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I’ve been postponing my next cup of this for as long as possible, for a few reasons. Firstly, I don’t have a lot of it so I want to preserve what I do have left. Secondly, even though this is only $5 or $6 for 50g (something like that, I don’t remember exactly) it weighs a whole crap ton because of all the really massive chunks of stuff – so 50g gets you hardly anything. And thirdly, I’m a little worried that my second cup will not live up to how practically oragasmically delivious my first cup was.

However, I just got home from a freaking nine and a half hour work day (I don’t know if I’ve EVER had a shift that long somewhere), my feet are sore, and I’m tired of directly kindly old ladies to calendars of really obscure and specific dog breeds – like a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. I don’t even know if I spelled that correctly, let alone what it looks like. So, that in mind, I need a freakin’ reward tea right now.

Steeped 2 tsp. in 6 oz. of boiling water for 10 min. The liquor is a very cloudy light brown and smells strongly of banana and chocolate with some faint tropical notes, probably from the mango or papaya or whichever it is in the blend. And let me tell you, this is DEFINITELY a rewarding tea right now. I don’t think it’s quite a flavourful as I remember it being the first time I had it – but I’m not liking it any less.

It’s very creamy with a rich banana taste complimented by a somewhat more subtle chocolate flavour in comparison to some of the other chocolate teas I’ve had recently. Yum.

Also, I found out today that because I work at a mall, I get a 10% discount not only at the foodcourt, but in every store in the mall! That means I get 10% off at Tea Desire… I’m DEFINITELY taking advantage of that.

Ah, I love this Mate so much! Seriously, it tastes freaking great and the energy it provides is a God send.

I took a water bottle filled with this iced with me to do stocking/merchandising since we started at 9 PM tonight, and finished at 1:30 AM. Boy did I need that energy kick – although hopefully it’s faded enough for me to sleep – I have another 8 hour shift tomorrow starting at noon (it probably sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m really loving actually working and doing something with my days again – so no complaints thus far).

I’m adding a full tin of this to my list of teas to purchase. So, that now expands my list to a box of Stash tea (that I can’t locate anywhere in town for the life of me), a full tin of this, POSSIBLY a full tin of David’s Cranberry Pear (I need to try my Della Terra pear tea more so I can decide which is better and, therefore, more worthy of stocking), a couple assorted teas from Della Terra that I didn’t get last time but am curious about (like Lemon Chiffon), and the MAJOR Butiki order I want to put in. Damn that’s a lot of tea.

I also want to add at least 3 more Mates to my cupboard, eventually. No idea which ones though.

Finally trying out the final tea from my Della Terra order! I saved something that I’m confident I’ll love for last – so hopefully I’m not wrong with my assumption!

Really though, this tea has a black tea base includes mint (oh how I love mint), chocolate (hello dessert tea and decadence) and vanilla, along with the most adorable little cow sprinkles. How could I possibly resist?

The dry leaf smells like this nice, rich balance between all three added flavour (mint, chocolate, and vanilla) and is so rich, creamy, and decadent smelling. Seriously, with the way this smells you’d think the tea would be a calorie killer, but of course it’s got absolutely nowhere near the calorie count I’m imagining (not that I’d really care if it did).

I’m very excited to make a cup of this while I watch Pulp Fiction for the first time! I don’t know how I was able to put off watching it for so long; especially since everything I’ve ever heard about it has been positive. It was recently recommended to me again by someone I just met (but who seems to have impeccable taste), so I’m going to give it a shot!

Unlike all the other Della Terra teas I got in my order, this one has no steeping guide included on the resealable bag. Hmm, how odd. I didn’t really feel like running back to my computer (even though it was only a room away) so I just used the same measurement that’s on all the other Della Terra packages (1 – 1 1/2 tsp. for 6 oz. in 210 degree water). I’m sure that’s probably pretty safe.

I steeped for the full 5 minutes because I like my mint strong, so the hope was the black tea base wouldn’t get bitter, but the mint would get powerful. The liquor is a really deep, rich, and CHOCOLATEY brown. Mmm. I can smell really powerful notes of mint (yay), but they’re not masking up the notes of chocolate and vanilla. I cannot, however, really get a strong smell of the black tea base.

