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This one was malty yet had a thin mouthfeel, which was a little strange since I find malty teas to have a thicker mouthfeel. Also, of the three times I had it, each and every time, it was simultaneously astringent. All it did was make me crave a strong, malty Assam.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off.

I bought a sample in my last order but polished it off a couple weeks ago. All I recall is that this was vaguely sweet but lacked an obvious caramel note. The pumpkin was very mild? The good news is that the base wasn’t crazily woodsy. Quite well-behaved in that respect. Adding milk just made it taste like a sweetened pumpkin. Still no warm, browned caramel.

Apologies for the notes from memory. I really need to a) drink more tea, b) write my notes when I actually drink the tea, and c) organize my tea stash.

I drank this last week, one cup with milk and one without. The coconut was a lot more prominent than the banana and thankfully the copout wasn’t rancid or soapy. Still very fresh and sweet. Great for a tea that I bought… a year and a half ago? I suck.

This tea, however, does not suck. It was scrumptious.

Silly me ordering tea when I have barely been touching the stash I have as it’s been collecting dust over the past while. But once I saw that August restocked on Passage, I just had to do it.

Sample size of this. The fennel is the most prominent note here, tannins quite strong, but the apple is on the faint side, which I don’t mind. I’m at the very least glad it isn’t a fake, strong candy apple flavour you get from other companies (I think we all know…). The mouthfeel is thin and I’m left with astringency.

Five months since writing a tasting note? Sad. I’ve been dealing with a heap of health issues so sitting down and enjoying a cup of tea, writing down its notes, etc, has unfortunately not been a priority for me.

I picked this up in Banff last summer. I never cared for their setup there, with all the teas stored in clear glass jars next to a bright window, so for that reason, I never picked anything up until last time. I thought fiiiiiine.

This one smelled the most promising at the time but even then, having it fresher then, and now, ten months later, it’s a little boring. The base has always had a dusty undertone to it, and although the chocolate chips are abundant in the blend, they don’t seem to do much? I can smell nuts in the steeped tea more than I can taste them, and there’s a bitterness that makes it more akin to walnuts than pecans.

I took this tea with me to work and left it there alongside some tea sachets. It’s been abnormally cold here and snowing since the beginning of September so I wanted something warm and comforting on hand. I’m not a huge fan of tulsi but I’m liking the addition of juniperberry. The fruits are very mild. Only the strawberry shows up for me. It’s not extraordinary but it does the job of keeping me hydrated at work.

It’s been two whole months since writing a tea note? For shame. I’m just finishing this off now but have noticed every up has been too mild for my liking. Tastes like a boring, flat black tea with a hint of ginger and cinnamon. But nothing more. How is Halloween already in a few weeks? We really got screwed out of a proper autumn over here so a short much as I love drinking spicy blends which remind me of colder weather, this feels too early.

Oh weird, after finishing my cup, the aftertaste in my mouth is a little bit like cola bottle candies but even then, a lot milder than other spicy blends that gave off a cola vibe.

This one appears to be a newer one, and it’s not on their website (granted, it hasn’t been updated since 2010!), so naturally, it was an impulse buy. It’s very cherry cherry but not in a cough syrup way like many cherry teas lean. Both in scent and in flavour, it’s mostly cherry with almost no fig. I can taste a little fig but it blends in with the base and hides behind the cherry. I’m enjoying this hot but I can imagine that it’ll make a pretty decent cold brew.

I haven’t logged all of the new-to-me Bayswater teas I have picked up on my last trip, but it seems like all the ones I got 50g of, I’m loving and wishing I got more of, while the ones I automatically got 100g of because I tried and loved them before have actually been a letdown. Say what?

This is one I got 50g of because I wasn’t sure it would be completely amazing even though it was super fragrant and gingery in the gigantic canister. Yeah, this is great. It reminds me of DAVIDsTEA’s Ginger Pear, one of my favourites from them. The ginger isn’t too spicy or overpowering like biting into a chunk of the fresh root, but it complements the tart quince perfectly. The base is also mild and absent of any weird cardboardy undertones that some lower-quality black teas used for blends can possess. Now just watch. Next time I go to Vancouver and get 100g of this, it’ll coincidentally be cardboardy, stale, dusty, weird, or just not nearly as good because that’s how life works!

The other week, I walked all the way to Bayswater from the downtown hostel (was in town for a show) to load up on these teas I was so in love with back when I lived on the Island. I swear it’s not just me, but I feel like the majority of the black teas in their gigantic canisters were on the older side. This tea just doesn’t smell the same. More chemically and a tad stale? Plus the chocolate bits have a white film on them, indicating that the tea has been sitting. Maybe they aren’t as popular as they were five years ago?

More importantly, in terms of flavour, the base does taste a little dusty or dare I say cardboardy. The coffee flavour is there but there is an odd chemical undertone, but not sure what it’s from. I grabbed 100g out of nostalgia in spite of the tea not smelling like it used to in the canister. Now I’m hoping I won’t be regretting that soon.