Daniel Scott Send Message

So for anybody who was not already aware: yes, I did get the job at Teavana. Handily, it would seem – the manager practically begged me to stay interested when she called me for an interview, and told me I did “amazing” at the end of said interview. The paperwork was a pain in the butt (they want you to do everything electronically! no, I can’t “upload” a voided cheque because I don’t have a SCANNER, wtf?), but it’s finally all in, and I should be in their system with an employee number and stuffs by next week. I had my after-hours training shift on Wednesday, and my first real shift on the selling floor last night.

(Most of this is about that, less about the tea. I seriously wish there was a non-tea blog option. Maybe I should just create a non-tea tea entry called “tea retailer/experience blog.”)

Anyway, I think this is the one I had in the store last night. It’s awfully hard to remember, because the assistant manager is the one who made it for me, and we got interrupted by customers before he could get it going. Afterward, we were trying to determine what the heck he had made me, and we were pretty sure that I’d decided on this one. I will not rate it for now though, just in case.

(As a note, I do plan to continue rating Teavana teas. My employment information is not connected anywhere online with my real name, and so far I think people can see I neither exclusively rag on, nor exclusively praise their teas. So I think I’m safe.)

It’s super juicy and fruity, which I like. I am, after all, someone who probably would have been the target audience for the juice-like teas in the sample carts if I hadn’t already been a tea drinker on my own when Teavana came to Canada. (As a side note, I had to refill one of the sample carts last night, so for anyone who is wondering…it’s 1/8th of a cup of rock sugar in 32oz in those samples. That is from the American “recipe” cards we were sent.)

Having been sitting in my Timolino in the fridge overnight, it’s a bit more sour than I remember it being yesterday (I’m thinking this blend has hibby…), but it’s still refreshing. You cannot taste the rooibos at all, so, taste-wise this may as well be an herbal…but again, that does not particularly bother me personally, and there is little price difference between the rooibos and the herbals. I recommended this one to a girl last night; I hope she likes it.

I spent a large chunk of last night pulling tins off the wall and giving them a good ’niff. A lot of the rooibos and green teas look decent, and I have a whole list to try. Then again, Pineapple Kona Pop still smells amazing, despite being middling at best, so I hope I am not getting my hopes up.

As for Teavana…it’s a little early to tell, but it’s going okay so far. My manager seems pretty laid-back/forgiving, so that helps. Hours so far look good. Pay is shockingly bad, and staying past my probation on THAT looks iffy; but that’s weeks from now, so we’ll see.

Training went well; we covered selling from the tea wall, sampling and pushing the cast iron on the unsuspecting. (Har.) I flinched at some of the up-selling tactics, but it’s mostly stuff I’m familiar with from previous work – I’m just more sensitive to it with a product I have so many personal opinions about. I thought for sure that I would have been hired with a bunch of other tea freaks, but on the contrary – most of the other new hires barely had an idea how to brew tea loose, so significant parts of my “training” involved explaining things to my new co-workers, or giving them tips. I deliberately angled to do the “front of the class” role-play second (after someone else stumbled through it, and before everyone else could try – the perfect position to show people up, basically), which I felt a bit guilty about. But my mother and the manager at my other job I discussed this with assured me that I’d done the right thing “to get noticed and get ahead.”

My closing shift last night went okay, despite some moments walking around feeling lost and useless. The scale hates me; I don’t seem to have gotten the order you do things in worked out. I discovered that most things do have a price tag after all, just not on the paper tags where you’d obviously think they were. I’m most awkward at the tea bar, and only got through drink orders based on my own experience making my own tea, but I’m sure I’ll get smoother. Most people said, “Really?!” when I told them it was my first day. Overall, it was probably one of the most relaxing days at work I’ve ever had, despite being my first shift, because most of the questions people had about tea were a breeze for me to answer, and I can fudge my way a bit with product-related questions for now – it’ll lose me sales until I know the product better, but I tend to learn product fast anyway.

The assistant manager told me, “I thought you’d need a lot more guidance, but you seem to have picked up on everything pretty fast. But then, I heard you killed it in training.” He then gave me “improvement advice,” which mostly consisted of telling me that I don’t over-pour enough(!). His exact advice was to start with an over-pour of 8 grams(!) because most people will say yes to it. Ugh. My only over-pours had actually been out of sheer awkwardness (being new to it), and/or the customer saying, “No, that’s fine,” before I could dump any back out.

