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I had a really long shift at work today, and I knew that the tea I had prepared in my thermos was NOT going to last me all shift so since I had just been down to the bank to cash my latest paycheck I went and stopped at Tea Desire right before my shift started and picked up a Tea to Go!

I’m just going to take a second the RAVE about the absolutely amazing customer service there! Personally, I’ve really never had a bad experience anywhere I’ve gone to buy tea – and I’ve had some super helpful and fun people serve me at the different DAVIDsTEA locations I’ve been to, but nothing compares to Tea Desire! There are two lovely ladies who consistently work there (maybe there are more employees, but those are the only two I’ve encountered) and each time I go they impress me! Not only are they very sweet and friendly, but they have a great knowledge about their product and an amazing memory! After having only gone there one time, my second time there they not only recognized me but also remembered exactly what I had purchased. And now, I go there a lot more since I work in the mall – and they greet me by name each time. A few times the older of the two ladies has had some great conversations with me about her favourite teas and other topics, and both of them are really good at recommending teas I would like based on what teas they know I constantly buy (and so what flavours I like) as well as making good (and not pushy) suggestions on other teas to try that I haven’t really explored. Plus, they’re not afraid to share with me the teas they personally stock and love and which teas they don’t. There’s none of this “everything we sell is magical and wonderful” bullshit.

And, today when I came in they greeted me by name. When I told them I was just looking for a Tea to Go today the first thing they asked was “would you like to try something new – or do you want one of your favourites!”. I love that they know what my two favourite teas from there are (Champagne Cassis and Banana Tea “Chocolate Cream”). So yeah, REALLY great customer service.

Anyway, the tea was predictably fantastic! I get this one To Go often because it’s a really heavy blend and keeping stocked is sort of expensive because of that. The amount of grams I get of dry leaf (well, fruit) is almost equivalent to the amount I’m paying (with mall discount) – so I think it’s one of the better teas to get To Go, price wise.

It had an especially oily mouthfeel today – but I’m not really picky about having “clean teas” or an oiliness with my teas as long as they TASTE good.

I love this tea so much; it’s a great half way between cozy, warm spiced tea and yummy dessert tea. I know Della Terra recently renamed this to Cinnamon Bun, but to me it’s more of a “Spice Cake with Cream Cheese frosting” type of tea. I’ve never tried DAVIDsTEA’s Sugar and Spice but I sort of imagine it would be similar to this (maybe minus the cream cheese).

Breakfast for supper! My favourite!

Even though I’ve done next to nothing today, it still feels like I’ve accomplished a lot and exerted a ton of energy. That’s a good thing, right? So far, I’ve beat another gym leader in Pokemon Y and finished leveling my Skrelp so it’s at the same level as the rest of my team – so yay for that. I think I’d like to get my team (of 12 Pokemon, now) to level 55 before tackling the 6th gym. I also talked to both of my parents for the first time in around a week or two; my mom this morning and my Dad this evening. We’re trying to plan out Christmas and figure out what the best time for me to come back home is. I’d really like to stay in town on Christmas so I can work and get stat pay (which my Mom understands, although my Dad wants me home) – so I figured I’d set aside a whole week to come visit both of them either before Christmas or after to compensate. Preferably after, because right before Christmas I’ll likely get a boost in hours but everything will slow down after Christmas… It’s kind of sad that everything has to be about the money.

I also started watching Degrassi: The Next Generation today. I used to watch it when I was younger, but I can barely remember the plotline or even what season I was watching. It was kind of iconic to me, though; the character Marco was some of the first REAL exposure to gay characters on television and in the media that I ever had, and that was important to me as someone trying to figure out my own sexuality. So I’m excited to rewatch parts (and see parts for the first time, too) – it’s another TV show that I think I can get into, plus it’s Canadian!

But back to the tea! First time I had this was to go for my first day merchandising for Calendar Club. I remember having mixed feelings about it and not really being sure if it’s something I’d reorder again. I think my mixed feelings were coming from the fact it’s heavy on mint and strawberry (which I love) and ginger with a green tea base (which I hate) – and that’s really contradictory. However, this is also a tea I’ve been dreaming about having again – literally! I had a dream about this tea. I don’t know if I’ve ever flat out dreamt about a tea before now. So of course I had to have it again!

I’m glad I did. Whatever reservations I had before are gone now – I’m loving this! Even if there’s ginger it’s not dampening how good this tastes right now, and although I’m still quite reserved and hesitant in my exploration of straight green teas I think I’ve really warmed up to flavoured ones. This tea is really balanced flavour wise: I feel like I’m getting something strong but equal from each ingredient, and taste wise this is very refreshing.

