Indigobloom Send Message

You’re more tolerant than I am then, as fishy matcha is something I’d find really off-putting! ;)

sounds good

Normally I would agree but this was so mild that after two sips I really didn’t notice it at all :)
and it was very good indeed!

U is silly!

Get well soon!

Feel better soon! Also, board games that made you use your voice so much that your throat hurts1?! I am jealous… I wish I could play too!!

Those must be some intense board games!

I is very silly Bonnie!! :P
Azzrian/Ninavampi: Thanks! I plan on it… gotta be at the gym tonight…
Ninavampi/Krystaleyn: It was actually a specialized card game called Crimes Against Humanity. So much fun! :)

I knew a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, BING…,BING…,BING…, and Bingo was his name-o! Now pass me a smore!

LOL you know just how to cheer me up Bonnie :)
Down by the bay… where the watermelons grow…

There’s a wart on the frog on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea…

Now I’m almost 64…I’m trying to give all you young un’s something to look forward to….the best is yet to come! Love life and have a sense of humor!
Kumbaya…

Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy!

Gmathis/Ashmanra: I don’t know those tunes… if I ever go camping I’ll be sure to look’em up! :)
Bonnie: Oh yes, I am sure of it!! Kumbayaaaaa

“We all live in a yellow submarine/a yellow submarine/a yellow submarine…” ;P

I think we all need to go the the tea version of AA

LOL good one Jillian! :)
Bonnie: If by… err… Aspiring Ahhhhcolics then yes I agree ;P

So many interesting 52teas! I’m so torn as to whether to get a 3-month TOTM plan or not…

I maintain that there’s no point in me getting a tea like this as I’d just pick out and eat all the jelly bellies. XD

Yeah, the spring collection is kinda pbbbttthh. At least that saves me money this semester…here’s hoping for some good ones in the summer!

Oh, but I hope that Earl of Lemon one gets released after all. It sounded like it had potential.

Rip off! Wah! Not what you expected! Hope the chocolate cake thing they have coming out is better!

The spring collection really was kind of a bust, wasn’t it. This one is so much like Swampwater, and not really anything special, Paradise Found is a hibiscus nightmare, and Strawberry Ginger tastes really odd. I thought Daydreamer was ok, but nothing grabbing, and everyone seems to like Pink Flamingo, but it’s just a re-release.

And Daniel, of course, the tea I was most looking forward to was the Earl of Lemon, so I’m hoping that one ends up being a winner!

Ahhh considering I really can’t do earls… I’m kinda more sad now haha :(
I so agree, between boring and odd teas, and the super expensive mulberry Gold Rush tea from March, I am disappointed with Davids!! I do hope they kick up their game in the summer.
Bonnie, I am dreaming of chocolate cake now…. mmmmm

I have high hopes for that chocolate cake one!

“Hibiscus nightmare” – RIGHT?! I can’t get over how many people seem to really like that one, at least on Facebook. I tried the sample in the store, and wanted to spit it on the floor. SO sour.

The worst part is that I think it would be fantastic if there was less/no hibiscus. There were some wonderful flavours going on in the cup I had, but they were so overwhelmed by hibiscus that I actually didn’t end up finishing the cup. And I am not typically a hibiscus-hater.

Yeah, me neither. I can handle some hibiscus if it sits in the background. (Which, while I think the Blood Orange was lacking a bit, I do have to say is something in its favour, it’s NOT overwhelmed by hibiscus. I was worried about that.)

But Paradise Found is like, well, they found it soaked in steeped hibiscus, so they probably should have left it where they found it.

Hahaha, I like your last comment!

With the blood orange pu’erh, I was more concerned about the licorice, which also appeared to be an unfounded worry. Wasn’t a big fan though (but perhaps I should have steeped it longer).

I think a company can lose track of what they grew their reputation and following on. Good quality and flavor, good service and consistancy. For Davids I’d say also a sense of fun too. Maybe trying to follow the seasons and changing so many tea’s all at once is not really what the customers are looking for. I for one don’t want 15 new Spring tea’s that all are pretty much in the same theme of citrus or fruity flavors. A few are ok but it’s almost overkill. An the Pu’erh? Why orange when you already have Chocolate Orange? Why not strawberry chocolate or a toffee pu’erh or some new type? Same with other catagories. Just an opinion. Like the idea of chocolate cake, Jelly beans ok…but drop some of the ones that are so close to each other.

Totally agree with you as to the pu’erh, Bonnie – would have loved to have seen a different flavour with it! I think some of the new teas they came out with were good ideas, but not executed as well as they could have been.

