mostly just tasted like very crisp, malty black tea. I think because this one was just the last little dregs of leaf it was mostly black tea anyway; nothing else to contribute a ton of flavour.

Last few mugs of this that I’ve had have been almost all citrus notes with not a lot of cucumber, but this most recent cold brew was the opposite! Sweet, mellow and highly refreshing cucumber notes that almost made me feel like I was drinking like a cucumber agua fresca and not a black tea with cucumber.

It was stupid good though, don’t get me wrong.

Midday cuppa.

Opened the bag of this to measure out the leaf needed for the brew and I just instantly knew that not only would it be a good cup but it was gonna be a good afternoon too. This is just one of those teas that is reassurance in a cup. Sweet, refreshing, upbeat and positive! I love the brightness of the orange and like that it’s not acidic because I think that if this tea had that acidity to it that the bite from that would take you out of the cup and the experience too much. The cucumber? It’s cooling and refreshing and makes everything feel fresh!

Sadly the coffee store that carried this one in town, where I originally got it from, no longer carries it which is just awful news. It’s not on Tiesta’s website either – so now I’m stuck in the hard place of deciding whether or not to ration this/hoard it forever or to embrace a sipdown sooner rather than later…

Tough choice to make.

Cold Brew!

This one had the opposite problem I’ve been encountering this one as of late: instead of the cucumber being much lighter than the orange it was SUPER intense. It was kind of like drink this weird slurry of blended up cucumber and water, with like hints of orange? VERY intense; and with a thick mouthfeel. While there was no pulp to the mouthfeel of the tea, the imagery of it in my mind as i drank the tea was so intense that there might as well have been.

I mean – it was still good, and drinkable but I don’t think I was a particular fan of the intensity of the cucumber in this brew. It just didn’t feel well balanced with the rest of the tea at all. I think it was the result of my cold brew steeping for a REALLY long time, though. Gotta reign it in a little, next time…

Another cup with more citrus/orange than cucumber.

To be fair, I didn’t see ANY cucumber in the leaf I had measured out, but at the same time I’m hoping this isn’t going to be a trend. I mean, I do really enjoy this tea even without the same degree of cucumber I experienced the first few times I tried it but it’s the cucumber that really makes it special.

That said, I’ve learned that it really doesn’t matter if this is cold or hot, like this cup was. The tea is gonna taste quite delicious regardless!

Starting my morning off with a cuppa of this bad boy!

Hot, I definitely got way more citrus/orange flavour than cucumber. It was sweet and pleasant, but had just a hint of sourness to it. As my cup cooled, the cucumber became increasingly pronounced. It’s really cool and crisp, and I feel like I can literally taste cucumber flesh/pulp in my mouth. It’s just good. Like, I don’t mind the orange components in the cup but the cucumber is why I like this one, and what makes it for me.

Only thing missing it a little spearmint – then it would really remind me of DAVIDsTEA’s Cool Cucumber: the best cucumber blend, imo. This is a good second, though.

Had the same cold brew from yesterday another cup from the pitcher today. Normally, I wouldn’t log another tasting note for the exact same brew but I did do something different with this one that I think is worth note.

So, a few weeks ago one of my coworkers brought a lemon to work to cut up and put in iced tea – and I thought that was fucking brilliant, so when I did my grocery shopping this week I bought a whole bunch of lemons so that I could do the same with cold brews. When I tried this one yesterday, I knew that it was something that would probably work well with the extra lemon flavour so it was my guinea pig today.

One cut up meyer lemon later, and I had a really nice cold brew that was greatly like yesterday’s but with a more pronounced lemon/citrus quality. Since the cucumber was SO strong in the first place, this sort of leveled it out a little bit. Really enjoyable, and even more Spring-like than yesterday!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78DVtcsT26k&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=1

Like a lot of songs by this band, this sort of just feels like free word association, but when I first heard it I was super curious about it and so I looked it up. It’s kind of a love song of sorts, inspired in part by something overheard by a homeless man and a tattoo one of the artists once saw on a fan that they fell in love with. The overall sound is supposed to be like a downtown neighborhood/sort of slum which sets the scene for the people in the song.

I don’t know; I just really enjoy this band a lot and I thought that with that in mind and with the fun, upbeat nature of the song it worked for the bus ride I was taking whilst drinking this tea. My bus ride was headed to the heart of downtown, and we pass through a couple of neighborhoods not unlike what the artists were going for in the song, so with the flavour of the tea complimenting the tone of the song, and my literal surroundings matching the implied ones in the song it was just very immersive.

Thank you mom for thinking this sounded unique!

Of all the teas that have come and gone in seasonal DAVIDsTEA collections, one of the ones I regret not stocking up on the most is Cool Cucumber and this delightful blend has all the elements that I adored so much in that tea PLUS the addition of sweet, summery orange/citrus. The cucumber is full force, and combined with notes of fresh orange and honeydew melon this is by far the most refreshing and Spring time/Summer time feeling cold brew I’ve had in weeks.

Like, holy fuck it’s SO GOOD.

Add to that the fact I got to enjoy it whilst eating a really lovely home cooked meal, and I was practically knocked off my feet with how tasty it was. Like, thank you so much to James and Coconut for introducing me to You Suck At Cooking because I’ve been slowly experimenting with some of the recipes and this last one I tried was phenomenal.

For those curious here it is: https://scontent.fyyz1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16807004_10209647210270997_4558985927393466575_n.jpg?oh=0100ee303f85f0d43951489311f8a649&oe=59478C32

Sea salted, fresh dill and mustard glazed green beans! Obviously that’s a slight twist on the original mustard green beans from You Suck At Cooking – dill just makes everything better though. After that was done, I used them as a topping on a Sesame bagel with some dill infused cream cheese. The cream cheese was hand made as well! Add on a sprinkle of cheddar and I was set!

Normally I don’t like mustard, but everything about this meal and its tea accompaniment just worked for me.