Second Cup

Like english breakfast, but less. Less depth and breadth of flavour, even less colour for the same level of steep. The bags are even poorly made: quite thin, and you can tear them quite easily by pulling the string of the tab gently from the inside of the bag.

I don’t think I’ll be purchasing this again.

Yum. Had this in lieu of coffee with a friend today, and no regrets at all. Part of me wanted a sinfully delicious coffee drink, but my stomach started hurting at the mere thought, so I went with a matcha latte as I had planned. I don’t really remember how it was, except that I enjoyed it :D

Enjoyed one of these with Raritea today!! I got to meet another Steepster, which was awesome. Sil and Indigobloom – we were hatching plans for the four of us to meet up for an awesome tea day perhaps in January!

Anyways, this was pretty good, although a touch chalky today in my opinion. And perhaps overly sweet. Ah well, I didn’t have to make it myself :D

Forgot to log this yesterday, but picked up another one of these. Yum. I think it was a bit sweeter this time (perhaps too sweet), and I really shouldn’t have gotten a large, but it definitely still hit the spot. Yum. I have got to pick up some matcha so I can make lattes for myself instead of dropping $5 or so on one at Second Cup!

A tasty and non-stomach-upsetting yet still rewarding alternative to a hazelnut latte from Second Cup! I was craving a sweetened drink and had made myself some cold lattes in the past week from some old matcha powder packets I had been gifted, so this just hit the spot. Sweet enough without being sickly, and I could definitely taste the green tea, although noticed a bit of grittiness at the end. But yum yum yum.

Baby, it’s cold outside! This is just what I need to fight off the chill.

I used to work at a Second Cup, so I got rather addicted to certain drinks. This was one of them. However, the way I like to drink it is 1/2 water, 1/2 milk since the mix blends better with boiling water than it does with hot milk.

It’s only rarely that the shops actually sell tins of the mix, so when my local place received a shipment of the latte mix I snatched up a couple tins. Hey, I could either spend $4 on a chai latte in-store or $7 on a tin that gets me multiple lattes at home. There’s no difference between the mix they use in-store and the stuff they sell in the tins, it’s the same with the hot chocolate mixes too.

On to the drink itself… I love it! Sweet, creamy, spicy, it’s so much better than any other chai tea latte! Sure, it’s also loaded with all sorts of things that aren’t the best for you, but you gotta live a little!

I was sure Mint was going to be the one good tea in the Second Cup gift box of tea I received as a gift. Alas, Second Cup has figured out how to ruin mint tea too—by adding chamomile. I hate chamomile, and It actually overpowered the mint flavour. I think I’ll be giving the rest of the Mint tea bags away; they’ll probably just go stale in my tea drawer. :P

Don’t let the “estate tea” claim on the box and the pyramid tea bags fool you. There’s nothing exciting about this tea. It’s just your regular-tasting bagged green. It’s not terrible, but I certainly wouldn’t buy it or choose to drink it if I had alternatives. Alas, I have a few more bags of it to get through; it came as part of a gift box of tea I was given.

I was given this tea as part of a gift set from Second Cup. The package claims it’s an estate tea, whole-leaf, and packaged in pyramid tea bags. Well, they got the pyramid tea bags right, at least.

The black tea tastes like your average bagged black, and rather than being whole leaf, it looks like someone took whole leaves and crunched them up awfully vigorously. I had a hard time tasting anything other than the black tea base and the cough syrup cherry flavour, although there’s supposed to be orange flavour and some spices. It really wasn’t what I expected from a holiday blend, although maybe cherry lollipops are some people’s idea of the holidays.

If the packaging hadn’t made this tea sound like it was going to be something special, I likely would have rated it higher. Not impressed. :P

Decent rooibos but go for the Irresistibles version of this instead.

Horrible. Steeped for a few minutes, sugar and milk added, I have no desire to finish this cup. Disgusting. And for the record, I’m not against bagged teas, even if I do prefer looseleaf.

So today Second Cup was having a special. If you came in and mentioned a “tea offer”, you could get two cups of their “new” “loose leaf” teas in “silken pyramid teabags”. I was facing a long day at work alone, so I picked up two larges for $2.00. Why not, eh?

Oh blegh. Terrible. Almost as bad as the chai I had from them later. I only let it steep for 2-3 minutes, it was somehow weak and overly bitter. I don’t even know. It tasted like cardboard. And today I really needed a good tea. I walked into the office at 9:45 and got a chance to finish my first cup at 2:30 o.O. Busy, busy day. But this was terrible. I will never return to Second Cup for tea. Even McDonald’s does it better, and that’s scary.

Ack! Second cup changed their blend. It’s not as tasty as it once was… bleh.
Or maybe my tastes are more refined now? ha, I wish. I’m lowering the rating a tad here.

I’m having this as a latte in lieu of the bold malty tea I really wanted… I forgot to ask for no sugar so this is super sweet. If I’m not high on caffeine I will be on sugar!
There is a strong floral note here, but I am hoping it’s the sugar? I need to be in just the right mood for a floral black tea.

It’s probably not the most traditional Chai Tea out there, but of all the mass produced bagged Chai’s I’ve tasted this one by far remains my favourite. Whatever their blend is it’s just the perfect balance of all the right flavours. Nothing too overpowering. It’s my go-to morning tea and has been for almost 4 years now.

I’ve tried many a chai, and there may be better ones out there, but this is a staple that I won’t be giving up any time soon.

Finally tried the new “whole leaf” blend of this and sad to say, have to bump down the rating a bit. It still smells amazing, the cherry and orange just bursting out. But brewed up, it’s just . . . meh. Tried a few different steep times, and the flavour just isn’t there. Boo.

Another tea that I forget how much I enjoy until I have a cup. Still nursing a box I picked up last Christmas, but I’m interested in trying the new blend they’ve brought out since they redid their teas.