Now. As painful as that is to me… I was amazed at how well the selling process honestly seems to work on people who aren’t already tea drinkers. It actually works the way they tell you it does in training, which I’ve never seen in retail before. I was trained on “transitions” to get people to follow you from the sample cart to the cast iron and through the store, and I was astonished to find people trotting after me in groups like children after the Pied Piper when I used them, obediently sipping every sample I gave them. This shit actually works? I had multiple people follow me throughout the store, exclaiming delightedly over everything I showed them before I took them to the wall to show them the teas in the samples, and then they bought them – both of them. I was astonished at how people were perfectly willing – even eager – to buy whatever I told them to buy to replicate the samples, to listen to all my instructions, and not question a thing I told them. No one even seemed to clue in to what a selling tactic it is to mix two teas (sometimes almost totally unrelated – hello, a white and a mate?) and then require you to buy both to get the same taste. I had to keep reminding myself that these people are not stupid, just clueless, and trusting us to tell them what to do. Which makes me a little sad. Because they will get a bit taken at some point by a retailer that is, naturally, also looking to make sales. My first purchases at DAVIDs, I got talked into multiple unnecessary tins, too…

(Oddly enough, people don’t seem quite as willing to listen to advice that they should. I mean, people bought nearly any tea I showed them, but only nodded politely at my firm advice that they upgrade to a better infuser than a tea ball. Argh.)

So some bad points, but not as bad as I’d truly feared. I hope I continue to like it.

Also, I need to find out what my staff discount applies to, because it’s a whopping 40%.

Last cup, and another one down!

I completely love this one though, and will eventually pick up more of this. It is way better a mate than the mate chai I had in my cupboard previously. I’m not always the biggest fan of the chocolate-and-raspberry combination, but these flavours just work together perfectly. I think it is the almond balancing everything out.

I like to match this one up with DT’s raspberry-flavoured agave. You need to be careful not to overdo it on the agave, though – I have discovered that the flavouring is quite strong, and if you go hard on the agave, you end up with tea that tastes like raspberry flavouring and, uhhh… Raspberry flavouring. So yeah. Not too much agave.

Other people have said that this one is better than DT’s Root Beer Float. And it is. Root Beer Float is damn good, in my opinion, but this one tops it just that little bit in basically every way.

The dry smell is amazing – like root beer, but with something else almost spicy underneath, and the wet smell has the same promise of deliciousness. The tea itself has a strong flavour which is predominantly root beer with something deeper and richer underneath…possibly that’s the chicory? I really wouldn’t know. It’s very smooth, and basically just has a richness and complexity that DT’s Root Beer Float lacks.

Which means I’d like to order more now that it’s available. Which brings me to the fact that I have a little problem.

Well, actually, it’s rather a large problem, which is this – I am a hoarder. Ever seen TLC’s mental illness porn, Buried Alive? (As opposed to, you know, their obesity porn like I Eat 33, 000 Calories A Day, or their child abuse porn like Toddlers & Tiaras, or… TLC is the king of exploitation programming, people.)

Well, it’s basically like that. Although not as bad. (This is an ugly thing to tell people, usually because they picture people who hoard jars of their own urine and sleep in piles of roach-infested baby blankets they won’t use because they don’t have an infant.) Possibly because I have the advantage of complete self-awareness that I have the disorder (at least for the past 5 years or so), I actually try to clean a bit at least weekly.

I was actually pleased when most of my hoarding tendencies got fixated on tea about a year ago. I may have trouble getting rid of stuff, but what can you really do with tea except get rid of it by drinking it? I was absolutely thrilled that I’d found something to hoard which was consumable and thus wouldn’t permanently take up space. Way better than years ago when I was hoarding newspapers and magazines, and they formed dangerous, chest-high teetering piles of solid, yellowing objects that just sat and grew.

