Incendiare

100th tasting note for the win. The SA at the store threw a sample of this into my bag and seeing that I’m nursing a cold, I figured the antioxidants in this would do me some good.

Dried blueberries and cornflowers galore in this, and steeped, the aroma is mild, and very similar to the handful of fresh blueberries I had for breakfast. Regarding the taste of the tea, there is a masterful balance between the realistic blueberry flavour and gentle floral notes from the base. The peony is simply gorgeous.

The best blueberry white I’ve experienced to date.

I have a really weird relationship with jasmine. Depending on the quality or type, it can smell beautiful or like moth balls. Depending on which other essential oils it’s blended with, it can create a symphony of gorgeousness or an olfactory train wreck. Up until now, every single jasmine tea that I have tried has smelled (and tasted, if you know what I mean) like moth balls. Lush has a shower gel called Flying Fox. It’s a love or hate kind of product, chock-full of jasmine and honeysuckle. Yeah, it’s moth balls for me. And almost every jasmine tea smells like Flying Fox.

This tea is no exception. Actually, to be entirely fair, the smell of the steeped tea isn’t nearly as potent as others I have tried in the past.

The first time I tried this, I steeped the bag for about two minutes in approximately 95°C, and the result was a heady jasmine aroma and flavour. Slight bitterness too due to the fact that I didn’t let the water cool enough before steeping.

But this time, I’ve steeped the bag for not quite two minutes, but allowed the water to cool longer, like maybe a good ten degrees cooler. The result is a much more delicate green tea with barely any heady jasmine at all. The green base is more evident too. Slightly vegetal and zero bitterness. The jasmine barely makes itself known. Cool beans.

I’ve been buying far too many flavoured blacks lately and wanted to pick up a green tea. This one fit the bill.

In the pouch, the dry leaf smells extra lemony, like a tart lemon candy. A little creamy but it’s very subtle.

The first time I steeped this, I did for about two-and-a-half minutes. Unfortunately, I found it to be on the bitter side. The lemon was there, but between the vegetal base and the bitterness, there was no fluffy lemon marshmallowness to be had.

Second steep, I cut the steep time down to around two minutes, and it was still too bitter and vegetal for my liking. The lemon was a little creamier, but overall, weaker than the first steep. Both times, I steeped it at approximately the same (lower) temperature that I do with my other greens, so hmm.

Just now, I steeped a fresh pot with some new leaves, and tried around 1 min 15 sec, and it was so much better. The bitterness was gone, the vegetal twang was more subdued, and the lemon turned into lemon pie filling. Now we’re talking. I wish there were more marshmallows going on in this blend, but I’ll continue to experiment with the steeping perimeters. Perhaps lower the temperature even more or something.

Am I ever glad I listened to my instincts and bought this one. It’s liquified fruity comfort in a cup. Ok, that sounded weird, but it’s fantastic.

Frank was very generous with the chunks of apricot in this one. As soon as I opened the pouch, I was hit with the sweet aroma of apricots and/or peaches. I can tell the difference between the two, but here, I swear there is both. Don’t get any cheesecake notes at this point.

The first steep was a burst of homemade apricot preserves in my mouth. I couldn’t detect any cheesecake, however, there was a noticeable creaminess that was reminiscent of whipped cream. And the Shou Mei is oh so delicate.

I’m on my second steep right now, and while the apricot is still present, the creaminess is virtually non-existant. Still enjoyably fruity, but substantially weaker than expected.

Love this tea. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase another pouch if there were still more left next time I order. A billion thumbs up, Frank.

Finally moved into my new place! But I’m coming down with a cold. It’s in the very early stage so my senses are still sharp enough to review this.

Ever since I was a young child, almond has been my favourite nut, so I just had to get this. The dry leaf smells like almond extract! The lapacho bark doesn’t seem to have any scent, or if it does, it has no chance against the almond. I would also like to point out that it’s genius to pair apricot kernels with almond to kick up that bitter almond flavour.

