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I’m really having a difficult time getting used to the new layout of the tea pages. I’m sure that I’ll eventually just adjust, but I’m having a really hard time grasping certain things like why the ingredients are being sorted alphabetically. Like this one shows “Artificial Sweetener” as the first thing and I’ve been taught the first thing shown is what there’s the most of. Well shit, I don’t want to drink something that’s mostly made up of artificial sweetener. It’s simple things like that with the layout that bug me the most because it’s not just having to adjust how I’m used to the Steepster layout but how I’m used to the layout of ingredients in general…

Also, the “recommended steep time”. How the balls is that decided? Because this is recommending to me that I steep up 16 fucking ounces of this – and I know that’s not what DT recommends. Their brewing guidelines are based on 8 oz. measurements.

But anyway, I made two cups of this last night: one for myself and one for Tre since I was in the mood for caramel and he also wanted tea. I’ve made this for him in the past and he really liked it, but last night all he did was complain about how it was weak in flavour/tasted funny. I would have defended my precious tea, except I sorta really agreed with him.

I have a lot of this left, but I’m finding increasingly that, while I’ve mastered the best way to prepare so there’s no bitterness/astringency, it the taste isn’t really doing it for me anymore – and I do think I know why. It’s the salt. When I first got this I couldn’t taste it at all – but I was brewing this in a less than satisfactory way. Now that I’m brewing it better (and have a more developed palette) I pick up the salt and I dislike it. Then again, I’ve always loved caramel but disliked salted caramel.

So ultimately, I kind of prefer to reach for a plain caramel tea over this salted version. And, for that reason I doubt I’ll be restocking when I run out…

Also, I lowered my rating a little bit.

And I’m assuming my measurement is going to round down, so for clarification I used 1.5 tsp. of leaf not 1

So, 8/10 times I’m extremely happy with my timolino(s) – both of which are 12 oz.

I find most things travel really well in it, and in my black timolino the heat is retained exceptionally well. However, for whatever reason my white timolino (which is the newer of the two) holds in the heat noticeably less and I can’t figure out why. The seal isn’t broken and the lid screws on the exact same. I’ve typically been able to make it work for me, though – I just make whichever tea I want to drink first in that timolino.

Ideally, I’d like for the brew basket to be a bit larger but it works for what I use it for and I’m normally pretty happy with it. I just sometimes have issues with, say, oolongs which can’t expand as well. Also, the first one I bought (the black one) came with a broken brew basket which would sink to the bottom and cause things to be steeped for an ungodly long time – but the DAVIDsTEA store I got it from provided me with a new brew basket, no questions asked and I haven’t had issues with it coming unattached during brewing since.

The only other thing I would maybe complain about is the fact that sometimes they pick up the scent/flavour of previously brewed teas (I had lots of issues with Currant Affair) even if very thoroughly cleaned in between use. Not really a huge deal, though.

Overall a satisfied customer – enough so I bought a second, right! ;)

I figured I’d finally add the teaware I own that’s already in the database to my cupboard and post reviews or whatever. That seems like maybe a thing I should do. I admit, it does weird me out that it’ll get counted as part of my cupboard now, though.

Does that bother other people at all? When you tell people the number of teas in your cupboard do you just mentally keep track of what is and isn’t teaware and subtract that from your total? Am I just totally over thinking things? It’s probably that last one, right?

Anyway, as I’ve made sure to point out (because credit is due where credit is due) this was an amazing, unprompted and totally unexpected gift from that absolutely fucking amazing Keychange who was just too damn thoughtful for her own good. Being a gift, I really have no right to complain about it – but regardless (and also thankfully) there really is zero to complain about.

Visually, this is just BEAUTIFUL and it really lets you see and enjoy your tea (the first clear glass brewing mug/device/whatever you want to call it) I’ve owned. In addition to that, it has a massive brew basket which is just great for steeping (I feel like this will often be used for oolongs, now) and which I’ve already found handy for sipdowns and decreasing the quantity of tea I have lots of leaf for. A word of caution, however, you should probably know that the tea you’re making is one you like because you’re going to be drinking lots of it ;)

Well, that or don’t fill it to capacity.

But, speaking of capacity this is great! I often dislike that my timolinos are only 12 oz. (slightly more than the largest mugs in the house) because if I want to sit and drink something straight through a TV episode or movie I’m likely going to run out of something to drink. Not the case anymore! I can also seeing this being a benefit to road trips (thinking of the drive between Saskatoon and Regina) or long outings (though I haven’t yet tested how leak proof this is).

Since opening it, it practically hasn’t left my hands – except for now while it’s in the fridge. I’m currently cold brewing in it because it’s basically the perfect thing to cold brew in because A) it’s the right size can you say great for the summer and B) it’ll be so easy to just pull the strainer out instead of manually straining it. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but my nice strainer was left in Regina when I was there in January, so it’s been hectic straining my cold brews recently.

Just, overall I am very impressed.

10/10 – Would TOTALLY recommend.

…Aaannnddd I just spilled tea on Tre’s laptop. Shhhh – we wont tell him that.

Anyway, I recieved a very generous sample of this from Keychange and I decided to try it out tonight because I wanted something sweet and dessert like (ie. caramel) but also something fruity (ie. orange). Plus, it’s always good to get in a new tea.

It bothers me a lot that this new formatting seems to reject “point five” measurements for amount of leaf (both times I’ve tried to enter it that way it rejected it), like 1 1/2 tsp. which is what I used for this mug .

