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I think I was really tired when I wrote my tasting notes for this one (probably exhausted from the travel time driving down to Winnipeg from Regina), because I titled it was “Pumpkin Chai – Tea Desire”. Yeah, definitely not a tea desire tea…

I used 2 tsp. for 12 oz. steeped in boiling water (in my timolino) for 5 minutes. I made this one for the drive from Regina to Winnipeg, and out all all the teas I had over my trip this one was probably made with the worst brewing conditions (which really weren’t too bad).

The smell as it steeped was very light cinnamon and cloves (especially the cloves, I hardly detected them at all). Maybe the small amount I brought with didn’t actually have any cloves in it? I could really smell the pumpkin, and especially the caramel (I noticed lots of little caramel square bits in the dry leaf though – more than usual).

The taste worked out to be more balanced than the smell was, and was delicious of course (it always is). Sometimes I like the add milk and honey to this one, but when I made this for the trip it was straight with nothing added. Caramel smell was especially present, and the carrot too.

Woot! Got back from Central Canada Comic Con a few hours ago and managed to get everything all unpacked pretty quickly. And as soon as I was unpacked what was the first thing I did? Went to the DAVIDsTEA website to check out the new blends and then opened up a tab for Steepster to see how the reviews were looking so far. I have to say, it seems like the reviews for the teas I initially was interested in (Gingerbread Rooibos, White Chocolate Frost, and Spiced Fig) are not really making me want to try them: however the things sort of being complained about/disliked in regard to Choconut Oolong DO make me a bit more interested in it (I love licorice root).

I actually ended up with money left over from what I had budgeted, so I think that will go towards funding my next David’s purchase tomorrow after work. I’m not sure what new teas I’ll walk out with yet, but I will also be restocking on Main Squeeze and buying a replacement lid/steeped for my Timolino.

Best part of Comic Con was TOTALLY meeting James Marsters! I wish I hadn’t gotten really shy and nervous, because he was super friendly and nice (I got the shake his fucking hand!!!). We talked about Sarah Michelle Gellar’s breasts…

But anyway, I’m about to post tasting notes on all of the teas I had on my trip. I actually wound up having some really great brewing conditions where I was staying, so I probably could have brought some more finicky teas with me, but oh well – at least I had tea at all! My Dad has apparently started calling me his “tea connoisseur” and when we were staying at my Step Aunt’s house she seemed like she was trying to impress me with her “tea knowledge” (she was boasting about how interesting she is because she’s tried chocolate teas and knows there’s a difference between black and green tea). I had to try really hard to not “show off” or be rude, because she’s 60+ and meant well – but when I pulled out my bag of measured out samples and started answering her questions about what things were she seemed kind of overwhelmed and got really quiet…

So, for this one I steeped 1 1/2 tsp. for 12 oz. in 85 degree water in my Timolino for three minutes. I think next time I’m going to use a bit cooler water, and steep for probably a little less time.

Dry the smell was lightly milky and creamy with a very strong oolong smell and steeped, the smell was condensed milk (sweet milk smell) and quite creamy. I could still smell the Oolong base, though not as strongly as it came through for me in the dry leaf. I should mention now that this is my first “milk oolong” (although, I understand that it’s not a traditional milk oolong either), so I have nothing as a base for comparison.

The taste was creamy, and lightly reminded me of condensed milk or something else sweet and sugary: MAYBE a very, very light caramel flavour. I think I’d need to drink it again to be sure. It was slightly artificial tasting, and slightly astringent and i think the latter could probably be avoided with better steeping temperature or steep time. The oolong base came through very strongly but taste quite good.

Last tea I’ll be having at home until probably Monday, maybe Tuesday. I leave for my comic con trip in just a few hours, and since I hadn’t tied this yet I figured I’d make some up and give it a proper review.

Dry leaf smells like black cherry ice cream and bubble gum: it’s very creamy and rich smelling with only a little bit of the green tea base’s scent coming through. My initial thought was that maybe this would be one of the few teas I find actually really truly benefits from added milk (to enhance the ice cream flavour I’ve thinking this might have). Out of the three teas I bought from Tea Desire, this is the one that my coworker Briana thought smelled the best: however she’s also REALLY into green tea, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I steeped about 1 1/2 tsp. of this for my 10 oz. mug for three minutes. The smell is a much lighter cherry with a more strong and intense green tea smell: not really a plus for me. It still mildly reminds me of bubblegum. I’m thinking maybe I steeped too long or the water was a bit too hot, because this has a sort of bitter taste to it, and is kind of astringent. The cherry taste is coming through, but less so in a sweet way and a bit more in a slightly medicinal way. I’m still getting notes of sweet bubble gum though, and that’s helping to save/redeem the cherry flavour. It’s a bit like bitter, astringent seaweed with a sweet, sugary cherry and bubble gum candy coating. I’m going to have to try this again with lower temperature water to be really sure about the taste.

