Roswell Strange Send Message

Sipdown (121)!

So, I just hit a really cool Steepster milestone… 1000 Teas Rated!

Realistically, I hit that a while ago since I have things grouped under the same tasting notes (such as the teas I drink for my Sommelier courses) but now I have the numbers to actually say “I’ve drank over 1000 different kinds of tea”. That’s pretty cool.

So this tea, number 1000, comes from OMGsrsly and is my second “Anne Era” 52Teas blend. As a Canadian, I feel like I definitely have the right to be very critical of the ‘maple’ in the blend. But honestly, the thing I’m most interested in when it comes to this blend is actually the pear. I sure do love a good pear tea!

Cold brewed, of course, and this definitely smells like both maple and pear. Probably a little more like maple though, honestly. It smells “sticky”, at least as much as one can smell a texture that is.

As for the taste? I like it! There’s both a lot going on and really a very simple flavour profile. Basically, here’s how I break it down: The initial flavour is overripe pears (Bartlett) accented with a slight taste of cinnamon, then the cinnamon fades and you just taste pear. As an “overripe” pear there’s a slight sharpness to the taste with is pleasant as is creates a note that punctuates the rest of the sip. The finish is a maple/cinnamon duo and from there the aftertaste is a long lingering sweet, sticky maple flavour. What the maple reminds me of is “Maple Taffy” which, for non Canadians, is basically just maple syrup poured over snow and rolled onto a stick. The whole drink has a faint honeybush undertone throughout.

http://www.bonappetit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/maple-taffy-433.jpg

Only in Canada, right? The maple is getting the “Canadian Seal of Approval” though, and the pear gets the “Roswell Strange: Pear Fiend Seal of Approval”. Definitely enjoyed this tea a lot! Perfect for satisfying those after supper sugar cravings.

From OMGsrsly!

When my Ontario Tea Friends here on Steepster all met up back, uhh, whenever that was they all tried this tea together and not gonna lie I kind of felt like I missed out on a cool experience getting to do a group tasting with people actually interested in tea to the same caliber I am. So, when I got OMGsrsly’s package and saw this tea included I made sure it was the first tea I steeped up because I just had to know what it was like not only because it’s the first 52Teas blend by Anne I’ve tried but because they all got to try it…

I made my mug with milk, by the way. I still have enough of OMGsrsly’s sample to try it plain if I want to, but milk just seemed appropriate to pair with this one. Initial thoughts: The black base Anne’s using is DEFINITELY an improvement upon Frank’s. Frank’s base just had this incredibly strong and distinct flavour that was really unpleasant. I always want to describe it as “starchy”. But this is smooth with a lovely bouquet of malty notes. I absolutely love that not only can I taste the base really well, but it also doesn’t seem to be competing with the flavouring and isn’t drowned out by it either.

On the flip side; one of my favourite things from “Frank era” 52Teas was his banana flavouring. I will never forget Keychange and I discussing on tasting notes how much we “loved Frank’s banana”. Something about the way he conveyed that particular flavour was very well executed and while I enjoy the banana in this tea quite a lot I have to begrudgingly admit that it’s really not the same. This is sweet and accurate to “Banana Bread” but somehow not as… lively?

Other things worth note: There’s a nuttyness to this tea which is super pleasant and accurate to banana bread that also does a wonderful job adding dimension to the flavour. Also, the “Buttered” part of the banana bread isn’t really coming through for me, but at the same time I don’t particularly feel it’s needed to convey the idea well and in a tasty, appealing way. Overall; as my first taste of “Anne era” 52Teas I think this was a success and it definitely makes me feel better about backing the kickstarter and the order I’ll be placing… Eventually.

Seriously; I swear I will place an order eventually! There’s just only three teas I’m interested in currently and that shipping is kinda killing me…

Sipdown (122)!

