Jessie

A+++ breakfast tea! Managed to get me out the door for a weekend of suburban family functions. This is malty and rich and it absolutely loves milk.

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Buttery but very light and refreshing. Some roastiness and subtly sweet. I like this one at night, and I cannot get over how bright the fresh leaves are!

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I don’t know why I fall for such novelty teas so often. Well, in this case, I’d bought some sort of online deal that got me a bunch of tea for very little. But, I always end up disappointed.

This turned out to be a thin Ceylon with some mild caramel taste and, for some reason, a lot of floral coming through. I don’t know where that was coming from. I added some cream because it felt so thin and unsatisfying and drank it quickly on my way to work. So, it’s definitely drinkable but not something I’m going to want often or more of. Oh well.

I had this iced from the store, so it’s not the best way to judge it. But, I found it rather tart and not very convincingly pomegranate. I don’t know. I kept thinking cherry instead of pomegranate, and I don’t like cherry flavours.

Anyway, this is kind of a shameful waste of silver needles as I couldn’t taste any of that under the overbearing whatever flavours. It was drinkable, but it felt like I had bought a bottle of some kind of hyper-processed juice, not tea!

Is this the only tea of the month that hasn’t stuck around longer? I really wish it wasn’t the case. It’s been my favourite.

I cold-brewed this last night with a few slices of lime, and I’ve consumed about a liter of it in the past couple hours. Delicious!

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Hmm, I liked this less today.

I think this is my favourite cold-brewed tea, and wish I could get more of it!

Wow! This is really good. It’s the first darker oolong I’ve been so drawn to. Dry it smelled like dry wood (actually it reminded me of my grandmother’s wicker furniture), and the liquor came out quite dark so I was worried. But it’s really clean-tasting, with a hint of floral. Astringent but not at all bitter. Really smooth and pleasant. Also, the huge leathery leaves are really cool!

This is the first houjicha I’ve been able to say emphatically that I like. I am always intrigued by the roastiness but sometimes put off a little by how intense it is. This kukicha is very roasty, toasty, and earthy without tasting like dirt. It had a nice sweetness and mildness, even after a three-minute preliminary steep as suggested. I’ve decided what this tastes like is when you’re eating a walnut and some of the inner shell lining is still stuck to it. You know? It’s nutty and with a touch of that woody nut shell taste, but sweeter. I got a second infusion before spilling the leaves all over the sink, and it was much milder and even sweeter. I’ll have to try the Den’s version of this some time.

A really mellow, green, buttery oolong. I find this tasty and very solid but not mind-blowing. I again fell asleep before getting to use the leaves to their full potential, though! Ugh.

I don’t know how I haven’t logged this one yet, but I guess I was concentrating on finishing up the Jungpana first flush I still had from DT. So delicious. Delicate but with so much personality!

Finally getting around to my sample of this!

I’m only on my first infusion but should have time for one or two more here at work if everyone leaves me alone. The dry leaves smelled really verdant and grassy in the cute little sample bag. As it was steeping, the floral and buttery notes came out. The flavour mirrors that: this is sweet, buttery, and somewhere between floral and grassy. There’s also a slight toastiness. Very refreshing! Helping me wash down a piece of the peanut-butter-ice-cream-and-brownie-cake I made for the boyfriend’s birthday.

This smelled incredible, and fell only a little short in the taste department. I indeed should have added milk, but didn’t bother. There was a little bitterness which must have come from the green tea. Why is there green tea in this?

Anyway, this was a sweet and creamy tea. Very tasty but I found all the flavours blended into one another. Not necessarily a bad thing, but desserty teas like this are all starting to taste the same.

This was an interesting cup. Really rich, and very nutty thanks to the rooibos and rice. One of the nicer caramel teas I’ve had. Caramel flavour can tend to be either too thin or too sweet, but this is robust and tasty. I think it would resteep well but I didn’t get around to it.

This is a strange but not unpleasant tea. I can’t decide how I feel about it. First, I think it has way too much going on. The citrus is really strong and I get a strange, hard-to-identify aftertaste that I think must be the nondescript sea minerals. It leaves a bit of a weird feeling in my mouth, and I think the stevia must contribute to that. I love to bake with stevia, but don’t like it anywhere near my tea. And I didn’t know how to steep this. 5-7 minutes in boiling water was recommended but it’s a white-and-green blend. I let it go about 5 minutes but in cooler water. It doesn’t seem to have come out bitter. I’m drinking the last of my mug cooled off, and I think I prefer it this way.

I love this. It’s one of my favourite jasmine teas. It’s so rich that I actually find it less cloying than most jasmines/florals.

But I’ve done a bad thing. I’ve been asked to substitute at a new branch office that’s pretty poorly equipped. I feel like I’ve been locked in an abandoned house (it’s not in the greatest shape, and is being renovated). Because I wanted to brighten the experience for myself, and because it’s located only steps away from a DavidsTea, I caved and bought the cute polka-dot Perfect Mug and the green mini Bodum kettle I’ve been eyeing for months. Ugh. I did not need to spend that money, but the kettle is so adorable! It makes just a mug of hot water. And, combined with my nerdy timer gadget also from DT, I have a cute tea-making station that keeps me occupied and happy while the office is incredibly slow.

This was delightful this morning! Rich and a little spicy, but sweet and smooth.

I just had this cold from the store to keep me hydrated at work. It’s one I hadn’t tried before, and it’s actually quite nice. Very refreshing, and very light. Light (almost hard to detect) Oolong taste, light on the jasmine and light on even the citrus. It’s flavourful but not overwhelming and the citron part is sweeter than it is tart.

I had this to-go as an iced tea of the day today, as well as a day last week. It’s very, very rooibosy this way. Or perhaps I’m just noticing it more these days. I like where this tea is going with the other flavours but the rooibos is overbearing and not my favourite at the moment.

I realized that I’d failed to make iced tea on this, a disgustingly hot day (tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest since 1948!). So I put a teaspoon of this in my glass bottle full of cold water and stuck it in the freezer for about half an hour before I had to leave. By the time I made it to work, I needed it. This is so refreshing. Only a slight bitterness. Really nice and sweet and flavourful. Here’s hoping it’ll help keep me productive because I’m really struggling to read/study in this weather!