Overall, right now, it’s kinda just… meh.

EDIT: Added some milk to the last half of the cup. It neither added to nor worsened the tea.

I wanted tea this morning before I left, so as I was making the tea to put into my two water bottles I decided to make myself a cup of this (and a water bottle full of it too). Last night when I was picking travel teas I realized I have a TON of this left, and I didn’t want to take any with because it’s really temperamental to brew. So, using some up today.

I realized something else today that, dare I say it, was “Earth Shattering”. Well, not really Earth shattering, but still a pretty freaking big deal. For those who don’t know (basically all of you), I’m TERRIBLE at math. Seriously – I BARELY passed the classes in highschool (passed with a 50), and I can’t divide anything larger than 20 to save my life. Something just doesn’t click.

So, when I moved up to Saskatoon I asked my mom how many ounces the tea cups and mugs I was taking with me held, as well as how much my water bottle holds. Around the time I was moving was when I was REALLY getting into tea and starting to actually pay attention to how much leaf I was using and water temperature and things like that. She told me that my water bottle was 12 oz., the smaller set of tea cups was 6 oz., and the larger was 8 oz. and I just accepted this as the truth.

Well, today I realized that she gave me incorrect information: I guess she’s just as bad at math as I am. How do I know this? Well, I recently bought a timolino from David’s (the 12 oz. one) thinking it’d hold the same amount as my water bottle. I didn’t notice yesterday because I steeped my tea straight into the timolino, but today I made the tea for my timolino separately to pour into my timolino. I expected it to half fill it because I was using my “6 oz.” cup – but instead it almost completely filled it. So, I did some actual research and some math (it took forever, because I wasn’t sure I was doing it correctly), and it turns out that my teacups/mugs actually hold the following amounts:

- Timolino: 12 oz. (obviously)
- Waterbottle: 20 oz.!!!
- Small Teacups: 8 oz.
- Larger Teacups: 10 oz.!!!

So, I’ve been steeping the incorrect amount of leaf for months… And times when I thought I was overleafing, turns out I was essentially just using the correct amount of leaf. I’m just… shocked. I feel like I was told the worst, nastiest lie. I mean, I’ve been enjoying the amounts I’ve been drinking, so I don’t think I’m going to change the way I’ve been drinking tea completely – but I’m sort of stunned? Here I was thinking I liked my teas extra strong, but really I like them how they’re supposed to be made?

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Urgh. My head hurts… The tea is a lie!

So, starting “fresh”: Today I steeped 1 tsp. of this for 8 oz. of tea. It was actually pretty good, but I’m finding myself falling out of love with it. I think that’s because since initially trying it I’ve discovered better lemon flavoured teas. It was pretty creamy though – and I really love that in an Earl Grey. I have more of it for the trip back home to Regina (spending the night there and then leaving for Winnipeg for Comic Con way early in the morning of the 1st), but I prepared it pretty much the same way as this cup so I’m not going to create a separate note for it since I’m sure it’ll taste essentially the same.

Made this in my timolino (very carefully because of the broken brewing basket) today for work. I actually think I need to lower my rating from where it’s at for this tea… It’s just not doing it for me anymore, and I’m thinking I’m probably not going to restock this again (at least for a while and as a low priority restock) whenever I do run out of it.

Work was slow, so I actually made tasting notes while working. I’ll just leave them here in jot form: I’m super tired and excited for comic con tomorrow and just want to hurry up and get all cozy in bed.