But I know I’ve hit the point where I truly need to admit I have a lot of tea. I stood in my room today and just held my head looking – really looking – at the tea. I ran out of the shelf room that I had in front of some of my books, so now I just have bags lined up on the floor. Ack, stop! At least nearly all the newer stuff is 10g samples. I can drink that up in no time. (See? So good at the excuses.) I need to consider: I’m getting to the point where drinking my tea up will become a chore. I don’t want that, right? I want to enjoy it.

So I went downstairs and nixed most of the order I was composing from 52teas. Cherry Almond Gunpowder? What was I thinking? I hate gunpowder green. Gone. Anything from the permanent collection? Maybe another day, but not until I’ve drank a lot. Gone. Cotton Candy SBT? I have a half-pound of the bags of Cotton Candy, I don’t need another cotton candy tea. Gone.

I’m down to another bag of this one, Earl Grey Cheesecake (pass up cheesecake? inconceivable!) and a couple of SBT bags. Should I take this one off, too…?

WHAT TO DO, GUYS. Advice is welcome.

Trying to drink up as many teas in my cupboard as possible before my next Verdant order arrives and my family loses their shit…

This one is astonishingly good with milk. I mean, it’s not the best tea in the world, but I’m astonished at the fact that it’s good with milk. I like it so much better than I did with only sugar. Who knew? I’ve been slipping back into drinking tea with milk, which I feel like I shouldn’t do (considering how much tea I drink, I should really drink it in as healthy a way as possible), so I’ve been drinking more greens and fruity blacks. But this strategy almost backfires, because now I’m adding milk to tea I wouldn’t have before, just to see what happens.

Anyway. I can recall before this that this tasted like a sweet rooibos, but nothing special. Somehow, with the milk, the pineapples and strawberries are both distinguishable but don’t clash while the coconut takes a nice backseat and just adds this note of creaminess. Lovely. I almost want to buy more now. Almost.

(Also, I applied at Teavana, and the manager literally almost jumped up and down with excitement. So we’ll see how that goes. I don’t like the company, but I don’t like the company I currently work for either, and I like tea better than the stuff I’m selling now. Although I talked to one of my friends who works there, and he tipped me off that THEY DON’T HAVE A BATHROOM IN THE BACK. How the holy hell do you have a tea store with no bathroom? I almost regret applying now, I go like every 1.5-2 hours…where the hell is the closest bathroom? I must find out.)

F-ck, this is disgusting. (Can I even drop the f-bomb on this site? Is it against the rules?)

I asked for a to-go cup of this iced today, and still have some left that I stuck in the fridge when I got home. Never again. It’s icky. I can taste floral notes, I can taste fruit, but I can also taste something that makes me think of what licking the bottom of a pair of Crocs would be like. I don’t normally complain about artificial flavours, and maybe it’s actually just that this weird combo of fruity-floral-tart-sour tastes artificial to me. But something about this, when I put it in my mouth, triggers my brain to scream, “NOT. REAL. FOOD!”

Blech!

This one is waaay better than the sorta-pineapple thing from the other day.

I spent a while looking through the Teavana booklet, and while I’m really not happy about many of the things that have resulted from the takeover, I am pleased with their selection of straight blacks. I do think I will have to try them all, especially the first flush Darjeeling they have right now. I have wanted to try a FF Darjeeling forever; even if it’s not the best one in the world, it’s something I can walk in and buy rather than order online, and I think it’s almost a good thing to start with a baseline of “not as good” tea so that you really appreciate the good stuff when you drink it.

This one is very, very pleasant. It’s the first Keemun I’ve ever tried, so I have little to compare it to, but I like it. It’s not as dark as I was hoping; it’s maybe mid-way between a Ceylon and an Assam. It’s a wee bit floral and a wee bit smokey, but it takes to some sugar very well nevertheless. A decent breakfast tea if you don’t need too much of a kick in the pants, but the floral notes might be strange first thing in the morning. It might be a better cup in the evening.

Also, I talked to the SA who poured my Keemun about the pricing issue. He’s certain they are not using the American prices, and when I watched him pour exactly 50g (he did try to over-pour me six grams – on one of the more expensive teas? – but he did ask me, and I did refuse it), the price matched the price in the booklet and on the wall. The quantity on the receipt was strange though, 1.76, which he said is a result of their prices being adjusted from American prices. So it appears I was over-poured by 23g last time after all.

