McQuarries Tea & Coffee Merchants

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Recent Tasting Notes

84

First thing I’ve prepared as a cold brew in my mason jar, and I think it was a fantastic success! It’s the perfect cold brew amount and clean up/straining was incredibly easy! Much better than the crappy pitcher/strain through a fine mesh brew basket (my normal straining device was accidentally left in Regina) method I was using this month.

Anyway, I’ve had this cold brewed before and I really liked it (I’ve yet to try it hot) and it seemed like a good tea to test this out with! So, it sat cold brewing for 11 hours, and then I took the basket out last night but am just drinking it now with breakfast.

Taste wise, this is definitely strongly fig/rose like the name implies it should be, and then has some sweet peach notes and a little (just a small touch) of hibiscus tartness. It’s really refreshing and yummy, and I think this is something I’m going to want lots of come summer time. Thankfully it’s super affordable ($4/50g). If I was worried that my love of the last cold brew was a fluke, I don’t have that concern anymore.

Flavors: Peach

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 4 tsp 25 OZ / 739 ML

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84

The other work tea I had today was this one! Since I had enjoyed it a lot yesterday, I took the last of what was cold brewed in my fridge to work with me again today. Of course, I didn’t have time to drink it at work so it made a return trip with me and I’m drinking it now.

Today, I’m getting slightly stronger fig notes and rose notes, and the peach notes seem to be just slightly more mild. Still quite good though! Not much else to add since this is the exact same brew as yesterday’s…

Lala

This one sounds interesting. I don’t recall seeing it last time I was at McQ’s but I will have to pick some up to try. Is it a straight “fruit” blend or is there some kind of rooibos, chammomile, etc, in the blend?

Roswell Strange

So, it was gonna be a surprise – but I actually sent a sample of this back to Regina when my family left on Sunday. It should be getting “ninja’d” into your mailbox any day now… It’s straight fruit, though :)

Lala

Ha ha ha ha. That is awesome. It still would have been a surprise if you never said anything and just told me it was a fruit blend.

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84

So I bought this from Mcquarrie’s about a week or so ago? I went in with the intention of finding something that I could cold brew to make a nice, fruity drink. Somehow I settled on this even though it didn’t particularly scream “cold brew me!”. I think, mostly, I wanted to see if I could find a fog tea better than the Spiced Fig at DAVIDsTEA (the only other fig tea I’ve tried) that was so disappointing and neither smell nor tasted like fig. This one had a very strong smell of fig (very, VERY strong) so I thought it was worth a try.

I did end up cold brewing it though – for Christmas (well, my early Christmas) because I thought it might be neat having a fig drink around (I associate figs as Christmas fruit, for some reason). I set up 2 and a half tablespoons of leaf in about 5 cups of water which cold brewed in my fridge for around 12 hours. I didn’t end up drinking any of it on Christmas though because there was just so much around to eat and drink.

So I’m having it now at work, the day after. The strained colour is a very nice sunset kind of pink and smells strongly of fig and peaches? McQuarrie’s doesn’t post ingredient lists (they have an ingredient booklets in store, but I didn’t check it) so I’m not one hundred percent sure what was in the mix. I remember seeing LARGE chunks of fig, whole rose buds, a little bit of hibiscus, but nothing quite resembling peach.

Taste wise, this is uber refreshing and actually way fruitier than I thought it would be. The first thing I notice is the fig, which I’m super happy about! That was the whole point. There is also a considerable amount of peach type flavour to me but I’m all for that – it pairs quite nicely with the fig and gives this a little more dimension. I’m finding the rose most noticeable in the aftertaste (along with a milder fig flavour), and it’s a nice kind of way to end the sip.

As far as the hibiscus goes (because I know it’s dreaded by many a people) – to ME I’m finding it’s present but not overwhelmingly so. Mostly, I think it’s contributing a sort of sharpness to the peach that cuts through what might otherwise be a sort of overwhelming amount of straight fig and rose.

I have enough leaf left to maybe maybe one hot cup and another pitcher of this cold, but once I’m out I think I’ll strongly consider repurchasing this! It was very nice to have as a cold drink.

