RiverTea

I resteeped the leaf from last night to have as a breakfast tea this morning, since I enjoyed the cup so much last night. The only thing I switched up for steeping was the steep time: I went with 8 minutes this time because I noticed the smell of the leaf was significantly less strong.

The liquor steeped up to be about the same colour as it had been last night. However, in so far as the taste it was a considerable amount less flavorful. That said, it didn’t taste bad. I still got a bit of the juicy fruit flavor, but the rooibos base came through much stronger and the pepperiness contributed by the peppercorns was a little stronger as well. One thing I don’t like about peppercorns is when they scratch at your throat with the spiciness and this almost did that – but not quite.

Overall, not a bad second steep but not nearly so great either. I don’t think I’d normally put in the effort to resteep this unless I was really craving it and maybe getting low. I’m not even going to try pushing for a third steep.

Might as well try the last sample from RiverTea tonight – that way I can place my order as soon as possible! Yay!

I think they picked this one out for me because I requested flavoured teas, and cherry was one of the flavours I particularly named (they sent two cherry teas and a lychee tea – both of which I named specifically as flavours I was interested in). Although, even though this is described as a cherry tea, interestingly enough cherry is not directly named as an ingredient. To me that says that the cherry is part of the “flavouring”. I’m still game, though!

Visually, this tea is stunning. The colours are so vibrant and fun, and there’s some really great contrast. As far as the dry smell goes, it’s a kind of woody rooibos smell (you know, characteristic rooibos) with a jumbled fruit smell – nothing so specific I’d be able to name any of the fruits in the blend with confidence had I not already looked at the ingredients list. And, speaking of the ingredients list – it semi concerns me there’s peppercorns in this? I don’t really smell any spice, but cherry/peppercorn/orange doesn’t sound uber appealing to me?

I’m following the steeping guide set by RiverTea, so the following: 1 tsp. of leaf for 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for six(ish) minutes. The smell of the steeped tea is significantly more fruity with clear orange notes (like an orange creamsicle), strawberry notes, and cherry notes. There’s also a very mild and subtle spiciness to the tea, and some creaminess that I think the cornflower is contributing. It smells VERY good.

Tre distracted me for a few minutes, and then kept touching my tea tins (the tins don’t like to be touched!) so it was a while before I actually got to start sipping away at my tea! Boo :(

However, when I did finally sip it, I was just blown away by how delicious it was! The fruit notes are very full and well defined – and also quite well balanced. I’m not totally sure why this is being marketed as a cherry rooibos tea, because while I do taste the cherry clearly (I’m pretty confidant that if I was blinding tasting this I’d be able to name it as cherry), I also get clear notes of orange, strawberry, and subtle hints of raspberry. It works very well. Nothing medicinal about the cherry, and all the fruits tastes sweet and juicy – but not cloying. There is a nice creaminess to the tea and a thicker sort of mouthfeel, and the peppercorn makes itself known in a very subtle and gentle was as this sort of very feint kind of spicy “tickle” that greets you in the end sip and aftertaste, without lingering long enough to become uncomfortable. I don’t think I had any reason to be concerned.

As far as the rooibos base goes, I definitely get nothing that could be considered medicinal, and the woodiness that is there is super subtle (hardly even present, really). So if you’re not typically a fan of rooibos, this might be worth checking out anyway.

I think this might be my favourite RiverTea blend yet – and it really does taste exactly like the website describes it. I feel that this is very well done, and I’m glad to have tried my sample prior to ordering, because this is something I definitely want some more of!

Sipdown (178)!

Made in my timolino with the rest of RiverTea’s sample. The single sample they sent was enough for two timolinos (12 oz.) full of tea, and an 8 oz. mug which was definitely enough to get a good taste and feel for the tea. I’m pointing this out because RiverTea will be offering three samples with each tea order placed on their site, and my opinion based on the samples I received from their contest is that their samples are a great way to try the teas since they’re relatively large and include clear labeling/steeping directions and a full ingredients list, just like any larger amount purchased would.

Bonus: They’re resealable.