I will be watching those pours super-closely from now on.

Teavana: (Skip to “The Tea” if you’re familiar with Teavana, or just don’t care to read about my first time at the vendor.) So it didn’t really take me long to crack on the Teavana front. It’s just so convenient to work in a mall with a tea store, and I drop by multiple times a week – often just to look around and enjoy being in a place that’s all about tea. I couldn’t really give that up.

Our new Teavana opened on Thursday, but I wasn’t working until today. I got a peek at the finished renovation-and-stock Wednesday night through the metal gate, but that’s about it. So I had to stop by today to say hi and check it out. The manager grabbed me and asked if she could give me, “the tour,” and I obliged…because I like her and was genuinely curious about what was going on with the store. Apparently Calgary is the first to get finished Teavanas? Some quick observations:

-Staff have to wear stupid colorful aprons like my store does (although being a guy, I generally get let off the hook with anything but the more basic colors). These were truly garish yellow aprons with rainbow text on them that said something about iced tea. My condolences to the staff.
-There were two sample stations of two: one at the door, one at the counter. I was sweetly warned by the manager that they are sweetened, but I obviously don’t care! She also pointed out that all their samples are blends of two teas. The taste of them all? Like juice. Good, but pretty much exactly like fruit juice. I see no need whatsoever to try to replicate them by buying all the teas in the blends.
-Expensive gift sets and cast iron is indeed closer to the entrance than lower priced stuff. Also, there is no price tag on practically ANYTHING, including the cast iron. I’m not sure if that is just because they haven’t gotten to it yet, or what – there is a paper tag tied to everything, but except for some little cute saying, the tag was blank. Stupidly, I kept checking them anyway and getting annoyed when they were blank.
-A lot of the product really does look good. I’m horribly tempted by the pretty glass stove-top kettle. Unfortunately, my family just bought an electric kettle that will probably last us years and years, and we don’t have room for a stove-top. I’m now going to hope the kettle breaks…
-Commission is so obvious that all the employees have little green plastic cards that they put stickers on for each tea they sell. No joke. I have no idea what else that could be for except commission. It makes me sad because I think now that it will be harder to say hi to people when they are so focused on getting their own sales and won’t casually switch off with each other anymore.

I sniffed a bunch of tins, and they indeed all smelled delicious. I was specifically looking for a blueberry white (always looking for one), and a peach white I’d heard they have. I left with both of those and a pineapple herbal because it smelled a bit like DAVIDs’ Tropicalia. The total was a little pricier than I’d expected, but I dismissed that thought because two of them were whites and I figured my mental estimate (without knowing the prices) had just been too low.

Which leads me to my beef. (And if you’ve read rants about Teavana before, I’m sure you know what’s coming…) When I got home and checked my receipt, I found it really hard to read (what the hell is a quantity of 1.91? 1.91 what?), so I got out a calculator and the little Teavana booklet, compared prices and did the math. And it would appear that ALL THREE TEAS were over-poured. ALL THREE, Y’ALL.

-My Precious White Peach was over-poured by 5 grams.
-My Imperial Acai Blueberry was over-poured by 8 grams(!).
-My Pineapple Kona Pop was over-poured by 10 freaking grams! I asked for 50 and got 60. At least that’s the cheapest one, but…

The total price difference works out to $4.31 before taxes, basically the cost of another tea!

THIS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME AT TEAOPIA. Never. There were over-pours, yes, especially towards the end when they were getting rid of stock, but I was NEVER not warned about it.

I’m…not pleased.

The Tea: So after that, is the tea any good?

…Eh. Drinkable. It’s nowhere near as good as Tropicalia, I’m afraid, although the smell is divinely pineapple with something almost spicy underneath.

The taste is just disappointing. I brewed it hot and flash-chilled it, and was very far from blown away at the first hopeful sip. It certainly tastes like pineapple, but the taste is not strong. It actually reminds me a bit of DAVIDs’ Bamboozled (which I have yet to review), so if Teavana is closer to you than a DT this might make a reasonable desperate substitute for Bamboozled. Otherwise, I’d go with Bamboozled itself, as it is by far the superior of the two.

