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Sipdown (140!)

This is only a temporary sipdown; I have 1 oz. more on the way from Black Friday, and honestly I didn’t pick this out tonight because it’s a sipdown. More so I picked it out because I thought it would be good with milk and I’m trying to use up the perishables in the house. Normally Tre helps with that and we usually don’t have anything left by their expiry dates, but he’s out of town at the moment so that leaves me to use some stuff up.

The milk we have ‘goes bad’ in three days, and the 2L jug is almost full. I also have a 2L jug of eggnog half full to get through in the next five days. Other things I need to eat up are half a loaf of bread (I noticed a few mold spots forming today, so trying to pick out what still looks good to eat), a couple eggs, half a tub of strawberry cream cheese, and half a tub of Spinach dip. Bleck.

I might have to take a break from tea for a while to use up the milk/eggnog or just drink a lot of lattes…

Anyway, I was right that this would be good with milk! It tastes like super creamy, rich yellow sponge cake and brown sugar! Mmmm! Super yummy cake tea is super yummy! Honestly, now that I’ve put my expectations for pineapple flavour aside, I think I’m enjoying this tea much more now than I did the first time around – and I kinda regret only getting 1 oz. of this. I could see this becoming a dessert tea staple.

If I had more leaf left, I’m brew up another cup :(

Also, my Butiki order from Black Friday arrived today! I took a quick sniff inside each packet and everything smells amazing! I have no idea what to try first. Something that goes well with milk, ideally ;)

This was my second work tea of the day! I drank it at work, but was too busy the last hour as so to log it so I’m doing that now, from home. I picked it out this morning because I wanted black tea and because I wanted to drink down what I have given that it’s not going to be a restock and no one seems to be interested in swapping for it. It’s not that I dislike this tea – it’s just that I find nothing about it to be particularly amazing.

For preparation, I steeped 2 tsp. of leaf in my 12 oz. timolino with boiling water for three minutes. Taste wise, I got lots of chocolate and just a little bit of graham cracker. Not really any marshmallow. Maybe that’s because I was drinking it hot, though. This tea tends to taste a bit better when it’s at a slightly cooler temperature.

Also, when I got home I had to clean up a bunch of spilled Blueberry Jam that I had left to sit in a puddle this morning. That, combined with all my shed clothing lying around the kitchen and living room floor from my speedy change this morning (I had slept in and was a bit late for work) made for an interesting looking apartment coming home…

I’m highly regretting not taking the time this morning during my chaotic rush to grab my debit card. It’s nearly 3 PM now and I’ve had NOTHING to eat all day with the exception of a little bit of tea (and while delicious, I don’t think that counts). I still have about 2 hours left today – but I’m STARVING! Boo.

Anyway, this morning was quite chaotic due to my sleeping in, but I knew I had to make tea to bring with me – I just wouldn’t make it through the day otherwise. So, I did this awkward strip down/change in the middle of the kitchen while my water boiled. I ended up portioning tea half naked! Thank God that Tre’s out of town and I have the apartment all to myself – I can’t imagine what his reaction would have been if he’d walked into the kitchen and saw that!

Anyway, I recieved this as an extra sample from BrewTEAlly Sweet in the package of tea and teaware I had purchased from her! This was actually on my shopping list, so that was pretty awesome because I got the chance to sample it without doling out the extra money I had been planning on spending anyway to try it.

I made a single cup of this to pour into my water bottle (I didn’t have time to brew up more than one cup) to drink cold. So, 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of water, steeped six minutes. I did steal a few sips while it was hot, and I mostly just tasted the guayusa with a touch of apple – not really a lot of spice notes.

Sipping at it now, it’s cold and I’m getting a lot more varying flavours. The guayusa is still pretty strong, but really good. I also get a very nice mellow apple taste with a gentle juiciness to it and some light cinnamon notes that I’m happy don’t strongly overshadow the other flavours. It took me a while to come up with an accurate and encompassing flavour descriptor, but it finally hit me that this tastes exactly like Wrigley’s Dessert gum (the apple pie kind, of course). The apple taste is bang on between the two and the cinnamon acts in the same way where it’s a background flavour contributor.

So very nummy! I like this maybe a little bit more than Good Morning Sunshine? I’d definitely order it again (though, technically, I’m not the person who place the initial order). Thank you BrewTEAlly Sweet!

So, I slept in today – by about three hours! Whoops. At least I woke up in time to shoot back a small glass of this, get dressed, and scramble out of the door in time to not be late (by more than five minutes).

I set this out to cold brew last night, and very quickly strained it this morning (so told cold brew time of about 8 hours). I’m pretty sure I spilled a whole bunch all over the counter, but I didn’t really have time to clean it up, so that’s gonna be fun to come home to after work.