- Steeped in Timolino 2 1/2 tsp. of tea for 7 min. in boiling water
- Burned the inside of my lip because I’m still not used to how hot the Timolino is keeping my teas… :(
- Only saw one melon piece in the dry leaf I used (seems like I got practically none in the dry leaf I bought – but I’ve been trying to get one into each cup)
- Even though there was only one piece in the leaf, the melon scent was still very present in the liquor
- Also strong aroma of goji and hibiscus
- Taste was very weak even though I used lots of leaf
- Hardly any melon taste at all (which is what I loved with this tea)
- Main flavor summary: ‘watered down, tart hibiscus with a little goji’

While certainly not the worst tea I’ve had, it really did nothing for me and I found it a bit of a chore finishing it off. Tea shouldn’t be a chore. I wish there was a stronger melon taste and a little less tart hibiscus: that might redeem this for me. Alas, it’s unremarkable as is…

Work today was very slow, but on the plus side the guy who works in the kiosk next to mine is VERY nice to look at – so that gave me something to do today…

Earlier today I purchased a timolino, which means if I give myself enough time before work I can make two different teas to take with me: one in the timolino and one in my crappy metal waterbottle which gets scalding hot if you pour boiling water in it, and then cools down very quickly because it’s not meant to hold heat… And, I did have time before work so I made two teas!

This one went in the crappy metal waterbottle because I’ve had it cold before and I know it’s not too bad cold. I made two seperate cups and poured them together for this: I’ve tried resteeping leaves for this in the past, but it’s basically a herbal and just doesn’t resteep too well. Both cups used about 2 tsp. of leaf and were made in boiling water. I actually decided to make this based off the discussion going on with Cavocorax’s tasting note. Really put me in the mood to have this again…

Work was actually slow enough that I was able to make tasting notes while drinking, so I’m just going to jot note the things I wrote down while drinking it today:

- Temp. was medium warm (hotter than lukewarm) at time of consumption
- Strong buttery/apple notes which, together, made me think of light fluffy apple pastry like strudels
- Lightly tart/tangy (gives off a “green apple” vibe)
- No bitterness or astringency
- Nutty notes, especially in the aftertaste
- The nutty notes enhanced both apple and butter flavour
- This is a great autumn tea!

Sample sipdown!

Thanks again Lala for this sample. I really enjoyed it as an ice tea, and just couldn’t wait to try it as a hot tea. So, the last (barely) tsp. went into this cup which was steeped in boiling water for about 8 min. MOstly it was steeped that long because I forgot it was steeping – I was too busy packaging up the teas that are coming with me tomorrow to comic con.

I decided that I’m gonna take five things with to comic con (it’s a four day trip). So, here’s what I packed:

- Approx. 2 cups worth of David’s Main Squeeze
- Approx. 2 cups worth of David’s Cream of Earl Grey
- Approx. 3 cups worth of Tea Desire’s Milky Oolong
- Approx. 1 cup worth of David’s Guava Cadabra (This’ll be a sipdown)
- Approx. 1 (maybe 2) cups worth of David’s Pumpkin Chai

And then I also threw in some tea bags just in case.

However, back to the tea I’m drinking at present…

Steeped it smells quite different from how it was iced. It’s very tart smelling, and also kind of smells like lemon scented Pledge. However, odd as it might be – that’s really appealing to me. I love the scent of Pledge (actually I like the smell of most cleaning supplies), so it smells really good.

Now mind you, I’ve never actually tasted Pledge – but I don’t think it tastes like what this tea tastes like. It is VERY tart and sour, with a pure lemon taste – nothing really “cleaning supply” like about it though. Actually, I’m not really enjoying it too much hot. Although, as I’ve let it cool down it’s gotten much better. I might just stick the rest in the fridge to cool off totally and then drink it cold: it was much better that way.

Sad to say goodbye to this, though! I’m so glad I got to experience it! If it wasn’t discontinued, I’d pick a little bit up to use in the summer months.

After dropping off the keys I stole (took home accidentally) from work last night, I took a trip downtown to David’s and picked up a timolino! Yay! Now I can take two thermoses of tea to work for long shifts: one in my crappy metal water bottle to drink cold, and one in my new timolino to drink hot!

At checkout, the sales lady asked me if I wanted a tea to go in my new timolino, and how could I resist? I decided to pick out something from the fall collection that I hadn’t tried – so I went for this one! I love pistachios (especially pistachio pudding) but when the fall collection came out I wasn’t very inclined to pick any of this up because I was more focused on exploring white and green teas since I’m most familiar with black and herbal teas. I’m really thankful now that I did pick a herbal tea today…

Water temp was boiling water, and I watched the sales lady add a perfect teaspoon to the brewing basket (which I think is 1 1/2 tsp of leaf). She suggested taking the leaves out after seven minutes or so. Well, when I went to take the leaves out to my surprise the brewing basket was not attatched and had sunk to the bottom of the timolino. I guess she didn’t attatch it very well… There were leaves floating everywhere and since I was downtown I certainly didn’t have the equiptment to pour and strain the tea then clean out the inside of the thermos. So, I bussed back home all the while sipping at my tea.