First few sips… Ooh. This is dessert heaven. Seriously, the first taste is chocolate mint which has a great balance between the two flavours. From there, those flavours stay strong but the vanilla is introduced which makes this so creamy. The impression I’m given is “chocolate chip mint ice cream”, and I am actually managing to get a good impression of the black tea base through all of this extreme flavour. Also, no bitterness at all: whew. It’s impressive.

Yeah, this is something I want to stock again – definitely. I dare say my brother, who is such a tea skeptic and always complains he only tastes water, would love this. If I know anyone who absolutely LOVES mint chocolate chip flavoured things it’s him – and that’s preciously what this tea tastes like! Next time he visits, I’m making sure he gives this one a fair shot.

I need to start my movie ASAP before I finish the cup! I just can’t stop sipping away at it.

Oh wow, this is my 100th tasting note! Dang, that happened fast…

I feel like this note should be longer, and more significant now – and I was planning on keeping it super short since I don’t really have anything significant to add about this tea that I haven’t already said.

Basically, this cup was the same yummy Tropicalia I usually drink but just a but more tangy pineapple flavoured than usual. In a good way. Still very refreshing with a nice thick mouthfeel. I want to try this as a soda so badly, and I’m loving this more and more so I’m upping my rating.

Oh how I wish this was part of DT’s regular collection.

I made myself a cup of this for the morning/early afternoon to take with on the bus ride to work. Today was my training shift, although it’s interesting because I was trained in a store I wont be working in – so the stock was different than what my store will be stocking, and the manager training me even said that many of her policies might be done differently by my manager. Hmm…

The cup I made today was over leafed, but that’s because I initially planned to add more water into my water bottle after the initial cup was done brewing. I didn’t want to brew two 6 oz. cups and have 12 oz. to drink on the bus, I wanted to end up with around 8 or 9 oz. However, I forgot to poor in more water so I just ended up with 6 oz. of really strong Monkey Bread.

It still tasted really good, but I’m wondering if there was a shortage or yogurt glob things in the dry leaf I used because there was WAY more spice cake flavour in comparison to the ooey gooey cream cheese icing sort of flavour I had last time. It still warmed me right up though, especially considering it was a very brisk and windy afternoon.

So, to use up the last of my can of Club Soda I decided to try another “experiment” and cold brew something directly into the club soda. I had no idea if it would work or not. So, I picked out a kind of tea I knew I liked a lot measured out a little extra than the intended amount of tea and dumped it into the can.

I then left the can with the tea in it in my fridge for around maybe 4 hours? And just now I pulled it out and poured it through a strainer into a cup. My biggest concern was that the soda would go flat from sitting in the fridge open for so long, and it appears my fear was not totally unjustified. This soda is much more weakly carbonated – although this is SOME carbonation. It’s like a fizzy drink.

I can taste the creamy pear and tart cranberry initially, but as the fizzing sensation really hits I get an overwhelming bitter taste. That’s not something I’ve ever really experienced drinking this tea normally, but then again I’ve also never cold brewed a black tea before and it makes sense to me that leaving a black tea to sit for around 4 hours would open it up to being fairly bitter.

Next time (and there will be a next time), I think I’ll be sticking to an herbal tea (which wont get bitter) if I’m going to cold brew my tea/soda in this method or I’ll be pouring the club soda into the tea (be it hot or cold) prior to steeping it. That said, this isn’t undrinkable – just not as pleasant as I would have hoped.

I find I’ve been doing an awful lot of experimenting lately. I think that’s a good thing, right?

When my Dad was over yesterday, we went grocery shopping and I picked up a case of soda water (12 cans or something like that?). I figured it’d be really neat if I could make my own pop – and probably really healthy too. So, today was pop experimentation day number one. I figured I’d try and play it safe today.

Fruit flavoured teas are natural pairings for soda, in my opinion. Just think of all the different kinds of Crush or things like Sprite or Mountain Dew which play off citrus flavours. So, I decided to make a Main Squeeze soda because it’s fruit, it’s a tea I enjoyed the first time I drank it, and I had some extra leaf from my first cup that I wanted to resteep.

