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Finally done work! I had a seven hour shift today, and it just stretched on and freaking on. Seriously, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a shift at any of my jobs that seemed so slow. I basically sold nothing, and there were two of us working when it was completely unnecessary.

On the plus side, I’m home now! I’ve got myself all curled up with a cup of tea, my phone to text James, Pokemon (beat the first gym last night, so tonight’s goal is to be the 2nd gym), James’ favourite Peter Seller’s Pink Panther movie, and a plate of strawberry eggos with LOTS of syrup. It’s shaping up to be a perfect evening. I was gonna cook something SOMEWHAT Thanksgiving-y for dinner, and have Pumpkin Chai tea instead of pumpkin pie, but I was tired so I’ll do that tomorrow.

I added some sugar (1/2 tsp.) to my tea because I read on someone’s review or something that it brings out the cantaloupe flavour more. Yeah, I’m not really getting that from this. Not to say that it’s bad – it’s certainly not! It’s just not BETTER. Maybe even? Anyway, I should drink it… It’s getting cool. Maybe I’m just trying to do a little too much?

Nah.

Still, perfect tea is perfect & I look forward to seeing the top 10 ideas from Stacy’s contest!

This was my work tea today:

It started off really good, with such a juicy strawberry taste – but the longer it sat and the cooler it got, the more bitter it seemed. Definitely didn’t hold up well today – and I wish I’d drank it faster.

Also, the more chocolate teas I try the more subtle I think the chocolate in this tea is. Hmmm… Anyway, I think I’m gonna bump this down a bit (not a lot, yet – maybe this tea can redeem itself).

Keeping this short and to the point since I just got home from work and my brand new copy of Pokemon ‘Y’ is sitting with my and begging to be played. Also, I have a bowl of Princess Alphagetti that I’m dying to dig into…

But basically, nothing new to report on this tea. Still brilliantly minty and well balanced flavourwise. It was my saviour, yet again, this morning at work since I had the opening shift. I got to listen to Saskatoon’s Sask. Express perform in the mall all day (they were doing a breast cancer awareness/fundraising concert) – their songs were all good, but they sang a lot of Christmas carols and it’s WAY too early for Christmas carols.

Anyway, off the play my game! Team Froakie!

Urgh, this tea was a mess today – and I’m pretty sure there’s no one or nothing to blame but myself. I hate when that happens – why can’t it be somebody else’s fault?

Anyway, I guess I should explain – right? I made this for work today – and because it’s a black tea I steeped two cups with fresh leaf each time. The only black tea I have that resteeps well (that I can think of off the top of my head atm) is Blueberry Jam. So, for the first cup I used the recommended 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf and 98 degree celsius water – just like David’s recommends. I wanted to use the high end of the steep time so that it was strong – but I also REALLY didn’t want it to be bitter, either.

Anyway, I ended up texting someone while I was waiting – and the text conversation was so good that I lost track of time because I was distracted and I let my tea steep for probably close to 10 min. I took a sip and it was REALLY bitter. Ick. Normally I’d have just tossed the cup but I remembered Stacy saying that when she has a bitter cup she just dilutes it with water until it tastes right.

So, that brings me to the second cup. I decided if I made this one really weak then it would probably save my tea and it’d balance out. However, I got distracted by the same text conversation AGAIN and left the cup steeping for probably 7 or 8 minutes… Another really bitter cup. So, I poured half the cup out filled the rest with water and dumped it all into the thermos with the first cup. I took a few smalls sips and it didn’t seem to bad so I left it like that until I tried it at work.

SO BITTER. It didn’t help at all – and instead there were some really wonky smoke tastes and awful astringency with barely any of the smooth, coconut and butterscotch flavours poking through. I choked my way through the whole thermos though – as punishment for ruining two cups of a tea which could have been awesome.

Stupid nearly perfect boys with their nearly perfect text conversations…

Mmmm… Morning tea!

