The NecessiTeas

VariaTEA shared this one with me and i’ve since purchased it for myself. Stupidly great sale the other day even with the exchange means i have an abundance of tea now that was super cheap – which is just what i want when i pick up flavoured blends heh. Sometimes this one comes across as a little maple-y for me, sometimes it’s much more krispy treat. I like that this is a black version versus the usual genmaicha blends (though i love those too!!!).

Sample from VariaTEA. I figure i need to keep working on these samples since my cupboard weight is at least trending in the right direction and there’s a whole month left! Of course trying these samples may make me want to place an order lol I didn’t have any rice kernels in my sample that i noticed, so this was more of a marshmallow black, but man this was pretty krispie treat like in terms of the goey marshmallow flavour. i’d pick this up again… heh

Sipdown (215)!

Thank you VariaTEA for sending this sample my way! I was actually really intrigued to see it too because I’ve actually heard of the shot it’s named after – and not only that but it’s a shot that I regularly stock all the ingredients to make because I enjoy it so much.

I made it today at work iced because I thought the cooling mint would be really nicely suited to iced prep, and I’ve really enjoyed the last few mint/chocolate teas I’ve made iced as well. Surprisingly, it wasn’t really all that good though. Both the mint and the chocolate were really weak/flat tasting and just overall really disappointing. This is a REALLY rich/sweet shot when done properly so that’s what I wanted out of the tea.

In a last ditch attempt to make this more enjoyable I poured in some soy milk to hopefully enhance the creaminess factor. I have absolutely NO idea what ingredient caused it to happen, but for whatever reason when I added in the soy it curdled. Nothing in this should result in curdled milk! It was so strange, and obviously ruined the rest of the drink. Sorry – but this one just isn’t for me. I’ll stick to the actual alcoholic shot, thank you very much.

Sipdown (203)!

This is another tea that I get to thank the wonderful VariaTEA for! Sadly, I didn’t get to experience as much of this as I would have liked to. I had the cup all brewed up and was basking in my first initial sips which were lovely and filled with sweet maple, and a thicker mouthfeel from the milk I’d added to the brew. It was at that point, however, that I bumped the counter that the cup of tea was sitting on, and tipped the whole cup over.

Just like that – more than three quarters of the cup were gone. I did enjoy the little bit of a taste I did get though; reminded me a lot of DT’s Cardamom French Toast but more maple and less astringency.

Sipdown (207)!

Thanks for the sample VariaTEA!!!

Mostly, this tasted very strongly to me of honeybush, but had hints of creaminess and, for whatever reason, lemons as well. I think from a tea based around Eggnog, I just wanted a much richer flavour with a more pronounced eggyness or nutmeg quality. As is, I didn’t tasted any sort of nutmeg or other spices at all and not nearly enough custard like flavour for me to feel like I could have even blindly named this as ‘eggnog’. That said, when I put aside the lack of accuracy towards the named – it wasn’t bad for what it was.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNIU0H880XQ&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=17

GCTTB

this was a fun one to try. It’s more like the memory of oatmeal raisin cookie for me, with a little more cinnamon than i need. When i make oatmeal raisin (chocolate chip) cookies the cinnamon is much subtler. However, there’s an element of “baked good” that i think has been captured quite nicely. not a keeper for me, but an enjoyable cup to try.

Latte Sipdown (206)!

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample!

This was a fairly average latte overall. The cool mintyness was reflected in the steeped up brew, and it was creamy both in mouthfeel and flavour. That said, I didn’t think there was anything substantial here to set it apart from the other dozens of mint blacks I’ve tried over the years. Ultimately, a nice one shot.

Sipdown (212)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! I drank this one on the way home from work today as a latte; when I smelled it I thought that the flavours really seemed like they’d be suited well for that style, and the sample size VariaTEA sent me was the perfect amount to brew it as such.

I definitely enjoyed this one, though there were a couple aspect that I was either neutral towards or that didn’t completely work for me. What did work for sure was the overall creaminess; both the milk, marshmallows and silky chocolate all contributed to create a really smooth, velvety mouthfeel and flavour that was very rich and indulgent. I also liked that the chocolate wasn’t terribly in your face; had it been much stronger I think it would have felt over bearing and could have hidden the cherry notes.

The cherry is sort of the area that was a little amiss to me; not bad – just not totally what I’d expected or wanted. It was very candy like, and I think something sweet but more natural would have worked better. As it stands, this was pretty artificial. Not the worst though; it could have gone the sour/tart or medicinal routes and that would have been even more calamitous.

So overall, a nice smooth medium bodied tea with flavours well suited for a latte.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWDWfx-Pl0U&list=PL87NPs59pOxOKvHww24aW9bIW-xUMuk85&index=3

I actually just listened to the whole, self titled, EP by this band on the way home. It was my first listen through but I was REALLY impressed. It’s very emotional music, but at the same time incredibly peaceful and calming. I felt very lost in it all – to the point where I nearly missed my bus stop because I was too focused on the music.

