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This was the other tea I took to work today, as a cold tea to drink. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had this one cold before, other than today. I think it’s likely though – I tend to drink mint teas cold rather than hot…

Preparation was 1 heaping tsp. of leaf in 10 oz. of water, steeped for somewhere between three and four minutes. The liquor was a much darker colour than it usually is, and it smelled intensly of caramel.

I think I ended up drinking this all in like five minutes? I was so thirsty after all the hard labour. It tasted amazing! The caramel flavour and the mint flavour are usually really well balanced, and that tastes pretty great. However, this cup definitely favoured the caramel and just had a small touch of mint to it. It was super smooth and creamy and the mint gave it a lovely refreshing quality. I definitely wanted another cup afterwards.

I think this is the only rooibos tea from Tea Desire I’ve tried – so I’m totally making a note to try more in the future!

On the Sixth day of Christmas Steepster gave to me six geese-a-laying…

Well, buckle your seat belts because this is going to be a long tasting note!

I still haven’t recieved days 3, 4, 5, and 11 yet for the Christmas exchange, so I’m a little behind and out of order which is sort of disappointing and a little frustrating, but (of course!) not the fault of anyone else involved in the exchange. Ultimately, it has to do with Canada Post, the time of the year, and my location here in Canada.

Anyway, I made one of the two teas sent by MissB today. The poem she sent was so cute, and the card was beautiful! The “Goose Eggs” were such a cool touch too, and I gobbled them all up (for Breakfast, because I was rushed and chocolate seemed like a good idea). The second tea she sent will ultimately have to wait until another day because I wasn’t at home long enough today to make that quantity of tea and drink it all. And there’s no way Tre would have helped me drink a barley tea. I actually already have this one from my first 52Teas order, but I haven’t opened the pouch up to try it yet – so this is my first time having it!

The dry smell reminded me of some kind of rootbeer and cream soda hybrid. Very good smelling! Since this came to work today, I steeped 2 tsp. of leaf for three minutes in boiling water. I ended up sipping at it all day while packing up my store.

Basically, I was at work for a solid eight hours working my ass off the pack up and transport all of my remaining stock. It was a lot of hard labour for the three of us to do and I ended up doing the bulk of it because the other two people working were my 50+ year old Portuguese employee who can’t carry a lot of weight and the district manager who is also 50+, needs a cane to get around, and who can’t bend down to pick up boxes for transport. I was so exhausted by the time I got off, and everything on my body is throbbing and sore. Thank God I had tea with me though to help get through it!

Taste wise, this is definitely like a very creamy, rich rootbeer with maybe just a touch of “cream soda”. The black base is kind of mild and just a little astringent but in a barely noticeable way. This was really good and I was so happy to have something to sip at all day. I’m super excited I have a pouch left to drink! Honestly though, I don’t think I’d reorder it though because it is fairly similar to Butiki’s Rootbeer Float Honeybush despite the different bases, and that one is right around the same price point and definitely more consistently available than this one would be.

When I got home today from (my last day of) work, my Della Terra order had arrived! It took four weeks to get here from the time it shipped out, but regardless I was just super excited it made it in time for the blends to be included with my vacation tea! However, upon opening it the foil package for A Rabbit’s Garden had split on the bottom and there was loose tea everywhere! A lot got on my floor and I had to tidy it up :(

That was the one I most wanted to take with me too! Anyway, I’ve emailed DTT about replacing the spoiled package, and I took pictures of everything just in case – but it’s pretty sad I wont have it with me when I leave for vacation in four days.

I applied a few more places today, most of which were unremarkable. However, one I think was especially noteworthy! Tea Desire is currently hiring for a Supervisor position, so I put in an application for that! It’d be full time hours, within walking distance from my house, and not to mention I’d be working for a tea company I love! So everyone cross your fingers for me and, if you’re religious, say a prayer! I would really, REALLY, REALLY love to get that job! Just imagine; I would always have people to talk tea with!

That said, I also have an interview tomorrow with Boston Pizza for a fulltime hostess position. So, I’m hopeful for that too. I actually applied for the position at like eight in the morning this morning, and they called me back for an interview this afternoon.

