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Nothing of significance to add today, but MAN this is good!

1 1/2 tsp. in a 10 oz. mug steeped in 80 degree celsius water for three minutes.

I think I’m gonna finish my mug and then resteep the leaves right away while I enjoy catching up on Misfits. It’s nice to have all evening off to just do whatever I want.

So when I got home yesterday and unpacked my DAVIDsTEA haul I realized that I had a full 50g bag of this with no room to add the 10g or so that I have left from my first bag… Well, that seemed like the perfect excuse to drink that last 10g, I mean my tea collection is starting to take up enough space without having two bags of something.

So I made a cup of this for my waterbottle: I figured i’d yet to have this cold so why not try it that way. For prep. I used 1 1/2 tsp. (level) steeped in boiling water for five minutes. Mint has been doing funny things for me lately so I was a little cautious and didn’t steep the seven or eight minutes I was originally leaning towards.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over how disgusting looking and messy this tea is steeped though. There’s little oil dots all over the surface of the water and this nasty green speckled sort of goop gathering around the inside wall of my mug. Not to mention how murky and cloudy the tea itself it. This is the only tea I’ve encountered yet that has bugged me just based on the way it looks.

Taste wise: very smooth creamy white chocolate followed by the peppermint which is just right! I’m finding that, cold, I’m not so much bothered by the peppercorns in the blend nearly as much as they bother me hot (I still find them unwarranted and unnecissary though). Pretty good, though. It’s definitely helping with putting me in the Christmas spirit.

EDIT: I got home from work and made the mistake of plucking a couple of the white chocolate swirls straight from the dry leaf to eat. Yuck. Not doing that again…

Made a timolino full of this for work! It’s been a while (or it least it feels like it) since I had this – and something kinda spicty and chocked full of cinnamon sounded perfect for a tea to warm me up from the walk to work. I was right too – this is hitting the spot perfectly.

For preparation, I used 1 1/2 tsp (heaping) for my timolino steeped four minutes. Recommended water temp. for this is supposed to be 82 degrees celcius, but in my hesitation to not use water that was too hot I used water that I believe was probably a little too cool: maybe 70 degrees…

This is is fantastic though because it holds up well to being oversteeped or the water being too hot despite being a green blend, and I’ve learned now that too cool water still produces a pretty good result. It’s milder: the spices aren’t really as in your face, but still really enjoyable.

Yum!

I just got home from work with my DAVIDsTEA haul from earlier in the day, and the first thing to catch my eye upon walking into my home were the two other DAVIDsTEA bags sitting on the table (empty of course, but just not thrown out from when they came home). After a quick surveying of the apartment I counted seven DT bags (including the one I had come home with today) in the house. Some people would call this a problem (but I’m sticking with calling it an adventure)…

Anyway, I made myself some of this for work today but I didn’t end up drinking a whole lot of it because I was too busy with trying to gag down the Peppermint Amour that I had brought. It’s funny because I had actually made this thinking that I deserved to bring a favourite along with me just in case the Peppermint Amour tasted nasty (and it did). I didn’t want to be stuck drinking a nasty tea and then something maybe only mediocre.

For preparation, I used 1 1/2 tsp. steeped with boiling water for eight minutes. I made two cups this way (each time with new leaf) and then poured them into my water bottle. The little bit that I did have at work was room temp. but the bulk of it, which I’m having now, is pretty freaking cold from the walk home (super cold out today).

Not a ton to add: it’s sweet and yummy like always. Although, usually this has a pretty thick mouth feel and I’m not getting that so much today. And despite using plenty of leaf and steeping for plenty of time this is A LITTLE (not a lot) weak tasting – but still good. I kind of wish that I had hard candies flavoured like this: the perfect amount of mellow and creamy coconut with sweet and slightly tart pineapple would be splendid to suck away on. I wish the aftertaste lingered a little longer.

I dread what’ll happen when I run out of this. They better bring it back next summer…

Last time I had some of this is was probably one of the worst tea experiences I’ve ever had, and by far my worst experience with any sort of peppermint tea. Basically, I had attempted to infuse some of this into a mug of hot chocolate and the result was the most foul, rancid tasting drink I’ve EVER consumed.