And let me just say, I’m SO thrilled that I love this because the entire band is from Regina, where I live, and not only that but I have a personal connection to one of the members, Tanner. He does the drums and some of the vocals. I know him from DAVIDsTEA because he actually works there with me! I knew my coworkers had gone on about how killer his band is, but I sort of always kind of thought “Oh, I’m sure they’re not bad but they’ve gotta just be kind of biased because we all know him so well, and love him” but no, they’re really good.

They have one more EP, so about to go listen to that right away…

Sipdown (211)!

First tea of the day today – made a cup at work. The sample is from VariaTEA!

So, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this one when I saw it included in VariaTEA’s care package. I was kind of terrified of it tasting like the really gross Cranberry Orange Muffin tea that DAVIDsTEA put out with their Fall Collection a year or so back. Damn that was nasty…

This wasn’t though! Instead, it really delivered on the flavour it was marketed as. Basically, it was a smooth light bodied tea with sweet notes of both candied oranges and cranberry and then more confectionery notes of brown sugar, cream and honey. It was also just a touch buttery. Combine that with the natural sweetness and hay notes of the white base and you have the perfect recreation of a fruity scone with clotted cream. Honestly, I didn’t even remotely expect this to get so close to tasting like the real thing, but I’m pleasantly surprised it did.

I’d totally order this one for myself.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRXtbLqIx04&index=11&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

Sipdown (217)!

Sample comes from VariaTEA!

Tried this one hot a few nights ago, I thought the dry leaf smelled good and I liked the sound of the flavours a fair bit. It just didn’t translate very well into the taste though. The strawberry was pretty pleasant, and sweet/fruity enough for me to feel satisfied with it. It’s the cheesecake notes in the tea that really made a mess of everything. They just didn’t taste good. Part of it was that the profile was really chemical/artificial which caused an uncomfortable disconnect with the strawberry. The rest was that it also just tasted sour? Not like acidic sour, but turned milk sour.

I ended up dumping the majority of the cup.

Cold Brew!

Nearing a sipdown of this which makes me sad – it one of those perfect root beer blends that strikes the exact right balance of sweetness and creaminess to nail a float without getting carried away with a sugary, cloying profile.

I’m half tempted to check NecessiTeas’ website just to see if she has it in stock for me to reorder, but given her notorious challenge of keeping blends in stock and the very expensive shipping it feels almost like a sure bet that it either wouldn’t be there or there wouldn’t be enough other teas to justify actually placing an order.

Sad.

I feel like every time I make this tea I just want to plunge my nose into the mug and never come up for air. It’s soooo root beer intense in the best way! That said, I think this was my most disappointing mug of this tea yet. It was veeerrryyy rooibos heavy in taste without as much sweetness or creaminess as is usual. That’s gotta be on me though, because I definitely let this steep for a looooonnnggg time (mostly because I was smelling it so much). And, even a not so good cup of this blend – in relation to itself – is still a pretty dang good cuppa! So, wasn’t all bad.

Sipped on this one last night because I just needed something reliably and predictably delicious. If you love root beer then this is the tea for you; it’s sweet and cream and just nails that flavour!

Geek Steep S1E5 – Birds of Prey

This is the tea I paired with my rewatch of the movie, and it might seem like an odd choice at first but with the majority of my tea pairings for the podcast thus far I definitely seem to favour picking teas that help me capture a feeling/experience to mirror the tone of whatever we’re watching/reading. So does this relate to Birds of Prey/Harley at all? Well, no…

What it does connect to is the experience of seeing this movie in theaters, which is how both Marika and I experienced this movie for the first time – together as well. It’s the only movie we’ve watched in theaters together, and like we talk about in this week’s episode we kind of agreed that this is one of those movies that is sort of just best as a “theater experience” so since we’re in a time where you can’t really go and have that theater experience the next best thing I could do was attempt to recreate it.

And so my cold brewed thermos of Root Beer Float and all the tasty movie snacks that I ordered in (bless you, Uber Eats) for my rewatch were the perfect feeling for capturing the fun and excitement of Birds of Prey. And, ultimately, shouldn’t that be what a tea pairing is!? Fun, and exciting?

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DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!

- Had this during the first big Steepster Freeze/lock out…
- It was delicious, as it always is
- But because of site delays/glitches I waited too long to write down my thoughts
- …and now I don’t remember details/intricacies or how I made the cup

Sad Sipdown (710)!

This was a good one – sweet, thick and creamy rootbeer notes with pleasant vanilla and a hint of woodiness from the base. I enjoy this so much; I’m sad to have finished it off. The Necessiteas just does soda flavoured teas so well and I always have room for more rootbeer teas in my life!

Thank you for the share VariaTEA!

I was almost positive that I’d had this blend before but I couldn’t quite remember for sure, but I just looked at the Steepster entry for this tea and I have indeed – around two years ago! Not surprisingly, it was you who shared it back then too – you seem to be my dealer for basically all things NecessiTeas…

I just finished skimming through my tasting notes from two years ago, and it seems like I was pretty aligned with my experience today. This is just one of those teas that really elicits a “wow” reaction. It tastes amazingly accurate to root beer, with a pleasant creamy vanilla note as well. I don’t remember there being marshmallows in this tea when I had it years ago and I don’t think I referenced marshmallows in my previous tasting notes either – maybe I just had a sample without them or maybe they’re a recent addition to the blend/reformulation!? I’m not sure, but there were a lot of mini marshmallows in this cup – all of which totally melted down. I’m sure that added to both the sweetness and creaminess experienced.

