Sloane Tea Company
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One of the things that I did with my mom while she was in town visiting was go for high tea at the Ritz Carlton – it was probably the fanciest place that I’ve ever gone for high tea and I have to admit that I felt very under dressed the entire time we were there…
That said, it definitely wasn’t the nicest high tea experience I’ve ever had despite the glitz and glamour of it all. All of the teas that they carried were from Sloane, which is a nice tea company so I was excited. I grabbed this one because it’s one I’ve been curious about before and debated ordering, but hadn’t yet pulled the trigger on. It was pretty nice, but definitely very light on the pear flavouring and didn’t feel like it exactly met the expectations I had given that I love so many of Sloane’s other white tea blends.
The main thing was just that the food was kind of only okay. There were some really delicious things, like the cranberry scones and the rose jelly they were served with or the hibiscus cheesecakes that were served for dessert. However, all of the sandwiches were super dry and had such a minimal amount of toppings – all of which were just not great tasting.
I think at the end my take away was that I definitely wouldn’t go high tea at the Ritz Carlton again. Nothing was awful but it was just so underwhelming for the very extravagant price tag that came with it – and I know I could get better tea elsewhere or pastries that are just as nice but much cheaper from one of the many, many bakeries in the city…
Picked up some of this from Amoda when placing a recent order, mostly to get free shipping (it’s very expensive and I wouldn’t normally. By the time it arrived, I’d completely forgotten that it was a cream EG, so was very pleasantly surprised when I opened it up and smelled it! Brewed it up, and the flavouring is absolutely perfect! Creamy and decadent, definite bergamot but smooth instead of sharp, like some EGs can be. However, I found that the the base could be a bit smoother – especially on subsequent infusions, the base was more astringent than I’d like. I see that it’s a base of Indian black tea; I feel like Chinese blacks would suit my palate better and provide a better base. Still good, but I do think it could be better.
So, this was actually a mistake because I had thought that I was pulling out a different tea to steep. All good, though.
I’ve been staying away from rooibos and honey bush for a long while now. Just have found myself veering towards black, green, white.
The absence has been good for me, apparently, because I am quite enjoying this one. A bit formal, a bit tart, a bit berry. Haven’t checked the ingredient list or the description, but I suspect lavender, hibiscus, berry, and vanilla to tie it all together.
Also, does anyone know what’s going on with FB?
Great. Just great. My tea kettle has been erratic. It started turning itself off just after I pressed the on button for it to boil. I found a workaround.
Now, a new level of just great. It has begun turning itself off before it reaches boiling. Infuriating because when I touch the kettle, it feels hot, so I think it has boiled. But when I pour the not-yet-boiled water over my leaf, it doesn’t quite steep.
Ugh.
Ok, so now about the tea. I let the not-yet-boiled water sit with the leaf for a few hours. Now, of course, the tea is cold. I added milk. Now it is even colder.
Never mind, still delicious but cold.
A friend dropped off some freshly baked cookies. YAY COOKIES!
Maybe I’ll have one or two with my cold tea.
Misbehaving kettles are the worst. I hope you’re able to get a replacement if you need one.
My kettle is behaving strangely as well! Three beeps, and nothing. No heating, nothing. Unplug and plug back in, it works. Heat water a second time, no beep when it reaches temperature. Just the solid light instead of flashing. I have a back up kettle in the attic, I am hoping the base of that one will fix the problem because the issue with the back up kettle is that it leaks at the handle if you fill past the .75 liter mark. Both Cuisinart. Probably out of warranty now, it has to be…
Thank you, Leafhopper. I don’t plan on being without a functional kettle for long. It sucks.
Ashmanra, sorry that you are being aggravated with similar too. Mine is a temperature-controlled silver Breville (i think). It’s not that old but likely the warranty has expired too. I don’t actually need a temperature-controlled kettle because I never bother with that function. I just control the water my own way (if the kettle actually boils the water).
We are tea people. We need functioning kettles. Jeez.
Also, it’s just one more thing on the tall stack of things. End rant.
And that’s why I use stovetop kettle. The electrical ones never survived more than an year here. Dunno why.
But I can understand you getting mad.
Thanks, Martin. Not mad, just irritated (which I guess is just a matter of degree).
For some reason, I’ve been craving Talking Heads a lot and often during this pandemic. Their Stop Making Sense album to be exact.
I ordered it in CD form so that I could crank it up. And then I forgot about it.