This is definitely a nice gentle start to my morning – the perfect “ease you out of bed” type of tea. It’s been a couple days since I had a proper morning tea, lately I’ve been too rushed getting ready for work and have only had time to make my work tea.

Not sure what today’s tea for work should be… I think I want something “Autumny”. Pumpkin Chai maybe? Or Chai Apricot…

Regardless, dry leaf smells exquisite. Steeped 1 1/2 tsp. for 4 min. and it’s such a pretty amber colour. It tastes amazing too – but I can’t help but feel like it’s missing something. Maybe it’s the fact I have no butterscotch pudding to mix in his time? Hmm. I wonder if I ruined my Earl Grey for myself by using an additive I’m not always going to have readily available. Bleck.Oh well, this still FEELS like an old friend I’m enjoying catching up with.

Tre went back to Regina for Thanksgiving and wont be back until sometime on Monday, so it’s just me for the weekend. Yay for unabashedly being able to walk around naked without worrying about him coming home for school or something. Too much information? Maybe.

Back to my domestic chores, though… I need to wash the dishes so I have more mugs for tea.

I was craving this last night, so I made it as my work tea today.

I still hate the smell of the dry leaf – it smells super strong and intense and almost alcoholic to me. Yuck.

But, I had about half the thermos hot and half of it cold and it continued to be great either way. Nothing like the smell of the dry leaf, in my opinion. Nice and smooth, and creamy caramel tasting. I can taste the white tea base too, and it’s just perfect. I love that this tea can take hot temperatures and long steep times without getting bitter.

Today at work, I got to mess around with a magic eight ball (I felt like such a little kid – it was great) and had to climb into the chute or a cardboard compactor. That was less fun. I’m just glad I had the door of the room locked behind me so no one could come in and accidentally turn it on. That would have been bad. Really bad. Stupid people not breaking down their cardboard boxes and clogging up the compactor…

Also, I was gonna make myself tea when I got home but it appears all of my mugs and in the dishwasher, which is currently running. Boo. No tea tonight, I guess. At least Tre made me supper to compensate.

Took about 10 oz. of this to work with me today. It’s definitely going to become a habit of mine to take a thermos or water bottle of tea with me every morning. I feel like tomorrow is gonna be a white tea day – I feel like I’ve been neglecting my Gold Rush from DAVIDsTEA so I’m gonna show it some love.

Gah, I love peppermint tea – and this turned out to be a good choice because the hot sauce I had with my Mexi Fries today made my tummy feel all weird, so nice soothing/calming peppermint tea was perfect.

I’ve mentioned I like my peppermint tea strong before, right? Because holy mint – I used 2 1/5 tsp. for 5 oz. and then resteeped the leaf for the second 5 oz. (both steeped for approx. 5 minutes). Even when it was hot, the mint made it seem cool. That’s the perfect kind of mint tea, imo.

Also, I have hiccups. Blah.

I’ve been postponing my next cup of this for as long as possible, for a few reasons. Firstly, I don’t have a lot of it so I want to preserve what I do have left. Secondly, even though this is only $5 or $6 for 50g (something like that, I don’t remember exactly) it weighs a whole crap ton because of all the really massive chunks of stuff – so 50g gets you hardly anything. And thirdly, I’m a little worried that my second cup will not live up to how practically oragasmically delivious my first cup was.

However, I just got home from a freaking nine and a half hour work day (I don’t know if I’ve EVER had a shift that long somewhere), my feet are sore, and I’m tired of directly kindly old ladies to calendars of really obscure and specific dog breeds – like a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. I don’t even know if I spelled that correctly, let alone what it looks like. So, that in mind, I need a freakin’ reward tea right now.

Steeped 2 tsp. in 6 oz. of boiling water for 10 min. The liquor is a very cloudy light brown and smells strongly of banana and chocolate with some faint tropical notes, probably from the mango or papaya or whichever it is in the blend. And let me tell you, this is DEFINITELY a rewarding tea right now. I don’t think it’s quite a flavourful as I remember it being the first time I had it – but I’m not liking it any less.