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65

Sipdown (197/201)!

Again, only sort of a sipdown technically – because there’s still a little left, but I’m going to be sending it to VariaTEA because she appreciates it a lot more than I do. I wanted to get one last cup worth in though, just in case my opinion has changed.

I did severely under leaf this cup because I’ve found it to be way too strong/sour in the past – so I used less than 1 tsp. for my 8 oz. mug of it. This did affect the flavour, and I found it was more creamy with a lighter touch of strawberry/hibiscus, but I still didn’t enjoy it a whole lot so I’m happy with my decision to send what little is left to someone who will fully appreciate it.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
VariaTEA

I do like this tea quite a bit :)

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65

So close to making this a sipdown. There’s enough leaf for a small pitcher or possibly two(ish) mugs worth. I’d love to use this up, but at the same time it feels like I’ve been drinking this pretty frequently as of late, so I’ll likely wait a while.

My brother picked this out to cold brew and then set everything up all on his own after getting instructions from me. It was a really big step for him. That being said, I feel like he must have got the proportion of leaf all wrong because this is insanely sour and even a little bitter: it’s like a hibiscus puree – which is not what it tasted like the last time I cold brewed it.

Long story short, no one wants to drink it. We basically all had like a shot glass worth and then couldn’t finish the cups we’d strained; likely the rest of the pitcher is getting dumped.

It does feel like a little bit of a waste…

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65

Ok, this is the cold brewed batch that I made for me and my brother to try! Formula was 2 tbsp. of leaf for about 6 cups of water, cold steeped for a good 18(ish) hours. The steeped colour is a dark red/purple that kind of reminds me of some darker red wines? It looks kinda scary and really concentrated, though.

I’ve actually had two cups today, which I suppose in itself says that this wasn’t so bad I wouldn’t drink it again. That’s a plus.

My second cup, I was suffering from some pretty horrible toothache so I wasn’t really so focused on the taste. But my overall impression on the taste from both cups is that this is a much nicer way to drink this tea. The tart and sour initial flavour is much more mellowed out but still retains the taste of hibiscus in a not completely overwhelming way. The rest of the taste is juicy strawberry and maybe raspberry, with a creaminess to it in the end sip accompanied by a sort of fermented fruit/borderline rum taste. Really, the “rum” flavour the name implies is just kind of barely present in the weirdest possible way.

So yeah – this is much more enjoyable cold brewed and I think that’s probably how I’ll end up finishing off what’s left of my 50g of it. I’ve definitely used at least 25g worth at this point, so that’s good.

VariaTEA

I will try the sample you have me cold brewed then as this sounds tasty.

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65

My brother and I practically just peed ourselves watching Birdemic! I’ve seen it many times because it’s one of my favourite poorly done horror movies, but it was the first time he’d ever seen it and he found it so horribly done in the best way possible; just like I do! Seriously, if you love poorly done horror movies or just bad movies in general you need to check this out! It’s up there with the likes of The Room, Trolls 2, and Sharknado.

This is what I made to drink with the movie. Last time I had it hot, it was incredibly sour and tart and sort of a pure hibiscus taste, but I wanted to give it another shot with less leaf and a shorter steep time to see if that improved things. So, this time I used 1/2 tbsp. for my 12 oz. timolino steeped for just two minutes.

Taste wise, it was still pretty sharp and sour though certainly not as much. That part of the tea is really unenjoyable, to be honest. However, the aftertaste (similar to what I remember from last time) is nice and creamy and just the right amount of sweet and sour strawberry with a sort of rum feel to compliment the creaminess. So – it’s kind of hard to fairly judge it because you have two major extremes: super shrill kind of sour that overwhelms you at the start of each sip, and a nice creamy and fruity taste that lingers after the sip, letting things end nicely.

Ugh.

I still need to try this cold brewed to see how that changes things, but this is just so fickle, so unless it’s amazing cold brewed there’s no way I’m getting it again…

VariaTEA

omg Sharknado. If you want another movie like that, you really need to check out Titanic 2 on Netflix. I watched it with friends and we talked about its ridiculousness all weekend.

