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Confession time. I am a t-sac junkie. Here’s how it goes: I buy a pack of t-sacs with the intention to only use them at work, while traveling, and when I’m on the run in the morning, but then I just end up using them for every single flipping cup of tea I make because I am supremely lazy. It’s gotten so bad that I ended up finishing a pack of 100 filters within the span of a couple weeks. Time to stop putting a strain on the environment and my wallet and just use a darn infuser basket! I will conquer this laziness. I just bough two new perfect mugs from DT last week, so now I have no excuses :)

Which leads me to my beloved Mayan Chocolate Chai. This was my first time making it with an infuser rather than a t-sac, and holy heck is it ever spicy! I can’t believe the difference sans t-sac. The pepper is the first flavour I taste and it remains dominant for the whole sip. Yum! Spicy, spicy goodness. I can’t believe how much flavour I was losing before. All the more reason to permanently kick my t-sac habit.

Having a cup of an old favourite this morning. I’ve been neglecting it as of late, after discovering that there’s a whole world of tea beyond Davids. For the longest time, it was the only tea company I had tried that I truly enjoyed every aspect of. The tea, the marketing, the branding, it all drew me in. And Buttered Rum has to be my very favourite that they have to offer. So delicious and rich and satisfying.

I just opened up a new bag of this and it’s quite different from my last batch. I got this pouch on sale, I think they had split up a bunch of unsold giftsets and were selling the pouches individually on the cheap.

This batch is a lot heavier on the smoky rum flavouring, which is not my favourite. I love it for the buttery sweet caramelized coconut notes, which are a little muted by the rum. Oh well, still tasty. I wonder if the rum will fade over time? Either way, this tea and I are old friends, and I have a feeling I’ll be keeping it around for a long time to come.

This is the only tea I keep in my cupboard despite hating how it tastes. It is way too minty and way too orangey for me, and the juniper berries don’t do much for me either. It’s a struggle for me to get a mug of this down, even when I’m sick.

But I love it for the same reasons that I hate it. It’s really super strong, in both flavour and scent, and is sometimes the only thing I’m actually able to taste when I’m all stuffy. It does make me feel a bit better, but not substantially so. If I’m really sick, I can’t stomach the flavour, so I reach for something gentler like Mother’s Little Helper. But for a bad case of the stuffies, this blend isn’t so bad. I love that there’s eucalyptus in it though! I love the scent and I’ve rarely seen it in a tea blend.

I don’t know whether I’ll repurchase this when it’s done, if only because of the fact that it can really turn my stomach. I’m more of a lemon-ginger person when I’m sick, and tend to avoid the strong mint.

I have so much love for this tea. I had forgotten how much I like it until I had my cup this morning. Buttery flavours in tea are usually a win for me, and I love all of the roots and spices incorporated into this blend.

If this ever comes back (fingers crossed) I will buy it in huge quantities. I can never see myself getting sick of it. I think I have about half a pouch left now? I’ll have to hoard it :D

This was my morning cuppa.

This is such a good, sturdy staple. It was love at first sip, and I’m particularly particular about my earl grey cremes.

I fell in love with London Fogs during my first year of university. They are a terrible, tasty addiction. So not long after discovering them I bought myself a bag of loose leaf earl grey creme from a now-defunct local tea shop since I figured the flavours were similar, so maybe I could recreate my beloved London Fogs at home. But nope, it tasted like an artificial, over-the-top, in your face attempt at vanilla creme. That experience turned me off of vanilla earls for a long while. It was just SO sickly. And I’ve found that same note in EGCs from other companies too (looking at you, Adagio!)

But once again I took a leap of faith with Della Terra, and surprise surprise, they didn’t let me down! This is so smooth and creamy-sweet like it should be, but it’s also fresh and bright, and almost peppery. None of that sickly business I had come to expect from an earl grey creme. This is perfection. Simple and bold, it feels like an old friend with those familiar London Fog flavours. This is yet another one from Della Terra that I will most definitely be stocking up on.

Also—you guys! You NEED to make this soup. Like seriously, even if you’re not a soup person, even if you’re not a carrot person..just try it. It is a party of roasty sweet goodness in my mouth. Had it for dinner last night and I’m already contemplating when I can make it next. Yum!
http://www.food52.com/recipes/9743_roasted_carrot_soup

I loved the idea of a white chocolate matcha. Two delicate, unassuming, but absolutely delicious flavours pairing up sounds perfect to me. And now that I have it, I can say that it really is pretty great! Just a bit different than I expected.

