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I think I’m the first tasting note on this one too. I’ll try to do it proud.

Out of the fruit teas I purchased, this is the one that I was the most excited for. I love pears and pear tea – and I just could not pass up the opportunity to try out yet another pear blend, especially since this is chocolate pear which is a flavour combo I don’t have in my cupboard right now.

Dry, this smell strongly of fresh, maybe even a little overripe, pears with just a hint of chocolate. It’s a very, very powerful and flavourful smelling blend.

Like the other RiverTea fruit blend I tried, this too has a long steep time – though not nearly as long as Chocolate Kisses Chili. I ended up doing a 6 minute steep for this cup, which was the lowest end of the suggested spectrum. The smell is just a little bit perfume, and still pretty much like an overripe “bruise it by holding it” pear.

Taste wise, it’s pretty good. The pear flavour is pretty strong, and maybe even a touch sour. Again, what comes to mind is an overripe pear. The chocolate here is surprisingly light/mild – but then again I’m not sure if I recall actually seeing any pieces of chocolate in the leaf I used. I thought it’d be more like a chocolate dipped pear, but that’s not the feeling I get.

So ultimately, I’m a little conflicted/on the fence about this one because I did enjoy it but it wasn’t anything like I was expecting or anticipating it to be. I’ll need to try a few more cups/methods before I make up my mind.

Ok, I thought that I wouldn’t be doing new teas today and would just stick to some familiar favourites, but I started feeling more alive and awake so I picked out some fruit teas to try out for the first time.

this one comes thanks of Aimee Popovacki who sent me a full 25g packet, completely sealed. I decided to open it up today to cold brew as a comparison to Kusmi’s Passion Fruit and it just smelled so damn good that I wanted to test a hot cup too. The dry leaf/bits smell almost overpoweringly of fresh, pulpy Passion Fruit. So much more intense and robust than Kusmi’s.

My first encounter with a passion fruit was in the 11th grade. I had made an art piece for out school’s guidance counselor that featured Ganesh, who is the God of new beginnings. He was a spiritual symbol she had introduced to me, and was very relevant to us both at the time. She was eating Passion Fruit, and the smell was so strong and powerful that I inquired into it – and she shared one with me. The next couple of weeks I went on a major passion fruit binge and in less than seven days purchased and consumed a total of over seventy of them. I literally bought out the grocery store within a block from our highschool. That was probably really unhealthy/obsessive in its own right, but at the time I just kind of wrote it off “as an artist thing”.

So anyway, five minute steep and oh my! This is just the right amount of tart and totally rich and juicy with an honest to Ganesh amazing Passion Fruit flavour. While Kusmi’s version was consumable, this is just mouth watering “chug it all down and burn your throat” delicious. I am so super excited for my cold brew, now! If that’s not great, then hell yes I’ll be finishing this up hot – no complaints.

I’m sad I didn’t try this sooner, now. I want more. Lots more. I really hope this makes a return.

There’s not a ton of food in the house currently, so instead of an actual breakfast I’m having a breakfast tea today, and hoping that’s sorta good enough.

I did over steep this a bit compared to what I would normally do, but it’s really not so bad and doesn’t appear to have suffered all that much (ie. no bitterness/astringency). It probably helps my water temp was a pretty fair bit below boiling.

This is definitely tasting really pancakey today though! Complete with syrup and butter and starchiness.

Refreshing morning tea/energy boost.

I woke up feeling just dead inside this morning. I got a really crappy night’s sleep, and I’m not really sure why exactly. I think today may just turn into a “comfort tea” kind of day where I don’t try new stuff, and just stick to old favourites instead.

I had this hot and it was really good, though I do ultimately prefer it colder.

Sipdown (212/215)!

I made this up as a cold brew. Honestly, it’s alright but it wasn’t great either and I think I actually preferred it hot. Passion Fruit seemed like it’d work well as a cold brew flavour, though.

In total the brewing time for this one was four hours. I didn’t want to over do it and risk the already somewhat artificial/chemical taste of this blend becoming too strong/prominent.

Thanks again VariaTEA for the sample – it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, and I got to try my first Kusmi blend as well.

Night tea #2.

I’ve been kind of unimpressed with this lately, but it’s actually hitting the spot perfectly tonight with the balance of peppermint/licorice. Very soothing and calming.

Mmmm!

I picked out some really good, non-fruity caffeine free teas to enjoy this evening. This was one of them! Mmm, yummy! I dread the day that this is a sipdown. Thankfully I have quite a bit left.

First review, again…

This one smelled really interesting so I made it up to have as a sort of indulgent dessert like tea while binging on Nutella straight from the jar and applying to Fast Food restaurants. I also just got the sad news that my friend wont be coming up this weekend (though perhaps later in the month) because a family thing came up. I hope all works out for him, but I’m sad I’m gonna be on my own again this weekend.

I also just looked in my bank account and am really depressed about the lack of money considering I need to do some serious grocery shopping. I really need some call backs at this point. Just one really good interview.

I’m considering selling my art right now, but I’m not actually sure who would even buy it. Most of it is sculpture work, and not all of it is “top” quality. I do have a handmade teacup and teapot that maybe someone here would be interested in.

But anyway, I’m sure not everyone or probably anyone wants to hear about that, so on to the really interesting tea! This one has a really long suggested steep time: 10-15 minutes. I ended up going in the middle of that, with a 13 minute steep total. It seemed like a really long time, but I guess this is a fruit tea so no worrying about bitterness or anything.

Taste wise, it’s definitely a very rich fruit taste initially with notes of dark chocolate dipped dates and hints of currant – but mostly the tastes. It’s nice, and then is quickly heats up to this fiery hot pepper loops. I know this is meant to be hot – I mean “Chili” is in the name, and I can see the chili loops in the blend, but man is it a fast transition. It’s a really interesting and sort of unusual flavour palette.

At the moment, I’m appreciating it but I don’t think this could ever be an everyday tea for me. Definitely something fun for when I want something totally unusual and unique. So, we’ll see how I feel about it the next few cups in regard to restocking. Maybe I’ll use my better judgement and steep for a shorter time period next cup. An interesting taste experience for sure.

My steep time for this was short, and I let this get cold before drinking it, which I don’t recall doing before. I think it’s even more buttery/pastry like this way – though the apple seems like intense/juicy, so I’m not sure how worth it the trade off it. The pistachio is kind of just there, but in a good way.

I really do like this one.

Also, I just restarted my SoulSilver play file, so I’m doing that in between watching 2 Broke Girls episodes. Yay for a relaxing, but uneventful life. I’m excited for company tomorrow so I finally have something more to do. I’m sure Nich is going to keep me quite occupied/intellectually stimulated and confused with all his conspiracy theories. But also, I appreciate that I’ll have someone to talk tea with who will appreciate it.

Made this one up – not really sure why. It was there, and didn’t seem like a totally bad idea. I was careful when steeping it because I’ve had enough bitter black tea today. However, I let it get cold before I started drinking it.

Actually, it’s not so bad cold. The rhubarb doesn’t feel so overwhelming/over powering as a cold tea, and I think I may even pick up the vanilla a bit more. I’m struggling to remember what I wrote about this last time I had it though, so maybe I’m just reciting observations I’ve made before. It was a teeny bit astringent, but the rhubarb flavour saves it.