TeaTaxi

Autumn tends to be Pumpkin Spice Latte time for all the basic peoples, but not me. It just gives me all the more reason to drink chai, yo. Let’s throw in some pumpkin today, though.

The flavour combination is more unique for a pumpkin chai. This has cinnamon, cloves, ginger, coriander, cardamom, and black pepper. The ginger and cardamom are especially on the heavier side, plus the pepper is tickling my nose and just made me sneeze.

With milk, though, I find that the complexity of flavours are lost. To note, this even has apple, rosehip, almond, and orange, yet I don’t taste much of any of that. Maybe some nuttiness but no fruitiness. Additionally, this has both a black tea and rooibos base, and I can only taste the former. No woodsy rooibos to be had.

I’m going to have to tinker with this more to see if I can coax out the potential complexity of this tea.

I’m going to have Katy Perry stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Anyway, the tea! Dry, the leave had this amazing chocolaty smell, and that came through strongly in the brew. Not much cherry other than a faint sweet pop from that and the sprinkles (very American sprinkles). Delicious? Yes. Memorable enough to restock? Will have to wait for the second cup to decide.

The eucalyptus is throwing me off, it smells like Buckley’s. I forgot about it and couldn’t try it hot, but cold this is…interesting. Kinda medicinal, kinda berry-y, but at the end of the day it kinda tastes like cough syrup. A high end, organic cough syrup you might find at whole foods, but cough syrup. It makes me think of having the sniffles and curling up with juice and medicinal tea. Might be worth picking up a bit more for just those days.

This is oddly satisfying, it tastes like a milkshake without the banana taking over. A light milkshake, maybe? I like it, maybe I’ll try a resteep over ice. It’s strawberry green tea yumminess. Maybe I just need to try more greens, because at the end of the day, as tasty as this is, I’m not a huge fan of the banana, as light as it is. But that’s a personal preference and doesn’t reflect on the quality of the tea .

I’m . . . not sure how I feel about this tea, honestly. It smells like Buckley’s. Tastes like a sweet cough drop. But I feel better after drinking it. And it wasn’t terrible. Medicinal but not horrible. Don’t think I’ll restock, but this cup will stick with me until I figure out if I liked it or not.

Sipdown (165)

Today I moved into my sister’s apartment while she is on her honeymoon since its closer to my job. It is also closer to a strip club which my friends have all decided they want to go to. I am not overly enthused tbh (1. because its not my thing and 2. because I have been before and know how skeezy it is) but I will deal for the night…and there will be a lot of alcohol in my system while I do. With that in mind, I figured it will be a long night and so I am getting my caffeine on.

This definitely has the wet earth flavor of all other mates. It is less offensive than normal but still enough to make me not want more of this. There is also a richness that makes me think truffle but I think that is because it is what I am told to expect by the title and not because that is what I am actually tasting. It’s alright but I just want more truffle and less mate.

Revisiting this delight while marathoning the Defenders on Netflix. Not a bad way to start my weekend.

For more on this tea, check out my full review from the last time I had this tasty treat: http://sororiteasisters.com/2016/11/22/cranberry-glow-tea-taxi/

So let me just start by saying this smells amazing, both as dry leaf and when brewed. Just a rich candy/fruit scent. Sipping on the “hot” (read luke warm thanks to a few dogs needing some attention :P) cup, I am impressed the scent actually comes through in flavor. Granted it is a bit more muted and there is a bit of hibby tartness but in this case I don’t mind it because I find it sells the cranberry element.

I see why this is called strawberry scent! It smells amazing, like the Strawberry Body Butter from The Body Shop, which I love.

…but I don’t usually drink or eat my body butters and while the taste is strongly strawberry, it’s also kinda…soapy. I don’t know if I just can’t get past the scent making me think of lotion or what, but I don’t think this will be one I need more of. It’s a very strong, in your face, little bit artificial kind of strawberry, and I prefer the light, vegetal strawberry I get from TeaVivire’s strawberry oolong.

eh. I drink a lot of milk oolongs and this one just doesn’t match up to the rest. Weak and kinda bland, it just isn’t worth stocking for me. Not bad, but not good.

I love coffee teas. I love the taste of coffee, but not the way it affects my body, so coffee-flavored everything is my jam. If they ever make a sugar free coffee crisp, I will never eat anything else.

So this tea is right up my alley! It’s very good, tastes just like coffee, nutty and creamy and rich. That said, it’s just like TLC from Tealish, which I also adore! But Tealish is in my town and TeaTaxi isn’t, so I probably won’t restock for that reason alone. But it is a creamy coffee alternative that I will happily throw into my cart any time I need to get up to $50 for free shipping XD

Welp, I’m glad I was kinda against liking this tea due to the price point (11.50 for 50 grams) because one of our cats, JiJi (short for Darjeeling) has developed a taste for tea and knocked over my mug – . -. The sip in the bottom of the mug was okay, but nothing worth writing home about. Some berry flavor, but not worth 11.50 for me.

I’m not going to rate this one, just because all I got to try was a sip.

