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Tea Soda!

I’m kind of sad, ‘cause I’m at a point where there aren’t anymore actual visible grape left in the leaf and I really loved eating the re-hydrated ones post infusion. They also really added a lot of flavour. However, even without grapes left to measure into the leaf this was still a lovely soda! It’s like ‘posh’ Grape Soda. No crazy purple colouring or excessive sugar, and much more natural but with a similarly lovely flavour.

Crap! I had a really nice tea note written out for this, and then I went and accidentally closed out of the tab and then lost the whole note…

Anyway; I’m finally trying this one hot after drinking almost all of my 50g cold brewed. I broke out my adorable, whimsical little Christmas “tea for one” pot which is this pretty cream colour with fun, brightly coloured red and green stockings ‘hung’ from the pot and a bright red spout and handle. This tea brews up a super brilliant, deep and rich ruby red colour that looks so absolutely cheery and festive in the little cup! Cranberry is totally a seasonal flavour and considering it’s finally starting to feel like winter now that there’s actually snow on the ground I’m all on board with the festively themed tisanes!

Normally the intensity of this red liquor would have me nervous about potential tartness but it’s really not too bad. The natural sourness of both the cranberry and the apple does come through a fair bit but not enough to force my face into a pucker, and the natural sweetness that that those two fruits also have break through on the finish and save the sip from being more tart than anything else. I’ll admit though, I don’t sweeten my teas but I can see how that wouldn’t be a bad idea if you’re drinking this tisane hot over cold brewed/iced. Also, there’s a fruit punch sort of taste too and a warming almost cinnamon flavour. Both of those aspects are fascinating since nothing in the blend should be contributing those flavours.

Overall, definitely a better hot cuppa than I would’ve expected it to be and I’m enjoying drinking this small pot worth of it! However, I think the cold brew is just slightly better. Who knows how I’ll finish my tin of it though, with the weather changing my focus is shifting back to hot tea over cold brewed tea.

Mmm!

So, my little sister’s over for the night (‘cause it’s Wednesday and that’s the day she comes over) and since I’m fresh out of East Indie’s Carrot Cake rooibos blend we’re on the hunt for a new favourite tea for her since I don’t have immediate plans to order more for her. We were in my room going through all the rooibos blends I’ve got and we pulled out a couple for her to test the next few weeks.

This is one of the ones we grabbed, but more for me than her to be perfectly honest. She said it smelled nice, but smelling the creamy vanilla custard notes made me really want it. So, we made a mini teapot to have with supper. Like always, I thought this was a super smooth, nice cup with a lot of great confectionery and dessert notes but she found it just kind of “meh”. That’s not bad from her; she’s such a tea snob while still being such a pleb at the same time. But we’ll keep looking for her perfect dessert tea.

Still sad DAVIDsTEA discontinued this blend.

Tea Soda!

Pretty sure this is my first time drinking this as a ‘plain’ tea soda (I’ve made it before but added alcohol to the tea soda) and it worked for me. The colour was this super intense, vibrant hot pink that was really fun. It intimidated me a little because I know most of that was from the hibiscus but the flavour was good. Mostly mango, with hibiscus as the second strongest flavour and finally the guava. All three were represented though.

I’m on a “competitive food show” binge right now. The past week I’ve been marathoning both Cutthroat Kitchen and Sweet Genius and it’s put me in such a fun, experimental food and tea mood. Only something wonderful or terrible will come from this. There’s no room for anything ‘in between’.

Sipdown (123)!

Definitely a really nice end of the night cup of tea, especially with a little splash of milk. Strong cinnamon notes compliment the baking French bread taste from the black tea and sweet, almondy finish. The overall cup was smooth and delicate without having overly subtle flavours. It was a lovely reminder of why I went through 50g of this (sold by another company though) in the first place.

Thank you OMGsrsly for letting me revisit this one!

Sipdown (124)!

What a heart breaking sipdown.

I’ve literally only had two servings of this tea but it’s just such a solid flavour, and has brewed up so incredibly both times that I feel like, even though this blend and I have only just met, like we’ve known each other for a life time. You know that feeling? When you instantly hit it off with a person and just feel like you’ve been childhood friends. I’m experiencing that with a tea.

Perfect notes of red grapefruit (the best grapefruit), mint, vanilla, and white chocolate. If you want to feel completely at peach while drinking a cup of tea, I recommend this one. It’s therapy in a cup.

I wonder if August Uncommon is doing anything for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. I’m currently on hiatus, and haven’t taken even a quick peak at the DB sale thread but I’ve been debating breaking hiatus for Black Friday/Cyber Monday and letting myself place one order and this is probably the one tea I want the most right now. Though, I still have most of my order to get through still…

So, it was Lala’s review of this tea that made me take notice of it, and my interest in this tea in particular was the tipping point for my placing that last sample order…

Originally, when I was looking at Lauren’s blends I skipped over this one preciously because it was an Earl Grey and I hadn’t realized what was “special” about it. I don’t personally drink a lot of Earl Grey so I’m at a point where, unless there’s something unique to an EG, I’m not interested in trying it. But currants!? I had to try that. Especially since Lala hadn’t described it as tasting medicinal, which is my biggest fear when it comes to currant blends. I still cringe when I think of DT’s Currant Affairs rooibos blend. That is one of the worst teas I’ve ever had.