So, I steeped up the leaf I had saved from my last cup with an extra 1/2 tsp. of unused dry leaf added in just to help out the flavour. I used boiling water and steeped it for around 4 to 5 minutes (I lost track of time). Before doing anything else I tried a bit of the tea as it was, and it tasted pretty flavourful and similar to how it did my first time drinking it.

In the future I’m probably going to cold brew teas I want to do this with (or at least stick them in the freezer temporarily to cool them down), but today I was impatient and made this as a hot carbonated drink. I wasn’t sure what proportions of club soda to tea to mix, so I just poured all the tea into a much larger mug and then added about a tbsp. of club soda at a time until it reached a level of carbonation I was happy with without totally diluting the taste.

I ended up using about a third of the can of club soda (just like a regular pop can sized can). The liquor is a really pale buttery yellow. Taste wise, it’s kind of odd but pleasantly so. I’ve never had a hot carbonated drink, so it’s a new experience. With the mix of tea and club soda, the level of carbonation is not as strong as you’d get from a regular soda – it’s more akin to the kind of fizzy feeling and sensation you’d get from Fizz candy. I think the tropical flavours of this tea work well with it, though – and I bet this would be awesome as a cold tea soda.

Since I still have another 2/3of a can of club soda left, I’m going to use that up today with some other teas. I have some Pink Flamingo leaf that I was going to try to re steep so I’ll mix the club soda and that one and I’ll find something else to try.

If there’s anyone else of Steepster that makes their own tea soda – how do you do it? What proportions do you use? I’m really curious to learn more about doing this. I wonder if you could cold steep tea straight into club soda or, by the time the flavour was leached out of the leaf, would the soda be flat by then? Maybe that’s a stupid idea… Just, share your soda experiences?

Tea number five out of my order of six teas from Della Terra. I’m a little ashamed at how long it’s taken me to get through these ones.

I’m not really sure how this one ended up one of the last ones for me to try since it was one of the ones I was most excited for when I placed my order, and it smells divine. The dry leaf, to me, smells like a cross between an honest to goodness s’more and a Charleston Chew vanilla nougat chocolate bar. I’m ok with both comparisons though – I enjoy both. I’m kind of surprised by how strongly you can smell the graham crackers and flavouring in the dry leaf: for whatever reason I wasn’t expecting to smell them and thought of them more as “the novelty” in the tea that made it a “s’more” and not just marshmallows and chocolate.

I steeped a level 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 tsp.) for my 6 oz. cup and steeped with near boiling water for approx. 3 min. 30 seconds. The liquor was a kind of medium to darkish brown colour and smelled heavenly (and very strongly of marshmallows). I’m feeling really impatient this morning (lots to do today, just sort of domestically around the house) so I added in a splash of milk to cool down the tea so I could drink it right away, however I didn’t taste the tea beforehand so I’ll have to do another comparison/review without milk.

Drinking, the initial taste is a really chocolatey black tea that gives way to a nice creamy, vanilla marshmallow flavour. The graham cracker notes are harder for me to notice, but I can tell that they’re there (again, that was more than I was expecting anyway). The flavour of the black tea base next to the marshmallows sort of mixes to create a semi “burnt marshmallow” flavour which is awesome to me – I love burnt marshmallows (I actually go out of my way to burn my marshmallows on purpose). However, at the core of the burnt marshmallow you still have the ooey gooey center.

Overall, I think this is a really good dessert tea and would be perfect for late nights during the summer if you’re either actually camping and want to pass on the calorie overload of an actual s’more or if you’re stuck in the city unable to actually go camping and you want to experience some of the awesomeness of camping anyway. I think Tre will like this one, so I’m gonna put off letting him try it for as long as possible.

But yes, this is a hit for me!

I actually had this twice today…

Whenever I spend the evening at the University with Robyn I usually stay for supper and eat and the huge buffet style cafeteria. Basically, you pay a flat rate and can eat as much as you want for up to three hours depending on when you show up to the meal (supper, for example, runs from five to eight). It’d be great except Robyn usually wants to eat quickly and then do other things – but she’s also not paying for the meal (it’s part of her residence/food plan). I, on the other hand, pay $12.55 each time I’m there so I want to get the most out of my meal.

