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Grr… Chrome crashed so I lost my really nice tasting note on this one, and now I don’t have time to completely right it out before I leave for the bus/my interview so I’m just going to be able to summarize.

But basically this was an expectedly pleasant follow up after starting my morning with a not so pleasant cold brew. I knew it would be great (it is a personal favourite, after all) so I made some up to enjoy while watching the most recent episode of How I Met Your Mother. I was a beautiful, gentle start to the day (much more than chemical oranges) and one of those rare moments of “tea nirvana” where things just sort of slow down and get really pleasantly peaceful/perfect.

And now off to an interview! Fingers crossed – and this time I’ll try not to go into DAVIDsTEA to look at the hot employee buy more tea.

Sipdown (203/206)!

I thought this could be interesting as a cold brew, and that it might balance out the flavours a little bit, so I used the rest of my sample from Keychange for cold brewing. However, in hindsight I regret doing so.

At a hot drink, this may have been alarmingly strong in regard to the flavour of the orange but at least it didn’t taste chemical. As a cold brew, this is still alarmingly orange flavoured but also has a strong and harsh artificial component which is really unpleasant. I should have stuck with finishing it off as a hot drink – I definitely enjoyed it better that way.

So a disappointing sipdown.

Mmm, I had this as my last tea of the night yesterday!

It was really, really perfect. I mean, I can’t rave enough about this one – I’m pretty sure it’s my perfect lychee tea. The lychee is just so true to real lychee flavour and the florals aren’t unrealistically strong compared to what floral notes a lychee normally has.

It’s always a treat when I have this one, and I was very happy I took the time to really enjoy this cup last night.

Ack! Oversteeped! And I was actually looking forward to having a mug of this, too…

So now, mostly it tastes bitter/astringent with strong rum notes and peeking notes of plum. It was ok but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dump out a fair bit of it. Just wasn’t worth drinking with all the bitterness.

Totally my fault though – I was distracted by all the Pumpkin Fruit Tea I spilled over the couch/my lap, so I didn’t get to the tea quickly enough to save it. User error all the way.

Also, what is it with me really craving plum teas, atm?

I don’t think I actually got any hibiscus in this mug (which I spilled half of on the couch because I foolishly attempted to jump onto the couch from behind the couch while holding a full mug of tea) – which actually changes the taste a fair bit. I don’t know why that really surprises me, though; hibiscus is a pretty loud flavour.

Anyway, the flavour I get sans hibiscus is still a pretty close to 50/50 pumpkin and apple cider, but less tart and a little more sweet. Like, I kind of get caramel or brown sugar notes? It’s good – anyway.

I’ve decided, though, that while I like this I don’t like it enough to repurchase it. Plus side, or maybe downside, is that this was pretty heavy so the leaf is being used up at a relatively consistent rate.

So, this is the green tea I was actually originally planning on having, instead of Japon. It was also from VariaTEA and I was happy to receive it because I always struggle with buying greens for myself because I typically hate them – and then can’t justify the risk, even when you can buy such small amounts at David’s.

I really, really like Kiwi but in store this always smells like green tea and lemon grass – and nothing else, so it only strengthens that hesitation to buy green tea, and I always end up passing. Even prepping this cup, I could only smell the green tea/lemon grass.

However, taste wise I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised. I mean, yes I do taste lemon grass and somewhat grassy green tea, but both these flavours are alarmingly light in contrast to the super sweet and juicy taste of the kiwi. I also get light, bright flavour notes of other citrus (lemon/orange) and maybe apple, if I reach a little bit. It’s not tart at all, like I felt it probably would be.

I had expected to likely dislike this (but was trying to finish off another DT sample, and get in my minimal 2 new teas of the day), so I was going to cold brew to rest of it tomorrow I have something else cold brewing right now to finish it off, but now I’m not sure if I should enjoy the rest hot because I know I like it that way, or try something new. Anyone else try this cold brewed? How was it? Based on this cup alone, I could actually see this as another green tea I’d actually keep around/purchase again.

I wont add it to my shopping list yet until I’ve finished it off (however I end up doing that), but I’m impressed!

Today I am being a tea pushover. Why? Because VariaTEA told me to drink this, so I did. Yup – you can call me the whipped one in this tea drinking relationship. Which I of course mean in the nicest way possible. I don’t think it needs to be said that I got this one from her as well – she’s the Nina’s Japon dealer to us all.

Anyway, I could probably go on to great length about this one but it’s all been done before. I’ll just summarize by saying: yes, I’m on the Nina’s Japon loving bandwagon. I taste roasty toasty Genmaicha followed by delicious and smooth caramel and vanilla. Amazing – though I honestly had no doubts it wouldn’t be. Well, onto the shopping list. I need more!

