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Beet lover here, thanks to my Ukrainian heritage. Dwight Schrute would be proud. But in spite of my love of beets, I am relieved that this doesn’t taste like them. I have had a couple fruit blends in the past with beet that tasted heavily of cellar. Granted, I have had actual beets from the grocery store that taste a lot dirtier than others. My grandma’s garden-grown beets have spoiled me.

But this is Berry Central. A lot more artificial, though, thanks to the wild berry flavouring. A pity the raspberries and elderberries are covered up by the fake nuance. Some goji pops through too but I would think that it is a little out of place here.

Only had this iced, and the hibiscus wasn’t out of control as a heads up.

Sipdown! One thing I forgot to mention in my last tasting note is that the scent of the dry leaf reminds me of my grandma’s carrot cake a lot. That ginger and orange combined with the carrot makes me want a slice. Stupid tea smelling like food I shouldn’t eat. I just wish this tasted like that too! That ginger floats away in the mug and lacks that desserty vibe the scent of the dry “leaf” has.

I’ve only ever had this iced, and it is good, but I can’t see myself picking up more unless it went on sale. I bought 50g more of Orange Passionfruit on sale last time I was there and added it to my half-filled tin, realizing that I could have picked up even more to fill that tin up. I’m sure if it weren’t for that one, I’d feel more compelled to get more of this one? Orange Glow just isn’t as tasty as it smells too, I guess. But if you do like orange, marmalade, spicy carrot cake, I don’t think it would hurt trying this one out.

I was bad and did have cake today, though. After an interview for a volunteer position at the museum, I headed down to a highly-rated, fancy bakery and ordered little, individual cakes to bring to my mom’s to share with her. One was a macaron cake loaded with coconut, raspberry, and passionfruit (seriously like my favourite freaking things), and the other was a lemon cake topped with poppy seed, cherries, and meringue. Both tasted like heaven, sigh.

And then I was even more extravagant on my way back home, popping in at Holt Renfrew to see what they were up to (I’ll admit, since I was headhunted there earlier this year and turned down the job, I wanted to re-imagine what it would have been like being there), and found a LE Marvis toothpaste with lemon, rose, tangerine, and nutmeg, so I grabbed that. What a weird day full of luxury. It just makes a person feel guilty.

I’m glad I was able to try this in the store because this saved me money. My mom always talks about the wild strawberries and blueberries that used to grow near her farm when she was a child, and spoke of the epic, flavourful, tiny little berries she would pick at her leisure.

This hardly has any strawberry flavour, but at least it’s not overly artificial. It has that generic hibiscus and apple base flavour that many tisanes taste like. I was concerned about the rosemary because I cannot stand the stuff but oddly enough, I couldn’t taste any at all in spite of being ultra sensitive to it.

Nothing special.

The semi-annual sale sure sucked me in, but no regrets since I’m now quite stocked on fruity tisanes for a while. The new Harvest Collection also seemed intriguing so I picked up a little of most of the new ones.

This one smells extremely orangey, like pulpy orange juice. It’s like a cousin to the Orange Passionfruit. Flavour-wise, it’s also very similar, focusing on the bitter orange rind more than anything else. Instead of that tart passionfruit flavouring in the background, I’m greeted with a touch of ginger. It’s extremely light; I would have expected more. I was also concerned that the beetroot might have given this too much of an earthy undertone but I’m not getting any, thankfully. If you allow the orange rind to fade away on your palate after the sip, there’s an ultra faint squashy and carrot undertone, but it’s barely noticeable.

Not bad, makes a refreshing iced tea, but I prefer the Orange Passionfruit for that orange juice hit.

Today really shouldn’t have happened, taking this rendition of chai along. I had a job interview for 10am and was ready a lot earlier than anticipated, which led me to unintentionally take my bus an entire hour early (it’s like my brain was more focused on the minutes on my watch rather than the hour, if that makes sense), and I’m sure the interviewer thought I was an idiot. I’ve never done that before. Ever.

So having to kill an extra hour without venturing off too far, I walked down to Remedy and tried this. I had a feeling it would be a bomb because this particular location is, I’d say, their worst. Usually the chai is the weakest and even the food is blander. But I wanted to try something different. Sure enough, it’s like their regular chai (mostly cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and maybe clove) with a smidgen of cocoa added to it. Barely a smidgen. You really need to concentrate to catch it. Ordered half-sweet with soy, I find that that combination allows for the spices to come through more, but not this time. The spices themselves are weaker too. It sucks thinking that I could have spent that money on chai at one of their other locations which makes them better. Also grabbed a chewy sesame square to make the debit transaction worthwhile.

