Bayswater Tea Co.

I finally made it to Bayswater Tea and got myself a bag of this. :) Nom nom nom…

Thanks to OMGsrsly for the sample! Mmmm, this is delicious. I started drinking it without reading the description and I was thinking that it tasted like some sort of caramel dessert. Now that I’ve seen nougat in the description, I’m going back to it and realising that really is what it tastes like. I added milk and sugar to the 2nd half of my cup, which really brings out the desserty-ness of this tea, but it was pretty delicious plain as well.

My sister picked up a buttload of Grapefruit EG, Grapefruit Rooibos, and a wee bit (50g) of this one for me before she came home at Christmas.

Oh my goodness, I can see why the Tea Frens like this!

I wish the base was a wee bit stronger. It’s smooth, but a bit weak. I think a nice rich Assam would be perfect with the sweet nutty nougat.

I think I’m going to make a latte out of it now that this plain cup is done.

Definite restock next time she is planning to come home/I eventually make it across the pond.

this was another from omgsrsly and for some reason, one that i was reluctant to try…for no reason at all beyond the fact that every time i went to have it, i was like….mmmmm maybe later lol. This is actually quite a tasty tea. even cooled it’s got a great flavour to it and it really enjoyable. with a little sweetner this would be perfect! thanks for the share omgsrsly!

haha i love that omgsrsly found this one weird..and odd. For me, it’s actually pretty tasty, even if it is an oolong but the mango reminds me more of peach….but then maybe that’s the result of the passion fruit flavour being added to it. Still though, quite a ncie tea, and i’d be interested in trying it hot brewed, iced. with just a dash of sweetner to really bring out the flavours… thanks lady!

The minute the hot water hit the leaf, the hibby purple began to spread. Consequently, I didn’t let this steep as long as I would another herbal and that might have been a mistake because this is tasteless. Perhaps the cold brew will be better. Nonetheless, thank you Roswell Strange for the chance to try something new.

Sipdown (104)!

So, I have like six hours of paid online training to do for Sobeys but it took a week for them to process my employee hire info (even though I started working) during that week and get me an employee number and add it to their system. I get it, ‘cause Dollarama had to do that too for new employees; but it took two weeks to clear. I finally got my employee number on grand opening though, but I still can’t log online to do the online training portal. My account just gets rejected. It’s very frustrating because if I don’t get that done I’ll get in shit, but also because, I’ll repeat again, it’s paid.

But anyway, thank you again Sil for sending this. I cold brewed the last of it because sweeter dessert teas usually work surprisingly well when prepared that way and this is definitely a sweeter dessert type tea. Sadly, I didn’t like it very much as a cold brew. Here’s basically what I jotted down in my online notes:

- Coffee/Burnt Caramel notes
- Sweet but in a very artificial way
- Kept getting strange bitter coffee notes too
- Not actually a huge fan; took me all day to finish it off…

Thanks again Sil for passing this along to me!

Made it in my timolino, and it was pretty good. I definitely tasted the cocoa and the vanilla notes, but unfortunately the hazelnut was pretty lost to me. The black base was nice though; I was sure I’d oversteeped it, but it didn’t have any noticeable indicators of that.

Definite downside though: for me, I associate Creme Brulee with a Caramel or Brown Sugar flavour, but didn’t pick up on either so there was a feeling something was missing and this wasn’t totally sold as a “Creme Brulee” tea to me.

Now that I’ve had this one and Divine Temptation individually and mixed, I’ve gotta say I agree with Sil’s ranking though: Divine Temptation is the best, then the mixed blend, and then this one.

Sipdown (100)!

Made this one as a latte side beside my Mulberry White Latte, so this one also got in on the cookie dunking! And while the other was delicious, this one was definitely the better one for cooking dunking. It’s just a more dessert-y tea in general.

Taste wise, this is definitely less “marshmallow” then the hot cup I enjoyed was, but I can taste the sweet nougat and nut flavour in addition to the thick, creamy and frothy milk. This is definitely one of those dessert teas built for milk.

Would consider restocking this one; I feel like I didn’t get to play with it/enjoy as many cups as I would have liked to overall.

This comes from Sil! I’ve had this one mixed with Creme Brulee from the same company, but I wanted to try them on their own, so she sent me generous samples of both so I could. Tea Friends are awesome!

Dry this smells INCREDIBLE! Toasted marshmallows and roasty nuts. Very decadent, and it reminds me of roasting marshmallows, and S’mores and camping and fun stuff like that. The steeping smell is the same thing, but more intense. And then best of all: the taste is exactly like the dry and steeping smell completely. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a marshmallow tea but regardless, it’s the best one I’ve ever had.

