Jungle Ju Ju

Yesterday was a huge day for me. As of 8:11 am on May 24th, 2011, I am a permanent resident of Canada. YAY!

However, as of 10 pm, May 23rd, I had food poisoning and enough stress about my landing interview the next day that I couldn’t sleep at all. (The landing interview took ten whole minutes and was stupidly stressfree).

Cut to 4 pm yesterday, and I was dragging. I was incredibly exhausted from a day of dealing with the government and putting in applications (I seriously handed out about 20 resumes yesterday). So when we stopped in at DavidsTea to drop off an application, well, of course I had to try this beauty! We were told it tastes like Lipton tea with peach, and I’ll agree with that. It was delicious. And more importantly, it gave me the much-needed boost to finish handing out resumes and applications. I was awake and alert without being jittery.

So there you have it!

Backlogging from yesterday.

I finally got this tea. It was sold out of my local DT for quite awhile. Then, the last 3 times that I went, I got distracted by other new teas and forgot to try this one!

This is better than I was expecting. It is earthy but not as earthy as a mate base. I like this guayusa base, it is earthy but remains sweet. To me, this and the new main squeeze are very similar which I tried the day before this one.

The papaya and peach come through very nicely. Too bad there is flavourings in this one.

I put the last part of this cup in the fridge to cool and tried it this morning. It was very good chilled. Very peachy and refreshing.

Well, I made tea with my kettle again today! it was better this time. Plastic is still present in the taste but no more than in bottled water. I hope I don’t get cancer from drinking it! ha.
Now on to the actual tea: [with a few swirls of “light” agave]
Well, I didn’t get to drink any til it was mostly cold so I can’t really give a full review. What I did have was pretty tasty, and perked me right up. A bit thick, fruity and sweet but that’s what I get for eyeballing the parameters!
So I’ll leave the rating as is for now. This one gets extra points for all that extra caffeine. Mmmm.
Oh and I just found out… one of my jobs is taking me on 5 days per week!! still through a temp agency, but it brings me closer to my goal! :)
the only bad part is that I have no access to Steepster lol

Did I never rate this one, either? What the heck. I must write reviews in my dreams.
Speaking of dreams, guayusa is reported to increase lucid dreams.
It’s also an aphrodisiac.
Definitely ordering more of this. haha.

Thanks, Jenn! c: I think I’ve about worked my way through your generous package of samples. You’re the best. <3

On another note.. I just put in an order for 16 teas from Davids Tea…….
David, youre going to force me to live in a box. :( But at least I will have delicious tea to keep me warm.

Jungle Ju-Ju… Please for the love of God wake me up enough to help me play the part of “Bus Driver” this morning! I stayed up too late, reading a book that was somewhat of a let down and somewhat great, with a little “Happy Kombucha” by my side… But 4 hours sleep will get me know where when the work day today goes from 7am (which means up by 6am out of the house by 6:30am) and not home again until 9pm… Oh I am not sure how I feel about Summer Training Days!

Jungle Ju-Ju, please oh please make sure I am not too grumpy today!

A tea I didn’t care for – along with a story of a company I care for very much! Story first, because it happened before I drank the tea!

So I went into the Downtown Davids, which I will call the DTDT, for the first time! It was little and busy, but I really liked how there were little tables to sit at. So I picked up my big green teapot to buy, my little gong fu teapot, and some on-sale tea packets and got in line.
I got to the front of the line and asked for an iced cup of Jungle Ju Ju, as I had never tried it before O: . I also inquired as to if there were any matching green cups for my pot, as there were some display ones but none in boxes. There were none, but the awesome girl wrapped up 2 of the display cups for me to take home! Yay!
Secondly, as she was ringing through my stuff, she opened up the gong fu teapot box… it was empty. Man am I ever grateful for that!! She said it seemed light, it must have been the display model box, and it was, so she ran and got me a box with a pot in it. (I am so so so grateful for that – I thought it was light naturally because it’s a tiny teapot made of glass!).
So! I got my bag of goodies and we leave, I thank her for taking such good care of me (after inquiring about a job as well haha), and we walk about a block and a half away, when I go to take a sip of a tea I left there and totally forgot about. “My tea!” I exclaim, as I turn around. And there she is running towards me with my tea. I felt soo bad!! But I wished good karma on her that day, because she was honestly 100% awesome all the way!!!

