Riverbend Plantation

A friend brought me this tea and what a surprising delight it was.

I immediately judged it by the fact that it was in a tea bag at first but I still tried it anyway and I was so glad I did. I love it. I love everything about it, from the sweet smell of the bag to the taste. This tea reminds me of summer, pure lovely summer days filled with the sweet promise of fun.

Because it induces summer memories, I recommend the graphic novel:

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki.

Thanks to MissB for sending me some of this! I’ve been wanting to try a saskatoon berry tea ever since Roswell Strange started extolling the glories of saskatoon berries. I’d never even heard of them before. I still have no idea what a real saskatoon berry tastes like, but this tea is pretty nice. It tastes like blueberry with a hint of strawberry. Adding a little bit of brown rock sugar definitely makes the berry flavor pop. I suspect this would be tasty iced, but I drank all of it hot with brunch. Sipdown!

1 teabag used

Very soft flavour. Black tea flavour is bordering on astringent but the flavour is too faint to tell. Berry flavour is quite mild- almost just an aroma. Immediate aftertaste mouth-feel is soft, light and creamy.

10/28

every time today that i’ve tried to go out or go to bed my testing technology people have called me. this time for a good reason – as they were about 4 hrs ahead of schedule..so i can go to bed before midnight and NOT have to wake up at 3am woot woot! i had this one to celebrate – thanks again for sending these myway omgsrsly something about these just makes me happy heh

awesome… thanks for sending this my way roswell strange I finally got around to organising my tea cupboard again with all the swap stuff and found this bag tucked in one of the boxes that came over in the move. I quite like this even for a bagged tea. Does it stack up against my memory of saskatoon berries? mostly. But to be fair it’s been about 18 years since i last had any haha.

Huh.

Not terrible. Not fantastic, but definitely not terrible. It’s a black tea (brew carefully) with hibiscus and berries and things in it. Unless it performs amazingly as a cold brew, I wouldn’t get it again, but IDK why I was scared of this tea.

I received this from Roswell Strange a super long time ago. I was not avoiding trying it, it just somehow got put into my tea cupboard and I never got around to it. I sent some of this to Courtney in a swap recently, so I thought I better get around to trying it myself.

The dry tea bag smells exactly like Saskatoon berries and black tea. Saskatoon berries are a bit of a local delicacy. I would describe them as small berries (about the size of a current, maybe a bit bigger), dark purple in colour. They grow on giant trees/bushes – I think like 15-20 feet high sometimes. To me they taste like a mix of a tart blueberry and a black currant.

I added some brown rock sugar to this tea because I didn’t want it to be too tart. This tea is fairly decent. I was anticipating the Saskatoon berry to kick me in the face, but it didn’t. So that was a pleasant surprise. I would say the black tea base is the dominant flavour. It is slightly astringent and not terribly smooth, but it is not bad. The Saskatoon flavour is natural, not as sweet or as tart as it could be.

This is one of the better Saskatoon Berry teas I have tried.

Thanks Ros!

Sipdown (205)

Strange VariaTEA TTB: Tea 20

Could not decide what tea I wanted at all so I blindly reached into my Sipdown box and pulled this out. I snagged this teabag from the SVTTB. Thanks Roswell Strange for the chance to revisit this!

This was rated 80 when I had it so long ago, again thanks to Roswell Strange. Drinking it today I wondered if it would hold up and honestly it has a great berry flavour, especially for a teabag. Super jammy without being overly sweet. It’s really lovely!

Sipdown!! (225)

So I decided to drink this (1) because it sounded tasty, (2) it came in a swap, and (3) the number 225 is so much nicer than 226 so I wanted the sipdown.

Anyways, Roswell Strange sent this my way and I was actually very intrigued. I have no idea what a Saskatoon Berry is supposed to taste like but I like berries so why not try it. I followed Roswell Strange’s steeping parameters (1 minute 30 seconds) and the end result is a tasty little cup of tea. It is definitely a sweet berry flavor. I could be wrong but to me it tastes somewhere between a blueberry and a blackberry. Pretty darn good. Plus, it is a tea bag which makes this an easy cup to steep up. Thank you Roswell Strange, this was a pleasant extra that you tossed in!

