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On the Eighth Day of Christmas Steepster gave to me eight maids-a-milking…

So, I was supposed to have left for Regina by now for my ‘vacation’ but the road conditions are absolutely terrible and my Dad decided to wait until tomorrow to come get me. That just means another day of tea drink and laziness I guess – which I’m not really complaining about…

This was my pick for the 12 Days tea swap! I think the reasoning behind it should be obvious enough. Or, at least I would hope so. Originally I was going to go with Della Terra’s “Minty Cow” but I didn’t have enough left to split between 12 people so I went with this one instead! Tea Desire is a company that I think many people are still unfamiliar with – especially those in the States so I thought maybe this would be a neat way for them to become acquainted.

I gave everyone enough for at least two cups because this one can be relatively temperamental – I’ve had some truly great cups of it and others that were weak or seemed flavourless. I’m hoping everyone else experiences a good cup. Today, my cup is actually really good! I went with 1 tsp. steeped at about 75 degrees celsius for three minutes and it’s nice and caramel kind of sweet. Sort of like the sweetness of condensed milk.

I think this may be the last tea of the night – but maybe not? I just started a movie that I fully intend to fall asleep to, but if I don’t fall asleep right away I may make something else (maybe try and do a sipdown).

This one smells sickly sweet; delicious caramel and sticky toffee goodness with maybe just a little bit of hazelnut. I have high expectations for this tea – especially since I’ve tried Victoria Mint and know that Tea Desire can pull off caramel teas.

My preparation for this one was a heaping 1/2 tbsp. measurement for 10 oz. of boiling water, steeped for about six minutes. I feel like, if this is anything like Victoria Mint, I could have pushed for an even longer steep time, but instead I backed off a little just in case. The smell is primarily hazelnut brittle with some toffee in the background. It smells mouthwateringly delicious!

Taste… Initial taste is sorta burnt toffee/caramel with strong hazelnut notes and a bit of a brown sugar sort of feel. This transitions smoothly into a deep, rich, creamy toffee taste. The good kind of toffee that’s all sticky and requires some serious gnawing to take a bit of. The kind that makes your teeth sore but you just can’t resist eating a pound of it anyway. And then, the sweet toffee taste lightly lingers on the roof of your mouth a while after you’ve finished your sip. Yum!

(I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I really like the rooibos base Tea Desire uses – it’s not medicinal at all and only sometimes has that characteristic woody taste; and in this blend I don’t get the woody base at all. So those who fear rooibos might want to just give Tea Desire’s blends a chance; they could surprise you)

This is a tea that’s definitely for sweet toffee and caramel lovers!

Made as a tea soda.

1 tsp. dissolved into a can of club soda; tasted pretty good, but more green tea than eggnog flavour this time. Again, I think fizzy drinks may have been a bad idea for a sore throat (though I am feeling better than I have the last three or so days)…

I had a craving though – so I scratched it.

And Tre wont make me eggs :(

Tre caved and gave me a slice of pie! Yay! So, to go with my pie I made a black tea; black tea seems to go with most desserts, in my opinion anyway. I actually bought this one because of all the talk on Steepster about it; it seems like it made a rotation through several people’s cupboards and that got me curious. My favourite employee from Tea Desire also told me that she dislikes this one because she can only taste the dates in it – and that made me curious too because I hate oreos, but I like dates…

So, I’m drinking this with a pretty open mind seeing as I think it could go either way as a “love it” or “hate it” tea, and because I’ve heard a wide array of opinions on it.

Dry, this smells like creamy chocolate and black tea. Not awful or anything, but just a little bit average (in a good way, I guess). My preparation was 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf, 10 oz. boiling water, steeped for four minutes. The smell is creamy milk chocolate with a touch of sweet dates, like the kind used in pastries.

Taste wise, it’s actually a surprisingly good chocolate tea. The chocolate is light, smooth, and very creamy with nice vanilla notes. The dates are fairly present and contribute a nice fruity sweetness that keeps the tea from being too one dimensional. There’s a soft pastry or cake like quality to the tea too, which I think adds to the intended idea of an “Oreo Cookie”. The black base is light, but still present. The doesn’t taste really equal an Oreo cookie for me, but in my case I guess that’s a good thing! As it cooled down, it did taste a little watery so next time I make it I think I’ll use more leaf or a slightly longer steep time.