I just wouldn’t get, you know, fifty SIXTY grams of this again. The supposedly dominant flavour is not really strong. If it turns out to be much better cold-brewed, I will raise the rating. Otherwise, I’d say skip this one.

Big 50th tasting note! And it has been a LONG time coming… Guess what happened in my city this week? My internet provider’s building caught on fire. (Actually, it caught on fire twice, according to my grandmother. I don’t follow the news as closely.) Luckily, it doesn’t sound as though anyone was hurt, but it has caused absolute chaos in the city, as that building was a big communications hub.

Home internet services have mostly been down, of course, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Radio stations were taken out, cable TV went down, city hall’s phones weren’t working, multiple online bank services were down, Alberta Health Services’ network went down… Think that’s getting bad? Oh no: 911 SERVICES also went down in the core of the city. Emergency services were frantically trying to get the message out to people that calling 911 on a landline would reach no one, and to use a cell phone if possible. THAT BAD.

Thankfully, I understand that things are mostly back to normal now, and the whole incident has generated serious discussion about our city’s electronic infrastructure. As for me, I’ve been able to get on Steepster little bits for the past few days, but my dash would not load well until now. So this review is backlogged from, like, last Thursday. (Yes, embarrassing late, circumstance of “free” considered.) Don’t worry though, I have a few pages of notes on the tea tasting in my tea notebook to draw from, so it should be fairly accurate.

And kind of an exciting 50th note, eh? Apologies in advance for the length. Hope you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, but I have a lot to say this time. (Steepster really needs a “Read More” function.)

So I went to pick up that package from the post office, and it was indeed my package from Peony Tea S. (Yes, that’s Peony Tea-space-capital-S. My brain keeps trying to read it as “Peony Teassss” with a long, drawn-out S.) Initially I was slightly miffed about it not just getting dropped at the door, but I suppose it’s nice to have the extra security measure of signing for it rather than potentially have it disappear and wonder forever where the tea went. And the post office it was left at is a pleasant stroll away.

When I emailed my mailing address for this promo, I added a note that I’m less fond of pu-erh and green tea thus far. (I completely spaced on the asthma issue, but thankfully didn’t end up getting sent a lapsang souchong. Would have served me right if I had!)

So I got sent these three:
-https://www.peonyts.com/shop/index.php/product-categories/jade-oolong.html
-https://www.peonyts.com/shop/index.php/product-categories/phoenix-dancong-heavenly-fragrance.html
-And this one, https://www.peonyts.com/shop/index.php/product-categories/yunnan-black.html

Also, it came with a measuring “spatula” which is free with all first-time orders: https://www.peonyts.com/packaging-measurement/

Which, if I’m honest about it, I was almost more excited for (in advance of their arrival) than the tea itself. The website may say, “It may not be the most gorgeous or exquisite instrument around,” but I say that it’s a far cry from the metal teaspoons I’ve been using, and I think it’s pretty. Not sure what it’s made of, though. I’ve actually been finding it extremely useful for large-leaved teas that I already own and previously found hard to scoop even with a pot-bellied spoon. DAVIDs Nepal Black, for instance.

So now that it’s here, review! Including a review of the overall package I got. I decided to start with the Yunnan Black, as that’s basically a safe starting point for me based on past experience.

Delivery Time: Peony Tea S. wants to know how long it takes to deliver to Canada, and I think Calgary, Alberta is a pretty good test because my area is notorious for slow and misplaced mail and packages. I received an email saying that my package had been sent out on July 1st. The post tried to deliver the package first on the 9th. That is, in my experience, exceptional delivery time under any circumstances. I’m even more impressed given how far it had to go. At the risk of sounding like a complete boob, I had literally no idea Peony Tea S. was based in Singapore – not having heard of them yet, I vaguely presumed they are based in America, and didn’t realize otherwise until I picked up my package stamped “SINGAPORE” in four places. Well, this tea arrived faster than any from America, so…nice, and whatever postal service they’re using at their end they should keep using.

(I should also note here that I was provided with a tracking number for the package. I originally intended to check up on it; but as I have never used a tracking number, I completely forgot. I looked up the number after the delivery guy came Monday though, and all it said was that the package was dispatched to Canada. Presumably it now says that the package has arrived, although I can’t get it to load. Kiiinda already knew that, so I’m not convinced the tracking number is worthwhile.)

