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And my Dad has just arrived so gotta make this last tasting note very quick. Thankfully it’s the last one left in my queue anyway.

Anyway, this is a cold brew; and a good one. Nothing out of what I’ve observed to be “the usual” for this blend – cream, coconut, oranges, lemongrass, bamboo. All wonderful flavours combined together; it’s light, summery and refreshing! Actually a really nice way to start the morning!

Made a large mug of this as a sole tea to sip on last night while watching the Double Eviction episode with Tre last night; it was a rollercoaster of an episode! My second favourite houseguest ended up going home. I hate double evictions…

This was delicious! As always, of course. It’s my sweet Fruit Loops tea with red currant and strawberry notes and loads of vanilla! Mmmm!

I’m actually running relatively low on this one, so restocking is probably a thing that will be happening very shortly. I think I may need to stock up on Caramel Pu’Erh too so at least I wont be restocking just one thing.

Sipdown (126/133)!

Made the last of this one from VariaTEA in my timolino. Honestly, I can probably sum up the whole thing by just saying that it wasn’t nearly as good as the cold brew but I suppose I’ll break it down a little more.

Pretty much it was just a straight up, simple, no frills coconut/pineapple similar to the cold brew but with the difference of the coconut being somewhat significantly more flavourful than the pineapple. Additionally, I kept getting cocoa notes from the black base, and I thought they weren’t meshing well with the rest of the tea. That’s probably the biggest reason it wasn’t as good as the cold brew: no cocoa in the cold version.

Side Question: Anyone played the Stanley Parable? I watched a few LPs of it last night and it looks super interesting. Debating making Tre get it on his Steam Account so I can play…

Sipdown (127/134)!

Just finished Dad-Proofing my house. It’s my day off today, and it look like it’s going to be spent with my father who let me know last night that he was planning on coming up for the day. Urgh.

So, he’ll be here in like half an hour so I’m trying to squeeze in my tasting notes from yesterday’s teas now instead of waiting until after he leaves, ‘cause who knows when that’ll be…

At least I can take advantage of his car to do one really big grocery run; normally I do small runs so I can reasonably walk/bus home with the groceries.

Anyway this was a cold brew and, obviously, the last of this tea. It was a really good cold brew; sweet and sugary and definitely Cotton Candy flavoured, but I think it’ll be the last cold brew. While this has been sweet and fun I’ve gone through something like 50g of it now, and I think that’s enough to have fully experienced it.

Though, if I wind up making it into a DT store before the carnival collection leaves I’ll get it to go as a latte because that’s the one way I wanted to try it that I never got to.

Last tea of the night; and yeah I know I made six cups at once (shhhh, I do not have a problem) but this actually truly was the last of the night because it’s the last of those six cups that I finished – not because it was bad or anything, but because I knew this was one that would still be very good once it had gone cold, so I didn’t feel rushed to slurp it all down.

Tonight all the fruits in this really, really stood out on their own; like more so than usual, and especially after it had gone cold. The star was the very plump, ripe tasting strawberry in this but it was accented magnificently by the tropical tasting pineapples and the bright, sweet cherries and rhubarb. I even tasted the pear and lemon myrtle, both of which I find normally get lost under all the other amazing, contributing fruits.

It was like a cup of very fresh fruit salad! Or mixed fruit pie filling…

Delicious!

I put the tin away in my closet, but I feel like I may have to bring it right back out again; the one is calling out to me, telling me I better cold brew it sooner rather than later and I really don’t think I can argue with it.

This was the other totally new tea to me that I decided to steep up! It’s been sitting in my kitchen waiting to get made for days now, and tonight I finally went for it!

I’ll be honest, I’ve never had a tamarind before and I don’t really know what they’re supposed to taste like or what I should have been expecting, but I know Courtney is really fond of this one, and I was able to send some of what I ordered to VariaTEA and that made it easier for me to add this to my most recent Butiki order even if I was unsure about it.

It was actually very good. Again, I have no idea of knowing whether I really got “Tamarind” from it, but it was sweet and juicy and the black base was, not surprisingly, really smooth and tasty. I’d say I picked up on notes of caramel, plum, honey, and maybe some very light citrus notes?

I enjoyed half the cup hot, and then the rest pretty close to stone cold since I was focusing on the other cups I had made, and either temperature this stayed really vibrant and flavourful. The only major change was a very slight bitterness in the last couple sips where were ice cold – probably from the very fine tea leaf bits which had been sitting a while.

I have several more cups worth left, so I’ll be sure to try it again in the hopefully not so distant future – maybe with a few less blends to distract. I’d really like to be able to focus on this one to see the full range of flavours I taste in it.

Finally getting around to trying this one! I’ve shared it with a few people now, but this is the first time I’ve personally tried it. And it’s weird because when I was picking teas I was craving this one so much, and I’ve literally never had it before.

And then, when I took my first sips I distinctly thought “Meh, this isn’t that impressive” but realistically with five other cups of tea in front of me to choose from this was the mug I kept coming back to for sips (even over consistent favourites like Cranberry Pear) and the first one I finished off, so there’s gotta be something about it that I really, really loved.

I don’t know; the rooibos was sweet and very natural tasting, and the fruit was juicy and mildly passion fruit flavoured, even if I don’t think it was super distinct. I definitely wouldn’t guess passion fruit right away if I was trying it blind, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s just one of those teas that really builds in flavour as you sip it?

I have lots left from my 50g purchase, so I’ll be sure to have it again sooner rather than later – and I definitely want to try it as a cold brew; I think that could yield really good results.

And added bonus: this is local! I love being able to support a local loose leaf store!

I’m laughing so much right now because when I went to type in “Cranberry Pear” so I could write this review I ended up typing “Cranberry Favourite” instead. Freudian slip much? It really is a favourite though.

So yeah, with five other teas to sip on at the same time I knew I definitely needed a few in there that I consistently love, especially when two of the six I brewed up were totally new to me, and two were blends I’d only had one time prior. And of course this was amazing; creamy pear with sweet cranberry undertones. I wish I had milk in the house; this is a killer latte.

Really didn’t like the cold brew of this so I figured a hot brew was probably out of the question (if it was piercingly hibiscus cold, it was bound to be hellish hot) but actually I think the hot brew was, super shockingly, better!

It was like hot pink lemonade, similar to DT’s Pink Flamingo blend. Only difference is this was more hibiscus and less citrus. Pink Flamingo is definitely better than this one in pretty much all regard, but the mug I this I steeped up was at least drinkable which is more than I can say for the cold brew.

I guess I’ll be finishing this one off hot. Definitely not something I was expecting to do.

Did a round of six teas for the evening; a few old, a few new. I guess this one falls somewhere in the middle as I’ve had it before, but only once so I guess I don’t really know this one well yet, even though we’ve been introduced before.

My observations with this cup? Definitely more strongly vanilla flavoured than I remember the first cup being. And a very rich, thick vanilla too. Bourbon? I don’t know about that – maybe really faintly. I want more from it; which I guess is how I was feeling last time (I just read my review on this from the first cup I had). I also picked up on light notes of oak and caramel.

I think overall this was smoother and just tastier in general than when I had it the first time around, even though both times the bourbon was lacking. I must have been in a really critical state of mind last time I had it because I rated this a “67” and I think it’s at least deserving of a “70” – it’s a pretty good vanilla black!