I’ve been tip toeing around trying this out again since that awful experience, for fear that the same thing will happen again. Peppermint tea is my safety net – the tea most comforting to me whether I’m sick or just having a poor day: I can’t imagine how devestated I’d be if my whole giant tin and bag of this just suddenly had “gone bad” or what have you. I take good precautions to store my tea properly: air tight tins, minimal to no light exposure, kept in a dry environment…

So, steeped about a tbsp. (my usual amount) of this in my timolino for five minutes. When it comes to this blend, I’m used to just throwing DT’s brewing guide aside and making super strong cups and double or triple their recommended amounts of leaf/time.

I’m drinking it now, and I’ll be honest I gagged a bit on my first sip. The initial taste is this nasty, “rancid” kind of tasting grass crap. It’s not pleasant. However, in small sips I’m handling this now. Small sips are equaling a less grassy and more natural and normal tasting peppermint (and even in large gulps, this funky tasting brew is still better than that God awful hot chocolate mixture).

…I think maybe I’ve figured out how to explain it. Thye taste is some kind of love child of the taste you get when you get soap or shampoo or whatever in your mouth and what one imagines bug spray would taste like – with a little mint mixed into that.

I’m not giving up hope though, this tea is dear to me and I’m not tossing it without being absolutely sure there’s something “wrong” with it. Maybe I just need to dial back the leaf and steep time a ways. Next time I make this I’m gonna try doing it by the brewing guide, and then proceding from there…

Fingers crossed

I feel like I have lots to write about, although probably only half of what I want to say is relevant to tea… But, isn’t that always the case for my tasting notes?

Anyway, lets start at DAVIDsTEA earlier in the afternoon. I went in to restock two favourites that I’ve nearly run out of: Main Squeeze and Cranberry Pear (I’ve got about two cups of this one left). In addition to that, I picked up 50g of White Chocolate Frost and 100g of Gingerbread and a coloured tin for one of my Tea Desire blends that has been ‘bagging it’. Well, things didn’t got exactly according to plan…

I got everything I had hope to get except the Cranberry Pear. Sadly, they were all out and had no idea when they would be getting more in (and I have no idea when in the next two or three weeks I’ll actually be able to make another trip downtown). Damn! I was really looking forward to getting some more so I didn’t have to ration what I have left so crazily. However, the cute sales guy (he’s my favourite guy who works there: he’s the one who replaced my broken timolino for me and is just so easy on the eyes) didn’t charge me for my to go cup of tea since they had been all out of Cranberry Pear! Which was really nice of him. Side note, they were playing jazz music in store and he was dancing behind the counter and it was just too flipping cute.

And now to this blend, which was my to go tea that I drank while I waited for the bus so I could head off to work. I needed something to warm me up, didn’t want to drink what I had brewed for my shift and thought it would be a good oppertunity to tick something off my list of blends I want to try. I can’t remember whose tasting note it was, but someone here on steepster had compared it red kool aid and said it was really good, so that piqued my interest in trying it. I love sweet, fruity blends that double as juice.

As per cute sales guy’s direction, I steeped this for five minutes before tossing the leaves. It was a really, REALLY pretty red colour (the colour of red kool aid) and smelled pretty good. Like strawberry, goji, and something else. For a while it was a little too hot to sip but after a few minutes I got to start sipping away at it.

Taste wise, there was a sugary sweetness in the initial part of the sip: much like strawberry koolaid and sweet apple candy or the aspects of Goji Pop that I actually like (the taste cold brewed, for example) sans melon. That transitioned into a more tart kind of goji/hibiscus/other taste. I’m wondering if the thing I couldn’t identify is Sea Buckthorn: I’ve never had Sea Buckthorn before and don’t even know what it’s supposed to taste like. The tartness wasn’t too much, but I wish the sweetness had lasted longer before becoming tart. In the first few sips, there was that kind of “puckered dryness” left in my mouth just like when you drink straight lemon juice.

This got better as it cooled (is it worth noting I just spelled cooled as ‘kooled’ because of all the kool aid talk?) down – so I could see it having some real potential as a cold brew or somehow infused into a lemonade type of slushy.

I could see myself picking up a small sample size of this to play around with and try cold brewing or doing something lemonadey with: but I’m not in any real rush to do so. In fact, I could probably hold off on it until late spring or early summer.

