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Backlog from yesterday. This was super good to end the day yesterday. I’d spent the day drinking experimental teas from the TTBB and I wanted something I love so I came up with that one and it was soo good. I kind of gulped it down because I was running late to leave work but it was still very nice.

Lavender White – One Love Tea – 2/6/14
? minutes, 185 degrees

While it was steeping and then cooling, my entire desk smelled like lavender and it was very nice.

Tasting this without sweetener, it is extremely flowery and a little bit bitter but strangely I don’t think that the bitterness came from the white tea but kind of from the lavender. Once the sugar has been added, the flower taste becomes more pleasant and the base tea comes out a bit more. I’m not entirely sure that lavender and white tea are the only ingredients here, there are several brown stick things that are in that I can’t identify. As it cools, the flowery aftertaste comes on stronger which is nice at first but quickly turns sickly as it lingers so I am drinking this fast and looking for a food item for after it. I think my mint Aero bar from England will do.

TTBB #8

Walnut Green – The Tea Grotto – 2/5/14
2.5 minutes, 175 degrees

Nutty and buttery are the first few sips without the sugar stirred up. It’s actually quite pleasant and drinkable this way. The base tea must be very nice. Sugar brings out both of the flavours a whole lot more and subdues the base a little except at the end of the sip and the aftertaste (which is in my cheeks again, keychange). There was one enormous half of a walnut in my leaf as well as some sort of fruit that I think was candied pineapple from the look of it. I can taste that faintly to the sides of the flavour of the nut. If I drink more quickly as it cools, the taste of the base green tea comes to the fore and is quite bright and buttery all on it’s own. Nut and fruit are fading with the temperature.

Verdict? I’d drink this again. Not sure I’d buy it because walnut isn’t my fave and I have way too much tea already but if it were served to me I would drink it with a smile.

TTBB #7 (almost time to go home from work)

Green Caramel – Just Add Honey – 2/5/14
2 minutes, 175 degrees

This smells smoky to me. Is there smoke in the ingredients? Looking at the ingredients, I suppose it could be one of the roasted things but it’s really quite strong. I kept to the green steeping parameters because although rooibos can do boiling and a long steep, I don’t think the green would survive that. The steeping smell still has a bit of smoke but I can pick up more on the wood smell coming from the rooibos now. I’m not really a fan of rooibos so I hope it stays subtle.

Without sugar, this tastes very smoky to me. Like a very very mild lapsang might. With sugar, I’m still tasting a horrible taste reminiscent of beef jerky covered in caramel. Wow. I’m forcing myself to drink the rest of this but it’s a struggle. This is not a tea for me.

TTBB #6 (after lunch)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Green – 52Teas – 2/5/14
2 minutes, 175 degrees

Sugar at the bottom, I definitely get cake. Buttery cake. Not quite in mouthfeel but definitely in taste. When I stir the sugar up, the pineapple starts showing through, though faintly. As it cools the base starts getting a lot more prominent and it’s definitely not my favourite green tea. Chinese Sencha? Isn’t sencha Japanese? Anyway, pleasant to try, would not order if it were reblended by Frank.

Don’t you hate it at work when the customer comes around and stuff doesn’t match like it should and you investigate and are like ‘yep, sent you the wrong thing, sorry’. I hate that. That’s what happened to me this morning. I’ve already put together the revised thing because a revision c of this particular thing is going out soon anyway but it’s embarrassing.

TTBB #5 (lunch at work)

Momoko – Lupicia – 2/5/14
2 minutes, 175 degrees.

I read some of the other tasting notes to get an idea of what I should be tasting but it wasn’t entirely clear. I also thought I might have tried this before but there are no tasting notes from me so it appears that that is not the case.

I’m definitely picking up some vanilla amidst the green tea flavour. As I sip a bit more, the peach becomes stronger until it’s quite clear. Originally it just tasted a bit generically tropical before resolving into straight peach. I’m not an enormous fan of the green tea base in this, it leaves a yucky aftertaste and it is somewhat astringent despite my somewhat conservative steeping time/temp. The whole thing put together is pleasant enough, but it is not something I think I would ever buy now that I’ve tasted it.

TTBB#4 (Not even 10am at work)

Boulder Blues – The Tea Spot – 2/5/14
2 minutes, 175 degrees.

Strawberry Rhubarb? Well it certainly smells like pie innards. I put some sugar in (as I usually do) but I took a sip before stirring and it’s actually still quite nice. Not entirely to my taste but nice. After stirring, the flavours come out more, especially the rhubarb. I wish it had been the strawberry instead because rhubarb is not my favourite thing but alas. The green base is both subdued and sharp at the same time in several different places in the sip. I can taste it in my cheeks after the sip, somewhat metallic, and during it is quite mellow, allowing the rhubarb to come forth.

TTBB #3 (The work editions)

TTBB #2. I’m not going to add these to my cupboard unless I keep more than the cup I drink so there won’t be any sipdowns for a while.

I’ve never tried green rooibos before, though I’ve been meaning to. I have some….somewhere in the tea tubs but I couldn’t even tell you what brand it is. This smells very strongly of fruit, mostly pear as other commenters have mentioned.

Just took a drink and it’s reminding me of SOMETHING very very strongly. I’m having a sense memory but I couldn’t tell you what. Maybe…root beer? Something in root beer is twigging at me. Pear up front but this mystery flavour in the back. In the middle is something vaguely horrible that I think is the green rooibos. What is that?? Anyway, aside from the visceral shudder reaction, I think this tastes good. I would never buy it, but it’s good.

I am getting a quick onset headache since drinking this so I might have found another food sensitivity. Crap. I suspect the rooibos but I don’t have enough data points to tell. Possibly a flavouring.

In other news, my kidneys have been sore all day and I’m not sure why. It’s very irritating.

First tea of the Traveling Tea Box B! I just took a little over a teaspoon out of this so the rest will go back into the box. It brewed up quite dark. Smells very generic tropical fruit.

It actually tastes quite mango with little hints of other fruits that aren’t strong enough for me to identify. One of them feels quite ‘sharp’ at the back of my throat but I don’t know what it is. As I drink more of this it is becoming less tasty and more ‘woody’ somehow. I don’t know how old this sample is.

Happy to have tried it, but I wouldn’t order any.

More of this! Getting one step closer to a sipdown. Hot latte, as always at work. Just over a half teaspoon was all I dared to put in and it’s a tinge chemically tasting but it’s not awful. Still creamy smooth though I’m mostly getting cream and not so much cookie this time. Ah well. This will hopefully keep me awake on my drive home in 15 minutes (if only because I’ll have to pee).