Something I had on Wednesday.

All the teas I brought with me to work on Wednesday were teabags – half for the convenience since I knew it was going to be a busier day and half because I just want to work a bit more on sipping down some teabags…

This is delicious and nostalgic for me; a sweet jammy Saskatoon berry note. A month or so back my Dad actually mailed me a few jars of Saskatoon berry jam, and I have one at work that I sometimes have with bagels for breakfast – so I have a fresh memory of the flavour in my head and this is still spot on!

Saskatoon Berry Jam in a cup!

(Made this one after flying home to Montreal – as a kind of nod to my Prairie Christmas.)

Something I grabbed in the morning to take to work – mostly because I knew I was in meetings all day and I wanted to bring my own tea in but teabags were honestly just going to be the best/most convenient option for the afternoon.

I shared this with a few people in my department – all were impressed with how sweet and jammy the saskatoon berry tasting notes were, even if the black tea base was coming out a bit flat/dull rather than adding any deepness/richess

While in Winnipeg, I bought a ton of teas to take home – but this is actually part of a care package that my mom brought me of different Saskatoon flavoured things to bring back to Montreal; you know, to remind me of home.

Now, I’ve actually had this tea before – years and years ago. So not only does this remind me of Saskatoon/Saskatchewan, but it’s also deeply nostalgic for me since these tea bags were one of the very first teas I ever owned back when I was really first beginning me tea exploration journey. I loved them back then; and I hoped I’d still enjoy them but I was also terrified that my palate might have changed to a point where what was once a very significant/impactful tea for me would taste awful. I brewed a mug up on the Saturday I flew back to Montreal; added a little splash of oatmilk and got ready to take my first sips…

So, it’s nice – but not as world changing as it might have been six years ago. That makes sense; it’s dust/fannings and flavouring, and my tastes in tea have changed a lot over six years. I was immediately washed over with some much nostalgia though; and just terribly homesick. The tea is not awesome quality, and is rather tannic/brisk but that sweet Saskatoon berry note is lovely – like Saskatoon berry jam! Delicious. I missed Saskatoon berry flavoured things before, but now I’m just aching for a really, really good Saskatoon berry pie or milkshake.

Blessing and a curse.

Sipdown (170/176)!

Well sorta; the last tea bag is going to Sil since she requested trying it, and who am I to deny her an easy taste of a beloved local tea and fruit!? No one, that’s who!

At the moment I’m not sad to be out of this; but I think a large part of that is the comfort of knowing exactly where to find it and it merely being a few dollars and about twenty minutes away from my grasp if I spontaneously decide I need more.

I’ve fallen a touch out of love with this one which is why I’ve decided to work towards sipping it down; while it’s still very enjoyable I don’t reach for it frequently what with all the other goodies I have access to; and it’s easily attainable if I decided I want it back again. So, I’m drinking a nice cup of it right now because pairing a bagged tea with a bagged tea sounded like a smart idea.

I think, surprisingly, that I understeeped this cup: it’s very light which is usually not a problem with this blend, which gets bitter really quickly. Hmmm…

Anyway; now I only have two more bags left. Should be simple enough to finish off!

Holy shit!

I have achieved morning tea nirvana! I woke up really wanting to shower – but I can’t since the water is off (I’m praying it’s on tomorrow because I need to shower before my first day of work) again – so I was desperately looking for a rich drink I could have to make me not feel greasy and icky.

In the end, I decided I wanted hot chocolate instead of tea so I made a very rich cup of hot chocolate – but last minute I realized I could infuse it with a tea, so I grabbed the first tea bag I could find which was this one! Fruit infused into hot chocolate? I was kinda skeptical. Apparently I had not right to be, though – this is melt in your mouth, gulp it down without breathing delicious.

Basically it’s like drinking a liquefied dark chocolate – but one of the ones with that gooey, creamy filling. In this case, obviously, a Saskatoon Berry filling. Umph.

