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This was the final tea of the night, which means the last of the backlog. Yay!

It was a nice relaxing jasmine tea to wind down with, so yay for that too. I don’t really have much anything else to say on it though, so that concludes this tasting note.

Sipdown (205/209)!

With the arrival of tea from Rosehips and VariaTEA yesterday, putting me over 200 again, I knew I needed to get in at least one more sipdown for the evening and I chose this one!

I’ll really miss having this nice, light fruity tea around because it was sweet and juicy kiwi with light lemon juice flavour too – and one of few greens from DT that I’d want around all the time. I’ll restock it eventually, though that’s not high priority.

This was a great surprise find though. Thanks VariaTEA.

Sipdown! Though, another one that happened before this tea could be added to my cupboard…

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample cup! I’m always up for trying another Root Beer tea, and I was really curious how this compared to Butterbeer too.

Taste wise, I think I do prefer this to Butterbeer because BB had this kind of indescribable flavour quality that I really struggle to place. It’s rootbeer, but it’s not rootbeer, too. This blend isn’t having an internal identity crisis and it knows what the fuck it is. Rootbeer, plain and simple.

I did get a thicker mouthfeel, and there was a creamy vanilla flavour in addition to the rootbeer that would have been the icecream/‘float’. Excellent. It’s odd to say, but I was also reminded of wood? But in the most delicious way, and also in a non rooibos way. Overall, I thought this was a good cup, and one I would maybe stock again even though there are better blends I’ve tried (Butiki’s or DT’s, sadly unavailable, version which is also black). I definitely wouldn’t stock it right now though, because I have lots of Butterbeer and even though this is better, I definitely don’t need both.

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample of this. Back when I first got into loose leaf I almost bought a lot of this one, but I opted for Salted Caramel instead because I was really feeling black tea at the time, and the strainer I had wasn’t super fine mesh so rooibos was tricky for me to brew.

I thought that I’d only have one cup worth, but there was actually two worth so the next one will be a sipdown. That’s awesome, because despite the lower rating on this one, I actually found it super enjoyable and tasty.

I should point out I haven’t had Creme Brulee in years, and when I had it (my only encounter) I thought it was really gross and burnt tasting, so I likely don’t have the most accurate point of reference. However, dry and steeped I thought this smelled incredibly sweet, and rich, and creamy with a strong caramel flavour and I was certain I’d love it. And, I was right!

I think this was consumed in under two minutes. I just couldn’t put the mug down because it was delicious and so rich and flavourful and definitely caramel. I definitely think it tasted better than Salted Caramel, and compared to Birthday Cake or Oh Canada! which are both richer, sweet vanilla/caramel/maple rooibos blends, I think this one comes out on top. Which is maybe a shame because I have so much of the other two, but only one more cup of this one.

We’ll see if my second cup confirms my feelings about this blend, but I think it’s something I’d want to restock (sooner rather than later, but ultimately I’d want to use up all my Birthday Cake or Oh Canada! first).

Sipdown! Though, I drank this before it actually made it into my cupboard, so there’s no number attached to it…

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample. I was really curious about it and with the recent reblend not knowing whether I’d want a full pouch or not was killing me – so getting to taste a small amount was most welcome.

Overall, I would say this is a good Genmaicha and it did have a sort of creamy sweetness to it that made it different from a regular Genmaicha, enough so that had I been trying this blindly I would have known it was flavoured with something – I just doubt I could have placed what. There definitely wasn’t cherry, or really any fruit, flavour though. So that was disappointing.

All in all, a good and enjoyable cup but not something I’d want more of based on that cup alone. I guess I kinda got Cheesecake from it though?

Sipdown (196/200)!

Ok, that’s not the actual total because my cupboard isn’t updated yet, but it is the total I had at the time of making this yesterday…

I am heartbroken to see this one go. I instantly fell in love with it and I want it in my life forever and ever. If we don’t meet again I will be one miserable, heartbroken tea drinker. However, I went to the dentist’s yesterday to get some work done (and yay, because I haven’t been in pain since!) and I knew I wanted something black and delicious and just perfect to take with me on the bus ride there and home and nothing else seemed like it would do.

