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Full day of shopping!

I met my friend Renee downtown and did a whole bunch of shopping all morning and afternoon! We started at DAVIDsTEA and I’m proud to say that I managed to walk away with only 30g of Honey Bee and this as a to go, iced.

I asked the guy what he personally enjoyed most as an iced white tea, and this is what he suggested so I went for it since I’ve never had this blend before and to go teas are a great way to sample without committing to too many grams worth.

Dry, this smelled really lovely! It was super peachy, and had a strong floral smell to it; jasmine, and other floral smells too. My first few sips iced were really nice; lightly peachy and just a touch of jasmine – but the more I sipped at it the more this highly perfumey and chemical taste became apparent until, about halfway through, I was just overwhelmed by harsh, bitter, and chemical perfume taste.

I waited until the salesperson was in back grabbing something, and then tossed the rest. Yuck – no thanks.

The rest of my haul was non-tea related:

- 2 Primarily orange (though greatly different shades) long sleeve plaid shirts
- 6 Pairs of food related earrings (Avocados, swiss cheese, etc.)
- The new Cage The Elephant CD
- Some make up; just some blush and stuff

It was a good day! And it’s not over; I’m still going to see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty later tonight! :D

Had a cup of this after supper as a sort of gentle, sweet treat! I offered some to my step mom who said she wanted a green tea, but she opted for Hot Lips instead.

My preparation was a slightly overfilled tsp. in 8 oz. of 80 degree Celsius water, steeped for 2 min. 30 seconds. The liquor was a very lovely light green colour and had a nutty pistachio aroma with a strong green base. Taste wise, this was mostly nutty and sort of roasted pistachio with a dominant but mostly pleasant green tea taste, and a smoother, creamy taste towards the end of the sip which is slightly lingering in the aftertaste. It left a dry feeling in my mouth.

Ultimately, I think I enjoyed this better than my last cup of it – but I still rest easy with my decision to not restock it.

Made a small cup for me, and a small cup for my brother who said he was willing to try a flavoured black tea tonight. Both cups were made the same way; 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped in boiling water for 3 min and 30 seconds.

My brother said that it tasted very weak and watery (he has issues tasting basically any tea), but that it didn’t taste bad. From him, that was practically glowing praise.

My cups was very well balanced with defined notes of cinnamon, cloves, sweet pumpkin, and caramel and fleeting notes of carrot. I swear I also got notes of honey, too. I don’t have this as much as I should…

Also, I’m very excited because I have plans tomorrow to hang out at the mall and go to DAVIDsTEA with a friend I haven’t seen in ages (last time I saw her was Halloween I suppose), then go to the movies in the evening and hopefully see some of my old coworkers! Plus, Cuppa’T Specialty Teas on Thursday!

Tasting note 400…

I made this in the morning in a timolino (2 tsp. of leaf, steeped four minutes at boiling), but waited until a couple hours ago to drink it. By then it had cooled down just enough to be the perfect drinking temperature; warm and toasty without burning your tongue or requiring very small baby sips. Mmm!

This was very smooth with a strong black tea taste and the usual notes of rum, butterscotch, and coconut. Delicious!

I made a 12 oz. timolino full of this for myself, to enjoy sipping on in the afternoon. My preparation was 2 tsp. of leaf for the timolino, steeped with boiling water for four minutes. I noticed that after removing the brew basket, not all the chocolate drops had completely melted.

I split the 12 oz. amount into two cups – 6 oz. each. One I had straight and one I took with milk. Both were delicious, and I was able to note with both that the cherry was coming through more prominently than it had last time; I’m going to chock that up to the chocolate not fully melting and there consequently being less chocolate in the cup the mask the cherry notes.

It’s quite sweet and smooth, with very light notes of chocolate and the black base. The rose comes off in smell, and slightly in taste for the milkless cup. The one with milk, however, has no rose notes as far as the taste goes. Obviously, the milk cup is significantly creamier too and has a thicker mouthfeel.

This is a very pleasant tea, and I’m quite impressed that the sample size I received from RiverTea has been large enough to yield three cups so far with enough leaf left for at least a fourth. I still wouldn’t restock this though, but only because it’s quite similar to DAVIDsTEA’s Love Tea #7 which I have lots of; I wouldn’t want large amounts of both at the same time. Once I’m out of Love Tea #7, I may choose to stock some of this for a while instead, though.

Morning tea! Drank this one cold.

Nothing new to add except that I still quite enjoy this one (despite being in the minority). The licorice was nice on my throat, too. Sometimes this one reminds me of hot chocolate, too…

Sipdown (162)!

So, I’ve had this before in store and I really didn’t like it and consequently had never planned on acquiring any more, but my Dad bought me the holiday sampler which of course includes this one. Blah.

