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This was a surprise blend that VariaTEA added into our swap. It’s also the first one out of the swap teas that I’m trying. Partially that’s because it seemed like it’d be a forgiving blend to steep for work this morning (being fruit/rooibos primarily) since I had a low level of energy/patience for brewing something finnicky. Partially it’s because I have such limited Teavana experience what with there not being a local store or enough blends on their site that I have a deep enough interest in to place an online order (only Teavana blend I’ve tried is Chocolate Banana Foster). And then the last reason I’m trying it first is because just a few days ago I remarked about how whenever I’m craving David’s Blueberry Jam I’m also always craving David’s Tropicalia (and vice versa); I had then posed the question “what if I mixed the two blends together to satisfy both cravings?”. Well… This is SORTA like doing that, at least in the way of mixing pineapple and blueberry (still wondering why I associate Blueberry Jam and Tropicalia with each other, though).

Also, I guess I’m curious about what makes the pineapple “kona” pineapple other than it being grown in that area of Hawaii – but is there really a taste difference? Whenever I hear “Kona” my automatic association is Kona Coffee, which is the only kind of coffee I still drink (and only when I’m visiting my Dad). And, I’ve had some really good white chocolate coated Kona coffee beans. Yum! And also, damn! Now I want a white and milk chocolate kona coffee tea… Whole Kona coffee beans, white chocolate and milk chocolate curls, a full bodied black base; oh that’d be heaven.

Anyway, for prep I mostly followed the instructions that VariaTEA gave me with the exception of the leaf amount. Since I was making this in my Timolino I used 2 tsp. instead of 1 1/2 tsp. The water was still boiling though, and it still steeped for 6 minutes. The smell was, well, interesting to say the least. It was neither pleasant or overwhelmingly unpleasant either. The pineapple and blueberry kind of stunk together and smelled very sour and artificial, and it kind of left my stomach feeling unsettled. There was also the more subtle creamy smell in the background though, and that aspect smelled really good. These two contradicting smells didn’t mesh well at all though. The liquor was a really pretty colour too: kinda red/purple (prettier than Blueberry Jam).

I guess I should note that at the time of drinking this I hadn’t seen the ingredients list (I’m writing now based on notes I made at work). Anyway, first few sips were interesting and quite conflicting. Initial taste was the same kind of rich creamy sort of thing I was getting from the smell of it steeping. Sorta vanilla, sorta creamy chocolate. Honestly, I was most reminded of white chocolate or those Hershey’s Cookies and Cream chocolate bars. I don’t recall seeing anything remotely chocolatey in the dry leaf though. Maybe it’s a placebo thing from thinking about chocolate coated Kona coffee beans.

After that creamy taste though, there’s this rush and really funky, in a negative way, blueberry. It’s like really artificial blueberry candy that’s supposed to be sour but instead just tastes like ass. And this nasty, sour pineapple/blueberry, and if I had to guess, orange flavour combo is lingering in the aftertaste in all the wrong ways. Although, to be fair I’m SUPER picky about nearly anything blueberry. I hate the texture of real blueberries so wont eat them, and I hate 95% of all artificial blueberry stuff and wont eat that either.

Anyway, I choked down the rest of the timolino worth of this because I was at work and I was really thirsty, and I didn’t want to shell out the money to buy a drink. I think it says a lot that I enjoyed drinking the last bottle of cold steeped Goji Pop more than I liked drinking this. I don’t think I’m gonna be in a rush to drink the last cup worth of the sample of this(sorry VariaTEA). It’ll get drunk eventually though or passed on to Robyn where it’ll likely be much more appreciated. Also, I’m glad to at least have partially answered my question about what Blueberry Jam and Tropicalia would taste like together: probably not good.

EDIT:

Just looked at the ingredients (and there are a lot of them). Hmm, I guess it could be a lot of things contributing to my opinion of this tea. Firstly, this was a green rooibos blend (my first, other than Birthday Cake which is mixed) so maybe it’s something to do with that?

Looks like I was right about there being some orange stuff going on (orange blossoms, in this case). I’ve had other things with both blueberry and orange and I personally don’t think they’re flavours that work too well together. Mallow blossoms makes sense too: I can see how I was tasting that. I actually really like mallow blossoms in most things.

Oh! Oh… Raisins! ICK YUCK NO THANKS. I can’t stand raisons. Now I can see why this is something I had never considered to buy for myself: I go out of my way to avoid blends (or food in general) containing raisins. Also, still no idea what my mystery creamy white chocolate flavour was.

Ow :(

Everytime I move, even if it’s only a little, I can either feel or hear my bones crack, and I’m so sore. I did the math this morning, and in the last 48 hours I’ve worked an hour short of 24 hours. That’s not counting all the work I’ve been doing at home either (making the schedule for example).