I am a little sad to see this tea be all finished up: it was a relatively nice, sweet dessert type tea with yummy sweet (and just a little sour) cherry, and fudgey milk chocolate. That said, it’s similar to some other things in my cupboard which I also enjoy, so I’m not too rushed to immediately attain more until I’ve used the other blends I currently have.

This timolino full in particular was not the best one I’ve made – but then again I wasn’t being incredibly precise or detail oriented in my steeping parameters. The result here is that the base tea itself tastes a little astringent and borders on bitter, with more rose notes than normal.

It got better as it cooled, however and was still drinkable and relatively enjoyable regardless. This is decent with milk, as well. If I had more I’d be tempted to try this as an iced latte.

I made a 12 oz. timolino full of this for myself, to enjoy sipping on in the afternoon. My preparation was 2 tsp. of leaf for the timolino, steeped with boiling water for four minutes. I noticed that after removing the brew basket, not all the chocolate drops had completely melted.

I split the 12 oz. amount into two cups – 6 oz. each. One I had straight and one I took with milk. Both were delicious, and I was able to note with both that the cherry was coming through more prominently than it had last time; I’m going to chock that up to the chocolate not fully melting and there consequently being less chocolate in the cup the mask the cherry notes.

It’s quite sweet and smooth, with very light notes of chocolate and the black base. The rose comes off in smell, and slightly in taste for the milkless cup. The one with milk, however, has no rose notes as far as the taste goes. Obviously, the milk cup is significantly creamier too and has a thicker mouthfeel.

This is a very pleasant tea, and I’m quite impressed that the sample size I received from RiverTea has been large enough to yield three cups so far with enough leaf left for at least a fourth. I still wouldn’t restock this though, but only because it’s quite similar to DAVIDsTEA’s Love Tea #7 which I have lots of; I wouldn’t want large amounts of both at the same time. Once I’m out of Love Tea #7, I may choose to stock some of this for a while instead, though.

I received a sample of this as a prize for winning RiverTea’s “What would you do for the last 100g of your favourite tea” contest! I’ve been slowly working through trying the teas they sent me during my days off, since that’s when I feel I have time to sit down and properly enjoy them. However, I wont have a day off until Christmas Eve and I do have all evening now, so I figured I’d give this one a go!

Actually, I had planned to try out Prairie Berry for the first time today, but after getting paid today I was able to pick up a prepaid Visa card for some tea orders, and now that RiverTea’s website has launched I really wanted to try my last two samples so I can see if it’s ‘imperative’ I include larger quantities with my first order from them. Because of that, I changed my mind and brewed this up instead.

Dry, the smell of this one is kind of subtle, with some super light fruity notes that could be considered cherry. I did take a picture of the leaf for this one a while ago (on my cell, so it’s a sorta crappy picture) so I’ll edit that into my tasting note a little later on tonight. I have to find the usb cord for my phone first…

For preparation, I stuck with the guide on the sample package because, thus far, the provided guides have yielded good results, IMO. That meant 1 tsp. of leaf, in boiling water for four minutes. This is actually the first tea I’ve made from RiverTea to have a liquor that, visually, might be considered unappealing by some. The reason for that is that there’s a considerable amount of oily bubbles on the surface of the liquor. I’m not bothered by that, but I know there are other people who would be, although that happens with most chocolate blends.

The steeped smell is much more cherry! I’m kind of out of it at the moment, so I’m sort of struggling with putting my thoughts into legible words. So, I’ll just list what it’s not? I don’t smell medicinal cough syrup cherry, so yay for that! And, it’s not smelling piercingly tart – so that’s good. It’s not ridiculously sweet like a maraschino cherry either. I think the best way to describe it would be by saying it’s some sort of inbetween of sweet cherry and lightly sour cherry. Like, a cherry compote or pie type filling? Anyway – it smells very good. The chocolate smells quite light, in comparison.

In taste, the first thing I noticed was the chocolate. It’s a nice kind of “milk chocolate” – very smooth. The cherry follows pretty quickly – this time as a sweeter cherry tempered by the chocolate, with a sharper kind of sour bite that quickly pierces through (I found this kind of sharpness got stronger the cooler the tea got). The rose kind of sits in the background for the most part, but lingers along with subtle cherry notes in the aftertaste.

