Roswell Strange Send Message

Sipdown (190/194)!

Cold Brewed this baby and then took ’er to work today. I ended up doing some extensive labour work for a few hours during my shift (transporting freight across the warehouse, moving the metal shelving units around, etc.) so I was pretty exhausted and definitely in need of something cold to drink up.

There was something really off about this one though, and it took me a really long time to be able to place what. In addition to the typical melon bubblegummyness of it there was a very strong and powerful taste of cinnamon. I clean my thermos out thoroughly every night and neither the last tea in the thermos or in my mason jar were cinnamon teas so the contamination issue must have come from somewhere else.

It was really frustrating: this is not the final note I wanted to finish the tea on and not what I was looking forward to either: this is a discontinued blend and I might not get a chance to have it again – I was saving the final cold brew for a perfectly “Spring” day, and that’s exactly what today was. Argh!

Work in general was frustrating though: I feel like The Witch only assigns the hard labour tasks to me – I’ve never seen any other employee have to do as much hard labor as I do with the possible exception of our Assistant Manager Val. On top of that, she fired 10 more people and cut everyone’s hours but hers/Val’s (their hours actually increased). It kills me every time I have to say goodbye to more friends and coworkers – this time especially since our previous manager had promised the cuts were done.

On top of that one of the people cut was a fellow keyholder named Hazel: we trained together and are very close. I’m going to miss her a lot and I know she’s going to be devastated: she was relying on this job so much to support herself after immigrating and divorcing her husband.

Fuck.

This generous matcha sample comes from the wonderful VariaTEA who not only sent me this one but a top up of Bananas and Cream as well. From the moment I pulled it out of the box I was dying to try it, though I was patient enough to wait until this morning to have it in some cold with with breakfast (don’t judge – but “breakfast” was a massive bowl of buttered popcorn).

VariaTEA compares this to a strawberry milkshake, and just let me say that she’s 100% accurate in that description. Seriously I can’t think of a closer comparison to anything else. I’m instantly in love with this one, and I will be stocking up.

Actually funny thing; payday is tomorrow and the plan is to place a Red Leaf order as well as a Red Bubble (T-Shirts) order – so when I say I’ll be stocking up we’re talking, like, tomorrow…

But seriously: mmmm!

Last tea of the night! I was digging through my sample bags earlier today was sorting the new samples from VariaTEA out into the appropriate tea type bag for each when I happened upon this one! Of course I had to rescue it from the back of my closet…

Last time around I was getting pretty sick of this one but it’s been a while since then and I’m happy to report that, for now at least, this one it hitting all the right notes once more. Although, maybe it was more enjoyable tonight because I added a twist to it: I paired it with some cinnamon toast eggos and mixed in a bit of homemade strawberry syrup to sweeten it.

I did find the cinnamon in the mug to be the most forefront flavour but the new strawberry/plum duo followed close behind and was sweet, juicy and fun. An awesome way to end a pretty awesome tea drinking day. And I’ve got some great teas picked out for tomorrow so I’m definitely looking forward to that!

Sipdown (190/194)!

From VariaTEA. I know she’s a fan so I was really hoping to like this one but I’m finding myself kind of fighting to finish off the cup. It smelled really yummy too, so that just kind of adds to the disappointment.

I’m getting a lot of bitterness in the cup and it’s really hard to push through it, though when I do I get fleeting notes of strawberry. The one redeeming quality is that the bitterness doesn’t hang around in the aftertaste but there is a faint vanilla creaminess sort of like a Campino that does linger and that makes fighting through the cup at least somewhat worth it.

Oh well; one less in my cupboard and I’m thankful to VariaTEA for sharing and for the chance to try something I likely wouldn’t not have picked out for myself.

EDIT: Hmm, I seem to be the only one to have experienced such extreme bitterness. I’m confidant I didn’t oversteep though – I was very diligent about the time after how long I let Checkmate sit unattended today…

Sorta Sipdown (191/195)!

This little guy is headed off to 221Tea and is officially the last of the six “sorta sipdowns” that I’m sending to her. I saved him for last mostly because I was putting off having him: the bacon teas still intimidate me and the smell of this one always makes me feel a bit nauseous. Still, after recently falling in love with 52Teas’ Pineapple Bacon rooibos I really wanted to give this another shot just in my tastes had changed enough for me to reevaluate my first impression and give this a better rating…

That’s not the case though: while I don’t completely hate the flavor it is making me feel somewhat queasy, which is probably only exaggerated by the fact I’ve been drifting in and out of headaches and cramps all day. Ugh.