So yes, I think this is a keeper and something I’ll be reordering! Time to bump up my rating!

So, I had a really good cup of Della Terra’s Perfect Pear last night. Much better than the first one I had. However, it really didn’t help with deciding which of these two pear teas I should keep stalked in my cupboard. I REALLY want a pear tea as part of my permanent collection, but I think two pear teas with a black base is too much. And that is why I’m drinking this today – to try and narrow down and have a more direct comparison (not weeks apart).

Steeped 1 1/2 tsp. (a bit overleafed) in boiling water for six minutes. Compared to Della Terra’s tea, this one is so much more creamy and I like the tartness of the cranberry: it gives a more full flavour profile, but the smooth pear flavour tones it down so it’s not TOO tart. Still, that light tartness cuts through on the tail end of the sip in the best way possible. I’m not getting any floral notes in this blend, which is something I enjoy about Della Terra’s blend. I think both blends have roughly the same notes present in regard to the black tea base, so that’s not something that’s really swaying my opinion either way.

And I guess the last thing to take into consideration is availability and price. Cranberry Pear is definitely the much more available tea since I don’t have to order online, and it is actually cheaper. Big pro!

So, I think in conclusion… I’m going to keep Cranberry Pear my pear tea of choice! It’s super delicious and creamy, and the fact it’s cheaper and more available is a huge plus. I still really like Perfect Pear though, so maybe that’s something I’ll pick up for myself along with other Della Terra orders as a treat (just in small quantities).

Urgh, I hate searching through old tasting notes. I can’t imagine how some of you who have reviewed several hundred (dare I say thousand?) teas manage to do it. I guess you’ve all just got killer memories.

I wanted to see what I’d written about this when I first logged it because all I could remember was that I’d been conflicted and hadn’t made up my mind about whether or not this is something that I’d be restocking. As I recalled, the dry leaf smelled AMAZING so I was trying really hard to remember what about the taste had made me so jumbled inside.

It looks like the last time (and my first time) drinking this I had really poor brewing conditions and probably over steeped – and I also drank it at a weird temperature. This time, I’m actually really liking this tea! Maybe part of that is because I brewed it with more leaf (one and a half tsp. as opposed to just 1 tsp.) or because I was very careful not to over steep (steeped for 4 min.) or maybe because I’m drinking it super hot and not a funny temperature. Maybe it’s all of those things; who knows.

What I’m getting is a strongly pear flavoured tea (albeit definitely not as strong smelling as the dry leaf, which is just a BLAST of juicy pear and nostalgia – as I apparently noted in my first tasting note for this) with some nice floral notes and a present taste of the black tea base nicely sitting on the tail end of the flavour. It’s pretty to look at too, what with all the shimmery sparkles. I’m actually finding that to be true with most of the Della Terra teas I’ve tried; they’re all really nice looking. And, as I drink more of this my mouth is actually left slightly watering. I’m also happy that I’m not getting any bitterness or astringency at all.

Still, I’m not sure if I’ll restock. I’d really like to have a pear tea in my cupboard permanently, but the only two I’ve tried are this one and DAVIDsTEA’s Cranberry Pear which is also a black tea base and which I find very good as well. They’re both quite different though; I’m finding this one plays well off the floral notes and juiciness of the pear, while Cranberry Pear has much more creaminess to it and the added complexity of the tartness from the cranberries which I think provides a bit more of a flavour profile. I really don’t want two strongly pear flavoured teas though, especially if they share the same kind of base (and Cranberry Pear is much easier to get ahold of).

I guess I’ll try Cranberry Pear tomorrow morning or early afternoon and see if I can maybe make my mind up a bit more now that I’ve had a good cup of this one.

Mmm! Tropicalia!

I think it’s finally time I bump this up to the full 100 rating… I don’t know if I can denying any longer that this is my favourite herbal tea. It’s just perfect in every way.

Actually, I drinking it today in a way I’ve never tried before, though. Last night when I was merchandising, the manager for the store we were setting up mentioned that she was excited to be working in a mall with a DAVIDsTEA. Instantly I perked up and started talking to her about my favourite David’s blends and how I was sad my mall doesn’t have a DAVIDsTEA but we do have Tea Desire which is pretty awesome too…

…And she just gave me this blank look. I think many of you know the look; the one that says “there are places to buy loose leaf tea other than DAVIDsTEA!?”. I was so disappointed. Still, one thing that she did say she loved is the Tropicalia blend with a bit of milk. So, I’m trying that today hoping it’s good too.