I’ve had some really good food from there like pizza, mango chutney and tofu tacos, sweet potato fries, almond cherry coconut squares, and some of the best homemade style mac and cheese I’ve ever tried. Tonight, however, was the first time I had tea there. Unfortunately, all they carry is bagged Lipton teas – but they do have a good variety. I had this one with my dessert (carrot cake squares iced with a caramel cream cheese icing).

I didn’t make any physical notes while drinking this, but I retained a few mental ones. I remember this tea was really good initially but it also got overwhelmingly spicy and kind of “burny” on my tongue about halfway through. I also only had about 4 ounces of water to steep it in, and I’m not really sure what temperature of water it was steeped in – I didn’t have an exact way of telling.

Now, technically speaking, you’re not supposed to take any food out of the cafeteria hall – BUT, if I’m gonna pay a fair amount for food and be rushed eating it I’m gonna steal a few things… Like two teabags. I took another one of this one so I could properly review it, and a bag of Green Tea with Jasmine (to see if I can find a yummy bagged equivalent of the jasmine green tea that Lala sent me).

So, this one is not steeped following the recommended steeping instructions. Boiling water, for four minutes (low end of the spectrum, since it was really powerful before). Steeped, the liquor is a really murky brown and not so appealing looking. The smell is like a spiced orange. The mix of stuff in the teabag itself looked really gross as I pulled it out – kind of like beige baby vomit with little red bits (the hibiscus in the blend, likely). I apologize for the imagery, but well… That’s what it looks like.

Initial taste is orange notes in the front of the sip, with a more pleasant spiciness. I also detect faint lemon notes. I’m sticking with my impression of a “spiced orange”. I can’t completely recall the entire ingredients list, but I would be surprised if cloves isn’t part of it. With a little honey to sweeten up the orange, I think this could be really amazing.

Currently, I’m drinking this while I eat a slice of pecan pie, which I’ve being having CONSTANT cravings for during the last two weeks, making this slice so much more heavenly. I love that “as an adult” if I want to go out and buy a pecan pie to eat all by myself I can do that. The tastes are actually complimenting each other pretty nicely though.

Overall, I’m happy. I think this might be the first Lipton tea I’ve tried since getting really into loose leaf teas that I’d actually drink again with some enthusiasm. I’m not sure if I’d buy a whole box, though. I’d definitely steal myself another teabag, though!

PS. I think I should note that this tea seemed to do much more for my sore throat today than the Bravissimo from earlier did.

Backlog from earlier in the day.

Tre woke up really sick today, so I made him a large cup of this since it’s supposedly really good for colds/sore throats and such. About half way through the morning I realized that I too was getting a stuffy nose and had a sore throat. Yeck.

So, I made two really strong cups of this and poured them into my water bottle to take with me to the University today. I drank most of it on the bus ride while it was still hot, and then finished the rest off while we were in the middle of the “queeristorical walking tour” that the U of S Pride Center was running.

The tour was actually really cool and informative, and Robyn and I got to learn a lot about the LGBTQ history of the university. The tour guide was also really funny and entertaining, so it made up for a few of the (slightly) more boring sections of the tour.

The tea itself was really good. I find that with an extended brewing time (about ten minutes) and a little extra leaf this tea tastes basically like pure licorice and is super sweet, which is perfect for me. I know this blend has mint in it, but I really can’t detect it. Actually, a lot of the flavour get lost in the overall taste of the licorice and the only tastes shining through are chamomile and something that tastes like “chicken noodle soup” broth slightly (in the front of the sip mostly), but pleasant like? That’s a bad description.

Anyway, I’m finding this tea is perfect for when I’m really desiring licorice but otherwise ends up mostly forgotten about within my collection. Woops. As for whether it’s good for feeling sick, I’ll have to ask Tre tomorrow how he felt – it didn’t really do much for my stuffiness or sore throat. Oh well.