I gotta say, I’ve turned into a serious hibby doubter lately. There are teas where I don’t mind it… but for the most part, I could really do without!
and Bonnie, thank goodness someone finally said it… I have been thinking that for so long now. This same old same old business is so old. Like their Jolly Jellybean? it’s a gimmicky version of their green and fruity!
And the dual citrus pu’erhs? ugh, you are so right…
I’d really love to see a kahlua black one day. mmmmm.
Oh and I saw the ingredients list for the Chocolate cake tea today. It too has “artificial flavouring” :(

@Indigobloom: They all seem to have artificial flavouring :( It does make me a bit sad, and then I switch to straight teas which have wonderful, natural flavours and wonder why companies can’t just make all-natural, flavouringless blends! I think Verdant might me doing that, although on a limited scale, but I wish the major companies did it more often.

That said… it’s not going to stop me drinking them! (Which is probably where the problem lies, right?)

I took a tour of a very large tea company once which was an eye opener. When a company is really big they sometimes have to spray on flavorings and tea is stacked in barrels. I saw one gigantic room just for MINT tea. Quality is a goal that is harder to attain when you’re that big. Then the other day I was in another well known chain and was told that they blended oolongs from many sources because they needed to buy in such big quantities that single sourceing wasn’t an option. So, when a company such as Verdant runs out of tea on it’s website… it’s because they don’t bend on quality and they buy from specific farmers. We have to wait for more to be produced or another quality resource to be aquired. There is a relationship with the tea from farm to consumer. I buy both kinds of tea but prefer the quality ones. My 2 cents worth. (I chose Verdant as an example because they are in North America and not Asia which makes their task harder…yet they are attempting a noble standard)

Kristaleyn: I know right?! if straight teas can be so fragrant and yummy, why mess with it? that said I have found flavoured teas that I love- Just not so much lately for some reason.
Bonnie: I’ve heard the same… about sprays and such. What a shame…
Personally, I’d rather wait for the good stuff than settle for less :)
One day I’ll order from Verdant!

I’ve ordered from Verdant recently! Very excited, because I’ve heard so much about them. I just hope our postal service doesn’t lose the dang package.

Oh nice, I can’t wait to read those reviews!! My fingers are crossed for your package, Canada Post is not the most reliable!

Their new website overhaul is awesome! I have 3 more of their teas to review.

ahhhh if only I didn’t have what feels like a million samples in my cupboard as it is. If I could justify another purchase… you can bet this is where I’d go :)

Canada Post is not the most reliable!

I know. :( My 52teas package that I ordered a month ago arrived something like a week late and looking like it had been kicked across a parking lot! I don’t blame Frank at all for that, I KNOW it was CP! And according to what I’ve read, our area is the absolute worst for mail carriers “losing” packages.

What I am impressed with at Verdant is that I had trouble when they were changing the website and the payment screen wasn’t working…they kept in touch with me by email (the Big Guy did!) and when the website issue was resolved made sure that I had extra’s in my order. That was over and beyond. I now feel that if I had any problems this company cares and would address them!

I’ve heard that about 52Teas before though. I wonder if there is a story behind that… like maybe 52 somehow pushed the wrong CP buttons? Or maybe there is a tea-aholic at the sorting bay haha
Your poor tea, was it in okay condition inside the package??

Bonnie: that is excellent customer service indeed!
I’m awaiting a replacement package from Tealish, to be shipped out tomorrow. Their packaging spoiled my tea, it went rancid on me :/
We’ll see how that goes…

Oooo ick erg rats!

LOL indeed!!

Yes, it was fine, actually. His little bags are packed so tight, it’s like they didn’t have room to get crushed, lol. Although maybe he should invest in some rolls of bubble-wrap if CP hates him so much!

My sister was PISSED when she saw the bag it arrived in. I mean, despite the fact that she’s deeply disdainful of my “tea boner” (DEFINITELY not my words!), she was angry on my behalf. The carrier jammed the bag in the mailbox too, and she shouted, “THAT’S NOT HOW YOU TREAT A PACKAGE!” (Good thing the carrier was long gone by then, or I’m sure no tea would ever be delivered to me again!) I assured her that even if some leaves had gotten broken, I do enough dumb things to break the leaves myself. I’m just grateful they got here at all! Ha.

How on earth is mail delivered? I have either a box option but if an item is too big they put it in a large locked mailbox and put the key to it in my mailbox. For other carriers they hand deliver or put it on my covered patio and leave a note on my door. Works this way almost everywhere except at my daughter’s ranch…it’s inside the garage by the kitchen door for deliveries. I don’t get why you’re having so many issues?

Heh, Frank… are you listening?? lol
I like your sister!! I love her ‘tude! Mmmm I’m dreaming of 52teas Pancake Breakfast now.