On the plus side, today I finally got my deposit keys from the bank (so we’re not keeping hundreds of dollars of profits in really shifty and not so secure places), the broken register was replaced with a new one, and after over a month of trying to figure it out – I finally figured how to bypass the internet restrictions (till/computer is set up to ONLY allow the company website)! Yay for going on Steepster and Tumblr at work (even if the connection is really slow)! So, in that regard I’m gonna call it a good work day. I’m still relieved to be home, though.

Made a cup of this in the morning to take to work, and unfortunately this was a sip down. For preparation, I steeped the last of the sample I had (barely 1/2 tbsp.) of this (thanks again, Lala, I loved this one) for two minutes. I wish I could say I finished this one off and it tasted super awesome mega level good, but sadly it didn’t. I’m thinking that water I used was maybe a bit too hot and I burned my leaves because while I had yummy watermelon juice taste I also had a bitter aftertaste and this ‘lightly burnt sugar’ taste that was super distracting. But even with that considered, this tea is still so good that brewed poorly it tops some teas I’ve tried that were brewed perfectly.

Can’t wait to put in the Butiki order I’ve been holding back on for what seems like ages so I can get more of this.

So, my drive to use up the last of this has sort of resulted in my being extra creative in using up the leaf. Anyway, I cold steeped a jog of this (about 16 hours cold steep) using somewhere like 4 tbsp. of leaf. After straining it this morning, I got a dark, DEEP blood red liquor that smelled a good combination of tart and melony.

I brought a timolino of this the work with me today – mostly because I felt hungover with no energy (wasn’t actually hungover though, just exhausted and sore from a late night of stocking and merchandising followed by an early morning; ergo little sleep) and couldn’t bring myself to actually steep anything and pay attention to steep time/temperature.

… Actually, I just realized that I haven’t made tea all day. The two teas I’ve had today were prepared yesterday. Ick. That’s awful. Now I kinda want to force myself to go steep one of my swap teas. I don’t think I have the energy, though. Urghhhh.

Drinking this today at work though, it tasted more like a melony fruit punch/juice that anything else. Mostly I like cold steeping fruit blends BECAUSE they’re like watered down juices (which is much better than overly strong and sugary juice). So what I’m saying is, with this I didn’t get that “light juice” effect: I got full on sugary sweet juice. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad. It just wasn’t that awesome or spectacular either (best part was that the melon taste was really present). I think MAYBE I could love this tea if I found a balance between it being too weak or two strong but I’m almost finished with my 100g tin of it and that’s just NOT happening. And with all the ways I’m made it in an attempt to use it up, I’ve found several where it was “ok” and I liked it, instead of hating it, but not a single one where I loved it…

I still have another cup or two of this cold steeped in the fridge, so I guess I’ll either feed it to Tre or drink it myself when I’m in the mood for something really strong and “sugary juice” flavoured…

Urgh. I just got home from day #1 of my store opening. All things considered, it went really well. We had a few hiccups, like the fact we don’t have a deposit key yet (so our cash profit is being kept in a fairly shifty and not all that secure place) and the fact our register seems to be broken and the cash drawer does not automatically open after each sale (so we can give back change), but all in all it could have gone MUCH worse.

That said, it was a very long day for me (12h 30m shift) – and most of my body aches. I’m severely slacking off on household chores/duties right now, too. It’s my turn to buy eggs and do the dishes but I’m putting off both of these things as long as humanely possible. I just have NO time or energy. I really should do the dishes though… The pile of dishes is now overflowing from the sink which is not good and doesn’t do much to make the house seem more relaxing. Maybe if I can hold off on doing them another 5 days until payday I can pay Tre to do them. God, I’m an awful roommate right now (but at least I have rent money).

A plus, my swap from VariaTEA came today! My landlord was the one to receive it, and he gave it to me when I got in after work. He commented that it smelled really good, like chocolate. And he was correct! The Read My Lips in the package smells VERY strong. I’m so excited to try them all (especially since VariaTEA snuck in an extra tea I wasn’t expecting) but I just have no energy to make tea right now. I’m thinking that at least one of them is going to come with me to work tomorrow though.

So with this tea, I actually prepared it last night for merchandising, but didn’t end up drinking it (I had a full timolino of Salted Caramel and had that instead). So it wasn’t exactly “fresh” when I had it at work today. However, it was still really good. It’s very sweet and rich in molasses flavour and reminds me of yummy ginger snaps (I guess I should note I drank this cold). I had neutral feelings at the start of my first time drinking this, and by the end of my timolino it had grown on me quite a bit. Well, same goes for drinking this today. As a cold tea I started off thinking “Hmm, this is ok…” and went to thinking “Wow! This is really good!”. I honestly think I’m going to be picking up a tin of this before the collection leaves. This one and Choconut Oolong are keepers for me – and White Chocolate Frost is something I want a little bit more of (but not a whole tin).

