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Sipdown (161/167)!

This has been at a sipdown-able level for around a week now, but I’ve been terrified to make the hot cup worth I’d set aside because the cold brew was so damn bad. I did it yesterday though, and I prepared a timolino worth for work.

Actually, it really wasn’t so terrible hot. Calling that cold brew drinkable would be a mighty fib, but this wasn’t so bad at all. There wasn’t a sensation of drinking slime or sewage; instead it was actually pretty solidly strawberry flavoured – I’d say more candy/artificial strawberry than realistic though. Downside? There was a harsh bitterness in the aftertaste that was scarily unpleasant – but not even close to the cold brew so it was bearable in contrast.

I would not drink this again and I don’t think I’d serve it to friends or family, but if you are going to have it my strong recommendation is you prepare it hot – and regardless I’ll lift my rating a bit because the hot brew was significantly better.

I made it! Last of the backlog! 21 tasting notes in one evening…

This is the one I picked up today on my date, and of course I had to try it. I waited until after Tyrell had left though so I could do a more focused/proper tasting of it. No distractions ;)

I decided on this almost solely because of Gwyn’s recommendation today in store; I’ve been interested in it for a while because of how freaking cool it looks but I’ve been drastically flip flopping on getting some and likely would not have made up my mind without her assurance. She seems to definitely know her oolong.

I’ll definitely hold onto the leaf and do another steep tomorrow (it’s late now) because she said this is best during the second or third steep so I’m gonna push myself and resteep even though I typically do not and I thought this was really good! It had a super natural almost woody taste to it and was surprisingly sweet and sugary in a very gentle way in the tail of the sip and aftertaste. And the oolong was beautiful.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had Ginseng in anything before (maybe Arizona Iced Tea, but that stuff is pretty sweetened) so not sure what I’m familiar with to compare this one to; but I really quite liked it. I’m actually very excited for the resteeps, and I have one more cup worth of unused leaf too so that’s also very exciting! If this stays consistently good I see more of it in my future.

My rating is conservative for now until I’ve had the resteeps, but I expect I’ll be increasing it a ways. Good pick, Gwyn!

Later into the evening I offered to make Tyrell a cup of one of my teas and after playing the same question game as earlier in the day this one was the one we settled on. I was a little worried about the choice because of the Lapsang Souchong in it, but turns out I didn’t need to be terribly worried.

He had a cup and so did I; my impression was that it came off as more thin than usual but I think I may have inadvertently under leafed both of our cups in an attempt to not have him drowning in Lapsang. Regardless, I still think this is one of the most solid and bang on Adagio fan blends I’ve ever had and I’ll probably find a way to restock once I’m out.

To my surprise, he didn’t hate this one. He admitted to liking the Blueberry Jam a lot more but he said that once he got used to the smokiness in the cup this one was more enjoyable. I think part of the fun of this blend may have been lost on him though because he’s never seen Sherlock. We’ll work on that…

The super lovely VariaTEA picked me up a bunch of this before leaving Montreal, so I’m pretty well stocked for the time being but that doesn’t stop me from feeling like I should be hoarding this special, special tea! I broke it out today though because today seemed like a fancier occasion, and I was craving something sweet and juicy.

I’ll be perfectly honest, I wasn’t paying the closest attention to how I steeped it. The water temperature was low but how low I couldn’t tell you. I used lots of leaf, but how much I couldn’t tell you. I steeped it maybe more than I should have but again, how much more I wouldn’t be able to say. What can I say? Well whatever combination of things it was it was the perfect one!

This was to die for, succulent mouthwatering strawberry/rhubarb and sweet pineapple. I enjoyed every last flavourful drop of it and had ZERO regrets about making a quantity tea instead of choosing to take an easier sipdown.

Tyrell also liked the smell of this one a lot, so maybe I’ll make it for him sometime…

I feel like there’s some irony in my making this one and happily guzzling it all down what with my persistent complaining lately about how the blender for the Firefly teas I’ve been having was really heavy handed with the ginger/spices – but regardless this is still a favourite.

I think that’s mostly because it’s more molasses than anything else though. I’ll be really sad when this one is gone, but it was fun breaking it out as a special treat though! It always makes the house smell really nice.

Sipdown (162/168)!

Also made this one while Tyrell was over, and I kinda felt like I had to fight through just how terribly bad it was because he was over. Like, for whatever reason I felt like if he saw me just dump it that would have popped some might illusion he has about me being this “Tea Saint”.

But really, this was bad. And that makes me really sad because as I watched Firefly Wash definitely grew on me a lot which is awesome because first few episodes he just seemed so boring to me. But how can this be his blend!? Seriously, what’s the reasoning?

Because I steeped this one up and instantly I was all “Oh, it’s just like a black version of DT’s Jessie’s Tea blend – I suppose I can get on board with that flavour wise even if I don’t think it fits the character”. But no, I can’t get on board with it. It’s like Jessie’s Tea on fucking steroids. Like, I took one sip and it was like I was drowning in overly floral lavender hand lotion.