In my mind, I’m comparing this to DAVIDsTEA’s Love Tea #7 since that tea has many things in common. Firstly, they’re both chocolate and rose teas with black bases. The difference is that Love Tea #7 uses strawberry, and this has cherry. In deciding whether or not I’ll be adding this to my eventual RiverTea order, I want to take into comparison which I would be more likely to reach for. Love Tea #7 is a tea I very much love, and one I always have on hand – but if I thought this was better I might switch things up and stock this instead. However, I do think I prefer Love Tea #7 more – it just seems much more smooth and balanced, comparatively.

However, this is still really good! I’ll happily finish the sample that RiverTea was generous to send to me, and if I was ever able to acquire this again in sample size I don’t think I would hesitate to do so.

Sipdown (202/204)!

This note was much longer last night, but to my chagrin we lost our internet connection and I lost my tasting note (and couldn’t watch any TV finish my backlog).

Had this as a cold brew at work. In total, this sat for nine/ten(ish) hours. I’m actually really happy I discovered this one as a cold brew, because it was great for using up leaf, gets an older tea out of the way and tastes a lot better than the hot version. Win win win!

And as far as work goes, I feel like I’m really getting into a rhythm – not just with the job itself but with having a routine and consistent bedtime/wake up time. I feel like I was at a point where I really needed that.

But yes; this is gone now and I’m pretty ok with that. More cupboard space and all that. It was cool having this hand picked for me, though – and I still adore the name. I wont be surprised if I find it being added to future RiverTea orders.

And hey, I’m officially 19! I think that means it’s time to try some tea infused martinis…

Breakfast of champions: 25 oz. of Boatsman cold brew, a cup of hot EG, and microwaved day old pizza leftovers while watching (or at least trying to) the BBCan live feeds.

The four inside cameras have been on fish all morning (basically means they’re not airing anything new), and the fifth camera focused on the isolated houseguests has been off and on the last few hours. Last it left off they were playing Cheerio basketball. I’m sad only one will make it in; they’re all super awesome and entertaining.

Anyway, to the tea! This one cold brewed for a 13 hour total and is delightfully light, fresh, and creamy fruity. Tons of creamy mango/banana today! It’s a great thirst quencher. I think I have enough leaf left for one more cold brew batch; so, I’m kinda excited to finish it off. Mmm!

Again, the best part of cold brewing this one is the lack of astringency/cinnamon.

Today’s cup of this went totally cold before I managed to get to it (the downside of brewing three cups at once, I suppose). However, it’s totally on point!

The black tea is really leveled out and the cinnamon is super mild which is really letting the fruit shine; there’s tons of juicy mango and banana and a touch of tart cranberry going on in this cup and it’s very delightful.

Since I’m down to only a few more cups worth (I’m thinking three or four hot or one of two cold brewed) I’ve moved it into my sample/sipdown drawer in the kitchen. It should be easy enough to sipdown. I don’t think I’ll reorder though – it’s a bit too inconsistent for my liking.

I cold brewed this one yesterday, strained it last night, and then had it today first thing in the morning. I actually thought it was much better as a cold brew than hot because it didn’t have that bit of finicky astringency to it, and the cinnamon was more muted so it tasted stronger of the fruits in the blend.

Lots of cranberry, and then more mild notes of banana and the mango. The big surprise to me, though, was how much more present the vanilla was! Usually the cinnamon is rather dominating but I felt the strength the cinnamon typically has was matched – if not exceeded- by the vanilla in this batch.

Also, the neat thing about cold brewing it was that because I used much more leaf I got to include a little bit of all the different chunks of stuff!

As I was prepping this one, I read VariaTEA’s tasting note on Mulberry White and instantly wanted to go make a cup of that one. But still is still really good!

This cup in particular is heavy on cinnamon/cranberry/mango notes.

I think I’ve finally pinpointed the ingredient that keeps me from going from “strongly liking” this blend to “loving” it – and that’s the cinnamon. I’m just not a huge fan of cinnamon in teas in general (really only in chai, with DTT’s Cinnamon Bun sorta being the exception because that’s cinnamon without being overtly chai) so I guess it makes sense that’s my least favourite aspect here. I thought it might be the chamomile blossoms – but pretty sure it’s the cinnamon because I enjoy the cups that are lighter on those notes a bit more.