Packaging: The teas and spatula arrived in a flattish cardboard box and wrapped in bubble wrap. Not that I don’t bash my own tea around an embarrassing amount of the time, but it’s nice to see the tea protected before it gets to me.

The teas are in opaque, white bags similar to the bags you get at DAVIDsTEA for those familiar with the latter company. They are a comfortable size for the tea, which is not squished. On one side is a pretty blue-and-white logo/label with artwork featuring peonies; on the other side of the bag is a label with tea info and brewing instructions. On the Yunnan Black, the label looks like this:

Origin: Fengqing, Yunnan, China
Harvest Season: (left blank)
Shelf Life: (left blank)
Best Before: (left blank)
Quantity: (left blank)
Recommended Brewing Instructions:
1. Water Temperature: 95 C/203 F
2. Quantity: 3g/1 spatula per 100mL
3. Infusion Time: 1.5 mins.
4. No of Steeps: 3 times

…After scratching my head over the blank spaces for a bit, I came to the conclusion that what is already on the label must be pre-printed and the rest (which would naturally change more often) are printed later. But for the purposes of this promo, Peony Tea S. didn’t bother(?). I would obviously have to actually order more tea to find out. I think it’s cool to have a label with space for all that information, as I have had to repeatedly ask some vendors even to get information like the origin.

Now, I must note the brewing instructions. One-and-a-half minutes seems a bit short for a black, doesn’t it? Only 100mL of water seems a little low, doesn’t it? A whole spatula/3g (since everyone who orders with them presumably gets sent a spatula the first time, there is a standardization there to work with) seems like a lot of leaf for that amount of water, yes?

I puzzled over this for a minute until it clicked that these have to be gong fu brewing instructions; that’s the working presumption here. So I went to go find my gaiwan. (Which is luckily exactly 100mL.) But if you typically brew Western, these brewing instructions are going to seem a little crazy. Have no fear, you can brew this one Western as well if you really want, using common steeping parameters for blacks.

A Note: Before I get to the actual tasting, I would like to point something out. In the past, before tasting a tea – and certainly before writing a review of one – I am horribly, horribly guilty of always reading other reviews first to see what others thought of it. Sometimes this is useful, but I have an ugly feeling that it is not always a good thing. Maybe even usually not a good thing. What it means is that you have certain taste expectations before you even put the tea in your mouth, which I’d argue can alter how you perceive the tea to actually taste.

In this case, I was not able to get online to check reviews for this tea before I drank it. So I was making hard-copy notes and I essentially wrote this review completely “blind.” Which had…interesting consequences that I will get to later.

Also, while perusing Chapters a few weeks ago, I found this cool-looking book on tea. I could sadly not afford to buy it, but I did flip through it, and read some bits about tea tasting. When tasting tea, the book recommended that you:

1. First, exhale completely.
2. Take a sip of tea.
3. Hold the tea in your mouth across your entire tongue and inhale deeply through your nose.
4. Swallow.

It really seems to make a difference in the taste, and I tried to do that as much as possible through this review.

The Tea: Dry Smell: Not at all subtle. When I opened the bag, this tea’s smell was a real smack to the face. And it smacked of chocolate. Rich, dark chocolate. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, whoa chocolate. And something unidentifiably fruity underneath.

(“Unidentifiably fruity” is an ongoing problem for me. I should note here that not only am I still a real novice to tea drinking, I am also not a foodie of any description. My diet largely consists of mac ‘n’ cheese and tacos. Learning to identify various notes in tea is an ongoing process, and often something like, “fruit, but I don’t know what kind,” is the best I can manage.)

Wet Smell: More fruity than before. Also, there is a distinctly “tea,” smell about it, but I note that it is a different “tea” smell from the Assam I often have for breakfast. Lighter, of course, but different in other ways I cannot currently articulate. Maybe this is a distinctly Yunnan “tea” smell? I will need to compare more straight blacks in the future.