Shadowfall

You should also check out a movie called Sharktopus. Which is absolutely just as hilariously awful as it sounds. Not sure if it’s on Netflix since I don’t have Netflix to check. Lol.

Roswell Strange

I’ve seen so many bad shark movies! Sharktopus, Two Headed Shark Attack, Land Shark, Sharks in Venice, Sand Sharks, Megashark vs. Crocosaurus, Ice Sharks… A lot of those are on Netflix, and definitely worth checking out!

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65

Today wound up being about trying new teas, which is never a bad thing. I think I’m gonna take some older ones that I either have in large quantity or am expecting more of from Black Friday orders and drink those tomorrow, though.

Anyway, I went to McQuarries today though – which was a completely unexpected trip. I’m not really totally enthused by that store – today was my second time going, and I had the same sales lady as last time that made me feel incredibly stupid and just seemed to be in a totally bitchy mood. I had asked about finding some good, fruity tisanes for cold brewing and she just very coldly told me “tisanes are herbals” and offered no advice. Umm, thanks? Mind you, this is the same lady who basically belittled me for inquiring about King Tut’s Lemonade last time, which had been discontinued (however, they don’t regularly update their website and it’s still listed there, so I had no idea of knowing that).

I asked a lot of questions about ingredients, since any of their new blends aren’t listed on the website (due to lack of regular updating) and there are no listed ingredients either on their storage/display containers or on the packages they sell their tea in. She seemed pissed to have to answer my questions, though. Smeh.

For whatever reason, I’m intricately drawn to teas with alcoholic beverages in the titles – which makes NO sense since A) I don’t drink and haven’t in over two years (technically I’m still under the legal drinking age), and B) even when I was drinking, the types of ‘alcohol inspired’ teas I go for are not the types of liquor I drank. So there’s that…

I didn’t actually look at the ingredients booklet they have in store when I got this, which maybe was a bad idea. I made sure to VERY CLEARLY specify I did not want anything with ginger or raisins, but looking at the leaf for this blend I see what looks like raisins; I’m hoping I’m wrong and it’s just other dried fruits though. I am also seeing a bunch of hibiscus, but that’s not necessarily bad.

In regard to smell – this is so incredibly strong and powerful smelling. When I was drinking Creamy Eggnog earlier I had the sealed packet of this sitting on my kitchen counter, and from the kitchen I could still faintly smell this. It reminds me of DAVIDsTEA’s Guava Cadabra in that I had a sample size of that one in a ziploc bag and no matter what I did it always smelled intensely of guava, and whatever I put it next to managed to pickup the same smell on its packaging – I’ll be sure to carefully store this.

I kind of get hibiscus, but I also get an overwhelming sense of grape and strawberry (grape is not making me feel too good about the raisins) – and it’s weird because there IS this fermented alcohol like quality to the smell, but it also just sorta reminds me of sugary Kool-Aid. I’m vaguely reminded of rum and there’s a vague creaminess – but it’s kind of odd and not really all there.

Because this is so strong smelling, I cautiously only used 1 1/2 tsp. instead of the 2 tsp. I’d normally use for an all fruit blend. This went into 8 oz. of boiling water, and was steeped for five(ish) minutes. The liquor is actually this really beautiful dark red/purple colour, and it gives off a strong aroma of fermented type wine, is sorta “rum-y”, and has this nice strawberry cream smell too.

Taste wise, the hibiscus because quite prominent and really sour, but is countered sort of well with the taste of strawberry (I almost get weird rhubarb types notes too), and a more noticeable rum type of taste in the back of the sip and aftertaste. And there’s IS a creaminess to it, though I’m not finding it super pronounced. Basically this is initially tart and sour strawberry which awkwardly transitions to a more fermented/rum-y type of taste with some creaminess. I actually think I’d enjoy this quite a lot if it DIDN’T have that super sharp kind of tang from the hibiscus at the first bit of the sip – it’s the kind of tang that hits the sides of your tongue (does that even make sense) and takes a longer time to sort of fade away.