Ultimately; I think I’ll enjoy going through this one – but I’m unsure as of right now if I would repurchase it; it’s nice enough but not anything super unique, and since I have many other chocolate black teas I don’t think I would feel as if I was losing out by not having more of this around.

Tre had a major craving for pie, so he ordered in a Saskatoon Berry pie. Yes, you read that right – he ordered in a pie. Anyway, he wont share and the smell made me crave Saskatoon Berries, so I dug this tea out that I purchased from Shadowfall (How could I resist buying a tea made with berries that originate in the town I live in) to help satisfy the cravings.

Dry, it smells very sweet and fruity; about 50/50 of Saskatoons and cranberries. I know there’s maple in this, but it just comes off as a sugary sweetness in the smell and nothing distinctly maple. For my preparation, I used 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped with boiling water for five minutes. The steeped smell was a very pure Saskatoon Berry smell – like Saskatoon Berry puree. So good!

Taste wise, the Saskatoon Berries are the most prominent taste. I was worried the cranberry would be very strong in taste because it’s practically on par with the Saskatoons in the dry smell, but now that it’s steeped it’s a nice background flavour complimenting the Saskatoons and not competing with them or overshadowing them. It’s a very natural tasting Saskatoon Berry flavour to me too! And, surprisingly, the maple does taste like maple syrup and not just a generalized sweetness. The maple is most prominent mid sip and leading into the aftertaste, though the taste of the berries outlasts the taste of the maple ultimately.

I think I’d like it if the oolong base was a little more present – but this still tastes super good regardless. I’m not sure if I like it more than Blueberry Jam, but I think it’s definitely on par with it. I’m sad now that it’s not part of the regular collection, but I do have enough left to enjoy a very good amount of cups still!

After meeting Kittenna at Tea Desire for a swap, I then rushed my ass off to get home (Day #5 of the Christmas exchange from Momo was waiting in the mailbox for me when I arrived at home) and change into something appropriate for my interview… Which happened to be at Tea Desire, the place I had just come from.

I think the interview went really well. The woman who interviewed me is someone who I already know fairly well and who I’ve had many good tea related (and a few unrelated) conversations with already. It was kind of interesting because, obviously, she knew I was super familiar with tea already and about Tea Desire’s blends in particular (I’m in there at least once a week to buy tea and sometimes two or three times just for tea to go). It was kind of funny because some of her interview questions she didn’t even have to ask because she already knew the answers. I think that’ll probably work in my favour.

Regardless, wish me good luck! She said that I’d likely hear back by Monday! How cool would it be if I got the job? :D

And… Of course right after my interview I had to buy tea. She knows me well enough, I think, to get I wasn’t “sucking up”. It’s literally just a compulsion I have every single time I walk into the store. So, I got 50g of Sweet Toffee Rooibos and this as a tea to go latte.

Taste wise, it was pretty decent. Just a touch bitter, but I’m 90% sure that’s because I left the tea bag in for a very long time. It was a very nice London Fog though, essentially. Definitely not something I’ll stock from them because I have better Earl Greys at home, but something nice to sip on while out doing errands and things like that!

It’s been a packed day so far!

I started the day by going out for breakfast with Tre, which was nice enough. In the middle of the meal I got a phone call from who other than TEA DESIRE! I ended up doing a phone interview in the middle of Smitty’s while eating breakfast – which was interesting enough. The meal concluded with them asking me to come in for an in person interview and Tre paying for my meal – which was a very kind gesture, albeit one I’m not totally sure he could afford.

Funnily enough, before my interview, I had already planned to meet the lovely Kittenna for an in person swap. So, this is what I ordered as a to go tea while waiting – as a latte like normal. My swap with Kittenna went really well even though it was brief; we had a short but very sweet conversation!

The tea was lovely too; like usual. I’m very excited to try all the new blends! I then rushed home from Tea Desire to change for my interview since I had not dressed for an interview upon leaving the house this morning (I was wearing PJ Pants and an oversized Hoodie with food stains all over it)…

Tre was being really mean about the fact I’m sick and have had nothing but tea and breakfast foods to eat all day. He stole all the pillows from the couch I’ve situated myself on and was being an ass and laughing at how it was really arduous for me to go and pick them from the ground. So – in the spirit of revenge I used the only weapon I had; spoilers about the new Sherlock episode.