The taste is very bang on too. I haven’t had anything with amaretto in ever but this definitely conjures up memories of almond biscotti and Blueberry Tea (the cocktail). By far the most almondy tea I’ve ever tasted in my life. And the level of bitterness is perfect.

If you feel like a non-alcoholic drink that resembles alcohol, this could do the trick. I just wonder though, seeing that apricot kernels and lapacho bark can both be toxic if an excess amount is ingested, I wonder how much of this tea one could drink without noticing any side effects.

Ok seriously, this tea weirding me out. The dry tea bag smelled a little funky. I already blocked it out of my memory but it wasn’t pleasant.

I’m bad and have been letting this tisane steep forever. Just left the bag in my mug. It’s been about eight minutes now and I’m finally tackling it. Firstly, the steeped tea smells quite sour, like lemon juice out of a bottle. The taste is awfully tart too, like drinking hot water with a slice of lemon, and an added touch of tart artificial blueberry. I’d imagine a sour blueberry pixie stick to taste like this.

And about the hibiscus in here. Its flavour is masked by the tart lemon-like flavour, however, it’s creating that same dry sensation in the mouth that I get from hibiscus. It contributes to that ultra tart zing.

The hotel I stayed in a couple weeks ago provided us with this tea, so I took it home to try. After my first sip, I thought to myself that there wasn’t any flavour at all. Just tasted like hot water.

After a few more sips, the tropical flavours come out a bit more. I can now taste the mango, but it tastes a little off. The tea smells alright though, like a tropical fruit gum. But as this is cooling, it’s getting more bitter. I did steep it a little longer than I should have since I was preoccupied washing blueberries, but it’s still all wrong, and a disappointment. It’s not terrible, but it could have been better.

I finally get to try the illustrious Quangzhou Milk Oolong. I’ve been saving it until I had time to really enjoy it, and give it a good three steeps.

The scent of the dry leaf isn’t a surprise. That classic oolong semi-floralness mixed in with milkiness. Like a true cup of milk mixed in with the tea leaves. Weird side note, though. While I was waiting for the water to boil and had my tea ready to go in my Tea Stick, I caught a whiff of cheese. Like creamy havarti. Took me a while to realize it was coming from the tea!

I didn’t write down how long each steep was for, but if I remember correctly, I steeped this the first time for around four minutes at approximately 90°C. The steeped tea smelled similar to the dry leaf, although I found the milky aspect to blossom and take over the other notes. Now for the taste. Initially, I got a touch of floral, but the more I drank it, the more that went away. This has a wonderful, classic, underlying oolong, but the milkiness is domineering. It tastes like milk, but in a “dairy” way. I can’t really describe what I mean by that. It’s a more savoury milky note than sweet.

The second steep was even milkier. That slightly floral taste I was getting before was at this point gone entirely. And the milkiness got even creamier. A tad sweeter, as well. Second round definitely won. There was the perfect balance amongst all the flavours. It was more buttery, sweeter, and creamier.

The third steep was already getting rather weak. With the hint of floral long gone and the sweetness of the second steep gone as well, this started to almost taste like that havarti I was smelling earlier. That milkiness was going a little sour too. Not in an atrociously disgusting way, but it was noticeable.

Anyway, blah blah blah, that was my Quanqzhou Milk Oolong adventure. I bought about 16g or so, so I’ll gladly finish it off, but I’m not sure if I would buy it again? This made me realize that I prefer my oolongs on the more floral side. It’s still a marvellous tea.

I acquired a bag of this from a restaurant but ended up just taking it home to try instead. It’s a quite a straightforward Ceylon tea. Indeed full-bodied as the package says. It’s quite strong considering I only steeped it for three minutes. I added some light soy milk to my cup and the two go very well together. Bold and rich, and now laced with a little bit of creaminess. I wouldn’t buy it but it’s a good choice for this morning’s breakfast.