By the time I reached the end of the cup it was a little astringent – but I’ll take that over bitterness, and thankfully I’ve never had a cup of this go bitter on me.

Being honest, I think this is my least favourite of the five I was sent (although, maybe Cherry Kiss…) – but that said, I still really like them all! Dying for my order to come in! D:

I made one of my RiverTea blends for work today, to drink hot. It wasn’t until I had it steeping that I realized this was the second mango tea I was making for the day. Oh well – one was cold brewed and white and this one is hot and black, so that’s pretty different!

I used 2 tsp. of leaf in 12 oz. of boiling water. I’m not sure how long this steeped – I lost track of time while I was checking the mail (oops). I’d guess between four and seven minutes – so possibly a little oversteeped. The leaf for this has massive chunks and things in it – so you kind of have to make a choice about what to include when picking the leaf out – there’s no way you can get a chunk of everything without sacrificing the actual tea leaves. So, this had a chamomile blossom, giant ass motherfucking cinnamon stick, and a few of the smaller fruit chunks in addition to the black tea – no cranberry in the leaf I used.

Taste wise, I’m thinking this was probably closer to that seven minute steep time because, though it’s not bitter, it’s pretty astringent and it’s not usually this astringent. Also, I get a distinct taste of mango, vanilla, cinnamon, and… What’s this? Banana? BANANA! This is the first time I’ve been able to taste the banana in the blend! Maybe one of the fruit chunks I used was banana, and I’ve just never gotten a banana chunk before. There’s not even a slight taste of cranberry this time around, but like I said I didn’t include any cranberry chunks in the leaf.

So, the astringency is a little undesirable (but more than likely my fault). Otherwise, this is really good! It travels fairly well in my timolino!

Also, why the hell to people feel so entitled when they’re shopping!? It pisses me off so much when people open up the packaging of things in my store. They’ll open up boxes, tear off shrink wrap, and rip folders to shreds just to get a look at something they might buy! Are you kidding me!? You haven’t paid for that – what makes you think you have the fucking right! Every time someone does that and damages the packaging (even if the product itself is undamaged) I have to write it off! And honestly, if you flat out asked me to see the product 80% of the time I can open the packaging without damaging it.

Big. Dramatic. sigh.

Ah! The RiverTea website is now officially up, and once again I’m just so humbled that I had the chance to try some of these teas out before anyone else could. I’ve been slowly working my way through the teas I recieved – doing one every day I’ve had off since I know I have time to fully appreciate them this way.

http://www.rivertea.com/

I’ve been looking through their website for the last hour or so, and while there are a few blends that I think I would be very excited to try, for the most part I am so happy with what they sent me. I think they did a great job of picking out the teas that would best suit my taste interests!

Also, the site just looks amazing! Everything is really well organized, and I’m finding it easy to navigate. Plus, they’re offering free shipping internationally on orders over $50 and everything so far seems relatively affordable and not overpriced. So, I’m thinking everyone should check them out! So far, I’ve been very happy with everything I’ve tried and based on the reviews from everyone else who won their contest, it doesn’t seem like anyone has had any real “misses” with the teas they’ve tried. Also, I just put together a “mock” order of what I would get, and the shipping price doesn’t look too shabby either!

(They have an apricot chai tea just like Tea Desire, so I’m heavily tempted to order that as a comparison – among others that I want to try out)

Anyway, this tea definitely has my favourite name out of what I was sent to try out – and I’m just dying to know the story behind it! I already checked out the product descriptions for the other teas they’ve sent me, and it was neat because I now get why, for example, “Pret a Portea” is called “Pret a Portea”. It’s interesting learning the story behind things… So, RiverTea if you’re hovering around reading this, you should tell me why this blend is called Boatsman, because I’m just not making the connection on my own…

Following the RiverTea steeping guide, this one should be 1 tsp./cup, though I’ve been using a 10 oz. mug all day so I’m going with 1 1/2 tsp. instead. Another thing is that this blend has huge pieces of things in it (which reminds me of Tea Desire – who happen to have their tea blended in Germany and then imported to Canada, so maybe huge chunks of things is a German thing?) so getting “one of everything” into my measurement is proving to be hard – and that’s how I often try to do things my first time having something: make sure I get one of everything so that I’m tasting the intended flavour.