The neighbours woke me up at 4:30 and kept me up till 6, ie. I’m up now. So I feel justified in blasting my music whenever I damn well please—in the daytime. They wake me every single night and have done since they moved in six years ago. I don’t play my music all that often.
Today was the day. But what have they done to this album? Aside from four songs, this is completely different from the original version. What is up with that?
So I am disappointed.
This tea, however, is pretty great. As soon as my hair dries, I am going to go buy some milk to inflate its deliciousness.
A creamy creamy vanilla Earl Grey Cream. (still overpriced though.)
I still need to make a sample order to try Sloane! Maybe next year lol.
I’d recommend the heavenly oolong too. It may be called something slightly different.
I remember being most interested in this tea and the peaches & cream white tea. Will definitely put the oolong on the list too!
The Rooibos en Provence is good too if you like Rooibos.
Erm, Rouge en Provence.
Oh, yeah, Sloane! I want to try them too. Next year for sure.
This one is funny, sometimes vanilla cream sublime, sometimes bergamot forward.
I’ve just noticed that they have free shipping in Canada over a reasonable limit AND they have sample bags for under four dollars. Makes things easier. And they have white tea with Asian pear, sounds promising.
Oh… (currently browsing website).
Matchbox 20’s first album had songs that were better than the 3 am one that was so popular. You could blast 3 am for your neighbors though. Teach them some appreciation of it…
Thanks for the tip, mrmopar. I’ll keep it in mind. I don’t play music in the night, or even in the evenings. The walls are thin and I make efforts to be a decent human. That said, my neighbours reported me to the city AND to the police for playing my music loud in the day. Both the city and the police told them to get over themselves.
CrowKettle, I’ve noticed that Sloane stocks several teas that Mighty Leaf does, the fruit and herb teas in particular (at higher cost), so keep that in mind.
Evol – they called the police on you on the first DAY of your playing music during the DAY?
I will keep that in mind! I mostly just want to try their Earl Grey, “Peaches & Cream”, and Milk Oolong; everything else will be a bonus that gets me free shipping :O
Your neighbours do not spark joy. That’s a dick move, especially if it was their first response.
Tea-sipper, no, it was not the first day, but I only play my music (and I do play it loud) during the day, btwn 11 am and 7 pm. I usually only play an album or two, two hours max.
No, my neighbours do not spark joy. Sad though because I have had an excellent rapport with former neighbours who lived in that space, 15 years worth.
The neighbours on my other side do not spark joy either. Years of smoking dope on their porch till all hours of the night with their loud and unpleasant friends. Illegal construction. Stealing other people’s garden furniture. A gazillion cars and trucks coming and going all hours. Running an unlicensed daycare for years, read gangs of unsupervised children. Harley on front lawn snorting/idling/warming up for a while at 5 am. Two unleashed unsocialized pit bulls running wild up and down the streets, barking, snapping, defecating wherever. Now, them and also tenants all on shift work, and they seem to be running some sort of surveillance camera review thing from their homes in the night—minimum of 8 huge screens—and early morning which wakes me repeatedly and prevents me from sleeping. And all that is off the top of my head.
There’s more, of course.
And as for the adjoining wall ones who called the police and the city, they exercise on wooden floors in an old house for two or more hours each day, up to midnight usually but also at 5 am. From the time they moved in, 6? Years ago, they’ve been hugging that adjoining wall like nobody’s business, so each conversation, each phone text ding or vibrate and footstep wakes or alerts me round the clock. When their second child was born, they parked the cradle at the adjoining wall, so the child’s crying would alert me too. When I asked them if they could move the cot away from the adjoining wall, they acted as if it was a personal attack. They regularly took the child in and out of the house at night, so the sleeping child would wail when woken and taken out of/put into the car. They tend to have loud arguments at 3 or 5 am.
Initially, I tried to gently and respectfully speak with them about being woken and disturbed by them. They did start using an exercise mat when running and jumping and doing leaping squats in the house to soften the thuds and thumps, but otherwise, nothing changed. And all the various devices, Bluetooth connected. They didn’t seem to believe me when I told them the walls are thin and the key to harmonious sharing of space is to not make your neighbours aware of you every minute of every day and night, ie. stay away from the wall. They became rude. I started playing my music when I felt like it.
Guess I needed to get that out.
Yes, I should move, but it is such an ordeal. Choose your ordeal, I guess.
Gah, sorry, tldr.
No, it’s not too long. I remember you talking about your inconsiderate neighbors, so it was surprising to me that they can’t even handle music at decent hours.
