Roswell Strange Send Message

Watched Wolf of Wall Street last night, and it was definitely an interesting movie. It definitely had really good moments, and was pretty funny but there a fair amount of sketchy scenes too…

Anyway, I’m at my Mom’s now. I kind of had forgotten how messy it is here. My Mom is sort of a borderline hoarder, which is something I grew up with but now living on my own I’d sort of forgotten just how bad it is? Right now my “room” is completely trashed, so I’m probably going to try and tidy that up while I’m here so I don’t have to sleep on living room couch.

I’m a little sad too – my rat Eloise, who has been under the care of my brother since I couldn’t bring her to Saskatoon with me, is very sick and visually malnourished, underweight, and weak. I’m basically carried her everywhere with me since I’ve arrived; she just curls up and nestles next to me, making really horrible noises. I don’t blame my brother at all; she was already getting sick when I was leaving, but now she’s just so much worse.

Anyway, my brother asked to try this – so I made us each a mug, and my mother a mug of Prince of Wales. She hasn’t voiced her opinion about Prince of Wales, but he says he really likes this one, so I might leave the packet with him to enjoy since I have 40g(ish) more at home.

Parameters for our cups were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf, 8 oz. mugs boiling water for four minutes. Oddly enough, while our cups had the typical oil spots associated with this tea, we didn’t have the gross green goop from the melted white chocolate swirls.

Taste wise, this is a lot creamier and more white chocolate heavy then a lot of cups of this I’ve enjoyed, with a nice peppercorn tickle in the back. Normally the peppercorn bothers me, but not so much today. Anyway, it’s a nice comforting mug.

Made a timolino full of this – not really sure why. Parameters were 2 tsp. of leaf steeped in 12 oz. of approx. 85 degree celsius water, for one minutes. That used up all the leaf I brought with of this one for my vacation.

The steeped smell is very grassy/seaweedy, but the taste is a more mellowed out vegetal green tea base with strong floral notes (but nothing super distinct), and present but not highly strong notes of mango. Not a lot of lychee this time around. As it gets cooler, it’s a bit closer to drinking semi-floral cocktail syrup.

I was really excited to try this one, so it’s the first out of the three new Cuppa’T blends I picked up that I’ve chosen to make. Visually, this blend is really pretty; it has all sorts of different sizes and colours and shapes of stuff in it – and I think that’s what drew me to it because, while I’m not anti-pumpkin, pumpkin is a flavour that I’m relatively neutral towards. So, based mostly on the visual I picked some up.

I’d forgotten what the ingredients in this one were by the time I got home and this is a newer blend not listed on the Cuppa’T website so I messaged the store owner Jule for an ingredients list and she was very quick in responding to me with the ingredients list! I am definitely impressed by that.

My parameters for this first cup were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped in an 8 oz. mug full of boiling water for 6 minutes. I was aiming for closer to four, but time got away on me. Dry, this smells like an Autumn tea; it’s subtly fruity with a gentle pumpkin/apple smell and nice warming spices like cinnamon and steeped the smell gives off strong apple and mandarin notes with mild pumpkin and cinnamon notes. It sort of smells like a cider, to be honest.

Taste wise; the first thing I notice is the apple/mandarin with mingling notes of hibiscus (gentle though; not overpowering), pumpkin, and maybe mango. This gives way to a more 50/50 apple and pumpkin taste with cinnamon and fleeting coriander notes to round it out. The rooibos base is barely present at all. More than anything else this makes me think of some kind of gently spiced Apple/Pumpkin cider, which is lovely. The aftertaste I get is primarily cinnamon/pumpkin. This would probably be phenomenal as a fall tea.

I think with a shorter steep time you could probably eliminate the hibiscus/mango in the forefront and get more of the apple/pumpkin, and perhaps a stronger taste of the rooibos base. I’d also love to try this with milk.

I’m really enjoying this – though admittedly it’s a fair bit different than what I was expecting, though I’m not even sure if I could tell you what I was expecting. I think I just had a super generalized idea of what this might be.