I’ve been sipping at some neo citron all day today, so not a lot of tea drinking going on because you shouldn’t really have tea and medicine. However, my Dad asked me to make him something and this is what sounded good to him. And then I figured that since this is herbal it’d be totally safe to drink along with my neo citron, and I also seem to be running out of the herbals I brought with me at an alarmingly quick rate so I just made a timolino full of this for myself too.

My 12 oz. timolino full used 3 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped with boiling water for seven minutes. Based on reviews and my only other experience drinking this I was very generous with the leaf. My Dad’s cup had the same steep time but used 2 tsp. of leaf for an 8 pz. cup. And, between those two cups that used up the whole 25g sample amount. This really is a stupidly heavy blend and the fact it needs so much leaf to be flavourful makes is very expensive. No thank you.

Dry, this smells like sweet, sticky figs and dates with the tartness of cranberry in a gentle way and with some delicate spices. Honestly, it’s a nice smell and I remember really liking the smell in store too. Steeped, it’s a nice balance between gentle spices and figs. It’s nice and festive smelling.

My Dad really enjoyed his cup, and I’m assuming my stepmom did too because she kept stealing sips out of his mug.

As for my timolino full? The first notes are light ones of clove and slightly stronger ones of figs. The fig notes hold throughout most of the sip and a joined by mild notes of dates, apples, cranberries, and maybe something like brandy and cinnamon. No presence of almonds, and no lasting aftertaste whatsoever. This is quite a lot better than my first experience which was highly watered down and had zero fig taste to it all, which was just embarrassing because “Fig” is expected as a flavour when it’s in the bloody name. However, while this is stronger and more flavourful than my first experience, it’s still pretty weak which is sad considering how much I had to overleaf it just to achieve this taste.

So, yeah – 25g of this basically made two just barely adequate mugs worth. That’s pathetic. This is one of the heaviest blends I’ve ever seen which makes it horribly expensive to keep stocked; that might be doable if the taste was jaw droppingly, astoundingly good – but it’s not. Never ever going to be a restock for me.

PS. I just finished watching Sherlock Season 3 Ep. 2 and it was just so perfect! Again, I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone but the whole episode had me madly switching from hysterical laughter to immense feelings of sadness at a moments notice. If that’s not a sign of great television then I don’t know what is!

Sipdown (163)!

I recieved this as a sample from Janelle in her tea stash sale! I wanted to try another bamboo tea as a comparison to Tea Desire’s Buddha Bamboo which I just adore. The whole sample of this was used to cold brew a pitcher of tea to split with my family. The tea steeped for approx. 18 hours and was a super light peachy colour.

Taste wise, this had a very, very gentle vegetal quality to it and a strong peach flavour. The peach flavour specifically reminded me of the peach flavoured bottled juice that Tim Horton’s sells, but a little lighter and more natural tasting – very close though. It was juicy and thirst quenching.

I’m not going to go out and buy more right away or anything, but I see myself stocking up on a small bag for cold brewing come summer. Also, I convinced my tea hating brother to have a sip of this and he actually loved it! Enough so that he let me strain a whole glass for him! He’s now willing to explore a few more herbal teas or anything I cold brew. Yippy!

Started my morning off with this!

Somehow I feel even more sick than I did a few days ago; instead of getting better I now seem to be regressing. Ick. I thought that this would be a tasty start to a lazy day, and maybe the mint would help clear up my sinuses. I was correct about the first part, and wrong about the latter.

This was very smooth and creamy, and altogether a really nice well balanced cup. 1 tsp of leaf, steeped for four minutes with boiling water. The place I’m staying at now (My Dad’s) doesn’t have an electric kettle so I’m not drinking as much tea as I normally would; that said everyone here also seems to think I’m drinking this ungodly amount (three cups a day?)…

My brother and I practically just peed ourselves watching Birdemic! I’ve seen it many times because it’s one of my favourite poorly done horror movies, but it was the first time he’d ever seen it and he found it so horribly done in the best way possible; just like I do! Seriously, if you love poorly done horror movies or just bad movies in general you need to check this out! It’s up there with the likes of The Room, Trolls 2, and Sharknado.

This is what I made to drink with the movie. Last time I had it hot, it was incredibly sour and tart and sort of a pure hibiscus taste, but I wanted to give it another shot with less leaf and a shorter steep time to see if that improved things. So, this time I used 1/2 tbsp. for my 12 oz. timolino steeped for just two minutes.

Taste wise, it was still pretty sharp and sour though certainly not as much. That part of the tea is really unenjoyable, to be honest. However, the aftertaste (similar to what I remember from last time) is nice and creamy and just the right amount of sweet and sour strawberry with a sort of rum feel to compliment the creaminess. So – it’s kind of hard to fairly judge it because you have two major extremes: super shrill kind of sour that overwhelms you at the start of each sip, and a nice creamy and fruity taste that lingers after the sip, letting things end nicely.

Ugh.

I still need to try this cold brewed to see how that changes things, but this is just so fickle, so unless it’s amazing cold brewed there’s no way I’m getting it again…