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Well, I did it! This is the last tasting note that I had to write in order to catch up before I head to Las Vegas tomorrow! So, I’m going into my vacation with a completely clean tasting note queue! So anyway, this tea…

I realized this week that it had been a REALLY long time since I last had this tea; and it used to be one of my all time favourites so that seemed like a really big shame. I fixed that the same day though; brewed a nice big mug of it with just a touch of creamer. It was so rich; really bold earth notes and a creamy, silky and dark tasting touch of caramel. Like drinking the tea version of dulce de leche.

Why did I let so much time pass inbetween cups of this!?

From earlier in the week; made some of this to sip on while reading the next volume of Snotgirl – I’m getting pretty into that comic! I’m caught up on volumes though, so now I have to wait for the next volume to be released…

This was good though; a little bit astringent, but ultimately a pleasant profile with a balance of grassy and more vegetal leaning notes and a bit of a nuttiness more akin to the dry nuttiness of almond skins. Also a strong fruity flavour, comparable to what I’ve experienced in many younger Yiwu pu’erhs. So, stonefruit (peach, nectarine) and also a vague red fruit sort of taste.

This hasn’t aged much, but I think it’s going to become a really nice tea with time.

I feel like I must have just been really craving lime this week, because I pulled this one from my stash the day after I brewed up A Quarter To Tea’s Toasted Coconut Lime green tea blend, and when I was drinking it the notes that were resonating with me the most/making me the most happy were the incredibly bright, sweet lime notes. So much so that I just wasn’t focusing on anything else going on in the tea.

One track tea mind.

So, I do own a bit of this already but I decided to pick up about 50g of the new blend too because I’ve been really into this and I’d like to have some on hand for when I finish off my last little bit of the original blend that I own…

This wasn’t one that I made though; it was another one of those bloody delicious Peanut Butter Cup lattes that we’re featuring in store right now. I’m actually really glad that I’ve been taking advantage of having this one in store to drink, because we’ve been selling through it at an insane rate – and the day that I made this drink and bought my 50g to restock at home also happened to be the day that we sold out completely of this tea in store.

So, no more drinking it at work – I have to tap into my at home stash now.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Cold Brew!

Sometimes you just really need a sweet treat, so I definitely PILED this cold brew with whipped cream, and while I know that got into a little bit of the tea and acted as both a sweetener and a little bit of a “cream” of sorts, if we’re being completely honest almost all the whipped cream was consumed before I even started to drink the tea…

It was good though; way better than the first time that I tried it out. The flavour was a little smoother, and I felt like I could really taste the pomegranate in the blend; mostly ‘cause it had a sort of grenadine like sweetness. Definitely not a lot of blueberry though, and I wouldn’t call this one a super high quality white either. However, an improvement is an improvement and I think it’s better to focus on the wins!

Gave this one just a little bit of time before revisiting it, just to make sure I still really enjoyed the flavour and that I wasn’t obsessing over it purely because of new tea excitement. It definitely holds up though; smooth, medium bodied flavour with buttery and toasty coconuts notes, a little vegetal green tea, and then the brightness of sweet, fresh lime. It’s really bloody good!

So, this is a tea I drank – but this tasting note isn’t really about that. It just happened to be what I was sipping on when I had to put down my fancy rat, Wasabi, earlier in the week. I can’t say I was paying attention to the tea at all; it was just liquid warmth at a difficult time.

A few weeks ago I came home from work only to find him shaking in his cage, completely soiled in what looked like bloody stool. It was really scary; especially because he’d been perfectly fine just this morning when I left for work. I cleaned him up, and then brought him upstairs to watch TV with me so I could keep an eye on him. That evening he only appeared to be getting worse/more sluggish/weak and he kept having liquid, bloody looking stool. So, we brought him to the 24/7 emergency vet clinic.

They basically told us that he had a colon infection, which is what was the issues with his stool, but we also learned that he very well might have colon cancer as well. They basically told us that they couldn’t be sure if he had cancer until they cleared the infection, so if we wanted to pay for the antibiotics that it would treat the infection but we should also know that it wasn’t a guarantee that he would get better if he was experiencing more than the infection. We took the chance, and I got the antibiotics to treat the infection.

