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Cold brew because that’s the way I like it. Still the best coconut black I’ve had to date, but overall, I’d say I prefer coconut oolongs.

No additives and I find the coconut still really pops. Kind of an inappropriate one to drink seeing that it’s rainy again but I’m trying to use it up since it’s around a year old already.

I had this with my last cup of chocolate milk. Refreshing! But I think I prefer this matcha with almond, soy, or coconut milk. And chocolate milk on its own. Yeah.

Have been trying to finish this one off over the past week since it’s been rainy and I’m not the biggest fan of this. Still getting tons of tangy calendula and cardamom. I added some honey which put a damper on the aggressive calendula but it’s still not a favourite.

Quick sip down. Thankfully I only got 10g of this because this one took an even weirder turn than before. Because I found this to be too one-note clove, I thought I’d mix it with some of Verdant’s Chocolate Phoenix Chai, which to me, is too one-note cardamom, creating a more complex blend.

So, alone, Sugar and Spice when cooling down is like pickled beets, yeah? The bizarre part is now, mixed with the Chocolate Phoenix, the clove is still the powerhouse here. The thing is, it’s now reminding me of lunch meat, like ham or turkey that is encrusted with spices. What is going on with this tea?

So yeah, between the beets and cold cuts, I’m kissing this tea goodbye.

I guess this counts as a sip down. I divided up the rest of what I had amongst the Vancouver meet-up crew.

Dropped the rating because I’ve come to realize that I’m not the biggest fan of roasted mate, but this is still pretty darn good for a flavoured roasted mate and would recommend it to anyone who likes chocolatey stuff.

Dwindling down the stash is an ongoing struggle.

Back from my spectacular adventure in Vancouver, packed with a sushi binge, shopping madness, and an amazing concert. The ferry ride home was slightly depressing because it now means even more stuff to deal with other than the research you only deal with over the summer.

I’m still exhausted from the trip due to the running around I was doing, so I wanted to pick a black tea this morning. I reached for this, generously provided by Cavocorax because it both sounded and looked lovely.

These pearls are huge, and ended up using four of them. They brewed up to a rich amber liquor, and when it comes to the flavour, my taste buds are met with cocoa powder. There’s that lovely maltiness going on too which I always appreciate.

These are on the robust side too, which I’m really quite enjoying. It’s sure grabbing my taste buds and waking me up. “Wake up and get with it!” Yes, dragon pearls talk.

The second infusion is on the maltier side, but the cocoa is still going strong.

Did I mention that this is my first Teavivre tea? Ever? The time has finally come, and I’m smitten with these dragon pearls. Now that I stopped moving around, I should make an order sometime from the lovely Angel who I keep hearing wonderful things about.

Steepster tantrum backlog

Heather kindly passed down her last bag of this. Thanks a bunch! I love hojicha so I’m always up for trying more.

This is one of the toastiest teas I’ve ever smelled. So roasted that it’s like how coffee beans go a little bitter when they’re super roasted. Or even some roasted matés.

But that said, caramel is the perfect flavour to pair up with hojicha. It beats downing a sugar-laden caramel latte at a coffee shop.

The caramel comes a little more out of hiding as this cools.

Also wrote this during the Great Steepster Tantrum of earlier this week.

Thank you to OMGsrsly for passing down a generous sample of this! I’m looking for the perfect creamy maple tea.

The scent of the dry leaf is quite delicate, like a burnt sugar maple. There are slivers of almonds throughout the dry leaf so I’m curious as to whether they’re going to change the flavour profile at all.

I actually tried the first cup yesterday without any additives. There’s something about this that is very mellow. Even the base is mellow. Like all the flavours melt into each other and any sharp edges have been dulled. You almost can’t even taste the base? I don’t know. But yet the maple is very mellow too. No almond.

The smell that this tea leaves behind in the cup after it’s all gone is marvelous, like maple cream cookies.

Steepster’s recent freakouts have encouraged me to write a few of these in Word and save them to submit later. Now, I’m about to enjoy the second cup with a little bit of half-and-half.

Second cup with half-and-half is nice. The cream complements the maple and wakes it up a bit. I also steeped this round a little longer and the base has more hold too.

It’s a tasty choice but I just wish there were a tad bit more maple in this. I’m sure this would be perfect with a couple drops of actual maple syrup but alas, I don’t have any right now.

Wrote this when Steepster was throwing a tantrum before my trip to Vancouver.

This tea smells like mulberry gummy candy, if they were to exist. I don’t detect any apricot, but I can already see why the West Coast crew chose this during the recent meet up because it smells very promising.

By the way, thanks to Heather for passing down a sample of this!

Brewed, the base gets a lot stronger than I was expecting, and even though I watched the steeping parameters, it’s a little on the astringent side. The creamy mulberry note really backed off, unfortunately. I was hoping for a berries and cream tea. I didn’t add any milk or cream. Perhaps I should have but too late for that since I just finished it. Not sure if I would buy more, but I’d be curious if further experimentation could result in the perfect steeping parameters, plus milk or cream, to thus yield the perfect berries ‘n’ cream tea.

Those whole cloves! Why isn’t this part of the upcoming winter collection instead? Combined with half-and-half, it’s like a one-toned clove-heavy chai. The clove is so strong that after enough sips, I swear it’s numbing my tongue. Very much like those clove ribbon candies you can buy around Christmas.

As much as I like cloves, this is a little too simplistic. As this cools, I am reminded of the way clove tastes combined with pickled beets. My grandma is a little heavy-handed on the cloves whenever she pickles them, and it’s SO much like that. Love the cloved up pickled beets, but a cooled off tea reminiscent of that is obviously a little weird.

I’m watching the Social Network for the first time, and it’s going on in the background as I write this. A little boring, but at least I can say I “watched” it now.