Anyway, thank you MissB for the tea! I look forward to trying the second one at a point where I’ll be able to properly enjoy it!

Got home from a long(ish) day. It was the second last day before my Kiosk closes, which means tomorrow is the last one. God, it seems like time has just flown by. Anyway, after tomorrow I’ll be jobless but I’ll also be going on my “vacation” shortly too, which means it’s been kind of hard job hunting because I have to find a job that’ll allow for a delayed start time. Ick. That said, I did manage to apply one other place tonight (a candy store!).

After work, I stopped and had coffee (well, she had coffee and I had white hot chocolate because the place we were at just had green tea) with my friend Kristina who relatively recently moved to the city. Her and her boyfriend professionally do inventory for large companies, so a couple times a month she’s bused do various cities in Canada (so far she’s been sent to Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta) for a couple days at a time and put up in a relatively nice hotel while they’re counting things – namely for grocery stores and stuff like that. Anyway, she told me to apply because I definitely have the qualifications and it pays well, plus it’s spaced out enough I could still hold another job during the week. So, I did – we’ll see how that goes.

And now I’m watching the first set of episodes featuring The Weeping Angels during Matt Smith’s run as the 11th doctor and eating leftovers. I couldn’t resist drinking the Weeping Angels tea while watching Weeping Angels episodes! Plus, I was craving black tea anyway so that just worked out well. I almost went for TARDIS tea just to properly log something new, but Earl Grey is too much of a morning tea for me, and this just fits too perfectly.

Taste wise, this was pretty close to spot on. It was just a bit bitter, but that’s likely my fault for steeping closer to three and half minutes instead of the typical two and a half minute I usually do. Still, the caramel and sticky popcorn feel/taste came across really well regardless. Mmm! I definitely enjoy ‘geeking out’ with my tea while enjoying some good TV.

I only made it about half through my Flowery Pineapple Oolong, but switched to the hot tea that I brought with me today – which is this one. The Flowery Pineapple Oolong was delicious, but the mall is just so cold today that I needed something hot. It’s incredibly frigid in here (is the heat even on!?) and my hands are so cold that the tips are just slightly starting to turn blue. That’s not an exaggeration. I think that the Frozen Yogurt store has only had one other customer today other than me.

So yes, hot tea indeed!

My preparation for this one was 2 1/2 tsp. of leaf for my 12 oz. timolino, steeped with boiling water for six minutes.

Taste wise, this is nice and creamy with a bit of a thicker kind of mouthfeel. Lots of rootbeer flavour, lots of vanilla. Definitely a “float” (which is a little weird to be drinking hot, but in a good way). While I’m really enjoying the taste, mostly I’m just enjoying the fact it’s warming me up. Now if only the timolino itself wasn’t ice cold on the outside, because my hands could certainly use some warming up too!

Made this to drink cold for work! I needed something with pineapple; it feels like it’s been way too long since I had something strongly pineapple flavoured. In reality, it’s probably only been a couple days but Pineapple is my favourite fruit hands down, so a few days feels like way too long to me.

For preparation I steeped 1 tsp. of leaf in 10 oz. of water, at about 180 degrees for four minutes. It may have been just a touch hotter than that, though. Second cup was the same leaf resteeped in the same temperature of water for the same time, but only about 8 oz. of water for the resteep. Both were poured into my waterbottle, left to cool off, and now I’m drinking them!

Taste wise, this is very similar to sticky, sweet, fresh (squeezed?) pineapple juice. It has an incredibly natural and fresh sweetness to it! Perfect! There’s also a nice floral taste; definitely kind of orchid like, but with other floral notes in there too. I’m not huge on floral teas (though I don’t strongly dislike them), but it does work well with this one! I also love that this tastes exactly like it smells!

Mmm!

Mmmm! Vegetarian Hamburger Helper! That’s what I’m making right now for supper, while sipping on this tea! Nothing really new about this one – it’s nice and tart and hibiscus-y like usual, but balanced by the eucalyptus.