Next time I have it hot, I’m actually going to use even less leaf (1 tsp. probably) and a shorter steep time. I am really interested to see how this cold brews though, seeing as that’s why I bought it anyway. And, to be fair I did try the one I thought I’d like the least first. The other tea I bought today is called Fig Rose and I think I might like that one a lot better.

Kelci

Don’t let the lady at McQuarries get to you. Next time you go in, I think you should ask her if you did something to offend her. It will catch her off guard and open the door for your to tell her she isn’t being very nice. If she doesn’t respond to that, just do as I do, instead of getting mad at her, think about how something really must be going on in her life to make her act like that, and feel bad for her.

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A huge thanks to JennyFur for sharing this with me in our swap!

I was really excited about this tea, even though JennyFur wasn’t a huge fan of it. I love lemonade and I’ve had some lovely decaf lemon teas of late, so I was hoping to have an excuse to get even more.

Unfortunately, I had to search for steeping instructions, and prepared the tea for drinking prior to realizing it was only suitable (or recommended) as a cold brew. Darn it! It was wet already from my having washed out the steamer basket.. so I just committed to it hot. Yep, I can do this.

Like JennyFur, I found this to be really Pledge-like smelling. It actually smells quite lovely, it’s just.. there’s something chemical-y about it. I actually like the taste, although I seem to be having a reaction to it. Sweetened, it tastes lovely as well – and still this reaction.

Sigh. I’m really grateful to JennyFur for sharing this; she saved me a lot of cash by letting me try a sample. I’m going to leave off a rating, because I think to do it justice, I should have cold brewed it instead.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Roswell Strange

I really enjoyed this one (don’t want to add insult to injury, but it really is amazing cold brewed), and it pisses me off greatly that it’s been discontinued – especially since it’s from a local shop in my city :(

MissB

I’m seriously considering JennyFur if she’ll swap me some more (if I remember correctly, she said she had quite a bit?) and I’ll send her some other stuff – like Pineapple Matcha – in exchange. I really do want to try this cold brewed.

JennyFur

I’ll see what I’ve got for you dear. I beleive dear husband has ran off with the bag to work. If he hasn’t drank it all I’ll zip you some over easily. If he HAS, I can always pick some more up at the place I got it at if they still have it. Its downtown and I don’t go often, but when I go next I’ll check and see. They didn’t give us any steeping instructions either, so don’t feel bad. I had it hot and didn’t like it, while husband loves it, but said its easy to get the ratio wrong.

Roswell Strange

I’m curious where you get it from, JennyFur. They used to sell this at a local tea store downtown in my city, but it’s been discontinued there…

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Thanks to Lala (my Secret Pumpkin for Round 1) for this sample. This was pretty tasty but nothing special. There’s a hint of spice but it’s not overpowering. I managed 2 steepings out of 2 tsp in my 16oz steeping mug. I get a hint of a fruit flavor (dare I say pumpkin?) at the end of the sip which is quite pleasant.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec

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90

Sample sipdown!

Thanks again Lala for this sample. I really enjoyed it as an ice tea, and just couldn’t wait to try it as a hot tea. So, the last (barely) tsp. went into this cup which was steeped in boiling water for about 8 min. MOstly it was steeped that long because I forgot it was steeping – I was too busy packaging up the teas that are coming with me tomorrow to comic con.

I decided that I’m gonna take five things with to comic con (it’s a four day trip). So, here’s what I packed:

- Approx. 2 cups worth of David’s Main Squeeze
- Approx. 2 cups worth of David’s Cream of Earl Grey
- Approx. 3 cups worth of Tea Desire’s Milky Oolong
- Approx. 1 cup worth of David’s Guava Cadabra (This’ll be a sipdown)
- Approx. 1 (maybe 2) cups worth of David’s Pumpkin Chai

And then I also threw in some tea bags just in case.

However, back to the tea I’m drinking at present…

Steeped it smells quite different from how it was iced. It’s very tart smelling, and also kind of smells like lemon scented Pledge. However, odd as it might be – that’s really appealing to me. I love the scent of Pledge (actually I like the smell of most cleaning supplies), so it smells really good.