Thank you Liquid Proust for the sample! It kind of took me a while to get to it, but when I finally did I made sure to really get the most out of it that I could. I had a nice informal Gong Fu session with this one after work in the evening earlier in the week, and while I didn’t really go out of my way to pay attention to infusion times or the number of infusions I did I greatly enjoyed the tea itself – you were correct in saying that this is a truly phenomenal tea! I’m happy you passed it along.

As I drank this, I was reminded in a lot of ways of Butiki’s Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black which is naturally a very sweet tea as is this one. The two also share a lot of flavour notes such as raisin (but not overwhelmingly so), honey, malt, caramel, and baking bread. The biggest and most important note these two have in common, however, is sweet potato! That flavour in black tea just makes me weak in the knees. It’s divine in a way I can’t even begin to describe. Even just thinking about it now nearly has me drooling. And man, this tea certainly knew how to bring those sweet potato notes! Somewhere in the middle of my session, whatever infusion that was, I hit the sweet spot. The ‘sweet potato spot’, if you catch my drift. That’s a bad pun, ignore it.

It makes sense that this had a lot in common with TWMB though – they’re both “Assam Style” Taiwanese black teas…

One other thing worth noting: The first few infusions do have a bit of ‘bite’ to them. Not in a bad way – there’s no bitterness or soul sucking astringency. The flavour’s just quite brisk initially, or so I found.

Awesome tea though, really.

Sipdown (123)!

Just ordered more samples from A Quarter to Tea! The Smoky Sweet Potato Keemun really sold me on doing so; I mean, there were several that I was really curious about but the idea of that one had me salivating – and I don’t even like Keemun! So, I should probably get my reviews up for the blends from A Quarter To Tea that I’ve already tried…

This is my second sample from A Quarter to Tea! I chose it for a couple reasons; the big one was that the other two samples I picked out were oolongs and I wanted to get to taste at least one of Lauren’s other tea types. However, I was also interested by the fairly unique ingredients. I’ve never seen Sangria with blueberry, for starters. Finally, I wanted to find a Sangria tea that was an improvement on the other two I’ve tried. DAVIDsTEA had a seasonal Sangria blend which I didn’t mind but didn’t love, and Red Leaf Tea has a Sangria flavour of matcha I currently own but don’t particularly like. And the idea of Sangria with a white base sounds awesome, too!

It was hard to form much of an impression of the tea dry: I could see several chunks of the dry ingredients in the blend, but there wasn’t a distinct aroma. Part of that, I feel, is that in the package Lauren mailed to me the Cherry Chocolate Latte was really a dominant flavour and I think possibly may have contaminated the other teas it was packaged with or, at least, “cancelled out” their aromas – which weren’t as potent/strong. Since Lauren suggests on her Etsy page to ice this and since Sangria really is a drink best consumed cold I decided to go with a cold method of preparation. However, instead of icing I went with cold brewing because that style of preparation is a favourite of mine.

I do find this tea to be very mildly/delicately flavoured overall, with softer and less prominent notes of apple and blueberry and a jammy stonefruit quality which I suppose is the cherry. I want to point out that mild and subtle isn’t actually a bad thing, however Sangria doesn’t have a ‘delicate’ flavour to begin with so it’s not reading as the most accurate flavour profile. Plus it’s a little odd for me to neither taste “orange”/citrus which is such a common Sangria flavour or the wine/rum. As such, while I really like the flavour that I do taste, I find it very hard to drink this and think of it as ‘Sangria’ flavoured. The name just doesn’t seem to match, you know?

I’d be interested to see this tea rebranded as another flavour, maybe even some kind of ‘punch’? This is a refreshing, light, fruity cuppa but in my ‘quest’ for the perfect Sangria tea my expectations just haven’t been met.

Slightly tipsy on a Tuesday afternoon…

I made myself an (unsweetened) tea soda today using Just Peachy, but in addition to fizzy club soda goodness I also added in some gin. Perhaps too much gin. I don’t know; I didn’t measure it – I just splashed it into the cup and started drinking. I’m feeling the buzz though, and my fingers are all jumpy and not typing too nicely.