Unrelated, for whatever reason the left side of my face spontaneously just went numb about half an hour ago, and I’ve just now noticed that the inside of my cheek/mouth on that side is significantly swollen. Not a clue why, but I’m guessing it’s likely not for a good reason. I’d say it’s the symptoms of an allergy attack, but I know for certain that there aren’t any mushrooms in the house for me to be reacting to.

Semirelated, I got home from work only to find we recieved absolutely no mail today! How shitty is that? That means that not only am I behind on days three and four of the Twelve Days of Christmas exchange, but since tomorrow is Sunday and I don’t have the package for Day 5, I’m gonna be late for that one too! Well balls…

I made one of my RiverTea blends for work today, to drink hot. It wasn’t until I had it steeping that I realized this was the second mango tea I was making for the day. Oh well – one was cold brewed and white and this one is hot and black, so that’s pretty different!

I used 2 tsp. of leaf in 12 oz. of boiling water. I’m not sure how long this steeped – I lost track of time while I was checking the mail (oops). I’d guess between four and seven minutes – so possibly a little oversteeped. The leaf for this has massive chunks and things in it – so you kind of have to make a choice about what to include when picking the leaf out – there’s no way you can get a chunk of everything without sacrificing the actual tea leaves. So, this had a chamomile blossom, giant ass motherfucking cinnamon stick, and a few of the smaller fruit chunks in addition to the black tea – no cranberry in the leaf I used.

Taste wise, I’m thinking this was probably closer to that seven minute steep time because, though it’s not bitter, it’s pretty astringent and it’s not usually this astringent. Also, I get a distinct taste of mango, vanilla, cinnamon, and… What’s this? Banana? BANANA! This is the first time I’ve been able to taste the banana in the blend! Maybe one of the fruit chunks I used was banana, and I’ve just never gotten a banana chunk before. There’s not even a slight taste of cranberry this time around, but like I said I didn’t include any cranberry chunks in the leaf.

So, the astringency is a little undesirable (but more than likely my fault). Otherwise, this is really good! It travels fairly well in my timolino!

Also, why the hell to people feel so entitled when they’re shopping!? It pisses me off so much when people open up the packaging of things in my store. They’ll open up boxes, tear off shrink wrap, and rip folders to shreds just to get a look at something they might buy! Are you kidding me!? You haven’t paid for that – what makes you think you have the fucking right! Every time someone does that and damages the packaging (even if the product itself is undamaged) I have to write it off! And honestly, if you flat out asked me to see the product 80% of the time I can open the packaging without damaging it.

Big. Dramatic. sigh.

So at the time of leaving for work today, the mail hadn’t shown up yet so I’m crossing my fingers that more of the 12 Days of Tea packages (and maybe my Della Terra order) are waiting for me when I get home.

Anyway, I’ve been anxious to try this one for weeks now, but I just keep putting it off because I feel like I don’t have time to properly review it or I’m exhausted from work, and the list of excuses just continues. Well, last night I got kinda fed up and just thought to myself “Fuck it, you can cold brew it”. And so I did. I used 2 tbsp. of leaf for about four cups of water, cold brewed for around 10 hours. I strained everything out this morning and poured myself a water bottle full to enjoy at work.

Dry, the leaf smells amazing: a very fresh and airy kind of mango with a little bit of fresh cut cucumber smell to it. On dry smell alone, I get the impression this would be a good tea soda. There’s something more specific it reminds me of to, but I can’t place what. It’s very nice smelling, though.

Taste wise, I got citrus first – which I wasn’t totally expecting. A very mellow, gentle kind of citrus taste – like a more natural and watered down Sprite taste. Right alongside that is the mango. I’ve expressed before that I have a love/hate relationship with mango flavoured things – but I really like the taste of this! The cucumber and white tea are contributing more of a refreshing airiness to the tea than anything else; just a cool, quenching kind of vegetalness that balances out the mango/citrus and keeps it from being too fruity.

Basically, this is a fruity but still kind of vegetal tea in a totally thirst quenching and refreshing way that is delicate and gentle but with a very full and complex layering of flavours. It’s very, very good! I can’t wait to try it hot, though I’m skeptical that it’ll taste better than it does right now. I’d totally buy this again, though!