I’m trying to remember how I rated the mix of the two of these, but I think I like this one ever better – and I definitely remember liking the mix a lot.

SSTTB Take 3!

Not sure what it is, but something makes my tongue say NOPE! I’ll finish the cup, but this one is not for me. Ick.

Thanks but no thanks.

I bought some of this last winter based on the positive steepster reviews. I remember enjoying it, so picked up some more when I was last in the ’hood.

This is a great dessert tea. It really tastes like nougat, those chewy white bars that had stuff in them, that I can remember chewing on as a kid. It is sweet, definite nougat smell and creamy mouth feel. There is also a nice nutty taste here as well. Not much of a black base but nothing disagreeable either, no bitterness. I wish I had some of their creme brûlée to try a combo with – have to remember for next time. I added cream and a little rock sugar, but will skip the sugar in the next cup, I think this one might be naturally sweet enough.

Very clear and cold tonight. I can’t figure out how to turn the pilot light on for my fireplace. Darn it! – would have been a good night for a toasty fire. Ah well, have turned up the heat, snuggled into my fluffy “mr bear” slippers, lit some candles and watching “call the midwife” on Netflix. Will make another cup of this tea, and should be set for a comfy cozy evening.

This sample came from my swap with Sil. I haven’t tried many maple teas, and the ones I have tried have been extremely disappointing (I’m looking at you, Maple Sugar from David’s). However, as maple is one of my very favorite flavors, I’ll always be willing to try more. This tea has small black leaves mixed with shards of cinnamon bark, yellow petals, and what look to be pieces of popcorn. Dry scent is definitely sweet, although I would call it closer to caramel than maple, with a touch of cinnamon.

The cinnamon is definitely the strongest aroma in the cup, although thankfully it smells more like the spice than the usual candy variety. I can also smell maple, which is lovely, as well as some buttery caramel notes. Taste-wise, the flavoring is fairly mild here. There’s definitely a bit of cinnamon as well as a buttery, creamy caramel-esque flavor. The maple is there as well, but it lingers in the background, supporting the other flavors. I’m sure a touch of sugar would help to bring out all of these notes, but I’m trying to stay away from the stuff at the moment! Overall, quite tasty but I could use just a touch more maple.

This is one of the teas I picked up on my outing with OMGsrsly, and it has become my main companion in the last week. There are better teas out there (and in my cupboard), but the smell always makes me swoon and loose all sense of judgment.

The cinnamon comes through stronger without milk, but at a 200F temperature it keeps its smooth toffee-popcorn butter texture. If I accidentally use boiling water I add some milk after- that ruffles out the cinnamon and astringency, while generally keeping things amazing.

Although the maple is slightly more subdued than I would like, I bear no regrets with this one, and would consider picking some up again. I do wonder if the Maple Toffee from The Whistling Kettle is the same tea; the two look identical.

Yum! I’m missing some of the bigger pieces in this last serving of tea, but that’s OK. It’s still delicious.

Cinnamon pancakes, seriously. So good!

With a splash of milk (small splash, I’m trying to reduce dairy…).

187 (I think.)

So much better than the last tea! Oh, this is like warm, gently spiced vanilla cinnamon pancakes. I added some cream and a touch of maple syrup to make it even better.

Definitely needs to be a re-buy. Now if only Bayswater would update their terribly out of date website. :/

I don’t really understand the 10-15 minute steeping recommendations for these honeybush and rooibos teas. I steeped 7 minutes, and it seems totally fine, and hasn’t completely cooled.

This tea smells SO GOOD. It reminds me of Birthday Cake by DavidsTea, and Creme Brulee, and also a Marzipan Rooibos from Zen Tea. It’s cakey and vanilla and almond, with cinnamon and cardamom and IDEK what else in it. Very cakey.

I like it. A lot, I think. I’ll have to drink more to be sure, though. ;) Such a hardship.

Ok, ok… I did it. I forgot CrowKettle’s teas at home (I’m so sorry!) and then bought lots at Bayswater.

This one ended up in my bag somehow at the last minute. It smelled SO GOOD! And luckily it tastes good as well. Yes, there’s cinnamon in it. And popcorn. And red peppercorns (actually related to cashews). It looks really similar to the picture of the same tea from The Whistling Kettle.

Although it smells REALLY SUPER AMAZING, I think I might prefer the Steam Maple Seduction better. (I didn’t stop there today because of the rain.)