It’s very creamy with a rich banana taste complimented by a somewhat more subtle chocolate flavour in comparison to some of the other chocolate teas I’ve had recently. Yum.

Also, I found out today that because I work at a mall, I get a 10% discount not only at the foodcourt, but in every store in the mall! That means I get 10% off at Tea Desire… I’m DEFINITELY taking advantage of that.

Ah, I love this Mate so much! Seriously, it tastes freaking great and the energy it provides is a God send.

I took a water bottle filled with this iced with me to do stocking/merchandising since we started at 9 PM tonight, and finished at 1:30 AM. Boy did I need that energy kick – although hopefully it’s faded enough for me to sleep – I have another 8 hour shift tomorrow starting at noon (it probably sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m really loving actually working and doing something with my days again – so no complaints thus far).

I’m adding a full tin of this to my list of teas to purchase. So, that now expands my list to a box of Stash tea (that I can’t locate anywhere in town for the life of me), a full tin of this, POSSIBLY a full tin of David’s Cranberry Pear (I need to try my Della Terra pear tea more so I can decide which is better and, therefore, more worthy of stocking), a couple assorted teas from Della Terra that I didn’t get last time but am curious about (like Lemon Chiffon), and the MAJOR Butiki order I want to put in. Damn that’s a lot of tea.

I also want to add at least 3 more Mates to my cupboard, eventually. No idea which ones though.

Finally trying out the final tea from my Della Terra order! I saved something that I’m confident I’ll love for last – so hopefully I’m not wrong with my assumption!

Really though, this tea has a black tea base includes mint (oh how I love mint), chocolate (hello dessert tea and decadence) and vanilla, along with the most adorable little cow sprinkles. How could I possibly resist?

The dry leaf smells like this nice, rich balance between all three added flavour (mint, chocolate, and vanilla) and is so rich, creamy, and decadent smelling. Seriously, with the way this smells you’d think the tea would be a calorie killer, but of course it’s got absolutely nowhere near the calorie count I’m imagining (not that I’d really care if it did).

I’m very excited to make a cup of this while I watch Pulp Fiction for the first time! I don’t know how I was able to put off watching it for so long; especially since everything I’ve ever heard about it has been positive. It was recently recommended to me again by someone I just met (but who seems to have impeccable taste), so I’m going to give it a shot!

Unlike all the other Della Terra teas I got in my order, this one has no steeping guide included on the resealable bag. Hmm, how odd. I didn’t really feel like running back to my computer (even though it was only a room away) so I just used the same measurement that’s on all the other Della Terra packages (1 – 1 1/2 tsp. for 6 oz. in 210 degree water). I’m sure that’s probably pretty safe.

I steeped for the full 5 minutes because I like my mint strong, so the hope was the black tea base wouldn’t get bitter, but the mint would get powerful. The liquor is a really deep, rich, and CHOCOLATEY brown. Mmm. I can smell really powerful notes of mint (yay), but they’re not masking up the notes of chocolate and vanilla. I cannot, however, really get a strong smell of the black tea base.

First few sips… Ooh. This is dessert heaven. Seriously, the first taste is chocolate mint which has a great balance between the two flavours. From there, those flavours stay strong but the vanilla is introduced which makes this so creamy. The impression I’m given is “chocolate chip mint ice cream”, and I am actually managing to get a good impression of the black tea base through all of this extreme flavour. Also, no bitterness at all: whew. It’s impressive.

Yeah, this is something I want to stock again – definitely. I dare say my brother, who is such a tea skeptic and always complains he only tastes water, would love this. If I know anyone who absolutely LOVES mint chocolate chip flavoured things it’s him – and that’s preciously what this tea tastes like! Next time he visits, I’m making sure he gives this one a fair shot.

I need to start my movie ASAP before I finish the cup! I just can’t stop sipping away at it.