What also made this day full of regret is my bad eating. Running into a food truck specializing in donuts (grabbed two to share with my mom since I was on my way to visit her after the interview, plus shared the sesame square), which although scrumptious, were not part of my plan either. Then my mom wanted to go for lunch, and despite opting for a healthier sandwich place, my West Coast chicken wrap, although delicious and packed full of good stuff, was still much bigger than I needed. So I know I totally overate and I didn’t walk as much as planned I’m going to have to really make up for it.

Oh yeah, and I got tea in the mail, for which I got slapped with an annoying customs fee. Yay for tea! Boo for customs. Second time this year too! And I haven’t been placing that many orders from the States either.

It’s one of those days when everything good gets counterbalanced with something stupid? I know, I know, it’s nothing completely terrible at all, really. More than anything, I’m just angry at myself for likely ruining an opportunity to snag an office job that would end the retail rut I’ve been enduring due to the recession.

So in conclusion, this chai sadly isn’t approved. I just don’t understand why this location is consistently sub-par.

It’s so weird listening to Porcupine Tree after not listening to them for what seems like ever. It’s taking me back to high school, and is only making me feel old. Sipping on this iced for the second time now, I’m not terribly impressed but it’ll do. It’s like half cantaloupe half honeydew with crunchy carrot notes in the background. I bought 50g due to the sale but now I wish I just spent that money on more Grapefruit Squeeze, which I got a 100g tin of last week and it’s already nearly half gone it seems. And today was the last day of the sale but I was too busy with other stuff to pick up more. Oh well! Makes me wonder what stores do with leftover sale teas.

Oh my goodness, this is heavenly with half and half. It tasted even breadier and more raisiny than when enjoying it alone. I’d make another mug but I’ve already been horrible today with my calorie consumption. Does anyone ever run into a problem where you buy a bunch of ingredients you normally don’t have for a recipe and then feel obligated to use them up, so you’re led down this long path of making different foods? That’s my issue with buttermilk. First time buying it, as I bought some after buying five pounds of blueberries for a great price and thought I’d make blueberry oatmeal muffins for the first time which required buttermilk. Not to mention, I made lavender violet blueberry tarts. Leftover buttermilk led me to buy cheddar cheese to finally make the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuit dupe recipe I’ve been meaning to try for literally eight years. Still having buttermilk and extra cheese (oh, and butter too), that led me to buy cornmeal to finally try making jalapeño cheddar corn muffins since I’ve also been meaning to try to make something cornbread-related for many years.

Then yesterday for breakfast, I used the last of the cheese to make cheesy grits for the first time (and no, not going to get into a redundant linguistics argument over the usage of the term ‘grits’ when hominy isn’t involved).

So finally, today, I used up the rest of the buttermilk and cornmeal to make heart-shaped cornmeal waffles, and with that, I used them in place of sandwich bread to make a honey garlic chicken sandwich.

Seriously, isn’t that nuts? Reason #244 why I avoid buying ingredients I normally don’t use.

Already sipped this down. I shared the last with my mom. I made it iced in my glass Contigo before heading out to get some steps in and drop off the jalapeño cheddar corn muffins I made, and she loved this. Surprising! Because she doesn’t like sour stuff. I do like this, but not enough to get more in spite of the sale price.

Eh, picked up 50g on sale without trying it first and kind of wish I would have just grabbed more of something else that is also on sale. This is 95% tart hibiscus with a vague sweetness in the background from the stevia and fruits. I would have never known that there was pineapple and papaya in here. Syrupy hibiscus. It’s drinkable but not worth checking out, in my books.

Whew, what a day. I had a pretty good job interview today, ran into a former coworker and had a nice visit, was bad and ate delicious food at the food court (feel terrible now but damn, that mini DQ Blizzard for Miracle Treat Day was for a good cause! And I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza), plus picked up this and a bunch of other blends for the sale price. I wanted to grab another steeper, this time for my mom, but can’t seem to find anymore of those $9 ones despite checking two locations over the past couple days. Oh well.

And psst, that maple fudge talk a few of us were having the other day? I picked up some Maple Walnut Fudge at Rocky Mountain Chocolate, plus some Chocolate Pecan fudge since it was BOGO half off. Ugh! So ashamed, but I won’t try them until tomorrow since I already failed at the calorie game today.

ANYway, onto this tea. I have tried this in store not long after it came out and I wasn’t too impressed. I liked it but it seemed a little too sweet. Something possessed me to grab a tin of it today and I’m glad I did, because brewing it at home, it’s a lot more orange juice-like. I get a swig of that infamous DAVIDsTEA passionfruit flavouring at the beginning of the sip but it rapidly dissipates. But I’m not upset about that because this hits the spot for those times when you want orange juice but don’t want to drink your calories, you know? It tastes pulpy.