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Uh oh.
I’m pretty sure I hate rooibos. I couldn’t even finish this cup. I remember specifically not liking one sort of medicinal aspect of birthday cake by dt, and the very thing I didn’t like was glaringly present in this one—I can only conclude that it’s the rooibos. I hate the way it forcefully plows its way through any attempt at flavouring, obliterating any attempt by the tea maker to give the tea any flavouring other than that gross medicinal taste. It didn’t even matter if I added cream or sugar; this tea could not be saved. Eww eww eww.
I’m glad i don’t do numeric ratings. Not only is the rating system inaccessible, it also just wouldn’t be fair or accurate in this case, because although I poured this down the drain, I think I’ve come to hate rooibos and thus can’t really be objective. Why be objective though, anyway? it’s my mouth that tea is going into LOL. I’m just saying though that I don’t want to rate it poorly, because given that it’s a flavoured rooibos, it might be quite well done, but I’m not the person to be asking.

I had a much needed nap after work this evening, and actually felt a bit better after I woke up. A few hours later though, my head began to hurt again and I began to feel a bit sick. Knowing that a steaming cup of tea would do the trick, i ventured into the kitchen to try another sample, and reached for this one. A nice, low-caffeine option.
…except that according to art of tea, it’s a medium level caffeine tea.
Womp womp womp!
Not to be deterred, I brewed it up anyway. The dry leaf feels light and fluffy, and it’s a feeling I’m beginning to associate with white tea. It smelled strongly of juicy peach, and if I inhaled deeply enough, it almost smelled like peach-scented chapstick. Perhaps that’s not entirely accurate, but there was definitely some sort of lingering cosmetic feel to it.
Anyway, brewed it up as per the suggestion. The strong peach smell had faded some by the time the cup was sitting in front of me, and only by burying my face right in the tea could I get that peach blast i’d originally smelled.
Before I took my first sip, I mentally prepared myself to expect a lightly flavoured tea, a subtle tea, because it was white.

You know? i must say I was pleasantly surprised. This is absolutely a subtle, lightly flavoured tea. But it also has a creamy quality to it, not entirely unlike Butiki’s Cantaloupe and cream (although don’t get me wrong, CaC blows this tea way, way out of the water). I just mean that there’s a creaminess (perhaps it’s the underlying white tea?), and it lends itself well to subtle flavouring.

I’m going to happily finish off this sample (or maybe i’ll add it to the great Canadian travelling tea box to let others try), and who knows, maybe I’ll get more of it. I really didn’t dislike it at all, which is honestly what i was prepared for. Oh, and I added a few pieces of rock sugar, and that seemed to bring out the peach flavour a bit.
Goodnight, steepster friends.

Wow, this tea definitely shines its brightest when it’s a bit cooler—not only did I nearly burn my mouth on it at first sip (thanks, timolino), but it tasted one-dimensional and rather bland. I really remember having such fond memories of this one though, so I’m glad I didn’t pour it down the drain in disgust.
It’s still a smooth, quiet tea. Best enjoyed when it’s cool out, I think. Still a velvety, grown-up vanilla, and perhaps it’s the orchid, or maybe it’s the oolong base—but there’s something in it that keeps the tea from tipping into “sweet” territory, despite my adding in some cream and sugar to thicken things up a bit. Still one of my favourite teas from David’s, although I don’t think I’ll be restocking once my 100 g tin runs out.

And my headache has raged on. Like to the point where I felt nauseated at work, and am literally counting down the minutes until I can go home and pass out. It’s one of those headaches where the only adequate remedy is to lie down and sleep—nothing else will do. i had an appointment after work that I canceled, and so now I just need to wait a few more hours and I’m done.

My head hurts and I want to go home and sleep.

I had a cup of this tea this morning and to be fair to it, i wasn’t really expecting much. It’s your average English breakfast, and that’s about all I can really think to say. I may have put in a bit too much sugar, so perhaps with a little less I’ll be able to “analyze” it more, but honestly, it’s just your average English breakfast. It’ll absolutely do in a pinch, is very inoffensive, and will be acceptable to pretty much anyone who drinks it. I won’t be restocking, but it came with my black tea sampler pack from Art of Tea, so I figured i’d give it a go. It pales in comparison to their biodynamic Darjeeling, which I actually think I might restock.

And now someone please come get me from work and take me home and make me a cup of (not this) tea and put me to bed. Thanks!
God it’s at times like these when I miss being a student. There just isn’t that kind of flexibility anymore. You don’t wake up with a splitting headache and get to decide to sit this one out—you doggedly plow on, proving to the rest of the world that “no sickness ’aint gonna get you down”, no sir. not you. because you’re perfect and hardcore. ugggh.
/end rant
…almost. I say we start a revolution and have a four day work week.

Given that my Butiki order is on its way, I decided it would actually be quite acceptable to have myself a cup of this after work. Although the morning flew by, the afternoon seemed to drag on, and my eyes were dry and begging for sleep. I keep telling myself that I’m going to go to bed early tonight, and that I “mean it this time” but somehow, that never quite pans out. I don’t even know why. It’s not like I have children or anyone to take care of!