When I was in the store last week, aside from my list, I still felt like getting a little something extra and the SA suggested this one. I was unsure about the concept while reading about it on their site, but the smell of the dry leaves won me over, so I purchased not quite 20g.

The dry leaves have a lot going on. Sure, I can smell root beer, but it’s more like a syrupy root beer smell from root beer freezies or slushies, and the cinnamon comes and goes. The white chocolate is there too, and together, they create a pleasantly sweet aroma.

I’m reviewing this hot first and will try it iced once I move into my new place next week. Hot, the steeped tea smells like flat root beer, but in a good way. The taste reminds me of a melted root beer freezie with the added touch of white chocolate. Not to mention, the black tea base isn’t too strong at all despite steeping this for five minutes. It’s also sweet enough for me, but granted, I almost never add sugar to tea anyway. I can’t wait to try this one iced since I’m sure it’ll translate even better.

This makes me want a birch beer tea. I could see that playing very well with a black tea base.

Coconut and chamomile are two of my favourite things, but together, I wasn’t so sure how this would pan out. The scent of the dry leaves doesn’t have a single trace of chamomile, but rather, a mixture of coconut and white chocolate.

I love how the scent morphs into a much toastier coconut when this is steeped. It even tastes like a toasted coconut macaroon. I also don’t taste any chamomile. Hmm, perhaps it blends in with the coconut to create that chocolatey vibe. The tea base is nice and smooth here. Not bitter or overpowering. I find that there is a perfect balance between the tea base and the coconut & friends.

I purchased 18g of this and will definitely pick up more once this is done. It’s the kind of tea that’s great to sip on when you’re not in the mood for anything too bold.

What a day. Today was my first day in Vancouver, and I started it off with breakfast by the quay with a cup of this. They really didn’t have much else to choose from, and when I picked it from the basket, I didn’t notice that it was decaf.

What can I say, it was underwhelming and ultra bland. The bergamot in this was a sad attempt. Not even distinctly bergamot, but rather a dull, vague citrus. I had to resort to adding milk and sugar to make this more interesting, and even then, it tasted watery. I let it steep for around four minutes too.

But that’s ok. To all the Canadians out there, I ran into Rex Murphy today so that was cool. I felt bad talking to him but at least I made him laugh. Unlike this tea, the experience definitely wasn’t decaffeinated or banal.

I haven’t actually tried salted caramel before. Blasphemy! But between the description of this tea, the ingredients, and the smell of the dry leaves, I just couldn’t resist.

The dry leaves are very fragrant and sweet. Like an overly sweet caramel macchiato. It doesn’t actually smell like coffee, but the combination of notes reminds me of an espresso-laced drink you can find at a Starbucks. If I concentrate, I can also smell a Skor- or Daim-like note in there too, although it’s not nearly as buttery as the chocolate bar. The coconut is mainly a phantom note. I can detect hints of it but if I didn’t know it was there, it would most likely go undetected.

The smell of the steeped tea is quite different. It has simplified to a basic, but ultra rich toffee. Taste-wise, it’s basically just caramel. No coconut nor creaminess, and after two cups, I’ve noticed that I can’t taste the sea salt until I get to the bottom of the mug, so looks like it doesn’t dissolve. The shot of salty sediment at the end is interesting, but I wish I could taste a smoother version of that with every sip.

It’s a great caramel black but I’m not sure if I like it enough to repurchase. Honestly, I need to try more caramel blacks before I can honestly say just how good this one is. Although I must say, the scent of the dry leaves is reason enough alone to go out and buy some.

I just got back from DT with a pleasing array of teas to try out. Out of all the ones I chose, my mom liked the smell of this the most, so I thought I’d make a pot of this beauty first.

At the moment, I only have my Tea Stick with me, and seeing that this is mostly plump mulberries, I could already tell that it wasn’t going to work out, so I passed on that and dumped around 1.5 tsp of the tea into the teapot. The teapot residence services provided us here is really small so I figured after it’s done steeping, I could just split it into two mugs and nothing won’t be oversteeping.