Seriously, take a look at RiverTea’s display image of it:

http://www.rivertea.com/boatsman-mango-vanilla-black-tea

I don’t think the crappy cell phone picture I took of it is doing it justice, because when you see those large hunks of mango or mother fucking giant ass cinnamon sticks on the plate thingy there, THAT IS THE ACTUAL FUCKING SIZE OF THE CINNAMON STICKS AND MANGO CHUNKS! Like – those cinnamon sticks alone are 1 tsp. worth of “stuff”. If I was to try to do one of everything, there’d be no actual tea leaf in my brew basket and this had might as well be a tisane…

So, 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf, no cinnamon sticks this time. Although I did get a large cranberry chunk, and chamomile blossom, and a small mango chunk into the mix. This was steeped for 3 min. and 30 seconds, boiling water.

Dry, the smell is very fruity mango with lots of creamy vanilla and subtler hints of chamomile, cranberry, and cinnamon. Steeping, the mango and vanilla are much more pronounced, with some more of the cranberry coming through as well as very mild notes of everything else but the banana. Just like in the dry smell, the banana is getting lost somewhere in translation for me. I’m wondering is that’s because I just had a heavily banana flavoured fruit blend, despite my drinking some plain water and allowing what I felt was more than adequate time to cleanse my pallet.

Hmm… Maybe now would be a good time to state that (while I appreciate it’s affect as a very relaxing and calming herb), I am not the biggest fan of chamomile – although it’s nothing I go out of my way to avoid, and I’ve never had a truly horrid chamomile tea either. I just have never had one that blew my mind or had it be something I was strongly craving. There’s actually very minimal chamomile tea in my stash (only blend that comes to mind is Bravissimo, which has a good deal of chamomile in it).

Anyway, I’m getting some really good juicy mango notes from the tea, accompanied with mild cranberry notes that I think are only serving to bring out the juiciness of the mango through contrasting tartness (hopefully that makes sense). The cinnamon, chamomile, and vanilla all feel like they’re “bunching together” separately to me. I don’t even know if that makes any sense…

You experience the mango/cranberry/and maybe the vanilla together and then you have to pause, take another sip and in that moment experience the cinnamon/chamomile/vanilla. It’s good, but it’s not totally meshed together and perfectly synchronized. The black tea base is sort of a middle note that comes through in each “set” of tastes as a side component (a very tasty one).

In the aftertaste, you sort of get mango/vanilla/cinnamon and that feel like the strongest point of intersection flavor wise. Again, the banana feels lost in comparison to me. I think the way I’m wording this maybe sounds (contrived, but also) negative – but I’m actually enjoying the cup very much and I do think that I would order again (although technically I didn’t order in the first place…) just based on this cup alone. I’m interested to see just how strong the cinnamon would be if you were actually using one of the massive cinnamon sticks as part of your leaf…

So yeah… Maybe this tasting note jumped around a bit, but definitely check out the RiverTea website because they’ve got some cool looking stuff and seem pretty affordable and I’ve only had good experiences so far (Also, free samples with each order and stuff)!

I still have a little of this one stashed away in my cupboard. My tea drinking has picked up a notch with the cooler weather and I’ve been enjoying this oolong again. It isn’t overly fancy but is very agreeable and re-steeps well.

This is the first of the teas I won in RiverTea’s pre-launch promotion.

I’ve had a few cups of this now, brewed both western and gongfu style, and have enjoyed it. I’m no Tie Guan Yin expert but I’d happily drink this tea again.

I’ve decided to hold back on a rating until I know what the price point is because I factor ‘value’ into my ratings and RiverTea are yet to make their prices public. Like I mentioned above, I’m a bit of a Tie Guan Yin novice, but I’ve still formed an idea in my mind of where I think the price might be for this tea and it will be interesting to see if I’m right when the store is launched.

