Tealish

Tried a cup of this in a desperate attempt to stay awake longer after a full day of tea tasting and shopping.

It did not work.

Goodnight, Steepster.

First time I’ve logged this and actually agreed with the “last drank on” box.

Anyway. I like tea again! Yaaaay! And today is St Patrick’s Day, so I decided to start it off with a green (see what I did there?). Now, it’s a big deal for my family. We go out, get blind drunk by noon, and then sleep it off until six. However, I don’t drink any more (yay medication! boo medication.), but I finagled it so we’re hitting up the pub that has the Mystery Box of Tea. Tea for me all day!

Re: the tea. I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. This tea is simply the best. I do think I oversteeped it, which means the grassy notes from the sencha start to fight back against the tingle of the ginger.

I obviously don’t log this as often as I drink it; according to Steepster I last drank it at the end of January, but I make a cup every other day, maybe even more frequently. It’s my go-to tea for sluggish mornings, or any time I need a bit of sparkle in my life.

Brewed it a little weak this morning. Maybe a little too cool, too.

Giant Thermos, etc. Vunderbar. We were very busy at work, so I barely got to the end of the Thermos today, and the cups that I poured ended up cold way too fast. It’s still decent while cold, retains a lot of the zing, but I don’t like iced tea in the slightest so the effect was lost on me.

Big Thermos of tea for today. Definitely made my scratchy throat feel better, got me through the work day.

The kettle yelled at me this morning. I had boiled it to make my strawberry black from Say Tea, and then went back half an hour later to make my traditional vat of tea for work. Brand new Thermos, too, it is working out really well. The cap, as well as being the usual cup (with teeny tiny handle!) has a hidden compartment for, as the label says, “condiments” – but it fits two or three DT sample tins just perfectly. Anyway. Kettle. I cranked it down to green temperature and tried to turn it on, only to have it glower balefully at me and turn back off. Rinse and repeat a few times before I figured out that the water was already hot enough for tea.

I just love this tea. It isn’t too sweet or too dark or too anything. It’s just an invigroating, tasty cup of tea. Just smelling it is enough to pick me up. Almost at the bottom of my first bag; definitely going back for more.

SPAAAAARKLE.

I love this tea so much. I made a huge Thermos of it and took it to work, and managed to sell a 50g bag of it to my coworker based on the smell alone. It was fantastic. Carried me through an achingly long shift. Ran out with three hours to go and totally crashed. Love love love.

SPARKLY. I love this tea for a pick-me-up. My wife’s mate go-tos tend to overwhelm me with the scent of grass and plant, but this tea totally revitalises me. We were in Tealish and she was ordering her teas while I poked around. Took one sniff and decided to get a cup. Took about three sips while standing at the streetcar stop and went back in to buy 50 grams. Worth missing the streetcar.

I find flavoured teas, especially flavoured greens, can have an unpleasant perfume aftertaste for me, but that is not at all the case with this one. The green is smooth and pleasant, and the ginger and other bits and pieces are sweet and leave my mouth tingling. Just a sniff can perk me up. Love this tea.

This tea is my gateway drug. During our Tea Cooking Day, I made Drew try some of this and he fell in love like everyone else. I’ve sold so much of this blend, Tealish should give me a commission ;)

My soon-to-be sister-in-law and I both freaking loved this. My wife and my brother (who both tend to prefer not-as-sweet teas) both didn’t care for it. Good. More for us ;) Sweet, light, amazing, perfection.

Iced this puppy overnight after falling in love with it again last night. Mmmm. It is very refreshing, but the rooibos seems to take over, which is sad. But hot, this is still amazing!

Every time I drink this tea, I am surprised by how much I love it. I have somewhere around 150g now, and I don’t think that’s enough XD. It’s sweet and juicy and refreshing…mmmm. I might have to go after a second cup before bed.

I took this to work with me last Wednesday. I was in a rush, so not paying much attention, and oversteeped this. It tasted like red rooibos and nothing else. Sad, I love this tea so much too. Definitely a shorted steep time next time.

Freaking love this tea. This is the first tea from Tealish that I have absolutely adored. I think I need to stock up. Razmintazz is a close second, but this is my favorite Tealish tea. It’s just so juicy and tasty…yum. The name alone is enough to bring a smile to my face.

Love this tea.

Also, how did I reach almost 80 followers? I am not that interesting! XD

So yesterday my wife and I headed downtown and decided to give Tealish another chance after talking to the owner about some of the issues we’d had with the store. We picked up 7 bags of tea, well, 6 bags and a cup to go, but as we were waiting for the streetcar, the wife decided she needed a bag of that as well XD.