So, for ten days I syringe fed him a liquid pain killer and antibiotic twice a day. For a while, he did look like he was getting better. Slowly his stool went back to its normal shape and he seemed happier and more active. However, a few days after the antibiotics ran out things took a turn for the negative. He began eating less frequently, though he was still drinking plenty of water. He was still active, though – seemed happy and moved around normally. However, the amount of food he was consuming daily just increasingly became less and less, and he started losing a scary amount of weight. We tried different types of foods/diets, and for a couple days it looked like maybe we’d found a good combination. I think it was a fluke though, because he quickly went back to not eating much, and then not eating at all. The weight loss was scary; and around Thanksgiving he was running up one of the ramps in his cage but clearly struggling with doing so because of the fatigue from loss of food. He slipped, and fell off the ramp onto the bottom of the cage. It wasn’t long after that that he stopped drinking water, as well.

I had definitely been slowly coming to terms with the fact that he simply wasn’t going to get better, and I think subconsciously I was definitely preparing myself for the reality I might come home from work one day and he’d have passed or that I would have to put him down. On Monday I decided to book a vet appointment to see if there was anything else we could do, and we scheduled it for Wednesday evening. However, Wednesday morning when I woke up and then went to check on him/feed him he was almost completely still/unmoving in his cage – and when he did move, to come to the cage door and greet me, his back legs weren’t working, and he had to drag himself forward with his front legs and his back half was completely lifeless. He appeared to be paralyzed.

We brought him in to the vet immediately and it was decided that the best thing to do for him, given how much pain he was clearly in and the progression of his cancer, was to put him down. It was hard; but it was the best thing that we could do for him. I at least had plenty of time to say goodbye to him, and had basically accepted this as an inevitability a long time ago – so while it wasn’t easy, it was expected.

So this note is for you, Wasabi. You were such a good, gentle and well behaved rat. Over the approximate three years that we had you, you never bit anyone once, and you were always so generous with your kisses. A truly good companion.

Love ya’.

So, my manager at work recently went on vacation to Europe; she went to quite a few places including Italy, Ireland, and England among others. Because she’s a sweet heart, she brought back a souvenir for all of our staff; and the thing that she picked up for me was some tea! This tea!

So, Whittards is a pretty big brand in England from what I’m aware of – and I’ve tried a couple of their teas before but largely they’re pretty unexplored by me. I don’t know why this is the tea that she picked for me, but I’m definitely appreciative and it’s not one that I’ve had before – plus is smells really good. They were only selling it in 100g increments at the Whittards store, so I’ve got a lot to play around with – but for my first tasting I’m going with hot and straight.

Snap impression!? This does some somewhat boozy. I’m not a huge whisky drinker, folks – my spirit of choice is generally rum or gin. So, I definitely don’t have a vast familiarity with the taste of whisky. However, I’ve had a decent amount of “Whisky Chocolate” and I can confirm that the taste of this tea reminds me of those whisky chocolates, down to the sweetness and cocoa notes. It’s smooth and pleasant, and maybe even just a hint smoky? The thing that I didn’t expect though was that I’d be picking up notes of apple – and I kind of am!?

So I guess what I’m saying is that this one tastes like whisky, chocolate, smoke, and apple. It’s good though! I’m excited to try doing more things with it.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGw3etetIxc&t=0s&index=2&list=WL

Made this one in a carry travel mug to take with me to work yesterday.

I had a few sips at my house before I left to head. It was really hot still so I didn’t get to fully appreciate because I also didn’t want to burn my mouth, but it had a nice strong peach flavour with hints of nectarine. I was really looking forward to drinking the rest. I caught a ride into work with my brother though, and I ended up leaving the carry travel mug in the backseat of his car so it sat there throughout the whole day until I got home about ten hours later.

By then it was cold, bitter, and gross so I just tossed it out. Definitely a waste of a perfectly tasty cuppa, though…

Drank this one yesterday.

It’s still such a spice heavy blend, and while it’s not bad I just find I’m always disappointed with it just a little bit since I bought it not just for the name but for the premise of this being a “Spiced Rootbeer” flavour. However, while yesterday’s cup was really spice heavy (allspice, clove, cinnamon) I also felt like I was getting tiny, tiny hints of the sarsaparilla/rootbeer flavour. Not enough to be satisfied with the blend as a whole or feel like I was getting that ‘true’ Spiced Rootbeer profile, but enough that I didn’t feel as disappointed as I’ve been in the past.