The dry leaves, if you can even call them that, are seriously 60% mulberries, 30% coconut shreds, and 10% silver needle. So it’s barely a tea. BUT. It smells exquisite. Like a coconut cake with layers of fresh mulberries.

For the first steep, I kind of lost track, but I’m sure I steeped it for like six minutes. It tastes more caramel-like than I had imagined. And much creamier too. I would never want to taint this with any additives. One moment, it’s coconut, then the next it’s caramel, and then there’s that very subtle taste of creamy berry woven throughout everything else.

The coconut got lost with the second steep. It’s mostly creamy caramel. And that’s all there is to it.

I’m going to have to agree with several others that to be fair, the price of this tea is quite steep (no pun intended) considering the fact that this has very little actual tea leaves. But granted, I’ve paid more per gram for by far drabber, more flavour- and tea leaf-lacking teas from other places cough Teavana cough, so whatevz. This tea is so worth it in comparison.

I was in a green tea mood when I stopped in last time, and the idea of mango appealed to me, especially since it’s been warm and sunny.

The tea leaves look fresh, and there are little cubes of dried mango here and there. And the smell of the dry tea is definitely mango, but sweeter than the fresh fruit. Mind you, dried fruits tend to smell even sweeter.

When it comes to the taste, it is a little bit of a disappointment. I’ve drunk it a few times already, adding different amounts of leaves, steeping a little longer, etc, and I can’t seem to draw that much flavour out of it. Although I taste a hint of fruit from it, it’s more peach than mango. The green tea base itself is very light too, nearly non-existant. If it weren’t for the colour of the liquor, I wouldn’t even think that I was drinking a green tea.

It’s good but not great. I’m glad that one can purchase an ounce instead of having to commit to even more than that.

I’m sitting here enjoying a pot of this for breakfast while I plan today’s adventure.

The liquor is a rich, deep burgundy brown, and smells slightly sweet and malty. It actually reminds me a lot of the Empress’ signature blend, but with more Assam.

It even tastes like that too. I get more of the maltiness and it leaves a pleasant malty oaky aftertaste. I haven’t tried this with milk and/or sugar yet, but I’m sure it would taste very similar to the Empress signature blend.

Better than I expected. A good tea to grab in the morning when you’re in a hurry and don’t want to have to deal with the mess of loose tea leaves. I kind of feel like this should get a higher rating than the Empress since I’m preferring the more dominant Assam in this, but for now, I’ll rate them almost the same until I try this one with milk and sugar. That’ll be the real test.

This was another tea I had the opportunity to try while I had Afternoon Tea at the Empress. Straight up, this Earl Grey lacked balance. The steeped tea itself was very aromatic thanks to the bergamot, but taste-wise, the bergamot was a little weak. And the tea base was too astringent for my liking. Perhaps they steeped it longer than I would have liked, who knows, but the astringency took everything over. It’s the kind of astringency that leaves an almost dry feeling in the mouth.

A disappointment, but there’s no loss, quite frankly. There are much better Earl Greys out there that brighten my day.

I had Afternoon Tea at the Empress the other day and they serve you this signature tea. It was a really cool experience, but to be honest, definitely isn’t worth the money doing it again.

I had this both black and with tea and sugar. Either way, I couldn’t taste any of the Assam in the blend, however, the Ceylon and Keemun stood out the most. I’m writing this from memory, but luckily they give you a box of this tea to take home, so next time I try it, I can always reevaluate it.

This tea takes the additives really well. It’s exactly the kind of tea I like to drink with milk and sugar. Kind of like a Tim Hortons steeped tea double double, but without the cardboard flavour you get from the TH. My mom had Afternoon Tea with me and she said that it reminded her of when she was a little girl, her grandmother used to serve her tea with milk and sugar, and it tasted exactly like this. So this tea definitely earns points for bringing back good memories.