Sipdown (174)

So the downside of samples? One shot and its done. This is one of those times where I made the sample and got all excited only to burn my tongue and now I am unable to taste the tea. I get bits here and there but I need to concentrate. I definitely am getting a great banana flavor, sort of reminiscent of a 52 Teas banana flavor, but it is muddled by the base which is a little gritty/earthy/dirty. That sounds worse than I intend it to because it really isn’t that bad but those are the best terms I have to describe this tea.

Made a cuppa after the need for caffeine had subsided enough for me to be able to chance a rooibos. I’m so glad I did! Usually I’m not a fan of rooibos – I find them overly woody or sticky sweet, but this one was neither! It’s a smooth creamy chocolatey tea – really tasty, actually. Reminds me of the cake teas from DT, or Read My Lips without the mint. I’m pondering including it on the restock list. It’s rate to find that kind of creamy full flavour that isn’t also full of caffeine.

Crap. I need to restock on this. I tried a cup of Countess of Seville from DT, but it just wasn’t the same. It doesn’t blend the smokiness with the citrus just the way that this tea does.

I need all of this tea. ALL OF IT.

You misunderstand me. I am not asking for a large quantity of this tea, but all of this tea that is currently in the building. All of it.

It’s a smoky bergamotty Earl that stays away from sweet or tart. The Chinese green base is amazing, subtle and buttery. The candies are super-cute but will turn your infuser electric lime green (be warned).

Drank this last night, actually, at the same time the wife did. We had very different experiences of it – for me I got a solid, slightly sweet black tea with very little flavour other than that of the tea itself, while she got the rum, coconut, and strawberry strongly throughout. Maybe it was because she added a bit of sweetener. Tasty, but not worth stocking up on.

I recently had some Main Squeeze from DavidsTea that was painfully bitter and it burned me out on mate for a while. But I couldn’t resist trying this blend. It’s yummy and creamy and has an odd fruity undertone, for some reason. Kinda almost peach? I don’t know. There’s a wood note too, almost like those balsa wood tongue depressors at the doctor.

All that aside, this is a good brew. I’m enjoying the caramelness of it and it’s unique enough from anything in our stash that if my wife likes it, I wouldn’t mind picking up a bit more.

I am a huge fan of genmaicha and a huge fan of strawberry, so I was all over this. The dry leaf smells like strawberry goodness, but as it steeped, the roasty toastyness of the rice came to the forefront. Yuuuuum.

Hot, the genmaicha is at the forefront, with a lingering taste of strawberry that is just wonderful. I suspect that cold, those flavors will reverse, but I gotta wait for my cup to cool. My life is a hard one. XD.

several hours later

I was wrong! Even cold, the roastyness is at the forefront, but it is delicious and refreshing. This is a tea I absolutely need in my cupboard.

This is one of the teas I’ve been most looking forward to. Rum? Yes. Coconut? Yes. Strawberry? Oh hell yes. So hopefully this lives up to expectations!

And oh man it does. The black tea is a little rough, a little bitter, but the flavors more than make up for it. I taste all three advertised flavors, but the strawberry was the weakest. Still, it’s a tasty tea. I’m just not sure it’s unique enough to stock up on. It kinda reminds me of a version of Monk’s Blend.

Sipping this down with some milk. Isn’t it funny how Christmas was nearly two weeks ago already but it doesn’t truly feel over yet? At least for me. I guess it’s like that when you’re in retail, still selling leftover gift sets and whatnot. Now that my hours were cut back a bit, I have some time to sit down and enjoy some tea at home. I still like DAVIDsTEA’s Chocolate Macaroon more than this one. The nuts add a little more body to that one, plus I swear it’s more chocolatey too. But this is still worth checking out if you like chocolate and/or coconut.

A glorious waft of what I think is chili con carne is coming from the hallway. Blast those neighbours making delicious-smelling food. I could go for a bowl now, especially in this chilly weather!

This must be my third cup by now so I ought to write a tasting note already. I imagined this to be like a pseudo-Chocolate Macaroon from DAVIDsTEA and I wasn’t far off, at all. It just lacks that nutty undertone, plus isn’t as chocolatey. Slightly murky liquor but no scum ring to be found.

I told myself to watch this NA vs. Sweden hockey game on the elliptical at the gym but I wanted to warm up with this massive mug of tea. Something about tea and hockey that is so fitting.

This tastes a lot like the gingerbread rooibos blend that DAVIDs had a couple years ago, whatever it was called. The fruits in here aren’t detectable, at least in the small sample I received, but they seemed to have lent a touch of sweetness overall. The rooibos base isn’t the strongest I’ve experienced, but definitely there. Glad I only got a sample but also still glad to have tried it. My main complaint is the size of the samples, though. 5g for $1.50 is rather steep but I get why it would be more expensive buying smaller quantities.

Oh man this is good. So good. I used my whole sample in my steeper to make two large iced teas. Rhubarb and raspberries and fruity juicy goodness. Rooibos can overwhelm coldbrews or iced tea, but it doesn’t here, it works well with the berries. It’s so good, I need more. And it gives me an excuse to order an elephant tin >.>