Now mind you, I’ve never actually tasted Pledge – but I don’t think it tastes like what this tea tastes like. It is VERY tart and sour, with a pure lemon taste – nothing really “cleaning supply” like about it though. Actually, I’m not really enjoying it too much hot. Although, as I’ve let it cool down it’s gotten much better. I might just stick the rest in the fridge to cool off totally and then drink it cold: it was much better that way.

Sad to say goodbye to this, though! I’m so glad I got to experience it! If it wasn’t discontinued, I’d pick a little bit up to use in the summer months.

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90

So, I set this sample up to cold brew last night so it’d be ready to go to today for when Robyn came over to visit. I received it as a semi unexpected sample from Lala since I’d gone to the local store it’s sold at to buy some, but was told it’d been discontinued. I didn’t think I’d have the chance to try it, but Lala is amazing and sent me some so I guess I was wrong.

The dry leaf for this smells really intense: sort of like straight packaged lemonade juice mix – but definitely not artificial smelling, just very concentrated. When it came in the mail, I came home and my roommate was in the kitchen smelling the envelope. Since I wasn’t expecting any tea, I was kinda thrown off – but once he handed it over I understood why he’d been smelling it: even through the bag it was packaged in and the paper of the envelope I could still smell the leaf. Out of the sample Lala sent me, I used most of it for the cold brew today (about three cups worth) and then saved somewhere between 1/2 tsp. to a full tsp. to hopefully try a hot cup.

After straining the leaf out, there were still A LOT of little floaty bits, but Lala had warned me of this and it’s something I would have expected anyway considering how finely crushed the lemon peel in the mix is. The smell of the cold brew was really faintly lemon, and I was a little concerned that it hadn’t sat long enough to leech out enough flavour.

Trying it though, it was deliciously sweet and so much like freshly squeezed lemonade. Very thirst quenching, with some very subtle appley notes. Probably one of the best ‘lemonades’ I’ve ever had and I loved that it didn’t need sweetener at all. Robyn thinks this would be really good hot and would be great for sore throats (and I don’t disagree), but I think Lala was probably right in saying that this would be best cold brewed or on ice.

Excited to use up the last little bit of this as a hot brew!

Thanks again Lala for sending me the sample!

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more
Lala

So happy you liked this one. I am going to cold brew some after reading this review, I’m craving it now. Maybe if we harass McQuarries enough, they will bring it back!

Lala

And it is good hot, just like super lemon tea.

Roswell Strange

I’m so sad it’s discontinued! I’ve yet to have it hot, but I could have seen it as a staple to have cold brewed during the summer…

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93

Well King Tut Lemonade, I am sorry, but move on over. Because this lemonade tea is ridiculously awesome.

I had it hot a while ago and it tastes like awesome hot lemonade. So I figured it would be awesomer as a cold brew. Brewed this for about 11 hours. It is definitely sweet lemonade. Slightly tart but just enough that it is still lemonade. It is sweet enough on its own so no sweetener needs to be added. Very juicy. Mmmmm. Delicious.

I think it will be a bit better iced, but I was too lazy so just cold brewed.

I got my flu shot today and have been crying about my sore arm, this tea is making it all better.

Roswell Strange

Worth purchasing? I was thinking of doing a McQuarries run sometimes before Halloween and am trying to decide on two or three new things to try…

Lala

The teas from McQuarries that I have purchased more than once are king tut lemonade, new York cheesecake, and orange blossom oolong. I also really like this one. I usually buy my izu matcha there as well. They usually have some neat and seasonal teas there. I like to go whenever I am in Toon Town.

Sil

King tut was tasty :)

Roswell Strange

Last time I went I wanted to get the King Tut just based on your reviews of it (and the fact I’m lacking a really good lemon tea), but the sales woman told me it had been discontinued. She actually seemed rather ticked off I’d asked about it by name, but it’s still listed on the website, so… my bad? The McQuarries teas I currently have are Ontario Ice Wine which I like but don’t love (and likely will NOT be buying again), and Genmaicha which I’m still undecided about.

Lala

That’s sad if it is discontinued. The last time I was there I bought 500g of it, but that was a while ago. I can send you a sample if you want.