This one came as a sample. More precisely it came in a zip lock bag with a clear easy to read label listing ingredients and steeping recommendations. Much appreciated touches.

The tea is well done but it is just not my thing. Lychee to me is coming off as a cross between lilac and rose. I like, even love, these flavors as additions to other flavors but on their own it is a little too girly for me. It is not bitter and there are no harsh edges. The floral flavor is balanced and not over the top. I would gladly sip this with friends but it is not something I see myself wanting to sip alone.

Sipdown (113)!

Well, this is definitely the last RiverTea blend I had in my stash so this is a sad sipdown. It could very well be the last RiverTea blend that I ever taste, as well. And maybe it should be; at this point anything left out there is probably too old to be any good now.

I hate when the last bit of leaf you have it an odd amount too; do you make one really concentrated cup or two rather weak ones? Since this is usually such a gently flavoured tea anyway I opted for an over leafed cold brew. I figured if I hoarded the leaf any longer I’d really be gambling on the quality of the leaf. I mean, I sort of still am…

The cold brew may have been a mistake. I sipped on a timolino of the brew all evening while I was at the laundromat with my mom; two hours of solid laundry (spare twenty minutes to do a crossword) and I still hadn’t finished the mug. At this point it wasn’t me being nostalgic or trying to savor the liquor. Simply put, it just tasted off. The flavours were so strong they no longer seemed compatible.

Cloying apple, caramel, mulberry, jasmine, and honey…

I’m really upset that I’m ending my journey with RiverTea, a company that I absolutely adored on such a negative note. Seriously, it’s kind of ruined my night a little bit. Ugh.

This is a queued tasting note.

When I popped open the cardboard “tin” of this in the morning the smell of the dry leaf kind of made me feel really nauseous; I wondered if maybe the leaf was too old? But the more I think about it the more I think it had to do with getting up at 5AM for work when I’d only gone to bed at midnight the night before. I am not a morning person!

In actuality, the brew tasted delicious when I finally did get to it later in the work day; more papaya and sweet, almost caramel like, mulberry than anything else but I tasted the calm medley of jasmine and chamomile notes in the aftertaste too. I think I’m done hoarding this though; I fear if I keep the leaf around much longer it’s really gonna lose everything that made it special – though it is still fine currently.

This is a queued tasting note.

Made some of this one for myself and the Sobey’s “Extra Team” (our two dietitians, Chef Darcy, and the event coordinator Silviu) last week – I just brought in a few tbsp. of the tea, and a couple DT filter bags. I’ve been slowly but continuously sharing tea with them the last few months or so; but I brought in a lot last week.

I really, really enjoyed my cup – the papaya was really strong and vibrant with honey notes and caramel-like notes from the mulberry as support. The jasmine wasn’t super pronounced, but more so just contributed a nice, soothing calmness that had me completely relaxed – and honestly ready to just curl up and take a nap (which maybe isn’t the best thing when you’re about to start a shift). Everyone else loved this one too – though it probably helped that I overleafed all of their mugs since I was worried they wouldn’t taste all of the subtleties.

And now it’s time to put the tin back into my closet again for the next few months. I really wish RiverTea hadn’t have closed so I could drink this more casually/leisurely like I want to but as it stands now I’ll probably never get this one again after I’m out for time to hoard it again! It was still really cool getting to share it with someone though…

RIP RiverTea.

I’m having a really hard time accepting this. I mean, next to Butiki, RiverTea was one of my very, very favourite tea companies, and now both are no more. At least Butiki gave us a chance to stock up, but I’m incredibly choked up over the blends that I loved from RiverTea that I’ll likely never get a chance to try again.

I’ve loved RiverTea since before they were actually open: I was very lucky to be part of a group of contest winners who got to try out some of their teas, prelaunch. This is one of the blends I originally tried – and one I was really impressed with. They had such beautiful packaging, and any time you ordered from them everything felt so thoughtful and personalized, from the extra little gifts in each box (I love my Swan “Teaball”!), to that “For a happier Roswell” sticker on the tissue paper. Plus, such reasonable shipping prices and not only free samples with each purchase, but samples in resealable bags.

