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I stopped by this local tea shop yesterday to pick up some more Tall Mountain oolong for my boyfriend, and I was also taking my mom shopping there for the first time. I love the teas from this company! So as we walked in, right at the front are all of their holiday/winter teas!! Eep so excited! We started smelling them, and found a few that were just awesome! I should have gotten some of their 12 days of Christmas blend, as it was a pear one and it smelled heavenly! But mom picked up some of their Christmas Comfort black tea, spices and almonds and apples in that one, and we both grabbed a 50g bag of this tea. I couldn’t even find it on their site yet, so the description is just from the sales clerk!

So I excitedly brewed up a cup of this this morning. I steeped for 2 minutes with probably 1.5 teaspons of tea, and it was almost a bit much. Oh, the dry smell is HEAVENLY in this one. Like a warm chai but with sweet vanilla. So tasty smelling. Once steeped, it still smelled pretty good, but a strange dry sort of dusty smell came up, I think it might have been the vanilla and black base.

But the flavor was pretty good! A mildly spicy tea, not too strong in spices for sure, and the vanilla provided a sweet, smoothing aftertaste. You can definitely taste the base tea in this one, it’s a little bit strong, so I might steep for 1.5 minutes next time to see if that accentuates that lovely vanilla note more. But who knows, it might need a longer steep for more spices. Regardless, it was a pretty tasty cup, and warming, and perfect for winter! If I manage to fall in love with this tea, I will have to stock up while it’s still available!

Oh, and another note on this company, a few ladies were in there buying the Scottish and Irish breakfast blends. I haven’t had either of those type of teas before, and the one lady bought a very large bag of the Irish, so I imagine they are pretty good! Those might be on my list for the next time I go there :) always wonderful to find a good local company! They also ship teas, not sure the costs, so if anyone is interested check them out online!

JustJames

oooooh…… shopping list button: CLICK!

mrs.stenhouse12

Yess it is pretty tasty! The one thing I don’t really like is that they don’t post full ingredients lists on their site, but they can look it up for you in store, or I’m sure if you shoot them an email they will send you what’s in what :)

JustJames

that is a necessi-tea for me =0)

there are some others that look good too!

mrs.stenhouse12

Yes me too :) I’d shoot them an email about the ones you are interested in for sure! I have found almost all the teas I’ve tried from them to be very good!

JustJames

so i’ve read!your reviews are very persuasive!

Fjellrev

I seriously need to check them out when I"m in town but it kind of seems out of the way. Sounds like it would be a worthwhile trip though!

mrs.stenhouse12

Lol maybe I just luck out and pick good teas by them hehe but they certainly are a neat little tea place! Pretty knowledgeable staff too, I’d recommend checking them out if you are here Incendiare, they are on 124th which has a lot of other neat shops too so you could get a few hours of shopping in as well if you wanted :)

Fjellrev

That’s good to know. I was never a downtown Edmonton person. Usually tried to stick to the south side, but I think I recall a cosmetics shop around there when I was checking stuff out on Yelp, so I guess it’s like a mini Whyte ave? And it sucks that Tea Desire moved to Bonnie Doon. Aye.

mrs.stenhouse12

Yes it’s pretty similar to Whyte avenue but more relaxed I think, there’s also an awesome bakery down there. I’ve been to one fragrance and cosmetics place, lux I think it’s called? There’s probably a few more as well. Tea Desire moved from city center?? Haha I haven’t been there since, that’s where I first had loose leaf tea I think! :)

Fjellrev

Yes, Lux! I need to check that area out then. Tea Desire also introduced me to loose leaf, back when they were located at Southgate. I guess they can’t afford the rent when you’re so close to the LRT stations. Let’s hope they’ll stay put at Bonnie Doon, at least.

mrs.stenhouse12

Yes hopefully! I’ll have to go back there sometime, I also got my first timolino there haha

MissB

OOh! Another Canadian tea place. Off to explore…

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Comments

JustJames

oooooh…… shopping list button: CLICK!

mrs.stenhouse12

Yess it is pretty tasty! The one thing I don’t really like is that they don’t post full ingredients lists on their site, but they can look it up for you in store, or I’m sure if you shoot them an email they will send you what’s in what :)

JustJames

that is a necessi-tea for me =0)

there are some others that look good too!

mrs.stenhouse12

Yes me too :) I’d shoot them an email about the ones you are interested in for sure! I have found almost all the teas I’ve tried from them to be very good!

JustJames

so i’ve read!your reviews are very persuasive!

Fjellrev

I seriously need to check them out when I"m in town but it kind of seems out of the way. Sounds like it would be a worthwhile trip though!

mrs.stenhouse12

Lol maybe I just luck out and pick good teas by them hehe but they certainly are a neat little tea place! Pretty knowledgeable staff too, I’d recommend checking them out if you are here Incendiare, they are on 124th which has a lot of other neat shops too so you could get a few hours of shopping in as well if you wanted :)

Fjellrev

That’s good to know. I was never a downtown Edmonton person. Usually tried to stick to the south side, but I think I recall a cosmetics shop around there when I was checking stuff out on Yelp, so I guess it’s like a mini Whyte ave? And it sucks that Tea Desire moved to Bonnie Doon. Aye.

mrs.stenhouse12

Yes it’s pretty similar to Whyte avenue but more relaxed I think, there’s also an awesome bakery down there. I’ve been to one fragrance and cosmetics place, lux I think it’s called? There’s probably a few more as well. Tea Desire moved from city center?? Haha I haven’t been there since, that’s where I first had loose leaf tea I think! :)

Fjellrev

Yes, Lux! I need to check that area out then. Tea Desire also introduced me to loose leaf, back when they were located at Southgate. I guess they can’t afford the rent when you’re so close to the LRT stations. Let’s hope they’ll stay put at Bonnie Doon, at least.

mrs.stenhouse12

Yes hopefully! I’ll have to go back there sometime, I also got my first timolino there haha

MissB

OOh! Another Canadian tea place. Off to explore…

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Profile

Bio

Hello all, I am an electrical engineer (read:NERD :D), who is a bit obsessed with tea! I discovered loose tea in 2011, DAVIDsTEA in 2012 and it took off from there. I really started drinking/enjoying tea because it was excellent to take to class in the morning and because I can’t handle coffee! (unless it’s a really good cappuccino or latte, or decent decaf haha)

I enjoy a variety of teas – current favorites being ripe and raw pu’erhs, chinese black teas and herbal/green rooibos blends. I also enjoy white, green, and oolong teas, although I tend to drink them more in the warmer months. I have also tried matcha and guayusa, but I don’t drink them too often as I am a bit sensitive to caffeine. As a result I don’t drink black teas as often as I used to, but in moderation I can still enjoy a wide variety of teas.

Oh, and I have a severe peanut allergy and try to avoid most other nuts, just to be safe. Limits my tea choices a bit, but that’s ok. However I have tried almonds and found out I can eat them, so I have been trying a few teas with them in them.

mrs.stenhouse12’s rating system
(as of 04/19/13)

95+: Absolute favorite, will try to always have it in stock, and when I don’t I pine over it!
90-94: Awesome teas, will probably purchase again a few times
80-89: Very good tea, may restock at some point
70-79: happy to have tried and will gladly finish, but not restock
60-69: not horrible, but not the best, will finish if I have some though
50-59: not a favorite, probably will have a tough time finishing the bag
-50: yuck. I don’t want to have it ever again.

Location

Canada

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