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Probably my last tea of the day…

The dry leaf for this one smells amazing – really screams Cherry Cola, with hints of sweet and creamy vanilla. Makes me think of drinking an amazing float in some old school malt shop/diner. I was all kind of excited to steep this one up in the hope that it would be even half as tasty as it smells.

The taste is awesome; the cherry and vanilla notes both come through quite strongly and clearly and really balance each other out. I don’t think the cola is quite as strong in taste as it was in smell, but it is there and I have so say that it’s better than a lot of cola teas I’ve tried – and I have had my fair share. It’s a little bit citrus-y too, and that makes me wonder if this is one of those blends that uses a combo of citrus and spice to recreate the cola flavour. I don’t taste any spices though, so maybe not. Rooibos base comes through fairly strongly also; pulls you out of the cherry cola illusion a little bit but doesn’t completely shatter it. Thanks for sharing VariaTEA!

Ultimately I really like the taste of this one, the only problem is that as I finish off the mug that nausea/queasiness is coming back in full force and I’m starting to feel really sick. That strong feeling of being right on the verge of gagging or full on throwing up. I’ve felt this sensation so much over the last four days that I know it has ZERO to do with the tea itself, but it’s hard to not wonder what’s triggering it and if that trigger has any connection to the tea…

It’s making the last bit of the mug hard to finish off though, and that’s why this is likely the last tea of the night. Don’t need anything else adding to the nausea. Bleck. Ick. Ugh.

So sweet and smooth; light refreshing notes of cucumber, bamboo, and fresh Springtime grass accented with hints of cranberry. No tartness though; just sweet cranberry notes. ALMOST had a candied cranberry taste to it. Almost.

First cup of the morning today, with some cherry infused honey.

I’m still feeling incredibly nauseous, and like literally all the time. I thought that the ginger in this blend might be settling on my stomach, along with the honey, but I didn’t really want to sacrifice flavour – this seemed like a good compromise.

It was fine; didn’t make me feel better or worse. The taste was great though; a strong and robust full bodied black tea base with lots of briskness to it, and then sweet cherry top notes and ginger undertones. I really love teas like this that have layers of flavours to them – flavours that compliment one another but contrast in their delivery. The push and pull of bright fruit notes and strong, warming spices.

I just want to not feel nauseas all the time though.

One of the many teas that I received from the amazing VariaTEA today. Seriously, she passed along more than eighty tea samples to me – single handedly pushing my cupboard into the 600+ tea mark! Tea friends are amazing, and also sometimes kind of crazy.

I picked teas today by just randomly picking from the box, which is how I wound up drinking this one. Here’s the thing, I don’t know that I’m familiar with what a fluffernutter actually is? I mean I’m like 95% sure it has marshmallow in it but other than that I’ve got no clue. It was good though! The taste was very rich and sweet and it put one very solid image in my head that I just couldn’t break away from; this basically tasted exactly like those banana marshmallow five cent candies that you used to be able to get at the convenience store. Very sweet and more of an artificial banana flavour but still so good; definitely has this nostalgic quality for me. I could also taste the honeybush; sweet and woody with a very slight peppery undertone to it as well. I actually liked the pairing a lot; that woody/peppery combo kept this one from being too sweet/sugary.

Thanks VariaTEA!

Cold Brew!

Was recently talking to a tea friend about yuzu/yuzu infused tea blends and she made a comment about how yuzu always tastes so much like black pepper to her. She also suggested that if I drink this tea with the idea of it tasting like black pepper in mind that maybe I’d enjoy the blend more. So that’s what I’m doing…

Here’s the thing; now that the comparison has been made I 100% think it’s accurate; as I was drinking this brew all I could think was how peppery it tasted to me, with these weird fleeting undertones of orange. Now, does that mean I liked it? Oh hell no. I still thought it tasted very bitter and very disgusting and there was no way I was ever going to finish drinking the infusion. Most of it definitely got tossed out.

Still; very interesting take on yuzu – and something I’ll watch out for with other yuzu flavoured things; tea and otherwise.