1st Infusion: (I assumed that the time on the label was for the first infusion, so this is 1.5 minutes.) Dark, midnight dark, with deep dark chocolate notes. I’m actually blown away at how chocolate it is without actually being flavoured. This is tough to explain – it is not like a chocolate-flavoured tea in the sense that you put it in your mouth and immediate identify “chocolate!” Rather, it is more like a really strong impression of chocolate which is completely natural to the tea. I think the thing which is most making me think of chocolate is the almost-bitterness to it which good quality dark chocolate has without shading into actual, unpleasant bitterness. There’s something sweeter and lighter riding on top of the cup as it cools that makes me think of caramel. And even though I tasted no berries in this infusion, I noticed that the bottom of the cup seriously smelled like – or reminded me of – the raspberry-flavoured dark chocolate a now-ex gave me once.

2nd Infusion: (2 min.) Not nearly as chocolate, but even deeper and darker than the first. Seriously. I described the first infusion as “midnight dark” in my notes, and it was lighter than this. That doesn’t mean that this is a “strong” tea like a Kenyan black. Just dark! There’s a slight astringency that I picked up, but nothing to the point that I would mentally knock a tea down from “good” to merely “interesting” to drink. (Not a fan of astringency, me.) I didn’t notice at all if the first infusion had any astringency to it, so I guess it must not be terribly noticeable if it is. There’s something fruity riding on top which, again, comes out as it cools – this is one of those teas that will always get more complex as the cup’s temperature drops. I can still taste the caramel-like note I found before, but it’s faded well into the background.

3rd infusion: (2.5 min.) The brief astringency is gone – this is a very smooth cup – and here’s the fruit at last! The chocolate is virtually gone, coming out occasionally and unexpectedly at the back of a few sips. The impression of something dark and juicy – like maybe a dark berry, not sure – is strong. If the previous infusions were dark, this is like sunlight shining through the top of the forest. This is not an “earthy” tea, this is a “leafy” tea. Which may seem like a stupid thing to say about a beverage which is made by putting leaves in hot water… But the taste associations are bringing me back to hiking up mountains in Banff with my dad as a kid. This tea tastes like those times when you were about two-thirds of the way through the forest, and you could sense the approach of the moment when you would break through the tree line into blazing sun and chilly air. There’s a natural sweetness here that comes out more – say it with me now – as the cup cools.

4th infusion: (3 min.) Yes, I know the label said three infusions, but I’m a rebel!

…Except that no, no, you really shouldn’t infuse this more than three times. I can faintly taste chocolate again, but I swear I can also taste my kettle. (Is that what my kettle tastes like? Ew.) It’s still drinkable, but there’s nothing interesting going on. This tea goes hard, and stops suddenly.

Western style: Okay, by the time I got to this I was terribly reviewed-out, but I never consider a tea completely reviewed until I’ve had it Western style. This is maybe hypocritical, as I don’t consider tea un-reviewed if I haven’t had it gong fu style, but Western is what I’m used to. So after brewing it the way I was suggested to by the vendor, I still need to test it in the way I find most comfortable to drink. I don’t necessarily hold it against a tea for not having the flexibility to be drunk Western style, but it will add additional points to my rating. In this case, 1 spatula of tea per 250mL brewed for 4 minutes turned out a charming blend of the gong fu infusions, with strong fruity notes that blended well with sweetener.

So, the rating: my first feeling was that this was somewhere in the 80s, but I bumped it up a few points for being entirely pleasant to drink clear (I’m the sugarhound, after all) and a few more for the pleasant Western cup. So that put me at 90. And I hope I have convinced you that this tea is worth a 90 on its own merits and not because I got it for free. (Also, the packaging and delivery time, while I mentioned them, did not factor into the rating. Had they been bad, I still would only be rating the tea itself.)

So. One last thing. I mentioned earlier that I wrote this review blind. Well, once I got internet access back enough to look up this tea on the website…here is the description:

“Yunnan Black or Dian Hong is one of the most beloved of China’s black teas. It’s rich aroma, full flavor and natural citrusy taste makes it an excellent choice of lovers of black tea.

[…]

Taste:

Sweet, citrusy with hints of red dates."

Citrus?! Citrus. Citrus? The hell. Where did I get chocolate from, then?

I could, of course, go back, try another cup and then declare, “Well, I’ll be! It does taste like citrus! Now I look like less of a boob. I can taste it after all; must have been sick that first time.”