Not that I am defending CP here at all but please remember that teas coming to Canada have to go through customs also. That is a different group of people and when I worked at a small postal outlet you would not believe the condition that some packages made it to us in. And then to get s### on by the customers because of the condition of the package and the customs charges does not feel great. I am not saying it isn’t CP but the USPS has to handle the package and Customs so maybe it isn’t your carrier’s fault.

On the reverse…what I get from Canada has been fine!

Cattibrie: oh I so agree with you there! they even have the power to open up packages just to see… I can’t imagine the chaos they stir up in the tea world!

Bonnie: really?? so unfair lol

True, it could be on the US side, or Customs…but the postal service local to my city is truly shit, and we’ve had lots of trouble with our carrier before, so it’s not unlikely that he didn’t treat the package well. Obviously, it wasn’t Customs or the USPS that rammed a package into the mailbox to make it fit! LOL. I’d be inclined to blame our carrier first simply because he’s earned that suspicion, if you see what I mean.

@Indigobloom: More than once I’ve received packages that had clearly been opened and taped back up with “Homeland Security” stamped on them. I’m probably on some FBI watch list now. ;D

Wow you have my kind of luck! In September I drove across the border into Canada from Washington State and there were no other cars but only me and what do they do? I had to go into the big whatever it’s called border control building and show all my papers and answer a bunch of questions about why I was going to Vancouver to the Mall! Uh…I’m 63 with a Passport and just finished a cruise that had been to Canada so what’s the problem A? No one but me in the building…so maybe they were bored? Homeland Security is spending money on old ladies and tea! We should be afraid!

Daniel, I just made a Verdant order and received it successfully, undamaged (and I’m in Canada)! Hoping the 52teas order I plan to make before the end of the week makes it here successfully, as do the other 3 packages currently en route to me. The only beef I have with the postal service around here is that numerous times, they have left packages on my front step – and I live on the corner of a busy, student-ridden intersection! The least they could do would be to leave it on the back step.

Jillian: I’d be scared to receive packages stamped with ‘Homeland Security’! Yikes!

I see what you mean. Well either way… you have the tea :)

Kristaleyn: lucky girl!! I so badly want to order from there lives vicariously through others

Jillian: I agree, that is FREAKY!!! yikes!

Hi My tea was also jellybeanless lol i contacted customer service and they sent me 50g free plus 3 free samples! send them an e-mail, they will make it right!

tempting! but I wouldn’t feel right about that… since I only had a 12g sample. Still, I thought there would atleast be little jelly bits. Oh well :)

I think 52 tea’s should use that as their next tea name Little Jelly Bits or maybe the Homeland Security for the Man Tea’s!

ahhhh Bonnie you cracka me uppa! :P
homeland security.. oh I love it! you should pitch it to Frank

I had a gunpowder recently that was so STRONG I just had to reduce the steeping time, I wonder if that would help with your nausea factor?

I think it will try that Amy! also, the leaves are rolled so I might reduce the quantity as well- they had so little room to expand in the steeping basket!!

Sometimes the nausea factor can be due to bad tea- stale or rancid. I heart Yunnan green teas, and I had a vacuum sealed sample from Upton’s a few yrs ago, and the sample tasted bitter. I thought I oversteeped it, so I lowered the temp & steep time (still really bitter). I few hours later I had some, shall I say…….severe intestinal irregularities!! The rest of the sample got tossed. ://

I’ve experienced that as well… just a bad batch! but the nausea, I’ve noticed, seems to be caused by phenols that are activated by the initial oxidization and then burned off the more processed it is, but since green is the least processed (not counting white which isn’t at all), it tends to affect me the most. Oh well!

Hmm, I wonder if that’s why I felt a tad nauseous after having a large matcha latte? Or would the processing of matcha reduce the phenolics concentration? (I should know this… part my Masters involves degradation of phenols during processing! But nausea from phenols is out of my realm.)

Either way, tea has yet to give me any nausea/intestinal troubles to anywhere neat the extent that coffee does!

Hmmm do you get nauseous from any other green tea?
I wonder if crushing the leaves to make powder would release more phenols…
That’s a cool masters degree!! I have a friend who did hers at Windsor dealing with toxicity in frogs. Poor froggies (I won’t get into what she did to them here!)
Anyhow, I find this fascinating… the whole phenol phenomenon and how it varies so much from one tea to the next!

I haven’t been nauseous from tea much, but I also likely haven’t consumed the quantity in one go that I did when I had the huge latte! It wasn’t that bad, though. Just a bit of an icky queasy feeling.

Thinking about it, crushing the leaves (and consequently consuming the entire things) likely would release more compounds! Er… grinding plant tissue into a powder may possibly be the way that I extract polyphenols from my samples (albeit with methanol; I assume tea polyphenols are more water soluble). . Such a bad grad student.

