MissMylin

I bought this earlier in the year when I happened to be in Regina for a workshop. It was fun exploring my old haunts, and even more fun to find a specialty tea store :) I’m surprised I haven’t logged this one yet though.

I bought Latte Macchiato because 1) I love coffee just as much as I love tea and 2) I wanted to compare it to the Latte Macchiato from Adonia Tea in Vancouver. They both have a dry scent that’s a pleasant mix of earthy tea and fresh coffee. Adonia has the strange but yummy yogurt crispies in their blend. Cuppa’T has coconut flakes which I love.

They both taste very similar as well. Just a hint of coffee, and a nice creaminess. This blend is a bit more astringent than Adonia’s. Maybe I’ll just cut down on the steeping time. I had this today with a teaspoon of sugar and some So Delicious coconut milk to add to the coconut flakes. It’s a very nice way to start the weekend.

Decided to finish up this sample by making a pitcher of iced tea. Still meh. Again, it’s not bad; it’s just not remarkable in any way. It’s probably marginally better as a hot tea. I’m glad I got this out of my cupboard before the new teas from 52teas and Red Leaf get here. (I really have to stop buying more and start drinking more.)

I was a little nervous for this one after the fiasco with Saje’s Chai Comfort. Turns out that this is the tea that I sampled in the store. And it is as nice as I remembered it being. It has wonderful citrus notes, but I can’t find the vanilla and lavender that are supposed to be in there. I’m on my second steeping; it’s still nice and strong even though it’s in a bag.

So Saje is redeemed with this tea. One more flavour in my stash to try (Mint Miracle)…we’ll see how that one fares another day.

Try #2 this morning: 2.5 tsp of matcha, little bit of hot water to get it dissolved, and 1 cup of 1% milk.

Yup, milk is definitely the way to go. (Or soy, almond, coconut, or rice milks that are unsweetened) I was much happier with my latte today. I downed it faster too so that it didn’t have time to get all cold on me. The only sad thing is that I don’t have any more milk in the apartment :( Now I’m going to have to find something else for my next cup of tea.

As a side note, please read my most recent blog post. It’s not tea related (other than the fact that I mentioned this mug of matcha latte); it’s about the Indigo Adopt a School program to bring books to students across Canada. I’m determined to spread the news as much as I can because I love reading, and I can’t imagine not having enough books in the school library.
http://missmylin.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/adopt-a-school/

I’m so excited! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at matcha for a while now but didn’t know how to get started. Then, I was at Nutters, an organic grocery here in Red Deer, and I found a whole section on matcha. Woo hoo! After spending way too much time reading all the packages, I thought this would be a good starting point.

I love matcha lattes, but they can get crazy expensive at the chain coffee shops. I also love coconut, so the instructions on the back on this bag really appealed to me. Got myself a chasen while I was there too.

I was actually a little nervous while preparing the latte this morning. I really didn’t want to screw up. I don’t have a proper chawan, but I have a wide mouth latte mug so that had to do. Followed the instructions to a tee, using heated So Delicious Original coconut milk.

Wow is this ever sweet! And I like sweet. But this was very unexpected. I checked, and sure enough, the first ingredient in the tea is cane sugar. Plus the coconut milk is sweetened. Gotta remember that next time. The combination of coconut flavour in both the tea and milk is very nice. My latte cooled down super fast though. Not sure I like that. There was a lot of tea accumulated at the bottom of the mug. Does that mean I didn’t whisk it enough? Probably, because it got very grainy near the end of the mug.

I liked this quite a bit, particularly since it was my first time making matcha at home. No bitterness, just yummy tea. Definitely have to tone down the sweetness somehow. I ordered some matcha from Red Leaf last night, so I’ll be able to try caramel and royal matcha soon.

So, three bags of tea steeped for 5 minutes in a bit of hot water, then fill the pitcher with cold water and stick in the fridge overnight. Time to try this puppy iced. Oh, also added 3/4 cup of simple syrup.

This is much nicer iced. I tried it first without sweetening, but it was just another iced green tea. It’s the sugar that I find brings out the blueberry notes. I’m much happier with this than I was with the hot tea. Nevertheless, it’s a good thing that I don’t have a lot of this hanging around.

I guess it’s a bagged tea kind of day for me. I wanted something without caffeine but wasn’t in the mood for my usual fare.

Saje, for those of you who don’t know, is a Canadian natural wellness store. They’re known for their bath and beauty products, as well as their natural remedies and essential oils. They have a tea line too called RemeTea. I tried a sample of the Chai Rooibos in-store; it seemed pretty good so I bought the sampler.