I’m trying to remember how I prepared this, and I think it was a heaping 1/2 tbsp. steeping in boiling water for 7 minutes, resteeped the exact same way with both cups poured off into my water bottle. Very yummy – hot or cold.

Set up last night went pretty well: we managed to get everything unpacked (I was worried I might have a bit of unpacking this morning), so that was a huge plus. And, I finally met my 2nd employee. She’s really nice – and I can see that she’s hard working, but she’s also partially deaf and there’s already a bit of a language gap (her first language is Portuguese) so that’s putting up a huge communication barrier.

I interview more people later today, so hopefully that’ll work out and I’ll get another employee or two.

I made two thermoses of tea last night for merchandising: a timolino of this one and my water bottle filled with Gingerbread. I only ended up drinking this, though. To be honest, I had a lot on my mind and wasn’t really making concise tasting notes or paying a lot of attention to what I was drinking. I do remember thinking that this was rather weak, though. I’m pretty sure my brewing parameters were a 1/2 tbsp. steeped in boiling water for 4 minutes – but maybe it actually got less steeping time than that? Or just needed more leaf because it was in a timolino. Oh well.

Other than being weak, I don’t recall it being unpleasant.

Like I said I would, I made myself a nice tall mug of this. For the approx. 10 oz. mug I used 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped for I think five minutes (possibly a little less) in boiling water. It didn’t last long – I basically chugged it.

I added a splash of milk, and that really accentuated the creaminess I was after. As always, I love the rich vanilla eggyness I get from this tea. SOme people say they taste maple in this blend, and I’ve never really found that. Or at least, I hadn’t up until this mug. For whatever reason I could taste pretty strong maple notes mixed in with the vanilla that I hadn’t experienced prior.

I spent all afternoon calling people to set up job interviews. My GM wanted for interviews spaced 15 minutes apart – but the way it worked out I have three interviews (with the more promising three candidates, though) spaced half an hour apart. I wasn’t able to reach the fourth applicant, despite calling periodically throughout the day, and one of the applicant had an appointment at the time I wanted to schedule him, so instead he’s being interviewed around 15 minutes after that. Hopefully my GM is ok with that…

I started steeping my teas to take with tonight for set up early – no sense in being rushed and either making crappy tea or showing up late. Besides, it’s kind of therapeutic going through the process and right now my house smells like yummy freshly baked gingerbread because of it (I’m making Gingerbread and Salted Caramel). Mmm!

Today is just one giant countdown until store set up. I keep telling myself that it’ll be fine, that everything will go smoothly, and I’ve gotten myself to the point of half believing that. Since I’m out of bed now I’m taking advantage of drinking some tea. Right now, I’m in the mood for creamy and fruity. So far I’ve polished off the last of the Buddha Bamboo that was in the fridge, and now I’m drinking this one.

Steeped 1 1/2 tsp. in oz. of water at approx. 75 degrees celsius for two minutes. It’s looking pretty good and smelling pretty good too: like freshly baked, buttery raspberry scones. Yum. Although, this has served to remind me I need new mugs in a darker colour: my cream coloured mugs are looking awfully stained from all the black tea I drink.

Taste? Rich raspberry with a smooth and vanilla pastry type of aftertaste. I think I’ve really mastered brewing this one – or at least found the perfect sweet spot for my own tastes. No funky grassy notes in this cup! I’m not sure if I’m up to an immediate resteep: I want variety today. But I’ll save the leaves and maybe have another glass later tonight.

Next up? I’m thinking Birthday Cake. I could go for something very much vanilla and eggy. Yeah, that sounds good…

Only 6 hours and 24 minutes left until set up…

Urgh, my head hurts. Has for most of the day. I think it might be the stress of my store opening tomorrow finally getting to me. Or maybe it’s the fact that on top of that one of my employees quit due to poor health and not being able to work reliable or consistent hours. I’m frustrated she turned out to not be reliable, but also relieved she owned up to that. Now I have to go through resumes though and pick new applicants, and do interviews tomorrow and Thursday. Not fun. Lots of work. Plus, starting tomorrow I wont have a day off in the next 12 days. Part of that is elective, but still.