And for me the worst part is that I’ve had an order ready to be placed with them for months, but I waited until Black Friday to do all my orders at once – and now I don’t have a chance. So I most likely missed my opportunity to get more of my favourites. Which is heart breaking. So heart breaking.

RIP Mulberry White
RIP Tea of Kings
RIP Infinite Good Feeling
RIP Sweet Seduction
RIP Marquis de Gris
RIP Sweet Helen
RIP Magic Summer
RIP Boatsman
RIP Cherry Dream

And RIP all the other I didn’t get to try, but really wanted to. Those were some of my favourites, if it wasn’t clear…

I hate that I have to eulogize them. HATE IT.

But that aside; I made this one as a latte and of course it didn’t disappoint. Not even a little. I mean, it was a little different as a latte because it’s a more gentle tea in the first place but the fruit flavours in it like the caramel-esque mulberries and papaya were still present and made for an interesting and very, very relaxing light fruit flavoured hot milk drink that calmed all my nerves and made me feel so relaxed. So very relaxed.

It also was phenomenal for dunking the chocolate chip cookies I got from DAVIDsTEA. Those cookies were tasty to begin with, but they’re the perfect “Stiffness” to not turn to mush in hot milk but still soak it up and get soft and yummy!

Was very happy to sip on a mug of this in the early evening; it was exactly what the doctor ordered! A little caramel, a little mulberry and apple, a whole lot of papaya. This one never disappoints! It’s the perfect mix of gentle and robust taste and sweet and fruity.

(I may be browsing the RiverTea sight right now to see if an order is justifiable)

On a sadder note; Tre is watching Big Brother without me! And this episode has Zingbot in it! But, I was busy finishing an episode of Gossip Girl and he got impatient. This is kinda our thing though? Don’t tell him, but sometimes I do like spending time with him…

Cold Brewed this one and I’m almost positive it’s the first time I’ve cold brewed it. I actually set this up to cold brew a few days ago, and it was strained and really back on Sunday when Tyrell was over but I forgot about it in the fridge so it got to wait to be drunk until yesterday at work.

I thought it was very good cold brewed but also really different from the hot version; mostly because the apple/papaya really popped and was far more apparent than the caramel like mulberry flavour which typically is the most prominent flavour in the cup. I do think I like the hot version better, but I don’t dislike the cold brew either so I can see this being a way to occasionally enjoy this tea.

In case you didn’t pick up; this note’s backlogged. Right now I’m munching on Hershey’s Cookies & Cream chocolate bars: on a dare yesterday at work I bought a whole box of them – which is thirty six chocolate bars. For that many chocolate bars the cost was actually very reasonable; only $28.00 (and a few cents) – but now I have a metric fuck tonne of chocolate and not sure what to do with it other than just casually snack on it…

So I ordered 50g more of this tasty treat yesterday, so I felt absolutely not guilt in making a large mug today to help use up the last bit of the older stuff that I still have around in the house!

Generously leafed, this was rich and fruity with a decadent caramel/mulberry and papaya flavour with notes of apple, jasmine, and cream as well. As always, a marvelous and splendid cup! So glad I restocked! This is probably my favourite RiverTea blend (although there are many I love) and it feels extra special knowing that I was the first customer to try it when the company picked it out for me after I won their pre-launch contest.

And yes, I’m totally bragging.

My RiverTea fan girl colours are showing today.

Someone recently review this, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. I’ve been hording because I’m running a little low, and until recently I couldn’t afford to buy more – but now that I’m not so financially strapped I allowed myself to satisfy my cravings and steep up a giant mug for tonight.

Which is what I did. And just; mmm!

Sweet caramel, fruit, ambrosia, nectar of the Gods!

Someday I’ll serve this at my wedding. Ok, maybe not (though hopefully if I get married, we will incorporate tea into the ceremony in a big way) – but I wouldn’t feel ashamed to serve this at my wedding! That counts for something.

Also, I’m nudging up my rating.

Perfection, like usual.

My supply of this is quickly running out, which will mean a need to acquire more. This one is just so good.