I feel so bad that I’ve been so busy exploring this glorious island to check out everyone’s tasting notes. I finally have the time to relax with this cup of tea.

The chamomile is so incredibly fluffy and bright. And it smells like a bright, almost green chamomile. Not to mention, there is almost a gentle creaminess in the background. It’s barely there.

I know this is just chamomile, so big whoop, right, but it really does taste lovely. Probably the best chamomile tea I’ve ever had. Granted, because every other chamomile tea that I’ve tasted came from a bag full of crushed up, likely older buds.

It’s sunny, crisp, and oh so fresh. I find that some lower quality chamomile can smell and taste on the medicinal side, but that’s not going on here at all. Every sip blossoms.

If this didn’t taste so good, I’d totally steep a strong batch and rinse my hair with it.

Yay, I finally moved to the west coast. Now, this calls for some Murchie’s. I just got back from the store with a few one ounce pouches. Haven’t had Earl Grey Cream in a while, and have been craving it like crazy lately, so this was a must.

Quite different from all of the other Earl Grey Creams that I’ve tried. The bergamot is very light here. The steeped tea definitely smells like there is more bergamot in it than there really is. And instead of a creamy vanilla I usually get from other brands, this tastes like it has caramel instead. My taste buds don’t know what to make of this combination. I made sure to steep this for only three minutes since I was worried about bitterness. Seems like a good time length for it.

The aftertaste reminds me of a caramel candy or something. The bergamot lingers too but it’s gentle. I prefer Earl Greys that don’t shy away from the bergamot, although this one is very smooth and gentle, safe.

When this first came out, I loved it. A much better option than pop, or other bottled iced teas such as Nestea or Brisk, and I really enjoyed the sweetness coming from the honey, which was noticeable.

I picked one up for about 88 cents the other week, and seeing that it’s been around 34°C, I thought busting this out would be appropriate.

Definitely sweeter for me nowadays, but it still does a great job at cooling down from the sun rays of death. I think I like the one with apple a bit more, but ultimately, if you like adding stuff like honey or sugar to your teas, this may not be too sweet for you anyway. And come on, it’s cheap like whoa.

I tried this as my last free beverage at the hotel, as a double double too (two creams, two sugars). Steepsterites have heard me rave in the past about a local chai bar that makes the best chai ever, and how everything else mega pales in comparison, so I was expecting this to crash and burn.

It so did not crash and burn at all. Way better than expected. Usually the chai you get at restaurants taste slightly bitter and extremely watered, or even milked (?), down. Here, I was able to distinctly taste cinnamon and liquorice. Very nice combination. The liquor looked pure white. I kept steeping and steeping it, trying to draw out as much flavour as possible, and despite the white colour, which led me to believe it would be weak, it was like drinking a creamy cinnamon candy.

It doesn’t sweep me off my feet, but it’s decent. TH spicy teas in general seem the most promising.

I’m staying in a hotel for a couple days and during your stay, you get a free beverage and pastry from the Tim Horton’s downstairs, so time for some free tea.

Yesterday, I tried this because I wanted something mellow, and didn’t feel like pumping myself with caffeine. Honestly, I haven’t tried any higher quality chamomile teas. Up until now, it’s been random tea bags at restaurants and family’s, so I don’t know how bad or good this is supposed to be for chamomile tea.

All I know is it smelled like chamomile and tasted like chamomile. Pretty straight forward. Maybe I would have wanted a bit more depth. I definitely have had better. Make me want to go out and try some loose leaf stuff.

I tried this as a tea latte earlier since I couldn’t think of what to order, and Earl Grey is usually a safer way to go.

It was alright. It misses the liveliness that other Earl Greys have. Usually, the bergamot bursts like a ray of sunshine but here, it’s a little dull. I just simply left the tea bag in my cup since the milk was really overpowering the tea and I was hoping to achieve more flavour but alas, leaving it in did nothing.

Not horrible, but not memorable nor reorder- or purchase-worthy either.