I only had about half a cup worth, and I was drinking it mostly to get something in me. So sadly, I can’t say I noticed anything about the taste other than the faintest blueberry. I just wasn’t paying attention at all. I’ll have to properly drink a glass when I get home from work…

Well, there goes the days sipdown efforts…

I got home from work today only to find that my swap from akgrowngirl had arrived, and she’d added in an extra tea – negating my two sipdowns of the day. Curse the generosity on Steepster (not really though, you people are lovely)! Anyway, because I was back at where I’d started I felt I had to make the last tea of the day a sipdown so I’d made at least a little progress. I also really wanted to make this sipdown count so I picked this tea which I recieved as a surprise add in from VariaTEA in our first swap.

First time around I used half the leaf for a timolino full of this that I took to work – and I hated it! I’ve been dreading siping down the last little bit, and I always feel horrible throwing leaf out. I can’t pawn it off on Robyn either because the two things she flat out wont drink (she accepts most of my ‘toss away’ tea quite graciously) are coconut and pineapple, and this definitely has pineapple. I know I’m going to feel SUPER relieved once it’s out of my cupboard officially! So, this sipdown is definitely worth it and will make me feel like I’ve accomplished something significant today.

(Also, I think this is my first time noticing it – but this blend has raisins in it! YUCK!)

So for preparation I used the last of the leaf (nearly a tablespoon) for a 10 oz. mug, steeped in 10 oz. of water for a very brief 2 minutes (in the hopes of balancing out the fact I heavily overleafed). The colour is a funky purple. And the smell is majorly artificial blueberry with a generic, tart “tang”. Ick…

As far as taste goes, this is just about as bad as I remember it being the first time. Everything about it tastes artificial, cloying, and borderline chemical. It leaves a really funny “sour” taste in my mouth (sour as in “gone bad”), and the pineapple is so warped and distorted from any kind of actual pineapple taste. I’m drinking as big of gulps as I can manage, and choking it down like a champ. I can do this!

Semi side note: In anticipation of this being awful, I started cold brewing a jug of Blueberry Jam to enjoy tomorrow morning so I can have a real blueberry tea first thing – to counteract this lousy tea experience.

ALL GONE! Like. A. Fucking. Boss.

I feel very accomplished right now. I could have just tossed the leaf, but instead I fought through the cuppa, making this sipdown so much more worth it! Hell yeah! SIPDOWN!

Like the other teas I’ve had today, this was picked out because it was (practically) a sipdown and helped to drink down all the DAVIDsTEA blends I have. Technically I still have enough for another cup of this, though…

The sample of this came to me by way of Janelle’s tea stash sale. I can’t remember why I picked this one out – I think because I was looking at trying more oolong blends?

Dry, this smells like bergamot and citrus with something really floral; jasmine? After looking up the ingredients (I hadn’t done this prior to now, not sure why exactly), turns out there is jasmine in the blend along with some other stuff. I have no clue what a schizandra berry is, to be honest, but I wasn’t anticipating either that or jasmine. Although, looking closer at the leaf now I totally see the berries. Not sure how I missed them before…

For preparation I steeped up 2 tsp. of leaf in my 12 oz. timolino, with near boiling water. I’m trying to remember the steep time; I think it was four minutes? This steeped up to be very pale in colour. I also meant for this to be my first work tea of the day (kind of a morning tea), but I ended up drinking Cold 911 first. It feels a little odd drinking an Earl Grey so late into the day.

There’s a woman at my kiosk taking her sweet ass time browsing, which would be fine except she has a baby with her (six months old by my guess) that has been SCREAMING for a solid ten minutes, and the mother is doing literally nothing about it. Not moving the stroller back and forth, or feeding the kid, or even saying soothing things. My headache from all the fucking screaming is KILLING me. Urghhh… TAKE CARE OF YOUR FUCKING BABY!

In so far as the smell, it’s a very strange amalgamation of bergamot and jasmine with some lavender notes? Not exactly super appealing. The taste isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, just based on the smell. The bergamot comes off pretty weak, and the jasmine/lavendar combo is a touch perfumey, though the oolong base tastes pretty good. Somehow everything is just not properly synchronizing, though.

This is something I might be a little reluctant to drink again, and as such definitely not a reorder if I were to ever get the chance. I think I’ll be able to finish off that last cup without too much problem, though. Happy I tried it, but not sold on the taste. Thanks nonetheless Janelle!

Second sipdown of the day (134)! I picked this deliberately because I knew I could make it a sipdown, and because it’s a DAVIDsTEA blend which I just seem to have so many of, so slowly working to sipdown the samples.

The sample of this one come to me from VariaTEA as part of the herbal sampler she mailed to me. It reminds me a lot of DAVIDsTEA’s blend ’Midsummer’s Night Dream’ in that they’re both herbals with orange flavour and mint – although lately I’ve been falling out of love with Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I think I may enjoy this a little more – though not sure why?

A had about 2 tsp. left of this so I brewed up an extra strong cup and then watered it down a little.