The scent is very nutty and signature pistachio, but not very sweet. Scent alone is not something that would make me want to buy this tea, that’s for sure. The liquor started off a brilliant emerald green but by the time I’d got home to strain everything it’s now a very, VERY dark “khaki”/forrest green and it’s so solid I can’t see to the bottom of the cup. It’s actually darker now than Blueberry Jam usually is when brewed.

Taste was initially a very nutty, pistachio with a super creamy aftertaste that sort of reminded me of pistachio pudding without a lot of sweetener. It was good, but not REALLY good. I could also taste the chamomile pretty strongly, and something else that must have been the mulberry leaves (I’ve never had a tea with mulberry leaves, so not really sure what they’re supposed to taste like). The longer the leaves sat in the timolino the more strong and appetizing the smell of the tea was, but drinking it the pistachio got very cloying and it left a bad taste of cream in my mouth. But honestly, that’s to be expected since this tea ended up steeping in near boiling water for AT LEAST 20 minutes.

I’m just glad I went with a herbal tea instead of one really sensitive to heat that would’ve gotten really bitter with this amount of steep time. All things considered, this tea was not bad. I’m really glad I tried it, because with the new collection coming out in a few days (according to the sales lady, there’ll be the 5 winter teas, 3 holiday teas, AND the tea of the month ALL coming out on the 1st – so that’s NINE teas to try out) who knows if I’d have had a chance to try it again. I’m glad I didn’t absolutely love it though – that’d make the fact I wont have steady access to it so much harder.

Drinking a piping hot mug of this while I start season four of Degrassi: The Next generation. I really just needed something caffeine free with a sweet vanilla flavor. The eggyness of this blend is really hitting all the right notes too. I must be more drained than I thought I was though, because I swear I taste strawberry – which MUST be wrong since there’s NO fruit in this blend, and I haven’t even eaten anything strawberry flavored all day.

Stupid sleepy brain.

I decided I want to bring four teas with to Comic Con. Now to pick which four… I think Main Squeeze, for sure. And then I was thinking Cream of Earl Grey, and not sure what else. I think I’m gonna go back through some of my tasting notes and try to pick out which teas still tasted good under poor steeping conditions. That’s gonna be the key here.

Anyway, night night Steepster.

Work tea for the day. I started quite early in the morning and only got about three hours of sleep last night, so I knew I was going to need the energy boost from a Mate tea, and I was hesitant to go for Mint Mate after my awful mint infused hot chocolate experience I had recently, plus I’ve been favouring Main Squeeze lately – so time to show Chocolate Rocket some love!

I brewed two separate cups of this and poured them into my thermos. I was really diligent with following steeping parameters today; which was odd considering how freaking tired I was. Unlike usual, I actually didn’t finish all of this while I was at work: I still had about a quarter of a thermos left when I got home, which I’m drinking now. It’s not that the tea tasted bad: on the contrary this was an amazing cuppa today with stronger than usual raspberry and chocolate notes and a scrumptious roasted mate taste that just drives me crazy in the best way. My only complaint would be that I experienced some astringency which I don’t typically ever get from this – but it wasn’t awful.

I think in part it’s because I wasn’t really selling things today: mostly I was just very focused on finishing unpacking all of the toys for our store’s new section and making sure everything not only found a place on the shelves but found the RIGHT place. It was a long shift (over nine hours), but it seems super short because of how focused I was. I think, mostly, I just didn’t finish this at work because I was too busy.

Urgh. Speaking of work, I took the locker key home by accident which means that whoever opens tomorrow wont be able to unlock the locker to grab the float for the till (kinda important). It would have been fine if I was opening – but sadly I’m not. So even though I don’t start tomorrow until about 1:30 PM I have to go in at 9 AM and bring the key to the opener… Boo. Hiss. There goes my day of sleeping in!

Plus side: I finished packing for Comic Con today, and I was one of the winners for RiverTea’s contest! Yay!

Downside: I have nasty acid reflux which means I’m gonna have to be super picky about what tea I make myself later tonight… And I really wanted to try the last two teas I bought from Tea Desire: but not with stupid acid reflux affecting how they taste and the experience. I guess tomorrow after work…