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I bought this forever ago for my partner. She is an occasional tea drinker so this is still lingering in my cupboard. As a general rule I avoid jasmine but today I grabbed it. I remembered it being a little strong, a little bitter but it’s been months since I made it so I forgot to alter my steeping parameters to allow for this. So I’m drinking a strong, slightly bitter cup of jasmine/peach. I’m not enjoying it much but I have the pot with me and I’m too lazy to move and make something else just yet.

I wonder if anyone’s tried cold steeping this. Easy to find out, I suppose, just read through all 99 tasting notes on it. Umm… Nah.

Someone (dexter) was having this the other day and seeing the note reminded me of this tea and made me miss it. So I went out yesterday and bought some. I’m having it now. I do remember there is a lot more flavour if this is cold steeped but I am impatient by nature so I rarely, very rarely have the foresight to cold steep. Usually when I want things I want them NOW! I definitely fall into the instant gratification camp when it comes to, well, mostly everything. Because, you know, “you can’t take it with you” and “what if that day never comes?”.

There was an article in the Globe and Mail a few weeks back, discussing the two types of people. The “now” and the “later” tribes. It was an interesting read. It started with a scenario like: you’re on the subway platform and it’s crowded. Do you a) leave because the train is obviously not coming or do you b) stay because it’s obviously been a long time therefore the train must be coming.

Yeah. This became so not about this tea. Let’s rectify.

I added sugar. I taste blueberry. I usually have fruit teas cold because I think of juice that way but today wanted more of a blueberry Danish type feel so I added creamer for the first time ever (first time ever for any fruit flavoured tea for that matter). It’s going to be cold again tomorrow, and snow (wtf) so I wanted me some comfort. I’m also having it with blueberry brown sugar with flax cookies (lifestyle selections). The end.

Would like to thank the great TheTeaFairy for this sample. I didn’t like it much, I got mostly kinda generic base and a bit of vanilla. I added creamer and sugar and it was a bit better that way but still nothing I’m going to rush out and buy.

Thanks for sharing your off the beaten path teas with me, fairy!

This is another tea where the ingredients sound like they’d be good together, the dry leaf smells good (mostly of blueberry) but the taste falls flat. It is weak if you follow the suggested steeping parameters. I steeped 5 minutes. Tastes mostly of lemongrass and it has a pretty unfortunate colour. I bought with the intent to have it iced because the season is coming and I can’t be guzzling only goji pop. I bought 24 grams but will not refill. It is kind of a miss. Not awful but definitely not what I thought it would be. I added some lemon slices to the pitcher to see if I can can brighten it up a bit.

Everyone, run out and buy yourself some cool cucumber! You can thank me later :)

I made a 500 ml mason jar of this over ice. I didn’t think I’d dig hot cucumber anything, let alone tea, so iced it is. I would bet my house this has mint in it, but the ingredients don’t say anything about mint. However, if you look at the photo associated with the cool cucumber tea on DAVIDs website
http://www.davidstea.com/cool-cucumber?&TF=&DEID=
you will clearly see, to the right of the two cukes with sunglasses there is something that looks a heck of a lot like a sprig of mint. So I’m gonna say that part of the “natural and artificial flavouring” is mint. Go ahead and tell me otherwise :)

But I like mint so it doesn’t bother me. I love how you can taste the melon and the cucumber and that bit of mint that isn’t there makes it all very refreshing. 1.5 tsp of demerara sugar to the concoction while it was steeping. I will be going back to get more of this. lots more. Goji pop more. (note: goji pop more means restocking in 150 gr amounts biweekly)

This tea smells a lot better than it tastes. Thankfully I only bought a small sample, enough to finish off a gift card I received from a tea friend a couple months back.

It looks like it might have chamomile in it — all the yellow things I guess — and it smells faintly like it might have some but I asked the store sales person and she said “nay”.

It brews weak if you use the amounts they suggest 1.25 tsp for 8 oz and steep for 4 minutes, which I did. I usually leave herbals longer but I also usually follow steeping instructions first time around.

It also tastes quite fake and perfum-y. Aftertaste is very much vanilla, which is not bad, except to get the aftertaste you have to actually sip it and , well, that part is not so pleasant. Thumbs down. No improvement even with added sugar. Waste of sugar.

A long time ago when I first started drinking loose leaf I thought I was so emancipated (or adventurous) that I could and would drink anything that came my way. So of course I bought 100 grams of Coffee Pu’erh. Why not? I made one cup, struggled, maybe even dumped it and promptly mailed the rest to Dexter3657. All of it except one teaspoon or so, in case this became my love and could never be found again.

Given that it is one of the first teas I purchased, dated sometime last spring, it’s time that I bid it farewell. Either dump it or drink it but I can’t drag it around in the tin anymore. I need the tin :)

And so here I sit with this here tea. I don’t like it. I made it with sugar and creamer so it resembles coffee. And it does, but the pu’erh is stronger. Oh boy. Not as unpleasant as some other pu’erhs I’ve tried, at least this one tastes of something… At long last I can remove it from my cupboard, never to be seen again!

It’s been a little bumpy over here on the personal front, the kind that has you white knuckling things. And as I try to hold on I think to myself… When you don’t know what to do it is best to do nothing at all. (Or is it?). So I’m job hunting, looking at properties, pondering which to ditch first, the job or the house… But of course have done neither.

I want a lot more than tea but tea I shall have. I’m feeling so bloody idle.

Finished off this pack sent to me by the generous Dexter3657. I remembered it being quite tasty and minty and although I was not in the mood for mint, I can’t say I was in the mood for anything so I decided I might as well drink this to polish it off.

I will never buy 250 gr of tea sight unseen. I will never buy 250 gr of tea sight unseen. I will never…

I have a ton of this left. A ton! It’s good but not 250 gr good. Mind you it was cheap so no harm.

I’m trying to avoid this 1.75 L bottle of Bacardi Coconut Rum that my in laws gifted us for watching their dog for five weeks. Uuuuugh. The bloody thing is so delicious. Think of your favourite treat, your guilty pleasure. Whatever it is. Now imagine a large quantity of it in on your living room table. But it’s not good for you so you do your damnedest to resist having it. But all you can do is circle the table, like a dog, eyeballing it and trying to distract yourself. Yeah. Like that.

I made this iced this afternoon and it’s good, I prefer the iced version for sure. I never noticed before how murky the colour is though. My tea mugs are not clear glass and aside from times when I specifically want to assess the colour I never use the glass gaiwan or glass teaware; this is why I never noticed this colour until today. Mmm yeah, colour bad, taste good :) I bet it would be real good with coconut rum in it.