Anyway, I made a cup of this (1 1/2 tsp. in 8 oz. of water steeped for 4 minutes in boiling water) while helping Tre rewrite/edit his resume. He really needs a job, and is only just now looking for one since moving to Saskatoon (where as I started looking immediately). Since I’m going through resumes today anyway and I have far superior writing/editing skills than he does I told him I’d review his resumes.

And I’m sure as hell glad I did. It was SO fucking unprofessional. Not only was there no capitalization or punctuation, but he still had his address listed as the one in Regina he used to live at, it was littered with typos and spelling errors, and he didn’t have any references listed at all (not even a “references available upon request” at the bottom). Maybe worst of it all, under “goals” he had written “makes money own a restaurant”. I know he’s smarter than that – so I’m editing it with him now.

To start, we formatted everything properly, updated his address, added a “references available upon request” to the bottom (now he just has to gather the contact info of his references, which he apparently “never got around to doing”), and are working towards sharpening his wording and including things like an availability section and relevant skills section.

Find a long term position in the food industry with the opportunity for career growth and advancement sounds MUCH better than make money own a restaurant – right?

I think all this is only worsening my headache.

Anyway, the tea was delightful. I think I hit the perfect steeping amount with the leaf I used. It was smooth and creamy milk chocolate tasting despite there being no milk added – and the strawberry shawn through quite nicely. The black tea base was also present and not even a little bitter or astringent. Overall, just a really perfect decadent dessert tea like usual. I think it really helped stave off the urge I was having to just run out to the nearest 7-11 and pick up a large tub of ice cream to just comfort binge on. God, my store opens TOMORROW. I feel so underprepared…

Made as a “tea soda” because A) I liked the idea of “Goji Pop” actually being a pop and B) I still have a ton of this that I want to use up so I can free up the tin space. This isn’t going to be a restock for me…

To make my tea soda, I steeped 3 1/2 tsp. of dry leaf into about a third of a cup of water. Basically, I made a super concentrated cup of Goji Pop. The steep time on this (in boiling water) was around 10 minutes. By the time it was done it was bright freaking crimson red. It actually smelled really good, but upon taking a sip it was super tart in almost an unholy way. I then poured it into a bigger cup along with a freezing cold can of club soda.

Colour wise, this is now a much lighter melony red/pink colour, and the smell is also very strongly melony (much like the dry leaf). Because what I started with was super concentrated, the taste for this is pretty balanced. It’s still quite tart but the sweet melon notes come out in a very good concentration. It works as a carbonated beverage: light, fruity, somewhere between sweet and sour.

I’ll call it a success on the front of burning through some tea leaf – but the taste, while being good, isn’t enough to warrant a change in decision on my part about restocking it.

I recently bought 50g of this because I had it hot in store and it was AMAZING. Since buying it, this is the first time I’ve had it – and to prepare this I cold steeped about 3 tbsp. of it in a pitcher of water.

This cold steeped in my fridge for somewhere around 12 hours, I think? I strained the leaf out of it early this morning before work, but waited until now to pour myself a glass of it. I usually try to do 10-12 hour cold steeps when I’m steeping a full pitcher. I got some of the giant flowers into the dry leaf and some of the huge candied strawberry chunks too (Tea Desire sure does love blends with big chunks of stuff in them). I don’t think there were many of the red currants, though.

The liquor is a very near clear yellow. Seriously, it’s just the slightest touch yellow. For a second I didn’t think 12 hours had been long enough – because when I had it hot the liquor was a more more medium toned yellow. However, after trying a few sips just now it’s fairly flavourful and I think it did steep for a pretty good amount of time.

I actually am trying this cold brewed as per the recommendation of one of the Tea Desire sales ladies who said this is how she likes this blend best. As I’m sipping now, there’s a bit more of a vegetal taste to the drink that when I had it hot (from the bamboo, I’m thinking) and a more present floral note in the aftertaste. As odd as it sounds, it tastes kind of like how sunflowers smell. Yeah – that’s a weird description I know. The strawberry is really present, and the currant (something I think really sweetened my first cup) less so. Overall, I still very much like this as a cold brew: it’s still quite sweet and super refreshing. Like last time, I’m getting “Fruit Loops” – just a little less concentrated.

I need to try hot steeping it with my own tools to see if I can recreate the taste I drank when Tea Desire made it for me, but if that taste can be replicated consistently as a hot brew than it’s safe to say that I actually prefer this one better hot (but only because of the stronger taste of fruit loops). I wanted to try this carbonated, but I was expecting the taste to be a bit bolder, and now I’m thinking it wouldn’t be the best idea to do this one carbonated at this concentration level: I think the sweetness and fruit loopiness of it would get too watered down and wouldn’t be flavourful.

I still have lots of carbonated water left, so time to think about what else might be good carbonated…