Yeah, I find it fascinating too. Hence my project being on beneficial compounds in asparagus, and (in part), the nutritional impacts of cooking! Semi-related to tea… :D

Exactly!! not “too” bad but there is def that icky sensation…
I’ve had nausea from matcha once before but not this time, maybe because I’d already eaten dinner?
Well, if you ever figure it out… let me know! Mmmmm asparagus…

Having it for the first time right now, and I’m inclined to agree. It was tastier than I expected, and yet there’s something kinda missing from it. It’s like there’s a chunk of flavour missing from the base.

Exactly!! this really has no bearing on what a pu’erh should be. It’s like they took out the “erh” and left just the “Pu”

It is a plain black tea base. : ) I am glad you enjoyed it! I think that this may be my least favorite of the Horniman teas I sent you. But I do still enjoy it!

Ah so it IS a black! odd, I was able to sleep afterwards with no issues. Usually a black tea will keep me awake for hours. I’m looking forward to trying all the other ones you sent. There are so many! :)

My coconut oolong phase is just beginning… :D

OooOooh? you must try the STE version! I’d send you some if I had more than dregs left in my tin, which I refuse to wash out because it smells soooooo good :P

Nom coconuts…also, just FYI, you shouldn’t ever wash out tins, there are too many hidden nooks and crannies for water to get in to and then mildew your next tinful. I use a dry cloth to wipe it out and if the smell remains, leave it open in the sunlight for a few days.

ah good idea. I usually let them sit out after washing, hoping to get all the moisture out. But there is no way I could go without washing entirely, who knows what they line the tins with! (I have an unreasonable fear of BPA and the like!)

STE? What is STE?? I am fairly certain I should be able to figure it out, but I am so tired…

Also, aislingoftea, good to know about the tins. I’ve been swapping teas in and out of tins as I run low on one and want to pick up another with a discount, and wasn’t sure what to do with them. A couple I did just shake out, but I rinsed one – and IT DRIPPED! So mustn’t be airtight, which is worrisome. They’re all DavidsTea tins, so I thought they’d be good… I left it to dry overnight; hopefully it dried enough that I won’t have moldy tea. I’ll probably use the tea up before it would have a chance to mold anyhow…

Ahh sorry that was my way of being lazy. The Coconut Oolong from Spice and Tea Exchange is the best. coco oolopong tea. ever :)

Oolopong?? :P I will put it on my shopping list, thanks!

oh dear, that was a typo. sorry!! too early in the AM for me to be licences with a keyboard :P

(ie. it was coconut oolong haha)

It’s ok! I got a laugh out of it :D And added it to my shopping list.

Darn! I saw “Lime Fizz” and was pumped about a lime tea to try… but you say there’s not much lime. I love lime, so that makes me sad. Oh well… not as if I need to add to the shopping list anyhow!!

I dunno, it could be just me! I’ve had trouble tasting citrus lately so don’t lose hope :)

Really, I should just start adding freshly squeezed lime juice into things. I’m such a lime addict. You know how you were caught “eating” tea? I continually get caught in bars (or restaurants, now that I’m over my undergrad years) attempting to floss my teeth to remove the limey bits caught between them after I ate the limes out of everyone’s drinks. Yep… XD

LOL I am totally like that about anything in a restaurant. I hate seeing people ooh and ahh over their food, esp dessert and then leave half of it on the plate! I always steal a fry. But not yet a lime ;P

Hahaha, I am always stealing tastes. And most people are willing to let me have their limes/lemons, after they’ve squeezed them, if not before. I’ve actually taken to requesting a small bowl of lime/lemon slices in restaurants and bars :D Come to think of it, I’m probably a really annoying/embarrassing person to go to a restaurant with…!

lol you’re talking to the girl who eats lemons dipped in sugar… ever tried it? soooo good. Like a lemonade candy!! I’ve even done that in a restaurant a few times…

Love it! Haven’t tried that though. But I do eat rhubarb out of the garden, and sometimes dip it in sugar!!

omg I looooove fresh rhubarb. I always forget to buy it when in season, it’s out for such a short time!

Indeed win some lose some as not every tea is for everyone thank goodness there are so many for us to try. Still it is sad when we find one we do not like. I know we so want to love them all. I always wonder “what is wrong with me?” when I don’t like a tea lol rather than “what is wrong with this tea?” haha at least Im not that way with men :)

ahh I know what you mean Azzrian! I really do, except I know what’s up with me… I am an odd duck with “food sensitivities” haha. Gah I am so glad this happened in adulthood. It would have been terrible as a kid.
oh and I am TOTALLY like that with my men :P

(cuz the pickings have been slim lately, in my town that is)