Roswell Strange

I’d love a sample, but only if you can spare it. Since it’s discontinued I wouldn’t want to be taking away from your stockpile of it. Is this one anywhere close to as good in your opinion?

Lala

It is hard to compare this lemonade tea to the king tut lemonade because they are different in taste. King Tut is fresh squeezed real puckered mouth lemonade. This one is much more of a blunted and sweet lemonade. I really like them both. Tonight I like this one better than the king tut but it is close.

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93

This one smells like lemonade. Yes! My favorite.

The brewed tea tastes very similar to fresh lemonade, however, it is not as sweet or as tart. I think I could have added some sweetener to bring out the lemon taste a bit more but chose not to for the first cup. I also tried this hot the first time, but I purchased it with the intention of cold brewing. I think this one is going to become a favorite.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Sil

mmmmmmm

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80

Sipdown (171/175)!

Congrats to me on finishing off one of my oldest teas!

This was my very first Genmaicha; I got it in September of last year and we have had quite a journey! This one really is a perfect example of how, as tea drinkers, our tastes really change over time. Originally I hated this one; I remember rating it something like “20” or equally low: it tasted like seaweed and was very offensive to my palate. But tastes change and over time this grew on me – a lot! Genmaicha is now a staple evening tea for me, and one of the only “straight” teas I drink on a regular basis. I also recently learned that I really like my Genmaicha with added milk (like I’m drinking now). Back at the start of my journey the thought of “seaweed tea and milk” probably would have really turned my stomach…

I’ve even gone questing to try as many Genmaicha blends as I can and I think I’ve got a fair number under my belt now – but plenty more to try still, of course!

And you know what this means!? There are finally no other Genmaicha blends in my cupboard to keep me from cracking open my Marshmallow Treat! How exciting is that!? I might open it later tonight – but if not then I definitely plan to finally indulge in that one tomorrow! Mmm!

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80

Backlog from last night. I didn’t get around to writing about it because I had just finished rewatching The Host, and that subsequently launched me into an obsessive binge of rereading all my favourite chapters, looking up lots and lots of O’Wanda (IanxWanda) fanfiction oneshots, continuing stories, and crack fics. Sorrynotsorry, and just emotionaly obsessing about IanxWanda – which is an OTP of mine.

Only fandom people will understand.

I may think Stephanie Meyers is a pretty mediocre, at best, writer and I find the Twilight series to be poorly written in both a grammatical/literary and plot based way as well as problematic in general – but I will defend The Host until I’m blue in the face.

Anyway, the tea. I took it with milk: I couldn’t ever remember having Genmaicha with milk and I thought it’d be an interesting experience. It was, in a good way! It was like the roasty, toasty, creamy borderline “seaweed” type drink. I think maybe it’d be better with a less green genmaicha. Still, very good and comforting!

I needed comfort what with all the heartbreaking fics…

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML
Hello.Kiki

I haven’t read the book, but I found the movie far more enjoyable than I was expecting. Perhaps I’ll add it to my reading list.

Roswell Strange

They left out all the best scenes int the movie; definitely read the book. I mean, you’ll have to bear through Meyers’ horrible writing – but I think it’s worth it.

221tea

I love when I see/hear people use “OTP” outside of my tumblr/AO3 bubble. Do you have any NOTP or OT3 match-ups? Hehe.

TeaLady441

I never would have considered reading The Host, tbh, because of all the terrible Twilight stuff I’ve encountered. Maybe I’ll have to rethink this.

I also had to take a second to figure out what the heck NOTP and OT3 are. :P I’m still noobish about all that. Hahah.

ohfancythat

I had to google all of these acronyms, haha.

I have the Host book but never read it because I can’t handle how un-feminist twilight is. Shitty female role model. Maybe The Host is better? Terrible writing aside, obviously.

Hesper June

I am in total agreement with you! I read The Host and thought “okay, so this lady CAN write”

TeaLady441

:P At least with my Kindle, no one will ever have to know if I read it!

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80

Evening Genmaicha.

This time my McQuarrie’s instead of something new, in an attempt to use up some of my older leaf. It was good. Roasty, toasty and good!