Last time I had this it was hot, but this time I’m drinking it cold because I often prefer mint blends cold rather than hot. I think that’s true of this one, too. The eucalyptus in this blend is also very soothing on my throat, which was just a bit scratchy feeling. Honestly, I think I’d prefer to stock this over Midsummer Night’s Dream – but I still have a mostly full tin of that one to get through, and I think I’ll finish the tin off before making up my mind. The two are too similar for me to justify keeping them both in stock at the same time.

Thank you VariaTEA for sending this my way!

Well crap the store is busy! I guess a whole bunch of people waited until last minute for their Christmas shopping to get done. It’s going to be fun squeaking in time to log my work teas today (but at leas the shift will go by quickly)!

Anyway, I actually had this in the morning before I left for work, while I was getting ready. I wanted to get in as many sipdowns as possible today because I’m sitting at 136 (before counting what I’ll get from the 12 Days exchange, a few swaps I’m expecting, two Black Friday orders I’m still waiting on, and a couple other orders to boot) – most of which is in large quantity, and that’s a scary number. I also have half a jug of milk to use up which’ll be going bad any day now, so those were both things I took into consideration in picking my morning tea.

It’s not often I reach for an unflavoured tea over a flavoured one – but this was one of few things I had in a quantity that I could sipdown. I recieved this as a one cup sample from Stacy which she threw into my last Butiki order, generously on top of the two other samples I had requested. I actually really like most straight blacks – I just happen to like flavoured blacks a little more.

Dry, the leaf smells nice and bold with some oak notes. There was a subtle sweetness to the leaf as well. For preparation, I used the prepackaged amount in 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for about 3 min. and 45 seconds. The steeped smell was very bold, rich and malty, with a mild sweetness to it and just a touch of astringency on the tail. I ended up drinking the first third of my cup straight (no additives) and it was super good and definitely provided a nice wake up slap.

The last two thirds had a splash of milk added in, but no sugar (I hate adding sugar to tea). With the milk added, it was still very smooth and malty with creamier sort of chocolate notes (very subtle, though) and a richness of a different sort and no astringency. This too was very lovely to drink first thing in the morning. I think I preferred it this way, but only slightly.

I’m very disappointed now this didn’t make it into my Black Friday order and Stacy is all out of this (version of the) blend now, for a while. This is a straight black I could definitely see myself drinking often as a morning tea (not so much any other time of the day, though). Oh well.

9/10 – would totally drink again if given the chance. A very sad sipdown, indeed. I’ll keep my eyes out for the opportunity to acquire angina in swaps and such, and I’m sure I’ll eventually try the new version. Also, I do have some Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black to try, too…

Decided that I needed to have this tonight so I could do a comparison of it and DAVIDsTEA’s Genmaicha while the taste of DT’s blend was still fresh in my memory. I’m even drinking this while eating the same vegetable stir fry that I was munching on last night!

Dry, this one smells significantly more “seaweedy” than DT’s version, and this appears to have more green tea in comparison to the amount of brown rice. For preparation, I used 1 tsp. of leaf steeping in 8 oz, of water at about 80 degrees celsius for 1 min. 30 seconds. The colour of the liquor is more green than the DT one from last night was (that one was more of a pale yellow). Brewed, they give off a nearly identical smell.

As far as taste goes, this is still very toasty and roasty and comforting, with a clear “puffed wheat” type of taste – though it’s not quite as distinct as DT’s version, mostly because the taste of the green tea in this one is stronger and masks the rice just a little bit. I do enjoy the DT version just slightly more and I would be content with stocking either, though definitely not both.

So keeping that in mind, both are just as accessible to me, but this one is a fair bit cheaper so I’d probably stock this over the DT version.

Last time I was at DAVIDsTEA (well, disregarding my trip today) I bought 30g of this tea to play around me. I had been trying to think of why I had never tried this before, despite my love of all the listed ingredients and the fact it’s probably DAVIDsTEA’s most popular (definitely top 3) blends. Ultimately, I think I’ve never tried this prior to now because it’s Robyn’s favourite tealess tea, and I always just considered it so available because of that that I didn’t need to buy some for myself. Except, every time I see Robyn I forget to ask for a sample. So, I took things into my own hands and bought some for myself.

Dry, this tea smells heavenly! It’s strongly nutty but the apple and cinnamon also remind me of apple crumble or apple pie filling! Delicious! I’m confidant this will have to be one of the teas I hide from Tre since he always complains about my not having an apple and cinnamon tea (he grew up on the bagged versions), and now I do…

This came to work with me today, although I only started drinking it a few minutes before I left so I wound up not having time to log it at work. And then, instead of heading straight home I went to the bank and Tea Desire and DAVIDsTEA.

This tea would up being a great turn around point for my day! Taste wise, it was heavenly. There was this great balance between the nuttiness and apple/cinnamon, and it was really comforting. It did remind me of apple pie! Actually, when I got to DAVIDsTEA I was only planning on picking up 50g of Sweet Strawberry and a sample amount of Bollywood Chai but since this was so good I through in a tin of this as well, on a whim. Mmmm…