I got classic matcha with robust flavouring, for reference.

When I first opened the bag I was puzzled. It smelled more chocolatey than I expected. Upon further sniffing I pinned it down as a distinct cocoa butter scent. Not quite chocolate, but chocolate-like. Okay, I can deal with that. White chocolate is mostly cocoa butter solids, after all. I guess I was just hoping for more of a sweet and creamy can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-what-it-is white chocolate, since my plan was to drink it mostly in smoothies. This is definitely not that. It’s complex and rich and has almost a floral-like quality that you can get a hint of in pure cocoa butter. In the way that honey is almost floral, but not quite. Interesting! This made me even more excited to try it.

I tried it in a smoothie first, since that was my intention when I bought it. It adds wonderful depth and a hint of creamy sweetness to the tart strawberries in the drink. It’s a subtle flavour, but not completely overwhelmed by everything else going on in there flavour-wise. I think overall I still prefer cheesecake matcha for smoothies, but this is definitely unexpected and decidedly tasty.

I haven’t tried it got yet but I’m planning to have a latte later tonight. Fingers crossed that it will taste like a matcha-fied version of white hot chocolate (my favourite!) :D

I got this in my first Della Terra order, and to be honest I have no idea why I grabbed it. Chocolate and strawberry is not my favourite flavour combo for some reason. Of course I’d never turn down an actual fresh chocolate covered strawberry (who would?!) but in candies, chocolates, and the like? No. Just no. I guess I mostly got it for the girlfriend, cause one of the only teas she likes is a chocolate strawberry blend.

When I made her a cup of it, she thought it tasted exactly the same as her other chocolate strawberry tea. I took a sip and yep, they’re pretty darn similar. So she really liked it, even though it wasn’t particularly exciting.

I ended up eventually taking the rest of our pouch to work with me to finish up. Sipdown was yesterday, and I’ve got to say, it was definitely pleasant to sip on at work. Not a reorder for me, but that’s purely personal taste. I will say that it’s very smooth, not at all bitter, and the flavours are nicely balanced. Glad I tried it, but also glad that I’ve finished it up :)

Today is a perfect tea-day! Well I guess pretty much every day is, but today especially. It’s all cool and blustery and rainy, and on top of that my orders from Della Terra and Red Leaf both came! YAY!

So after making the trek to the post office after class, this is the first one I’m trying. I was a little bit nervous to try this one, since caramel can be hit or miss for me and there weren’t any tasting notes yet. But I have faith in Della Terra, and for good reason! This is good. Like, really good.

The dry leaf smells strong and rich, almost coffee-like, with a great burnt sugar caramel note. It smells sweet, but not overly so.

Brewed up, it’s nice and thick and rich. Prominent black tea base with that dark, luscious caramel aroma wafting up at me. It’s lovely as is, and retains that coffee-like quality. Drinking it unsweetened I get that burnt sugar goodness full on. A bit of sugar softens it up and gives it a totally different character. A little milk brings out the creamy caramel goodness, and makes it taste like there are melted kraft caramels in my cup!

Glad I grabbed a little pouch of this..it was a pleasant surprise.

I already have a favourite blueberry black tea in my cupboard, so I don’t know why I decided to order this. So, so glad I did though because I need to have this at all times now too! They are both different but equally delicious. So apparently I really love blueberries with black tea!

This is sweet, creamy, custardy, and rich. I love the addition of rooibos, it really brings out all the flavours and works perfectly with them. It doesn’t noticeably taste like rooibos..this is really well blended.

I haven’t tried it iced yet, but I imagine it would be amazing! I need to order more of this soon, almost finished my pouch. Darn it, I keep finding more and more teas that I always want to have on hand.

I’ve had this for a long time, and I’ve just started drinking it again. I drank it quite often when I first got it, but got sick of it quickly. I brought it to work with me in hopes of getting it finished quickly, but so far I’ve even been avoiding it there.

It’s…weird. Kind of interesting, and definitely not common, but decidedly weird. I like the ginger and the bit of mint, but I think the cardamom’s throwing me off. It tastes healthy, almost like a tonic. Which I’m sure would appeal to some people, but not a selling point for me.

Oddly enough though, I never have trouble finishing a cup. It’s pretty smooth, all things considered, and the ginger is what really makes it drinkable for me. It’s nice to have after lunch. Maybe if I start thinking of it as my after lunch tea I can convince myself to finish my 25g pouch.