And actually, it is pretty good. Not as good as it is straight, but still really good. There are different flavours present this way – the milk really enhances the creaminess Tropicalia typically has and strengthens the coconut, but drinking it this way also really pulls back and masks the stronger fruit flavours so that you’re left with a very gentle floral pineapple taste sans tangy apple notes. Maybe that’s part of why I’m not loving it as much; I’m a huge fan of strong, bold pineapple flavours and the crazy powerful pineapple punch from straight Tropicalia really appeals to me because of that. This, I want to say “grown up”, Pineapple taste is good but it’s no where near as straight forward as I’ve come to expect from Tropicalia.

This still keeps the very full and soft (I don’t know if I can actually explain what I mean – but my mouth feels smooth and soft when I drink Tropicalia, and very much refreshed) mouthfeel and smooth, sweetness of straight Tropicalia, however.

I am happy to have tried it this way and I’m sure I’ll drink it this way again on those days I need something with more creaminess. As always, my biggest complaint is that that isn’t part of the permanent collection.

Made this to take with for stock and merchandising tonight. I was going to make two cups to pour into my thermos, but I was running late and only made one cup to save time.

It was pretty good – especially since I decided that I didn’t have a lot of time to wait for the water to cool down to the right temp. so I steeped it in boiling water. As far as green teas go, I don’t think using boiling water really affects the taste of this one. It didn’t seem bitter at all, and no flavour was lost because I used hotter water than usual. So, since this is pretty forgiving I might take it with me to Winnipeg since it’s a green tea that I don’t have to worry about in regard to having perfect brewing parameters.

I wish I’d made time to make two cups, though. I ran out really quickly tonight and found myself wishing for more.

We finished merchandising almost and hour and a half early, though. That was nice – it means I get more time to myself this evening to play some Pokemon (plus, I have until Friday off which means time to be lazy, drink lots of tea, and battle a couple more gym leaders).

Nothing new to add taste wise though, other than the revelation this holds up well to higher temperatures.

Decided today that I either have to find a way to love this or just get over my reluctance to this tea and finish off what I have left. Which is about 60g. Urgh. Thankfully, Tre drinks this one (he’s actually consumed more than I have) so that helps with getting rid of it.

I’m actually drinking this whilst baking brownies (yum!), playing Pokemon (on my way to the 4th gym), and watching the first episode of season 7 of Supernatural. So much multi tasking! Actually, considering how much I’m multitasking I’m surprised I didn’t over steep this – that’s a problem I usually have even if I’m not multi tasking.

For anyone who plays Pokemon and is currently working their way through X or Y, I found a shiny Carbink last night! Woot! Be jealous of my mad skills at finding shinies. Carbink makes five caught out of a total eight ever found (not counting Red Gyarados, because it’s found in game and basically everyone has one)! I now have a shiny Butterfree, Crobat, Mightyena, Sawk, and Carbink all found without soft resetting or mass breeding eggs. I’ve seen eight though: first one I ever found was a shiny voltorb in Ruby, but I accidentally one hitted it. I’ve also found a shiny Sentret in HeartGold, but I found it at a point in game where I hadn’t even received Pokeballs (it was the first Pokemon I encountered in the wild). And, I soft reset a Togepi egg to find a shiny Togepi, and after about 30 or 40 soft resets I found one – but I’d gotten into the habit of resetting by then and I reset based on muscle memory before I realized what I’d done. Bleck. I also have a shiny Tangela which my brother found in game, but he didn’t like the colours so he gave it to me.

Anyway, back to the tea…

I think this is actually the reddest cup I’ve made of this – and considering it’s supposed to be red I guess that’s a good thing. Taste wise, a little better than usual but nothing really impressing. The chocolate flavour doesn’t taste as artificial as I usually find it, but there’s still a generic sweetness to it that I find off putting. I debated tossing the cup, but I think I’ll finish it just because it’s better than usual. Definitely not a restock though.

Ok, so today I decided to make this as a tea soda.

My biggest problem my first time drinking this was that I couldn’t get over how “unnatural” it felt to be drinking something so distinctly coke flavoured as, not only a non-carbonated beverage, but as hot beverage as well. So, the way I’m drinking it now has removed those two issues so I can see how I view this tea now.

What I did was brew up a cup of this that was slightly over leafed the way instructed on Della Terra’s packaging (over leafed so the flavour would be more concentrated when mixed with the club soda). I then stuck the hot cup of tea straight into the fridge to become cold and left it sit for a couple hours. I came back to it a few minutes ago, and went with a tea to club soda ratio of approximately 2/5ths club soda and the rest tea.

