Algonquin Tea Co

TTB tea! This definitely tasted better yesterday. Refrigerated overnight, it became a little murky. It’s a pretty standard mix of herbs often used in this sort of tea. It’s pleasantly herbaceous, but nothing special.

I tried serving this to my mother and she wouldn’t drink it because it smelled like hay to her. I really enjoy it, though. I drank her cup and mine. I’m loving the light pine, sage, and ginger (Earthy/woody) flavours.

Thank you Roswell Strange for the sample! I brewed it up as soon as I opened the mail.

The dry leaf smells of herbs, faintly of pine and rosemary.

Brewed, it is not vegetal/grassy. I can taste sap/pine, a sweet hay, it reminds me a lot bay leaf and chamomile. I actually love it!

Sweet, resinous tree sap/pine notes and herbaceous sage! Nearing a sipdown, and sad about that fact but man what an indulgence when I do dip into this tin to steep a cup! Love, love this blend!

Quite possibly the most relaxing tea blend that I own – and still damn tasty to boot! I looked for more of this while I was in Winnipeg (because that’s where I originally bought it) and didn’t find any which was sad, but I found a very similar blend from another company while there and I bought some of that instead.

Still, needed to make myself a cup of this after getting home from the trip because I’d just spent a week straight thinking about it. Had a nice long nap after drinking it.

I want to thank all the lovely Steepster folk who gave me suggestions to help with the hard time I’ve been having falling asleep! I’ve tried a ton of your suggestions, and honestly the one that’s helped me the most has been downloading f.lux – I think it’s really, really helped me wind down in the evening and has been really awesome with the eye strain I was experiencing! I even went and downloaded it on my new work computer since I’ll be spending such a large portion of my work day typing now…

This was my “before bed” tea yesterday – it’s a favourite of mine, and I’m SO CLOSE to being out of it so I’m going to definitely have to do some digging to see if there’s anywhere in Montreal that I can get my hands on it that’s not too far out of the way. I’m willing to go on a bit of an adventure, but I don’t want to have to spend hours finding it either.

Those sage and pine needle notes though! How can you not love them!?

Short note because I’m typing on my phone before heading to bed, and honestly Steepster sucks on the phone. I had a mix of a headache and a sore jaw tonight; to be honest the sore jaw probably caused the headache. So, I doused myself in peppermint oil and brewed up a cup of hot tea to sip on while stretching on the couch. Wasn’t a good long term solution, but for a solid half hour or so I felt totally painless and relaxed. The mint and pine combo is just so good, and peaceful.

Sweet, sappy pine and sage goodness.

If this was sold as a perfume, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, candle or essential oil I’d most likely own all of the aforementioned. It’s phenomenal. Also, knocks me the fuck out. Like, I drank a cup before bed and it was the soundest sleep I’ve had in ages.

Really, really loving this one as a go to tea to steep up for a late night soak in the tub…

The best part about this one for me is the intense, full bodied and surprisingly sweet pine notes that make up the bulk of the cup. There are undertones of both sage and sweet grass with a sappy, and raisin sort of quality too but it’s mostly delicious pine. More tea companies should incorporate pine into their blends; it’s such a unique and relaxing ingredient with a very pleasant flavour. Really thick mouthfeel, too – feels quite lush.

Long steeps are also the way to go with this one to get the most out of the leaf!

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/FubvitXV_zM

From vacation haul.

Honestly, this was pretty expensive for the amount of tea in the tin BUT it’s very very unique and now that I’ve tried it I actually don’t mind the price at all for the quality of it. It’s just gonna get used up quickly is all, and that’ll be disappointing…

I grabbed this one because of the unique combination of ingredients. The company, Algonquin Tea Co, was partnered with Cornelia Bean which is where I saw this one. They actually had about six different offerings but a lot of them seemed super wellness and religion based and that’s not really why I drink tea so they didn’t really interest me a ton. There was also one that was supposedly supposed to help with lucid dreaming? I didn’t really want to fuck with that though. So I grabbed this one solely because I thought I’d like the taste.

It smells really good to me; very fresh and outdoorsy with a lot of pine characteristic and sage undertones. I didn’t personally get much from the aroma in terms of the sweet grass in the blend, but most of what I was after was that strong pine aroma anyway and just going off scent this seemed to be a blend that would have a lot of that.

I brewed this one up at work, and I started with my normal four minutes that I do for Western styled teas – BUT I realized quickly that would have produced a really weak/bland tasting brew so I doubled that and steeped for eight minutes. I still think I could have pushed it even longer though, and would have got a more potent flavour without any negative repercussions. So that’s something I’ll keep in mind going forward.

This one brewed up really smooth though! I think it had a pretty equal representation of all three ingredients in the blend too: pine, sage, and sweet grass. That was a little surprising to me ‘cause I didn’t get the sweet grass at all from dry aroma but I got A LOT of pine. Not a complaint though! In fact, I really like the sweet, sappy quality from the sweet grass and the pine combined. And I love sage in general; it’s such a pleasant, soft herbaceous quality that’s really peaceful/relaxing. Overall, it just tasted really natural (kind of obvious that it would based on the ingredients though) and fresh. Reminded me of taking a walk in the forest; and also of those “Douglas Fir” candles that come out around the holidays – but just more stripped down, mellow and realistic. It would be a good tea for quite reflection or just meditation in general, I think.

