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Wow, I was definitely shocked by this one. For context, I have not tried a lot from Kusmi, mainly just samples and from tea swaps. It’s not usually a company I would seek out when going to make a new order but I think it will be now.

I ended up picking up a tin of this from IGA when I was in Montreal as well as a teabag sampler of Anastasia. I wasn’t expecting much because one of my friends that tried it said and I quote: “It’s just a bougie Earl Grey”…. UM NO! I don’t think it is. Yes, there is bergamot. Yes, it maybe could be considered an Earl Grey. However, the berry and caramel notes make it almost taste like the old travel sweets my Nonna used to carry around in a tin. It feels very nostalgic and comforting to me. I did get a 100g tin of this… but I might have to get more soon.

My Mom got a variety box from Camellia Sinesis while we were away and I snagged this for my work bag. It was okay, not the best or worst Earl Grey I’ve had. Just… meh? It was fine, I’d drink it again but I wouldn’t reach for it in a re-buy/haul.

I got this one while I was at Camellia Sinesis with @Roswell Strange, going off of her suggestion, I cold-brewed it to bring to work while I catch up on the QR work.

This was so good! I loved how fruity and floral it was! It was the perfect milder caffeinated start to my day. Now I can’t wait to try it hot.

This is another tea that I picked up in Montreal, and lets just say I wish I got more! Since I haven’t had many teas from Kusmi before, I decided to get a small box of 20 tea bags. Will it last me long? Probably not… This is everything I want in a bergamot/EG blend.

This came in the mail while I was away. I love when I forget about tea orders, it’s fun to have surprises! I was a little disappointed with this one as is but it was really good for a bagged chai (got the tea bags over LL to try). However, I didn’t taste the maple at all till adding sweetener. Without sweetener, 60. With… 80! I think I was hoping for something like the classic DT pumpkin chai or Trader Nicks Pumpkin King.

I’m really shocked I didn’t have a tasting note for this already. Jelly Donut is easily one of my favorite DAVIDsTEA blends and I definitely grabbed some while I was in store. Should I have gotten more (I only got 100g… idk why)? Yes… however, that is future me’s problem.

I love this blend because it is sweet, cakey, fruity, and best of all caffeine-free. I tend to crave sweeter teas and lattes at night and have realized that I am more sensitive to caffeine than I might have though. For the sake of saving what I have I might only make this once a week… though I can’t lie, I’ll probably be getting more when I go back in October.

This is one of the teas that I got while in Canada, and lets be honest…I just wanted the tin. It’s adorable, its the northern lights with adorable polar bears on it. This blend is kind of disappointing in a sense, I expected a bit more maple but it was just all strawberry. But not in a fruity- tart way but in the, black tea with faint strawberry in the background way. It tastes a little bit like Forest Moon by Trader Nicks but not as flavorful. Do I like it? Yes. Would I keep it around? Also yes. However, would I go out of my way to get it again… probably not?

Well everyone, I am back in the States… for those of you that didn’t know, I have been in Canada, more specifically Montreal since last Wednesday. While there I did a ton of exploring, bought way too much tea, and got to meet up with a tea friend!

Saturday I got to meet the amazing and sweet @Roswell Strange AKA Kelly. We did a little snack swap and she was so kind and threw in a ton of teas for me to try! So… since I have kinda a slow, boring, and kind of uneventful day of work today (got the surprise that I’m the only one on today…), I decided… why not try a few teas that she gifted me as well as a few that I snagged while we were at Camellia Sinesis and throughout the city! When in doubt, drink tea, you know?

First, I decided to try this blend because it was bagged and easy to take to work because desk job = not a ton of space. I had heard of almost before, I used to get Universal Yums and I think they had the same parent company because they sell their teas on their site (but not in their boxes… boo). So, I was really excited about this one. I love dessert teas so I knew these would interest me, I just never got around to ordering because of the crazy sipdown year I had… I think I got my collection to less that 20/30 before the last few weeks… then I went a little crazy (I went to DAVIDsTEA 3 times while in Canada…I blacked out and it was a hefty haul).

On to this tea:

I absolutely loved this tea! I was shocked to see that it was a pu’erh because it’s not often that I see bagged pu’erh blends aside from DAVIDsTEA and it was a pleasant surprise. This blend was certainly desserty and full of the brown-butter/caramelized flavor. However, what I liked the most was that I could still taste the pu’erh in it all. Sometimes, I think pu’erh can get lost in flavorings and blended ingredients and its nice to have such a great balance. Perhaps when I recover from the craziness that was my three-tote bag haul of tea… plus a Murchies order that arrived while I was gone (I forgot I placed it)… I’ll have to order some of this!

Thank you again to Kelly for sharing this and all the amazing snacks with me! I can’t wait to keep trying everything! I’m also happy to update everyone that I am officially going back to Montreal in October… so I’ll likely be making more bad decisions tea-wise then…

This is a new one for me and considering how much I love Manoomin Maple, this one did not disappoint. While I definitely will always love Manoomin Maple more, this one was the soo warm and cozy while we’re watching TV.

So, Mom and I decided to move our initially much later trip to Montreal up a few weeks because we kind of needed to escape the craziness of life. So… we also found out that there was a DAVIDsTEA close to where we are staying so… we had to grab a few things! Mom ended up getting a bunch of Nordic mugs that were marked down to 10 CAD$ to give as holiday gifts this year. I however… went a little crazy with some teas. I’ve added them to my cupboard but I got:

- 250g Cotton Candy (one of my favs)
- 250g Cactus Rose (New to me but.. convinced I’ll like it)
- 250g Birthday Cake (New to me)
- 1 tin of Manoomin Maple (gonna probably get more…)
- 1 tin of Manoomin Apple Pie
- 100g Simply Maple Breakfast
- 100g New York, New York
- 2 Apres Ski sachet packs
- Nordic Mug- Manoomin

Any who… This blend is sooo good! I brought a mini kettle up with me so while we’re relaxing a bit after dinner we’re also trying teas! I like that its not too sweet and the rooibos ties it together really nice… just enough to taste it!