One of those teas was this lovely little number. After disclosing that I have over 250 teas in my cupboard, my wife mentioned we should make a spread sheet of them: Tea name, company name, how much I have, and where it is in my tea storage system.

So we did. It took us three hours, but I had a cup of this while we were working and it is beyond delicious. It’s so fruity and light and yummy! I definitely see this becoming a favorite, and I do need to try it iced. The rooibos isn’t overpowering at all, and the strawberry and kiwi mix together beautifully. Awesome, awesome tea.

When I spoke to my mother in Tennessee this morning, she let me know it’s around 80F where she is today. When I am, Toronto, we are expecting snow tomorrow. To honor my new Canadian home (and because I bought it a few days ago and have been wanting to try it), I brewed up a nice cuppa this morning.

Now, every time I’ve gone into Tealish, I’ve had a bad experience. I am almost always ignored, and the employees seem less than enthused about tea, which is a shame. Tealish could be such a nice, happy place. But when a customer is ignored, even when they’re the only other person in the store, something needs to be done about their customer service. Now, you all know how I am about customer service (Harney and Sons, anyone), so I tweeted about it and got a reply from Tealish asking me to e-mail them the full story. I did and got an e-mail back within twenty-four hours. Not a form letter, an actual response. I was very, very impressed. When I left Monday evening, I didn’t ever want to set foot inside Tealish again, but their terrific response and actually listening to what I had to say has convinced me to give them another go. So if you’re in the Toronto area, given Tealish a chance. They may not be 100% yet, but they’re trying and that says a lot. Better than some of the local juggernauts that sell inferior products.

As for the tea, I’m really enjoying it! It’s strong without being bitter, the mix is different from that of Irish breakfast or English breakfast, and it is certainly waking me up. This might become a standard in my home. I thought I didn’t like breakfast teas, because I haven’t liked any English breakfast I’ve tried, but no. I love Irish breakfast and I’m loving this tea, so maybe I’m just not English enough for the other ;)

I saw one of Tealish’s new teas was named Fairy Dust and knew I was interested. And THEN I read the description: strawberry-kiwi green rooibos? Yes, please! The man of the house got a hair cut today down near Tealish and I had him stop in for some Fairy Dust on his way home. I have a tea courier now, and am feeling pretty victorious.

This is suitably awesome. It’s a vivaciously flavourful little blend, but not too sweet. There are some great flavoured blends out there that I like a lot but end up finding too sweet-tasting to drink regularly. This one keeps the earthiness of the green rooibos. It smells great both dry and infused, but actually more strongly once steeped. I can pick out both all the individual fruit scents. Perhaps my new favourite rooibos!

Really, it was gross. I did not enjoy this at all. Did not finish the cup. The flavours were not balanced and coconut did not come out except as a sour taste.

Emits a strong aroma and an equally strong flavor. This tea is refreshing and bold. It makes a great summer drink on ice with additions of mint leaves and/or sugar.

Had some of this iced after working outside. I do not like iced tea, generally. Dunno why. But this is really good, very sweet and refreshing. The mint gives it an extra cool tingle on the tongue. Don’t care for this hot, but it’s yummy cold.

Wow, what a difference!! this is fantastic when done right.
I taste more raspberry than chocolate, which I find odd since it was more chocolatey before. Then again I used a proper measuring spoon this time.
With or without milk, I would love this. A dash of sugar really helps bring out the raspberries to.
Ceylon is typically not my style, but this, THIS is my new love of the week. It reminds me of childhood for some reason, and I suspect it’s sentimentality that causes my swooning. My tastebuds are impressionable, by memory, it seems.
I wonder if they will pop in the second steep as well…

On unrelated business: The hot water I can get at my Monday/Wednesday office is terrible! ick! I’m so not looking forward to work tomorrow…
On the plus side, I’m over my tea aversion! :)

I’ll add the description of this tea later. TOO much to do today!!
So, the girl at the shop promised me a tea with more depth than Golden Monkey, and a hint of raspberries. (perfect! in theory)
The chocolate and raspberries are coming through loud and clear, but not so much on the depth! I need to try this again at home, with more controlled conditions. I’m pretty sure the tap isn’t kept at “boiling” so maybe that would make the difference?
On it’s own, this one was pretty boring. With milk and agave, much better!!
There is potential for improvement, I need to fiddle with it a bit…