This was so delightful though! I thought it was pleasantly light, fresh, sweet, and fruity but not in a way where the flavours came off as delicate. I tasted enough bergamot to know I was tasting bergamot and enough red currant to know I was tasting currant. The rosehip flavour was very light to me, any stronger and I think I would have disliked it but in this dosage I thought it provided the perfect amount of perky, sweet fruit flavour to the jammy currants. The whisp of vanilla was a lovely sweet note as well that blended the citrusy bergamot and jammy currants really smoothly. In fact, the whole cup was smooth: no bitterness or astringency throughout. Assam was a lovely base choice, as well.

Overall this is kind of the perfect breakfast EG in my opinion. Pair it was a scone with a little butter? I’d probably just melt. The flavours would be so good. This is definitely in my “Top Three” from A Quarter to Tea. Not totally sure if I like it more than Cherry Chocolate Latte Oolong. The two are just so different. But both are my favourites, so far, that’s for sure! If I find another two or three I like as much I’ll probably buy more of this one. Next year though…

When I’m off haitus.

Cold Infused Juice Take #2!

So, as an optional recipe from my Tea Sommelier course I first tried cold brewing a Huiming Hong Cha from Camellia Sinensis in Orange Juice. While it was good the orange juice was a really dominating flavour so I’m experimenting a little to see if I can improve the way I’m cold brewing so the flavour is better. This time I cut the orange juice with water so the flavour wasn’t so intense and the tea had a better chance at not being drowned out.

My thought process for picking this particular tea is that it’s also floral like the Hong Cha and has a lovely plum taste so I was hoping the combination of those two flavours would come through and compliment the sweet, tangy OJ. I have to say, watering down the juice did the trick and the flavour of tea was really obvious. Unfortunately, the flavour profile didn’t work out the way I was hoping for. Instead of the floral and fruity components coming through in the taste, the really nutty/woody and mineral tasting notes of the oolong were the prominent ones. I adore these qualities when I’m brewing this tea normally, but as a “tea juice” they did not compliment the OJ.

I’m still calling this a success even though it didn’t taste wonderful, though. The reason for that, is that I learned that watering my orange juice to get more tea flavour definitely works! Next up, is to try pairings with different kinds of juice!

Sipdown (125)!

It’s been a busy, and tiring week at work! I’ve built up a whole week’s worth of missed reviews, so time to crack into those before I have class in a few hours…

And speaking of class, I finished this tea off as a “cold infused juice” which was an optional recipe for the class I’m currently taking, which is tea and food pairings/cooking with tea. Basically, I just cold brewed a larger than normal amount of tea straight into some orange juice. As someone who’s already very comfortable with cold brewing it was impossible to resist trying this out. It’s something I’ve actually been curious about even before this class.

I picked out this tea because I thought the strong floral/rose notes of the tea would really compliment the orange. And it totally did! The flavour pairing was a really solid choice, and I’m happy with coming up with it all on my own instead of following the ‘guide’ of tea/food pairings we received in class. While it IS nice to have that as a reference, I think coming up with good pairings is definitely a skill and one I want to master without a major crutch.

The only issue, I’d say, was that the orange juice was still very strong and while I definitely did taste the tea there was still a lot of competitive flavour from the juice itself. That’s an issue because cold brewing this way already takes a lot more leaf than a normal cold brew would and cold brews ‘eat’ leaf really quickly already. I’m going to try this again, for sure, but I need to play around with how I’m using my “juice” base. I don’t know if that means I’ll use a different kind of juice or if I’ll cut it first with water but some more experimentation is definitely coming.

As for the tea itself; for one I didn’t actually pick out myself to order (it was a free sample) I was really quite happy with it and I’d be tempted to get more with my next absolutely inevitable Camellia Sinensis order. It’ll depend on whether it’s available in sizes smaller than 50g because I wouldn’t want that much. If I can scoop up 25g I’ll be getting more.

Went Christmas Shopping with my Mom a few nights ago, and since we were at the mall we stopped at DAVIDsTEA. I was really craving lemons so I grabbed an iced To Go of this tea. It’s been a long time since I last had it, and revisiting a tea is always nice as well.

This certainly satisfied my lemon craving; but sadly it also reminded me of why it’s been so long since I had this one. It tastes like lemon peel and has that sort of pithy, bitter taste to it. I remembered, instantly, after taking a sip trying to make this taste like creamy lemon by making it with milk or adding sweetener and it just never not tasting like lemon peel.

In addition to my Christmas shopping, I also bought myself a few new tabletop games!

I got three that I’ve played before…

- Tipsy Tower (A Jenga drinking game)
- Tsuro
- Once Upon a Time & Seafaring expansion

And a couple new Micro games I’ve not played before…

- Kittens in a Blender
- Elevenses

Elevenses is the one I’m most dying to play though: it’s a game centered around tea! After I got home I looked it up, and turns out it started off as a kickstarter! It looks so good and I’m so psyched for it! Obviously it was successfully funded awhile ago, but you can check out the kickstarter still. Doesn’t it look so cool!?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896629303/elevenses-the-card-game-of-morning-tea/description