Foggy River Farm

I was having just awful cramps on Sunday so I pulled out this tea I picked up at Toronto Tea Festival at the start of the year since it’s got a bunch of ingredients in it, like raspberry leaf, that are good for menstrual cramping. Placebo or not, I did feel like about a half hour or so after finishing the mug that most of the pain I was feeling had passed.

Taste wise, it’s a pretty blah tea. Very herbaceous and a little earthy with a lot of straw-like flavour to it. At least it wasn’t unpleasant/medicinal/bitter – it just wasn’t, like, great tasting. But it gets a pass since the goal with this tea is obviously very much function over flavour and it’s not exactly trying to hide any of the flavour/ingredients in the blend. It leans forward and embraces them, instead.

Let this steep for a super long time because I was enjoying the aromatherapy of the mug so much. It made me think of walking into a Saje store with all the different essential oil diffusers. Very soothing, relaxing smell. In both taste and smell the sage was the strongest element. I recognize there’s maybe some kind of pun in the fact the aroma was making me think of Saje and the notes I was getting were sage. Anyway, very nice herbal and foresty cuppa.

Steeped this with a touch of honey while trying to put a small dent in my ever growing ‘to be read’ list. Lately, I’ve been really gravitating towards this super unique blend of four different varieties of mint with a touch of tarragon to top it all off: banana mint, mojito mint, berries & Cream mint, and applemint. As one can imagine, even though it’s a really intense tasting and cool feeling mint, there’s a real interesting undertone of fruit. Pretty berry forward, but it’s honestly the sweet notes of ripe banana that pop up in the aroma and top notes that really blow my mind. I’ve never had banana mint outside of this blend, and now I’m determined to find it straight so that I can experience the unadulterated flavour. It’s just such a cool tea!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DAErXaFyF5A/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XLPyfvNiNg

Drank this one a few nights ago because I came home from work and just wanted something soothing and more herbal in nature – and this fit that bill while still having some more unique qualities to it. Still one of the most interesting mint blends I’ve ever come across. Love that gentle berry undertone!

If you asked me before the Toronto Tea Festival what one of the teas I’d be least likely to buy way I probably would have listed stuff like straight green teas or “cupboard classics” like mint teas, and yet one of the teas I ended up most excited about was this blend of different mints…

I think what most excited me (and made this an immediate purchase) is that it’s a blend of mints but none of them are the types of mint you would typically see in a mint tea like peppermint or spearmint. Instead they’re all SUPER specific varietals like banana mint and mojito mint. The resulting cup is intense and, like the name implies, punchy with a deeply cooling finish but also a really fruity undertone and lean that is so unexpected and refreshing!

I can’t even remember the last time a mint tea excited me the way this one does. I say constantly that mint teas (though delicious) are some of the most boring and predictable and this is really anything but that. I enjoyed it greatly and now I have a desperate need to taste straight banana mint because dang that sounds fascinating.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2s0PrrOpqr/?img_index=1 (Third Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNbz7y_a0ys

One of several teas I picked up at the Toronto Tea Festival!

I think I technically got more teas from this company than any other, though they were smaller amounts. They focus on herbal blends using Ontario grown ingredients. Many were more functional, but if I’m being honest I mostly stuck to teas that seemed like they would taste like trees…

This was fucking phenomenal tasting. A bit woodsy, but mostly quite smooth and sweet with a rich anise/black licorice note that dominated the cup. One of the freshest and richest anise centered teas or tisanes I’ve ever come across though. It had a nice mouth coating sensation, and clean finish. Definitely something unique to this!