Happiness!

Well, I didn’t really like the tea that much. haha!
I found it a bit bitter – which may have come from us forgetting about the tea, but I’m guessing it’s the guayusa base. It’s not bitter in the traditional sense, but it’s quite overpowering. Almost earthy… but not in a puerh way. hum.

I can taste the fruitiness, it’s almost equal but then is overpowered by a strange taste. So I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I will say that I feel very lucky to have such an awesome place that I can frequent, and maybe one day work at, we’ll see!

Thank you David’s Tea!

Whoops, backlog from yesterday morning. I forgot.

Needed some caffeine so went for this one. All I had was a lame filter that would allow all the guayasa pieces through, so just put it all directly into the cup and left it in while I was drinking. Mostly fine, except for the few pieces I choked on when taking a sip.

My recollection is of it being pleasant and sweet, but neither interesting nor capable of giving me the boost I wanted (I really didn’t feel more energized after). Definitely have to try my new guayasa from Butiki Teas to see if they’re better.

This is the last tea in my swap package from Kittenna!! Thank you soooo much for sharing all these teas with me! I’ve really enjoyed them and found some new all-time favorites. :)

I really need this highly caffeinated cup of guayusa this morning. I have not been getting enough sleep lately, and I have a big weekend full of bridesmaid dress shopping with my girls! I’m also trying on my wedding dress for the first time :D and seeing Skyfall. Woot! (For anyone who’s interested…here’s a link to my wedding dress, although I’m wearing a bejeweled belt instead of the flowery doodad that’s pictured here: http://www.jlmcouture.com/Tara-Keely/Bridal/Spring/2012/Style-2200).

The dry leaf aroma of this one is mostly guayusa. I’m not detecting much else, although there is a little cube of something beige colored in here. I let it steep for 4 minutes, and when I took the infuser basket out of the cup, there was about ¼ less water!! These guayusa leaves really soak it up I guess.

As for the taste? Well it may just be me, but this pretty much tastes like unflavored guayusa. There is a little bit of caramel-like sweetness at the beginning of the sip, but 95% of the flavor is plain guayusa. Maybe it didn’t hold onto its flavoring well? Or maybe it was lightly flavored to start with? I don’t know.

But as far as guayusas go, this is all right. That little bit of added sweetness cuts through some of the oddness of the guayusa base. I like this stuff! And I do feel more alert to boot. Thanks again to the ever generous Kittenna!!

This is more of a practical beverage than one of pleasure but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste good. That’s just an added bonus.

Jungle Ju Ju is my most trusted friend when I need stay up all night to get something in. It’s also good to drink the morning of an exam after I’ve stayed up all night to get something in… See how that works?

I remember the first time I tried this: a friend was visiting me on the island and had decided to buy some of this after I dragged her to David’s Tea (I drag everyone to David’s Tea). She was leaving at 6am the next morning and, not wanting to miss a new experience, I decided to drink a pot at 12am. I Could Not get to sleep and was still running in circles by the time she arose to catch the first bus outside the house. Oh, my. I guess I’m very susceptible to caffeine stimulants, or placebos, or both.

The flavour is earthy leaf with the sweetness of candied fruit. Out of all the blends with fruit pieces this is my favourite one to snack on. There’s a bit of bitterness to this tisane but it’s a good kind of bitterness. Reminiscent of coffee beans. Perhaps, it’s because I steep it for a kalpa.

Anyways, If I’m drinking this it means I have school obligations to fulfill so good night world! See you after deadlines!

Yesterday, I rewarded myself for going to the doctor for an annoying infection with a trip up to DT, and decided I wanted something iced. And something I hadn’t tried before.

None of the summer teas are particularly appealing to me, but this seemed interesting. I’ve been hearing about guayasa but not tried it. And it smelled delicious. It was! I’m not sure about their brewing technique since this was only steeped for a couple minutes and then poured over a bunch of ice. It was predictably very watered-down, but it was promising enough that I’ve ordered some. Tropical but not too sweet. Will report back later once I’ve tried it under better conditions.,