Roswell Strange Send Message

Was skeptical of this blend because of the green base, but open to trying it still. Dry aroma actually smelled really nice; intense, heavy notes of oranges with a boozey kind of feel to the overall aroma. I decided to ice it because I figured since it’s ‘punch’ inspired that’d work nicely but, umm, it really didn’t…

I don’t know how else to say it any more nicely, but it tasted so badly like those super chalky, artificial chewable orange vitamins my mom used to give me as a kid. There were orange, purple, and pink ones and I mean the orange definitely tasted the best out of the three but none of them were good and I’m not exactly thrilled about getting to relive them in tea form. I let a few coworkers try this one to see if any of them were more into it, but all of them really disliked this one and I just can’t blame them.

It just wasn’t good. I didn’t finish my mug of it.

Another Sipsby subscription box pick.

This one wasn’t bad, but it’s wasn’t great either. For starters it’s a sachet, and I really dislike oolong teas in sachet form – I want to give the leaf as much room to expand as humanly possible and this is just so restrictive.

Taste wise, it was smooth and relatively medium bodied with some nice natural sweetness and a good, consistent floral note throughout – kind of orchid like. The undertone was a bit fruity, sort of like an apricot/nectarine type of thing. Or peach skins. Finish was JUST A LITTLE BIT woody, but not in a way that even remotely makes me think ‘Ah, yes – pine!" so I’m really not sure where the name of this one comes from at all?

I think this will be easy to finish off, but overall it’s pretty average to me.

Sipdown (515)!

Oh boy, my cupboard is just… Can you say ‘explosion’?

This sample came from Kittenna – it’s something that, if I were looking to place an order with Taiwan Tea Crafts, I could actually see myself being interested in ordering so I was excited to try it out. I believe I have tea from lot 364, for what it’s worth.

Normally this is something I’d likely look to try Gong Fu, but I don’t have quite a big enough sample to give it a proper go as a Gong Fu tea so I’m just drinking it Western instead. I think it still gives me a pretty good representation of the flavour though. It’s actually really good, and quite smooth! More of a full bodied flavour for sure. I’m getting a mix of notes including heavy roast/toastyness, whole wheat bread, and a little bit of char in the body and finish, honey top notes, floral and raisin undertones, and wood in the aftertaste. It’s a good balance of more umami type tasting notes, and overall natural sweetness.

Really tasty!

We finally got vanilla agave back in stock, so I caved and bought some of that and about 50g of this one as well. I’m honestly just not a fan of this one when I drink it on its own, but with that vanilla agave I think it’s phenomenal. I mean, it brings out the creaminess of the yogurt, and makes it taste genuinely sweet and buttery like a muffin while also tempering some of the acidity/sourness of the hibby and apple in the blend. It become a ‘blueberry muffin’ rather than more of a ‘cider’.

And that’s conflicting for me because I don’t want to have to own a flavoured agave syrup/need to sweeten my tea for it to taste good to me. I think a tea should be able to hold its own just consumed straight. But, it’s SO GOOD with the agave! I hate myself for caving, just a little bit, but there’s not one bit of me that’s angry at this cup I’m sipping on right now. It’s delicious, and I’d recommend this combo of flavour to anyone any day of the week…

Argh!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Love, love, love the Lovecraftian horror sort of marketing spin on this one; Damn Fine tea always nails their marketing, and the imagery on their tins is exquisite in and of itself. I’ll be honest, the tea sounded pretty good to me but the final straw in deciding to get it was 100% that tin…

I’ll try this Western and Gong Fu before deciding how I’ll be consuming the bulk of this tin – but I’m starting Western for my tasting because it’s just far more convenient for me/I can do it at work. It’s pretty good – damn smooth, that’s for sure. Flavour notes are a solid mix of malt, honey, baked bread, cocoa, and sweet potato with touches of woody/earthy undertone. Emphasis on the baked bread aspects, though! Really rich, thick velvety mouthfeel and good lingering presence of sweetness in the finish.

I’m certainly feeling it – and it makes me very excited to Gong Fu potential. Even if that doesn’t go well, though, I think this will make a very nice casual/daily drinker that still had well defined flavour/profile and doesn’t need any additives.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE5arf6PQCo&index=2&list=WL

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd79ab4F8A1/?taken-by=ros_strange

Woke up this morning craving this tea so badly. So, when I went downstairs to measure out the teas I wanted to bring to work with me for the day this is one that I started with immediately. There’s no way like wake up deeply craving a tea that you actually own and you don’t drink it that day.

I’m still so into this one; it still tastes incredibly fresh to me with really robust and sweet and tart rhubarb notes. I haven’t ventured into the added milk territory yet with this one because I’m a little worried it’s just a bit too tangy/acidic and it might curdle the milk but you have NO IDEA how much I want to bust in that ‘creamy rhubarb’ territory. Maybe I’ll try the milk thing next time…

It wasn’t the end of the world that I couldn’t add milk though because in addition to being fairly green tasting and a little rosey/floral the oolong base also had a nice buttery finish to it. It wasn’t quite the same as a creamy rhubarb custard sort of flavour but it was still really nice and complimentary to the overall cup.

But guys, I’m gonna need some serious rhubarb oolong recommendations! I’m probably gonna be out of this one before I know it and it’s definitely not something I can easily get my hands on again. So anyone else have a rhubarb oolong tea that they really like? Or maybe just a rhubarb tea in general? Open to suggestions, for sure!

Iced tea!

