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Having this for breakfast along with what I’ve dubbed Vanilla Chai Cream of Wheat: said hot cereal with vanilla extract, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and coconut milk. Ohhh, so good. Talk about a great way to get some iron in your diet when you’re iron deficient.

I wasn’t expecting too much from this tea, to be honest, but I thought I’d pick up a sample anyway since it’s an incredibly good deal. The dry leaf doesn’t smell like maple but rather more like burnt sugar. The taste is also pretty much along the lines of caramel too. No creaminess, but it’s nice with half and half. Inoffensive black base that isn’t too astringent. No repurchase but it’s nice to try some maple teas.

Ehhhh, I never really care for these spicy fruity hibiscus blends. There’s a lack of harmony: whilst the spices are appropriate when you brew up a hot cup, the hibiscus is weird (at least for me). But cold brewed, the spices seem out of place in what should be a fruity drink.

I actually quite liked this one! I thought the combination would be a bit of an eyeroll for my palate but there was the perfect balance between fruit and mint. Reminds me how I still need to try a mojito, but nevertheless, it wasn’t overly sweet, but I never picked up more out of sheer laziness. Well, it didn’t motivate me enough to get more, you know? Because it’s alright, but not amazeballs.

Steepster has sure been KING JERK lately.

Normally I can’t stand dragon fruit. It tastes like cellar. But I swallowed hard and picked up enough to cold brew two litres. The result wasn’t half bad, as I got mostly apple and hibiscus, but it wasn’t amazing either. Kind of tasted a lot like many other David’s fruit blends that they’ve rolled out over the past few years. The lines start to blur after a while.

But at least it wasn’t ridiculously sweet like others in the past have been.

I bussed up to Janet’s to load up on some of her teas since I haven’t been there since the spring due to having no life. Now that I do, I thought, “Hey! I need some more of her teas!” and needless to say, I went a little nuts since my stash has dwindled down quite a bit over the past half year anyway, plus who knows when I’ll make another trip up there again.

So, this was by far my favourite when I picked up a few samples last time. Like Orange Peel City, which is a good thing. When she opened up the tin again, a glorious orange cloud surrounded the shop.

The strange part is, though, now that I’m opening my bag at home, the orange smells a little bit different. I’m sure some Steepsters know what I mean, how sometimes there are teas which smell a certain way in a huge canister in the store, but morph once you bring a bag home. It smells kind of… harsh now? Like a cleaner maybe? I can’t figure it out.

So I made it as I did last time, with half and half to get that orange creamsicle thing going on. And yeah. The orange doesn’t see the same this time. A little on the artificial side, like the orange flavour in Della Terra’s Orange Brulee oolong. But I’ll definitely continue experimenting with it. Who knows. Now that I have a pouch of it, I can also cold brew it.

I bought a hot beverage from a cafe for the first time in months, it seems. What did I get? A Pumpkin Pie chai latte from Serious Coffee, a local chain. Quite sweet, but that is to be expected. I pick up on cinnamon and nutmeg more than anything else. At least it has more depth than many of the other chai lattes you can find at cafes.

Has anyone ever found this one to taste like plastic? The first couple times I bought it from the store, plus the one time I ordered it as a tea pop, it was gloriously fruity, sparkly, and refreshing. Then last summer, I bought a pre-packed version of it on clearance, and it was in a sealed plastic bag. That batch tasted like plastic, so I figured it absorbed the plastic smell. I let it go and moved on in life. Then, later last fall I ordered 50g of it online, and of course, it comes in its usual packaging. Again, plastic. I let a bunch of it sit until not too long ago, cold brewed the rest and of course, it was the same thing. I never bothered saying anything to DT but I’m wondering if the batches themselves were wonky, or sitting in sealed, pre-packed bags screwed it up.

I’ll have to brave it up and get 10g from the store sometime to see if it’ll be ok then, and maybe ask about the plastic problem too. So strange. I doubt my tastes have changed either.

I did something terrible. Instead of truly sipping this down, I threw the rest out. There was about three cups worth of tea left in the tin, but the last few times I tried to drink this, it was basically undrinkable. The base has this weird overly sweet twang to it, no almond flavour to be had, and dressing this up with milk couldn’t save it. Why torture myself drinking something like that then, eh?

Finally sipped this one down, whew. It’s an interesting concept but don’t think I’d repurchase since I’ve simply had my fill of this particular flavour profile. Yay, more room in the fridge.

Enjoying a cup of this with my ultra late 2pm breakfast, consisting of steel cut oats with brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and coconut milk. I haven’t had this tea in like half a year, but it’s a nice refreshing oolong. The milky notes are on the light side, as I find that this oolong leans more towards floral. But it’s mild and soothing when you want to drink something to warm you up.