So, I steeped up a timolino of this and added in a splash of milk and very happily sipped at my liquid waffles and baked bread and caramel deliciousness on the way there and back until every last drop was gone. And then when I was home I resteeped and repeated the process. I made damn good use of my splendid waffle tea, and when finally the leaves had given all they could I sat down, drooling a little a lot because I couldn’t feel half my face at all, and made a really mopey, pouty face for the next few hours.

Well, I tried to make a pouty face. I had no feeling in half my face and couldn’t get that half to cooperate and move for the pouty face. So on the outside I was only half pouty, but on the inside I was all pout.

EDIT: Oh hey, that was tasting note 700! Yay me.

Well, now that I’m done my “morning ritual” of going through every tasting notes on my dash and reading the hundreds of notices that I missed/received while I was laptopless, I can finally begin on my tasting note backlog from yesterday! Yay!

I wasn’t able to job hunt at all yesterday because I use Tre’s laptop since mine is broken, and recently he changed the password so I can only use it when he’s unlocked it for me. His reasoning was “this’ll give you more incentive to fix your own laptop”. Are you fucking kidding me!? I can’t afford to fix even even though I very much want to. I need to find a fucking job so I can earn money, but I can’t do that without a computer… So basically it’s a viscous fucking circle of needing a computer to get the means to fix my computer

Because this was so nasty hot I decided to cold brew it because that would use lots of the leaf and hopefully result in a decent tasting mug – so a ‘winwin’. Before I strained it out, the tea cold steeped for about eight hours. I ended up drinking it in a timolino on the way to the dentist’s and then in the waiting room.

It was actually pretty palatable. It tasted pretty much like a berry punch, with just a touch of earthyness to it – from the mate. It was really refreshing and juicy, and thankfully no presence of “beets” in the aftertaste. Hooray! Downside? It still wasn’t tart and therefore doesn’t live up to the title, but at least I found a way I can finish the sample from VariaTEA with some enjoyment!

I’m raising my rating a little bit because the cold brew was drinkable.

Well, I guess I’ve finally found a RiverTea blend that I don’t like. As soon as I smelled it dry, I pretty much knew I wouldn’t like it though. It smelled sour and primarily of hibiscus and sour apple/oranges. And, if a tea smells that sour just imagine how it’ll be brewed up…

Sure enough, it brewed up to be incredibly tart and unpleasant. Maybe my taste buds are off, but I got the same “beet” flavour that I was experiencing with DT’s Queen of Tarts yesterday too. Ick. There were fleeting notes of sour oranges and apples, and brief flickering notes of something in there that kind of reminded me of DT’s Redberry Tonic which is also a Sea Buckthorn flavoured tea. Redberry Tonic is just so much better though.

Half the mug I made got dumped because this was just very unpleasant on the whole. I suppose I’ll try cold brewing it though, to see if that can mellow it out a little. You really can’t love ’em all, though…

I guess I need to increase my rating a little bit because I had a cup of this one hot last night, and it was significantly better than the cold brew I made a couple weeks ago.

The two base teas were kind of present, but not in a bitter or grossly vegetal way. Instead, there was a full, but light and gentle creamy coconut/apricot flavour which is not something you would expect to see paired together but it was pretty good and it worked pretty well hot. Cold, this tasted really, really grassy to me and that really clashed with the coconut/apricot and pineapple (which is a taste I didn’t get from the hot cup, but which didn’t feel like it was missing either).

So yeah…

Yummy! I was bagging a little of this for VariaTEA last night, and I decided to keep the tin out so I could make some of it for myself today! What a lovely, ‘light Chai’.

I understeeped tonight, just enough for all the sticky icing/yogurt bits could melt and make the sweet and creamy. So really, tonight this is more like sticky gooey cream cheese icing tea with cinnamon spice cake – not the other way around.