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My goodness, I haven’t gotten nearly enough sleep the last few days, and some situations at work are incredibly stressful, and I woke up all worked up this morning and went to sleep worked up last night. So I needed an old best friend, and of course was not let down. I have said so much about this tea: how it tastes like waffles, how it tastes good with and without additions, how it travels well, how it keeps well (I’ve had it for over a year now). I will miss it so much once it’s gone.

Whoa guys! I’m back!

This time, I think I intend to stay (although when isn’t that my intention?). I just realized that I love reading tasting notes, and not only because I love tea. Actually, the main reason I love reading tasting notes is because I love reading descriptions of people enjoying tea. It just makes me feel cozy just thinking about it, and it’s so great to connect with so many wonderful people over a cup of hot tea—realizing that we all have such varied, interesting, and sometimes turbulent lives, but that a cup of tea can give us all a bit of pause and comfort in an otherwise crazy world.

Enough of that though. This tea. It’s delicious and fragrant and all things great…except I still cannot drink most tea straight. I just can’t. Most straight tea leaves a dry feeling in my mouth, and I just don’t know how to combat that other than with additions. I’m kind of annoyed at myself for that, but it keeps on being true for me.
guuuuys! I’m baaaaack!

Wow. It’s been so long since I’ve written a note on steepster that I…don’t really know what to say. I feel as though I first fell off the tasting note bandwagon, and then as the summer sweltered hotter and hotter, I sort of fell off the hot tea bandwagon as well. And as my samples continued to pile up around me, I just turned a blind eye to it all (har har) and chugged water. What a mistake it was to abandon tea for so long. I had this as a latte yesterday while at DT (where I of course picked up the green carry mug, omg omg omg), and made it again for myself first thing this morning. Nothing calms an anxiety-ridden heart like a cup of tea, and that, my friends, is a scientific fact.

What this tea tastes like: my goodness, I don’t even know if I have a tea vocabulary anymore. I get the thick, almost waxy and candle-like (in the best way possible) breadiness that lends this tea so, so well to having milk or cream in it, and the flavours I generally associate with pumpkin. I am no expert on what authentic pumpkin tastes like, but I know I like this tea for it’s pumpkin flavor, chai spices (although those aren’t too strong for me, I don’t think) and the candle-y breadiness that I love so much.

Let’s see how long it is until I write again! I’ve missed you guys!

Here I am again. I’m sorry I haven’t updated, but I also haven’t been drinking much in the way of tea, although that’s a lie because I have been drinking iced tea. No excuses.

Actually, I’m just hear to say that this tea is terrible iced. It tastes like strawberry yogurt milky water, and I never want to be made to feel I’m drinking watery yogurt. It’s ok though, because this used up my entire sample, so onwards and upwards, I guess. I’m going to be tossing what’s left in the pticher (which is pretty much all of it actually), but ’aint nobody got time for bad tea, I say.

carry on, folks. Let this week end.

It’s been a while since I’ve written any tasting notes, but i’ve been drinking a lot of tea. I’m going through this odd phase where I sort of drink tea automatically—haphazardly choosing a tea from my collection without giving it much thought, drinking it without really noticing it, and not really feeling inclined to write deep tasting notes with all my feelings and interpretations. But then I also think that one of the main reasons I update on steepster isn’t necessarily to explore all my feelings about a given tea, but mostly to feel connected to people who love what I love. And withdrawing from my various networks is never really a good indication for me, and so I’ll make more of an effort.

Random thoughts on this tea:
1. It’s wonderful iced; I haven’t even tried it hot.
2. I’m really into making my teas iced now, and I find I’m actually preferring them iced to hot now. I never thought I’d be saying that. Oh, and I really like the instant cold-brew method (that of steeping in a bit of hot water before topping up with ice) to letting it brew for hours on end, but that’s because I’m impatient.
3. This tea tastes like a conglomerate of tropical fruits, with perhaps the slightest hint of white tea at the end of the sip. I know this combination of fruit is meant to taste like nothing else, but you could probably tell me that this was a tropical papaya and guava punch and i’d believe you. That being said, I’m actually going to buy some more iced tea packs of this tomorrow because I still really, really like it.
4. I love that DT sells pre-packaged iced tea packs. People can carry on endlessly about how they can measure it out themselves, but if anything exists to support my laziness and reliance on all things convenient, I’m all over it. Besides, DT’s website says that iced tea calls for eight perfect spoonfuls of tea for each pitcher (and omg I got the blue and green pitcher and love it!), but each package seems to have far less in it than that but still yields a fairly strong and flavourful brew. So what gives? who knows. But yeah, packages are where it’s at.
Ok bye