While that was happening, this tea was steeping. 1 1/2 tsp. used for a 12 oz. stein. Tea Desire suggests 1 tsp. for 8 oz., so I just upped the leaf amount a little bit. Same proportions I’d use for Victoria Mint which is from Tea Desire, and which I happen to adore. I used boiling water and this steeped for five minutes – which is on the low end of their suggested steep time spectrum. The steeped colour is a rather nice orange.

The smell is more cinnamon than I thought it’d be – even though the packaging describes this as a cinnamon orange tea, that doesn’t come across abundantly in the dry smell. It’s also creamy orange and something else super familiar that I can’t put my finger on.

Taste wise, it’s a little bit weaker than I would have thought. Maybe I did under leaf it or perhaps I should have left it to steep longer. Initial taste is creamy orange in a slightly artificial way, and then a wave of cinnamon. Tickly cinnamon that does not totally mesh with the orange. Typically orange and cinnamon compliment each other; but here it feels like two competing flavours that are both kinda, well, ‘off’.

I also get the hint of something kinda soapy – similar to what I sometimes experience with DAVIDsTEA’s Blueberry Jam. I double checked both ingredients lists though, and neither tea share any listed ingredients. As far as the other listed ingredients in the tea go, I can vaguely taste the banana but that’s about it. Like I said though, this seems rather weak (especially for a Tea Desire blend). Not really “magical”.

Right now I feel like this is something I would not stock again and that will probably take a while to get through – that being said, I don’t find it terrible and I’m going to do some experimenting to see if I can make it more enjoyable. Perhaps more leaf (though it worries me that that could make the soapy taste more prominent) or a longer steep time (which presents the same fear)…

Sidenote: I just removed a whole bunch (ok, like… 5) of teas from my cupboard! I posted several in the Take It Away thread and got a quick response, so went and dug them out and because of the quick response was able to parcel everything up to get mailed off. I don’t know if I’ll have time to go to the post office tomorrow before I leave for vacation, but they’re all officially out of my cupboard which is good enough for me!

Japanese Cherry, Lime Gelato, Cherry Cola, S’mores – this is basically goodbye!

Round #2 of this one!

It was very good so I made a second, though this time with much more honey. Still very pleasant and soothing on the throat.

I read online that butter and other salty things are good for a sore throat; it fights bacteria or something like that? So, I’m eating a giant bowl of popcorn drenched in butter and ketchup popcorn seasoning, too. I think it might actually be helping? Plus it’s tasty, too…

Watching Doctor Who as well; I’m struggling to follow it more than I usually do! >:(

This was the other one I drank while watching Sherlock (HOLY SHIT SO GOOD)! Special thanks to MissB who helped me to acquire my package of this! Even though this episode didn’t have Irene in it at all, it still felt appropriate to be drinking this one…

The dry leaf visually looks to be composed primarily of the rooibos with black tea leaves scattered throughout as well as bits of fruit and the like. The smell is strongly smokey (because of the Lapsang Souchong) with a very subtle background fruitiness – maybe cherry, but not in a pronounced way – and an equally subtle sweet, creaminess to it. It smells complex and intriguing; much like Mrs. Adler, no?

For my preparation I steeped a heaping 1/2 tbsp. measurement of leaf in my 12 oz. timolino using boiling water for somewhere over four minutes and before seven. I was still steeping when the livestream started and I got rather distracted by the show and lost track of my steeping time. The steeped smell is a fair bit more balanced.

Taste wise, it’s perplexing – again quite akin to Irene. There’s a definite smokey quality and taste but it’s not quite as dominating as one would think based purely on the dry smell. The cherry comes through very well and is fairly distinctive “cherry” and not just generically fruity. The vanilla presents as a smooth creamyness that I think is tempering the Lapsang Souchong and tying all the aspects together.

It’s good, sweet and kinda savoury, a complex mystery; the perfect blend for The Woman. Not sure how I feel about it though – I’ll have to revisit and ponder once I’m not sick. After the somewhat complicated process to get here, I am tickled pink that I don’t hate it though!