Yep, I think I do prefer the other tea. I’m not saying this isn’t good, because it’s really tasty… but I like the other one better.

Backlogged sipdown, but nothing more to say; I don’t remember it…

Thank you for sharing some of this Cavocorax! It turns out I’m not a big fan – the aroma from the packet of dry tea reminded me of medicinal rooibos (blech), and although thankfully that didn’t really translate into the flavour of the tea, I wasn’t really keen on the somewhat spiced orange flavour. It wasn’t bad, just not to my preferences. I did finish the travel mug, though.

ETA: I did not pay attention to the fact that there was sandalwood in this blend. That makes me think soap, and that could easily have been the strange flavour I couldn’t identify in the brewed cup (possibly the medicinal aroma, too… I don’t really know what sandalwood smells or tastes like).

The SSTTB got this into my hands, and while the concept was lovely? It tasted kinda, sorta like creamy cardboard. Not that I know what that actually tastes like…

Sipdown, but somehow this one wasn’t added to my Steepster cupboard so my number wont actually be decreasing; which is a little bit saddening.

I just finished watching the double eviction with Tre and it was horribly predictable and anit-climactic. I hate this whole “best for the house” and “unanimous decision” way of playing Big Brother; true big brother is not played that way. Big Moves are made, and contestants are not scared of making the decisions that further their game and voting for who they want out instead of who the HOH tells them to. By this late into the season there should be a major divide in the eviction votes, and that’s not happening. These players are scared, and it certainly doesn’t help that more than half the cast this year (and pretty well everyone remaining except Derrick) were totally unfamiliar with the show before being on it.

Ugh. I’m just disappointed right now. It’s sad that the highlight of the night was Christine getting booed when she was evicted because I couldn’t even enjoy that; the level to which she was booed? Pretty heartless. Not even Aaryn, from last season, received that negative response and she was practically evil.

Anyway, the tea. That’s what you all care about, right? Thanks VariaTEA for the sample. I think you got it from OMGsrsly right? I think this is her “custom blend” if I’m remembering that correctly. Honestly, I’ve never had either of these teas individually so together was an interesting experience. I only had a vague idea what flavour was coming from which tea.

First off, wow. I made this in my timolino and the mouth watering deliciousness of this one was shocking. I honestly had no expectation this one could come close to being that good. The most prominent, mouth watering notes in this were caramel, custard, vanilla, and sponge toffee – all of which were accented with lighter notes of mocha, chocolate, and perhaps some subtle nuttiness. Just because of the balance of flavours, I’m assuming I was picking up on the Creme Brulee more than the Divine Temptation?

Also, the black base here was SUPER smooth. Like, Mike Boogie/Dr. Will Kirby smooth. That’s a big brother reference; apologies to the non Big Brother watching Steepsterites who probably don’t get it; but I think it’s fairly witty if you do know what I’m talking about? They were basically one of the best alliances (arguably THE BEST) in American Big Brother history – in great deal because they had one of the smoothest/most seamless social games in BB history.

I think the reference kinda suffers if I have to explain it though. Oh well. Anyway; I’m crushed I’m out of this now that I know how good it is. Next mini-goal, I suppose, will be trying each of the teas in this individually?

Sipdown (142/150)!

Technically not “really” a sipdown because I passed the last bit of this one, originally sent to me from Courtney to my tea twin VariaTEA because it’s one of few teas I currently own that it appears she hasn’t had. Hopefully she likes it since, personally, I’ve had mixed success.

This time around it was served hot and had extra lemongrass notes accented by a tiny touch of strawberry. I’m not so big on lemongrass to the excess of it was not as well received as it could have been. I’ve had better cups. That said, I’ve also had far worse cups of it, so this was an acceptable way to “finish” it off I suppose.

Thanks again Courtney, it was fun playing with this one and it yielded interesting results.

So I made a hot cup of this because I’m finding hot is a lot better than cold brewed, which is just way too tart. However this time I slightly underleafed and understeeped which resulted in a significantly lighter pink brew that tasted the best of any cup thus far; enough so I think I may have to actually raise my rating.

While there was still some tart hibby tang to this; it was a lot lighter and sweeter with some really prominent notes of juicy, almost candy like lemons and strawberry. Strawberry Lemonade, if you will. In fact, it really reminded me of a Strawberry slushie with a pump of that “shocker” stuff that the local convenience store sold when I was a lot younger, living in Regina – except, you know, hot. But really delicious and summery.