There’s a reason I don’t like bagged teas. The flavour never seems to get into the whole drink, if you know what I mean. Even the bagged version of Coco Chai Rooibos, while still delicious, doesn’t taste quite the same. The other problem is that I have no idea how the sample in the store was steeped.

Following the instructions for steeped tea and adding sugar and milk gave me a tea that was like spicy water. I can’t detect the rooibos at all, and the spices are very mild. I may try the other method (traditional chai) with my other bags to see if there’s any difference.

This is certified organic and fair trade for those of you who are into that kind of thing. I probably won’t get this again, unless the traditional method is way better than this.

Sil recently wrote a tasting note about a Disney tea, the Mad Tea Party Blend. Which reminded me that I have some Disney Wonderland tea that a friend gave me last year. So now I have to try it and see what it’s like.

I’ve been avoiding it because 1) it’s a bagged tea and I generally don’t like bagged teas anymore, and 2) it’s Disney, how good can they really make a tea? Well, dry, it smells like any ol’ tea bag (LOL). Steeped, it does smell like blueberries.

I drank the first mugful plain because it’s a green tea. I taste green tea with a faint hint of blueberry. So the scent was a tease! Or I did something wrong since everyone else who’s reviewed this can really taste the blueberry flavouring. Well, I did use boiling water like the vague instructions said.

Second mug: fresh tea bag, 80° water, tiny bit of sugar. Yes, way more blueberry flavour this time.

Like everyone else, I’m giving this tea a lot of leeway because it is Disney branded. I wouldn’t buy it for myself for sure. I think I’ll try some of this iced to see what that tastes like.

Après-midi is a tea shop in Vancouver, BC. It looks like they’ll be changing names to Gastown Tea Company in the near future. I had a very lovely afternoon tea service there shortly before I moved to Red Deer. I also bought some of their loose leaf teas to try.

I think I found it! My perfect chai! Now, why have I let this bag sit in my stash for so long??? The dry scent is that perfect combination of cinnamon and cardamon. I used 3 scoops of the perfect teaspoon into my Davids Tea Steeper. The brewed scent is just what I expect from a chai. Two teaspoons of sugar and about 1/2 a cup of milk went in too. This is it. This is what I remember from the very first time I had homemade chai at a friend’s house. Rich spiciness from the cardamon, cinnamon and cloves. There’s allspice and lots of ginger in there too.

I’m soooo happy. What a great start to my weekend!

So, I seem to have a pattern. If I have a particularly nasty tea one day, I invariably reach for one of my all time favourites the next day as if to wipe out the bad taste in my mouth.

But I also reached for my Coco Chai Rooibos to celebrate mailing off my first tea swap to tunes&tea. (Yes, you do get some of this in there!) Woo hoo!

I love the spiciness of this chai. And the coconut is to die for. And best of all, no caffeine so I can drink this whenever I want :) Even though I’m still on the eternal search for the perfect chai, this is the best I’ve found so far.

Can’t wait to see your reviews Dave!

Oooooh, I really hate saying this. I made some Tulsi India Chai yesterday, and I so did not like it. It was more minty than spicy; the mintiness overpowered the earthiness that I found the last time I drank a tulsi tea. This is just a bad mix for me :(

I found a little sample of this that a friend had given me a while back. I figured might as well give it a go, even though I wasn’t really sure about it after looking up kombucha online.

It smells pretty good dry. It smells really fruity and yummy when steeped. It’s okay. Maybe I’m all weirded out by the idea of kombucha so it’s clouding my judgement. I don’t mind it. It’s pleasantly fruity with a bit of an earthy aftertaste. But, I like Long Life Oolong way better. I’m glad this was just a small sample.

Another foray for me into the world of non-flavoured black teas :)

This reminds me of orange pekoe oddly enough. It’s mild, both in scent and in taste. That’s not a bad thing at all, just unexpected. One day, I’m going to have to make myself a taste test bar of different black teas. Well, once I have more than 2 black teas in my cupboard. As of right now, I think I like my darjeeling a little bit better.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other straight black teas I should try? Or better yet, does anyone want to do a tea swap with me so I can try other black teas? I have tons of flavoured teas to share :)

Mmmmmm…salted caramel. I have been dying to try this one ever since I found out about it. Alas, I had to wait a little bit after my move to first make some money at my new job, and second order online because I don’t have a Davids Tea handy anymore.

