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I first had this tea a few months ago, at a store demo. My little sample cup was poured from a lovely little kettle. It was not until after I had taken my initial sips that I realized that the tea I was drinking had come from a bag! Well, a clear sachet style one. I was impressed! I talked with the person there about tea for a while and learned the company was new, and local to me. What a plus! I was even enjoying the cup gasp UNSWEETENED! So Evan kindly gave me a few samples of each tea they currently offer so I could put a tasting note up, and share with fellow tea loving friends.

Shortly after I got my samples, I made this, and I messed up the steeping so horribly, I felt really bad. This tea that I had loved so much before was not tasting awful because of my failed preparation! In the meantime, indigobloom put up her note on the aged white, and how much she enjoyed it, that I felt I needed to get over myself with my previous bad steep, and try it again…because I had really truly liked the sample at the market.

I’m off work today, and it seemed like a good day to make this. I would not be rushed as I am in the morning. I could take time and try to make this right. So…here I am, drinking this tea…

I decided to try this unsweetened again, as I had in the market. I managed to do a good job with this steep, thankfully! I have a full bodied cup, that is still somewhat light, and a mild drying sensation on my tongue. The flavors are a little earthy and a side sweet, but that could be the lingering taste from my orange flower and cardamom yogurt. I’m not sure if the mild spice is from the yogurt or the tea, but I’d say there is almost a peppery note, so not the yogurt. I have found with the tea cooling, I get more woody notes. The tasting notes I was given say there is a note of almond, and I can get behind that, if I think of the nut almond vs the flavouring marzipan kind of almond. That could be what I’m feeling is woody. It’s slightly bitter and slightly sweet, with a nice balance of each.

If you like straight teas, I would suggest this one. Get over that it is bagged. The sachet is large bough that the tea leaves can fully expand. It’s a nice, single origin tea that was carefully chosen. It’s nice to have on hand.

HAd this again recently. I tend to grab it when I am on my period and in the week or two after, since it (the red raspberry leaf) is supposed to be good for cramps and toning the uterus. Regardless, it is a tasty herbal that I can have in the evenings.

Had this tea recently, and it was really nice and comforting. In some ways it was light and creamy and sweet, and in other ways it was just heavy enough to be like a hug, or that blanket on your bed you snuggle with. Was the right tea at the time. :) I had mine with organic cane sugar and milk.

So so yummy. I have not had this one in a while. Still a fave. It was a warm day, and this was light and creamy and sweet, and tastes fine cooled down too.

PS This is my new name…if you want the details of why I changed it, message me, but please (for privacy concerns related to the whole reason I changed in the first place) don’t refer to me as my previous name. I have a good reason. If you are not sure who I was, my profile pic is unchanged…but you can message me as well.

I had the last of this today, so it is a sad sip down. Normally, I save this kind of tea for cooler and wetter weather, but it was kind of cool and overcast this morning, and I woke up with a headache, so I thought to myself, why the heck not.

As before, I really loved this tea. This tea, plus some dark chocolate covered marzipan my coworker gave me, were the highlights of my day. I’m sad this is gone, but I have hope that one of my friends in Vancouver can score more of this tea for me. It’s really tasty!

As a last minute decision, I opted to get this iced yesterday, because it was actually quite warm. I was told it was supposed to taste like a watermelon Jolly Rancher…and I agree, it did to a certain degree. I also picked up that trademark artificial flavoring that I am so familiar now with many of DT blends of late, but in this context, it was kind of ok. I don’t know if I wold go out of my way to get more of this when I know there are other herbals for the summer I like as much (or better).

OMG, you guys, this tea is SO GOOD! The isn’t a lot of info on this tea, as if you go to the website, the tea is only listed with price, and no description. It looks like they are out of Vancouver, and since that’s where OMGsrsly lives (and this came from her), I hope to be able to score more. I only have one serving left, sadly.

This is almost a pu erh chai, but something about it makes it just a little different. I’m not sure if it is in the spices and flavourings, or what…but wow, what a fantastic pu er blend. The flavour is mild enough to let the pu erh come through, but at the same time, the pu erh base isn’t overpowering or fishy/musty/etc. It really is just a nice balance of flavors, and I can definitely see myself owing more of this in the future.

I broke this out tonight, and used it to inaugurate my new little gaiwan though I opted to not use the minuscule tea cups that came with it. My husband teased that they belonged to a dollhouse. I used the whole sample that OMGsrsly gave me, thinking with the gaiwan I’d need more leaf but shorter steep.

Because I used a small teacup, I opted to do 2 steeps per cup, following the first one. I’m on steeps 3 and 4 now. Longer steeps yield a darker colour…a dark but translucent honey (almost mahogany), and the taste becomes a little more earthy, and what I expect from a pu erh that’s been aged. I’m not sure I get thick honey, as for the taste, though I am having my steeps straight, so that says something. It does seem to be getting sweeter with the steeps though. The last steep actually went longer than planned, because I forgot to time it, but by the the water had cooled even more, so I think it was ok. As the tea cools, it feels so thick in my mouth, so the thick honey description is coming truer.

I’m very glad OMGsrsly gave me a sample of this to try. I’m glad I used the taiwan for this, though having used this little one, I feel like I want a larger one as well. But my little one will suffice. I just get about 5-6 sips before I need more. I’ll try to get a few more steeps out of this one tonight.

This came from OMGsrsly in our recent meet up. I opted to have this one this morning without really knowing the flavour profile ahead of time, but I sniffed it, and it smelled good…so I made this. Still not knowing much about it, I added milk and sugar, as I do with most blacks, because I never know how astringent or strong a black is til I taste it, and taking it with me while it cools means I add milk and then go. That said, I think that next time, I might opt for it without milk to see how it is. It was a nice, mildly spiced cup, but I feel like I lost some delicateness with the addition of the milk.

Thanks again for the sample!

Sooo, I made this one again last night. It’s been a while since I last had some, but I was feeling in the mood for a straight green tea, and I was going through my David’s collection to pull things out for a friend of mine to try. I came across this one and had forgotten I had had it at all.

Now, I had made it, and then my husband came home, and we decided to go out for dinner, so I hadn’t really had much time to have it once it had cooled…but it was on the table near my computer, and I saw it when we got back in…we were properly stuffed, so we just took it easy til bedtime. I had some sips of this, and was reminded of how unique this tea is. I drank some of it and then put it in the fridge overnight to have the rest this morning, and it having been warm the last few days, i thought it would be nice to wake up.

So, about this tea…it really is a very unusual green tea, and one unlike any I’ve had before. In my previous tasting note, I compared this tea to a mix of green and oolong. I think it still has that body of oolong, a roasted one, and I’ll add that I get sort of a leaf hopper note of sweetness along with a fruity plummy or peachy note as well. And while I am not a fan of smokey, there is a hint of that here, but not much, and more like grilled plums and peaches instead of ashy smoke. The description actually mentions they had a hard time deciding where on the wall to categorize this because it had elements of black tea to it. It’s a super complex tasting tea for sure.

I’m really sad now, that I have probably one serving left of this, and I’m unsure if I can get my hands on any more of this. I’m going to contact my stores, but it is not on the site anymore, so I suspect it is gone. It’s really a special tea.