Victoria's Teas and Coffees

29/28 sipdowns yes, i’m aiming for a few moer since LB sipdown doesn’t really count since it will be back tomorrow and there are another 3 or so teas arriving on tuesday… so i figure if i’m still able to take in liquid.. let’s doo this!

i’m certainly glad this wasn’t variaTEA’s favourite tea or anything because it went in the mouth and then back out in to the cup. gross. there is nothing honey nor almond nor biscotti like about this one. it’s just floral bitter grossness. ick lol

24/28 sipdowns.

and no..no i don’t recommend this much tea in a weekend but then, if you only 2 hrs over the weekend, it’s not as difficult as it may seem given how many hours there are in the day. I’m still working…the migration finished forever ago but i need to fin tune something i need to launch today…and it’s giving me all sorts of grief. Add to that, the ppl who were supposed to get crap to me last week…and promised it to me this weekend…still not in my inbox sigh i’m soooo tired. i just want to eat and go to bed. and not go to work for a week!

This one is from variaTEA and is my favourite so far of the victorias tea whatever whatever teas… this has a nice raspberry taste to it, though i’m not getting a LOT of litchi…but it’s nice…and refreshing and would probably make an excellent cold brew. so thanks for sharing!

Happy Canada Day! In honor of this birthday, I am starting my day off with the most Canadian tea I own and at the moment, it’s Canadian Maple Syrup. Alas, I find myself wishing this tasted more like Canadian Maple Seduction because this just pales in comparison. Mostly it just tastes like a mediocre black tea. I added a touch of milk which brought out some maple flavor but typically I am not lover of having to add something to teas to bring out flavors.

I can taste pear! Crisp, ripe pear!
Sadly I can also taste rooibos. Lots of woodsy rooibos. :| Enjoyable overall but I wouldn’t want more.

Thanks VariaTEA for letting me try it out though!
(164)

Sipdown (148/154)!

I just realized how “nut” focused my nighttime line up was tonight. Three out of four cups had nuts of some variety as central flavours. Huh; that was totally not intentional. I guess that’s just what I was in the mood for tonight?

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! It didn’t smell too bad, but it seems like other reviewers I was rather unimpressed with this one. Overall I did get honey notes from this and some super vague, generic nut notes but nothing that I’d venture to call Pistachio. As for the Biscotti; I don’t know whether that came across at all other than the same generic, vague nuttyness.

Another downside; it was pretty astringent and, by the end of the mug, bitter. So any nice honey notes that slipped through were quickly drowned out with an unpleasant aftertaste.

At least it was a sipdown though; and I am happy to try it because this is something that probably would have appealed to me based on the name alone. And now I know that it really wasn’t my thing.

Thanks *VariaTEA! (165)
It smells like grape and it tastes like grape and I like it! Yay! It’s a little bitter as it cools though so I need to be careful to drink it quicker next time!

I have shared this with a couple people now but so far it seems I am the first to try it (or at least the first to review it). I was excited to try this because I have often seen blueberry and maple but never strawberry and maple and those are two flavors that tend to call to me when I see them in blends. Consequently, I had high hopes for this that unfortunately it just doesn’t seem to be meeting. In my first sip, I got a nice dose of strawberry but that flavor has escaped me more and more with each subsequent sip. At times it resurfaces for a moment while in other instances I get a bit of an almost medicinal berry flavor which is just not pleasant. As for maple, I am not getting any, which seems to be the case with most maple teas (aside from Steam Tea House’s Organic Maple Seduction). Ultimately, the base really overwhelms the rest of the components. Thankfully it is neither bitter nor astringent but it also is not the greatest black tea I have had either. I will be sure to play around with the parameters to see if I can coax out the strawberry/maple but for now this is just alright.

Thanks for sharing this one variaTEA i’m going to have to side with cavo on this one. – there’s something weird going on. I can see why they refer to it having caramel notes…but the base is slightly overpowering and distracts me from things. it also doesn’t taste like maple syrup. it’s more caramel syrup than anything…oh well, good to try. :)

Sipdown (155/161)!