What else do I need to say? It’s good. Damn good.

Tasting note 600!

It was only like two, maybe three, weeks ago that my tea twin VariaTEA and I were both at 500 – and now she’s nearing on 700 (knowing her, she’ll likely be there by the end of the day). Dang sore teeth! She totally, by a landslide, wins our tasting note competition though. ‘Mad props’ to her, and so forth.

Anyway, for my 600th note I wanted to do something ‘monumental’ – so this note will be marking my first ever taste encounter/experience with the highly complicated tea category Pu’Erh. I decided to approach this as a total tea newbie – someone who might go into a DT store and pick this out, not knowing anything about Pu’Erh (like the fishiness, or how it gets better with age, that it comes in cakes, etc.) and who maybe was just interested in the flavours.

Out of DAVIDsTEA’s Pu’Erh options, this one sounds the most appealing to me.

Dry, the smells strongly of oranges, chocolate, and something else somewhat unidentifiable. A tad “fishy”, I suppose but if I had no idea that was a descriptor associated with Pu’Erh I’d probably be more likely to describe it as “oily”. Sort of like cooking oil.

My parameters for this cup were 1.5 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for four minutes. To play into my “tea newb” approach, I did not do a rinse because this is something an uneducated tea drinker would not know to do and because I know, at least in my area, DT employees do not advise customers to do this.

As far as steeped smell goes, there is a strong presence of orange and a lesser one of chocolate. The same hard to place (likely the Pu’erh) smell carries over into the steeped aroma. I should note that while it smells odd it doesn’t smell bad. I’m interested to see if Tre would be able to smell it (he’s not home, so that’ll have to wait until another time) because his pallet (well, at least in regard to tea) is undeveloped like a complete tea newb’s would likely be – plus he often tastes peculiar/highly different notes in the tea I make him.

Taste wise – it’s really not so bad. Maybe that’s because I went into this with so much trepidation and hesitation, though. Anyway, I most predominantly taste the orange which is like a combination of orange zest/actual oranges and juicy (not sour) orange candy. This is the first taste, and the strongest. In the middle is the taste/smell that is harder for me to identify; likely the Pu’Erh. I imagine as I drink more Pu’Erh this flavour will become less abstract to me. I’m just thankful that the highly oily/fishy smell that I’m totally experiencing hasn’t carried into the taste. Finally, the chocolate kicks in after the Pu’Erh and carries into the aftertaste along with remnants of the orange flavour. I can see, based on this, why this has been characterized by some people as tasting like a Terri’s Chocolate Orange.

Overall, I think this was a good introduction and I’m thankful that I found the cup drinkable – I was very worried I’d take a sip and feel highly compelled to dump it. Now that I’ve lost my Pu’Erh virginity I think I’ll be more welcoming to trying Pu’erh in the future – though it’s not something I want to rush into. I’ll start with the two small samples I currently have already, and we’ll see how it goes from there.

I was right, my local store does still have this one! Although, it’s in a silver tin on the far left side of the wall (away from all the other teas), without a label just marked as “CC-M”. I took a guess that that stood for “Cocoa Canela – Mate” and was correct!

It’s nice having this in my cupboard again, and I immediately had to brew myself up a mug of it. Still amazing like that first cup from Isaila! I definitely think this tastes miles better than HI’s Cacao – although the key difference is that this is quite heavily caffeinated. But it’s perfect: sweet, milky chocolate with a dash of cinnamon sugar and little teeny whiffs of earth mate!

If this really, truly is getting discontinued then it’s a crying shame!

Oh, ew…

I’m thinking this must’ve just been a bad mug full – but so gross! It was much closer to my first, unflavored, MATCHAccino experience – which was like cloying Sweet Grass, than the smooth and delicious cup I made myself of this the first time around.

I’m thinking maybe part of it was that this mug was in warm milk and not cold milk, but it just tasted so super sugary and sweet and kinda not even like caramel. I think, honestly, I was gagging just a bit. It was a sad moment, but I dumped about half of it.

Such a shame, and such a waste. I’m gonna lower my rating just a touch.

Also, I just got back from the downtown mall where I had an interview for a fulltime (45 hour weeks) management position at a Cell Phone accessory company. I just got the call back that I made it through Phase One of hiring, and I’m going back tomorrow for another round of interviews. While I was at the mall, I kinda caved a little and went to DAVIDsTEA. I’ll be honest, part of it was that my favourite incredibly hot sales guy was working today. I got some tins (two) for a couple teas I plan on restocking which are currently in brown paper bags, and then a few small (under 20g) samples of teas for cold brewing/just to try out.

My wallet is hurting, but I somehow feel a lot less stressed and in a better mindset for tomorrow.