Anyway, back to the tea. I got home, brewed this up, and sat on my couch to read (I’m reading Orange is the New Black). The tea seemed to perfectly reflect the weather: it was light-hearted and beautiful, and full of flavour and creamy goodness. It’s one of those teas where, depending on how you drink it (gulps vs. loose sips vs. tight-lipped sips vs. swirling around in your mouth vs. greedily sliding your tongue along the roof of your mouth) it will all yield different facets of the tea, and I was having a lot of fun exploring all of them by “drinking differently”. It was as if with each sip, I met and danced with another little intricate pink fairy! weeeeeeeeeee!
I even gave this a second steep! I used slightly less water, and let it steep for like six minutes instead of my usual four, and I can confidently say that the tea retained at least 90% of the flavour from the first cup. This bodes amazingly well for me, because there are very few teas I feel happy resteeping, especially because a) I rarely feel second steeps are as potent as first ones; and b) I’m always worried I’ll resteep it wrong and thereby change my opinion of the tea, which when I fall in love with a tea, especially a new one and my love for it is new and fragile and potentially shakable, I don’t want to do anything that could possibly disturb our blossoming relationship! It’s like meeting someone who you feel instantly attracted to and find intriguing, and then you see you have a chance to snoop their journal. Tempting, but do you really want to go there just yet?

So that’s it for me tonight, I think. I have an underlying grumpiness to contend with that’ll likely last for the next few days, and then it’s off to Toronto to visit the family this weekend.

Ah, just tipped back the timolino to drain the last of this tea. I have enough left at home to make myself one more cup of this, and then it’s the dry spell until my Butiki order arrives in the mail.
There isn’t much more I can say that hasn’t been said. This tea is like taking liquid waffles drenched in powdered sugar and whipped cream to work, all underpinned by a slight, almost burnt note that’s reminiscent of crème Brule and which I love—perhaps burnt sugar is a more apt description. I also add cream and sugar to this tea, and so enjoy a thick, full mouthful of flavour with each sip. Very pleased to consider this a staple.

I woke up craving this tea. Some mornings, I wake up and am actually like, nearly tortured about which tea I’m going to have, but this morning there was no doubt—this one was the winner. I honestly don’t know how it is I managed to screw it up a few weeks ago when I tried it for the first time and nearly dismissed it, but I brewed a perfect, sweet cup, where the vanilla and caramel were married perfectly to the assam, and I took a few moments to sit and sip while reading a book. So enthralled am I, in fact, that I came to work and instantly messaged Stacy to see if I could order 2 oz of this instead of the 1 I’d originally planned. My order is huge haha.

I’m coming to learn that there are so many elements of our lives that are beyond our control, and for someone with many aspects of a type A personality like me, that can be quite frightening. But there are small things you can do for yourself that have guaranteed enjoyment built into them-like reading a good book while sipping a hot bucket of tea, eating food that makes you marvel at peoples’ ability to put together such amazing pieces of art, have conversations into the wee hours of the morning with a good friend, listen to music that can break your heart while lifting your spirit—there are those things that you can choose so that even when the sh*t hits the fan in the rest of your life, you have stuff to fall back on that you can trust to reliably settle you down.

I promise not all of my posts are going to be this deep and emotional, and I promise I’m also not sixteen, thank heavens. LOL. Have a great day, everyone—the weekend’s around the corner!

There isn’t really much more I can say about this tea. It’s not the best, but it certainly isn’t the worst. A nice jingery flavour, not so much the bread and definitely no vanilla. Decent when you don’t want to think too hard but still want a hit of comfort and warmth.
In other news: I’ll likely get my Butiki invoice tonight, and then my order won’t be too far in coming. I can’t wait. I simply cannot.

Warning: emo post ahead.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a start and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I think what originally woke me was one of the dogs scrambling about, but he settled down and I simply couldn’t. I slept fitfully after that, still with a really anxious feeling in my chest. Have I mentioned how much I hate needless anxiety that doesn’t really have to do with anything? save perhaps knowing that you’re not going to be falling asleep again anytime soon, and have to be up in a few hours, and then you’re going to have to make it through your workday on so few hours of sleep, and why is there so much sadness and despair in the world anyway?
So I finally got out of bed and headed into the kitchen. I knew I needed a tea that would not demand anything of me: no opinions as to its taste, no specific emotional state, no philosophical rhetoric—just a decent, strong cup to get me started. And so I knew without a doubt it had to be this tea. it is admittedly my first Darjeeling, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. It tastes wonderful though, with a bit of “dryness” at the end, and a full, almost woody taste to it (it doesn’t taste woody; rather, it evokes the sensation and smell of wood, or its texture, perhaps) and goes down with a very, very smooth finish. It’s actually a tea that I think that could either stand alone, but as with any tea I drink, it can absolutely hold its own against some milk and sugar. I couldn’t really even fully appreciate it until a few sips (gulps?) in anyway, as I just drank without thinking for the first little bit.

And so there you have it. I’m probably pmsing and needlessly weepy in general today, so if I drink more tea (and there’s more sitting here in my timolino), you might expect another tear-stained post from me LOL.

I hope you guys have a great Tuesday. I’m looking forward to lunch with a friend (that’ll break up the workday a bit, I think), and then after work, my boss and I are headed to a professional dinner thing, so that ought to be interesting. I just need to last without dissolving into a key change puddle for no good reason.