Ok, this last cup was definitely better than the first one I had in my timolino. It was more flavourful overall and I thought the mouthfeel of the liquor was thicker which surprisingly made a big difference in how I perceived it. I did give it a longer steep time like I said I would, though.

As for the flavour notes I thought there was a bit of a “tang” (almost like the hibiscus/cider tang I got in Cuppa’T Specialty Tea’s Pumpkin Pie Fruit Tea) to it that I don’t recollect from last time. I don’t think there’s anything hibby like in this though? And then, there was a nice rich creaminess to the tea and a much more distinct sweet potato taste. I think I actually may have even picked up on the sweet potato more than the pumpkin!

If I had more I think I’d want to try this with milk and brown sugar – but as it is I think this was a nice enough way to finish it off and I don’t think more is necessary. I got a good feel of this one and I’m happy with leaving this as a conclusion.

Another from VariaTEA!

The most exciting part of this, to me, was that Sweet Potato is a listed ingredient which definitely made me squeal with excitement because I’ve been wanting to try out as many Sweet Potato blends as possible!

I made it up today in my timolino to take with me to work, and I ended up drinking it on the walk home instead which actually worked out fairly well because it was the perfect temperature! Dry, this did smell pretty heavenly: like pumpkin pie guts, cinnamon sugar dusted crust, and those amazing sweet potatoes! Taste wise, I kinda feel like this fell short of my expectations though they were probably pretty high.

It tasted mildly like pumpkin but not in the same aromatic way the dry leaf was commanding. There was a creaminess to it though that I appreciate as I think that pumpkin pie is more of a creamy, rich dessert than something heavily spice laden like many teas (including this one) make it out to be. The two are not mutually exclusive. I did get a starchy sweetness that would likely be the sweet potato, but mostly I thought that the cinnamon in this was the most present flavour and that overall the whole thing was just a little bit thin for my liking.

I have a theory, though, that I understeeped this so I’m going to use slightly more leaf for a longer time next cup and hopefully that’ll bring out more flavours.

Sipdown! (211)

I gotta say that this is the best Monk’s Blend I’ve had. That’s not saying as much as I’d like because I’m not convinced I LIKE Monk’s blend… but so far this is the best. It’s got some nice sweet flavours, but it’s not bitter. :D

Thanks VariaTEA!

Sucky tasting notes abound…sorry team…just trying to track this so I can get back to sleep. This is another courtesy of variaTEA and a decent one at that. It still can’t compete against the pumpkin tea that Terri and I love but this was a nice enough visit with the pumpkin spice :) thanks for sharing VT!

i tried the last of this one as a cold brew this week as well….it’s a bit less woodsy for me, but still nothing to write home about. However, really happy to try another pear tea offering, so thank you a bunch variatea

thanks for sending this one my way variatea I pulled this one out the other night when i read roswell’s tasting note. sadly, for me this tasted too much like rooibos – the woodsy type i don’t like. When i DID get a mouthful of that delicious pear taste it was heaven! but every other sip was pear+ woodsy rooibos. so, not a fan over all :( but soo close to being a fantastic pear tea.

Yay! This is the first of the Victoria’s teas that I really enjoyed. (232) Thanks VariaTEA It was sweet raspberry and fruit and I fnished the entire cup with dinner before I had a chance to properly log it. But it was good. :)

Sipdown (122)!

First off, to get you all in the Halloween spirit if you’re not already there, here’s my ALL TIME favourite AMV, which just happens to also be Halloween themed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qztch6_Uhuk

I MAY have just finished playing this on repeat, for like twenty solid minutes. NO SHAME. I love Halloween, I love NBC, I love Soul Eater…

But thank you VariaTEA for the top off of this delicious pear tea! I didn’t even have to ask; you just knew to send more which is why you’re the best tea twin ever. I really hope the U of S thing works out. That’d be AMAZEFUCKINGBALLS. Yup. Anyway, this time around I did it as a cold brew because I remember reading someone else’s review on cold brewing it a long time ago and I don’t think I ever did with my first sample…

- Super strong, juicy pear candy taste!
- Like always, reminds me of pear jelly bellies!
- I want to call it “dewy” too
- I swear that’s my new favourite word in relation to pear flavour
- Rooibos more present in the cold brew than anticipated
- But of course still pleasant

This is another blend I want to restock! And, I think that McQuarrie’s (my local store) sells it too – just under a different name. It’s something I’ll absolutely have to check out in person next time I’m there (I’m sure I’d know this one on smell alone) when I’m getting more Dutch Licorice.