I’m gonna note that before mixing the club soda I let try have a sip of this and he said it tasted “just like watered down coke”. He didn’t comment on any of the other flavours that are supposed to be added in the tea (cherry and chocolate cake), so I don’t know if that’s because he didn’t taste them or because he was just acknowledging the coke part since that’s what I had been talking about while preparing everything.

Anyway, a few sips and… This is better! I’ve eliminated the two things I found most problematic about this tea and there IS a noticeable improvement. I think I actually (maybe) like this better than actual coke which I personally find too strong so the fact this is mildly weaker is working in its favor. A couple sips in I recalled Lala saying she often sweetens her tea soda, so I added about a tsp and a half of sugar to this and swirled it around (I haven’t added sugar to any of the other tea sodas I’ve tried) – and it not only sharpened the cola notes but it brought out the taste of cherry that had been my third issue with this tea.

That last sentence maybe sounded confusing – I’ll clarify. The first time I drank this hot there was a lot going on flavour profile wise and aside from the notes of coke the other flavours were all muddled and it was hard to REALLY taste things. In fact, the “cherry” almost tasted like a really weird artificial orange taste. I made sure to get at least one piece of chocolate and one piece of cherry in the dry leaf I used since I wasn’t sure if I’d actually used pieces of either last time, but until adding the sugar all the flavour profiles were still really jumbled. With sugar, I can tell that YES I am drinking a ‘cherry cola’ – although, the taste of chocolate is still really weird and I don’t think I’d call it “cakey”.

So, in conclusion… As a tea soda, this is an improvement! It’s still not awesome, and I still have issues with it, but I am going to increase my rating just slightly.

PS. I just wanted to add in that this is still one of the PRETTIEST teas I’ve ever had. It’s just so nice and shimmery with all the little silver flecks. If nothing else, I enjoy looking at it.

EDIT: I lied a little… The more I drank, the more prominent the chocolate flavour got, and it did begin to taste “cakey” and not just oddly chocolate. Although, the cake flavour is REALLY weird with the cola and the carbonation of the club soda. With or without club soda, I think this tea just tries to have too much going on.

Took this to work with me! It’s truly become a favorite of mine, and I think I’d feel a little lost if I didn’t have this as a fall back black tea choice. As always, it was great – although even though I was careful to measure out exactly 1 1/4 tsp. of leaf it did taste a little weaker than usual (but not in a problematic way).

For the second time this week, I find myself wishing I owned maple syrup to try adding to some teas. For this one, I’m thinking it would really solidify the “blueberry pancake syrup” type of taste I get from this.

It was great drinking it hot on the way to work (and at work too) – the weather has been gross these lat few days (very rainy), although I’m really thankful I’m not back home in Regina since, apparently, it’s been snowing there all week. I hate snow! My belief is that there shouldn’t be any snow until after Halloween. Once it’s November then, begrudingly, I’m ok with there being some snow.

Unrelated (but also not), I started my Christmas shopping today. I get a KILLER discount at the calendar store, so my initial thought was “everyone gets calendars!” – it would have been a great plan since we have SO MANY kinds of calendars I would be able to be cheap (save all the money for rent!) but still thoughtful with a calendar to suit each family member’s interests, but then I realized that four of the seven people I HAVE to buy gifts for live in the same house and four calendars in one house is excessive. Still, we also sell games and even though I don’t get as good a discount on those, it’s still enough that everyone else will be getting games.

So, today I bought a Calendar for my Dad (a fishing one because he’s been even crazier about fishing this year than usual), my Grandma (it’s all these crazy beautiful gardens from around the world), my Aunt (Coca Cola – she’s obsessed and it’s the default ‘theme’ of all out presents for her), a day planner for my step mom (it has beautiful paintings and scripture passages that she’ll eat right up), and then one for myself.

I got a Buffy calendar for mine (the last one!) because I’m just IN LOVE with the show and I saw that one of the months in it is COMPLETELY devoted to James Marster’s character Spike. James Marsters is one of my favourite actors (and just people in general) and Spike is my favourite character in the show, and since I’m going to Winnepeg Comic Con at the end of the month I realized that I’m going to need something for him to sign! Yes, that’s right – my IDOL is going to be at Winnepeg comic con and I’m going to meet him (and completely fan girl)!

I also realized that I’m going to need to invest in travel tins for some of my tea… There’s no way I’m going four days with only crappy bagged hotel or Tim Horton’s tea. And that brings up an even harder question…

What tea will I take with me!?