6444 Tasting Notes
Cameron B was super awesome to give me the chance to revisit this tea that I remembered living but didnt intend on buying again anytime soon. Then we found out Lupicia was shutting down the US online store and I ordered more so when I made tea today, I felt completely okay using the whole sample for one mug. Then I brought the mug upstairs and was watching a show in bed. Didnt take long before I fell asleep. So now I’m drinking this cold and it is still delightfully juicy and melon. Thanks Cameron B!
When I come back to Toronto, a friend and I always like to get bubble tea. It helps that I live in Markham and there is a plaza 5 minutes from my house with 4 different bubble tea shops (Chatime, The Alley, Coco, Tea Shop 168, probably more).
Across the street from there is another plaza with all Asian tea and foods including the recently opened Song Tea which has a cute ball pit and in theory had fun named teas like I’m not single cause I’m ugly…okay I am brulee milk tea and my ex boyfriend has a new rich girlfriend black tea. Except we fought the terrible traffic in the parking lot only to get inside and find a limited menu of like 5 milk teas, some cheese teas, and some fruit “teas”.
My friend got a lemon lime tea which literally was just water poured over lemon and limes. I got HK Milk Tea with brown sugar pearls. It wasnt bad but nothing special either. I think in the future it is best to stick to Chatime…or the alley.
This is the first tea my friend and I had when we started working on our project today…well I guess it was technically yesterday.
When I asked what tea she wanted, she remembered me mentioning this before and asked to try it. We both had a mug and it was awesome per usual. I told her it was a favorite and one sip had her seeing why. Her eyes lit up as she exclaimed how good it was. And it really is that good!
My partner and I may have underestimated how long our assignment would take because its 2:10 am and she just left. Thankfully there is no class until 11:30 tomorrow so we can sleep in but this is definitely past our bedtimes.
We ended up having this tea around 11:30 when it became clear we still had a few hours left of work and we’d need some caffeine. I was so tired and my brain was so fried that when I went to steep this I forgot to put the kettle on and just poured the room temp water over the tea. Then struggled how to figure out how to right this wrong. Eventually it clicked that I should pull out the filters and dump the water and pour boiled water instead.
Once i figured out how to brew tea again, this ended up being a nice smooth tea with raspberry cake flavors. It was good and it went down quick while working.
Sipdown (247)
This tea is from 2016 and it is supposed to be best before October 2019 but this is not its best. This is mostly the base tea which I don’t love. All the delicious vanilla is gone. This is goodbye and it seems like I put this off too long.
Aww… I feel you, my Noël à Venise from the end of 2016 has also lost most of its flavor. I really should just sip it down… :(
Sipdown (248)
I sipped on this while working on my project with my friend. I asked if she would like tea and she said sure so then I asked what kind? She asked if I had caffeinated tea
so I suggested a plain black tea because it seemed like the flavors scared her. So I pulled out my drawer of black teas and was going through the plain options when she mentioned flavors so then I started naming some flavors and she got very excited about Bonfire Toffee. I was going to have that with her but after I made hers there was only enough left for an 8 ounce cup and I wanted more caffeine than that. That’s when this caught my eye.
This tea has been awesome and it will be missed. Earl grey and I are not usually friends but this always delivered. Cakey. Vanilla. Earl Grey. All balanced to perfection. Thank you Sil for sharing.
Roswell Strange sent me an awesome package of tea deliciousness and I was super excited yesterday when it arrived. I was also on the edge of having a breakdown since the last couple days have been overwhelming between coming off the stress of drafting a 20 page research memo, having to assemble job application packets and drafting cover letters for firms for applications due today at 5, having surprise client meetings today and yesterday morning I had to prepare for, and having to read a bunch of cases to work on a project with a friend today. So while I enjoyed some of the teas yesterday, I am only now adding them to my cupboard today…now that I finally have a second to breathe.