Oh well; can’t love ‘em all – an important tea lesson that I still sometimes need to be reminded of. I was hopeful though; especially after loving Pineapple Bacon so much. I still think this is a something every tea drinker needs to try at least once though which is why I don’t feel bad passing it along to 221Tea: worst case she dislikes it too but has had a memorable tea experience and saved herself some money buying a pouch…

Sipdown (192/196)!

Hooray for sipdown progress!

So, I grossly oversteeped this one. I set it up and had it steeping but was feeling icky and crampy so I sat down for what I told myself would just be “a few minutes” but I just distracted by a few things including a metric fuck ton of FB notifications, albeit delightful ones ;) Around 15 minutes later I remembered the tea! Oh no! I was sure it would be nasty and gross.

But, surprisingly, this is every bit as lovely as it was yesterday: light, buttery coconut and a pleasant black/white base combo with a really soothing affect. Now I’m even more crushed this is a sipdown and a discontinued blend. Obviously it can hold up quite well to some pretty significant user error, and that’s impressive.

With that new knowledge I’m increasing my rating a bit.

Sipdown (193/197)!

This is one of the many samples I received in the mail today from who other than VariaTEA – leave it to her to not only shower me with tea in general but with Nina’s Paris samples.

I wasn’t really sure how I’d react to this one: I’m not exactly the biggest fan of mangoes or mango flavoured things. However, the dry leaf of this smelled incredibly juicy and rich in a very appetizing way so I figured I’d give it a shot. It definitely has a flavour very true to a mango and it’s pretty solidly good, especially considering I don’t like mango a whole lot to begin with. Oddly, I thought it tasted better the more it cooled down though: maybe that’s because there was a faintly floral quality to the hot cup in the end sip that I found less present cold.

VariaTEA sent me two sachets but given my mango aversion I think I’m going to share the tea wealth and send the last one to 221Tea. While I thought this cup was surprisingly good for my own personal tastes I think the one cup was enough to satisfy my curiosity.

PS. I really like this one’s name.

Cold brew with some vanilla vodka thrown into the mix as well. I’ve been sipping on it all day, but honestly I’m really not feeling it that much. There’s a huge distinction between the tea and the vodka: I expected them to blend well but it’s just not happening.

I hate to say it, because it feels like a waste, but I might just toss the last of this one: I’ve about half finished it but I’d like to move on to something else. There’s only so much time for not so good tea…

Sorta Sipdown (193/197)!

I’m jumping down two numbers because the “quest” to find more samples to add to 221Tea’s box of goodies has resulted in my giving her the last of my Asia Cocktail from Tea Desire. It’s not a lot – but I thought I’d share it since I’ve fallen out of love with it and she could possibly really enjoy it. Plus it’s from a company she doesn’t have such easy access to…

This one is also going to her! It’s honestly pretty good – like the fudgey chocolate part of the oreo without the cream (although adding some milk can partly make up for that absence of flavour), I’ve just found that for my tastes it’s a little bit too generic. Besides, it’s easily accessible so if I ever change my mind I can just go and pick more up.

Farewell Oreo Cookie tea! We had a pretty good run and I liked you more than I thought I would…

Sorta Sipdown (195/199)!

Goddamn it VariaTEA – I just finished adding all but one of the teas you sent into my cupboard (I’m waiting to log the unmarked green Nina’s Tin since I don’t know what it is) and of course you’d be so generous as to send me enough tea to push me from 160 to practically 200 again…

Any intention of buying more tea soon has kinda gone out the window for awhile: way to smother someone with kindness! Now I have to scour my cupboard for things you haven’t tried so that I can do the same to you! Mwahahaha!

I suppose this is goodnews for 221Tea though – now I’m even more inspired to add in extra samples to the box I’m sending her so that I can decrease my cupboard space! Alas, I’m out of little portion baggies! I’ll have to pick some up from work tomorrow and then package everything up to go for her by Thursday before work. Goodnews for you though, Rachel – I can’t throw in anything other than what I have already since your package is getting mailed out tomorrow before I have more packaging supplies.

But anyway: this was a good cup to “finish” this one off with: it was buttery without being too buttery and had very light nut and maple notes with a starchy finish: pretty much perfectly a “pancake breakfast” – and of course I made sure to be drinking it at breakfast, just for that added affect.

I hope 221Tea enjoys it!