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80

Decided that I needed to have this tonight so I could do a comparison of it and DAVIDsTEA’s Genmaicha while the taste of DT’s blend was still fresh in my memory. I’m even drinking this while eating the same vegetable stir fry that I was munching on last night!

Dry, this one smells significantly more “seaweedy” than DT’s version, and this appears to have more green tea in comparison to the amount of brown rice. For preparation, I used 1 tsp. of leaf steeping in 8 oz, of water at about 80 degrees celsius for 1 min. 30 seconds. The colour of the liquor is more green than the DT one from last night was (that one was more of a pale yellow). Brewed, they give off a nearly identical smell.

As far as taste goes, this is still very toasty and roasty and comforting, with a clear “puffed wheat” type of taste – though it’s not quite as distinct as DT’s version, mostly because the taste of the green tea in this one is stronger and masks the rice just a little bit. I do enjoy the DT version just slightly more and I would be content with stocking either, though definitely not both.

So keeping that in mind, both are just as accessible to me, but this one is a fair bit cheaper so I’d probably stock this over the DT version.

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80

I enjoyed my cup of this so much that I decided to make another cup today, made exactly the same way. Although, to be fair I think this one might have ended up steeped about half a minute longs (I was poorly attempting to multi task by also making a timolino of tea for later tonight, and talking to Tre).

It’s not as good as last night (maybe it’s the over steeping or the fact I’m in a slightly different mood) – but still quite nice and roasty/toasty. Despite being all alone at home tonight (Tre is out with friends again), this cup is making me feel warm and comforted. I think I MIGHT have to rethink not restocking this – it’s, perhaps, growing on me.

Also, for people who read my tasting note on Japanese Cherry earlier today, I DID get a call back a couple hours ago, and I guess I’m now a manager. It’s a weird feeling, especially since I accepted and then was given this huge load of things to do/take in and process. Sometime tonight I’m supposed to receive an email with a whole ton of information to go through, as well as the resumes and availability of my two employees. By Friday, I have to have my schedule made up and sent in to the district manager for approval (it’s so odd that I’m determining my OWN hours), and I have to make the decision to hire someone I’ve never even met or not based purely on his/her availability. I have my training on Friday, and then on Saturday I train my new employees.

And, our store set up is Wednesday, and then my store opens on Thursday. Yeesh: steep learning curve.

Terri HarpLady

Wow! Congrats!

caile

Congratulations!

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80

Now that I’ve had all the Winter/Holiday samples I picked up from David’s at least once, the rest of this week is primarily going to be about drinking down some of the large quantities and sample sizes I have of teas I either am unsure about whether I want to restock or flat out know I wont be restocking. Yuck. I started earlier today with Ice Wine, also from McQuarries. And now I’m having this one…

Steeped 1 1/2 tsp (kinda over leafed deliberately to use up more leaf) for about 8 oz. in just under 80 degree celsius water for approx. 1 1/2 min. Actually, tonight this is tasting roasty and toasty, and not seaweedy (my biggest qualm with this one) at all. I DID have this marked as something I wouldn’t be restocking, but my experience tonight is a really good one – so maybe I’ll drink a few more cups this week and decide if this is moving back to the “unsure” category. I do have TONS (about 40g) of it left – and it seems like I’m never going to get through it all.

Dexter

IMHO genmaicha is finicky, you have to get the steeping just right for your tastes – if this worked for you, do it the same next time. I just got some from Verdant – hoping it’s going to be good. :))

Sil

i don’t like genmaicha much, but i do like verdant’s version (esp the black version heh)

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80

Nice and toasty, but still some seaweed taste that’s a bit icky.

Still, I think this one is growing on me.

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80

I’ve been neglectful! I have probably about 3 days worth of dishes piled up in my sink (many of them various teacups or mugs). I should probably wash those. However, there’s no rule that says I can’t do that while enjoying a cup of tea. I think I’d like to try my Genmaicha again. I really want to like green tea!

Again, I’m gonna do this following the parameters McQuarries has set out on their website. And, unlike last night, I’m also going to resteep these leaves a few times.

First cup: much the same as last night. Really nothing different to comment on.