Sad sipdown (173/179)!

Took the last to work in my timolino! It was really freaking good, but I don’t think quite as nice as the first time around; the reasoning being that the rooibos base pretty much matched the flavour of the pear which wasn’t the ratio of flavours I experienced the first time around. Last time the pear dominated and the rooibos was almost unnoticeable.

But even if it was less Juicy Pear Jelly Belly flavoured – it was still really good and I’m still gonna miss it a lot. I need to look this company up, see if I can place an order online. I have a sinking feeling I’m going to fall in love with several of the other blends from them that VariaTEA sent me. Maybe more of this is in my future?

From VariaTEA, and after drooling over her tasting notes since receiving it I was super excited to try it out tonight! I’ll keep my tasting note nice and simple…

This is fucking amazing!

If you like sweet pear things then try this. It is exactly like the juicy pear flavoured Jelly Bellies VariaTEA has compared it to so I am already instantly in love – that flavour was my favourite growing up as a child and now I can drink it as a tea? YES PLEASE.

So far Victoria’s Tea and Coffees is 2/2 which definitely makes me excited about the rest of the VTC blends VariaTEA sent me…

Sipdown (117)!

This one’s been a long time coming; but finished it off today because I was already on a roll with sipdowns anyway. Came out fairly astringent, but not bitter at all. The cuppa was filled with sweet, juicy muscatel/grape notes and the base brisk and bold. It was very tasty! Thanks again to the lovely VariaTEA who procured this tea for me in the first place. I loved having it around! Finding a replacement will likely be a challenge; suggestions for good grape-y flavored blacks are certainly welcome.

Cold Brew!

Quite astringent and drying, but with a lovely sweet grapey flavour that kind of compensates a little bit for that unpleasant mouthfeel. And, if nothing else, the mouthfeel does kind of remind me a little of wine. Less so Ice Wine ‘cause that’s pretty sickly sweet stuff and less dry but still wine none the less.

I actually have some ice wine right now; I’m very close to a sipdown now so maybe I’ll infuse what leaf I have left into some actual ice wine for the sip down.

Tea Soda!

I’m kind of sad, ‘cause I’m at a point where there aren’t anymore actual visible grape left in the leaf and I really loved eating the re-hydrated ones post infusion. They also really added a lot of flavour. However, even without grapes left to measure into the leaf this was still a lovely soda! It’s like ‘posh’ Grape Soda. No crazy purple colouring or excessive sugar, and much more natural but with a similarly lovely flavour.

Mmm, this was a really lovely smooth, grape-y cold brew that I got to enjoy late last night while I was at my Dad’s house. I probably should have brought something hot because of the weather but this is what I was really craving so it’s what I made…

He (my Dad) had my brother and I over for Smores which was really fun. It’s been a long time since I roasted marshmallows over a fire. It kind of broke my heart though that he didn’t have any sliced kiwi because, growing up, kiwi was such an integral part of making smores for me! It wasn’t until I was like twelve I realized that not everyone had kiwis on their smores! That was just something we always used to do, to the point where I thought it was one of the crucial smore ingredients. It was funny, because he totally didn’t realize how much of an impact that had on me. Maybe kiwi on smores was more of my Mom’s idea, and not his?

All I know is I came home smelling like smoke, and it was lovely.

Not the best cold brew I’ve made.

It was just very astringent tasting; likely due to a very long cold brew time in combination with the flavour of the tea itself (’cause astringency is very wine related too). Note to self; less is probably more when it comes to cold brewing this tea.

Not tea related, but wine related: I was thinking about trying to explore wine a little more again. Wasn’t a huge success the first time around, but maybe if I picked out a white wine this time instead of a red? Any “wine snobs” on Steepster? What white wine would you recommend to someone who doesn’t much like wine/is pretty much trying it for the first time?