Thing is, I spent a good hour or so concentrating on the taste of this tea, and didn’t come up with “citrus” even once…so that wouldn’t be honest, would it?

Oh well. This is a really good tea, and I am happy (based on my experience thus far) to recommend Peony Tea S. I’m sure that any lover of blacks will enjoy this one.

Even if it doesn’t taste a thing like chocolate to you.

Update on the decision for the teas in Mum’s store. I had to make some last-second, spur-of-the-moment choices, but I settled on:

-David’s Breakfast
-Assam Banaspaty
-Read My Lips
-Silk Dragon Jasmine (they did not have Daydreamer, I didn’t want anything too crazy, I’m not impressed with many of the greens this season…I hope this one doesn’t suck)
-a small tin of Kanpe
-Forever Nuts

…All of which, with one bottle of agave, came to 91 dollars. I hope Mum really does understand the price difference between this stuff and bagged tea when I go to give her the receipt to pay me back.

(Although if she didn’t previously, I’m nervous about her full realization of what my tea collection must cost…)

But. Anyway. I’ve never tried Forever Nuts! (Or the jasmine green, for that matter; but I’m not the best judge of greens, as I’ve mentioned. I did really like the jasmine in their Jasmine Silver Needles though, so that was the deciding factor in that one.)

So I decided to steep up a cup for myself. I mean, I have to test it, don’t I? The SA did tell me this is their hands-down most popular herbal tea, but you never know.

I flash-chilled this one again – partially to prove to myself that I’ve really got the process down, and partially because it’s incredibly bloody hot right now. This smells like a tea I would generally prefer hot, and I normally make teas hot first, so this deviates from my usual M.O. I also basically steeped the cr@p out of it, as I wasn’t planning on a re-steep.

The dry smell is just amazing. Hard to put into words, other than that it smells like when your mother was making cookies in the fall. Steeped, it’s apple-y, with a strong bottom layer of “almond cinnamon cookie.” I definitely think this would be a better “hot” tea, but it’s surprisingly refreshing cold as well, like cold apple cider or something.

A definite purchase at some point in the future when I’ve pared down my collection some. But it’s not overwhelmingly awesome enough at this point that I’m going to go back for my own stash just yet.

So I was one of the ones who managed to get onto the list for Peony Tea S.‘s “free samples for Canadians if you tell us how long it took to deliver,” list. I’m 99% sure that Canada Post just tried to deliver it, but I was the only one home, slobbily dressed and was also…indisposed at the moment they rang the bell. But I heard something drop into the mailbox, and ran happily to the door as soon as I was able, anticipating the package.

…Er, what? Failed delivery notice? I have 15 days to pick it up, starting after 1 pm tomorrow? They couldn’t just put the package in the mailbox like with my 52teas and Verdant orders? Surely 3 teas and a small spatula don’t make so large a package that they can’t fit in the box?

How annoying. Thankfully, I think the postal outlet it’s getting dropped off at is the one that’s a 20 minute walk up the road, so I guess I’ll go Wednesday. (I’m working tomorrow.)

IN THE MEANTIME…

I believe I have mastered my own version of the flash-chill method!

1) Steep the tea double-strong in a Teaopia Tea Master filled a bit less than half-way with hot water. (“A bit less than half-way” because of the shape of the Tea Master. The best words to describe it escape me, but it gets wider towards the top.)

2) Fill a glass cup almost to the brim with ice to measure it, and then pour the ice into a stainless steel Thermos while waiting for the tea to steep.

3) Dispense steeped tea from the Tea Master into the Thermos, seal the Thermos up and shake, shake, shake for about a minute. (Dunno what the shaking accomplishes exactly, but the SAs at Teaopia always seem to shake the iced tea and cubes together before pouring them into the cup, and I wouldn’t want to skip an essential step.)

5) Open the lid of the Thermos enough for “pouring liquid” and pour into the aforementioned glass cup. (I have a model that allows you to pour liquid without completely removing the lid.) This strains any extraneous ice cubes.

6) Ice cold tea!

I am still trying to determine exactly how much milk or cream to use in Root Beer Float to get that perfect enhancement of floatiness without shouting down the tea. Nevertheless, this cup was much, much better than my failed pitcher from earlier!