Very happy with this one.

I had a mug of this last night. It had gotten cold by the time I had any, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it not inducing dreams. Ah, to be fair I know I dreamt, I just can’t remember them. That said, even though I’m quite sore/tired from physio workouts, I feel like I really slept last night. It’s a deepseated feeling that I have difficulty describing… I just know I want more sleep like that heh.
The tea itself was quite pleasant to sip. Vegetal with an herbal twist. If it wasn’t dreamy tea I’d consider having some midday at times. (wasted opportunity, I enjoy dreaming!)

One little sample cup!! maybe two sips. Hours before I went to bed.
And I dreamt a funny dream. I was dating Patrick Jane, but we had to keep it secret because I resided in reality and he lived inside a tv show. Oh and I could only meet up with him during a “new” episode, not in reruns. Now that I’m awake it makes no sense.
Oh and to get into his little hideaway cabin room we slid down a giant snow covered hill that launched us in the air (like a ski jump), across a little valley and down onto another hill where he showed me the secret entrance, before giving me a tour. Freaked me out, as he’d given no warning so there was a moment of wondering what broken legs might feel like. And then I wanted to go again. I’m not surprised my brain fixated on PJ. I’ve kinda had a crush on the character for ages, even moreso after I realized he was a tea nut :P
When I do recall my dreams, there is generally an element of stress built in, so I can’t blame that part on the tea. but it doesn’t happen very often. So it could be a coincidence. Still, I’m gonna reserve having an entire cup before bed until the weekend where I’m not working the next day.
The taste was nice and pleasant. Grassy and a bit sweet. Refreshing. I’m sure it would be different brewed at home.
I need a nap now…

Backlog:

OK, so in Postal Tea’s 9th edition box, they featured three tisanes from Algonquin. I was really quite disappointed as tisanes aren’t my favorite thing. I like me some camellia sinensis, and while I do drink herbals now and then and when it does get later in the day (late night) I do switch it up to something without caffeine (or with very low caffeine) because I don’t want to be up too much longer.

But, I still didn’t want to receive a box with three different herbal tisanes. And while I almost feel bad about saying this, the most memorable thing about the three teas that I tried from algonquin was the beautiful artwork that I found on their website (the packages from the Postal Teas box didn’t feature the artwork, although we did get a small brochure with some of the artwork in it.)

My thoughts on this tea: the mint was nice. Refreshing. I didn’t like the earthiness of the ginseng. I’m glad that the bitterness from the nettle was only slight. It didn’t taste bad … but if I want something stimulating, I’d be happier with a cup of camellia sinensis.

Backlog:

My 4800 tasting note!

Of the three teas that I received in the Postal Tea Box (9th edition), this was my favorite. I was a little dismayed that all three teas in this edition were herbals. Bah! What’s up with that?

This one though – this actually tasted a little bit like tea. It had a slight root-beer-ish taste to it too. Like a thinned black tea with herbaceous notes and a hint of root beer. Kind of weird, but weird in a interesting and tasty way.

But even though it did sort of taste like black tea, I’d be lying if I said I’d just as soon drink this than drink black tea. I’d rather have the nice, rich flavor of black tea, thank you.

The teas in this, the 9th edition from Postal Teas, just didn’t do it for me. I decided to give them another chance and see what the 10th box had in store … and I’m glad to say that I’m much happier with the 10th box. (Well, you’ll just have to wait to see what those teas are!)

Cooking TTB #16

Turkey. Or soup. That’s what this reminded me of. I guessed rosemary before reading pine and sage as the ingredients. I can’t say this was for me at all, but I’m glad to have tried something with pine in it finally.

I think I need to lay off the caffeine in the evening a bit, and this is such an awesome evening tea. Always sage, pine and soothing.

Oh I could just drink this forever. So lovely and relaxing.

This is beautiful. There’s clear notes of pine, sage and sweet grass, which perfectly compliment each other. This is a really nice, relaxing blend for the evening.

Seriously such an amazing sick tea. Even though I totally should have steeped it in a baggie because holy smokes, this is murky.

Oh well.

Still tasty, especially with some honey added. Sorry to see you go, tea, but I do know where I can get you locally… so that’s OK. :)

I have a bad bad feeling that I am coming down with The Sick. :( :( :(

So I’m going to drink all the healthy herbal teas I have this evening, in the hopes of giving my body micronutrients it needs, and also hydrating like whoa. I don’t have sick days right now, so if I have to take time off it means my paycheques get a little sad.

I do like this tea. Sweet hay and almost a berry flavour. Yes, it’s medicinal. Yes, it’s a truly herbal tea. Yes, I always add a little honey to it. But I like it. And there’s a local shop that carries it, so I’m totally going to get more.