The dry scent is amazing. It’s a rich caramel scent with hints of salt. When brewed, it reminded me a bit of Creme Caramel Rooibos but with a deeper scent, which make sense since this is a black tea. Just the same as Fantasy Island, I steeped this for 4 minutes then added a teaspoon of rock came sugar, no milk.

See, I’m trying to test the theory that the reason I feel the need to add milk to my black teas is because I steep them for too long. My theory was proven with Fantasy Island, but not so much with Salted Caramel. My first cup as described above wasn’t as great as the scent would have me believe. It tasted like a “smokier” version of Creme Caramel Rooibos. No, smokey is the wrong word. More “tea-ish”? I couldn’t get any sense of the salt in there either.

I made a second mug at 5 minutes and put both sugar and milk. Much better. It was smoother, and that rich caramel flavour was more well-rounded against the black tea. Still no salt, but maybe we’re not supposed to really notice it. The more I got through the mug, the more I liked it. I think this one will be a keeper.

Trying out one of my new teas this morning while I get my butt in gear to go to the Farmer’s Market.

I really like this. Dry, it smells heavenly. All raspberry and coconutty. I decided to try it with just a tiny bit of some rock cane sugar I suckered myself into buying, and no milk even though I always put milk in my black teas. It’s quite yummy. I get way more coconut that raspberry though. Maybe if I did put a smidgen of milk the raspberry would come out. I like whatever the tea base is. At 4 minutes, I don’t get any of the bitterness that I worry about when I drink black tea.

I suspect I would drink this a lot if I didn’t limit my black teas to the morning. Well that, and the fact I have a lot of black teas to get through :)

Edit: I did a second steeping after I got home from the market. (By the way, it’s not supposed to be this chilly when it’s only September 1st. Just saying.) Steeped 5 minutes, little bit of the rock cane sugar, no milk: it tastes just as yummy as the first steeping.

I couldn’t place the scent of the brewed tea earlier. I took more time to think about it this time. It reminds me of the early morning in a tropical country (for me, that would be the Philippines or Vietnam). The scent of the tea is like the woody scent of the trees in that hot, muggy morning mist.

Wahoo! Got my shipment from Davids Tea yesterday…the same day the fall collection was announced (poopy). But, I’m so excited to try some new teas: Prairie Berry, Fantasy Island, Salted Caramel and Nepal black tea. And since I had my tea shipped to my work, I got to show it all to my coworkers and started a great discussion about tea. Too bad there isn’t a Davids Tea in Red Deer :(

I digress. I started with Prairie Berry, you know with being from Saskatchewan and all. There sure are a lot more cranberries than Saskatoon berries in there. The smell was everything I expected from this tea. I did, however, forget about it in my steeper while I was working so it sat for more than 15 minutes. I tried to redeem it with a bit of maple sugar after the first few sips that were so not so yummy. The sugar helped a little, but I really think I messed up the whole thing. Yet, I did like the berry flavour once I got over the bitterness.

I’m not going to rate this yet, not until I make it properly and give it a good chance.

I’m surprised by the number of bad reviews. This is my favourite iced tea, and it’s one that is almost always in my cupboard.

I make the tea slightly more than double strong and steep for 7 minutes. Into my Takeya iced tea maker it goes along with a 1/2 cup of simple syrup. Mmmm…I love the lemon flavour without a lemonade tartness and the jasmine notes. I think the oolong comes out very nicely when I go more than double strength.

I did a second steeping and drank it hot. I like it well enough hot, but it shines so much better as an iced tea. My pitcher is almost done…I wonder what I’ll make next.

Oh yay for a great big mug of Oh Canada!

This is my second favourite tea (a very close second to Coco Chai Rooibos), and it always makes be very happy when I choose to make this. I steep it for the maximum amount of time to really get that maple flavour going, then I add a teaspoon of maple sugar and a splash of milk. Oh, heaven! It’s all about the maple flavour in this tea.

I may be ambivalent about my current Midsummer Night’s Dream iced tea, but I absolutely love Oh Canada!

I’ve been hemming and hawing over this one for a few days. Might as well give it a go since the pitcher is almost done.

Earlier this year I tried this tea hot. I loved it. Anything citrus appeals to me, and that touch of mint was very nice. This is one of the rare teas that I don’t feel the need to add milk or sugar too, so it makes a great travel tea that I can make up easily in my hotel room.