Decided to do a cupping with this one tonight to see if it’s any closer to being ready to drink yet; it was gorgeous outside I brought my cupping set outside with me and drank it in my backyard while watching the sunset – it was sort of a cheesey moment, but still beautiful regardless…

I think this tea definitely still needs time to be good; the body of the tea had a lot of funk/fishiness to it still that just tells me it’s not aired out enough. That said, it smelled a whole lot less funky and dank then when I first acquired it. Ignoring the aforementioned notes, though, there were some nice qualities if you paid enough attention – the finish was actually surprisingly sweet and the mouthfeel was nice and lush. Earthy, of course. Sort of a decaying wood kind of quality, if someone had sprinkled cocoa powder on top of the wood? Not as bitter as I’d expect it to be at all, either. This will totally mellow out and get to a pleasing state, I’m sure.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BkMOw6fHGM9/?taken-by=ros_strange

It did feel a little wrong to not be drinking it on a Sunday, though.

Sipdown (562)!

This is an upsetting sipdown for me; I’ve greatly enjoyed this black tea and all its weird but connected layers of flavour. It’s sweet (chocolate), spicy (clove and cinnamon), tart (cranberry) – really it’s just every great autumnal flavour in one beautiful package. I debated not finishing it until the fall when it would be more appropriate, but I think I was just ready to let go of this one and everything it meant to me…

When I envisioned this blend it was a representation of a relationship with someone that no longer exists now – literally a phrase that he said to me to poetically convey how we were two opposite people coming together to create something stronger and more beautiful. That just simply isn’t true any more though.

I’d love to get this recreated by BlendBee for myself at some point in the future – but I can guarantee you that if I ever do that it will be under a different blend name.

Matcha milkshake!

Made this one into a simple milkshake, with vanilla ice cream and milk, this afternoon for something sweet and creamy to break up the day. It was phenomenal; the weird texture/mouthfeel thing wasn’t an issue at all in milkshake form but I still got to enjoy the vanilla cake batter sort of taste that I enjoy so much about this tea.

Happy belated Father’s Day Steepster dads!

I was trying to come up with a tea in my cupboard that I could bring over to my Dad’s house for the evening and share with him to celebrate – and it finally hit me that this was 100% that appropriate choice. #dadpuns

I decided to do it up iced with some added cashew milk; it was a big hit. I mean, it’s one that I know I personally enjoy already but he also really liked it too. It’s a very sweet, nutty tea and delivers this very creamy, vibrant marzipan flavour tinged with undertones of fruit. Nothing super clear though, papaya doesn’t have a really strong/well defined flavour on its own let alone when it’s competing against other vibrant flavours. My dad’s trying really hard to cut out all sugar from his diet though following the open heart surgery he had at the start of the year, so he really appreciated the strong flavour of this tea along with the fact that in general tea doesn’t really have sugar and I used an unsweetened nut milk. This will have a TINY amount from the sprinkles in the blend, but it’s quite small.

It was a nice thing to share with him, though.

So, I received a fair bit of this one from Starfevre a little while ago, and I’ve been sort of scared to drink it because this is one of those Butiki blends that I really loved when I first tried it – like, I gave it a ‘100’ rating degree of loved it. So the fear is that revisiting it, especially after such a long passing of time, I wont like it at all/it wont have any familiar and delightful tasting notes…

Gotta rip the bandaid off and just do it, though.

So, this smells amazing still as dry leaf; very pumpkin-y with some clove and nutmeg notes and then a soft earthiness. Steeped it’s basically the same, but maybe a touch more earthy smelling. Don’t worry, I made sure to give it a rinse. I’m nervous; it smells great but will it live up to past memories of it!? Well, the simple answer is… yes! This still tastes pretty bomb; lots of pumpkin, a very light touch of spice that thankfully does not detract from the pumpkin notes (nutmeg/clove), some creamy but faint vanilla notes, and then the pu’erh base. I have a feeling the overall flavourings have probably lost some punch over time – which makes me thankful that there’s actually physical pumpkin flakes in the tea itself. I also DEFINITELY have a much stronger appreciation and love of pu’erh/shou tea in general now compared to when I first had this so stronger notes of the pu’erh base are not a negative at all for me. It’s got that some delightful petrichor note to it that I first observed years ago, but also notes of undergrowth, wet wood, and sweet smoke. Not a lot of smoke, though. This was a big relief, and now I can happily revisit this tea whenever I want and revel in how delightful it is!