EDIT: Slightly more hibiscus taste as it cooled.

I totally forgot that this was a tea I could have while staying at my Dad’s! He just happens to have a full tin of it – in fact, it’s the only DAVIDsTEA that he and my Stepmom have ever actually purchased (though now I’ve left a fair bit here for him to have).

So, I made this last night in a timolino and then promptly forgot about it – so I’m drinking it in the morning stone cold now. But that’s ok, I actually prefer this cold and as a morning tea anyway, so I suppose that all works out pretty well. I always consider this my “peaches and cream oatmeal” tea because that’s what it tastes like to me, though I’m finding this timolino full is pretty vegetal in taste and that’s turning me off a fair bit.

Sadly this timolino full used up the last of the leaf I brought with me for this blend – though thankfully I still have lots at home to enjoy.

And also sadly, my sore tooth is acting up again…

Anyway, steeping parameters were 2 tsp. of leaf in the 12 oz. timolino in boiling water for four minutes. I also added in a splash of milk.

This smells lovely, and tastes lovelier! Gentle chai spices, creamy pumpkin flavour, and sweet notes of honey, caramel, and brown sugar. I only wish it would cool down just a little faster.

I’m also a little frustrated, albeit with myself. I’ve had some serious cravings for Genmaicha the last day or so, and despite having five variations at home, I decided not to bring any of them. Shame on me.

Finally trying one of my CaesarsTea samples from VariaTEA! I brought this one with on my vacation knowing I’d likely got short on some teas, and that’d force me to try the samples I’d brought which I’ve been sort of putting off trying at home. That’s been pretty true so far (and I still have five days left here).

I don’t remember why I asked for a sample of this one: maybe because it’s a flavoured black, and I don’t particularly have an orange flavoured black I keep in regular stock. Anyway, the sample I received from VariaTEA certainly doesn’t have as many non-tea bits as the display picture shows, so I don’t know if that’s gonna affect what I taste at all.

Parameters for the mug I’m drinking were: 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in an 8 oz. mug steeped with boiling water for four minutes – which was the low end of the suggested steep time spectrum. I went with the low end partially because I was worried about this being bitter, and partially because the other teas I was simultaneously steeping had steep times right around that point as well.

Dry this has a very faint orange smell; like orange rinds with an equally faint black tea smell. Steeped, the liquor is a sort of watery brown with some muddled red hues in there and smells like faint, creamy orange. I drank the first half of the mug while catching up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and honestly wasn’t paying attention to taste – but I happily sipped at it so I suppose that says it wasn’t gag inducing awful.

Eventually I did start paying attention to the taste, and really this isn’t bad though it doesn’t scream “Blood Orange” to me – more so just sweet, regular run of the mill orange. It’s not really that bold in the flavouring, and surprisingly more delicate than I would have imagined, but that could be a result of the low steep time. The orange is light, sweet, and surprisingly creamy and I also get notes of lemon and super faint notes of maybe grapefruit? But a sweeter grapefruit – not a bitter taste. There’s also a sort of floral quality to this, but I’m having a hard time placing what. A few sips reminded me of sweet orange juice, as well. It almost feels like maybe this should have orange pulp in it?

Honestly, it’s a pretty good cup – though nothing exceptional, and not really Blood Orange like titled. I’m surprised at how good and creamy it is, especially after reading Sil’s tasting review in which she characterised this as very tart. I get no tartness at all, nor any astringency/bitterness. Maybe I just hit the sweet spot with the steep time? I have enough for one more cup, so maybe I’ll push for a longer steep time with that one.

Anyway – I’d happily drink this again. But would I want anywhere near 50g more of it? Probably not – it’s not that exceptional.

Thanks VariaTEA! I think this was a good introduction to CaesarsTea.

PS. Poor Coulson :(

Made in my timolino and left to sit for probably six or so hours while I was out today. Parameters were 2 tsp. of leaf, 12 oz. timolino with boiling water steeped for four minutes. This time I didn’t add anything to it at all.

