Kirlika Send Message

This is another of the local teas that I sent along with the GCTTB, and like the one last week it’s also one of their most popular blends. The first time I heard of this chai (I hadn’t even had a chance to smell it yet) I knew I had to have some.

The first thing you notice upon smelling the dry tea leaves is maple, but not the super sweet grocery store kind of maple, this is the authentic maple scent. Underneath that come the spices… I always worry with a chai that the cinnamon will be overdone and that it’s scent (and flavor) would be the only thing that I find, but not with this one. The clove, cinnamon and cardamom all work together quite nicely and are well balanced, though not as prominent as one might expect. You can also catch a hint of the pink peppercorn (which also gives it a nice visual pop as well) and a bit of matiness from the Assam tea. It’s a really dark, warm and well-rounded scent profile with the occasional highlight from the safflower petals.

The liquor is a deep orange-gold with a fair amount of particulate, and smells of malt, maple and a nice touch of spice. Again it’s not super sweet but the malt and the maple combine to form a very interesting aroma, they complement each other in a way I really can’t quite describe… but the smell is lovely.

I don’t however get a lot of spice notes in the flavor, don’t get me wrong they are there, I can taste the cinnamon and clove with just a touch of cardamom and a slight tingle from the peppercorn but it’s not “Chai like” to me (kinda similar to DT’s Pumpkin Chai, it’s more spiced than Chai, at least in the way I see/taste :)) I was also really surprised the first time I tasted this, I expected much more maple in the flavor profile, but it actually serves more as a supporting note, complementing the slightly astringent Assam base nicely with true maple flavor. Nor is it as sweet as I was expecting (again not a bad thing! It’s just that this tea kept blowing all my preconceived notions away!) but at the same time it holds up well to extra sweetener too if you’re looking for sweet.

I enjoy this tea, it’s brisk but smooth, spiced but yet just sweet enough and a has a really good balance between the flavors and the “base” Assam tea. (Though I do think the title’s a bit misleading but again I’m particular that way ;) )

So I’ve been debating… both this tea and Santa’s Secret (a favorite) of mine are on sale with DT’s right now and I’m not sure if I should get them now or not. For the latter I’ve got about 75g left, but it’s always the question of will they bring it back, will it still be as good, will I have enough to last me through to next winter if they do bring it back? And for this one, I’ve only got about 3 cups or so left, but do I like it enough to get a bunch more of it? So I thought I’d try a cup to see if that helped my decision making process… It didn’t.

I like it; it’s a balanced, mildly spicy tea good for when you want something warm but without a ton of spice notes and sweet enough to have just on its own with no additives. But I just don’t know that I like it enough to get 250g of it… Honestly though I love the fact that DT does a “last chance” type sale I really dislike the amounts that are involved, I’m entirely less likely to buy something from it as compared to when they let you select smaller sizes. Even if it was fixed amount of 100g/pkg I’d be happier. sigh Oh what to do…

From the GCTTB. I’m on the hunt for a new pumpkin and spice tea since I found that DT changed their Pumpkin Chai, so when I saw this one in the box I knew I had to give it a shot.

The dry tea is filled with petals and pieces of orange peel and apple. I did get a whole lot pumpkin scent and there was a bit of cinnamon smell but aside from that not really much in the way of “spiciness”.

The brewed liquor was a deep medium brown and smelled of sweet cinnamon with a touch of squash and some vanilla laced throughout. I didn’t really get much from the apple or orange (nor am I really certain about these ingredients but oh well). As for the flavor, I found it to be really subtle. Mixed in with some darker notes from the black tea was just the barest hit of pumpkin and a touch of cinnamon. The rest of the ingredients didn’t really stand out to me, but the mouthfeel was nice; full, thick and quite warm.

If you’re looking for a mild pumpkin/squash tea then this one might suit you but personally I was really hoping for more spice given the name of the tea. Oh well, I’ve got a bunch of other pumpkin tea samples to try as well so I’m sure I’ll find something at one point or another!

I’m starting to make my way through Teavivre’s green tea sample pack and the description on this one caught my interest… We’re currently experiencing some very interesting weather (today sunny with a high of 13c. Tomorrow? Snowing with a high of -12c… No I’m not joking, a 25 degree swing within 24hrs. sigh) and I was looking for something warm but fresh and this sounded like it might hit the mark.

The dry leaf is rolled lengthwise and presents a dark spicy aroma mixed in with some warm grass notes. There were a few nutty hints as well but they were quite hidden among the rest of the scent profile.