Second cup: I resteeped for the same amount of time (1 minute). It’s actually a pale green this time, not a yellow. Smelling it, well, I smell seaweed. This time I’m also smelling a nutty aroma which I couldn’t smell last time, even though I could taste it.

First sips, I taste roasty toasty nuttiness and green tea – no seaweed! I need a few more sips to make sure: yeah, there it is in the aftertaste. But it’s oh so subtle. I can handle this. If that’s all the seaweed I’m going to taste in this cup then I’m pretty sure I can enjoy it. Really, it’s not too bad. Maybe it’s just that it’s an aquired taste? Maybe the more I drink it the better it’ll get.

Third Cup: For this steep, I kept my time at 1 minute. Toasty and actually really quite yummy. I’m not getting any seaweed taste at all. The nuttyness is pretty much gone or, at least, it’s very subtle now. I don’t think I’d want to push past 3 steeps. MAYBE I could do a fourth, but at the moment I don’t really want to push it. I do think I might have to up my rating a little bit.

I think, next time I drink this, I’m going to play around a little bit with the steep time on the first cup. But, I probably wont drink this for a little while – I still have the teas I picked up from Tea Desire to try yet (two of them are flavoured greens), and it’s been awhile since I had some of my favourite DAVIDsTEAs, so that might be my next cup of that day.

Also, I now have 9 freshly cleaned teancups/mugs in my cabinet! Shame on me for letting them all sit in the sink for so long.

Preparation
1 min, 0 sec

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80

Up until now the only straight green teas I’ve had have been the sort of ‘generic’ type of bagged teas (Lipton’s straight green tea comes to mind; I currently have a box of it sitting on my dishwasher for when I have guests or family over). This is my first real loose leaf, unflavoured green tea. I bought it today at McQuarries on a whim. Somehow I’m going to find a way to enjoy green tea! However, I’ll be honest – I have very low expectations that I’ll actually like this tea.

Regardless, this is another tea that I had to look up (on their website) recommended steep times/portions and what not for since it’s not listed on the little baggy that it came in. For a cup, 1 tsp. steeped for 1 minute. Again, this is my first time making Genmaicha teas, so I’m doing this exactly like how they recommend to. And, it’s worth noting that since I’ve never tried another Genmaicha I’ll have nothing to compare it to directly.

The dry leaf smells like seaweed. I don’t smell anything I can qualify as rice. I should note that I hate seaweed. I hate sushi, and seafood in general. Bleck. This cup smells really gross…

Although, the smell of it steeping was enough to wake Tre up. I think that’s good?

Liquor is a pale to medium yellow colour. Now that it’s steeped, the seaweed smell isn’t as strong. Looking at it, it reminds me of melted butter. On that note I’m going to take my first few sips. Actually, it’s not as bad as I expected. I do taste seaweed, and I can taste green tea. But, there’s also a sort of sweetness to it that I wasn’t expecting. I can also see the “roasty” sort of taste comparison that’s been mentioned on other Genmaicha tea reviews. As I get closer to finishing off the cup I’m tasting more of a nuttyness, and less seaweed.

I think I’d be willing to play around with other Genmaicha teas if I could get my hands on smaller amounts; there’s no way I’d buy another 50g of this. And, I will play around with what I do have to see if I can find a way to better enjoy it. Perhaps it’s because my expectations were so low, but I’m pleasantly surprised right now! If I could find another version of Genmaicha with a less pronounced seaweed taste then I’d probably like this a lot more.

As my first straight, loose leaf green tea I’ll consider this a success.

Preparation
1 min, 0 sec
keychange

I hear you on not liking seafood, seaweed, etc. And I, too, sort of struggled with my first genmaicha. I ultimately decided that I may try it again, but it certainly won’t make it into my regular rotation.

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68

Cold Brew!

Sipping on this one now – first cold brew in a while since I didn’t do a log of cold teas while in Saskatchewan at all. It’s nice. Definitely light and refreshing with just the right mix of florals, soft creaminess, and sweet ice wine. I love all these ice wine variations; it’s a guilty pleasure tea of mine from a handful of companies. This one is maybe on the lighter side of the flavouring, but it works well with the base. Feels summery!

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