After the bus had got me to the mall I work in, I went to the post office and sent off another swap. I think I’m really bad at ball parking shipping costs because I expected this to be MUCH higher than it was. I’ve now sent swaps to Quebec, New Hampshire (in the states, not Europe), and Alaska – and so far Alaska has been the cheapest when I thought it would be most exensive. Quebec cost the most to ship to, which baffled me since it’s in Canada just like I am. I guess after time I’ll get better at figuring out what to expect from shipping.

And now back to work for a while… A lady filed a complaint with head office about my Kiosk selling model magazines (Maxim, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, etc.) so now head office had charged me with the task of coming up with a solution so they’re not as visable, but still visable enough they’re attracting the ‘right’ audience and we’re still selling them. I don’t know how to improve my set up though: they’re already kept in one section isolated from anything that is remotely targeted towards children (they’re on the opposite site of the kiosk from all the childrens stuff, dammit) and on the highest shelves so that small children for which they’re not appropriate can’t reach them and hopefully can’t see them (not in their line of sight) – so what more can I do other than removing them from my shelves? That’s never going to happen: they sell too well so head office would never approve that. Blah.

Mmm! I just finished baking some Maple Pecan cupcakes from scratch and my whole house smells heavenly now: nice and sweet and mapley. I’m resisting the urge to eat half a dozen of them right now in one sitting – and so I thought I’d try this out to maybe curb those cravings a little bit.

So, my local Safeway carries basically any Stash tea you can name (which is awesome since Stash is my favourite bagged tea brand) – so earlier in the week I pulled up the Stash website and had my roommate look through and pick out a tea he wanted to try. For whatever reason he seems to like drinking teabags – the loose leaf I have seems to slightly overwhelm him. Also, in part I think maybe he feels less guilty drinking the bagged tea because he knows it’s less expensive and there’s less risk of him “ruining” or wasting leaves from something higher quality. I guess that’s thoughtful of him.

Anyway, this is the tea that he picked out, much to my frustration. It’s not so much the tea itself that frustrates but more how contradictory he is. He keeps telling me that he hates chai teas and he hates black tea – and yet those are basically the only teas he drinks. Urgh. He thought the vanilla would be nice and creamy in this though – so since the box was only three bucks I picked this up for the both of us to try: my treat (he’s basically broke – in fact his Dad is paying his half of rent this month, although he got a job a few days ago working in the restaurant of one of the chefs who teaches him at Siast, so in a week or two he should be on his feet again).

My pick out of the Stash bagged teas I picked up was the Strawberry Pomegranate I had this morning. Even though it was odd this morning because I wasn’t expecting it to have rooibos, I think it would be really well suited for times I am actually craving a rooibos blend.

Back to this one, though! Dry, the bag smells primarily of cloves with some cinnamon and nutmeg. Not much else comes through, but I can’t blame it: damn that clove smell is INTENSE. Steeped in boiling water for 4 minutes, this one smells heavenly though. There are light notes of cinnamon, this kind of gentle nuttiness to the aroma, nutmeg, and a strong creamy vanilla smell that is almost as yummy as the smell of the baking in the house right now. I’m happy that, in the smell anyway, the cloves have slammed on the brakes.

I’m almost hesitant to take a sip of this one, because I’m going to be really disappointed if this yummy nutty, lightly spiced vanilla smell is drowned out by unnecessary amounts of cloves or ginger root in the taste. Oh well, better get it over with…

Hmmm… Mmmm… Well, there is clove. A pretty good deal of it, but there’s also a consistent vanilla creaminess to the blend with some gentle cinnamon notes and light nutmeg. The vanilla itself had a sort of buttery quality to it, and the mouthfeel of this is pretty thick and rich for a bagged tea. I’m pretty impressed. Combination of scent and taste is borderline heavenly. Next time I have this (and there has to be a next time) I’ll be adding in some milk and seeing if that does anything to tamper the clove and accentuate the creamy vanilla.

Even though I’m pretty sure his pick was uneducated and blind, I think Tre picked out a good one, and I’ll admit that it’s nice to have a black tea in stock that’s also decaffeinated.