My first steeping of 30sec gave a bright, though light, green liquor that smelled of sweet, almost roasted nuts, mixed in with some lovely spicy/smokey notes. It was a warm but yet refreshing scent. The taste was actually pretty similar, roasted nuts (almost like cashews) mixed in with a light bit of spice with a lovely rich sweetness wrapped around it. The finish was slightly astringent and served as a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the tea. And while the mouthfeel was dull and rich it was also very light and refreshing, a very unique combination.

In my second cup (60sec) the bright green liquor picked up a slight floral scent which replaced the slight smokiness of the first cup, while the rest of the notes stayed pretty much the same. The floral not carried though to the flavor as well, while the rest of the flavors mellowed out considerably. The finish was also less astringent.

The pale yellow-green liquor of my third cup (90sec) displayed a soft aroma; the brighter floral notes were mixed in with the sweet roasted nuts. This was quite a mellow cup, subtle in flavor but refreshing. There was still a bit of “spice” in the profile as well which added an interesting contrast to the brighter floral notes.

My last cup (120sec) was even softer than the previous one in both scent and flavor. The floral notes were a nice refreshing highlight and lingered well after the finish. There’s also still just a little touch of the spice left to round out the profile.

This is a dynamic cup of tea, with tons of character. I loved how both the flavor and scent profiles changed over time and how refreshing this was despite the inherent dark"spiciness" of the leaf. This is definitely a tea that I could see keeping in stock for some time to come.

Another from the GCTTB. This one was interesting to me… I haven’t had much luck with hazelnut in tea previously, so I figured I’d give it one mo try to see if it was the tea or the hazelnut that I wasn’t liking. So here it goes…

They dry tea is filled with hunks of toffee, chocolate, hazelnut and popped rice (tbh they almost look like rice krispies.) The smell definitely delivers on the name as I can pick out notes of toffee (vanilla flavored?), chocolate and hazelnut, there’s a dark undertone from the black tea, almost a bit of maltiness, but not much.

The liquor is a dark, cloudy orange-brown and has quite a bit of film on the top of the cup (though it’s not surprising given all the oily ingredients). The aroma contains lovely sweet notes from the toffee which blend well with the hints of chocolate and maltiness, while the hazelnut gives a nice middle note to round out the profile.

The flavor however doesn’t deliver the same upfront notes as the aroma though… I pretty much loose all of the toffee notes (though the sweetness is still there) which makes this tea a bit flat in my opinion. The chocolate is there, but it has mixed with the malty notes to form more of a dark chocolate while the hazelnut just doesn’t mesh well for me. It’s there and it’s definitely hazelnut but it just feels like its not blending into the rest of the flavor profile. I also get a really oily mouth feel that I’ve noticed in others hazelnut teas as well (especially as it cools).

At this point I am really thinking that hazelnut teas are just not for me, which is fine there’s lots of other teas out there! That said (putting aside my dislike for the hazelnut part) its not a bad tea, there’s some nice flavors there and I’m sure that some sugar would help to bring out the toffee flavors more too, but it’s just not my cup of tea ;)

This is one of the teas that I’ve added in as my “local” tea to the GCTTB. It’s one of their most popular blends and one that I find has a very interesting (and unique in my experiences so far) spice combination.

Dry the tea is quite visually compelling, you can definitely see all the spices mixed into it; my one “complaint” though is that the green tea portion is made up of smaller broken pieces of leaf, it’s not necessarily a bad thing but it made me wonder exactly how much of the green tea I’d be able to taste once it had been steeped. The aroma though… oh ya I liked it from the first time I smelled it. The mix of spices was warm and refreshing, and there wasn’t anyone spice that was predominant over another. At the same time they weren’t all muddled together, I could distinctly smell each spice (except for maybe the clove) layered and interweaving with each other to form a complex but wonderfully full scent profile. I don’t however get much from the green tea, a few grassy undertones but that’s mostly hidden by all the spice.

The steeped liquor is a deep, clear gold (almost orange-gold) and smells of spice over top of a deep almost dried hay scent from the green tea. The peppermint is the highlight of the scent profile at this time, while the fennel, cardamom and ginger bring a bit of warm sweet heat to the mix. I found it to be a very compelling scent, though much darker than the dry profile.