I was originally planning on grabbing the orange matcha I have to make into a tea soda, but after seeing the mess that Tre made with my Eggnog matcha I ended up pulling that package out to try and clean it up, and just winded making myself some of this instead. Part of it, I think, was that I realized I had already enjoyed two orange teas today so I kind of wanted a switch up anyway.

So, I made this into a tea soda! Weird, I know. I’ve never heard of an “Eggnog Soda” but something in me was sure it’s be worth trying. So, I used a tsp. of matcha dissolved into about an ounce of hot water. I then poured a can of club soda into the water bottle I was dissolving it into (I have issues drinking matcha when the flavour is something that isn’t meant to be green, and eggnog definitely falls into that category).

The smell is very strong. A distinct eggnog smell. Taste wise, it surprisingly works. The only thing that’s especially weird (you know, other than the carbonation) is that is doesn’t have the thick, creamy mouthfeel that I associate with eggnog. The taste is pretty bang on for eggnog though (albeit with some green tea taste in the aftertaste that is a little undesirable).

But no, I think this was a good experiment. I’d actually very likely drink it again – especially if I had Christmas baking to go along with it like I currently have next to me (eggnog soda and gingerbread!). I really, really enjoy using matcha for tea soda! Once I figure out some flavours that I just can’t do without, I’ll have to make an order so I can make this a more regular thing (I still have pineapple matcha to try out using this method – so I’m quite hopeful about that)!

Urghhhhhh! Tre’s out right now, but I’m really fighting the urge to tear into him when he gets home. I went into the freezer to grab some orange matcha, and noticed that all of my matcha had been moved around from where I was storing it. It took me a second to notice, but apparently Tre decided to make himself something using the Eggnog Matcha that I have.

How do I know? Well, I cut a very small corner of the sample package the first time I used it and then tightly rolled it up and put the sample package inside a second air tight bag. However, upon checking the matcha sample pouch is now widely torn open inside the second bag which has been carelessly sealed and has tons of air in it. The matcha itself is also all over the bag and it looks like about half of what I had left in it is now gone. That’s about a tablespoon. HE USED A FUCKING TABLESPOON OF MATCHA FOR A CUP OF TEA.

Like, I wouldn’t have minded if he’d made himself some – I typically welcome him to drink whatever he wants in the house (Lord knows there’s too much for just me), but clearly he was careless in doing so. I don’t even know if he gets how to make matcha. Clearly he doesn’t know the measurements. And what really bugs me is that he doesn’t even LIKE eggnog. I bought a whole jug of the real stuff for Christmas and he wouldn’t touch it.

Anyway, this is the second tea sample that TeaTiff included with Day #2 of the 12 Days of Christmas exchange. It’s from a shop local to her, and dry it just smells amazing. It’s juicy and clearly smells like tangerine, and there’s a lovely floral quality to the smell too. I just love trying things that are local to people, and lately I’ve tried to include things from my local shops in swaps. Anyone can place an order online, but it’s really neat get something that would be very hard to acquire outside of in person at the store. Does that make sense?

For preparation, I used the whole sample (Teatiff’s brewing guide said between 1/2 to 1 tbsp. so I went with the large amount for a large cup size) for a 10 oz mug, steeped with boiling water for 1 minute. It’s quite odd looking at the tea because visually it looks like a black tea, but really it’s made with fermented white tea leaves. That’s really interesting to me, and I think the first time I’ve tried anything like that. In so far as the smell, it’s it’s juicy, floral oranges. Yum!

Taste wise, I was expecting to taste tangerine first, but was actually hit with notes of nut and a sweetness; honey perhaps? Natural, unrefined honey that is. Don’t worry though, I got the tangerine right after that! It’s very natural, and the floral quality translates beautifully into the taste without tasting chemical or perfumey or anything negative like that. It’s truly lovely, and very relaxing which is a feat considering how pissed I am at Tre and the present moment.

I’m so, so sad this is a sipdown! That’s the downside to trying hard to acquire local things I suppose – if you fall in love it’s hard to get them back. Seriously, this tea is stunning and manages to flood your whole mouth with an array of flavours that are delicate but full! Thanks so much TeaTiff! The two teas you sent were stunning!