I think Necessiteas just really knows how to capture the flavour and essence of soda in tea form; her soda teas are by far some of the best I’ve ever had.

Iced Sipdown (333)!

Yeah, I’m still REALLY enjoying this one. I finished it off at work, with a splash of milk to boost the creaminess/float aspect. I also gave it an extra long steep time, to leech out as much of that root beer goodness as possible.

Many thanks to VariaTea for passing along more of this in my direction in the first place; I enjoyed it a lot the first time, and she’s been way too kind in sending me more.

Root Beer teas are just the best, and there’s a special place in my heart for rooibos/honeybush based ones as well. This one does a great job of having a really clear/well defined root beer flavour and I really, really like that it’s sweet but not sugary because that’s how I think a good root beer should taste anyway! Plus, the hint of vanilla in here really brings it to life as a “float” tea, and milk just pushes it over the edge with creaminess both in flavour and mouthfeel. I can taste the base a bit; it’s a little honeyed and just a bit woody, and in this particular case those notes work well with the root beer/sasparilla to create a more layered/nuanced flavour that doesn’t feel any less accurate.

I’d definitely buy this one myself; the problem is less an “if” I’m going to buy it and more of a “when” am I going to buy it – I’ve been really trying to cut down on my tea spending because it’s very out of control at the moment…

Cold Brew Sipdown (218)!

Wow; this one was really, really good. I’ve had a few different root beer rooibos blends now at this point, but this is honestly one of the best ones. Top three, for sure.

The reason I think I enjoyed it so much was two fold. Part of it was that it tasted super accurate with really clear root beer notes and “float”/vanilla notes. Rarely do root beer teas nail the vanilla component as well as this one did. It was smooth, sweet and creamy which made for a very delicious cup. The second reason was just the general intensity. I didn’t have a lot of leaf for this cold brew so I was definitely worried it would come out a little weak/watery tasting but the opposite was the case: this was rich and bold!

I’ve yet to look at NecissiTea’s website yet – I wanted to finish all of the samples sent from VariaTEA first so I knew what I’d want bigger amounts of IF I decided to place an order. So far though this is the only tea I’m totally sure I’d want more of though.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoU7_qCgUAI&index=8&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

So it’s over 30C today which means it is hot so when better than to revisit the tea smoothie. I had a variety of frozen tropical fruits (and banana jam) so I figured the lime and coconut of this tea would compliment that well. Plus I figured the chocolate pudding might coax out the chocolate of this tea. Unfortunately this whole thing is a big ole mess. It tastes like unruled fruit had been cut and someone put lime juice on it to keep it from discoloring. Chocolate pops up here and there but honestly it’s just all bad. Bad and wrong. So not a great tea smoothie. I think I’ll drink the last of this plain.

This is one I have been struggling with. The lime flavor is strong and the coconut is present too but it just doesn’t mesh all that well with the chocolate and black base. I find the base tea is more malty and flavorful and that conflicts with the more tropical lime/coconut. Just gotta keep playing around with this to see if I can get it to work. 3.5 minutes in 200F water did not do the trick.

Winterlicious is currently happening in Toronto and somehow that has resulted in dinners every night…three course dinners…and occasionally lunches. Plus a friend was visiting this weekend so it has been a busy and very filling few days with very little time for tea. I think I was having withdrawals though because all day I was fixated on coming home and making that first cup of tea. It was incredibly distracting but also fun to debate what to have first.

This was not the first cup I made today. It’s more like the fourth since getting home at 6. As far as Necessiteas teas go, this is not my favorite. I can sorta get where they were going with this but mostly it is cinnamony rooibos with an icing note. Not cream cheese icing so much as a cheap icing sugar mix. Pretty disappointing when compared to all the other Necessitea blends which have been pretty spot on to theirs namesake. It’s not bad, just not on par with the other offerings from this company. With that said, I seem to be in the minority with this opinion so maybe its just me.

Sipdown (406)!

With a touch of peppermint agave.

I said I wanted to wait until I was surrounded by snow, and blankets and it felt like winter to finish this one off – and you know what? I think I did. I mean, it is very snowy (about a foot of snow in my front yard), and I’m currently in a cocoon of blankets. The only thing that I kind of budged on was the fact that I don’t 100% feel like I’m quite in the winter spirit yet. This is helping though.

It’s smooth, it’s rich and it’s creamy and I love this really crisp, cool finish from the mint: both what’s already in the blend and the added kick from the peppermint agave. I was worried that since the agave does have a very strong flavour that it would over power this one but thankfully that wasn’t the case. If I’m being completely honest though, I think I might actually like DAVIDsTEA’s Candy Cane Crush blend better than this? I mean, they’re VERY similar in terms of flavour but I think DT’s is just a bit creamier while still having just as much body and mint flavour – and seeing as DT’s is totally the more readily available tea for me personally (and cheaper given my staff discount) maybe this isn’t actually all that sad of a sipdown after all?