Now, bear in mind that I over steeped this one a touch (the wonders of phone calls where someone says to you “it’s not working, fix it for me!” ah well :)), but even at that I didn’t find it bitter at all which surprised me. The green tea (yes I can taste them!) base delivered some warm dried grass/hay notes, forming a wonderful foundation to lift the spice medley up to new heights and giving it a remarkable, well rounded flavor profile. The spice mix isn’t too heavy either, my mouth has a pleasant tingle at the end of every sip and I’ve got a lingering aftertaste of peppermint which is very refreshing. I also found that the spices distinct flavors have soften at this point, but that’s a good thing in my mind as otherwise the tea could taste very “disjointed”.

You just can’t beat teas that just hit all the right notes: fresh, warm, spicy, just sweet enough… Yum. It’s overall a lovely tea, one that I’ll be keeping in stock for some time to come.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, so when I woke up this morning I thought that it might be one of my rare “gotta have coffee” days. But the further I got into the morning the less appealing the thought of coffee became. To be honest I wasn’t even sure that I wanted tea but I needed something warm and I hate just drinking straight hot water so I started digging through my stash. When I came across this one it was kinda like a light bulb went off, this was what I needed this morning.

I think I spent more time with my noes buried in my timolino then I did drinking it at first; I don’t usually get a whole lot of strawberry scent from this tea but today it was filled with it and I loved it. Especially with that slightly darker chocolate scent running underneath, heaven. The strong strawberry scent carried over into the flavor; smooth, sweet and yet a bit tart (strawberries are my absolute favorite berry but finding one with flavor can be tricky), this was just packed with strawberry goodness. And honestly, how can you go wrong with chocolate covered strawberry tea?!?! :D

Ever have one of those moments where your brain wants something (and knows exactly what) but the rest of you doesn’t? That was me this morning, I walked into my office after an early morning meeting and reached right for my Sugar & Spice bag, opened it up for a sniff… and then the rest of me went “Nah ah, what in the world are you thinking?!?” sigh

Oh well, instead I’m drinking my trusty Santa’s Secret. This is definitely a “feel good” tea for me, the peppermint/black tea combo just works in ways that I can’t describe. I love the creaminess of it and the hint of chocolate from the tea base, just ya… Yum! :)

From the GCTTB. I’ve glanced at the description for this one on Della Terra’s site but probably wouldn’t have ordered a sample for myself since the “crunch” bit kinda threw me for a loop. I enjoy the occasional caramel latte though so it was interesting to me none the less.

Dry the tea definitely smelled like a rooibos, mixed with a number of really sweet notes and a few caramel undertones. I also got a number of floral scents from the marigold blossoms, which didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me. I found the scent profile to be a bit lopsided and no real trace of the “cappuccino” notes either.

The steeped liquor is a very dark red-brown and smelled of sweet subtle caramel notes. At this point I finally start to get some of the darker cappuccino scents mixed in what the slightly mellowed floral notes from the marigold. The first sip was a bit of a shock though, really really dark (and somewhat bitter) coffee notes hit me right up front. I don’t mind dark coffee but this was a bit too dark for me, and it totally covered up the caramel flavors. There was a touch of sweetness present but not much else, I also didn’t get any of the usual rooibos creaminess in the mouth feel which was disappointing.

I added a bit of vanilla sugar and cream and that did help to even out the flavor profile, it actually started to taste a bit like a thin caramel latte to me, I bet if you brewed this as a tea latte it would be pretty good, but I don’t typically keep milk products at home, so for me it’s not one that I would keep on hand. I also still don’t get the whole crunch thing but maybe that’s just me. :)

Ugh welcome to Monday morning… I think my brain is still stuck in Saturday. I meant to bring a sample from the GCTTB with me to work today but totally blanked on that this morning. Oh well.

I really enjoy this tea, it was actually the first ever pu’erh (straight or flavored) that I tried and I love how the dark, rich earthy tones mix with the dark chocolate and the brighter orange notes. I think in my first tea log I described it as kind of a dance that the flavors were doing and it’s still so true for me. Every time I take a sip another flavor, or combination of flavors, is sitting at the forefront for me to try. Yum!

BTW, if anyone knows someone who is attempting to sell a Royal Albert Old Country Rose teapot lid (approx. 3.75inch/9.5cm in diameter which I think is for the 9cup pot) let me know… I’m trying to find a replacement for my mother’s lid (it’s cracked into 2 pieces) and given the age of the pattern it’s been a bit difficult (she’s got the original.) I’ve already tried and failed a few times, one was the wrong size and the other had a crack in it that the seller didn’t notice at the time of posting the sale. :(