Worst one I’ve had so far. Wash deserves better.

Part two of the date involved coming back to my place (because he actually lives 20 min. outside of town so that didn’t seem like a better option) to watch Game of Thrones. I’ve never seen GoT until today but I decided to give it a shot since he really likes it, and it seemed like something fun to do together and he was on board with the idea.

We actually didn’t get to watch much GoT. And get your heads of the gutter; it was just ‘cause my computer was being really shitty and videos longer than three or four minutes ended up being heavily problematic when it came to loading them. Boo to that. So, we watched two episodes: my impression thus far is that I like Tyrian, Daenerys, and Joffrey. Of course my impression on these characters is formed around two episodes of content; but Tre and Tyrell seem shocked I like Joffrey. I get he’s a total asshat, but I think that’s why I like him? I don’t know – I always fall for the most despicable characters.

Anyway, I sorta took Tyrell being around as an excuse to just make whatever teas happened to tickle my fancy, so I brewed up four teas at once; kinda as a “test” to see whether he could wrap his head around my “tea crazy” and he was pretty shocked_ just how many cups I was having in one go – but he was also on board with it and kinda just embraced the tea crazy. I think that’s a very good thing. Also, four cups at once isn’t that much of a stretch for me though two or three is closer to my norm. Didn’t want to get up to make tea mid episode, though.

I’m trying to finish this up which is why it was picked; but also I kinda just wanted something peachy too. I’m close to getting rid of the bag of this though; probably two cups left?

It was really good actually, peachy with sweet snap pea notes, until it began cooling off and then it just got crazy bitter crazy fast. That’s not cool. Boo to that! But oh well; it was nice for a while and I guess I’ll take that…

Ok, so I picked Cranberry Pear for my tea on our tea date but funnily enough Tyrell ended up opting for my second favourite DAVIDsTEA black blend of all time through no pressuring of my own.

We narrowed down his tea (because he was quite overwhelmed by “The Wall”) by asking questions.

“Well, are you feeling caffeine or no caffeine? Caffeine? Ok – ignore anything in red or yellow tin. Not too much caffeine though? Ok – so nothing in the purple tins…”

“Sweet like chocolate or fruity? Fruity? Ok great. Which fruit? Berries? Ok, choice A, B, or C? Ok Blueberry Jam it is!”

He really liked it though. Actually, he said he was shocked how much he liked it; he was expecting slightly blueberry flavoured hot water. And then he sheepishly admitted that most of the tea he’s ever had has been Tetley. Well, never again. No more of that shit. Understandably this was amazing in contrast to fucking Tetley.

But yeah, this is good. Glad he liked it because I like this one a lot too.

So today was my second date with Tyrell and because we already have a third date planned that revolves heavily around his interests we decided to make this one more so geared around mine (which kinda didn’t seem super fair to me because our first date was really focused around my interests too since we went and watched Spiderman 2 which was really much more my thing than his).

So the first half of the date was a tea date! We decided to go to DAVIDsTEA because I wanted to pick up another infuser, and because he already knew the way there. I’m slightly appalled though; he has two good friends (Gwyn/Lucas) who both work/ed for DT and he had NEVER been to DT before. That seems shameful to me.

It was fun though; Gwyn was working today so he got to talk to his friend and I got to be properly introduced (I do know the DT employees fairly well as a customer, but it was different being introduced as a friend) another hard core tea lover. We had a great conversation about flavoured matcha. It was funny because she mentioned a regular customer had dropped off some Eggnog Matcha from Red Leaf Tea and the employees had all loved it and I got to gush and be all “THAT WAS TOTALLY ME!”. I feel like that earned me good points ;)

So I shared with her my favourite Red Leaf flavours with her (she was leaning towards an order with Coconut, French Vanilla, Key Lime, and Bananas & Cream) and we dished on neat ways to enjoy matcha. Funnily enough, later into the date (at home) I wound up packing up a few Red Leaf teas for her anyway…

But yeah; I struggled choosing between a familiar favourite or something new. Obviously I went familiar although I did make it a latte, but I also kinda did new too because I picked up 10g of Ginseng Oolong in addition to my infuser. Tyrell was baffled at how much “tea hardware” (as he put it) exists. Not sure why that was surprising, to him, but it was kinda cute.

This was awesome as usual!

Sipdown (163/169)!

Finished this one from VariaTEA off in my timolino with a little milk added in to it; pretty good if I do say so myself! Actually, it was a significant step up from the nail polish remover/cotton ball incident the first time around.

If I had to describe this experience I think I’d use words like “Nectar” or “Ambrosia” because it really was creamy, silky honey notes with very faint rooibos taste and a milky chocolate. Yeah, milk and no nail polish remover is the way to go with this one. I’ll raise my rating a bit! But I wont seek this out again, most likely.