Whoa. I’m running dangerously low on my supply of this, and I don’t go to California until July, so I won’t really be able to replenish it until then. I could technically order online, but really want to savour the in-store sniff and huff experience, and then subsequently buy like everything in sight. What’s also really neat is that Mr. Keychange’s mother was over the other night, and I served her this tea. She remarked, in her very british way, that it was “an exceptional melon tea” and of course you know I sent her home with some. I swear, loving tea is like a religion—once you “discover” it, you want to share it with everyone. I love that aspect of it so much. That I really take pleasure in sharing tea with other people. So many other hobbies can be laced with competition and jealousy and self-doubt, but not tea, not tea!

Heading to Toronto for the rest of the long weekend. have a great weekend, everyone!

It’s been a while eh?

Thanks are owed to Stacy who sent me this sample with my most recent Butiki order. I love how each sample brews one cup—there’s no fussing about with measurements and such, which is a relief for sure. I was eager to try this one, not only because of the rave reviews, but also because I’ve tried (and loved) sil’s two-friended version of this tea, and wanted to see how the two compared.

I have to say that I think I prefer sil’s blend with PTA as the base and no marshmallow. I actually couldn’t distinctly identify the marshmallow in this blend, but I also felt that depending on what temperature the water was, the flavours felt a bit overwhelmed by the base, which I didn’t find to be the case with the other blend. The other blend seemed to be a bit more “in your face” Terry’s chocolate orange, whereas this one seemed to be a bit more subtle. Still quite tasty, but if anyone wants to put together a mass request for the other blend, I’d be up for it (or down with it? ha) anytime.

Thanks again, Stacy!

Sipdown!

Got a ton of this tea from ifjuly-thank you!!

You can definitely tell that spring is in the air. Aside from the weather, which is temperamental at the best of times to begin with, I think a lot of us are busting out different types and flavours of tea. Descriptions of this oolong seemed to fit the bill perfectly this morning.

I brewed it up the way I have other oolongs from lupicia—for four minutes, because I’ve found that the recommended two-minute brew seems to enhance this odd earthy taste and set the flavouring in the background, which I’m not a huge fan of. So four minutes it was. This smells of the gentlest of peaches, and the flavouring is rather gentle as well. It’s one of those teas where, if you want to coax all the flavour you can, you need to keep your nose buried in the cup as you sip, so that you can taste and sniff and swallow all at once. If only the peach flavouring were a smidge stronger, I’d say this was the ideal peach tea. As it is it’s pretty damned awesome, and I have a ton of it to play around with, so I’m still convinced I can make it taste even better. And god how I love the floral backdrop to all these oolongs. Floral floral floral!

In a few hours, we’ll be closer to the weekend ahead of us, guys! and a long one, for Canadians anyway. Thank god

I’m on a roll. Because if I don’t backlog now, I never will.

I wasn’t actually going to take tea to work this morning. But I instinctively knew that I should probably take tea anyway, and man what a good decision that ended up being. And thank heavens, because I’m not a good decision-maker at the best of times.

Nay Lynn actually sent me this package, and it was my first brand new package of this tea. Why on earth does lupicia not have resealable bags? anyway, I ended up emptying this into a tin, and man oh man the scent of this tea is unbelievable. Over-ripe melons with the slight scent of earth, almost sickly sweet but so so perfect (anna, I think I got this description from you). Anyway, brewed up in my carry mug, the tea retained its intense melon sweetness, but also had some floral and cotton candy undertones and I wanted to bathe in it. But instead I chugged it like it was going out of style at work and I have no regrets and all sorts of intentions to buy more. Unbelievable.

I haven’t trusted myself to write a decent tasting note lately, and it’s mainly because my head has been really scattered. See here:

1. I got this tea back in September when a friend got it for me from London. Little did I know that this is one of the mf teas you can get pretty much everywhere. Oh well.
2. It smells great dry, like an assortment of fruit, with emphasis on the sweeter fruits, but not distinctly strawberry.
3. Brewed for five minutes. added milk and cream.
4. Tastes exactly like a strawberry campino candy, with a hefty black base that seems to be heftier than what I would think is normal for mf but maybe i’m under-estimating them. It’s different enough from Ruby pie that I can happily say I have two favourite strawberry teas. When I sniffed this tea after it had been brewed, I smelled that signature sort of metallic smell I sometimes get from french teas, and my heart sank the slightest bit. But that smell wasn’t present in the sip and it was all creamy campino and who can complain about that?