I was actually out today doing some shopping; and one of the places I went to was Cuppa’T Specialty Teas. They have a cool store with lots of neat teaware – my Dad even purchased a Gaiwan for himself, but decided against it ultimately because he didn’t like the handle. They also had a really large range of tea tins with all different designs. The customer service was great too.

I ended up getting a cumulative 200g of tea; 50g of four different blends. My Dad purchased 50g of straight ginger as well (yuck). Sadly, the one blend I was more interested in wasn’t in stock, but I’m feeling really good about the four I did settle on. And, with the exception of the RiverTea order I’ve mapped out, I’m now on tea buying hiatus (tea tins don’t count) until probably March (my birthday)…

Anyway, back to THIS tea! It’s not as good as last night’s cup – the grenadine taste is still there but milder (reminds me a little more of cherry tonight), though I think I’m getting the vanilla a little more this time around. However, ultimately the black tea base is quite strong and quite astringent; way more than it was last night and quite close to crossing the line into unpleasantness. I’m thinking this was just oversteeped or this is a result from sitting for around six(ish) hours today: it’s possible some finer bits made it through the mesh strainer and have just been sitting all day getting bitter.

It did get a bit better as it got colder, though. And it’s not like it was undrinkable.

Made hot in my timolino this morning to accompany my morning Brasiliano. 2 tsp. of leaf, steeped in boiling water for four minutes – taken with two cream. A little bit astringent (I’m finding this isn’t the best travel tea), but overall very nice.

I woke up this morning with completely dried out lips due to straight clove oil coming in contact with them; trust me, it’s not pleasant and I do not recommend it. Basically, I was having such intense tooth pain that the diluted clove oil my step mom was giving me to dab on the sore area wasn’t doing anything – so I applied straight clove oil which totally numbed the pain, but also resulted in my puffy/cracked nightmareish looking mouth. Ew.

Combine that with the fact I had an allergy attack (albeit a mild one), and I’m a bit of a sight for sore eyes right now.

Anyway, I made this to drink cold this morning, to kind of “jump start” my day and get me more energized/feeling a little better. I used 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf for an 8 oz. mug, and steeped it for four minutes in boiling water. It was pretty rich and hazelnut/toffee smelling, with a nice roasty, almost coffee like quality in the background.

Taste wise, it was definitely a sweet toffee and hazelnut flavour with the same deep, roasted earthy mate flavour that vaguely reminded me of toffee – though stronger than was in the smell. Didn’t get much of the sunflower today – but it was still really good.

I’ve had this tea a few times before during prior trips to The Vintage Tea Room back when I still lived in Regina. I enjoyed it then, but I don’t think I appreciated it nearly as much – probably because I was relatively new to tea and didn’t have anywhere near as varied a pallet as I do now.

I purchased 50g today, and today is my first time making it at home under my own parameters. So, I steeped up 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in boiling water for four minutes. I then added in some milk, because that’s how I’ve taken this every time I’ve had it at the tea room. I do plan on enjoying it straight soon, though – to see what the difference in taste is.

Dry, this has an almost overwhelming smell of grenadine with wisps of black tea and fragrant floral and vanilla notes. It’s very sweet smelling. Steeped, this is much the same; strong notes of sweet grenadine, and floral notes that are stronger steeped than dry. The vanilla is still there, but not as much so.

Taste wise; this is very rich and full bodied with a nice Ceylon base. The grenadine in this is the most prominent flavor and definitely takes center stage; it’s very sweet and kind of fruity, reminding me of a mix of maybe pomegranate and raspberry. The vanilla is very mild and definitely sits comfortably in the background. The floral notes I pick up in the dry and steeped smell don’t come off as strongly in the taste – a little less present than the vanilla, but still just noticeable.

This is very good hot or cold, and I find it very smooth and clean with no bitterness or astringency. Drinking it now, I definitely have more of an appreciation for it than I did previous times when I wasn’t as knowledgeable of “experienced” of a tea drinker. I will happily finish off the rest of this – but maybe not too quickly; I don’t know when I’ll next be in Regina to pick up more of this, if necessary.