It also took me way longer to pull this up in the database than it should have because I kept looking for a DT tisane called “Fuzzy Peaches” which totally isn’t the name. It is however the taste! And it’s a yummy taste, at that. I can smell the gin, but can’t actually taste it which is lovely. And the tangy peach isn’t too sour either. Just pleasantly sweet.

Tea Cocktails are greater than regular Cocktails

Likely my penultimate cuppa. I wonder what the odds of this returning in the “Holiday” collection are? Since it’s obviously, at this point, not made a reappearance in the Winter Collection, like I’d hoped for…

Regardless; thick mouthfeel, prominent notes of apple and vanilla.

I realized after I’d finished my morning cuppa how incredibly tired I was feeling despite waking up feeling really refrshed and alert. Wonder if the chamomile in this blend can be blamed for that.

First tea of the morning! I was looking for another black tea in my cupboard, actually, and found this and changed my mind about what I was going to brew up! Then I opened the tin…

The smell was off, to say the least. It smelled like suspicious gas station bathroom hand soap. I almost didn’t brew it up, but figured that before writing the tea off I should give it another try. I’m glad I did. Not sure what was up with that awful dry smell, but the tea itself tasted perfectly fine: notes of marula, pineapple, banana (mostly banana) as well as a gentle cinnamon note to finish the sip on. Definitely pleasant!

So, weird tea experience overall though. I was so scared I’d be drinking suspicious gas station bathroom soap tea…

What did zero say to eight?
“Nice belt, fuckface”.

Last night my brother and I watched a couple different stand up specials, and I drank a big ass mug of this delicious, sweet cake tea while we watched. Both specials we watched were good, but this joke (by a comedian named Doug Benson) just made us lose our shit laughing. We had to pause the special because we were laughing SO HARD. It was just incredibly unexpected. I’d been sipping on my tea while he told the joke, and I ended up snorting tea and then nearly choking on it.

But anyway, the tea…

I made a large mug with milk and when I wasn’t choking on it from fits of laughter it was delightful! Delightfully sweet with vanilla and brown sugar notes and a surprisingly strong cherry note as well! I got so many cherry pieces in the dry leaf though. Like, an absurd amount. So I’m not surprised. One negative thing though? The last few sips were really disappointing and soapy!? Not sure why – just not tasty though.

From OMGsrsly!

Visually and based on the dry aroma, this reminds me an awful lot of the Candied Almond blend carried by Cuppa T. If I was a gambling person, I’d wager that both stores get this blend from the same wholesaler – they’re too similar for it to be a coincidence.

I kind of just assumed they were from the same wholesaler when I prepared this, and instead of drinking it hot I cold brewed this because I thought it’d be a new experience for trying this tea. I just went and reread tasting notes from Cuppa T’s blend though and apparently I HAD tried that cold brewed – it just hadn’t stuck/left an impression.

But it was good: sweet and confectionery with notes of cinnamon, almond, and sugar cookies. That marzipan note was really, really drawn out too! Oddly, the surface of the liquor before I strained had an oily sheen on it though. Not really sure what that’s about or from. I don’t recall ever having issues with Cuppa T’s version being oily?

But anyway, thanks OMGsrsly for the revisit – even if the tea’s ‘relabeled’ so to speak.

Sipdown (124)!

Finished this one off at work, in cold water though instead of my normal milk. When you’re drinking tea in the staff room you work with what you’ve got – and if I left milk in the fridge for matcha there’s no way in hell it’d still be there when I went to use it. It’s a sad truth.

Despite just being boring ice water, this tasted just fine albeit the mouthfeel was so much thinner than I’ve become accustomed to when it comes to drinking matcha. Pretty much just sweet chocolate/coffee goodness though. Sadly, I can’t remember who the sample is from anymore, but thank you to whoever sent it! Revisiting this matcha was fun.