Yup – I’m gonna be hard pressed to find a tea today that can top how tasty this is.

Steeped up a bag quickly this morning while getting ready for work and making all my work teas.

Since this is touchy and gets bitter quickly I kept the steep time super short (1 min 3o seconds) which was a great decision because this was a yummy, sweet Saskatoon Berry tea! :)

I indulged a little this morning and made two of my favourite teas for work. My excuse was that with my paycheck coming in I could easily afford to do so! I’ve tried to do the math, and with what’s already in my account taken into consideration I can set enough aside for December and January’s rent and my grocieries and still have approx. $200 left to spend on tea! Woot!

To buy what I want from DAVIDsTEA It’ll be about $40-50 dollars, and then I’m going to FINALLY put in my Butiki order which comes out to roughly $100 dollars (just a touch more) – which leaves around $50 for other orders. Hmm… So much to take into consideration. Do I put in my Della Terra order which is only $30ish or do I go for a Harney & Sons order and just get a whole bunch of sample sizes. One thing is for sure, I’m gonna be getting a lot more tea coming up soon (I could also wait until Black Friday sales – although I have another paycheck coming in on Dec. 3rd right after Black Friday).

Anyway, for this tea I steeped one teabag in 10 oz. of water for three minutes. This is probably my favourite bagged tea, by far – but it’s really touchy and gets bitter quite quickly so it’s easy to screw up. Thankfully, I didn’t and this is super smooth and yummy.

Right now I’m drinkinhg it cold – and there’s a very “pie like” quality to it. It’s like eating a fresh slice of my Grandma’s homemade Saskatoon Berry pie with the crust and everything: it’s just missing that dallop of vanilla icecream (which could be replicated with milk or cream, but oh well). The black tea base still comes through – but only seems to enhance the sweet syrupy Saskatoon berry taste for me. Yum! I get nice mellow notes of raspberries too, and very subtle notes of blackberries jam keep flickering in and out of the sip.

This is better hot though, honestly.

Also – I’m SO incredibly sick of crying children and parents who just don’t seem to know how to handle them. Maybe it’s naive of me to say this, not having kids of my own or anything like that, but don’t come to the mall if you’re going to bring your misbehaving little three year old son or daughter who doesn’t know to keep their hands off the stores’ merchandise (and not throw it across the store) or if you’re that stupid kind of parent that just lets their child have a tempertantrum in the middle of the mall and stands their and does nothing (or worse responds by freaking out back at them). Please, discipline your children or else they’re only going to get more self entitled and bratty.

Urgh. My head is killing me from dealing with all these absent parent’s and their screaming children. I know it’s not the kids’ fault – but I’m seriously starting to resent children.

Mmmm! This is, without doubt, my favourite bagged tea (and one of my favourite black teas, just in general). Sadly, it’s also one of Tre’s favourite teas so I’ve actually got a small stash of bags (about 5) hidden in my apartment so that should he finish off the supply in the kitchen I’ll still have a small ration.

I’ve only seen this sold one place: the art museum in my old town, but I’m keeping a fierce eye out here in Saskatoon! It’s odd, my observation of Saskatoon so far has been that Saskatoon doesn’t really stock any food with Saskatoon berries in it, which you would think would be the opposite case.

The smell of this one steeping fills the whole house (so if I ever do have to rely on my secret stockpile of this tea, I’ll have to drink it when Tre’s not here). The dry leaf reminds me of Saskatoon berry pie, and the smell of it steeping is freshly picked Saskatoon berries. As dry leaf, you can’t smell the black base at all, but it’s a more present smell as it’s steeping.

The taste of this one is very sweet – there’s no need to add sweetner of any kind. The first taste when you take a sip is the black tea base, but then you get the very sweet Saskatoon berry which lingers heavily in the aftertaste. This tea is pretty straight forward, there aren’t a lot of contributing flavours other than “black tea” and “Saskatoon berry”. The only downside to this tea is that it gets very bitter very quickly, so you want to go with a short steep time. I never exceed four minutes for this one.

I LOVE RIVERBEND PLANTATION SASKATOON BERRY TEA.