The most frustrating part was that yesterday was just supposed to be just cover letters, which is manageable but then we got assigned our project and it turned out we needed to do a lot more than we originally anticipated. Then while we were working on our project yesterday I got an email from the receptionist at the community legal services I am volunteering with saying that my client wanted to make the appointment we scheduled for Friday sooner. My concern was that she realized her deadline was coming up for a time sensitive application and needed to be in sooner rather than later so I accommodated. Then today after the stress of yesterday that was exacerbated by my accommodating the client, the client tells me that she moved up the meeting because she checked the weather and today is warmer than Friday. I could have killed her. However, it is done and I was able to get through and be useful on the project despite not getting through many of the cases. And the applications are submitted and now I am watching The Gifted and drinking tea. This tea that smells like the perfect combination of peach and ginger, both dry and steeped.
The flavor is nice too. It is reflective of the scent but not as strong. Not nearly as strong. The scent is sweet fuzzy peaches and ginger but the flavor is not nearly as sweet. It doesn’t have much ginger either. Just a touch of each flavor. A whisper of the scent itself. Nice but not amazing. Perhaps I need to change steeping parameters to coax out the flavors…this time I went with 185F water for 3 minutes. Thank you for sharing Roswell Strange! And if you have steeping recommendations, I’m all ears.
So sorry that your week has been so stressful! Here’s hoping that the rest of it will have less stress and more tea.
I just have to make it to Friday and then I get to go home and visit with my family…and my puppies! Thankfully the bulk of things were done today so the next couple of days shouldn’t be too bad.
if you want your tea, let me know but also don’t stress about it since you’re just up for the weekend. There’s only a few, so i’m more than happy to hold them for longer.
Sorry to hear about all of the stress :( As for tea tea, I’d try upping your steep temp a little bit. From the few times I’ve had this, I recall it being pretty resilient to heat.
Sipdown (234)
I made another peanut butter, cocoa, and banana smoothie this morning and this time remembered Jiri Horse. I almost didn’t use it because I realized I only had 2 servings of leaf left which meant two more cups or one smoothie addition. I was about to put it away and save it for later when I noticed a whole in the bottom of the bag and figured I might as well finish it up.
My hope was that the tea would add some milk chocolate notes to the smoothie. Alas I decided to be lazy and not measure anything so I am mostly getting banana and yogurt. That means this sipdown of Jiri Horse is a bit of a waste and I am sad to see it go in this manner. Good bye Jiri Horse, I am sorry I did not cherish you like I should have…
Sipdown (235)
Thank you for sharing Cameron B! Apparently, I did not look closely when I asked for a sample of this because if I had I would have realized the “licky” means licorice which is not an ingredient/flavor I enjoy in tea. However, I don’t usually enjoy the flavor at all and yet there is a Raspberry Anise jam from Kitten and the Bear that I love despite thinking I would hate it so I suppose this tea could surprise me too…
Well, it is not terrible. I was expecting the worst and I was pleasantly surprised that I did not hate it. With that said, it is not my favorite either. Not because of licorice, as that is not overwhelming here, but rather it is because of the chamomile. I could see this tea being soothing for those who are into these flavors but I am not the target audience. Still fun to try!
I don’t think I would have picked up on Licky = licorice either. Before I read your note, I was going to comment that it made me think of grasshopper legs (idk), which didn’t sound appealing either.
I sipped on this while making a lazy version of tomato egg stir fry. The food was good. This stir fry was not what was expected. It never is. I always expect caramel apple which this tea is not. This tea is more baked cinnamon apples than anything. It is good and dessert-like but whereas caramel apples are more dessert with fruit, baked apples are more fruit with some dessert quality. Subtle difference but it hits you in the cravings…
You’re welcome! This one is my favorite from Lupicia. ❤
Mine too. This and Golden Honeydew. Also Cookie…the teas I ordered lol
i love this one so much
I may or may not have stockpiled 3 unopened 50g packages… >>
Yum. This one is so good.