They say you should never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry, and that you should always stick to your list: but what about making your list when you’re hungry? Right now I’m making a grocery list for myself for after I get off work: but I’m STARVING so I keep adding things like “cinnamon buns” or “mozza sticks” and then thinking to myself, “no, self, you don’t NEED mozza sticks – you should cross that off the list”.

At the same time I’m drinking this tea. I realized I had a TON of it still, so I steeped some up in my timolino. I used a generous 2 tsp. for the timolino steeping in boiling water for seven minutes or so. It’s still nice and hot as I’m drinking it. I have to say though, I’m a little dissapointed. Maybe I’ve spoiled myself by drinking DAVIDsTEA’s Choconut Oolong too much recently – because the licorice (which is my favourite thing with this tea) seems much less tasty in comparrison to the licoricey notes in Choconut Oolong. Boo. And, the rest of the tastes in this tea have always just been mediocre and average for me (and truthfully, a little “broth like”). So, combine mediocre chamomille with a broth/stock like feel to it with a less than exceptional licorice taste and you get…

Meh.

At least this one is still realling good for late at night (no caffiene) and fighting off colds/illness. It’s still got that going for it. Dang: I hate when I spoil a tea I used to love with a new, and less available (or worse, like in this case, limited edition) one! Now I’m all pouty…

Unrelated:

The mall has been playing Christmas carols for the last few days – and I’ve been kind of happily singing along: but they’re finally starting to grate on my nerves and feel tedious and repetitive now. Like, how many times in one day can you listen to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” before you want to stab yourself in the ears. I’ve heard it SIX TIMES so far today, and the day’s not done. I can’t imagine how much I’m going to resent carolers by the time Christmas actually hits. At least switch up the songs: it’s been the same 10 Christmas carols basically all day…

It felt like it had been a long time since I had had this blend, so I made myself a full 20 oz. water bottle full. Also, it helped that I was really craving peaches and cream oatmeal but we didn’t have any in the house: this is a pretty accurate replicate for the flavour (especially with a little milk).

For preperation, I steeped 1 1/2 tsp. in 10 oz. of boiling water for 6 minutes. I then took the same leaves and resteeped another cup the same way. They were then poured into the water bottle and left to cool.

All the flavours are really coming together well in this cup: and I’m finding now that I’ve tried more oolong teas I’m appreciating the oolong base a lot more.

In other news, I’ve made friends with the manager at the yogurt bar (self serve yogurt, basically) right next to my kiosk! So, yay for having someone to talk to. It’s awesome because she seems pretty cool and now there’s something else to help make the time seem to go by quicker.

So, I though I’d switch up my “at work” breakfast today a little bit (typically, I get hashbrowns and chocolate work from A&W) – mostly because the walk to work was especially cold and I just wanted something to heat me up. So, I opted for tea instead of chocolate milk. It couldn’t hurt, right? All the tea my local A&W serves is Stash brand – and as far as bagged tea goes that’s typically a favourite brand of mine. So, strawberry pomegranate it is!

Dry, the tea bag smelled very much like strawberry kool aid drink mix: sweet and fruity, is a bit artificial (but in the best way – who doens’t love strawberry kool aid?). The was also a nice sort of tang to it, a sharpness if you will. I steeped the bag for five minutes in whatever temp. water it was that A&W had given me. The liquor is a very red brown colour and smells like sharp, tangy strawberries and… oh, what is that?

I’m smelling that signature rooibos smell right now. Hmm… I thought this was a herbal. Time to read the ingredients listed on the teabag now. So, the teabag says “herbal” on the front, but in the back ingredients there IS rooibos listed. I mean, it’s not like I dislike rooibos tea – it’s just not what I had expected for breakfast this morning.

The taste is initially very tart and tangy strawberry – like stawberry kool aid tastes before you dump in that crap load of sugar it needs to get sweet. Then, it gives way pretty quickly to a VERY woody rooibos taste. Considering I’m a fan of rooibos tea in general, I’m not minding the rooibos here but if you’re NOT a rooibos fan you probably really want to stay clear of this one. Finally, the aftertaste is a short lived mellow strawberry. I’m not totally sure where the pomegranate is fitting into this: it’s not really standing out at all.

Overall, this is pretty nice for a bagged tea, but I’m not really loving the “false advertising”. I like rooibos, but this morning I was in the mood for some straight up herbal deliciousness.