Let a coworker pick out a tea for me today; nothing off limits – just whatever she felt I should have. I’m proud of myself for guessing it on the first try, too! It was a good choice; I’ve actually been drinking this one a lot lately because it’s probably my favourite yerba mate/high caffeine tea that we carry now that my store’s officially out of Just Beet It. And lord knows that sometimes I need the caffeine. Flavour wise, it’s pretty strongly strawberry and lemon which is something I find very, very consistent about the blend. Also fairly sweet. I definitely did get a bit more currant in this cup though; probably more perceptive to it at the moment because I’ve also been drinking a lot of Gaba Guava too which is also a currant blend.

Anyway; thanks for the pick Lexie!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Morning cuppa at work today.

I still don’t love this one, but there are some really nice aspects to it – the creamyness of the while chocolate is a nice, softer undertone that adds a lot of body and richness to the profile of the cup as a whole. And, the sort of ‘brandied’/boozy fruit aspect is growing on me. Anyone who’s ever had an AU blend with plum will really pick out that flavour – it’s super consistent in all of their blends and this is not an exception. Aftertaste lingers, and while it starts off pleasant enough it does finish in a rather artificial way and for me that’s definitely the biggest drawback to the overall cup.

I wasn’t as wowed overall with this collection (Breathless, In The Mood For Love, The Black Lodge, Psychocandy, and Arabasque) as I’ve been with others – in fact the only tea I think I’d actually want to repurchase is the Psychocandy blend. However, this is probably my second favourite overall. If I could give any feedback to AU overall it would be that I’m at a point now where I’ve tried a lot of their blends and I’ve started to pick up on flavour notes that are present in a lot of them. They very much have certain flavours they seem to really enjoy including (smokey blacks, stonefruit, turkish apple, vanilla, etc.) and it’s not that they’re bad notes to hit on but they do at a certain point feel repetitive.

Since this is a company that really prides themselves on cutting edge, unique, and inspired flavours/ideas I’d really like to seem them diversify their flavours a little more. Especially when it comes to their blacks; I feel like often they rely strongly on the idea of smoked black tea or apple-y fruit flavours. I’d very much to see a bright, vibrant fruity black tea that doesn’t use stonefruit, apple, or smoked tea. Like, what about a blueberry? Or an exotic fruit – like starfruit or lychee? I think the AU take on lychee black tea could be pretty cool. Also, just throwing it out there, but what about more unique flavoured white options? That could be fun to experiment with.

But anyway, it was actually an awesome day! The last week has very much been dragging for me and it definitely didn’t start off super positively. A few weeks ago I was training our new manager on the core roles/duties of being a ‘tea guide’ (basically all the entry level stuff), after which the company sent him off to another store to do his management training. He got back at the start of the week, and it definitely wasn’t the most seamless transition. There were a lot of initial issues, and personality wise he didn’t seem to be meshing overly well with the team as a whole.

I mean, don’t get me wrong it’s very rare for management changes in general to go smoothly – and not only were we getting a new store manager but we were also losing our assistant store manager. I’m thrilled to say everything has only gotten better over the course of the week; personality wise everything seems to be clicking into place and he’s getting along great with the team – but not too much. Our previous manager got along FABULOUSLY with everyone but almost to a point where she approached things as more of a ‘friend’ than a superior. I don’t think that’s gonna be the case here. Plus, for the first time in a while I feel really supported in my role as a keyholder and I feel like I have a boss who not only deeply appreciates my ‘background’ with tea, but who deeply wants to help me to continue to grow with the company. There are still gonna be bumps along the way, but a lot less than I had originally assessed.

Last tea of the day.

It was a pretty low tea day for me; I had a lot going on in the afternoon and early evening. We had to pick up Eilert’s ashes today and now I’m stuck in a spot where I just don’t know what to do with them. I can’t hold on to them; it’s just going to upset me to see them in the house all the time, and feel like I have the responsibility to carry them with me my whole life from house to house. On the flip side, I don’t want to scatter them either. I don’t know; it feels… just not right.

What I really want to do is bury them; but it’s the middle of fucking winter in Saskatchewan. The ground is so frozen, and there’s so much snow and ice on top of it. So, looks like his ashes will be hanging out with me until Spring when everything is more thawed out. Now the question is where do I put him in the meantime. Part of me wants to just tuck the scatter box in the closet so I don’t have to see it all the time – and another part of me thinks that’s wildly disrespectful. I just don’t know.

As for the tea; it was ok. This has been a somewhat problematic tea for me in general since receiving it, and this wasn’t a great cup but it was one of the better ones that I’ve been able to produce. It reminded me of very pithy mandarin oranges, which was a weird flavour because mandarins just aren’t very pithy. Sure, regular garden variety oranges can be, but generally mandarins are not. They have one of the sweetest peels of most citrus fruits, with very little of the weird, bitter white pith. So… just strange in general.

But a moderately ok sort of strange.

Sipdown (486)!

Finished this one off early in the afternoon along with the first chapters of a new book. This one was a sipdown that felt good; green tea isn’t usually my jam so finishing off a small tin of if definitely feels like an accomplishment.

Flavour wise, it was fine. Nothing different from what I’ve experienced from it the last few months so I’ve got to praise the consistency. That said, I think I just wasn’t in the mood for green tea today because it took me forever to finish the mug. Not because I was distracted or anything, but just because I didn’t feel overly compelled to to take that next sip. There was no ‘draw’…

So mixed experience today overall.