Gosh they are a******s. I would probably choke somebody that was doing all that junk. Ness you are a much better and more patient person than I. Hopefully you will eventually get some peace and talking about it and getting it off your chest like you did will help too. You have lots of friends on here so getting stuff out will help you relieve some of the stress.
Thank you both. Getting it out helps. Here, I tend to write about what is going on in my life and this impact on me is huge. Believe me, I have been angry and vengeful and frustrated, all the emotions, but I cannot spend my life like that. And so it goes. There are still some things to try. Currently, I am chipping away at another room, creating space to set up an army cot to test sleeping there. It will take a while, being physically and mentally exhausted doesn’t help.
Yeah, that’s unspeakable. I’ve had my fair share of roommates and neighbours (a short-lived subletter purposely locked me out of the house while I was doing laundry in the garage) but none of it was long term or pervasive like that.
I hope the other room works out. And that they eventually move. Far away.
Gah! Thank you. I have tried including them in loving-kindness meditations wishing them a larger grander unattached house somewhere else. Likely, it will be me who moves, but who knows. Life is full of unpredictable changes.
Also, mrmopar, I forgot to mention that, a few years in, I did go through a rather extended period of loudly swearing at them through the wall every time I was woken, so I am hardly a saint. I’d like to think that was a bit successful in terms of consciousness-raising for the adjoining wall ones.
Went to the Art Gallery of Ontario today to see the Femmes Noir exhibit. Had this while visiting with a friend in the cafe. Think thick vanilla clotted cream with the barest hint of bergamot. Delicious. I added half and half to it to take it over the top. Highly recommend. (However, the tins are overpriced.)
Awesome exhibit. Catch it if you can. https://nowtoronto.com/culture/art-and-design/mickalene-thomas-ago-femmes-noires/
Sipdown! Likely a sample from Sil – thanks! I drank this tea without looking up what it was, and was concerned that it had lost its flavouring – turns out it was unflavoured, so it actually was just fine, albeit unremarkable. A little astringent, but quite bearable, but kind of a regular old assam IMO. Not a tea I’d bother picking up, especially as it’s likely pricy, being from Sloane.
I’m glad to finish this one off. Another sipdown before the holiday season when I buy a lot of teas and justify it by saying it is for Christmas presents and then keeping it.
I wanted this to be a vanilla creamy tea, but it is way more bergamot than anything else. I also don’t love the bergamot flavour. It tastes a bit chemically and dusty, like some bergamot oils do. I also had this as a chocolate milk latte and brewed it really hot with a rich chocolate plant milk called Ripple (seriously, try it! It is like a thick, creamy chocolate malt!), but it wasn’t as desserty as I wanted. I think the bergamot just isn’t for me. Luckily, I got this as a sample size pouch, so it will only be a few more cups.
Flavors: Bergamot, Dust
March (Err… April) Sipdown Madness
I did it guys!! It took much longer than I expected, but I finally finished the March Tournament yesterday!! It was very fun, but I’m looking a lot more forward to the April alphabet challenge – having the same teas over and over during March is definitely not my usual tea drinking style.
This tea lost the final match up against Arthur Dove’s Moonbeam, so it came in second place overall. I thought this last pairing would be a harder choice, but it was pretty clear as soon as I’d sipped both teas that I was gonna pick the AD blend. This is such a good tea though! It’s gonna be a while before I go back and have it though – this was a lot of it a month!!
Mine is also a “spillover into April” challenge. I started with 16 teas (8 each in fruity cold brew + cozy latte sections) and now have it down to 4 (2 each in fruity cold brew + cozy latte) and actually a lot of the loser teas I have been good about sipping down but I completely agree that it was hard to drink same over and over, so hopefully I can finish up Rounds 3 / 4 (Final) before April is over and crown a winner myself. :)
Both of your final two are ones I’ve never had before and have my on my wish list!
March (Err… April) Sipdown Madness
This tea, unsurprisingly, won its semi-final match up with T2’s Matcha Jaffa Swirl. This was the outcome I predicted, and it was a very easy win for this tea. We’ll see if it can take everything in the finals – both teas matching up are ones that I feel very strongly about.
March Sipdown Madness
No new notes for flavour here – just recording for posterity that this was predictably the victor in this tea’s match up against B&B’s Earl’s Paradise and that it will now be moving into the semi finals. Literally the only point against this was that, for first thing on a Monday morning, I probably could have used a stronger/bolder cuppa – but I couldn’t let it lose the pairing for that alone.
I’m pretty sure this will win its semi final match up as well – but we’ll see…