But anyway, on to the taste. The first thing I noticed was the overwhelming and powerful presence of orange. Like, holy shit is this orange flavoured – and the strength of the flavoring here masks just about everything: the base and caramel included. I know I got caramel chunks into the leaf that I used – I saw at least two in there. I was really hoping for a nice balance between the two flavours, but I’m really struggling to get caramel at all. To be honest, I only get fleeting tastes of it in the aftertaste – and only because the flavour that I’m sure is being hidden by the orange also just happens to be able to outlast the staying power of the orange in the aftertaste.

Does that make sense?

As it cooled, the orange did calm down a teensy bit, and that let more caramel through though. It was a relatively nice relief. So, taking back my preconceived notions of what I thought this tea should have been, it’s ok. Definitely for fans of orange flavoured things but as someone who was hoping for more caramel I’m a bit disappointed. I have more left though, so maybe if I drink it in a different mindset some other time knowing what it’s like I’ll feel quite differently about it.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

Whoa the new format is super weird. I mean, I’m sure I’ll adjust but it’s just SO MANY changes all at once. Maybe what’s bothering me the most is the weird new font? But lots of differences and such…

Anyway, this steeped up surprisingly weak tonight so I actually added some milk to give it the depth and creaminess it was lacking. I hate when I need to do that to a tea to make it good as opposed to doing it to add to an already good tea. This was (is?) a favourite (like, top 5 teas ever) of mine, so hopefully it’s just a bad cup and not that my tastes have really changed so much?

So, I can’t say I’ve actually ever had Candy Corn before now. It’s not that I was specifically avoiding it or didn’t want to try it or anything like that, it just has honestly never crossed my path until now and I never actively sought it out as something to try. I honestly didn’t even have an idea of what candy corn was supposed to taste like. Does it have a flavour? People just call it… Well, candy corn.

That said, before I actually brewed up my mug of this I took a look through the sample provided by Lala and came to come conclusions. There was enough leaf for about two decent sized cups but there were three pieces of candy corn so I figured that I could use a piece for each cup and eat one straight away to see what it was supposed to taste like. It tasted kind of like very, very sweet caramel to me. How have I not figured that out by now!? I love caramel.

So, I steeped some up basically just expecting a very sweet caramel-y black tea. I was actually pretty surprised that the whole thing melted! The taste was pretty accurate to what I expected though: highly sugary and slightly caramel flavoured black. Based on my one taste of candy corn I guess I can somewhat authentically and accurately say that it was pretty bang on? You know, ‘cause I’m obviously a candy corn expert now ;)

Actually though, it did start to get a little too much by the end of the cup though – almost cloying. One cup left: I’m sure it’ll be an easy enough sip down, though I don’t think I’m attached enough to be sad it’s gone.

Urgghhhh…

I did the “eggnong” thing again trying to search this. Stupid muscle memory and habits and such.

I felt really spontaneously nauseous earlier – so I took a break from tea for a little while, but when I came back I immediately did the resteep of this one. Slightly longer steep time and still really good!

More job applications today! This time for two really opposite things: bartending and being a live-out nanny. Definitely not in the same field at all, and I can’t say I’m exactly qualified for either but we’ll see…

I have this thing where, even if I’m thinking about not doing it, I always type “eggnong” the first time I try to write it. Without fail. It’s even gotten to the point where I’ll say “Eggnong” aloud when mentioning it as a little inside joke with myself. Tre’s questioned it a few times…

Anyway, I was planning on Love Tea #7 but my tea twin VariaTEA had just finished a round of love inspired teas so I aborted mission and drastically changed what I was making to white/green teas. That’s why my water was a little too hot for Big Apple. I was a bit more patient for this cup, though – so it’s not bitter. Yay for that!

Definitely a very rich, creamy vanilla ice cream tea – although not really a true eggnog flavour. I like it a lot though, and when I go to resteep Big Apple I’ll probably do a resteep of this one too.

Sad, sad sipdown (202)…

Thank you Aimee Popovacki for sending this my way. If I hadn’t received it from you, I likely never would have tried it and never would have fallen in love with it. Maybe that would’ve been a good thing, heh…

It’s on my shopping list – and as soon as I have money I’m going to pick this up in a larger quantity as well as several very small samples (and a couple tins). I want it back, but I’m considering it low priority for the moment.

This particular cup was overleafed by about half a tsp. – I figured I’d overleaf rather than leave that tiny little bit left. It’s a very yummy green jolly rancher/caramel apple tea that I’m very happily sipping at while catching up on some TV. I do taste the green tea in this cup (a little bitter – but my water was a bit too hot), but I enjoy it anyway.

Mmmm! I’ll make sure to resteep (I often don’t) the leaf to get as much as possible out of this.

Sipdown (203)!

Somehow this one keeps finding its way back to me, despite my not wanting to have it in my cupboard. this was one of the three free samples from the DAVIDsTEA order sent to me, so yet another time it’s wound up in my cupboard without my actually picking it out – the other being as a Christmas gift.

It’s heavy and weak in flavour, and just all around costly. Plus side? It’s easy enough to sipdown, so it never really sticks around long. This one has that going for it.

EDIT: I just checked out the DT site to see the new tea of the month, and am admittedly relieved that it’s not something I feel compelled to go buy. It’s another green…

I have lots of Hot Lips which sounds similar enough to me for me to pass (but I’ll try it once I’m out of Hot Lips). Although, the lack of ginger in the new one is a little compelling – also because I really like cloves.