A few days ago, I made a pitcher of iced tea with this. I’m having a love/hate relationship with it. I still really enjoy the citrus notes, but now I don’t like the minty thread through it. Yet, I find it really refreshing to drink, even though I’m always taken aback by that first sip. I’m wondering if it’s because my last two pitchers of iced tea were very fruity sweet, and this one isn’t. It’s only very lightly sweetened this time because that pitcher of Luscious Watermelon was a bit much. It feel though that more simple syrup would make the Midsummer Night’s Dream iced tea worse.

I only have enough to make one more mug so I’m going back to hot for this one. I haven’t decided if I like it well enough to buy it again, but I’m glad I got the chance to give this a try.

A nice lazy Saturday morning. I love these kinds of days, and they come so rarely for me. I’m trying to get my butt in gear to go visit the Farmer’s Market, but first some tea.

I really like Coffee Pu’erh. Smoother than coffee, stronger than most teas I drink. Today I’m having it latte style, and it’s wonderful. This is the only pu’erh I’ve ever tried, so I’m not sure about the fishiness that everyone keeps talking about. I’ll have to get some and try that. With this, I really love the chocolate tones. I get the barest hint of caramel today. But it’s mostly the coffee/tea combo that I really enjoy.

I’m feeling very homesick today. It’s my niece’s 4th birthday, and it’s the first time I haven’t been with her to celebrate. I said Happy Birthday over the phone, and she asked me why I didn’t come to her house. I said I’m far, far away. So she said to drive fast. I told her I don’t have a car. So she said maybe her daddy (my brother) could drive really fast and pick me up and drive really fast to get home! She’s so adorable and smart, and it’s killing me that I’m not there right now.

So I thought I’d make a nice iced lemon tea to pick me up. I loved this hot, so I thought it’s about time I tried it cold. Great! Not great enough to lift me from my self-pity, but it’s quenching my thirst. It’s not like the lemonade taste I had while hot. It’s more of a grassy, green tea taste with lemon tones. I’ll probably really enjoy it tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Bella Boo! Tita misses you terribly.

Okay, I have to admit it. I’m a geek. Especially now that I work in a software company, the inner geek is making itself known. When I saw a tea based on Dune, I absolutely had to buy some immediately :)

Dry, it smells like a wonderfully spicy chai. Could I have possibly inadvertently found my perfect chai??

When brewed, the scent brings to mind hot apple cider without the apple. It tastes wonderfully spicy. Love the cardamom and cloves. I only put the barest teaspoon of sugar because I wanted to really enjoy the spiciness. I can imagine this as the taste of the melange. Or, as the book says: “Some hold that the spice produces a learned-flavor reaction. The body, learning a thing is good for it, interprets the flavor as pleasurable – slightly euphoric.”

This is definitely a pleasurable tea. I’d have to try it with hot milk to know if this is the chai I’ve been looking for. As it stands, I may just become addicted to Melange :)

Another yummy iced tea in my fridge. Yay!

You know what this reminds me of? In the Philippines, my aunt would take a cantaloupe, shred it into a pitcher of cold water and ice, and put a tiny bit of sugar. This iced tea has that wonderful melon taste with a watermelon kick. I can’t taste anything other than melon, which can be a good thing since the carrot didn’t really appeal to me.

The only thing I messed up on…I put a cup of simple syrup in without thinking about how sweet the tea would be on its own. I really must learn to taste the iced tea before sweetening it. And sweeten it I probably will because I have an incurable sweet tooth. Luckily, I have more of this (unlike my White Malibu which I’ve consigned to memory) so I can try it straight next time.

And can I just say that the Takeya iced tea maker is awesome!! I got it through a gift certificate to Davids Tea that my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday. It is one of my favourite tea making devices, along with my Steeper, also from Davids Tea.

Made a mug of this while I’m waiting for my Luscious Watermelon iced tea to cool. I got a small tin of it when it first came out; not a single jellybean to be found. I feel ripped off. It smells wonderful dry and I like all the other ingredients, but if the name says Jolly Jellybean and there are jellybeans in the ingredient list, then I should get jellybeans dammit!

It’s a nice tea when brewed. Creamy, slightly coconutty, sweet. I think my disappointment over the lack of jellybeans is colouring my judgement though. I have much better stuff in my tea stash than this, like Oh Canada and Coco Chai Rooibos. The second steeping wasn’t any better but it wasn’t any worse either.

I may change my mind if I ever get to try this with jellybeans. For now, I don’t think I would get this again.