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I feel like I have lots to write about, although probably only half of what I want to say is relevant to tea… But, isn’t that always the case for my tasting notes?

Anyway, lets start at DAVIDsTEA earlier in the afternoon. I went in to restock two favourites that I’ve nearly run out of: Main Squeeze and Cranberry Pear (I’ve got about two cups of this one left). In addition to that, I picked up 50g of White Chocolate Frost and 100g of Gingerbread and a coloured tin for one of my Tea Desire blends that has been ‘bagging it’. Well, things didn’t got exactly according to plan…

I got everything I had hope to get except the Cranberry Pear. Sadly, they were all out and had no idea when they would be getting more in (and I have no idea when in the next two or three weeks I’ll actually be able to make another trip downtown). Damn! I was really looking forward to getting some more so I didn’t have to ration what I have left so crazily. However, the cute sales guy (he’s my favourite guy who works there: he’s the one who replaced my broken timolino for me and is just so easy on the eyes) didn’t charge me for my to go cup of tea since they had been all out of Cranberry Pear! Which was really nice of him. Side note, they were playing jazz music in store and he was dancing behind the counter and it was just too flipping cute.

And now to this blend, which was my to go tea that I drank while I waited for the bus so I could head off to work. I needed something to warm me up, didn’t want to drink what I had brewed for my shift and thought it would be a good oppertunity to tick something off my list of blends I want to try. I can’t remember whose tasting note it was, but someone here on steepster had compared it red kool aid and said it was really good, so that piqued my interest in trying it. I love sweet, fruity blends that double as juice.

As per cute sales guy’s direction, I steeped this for five minutes before tossing the leaves. It was a really, REALLY pretty red colour (the colour of red kool aid) and smelled pretty good. Like strawberry, goji, and something else. For a while it was a little too hot to sip but after a few minutes I got to start sipping away at it.

Taste wise, there was a sugary sweetness in the initial part of the sip: much like strawberry koolaid and sweet apple candy or the aspects of Goji Pop that I actually like (the taste cold brewed, for example) sans melon. That transitioned into a more tart kind of goji/hibiscus/other taste. I’m wondering if the thing I couldn’t identify is Sea Buckthorn: I’ve never had Sea Buckthorn before and don’t even know what it’s supposed to taste like. The tartness wasn’t too much, but I wish the sweetness had lasted longer before becoming tart. In the first few sips, there was that kind of “puckered dryness” left in my mouth just like when you drink straight lemon juice.

This got better as it cooled (is it worth noting I just spelled cooled as ‘kooled’ because of all the kool aid talk?) down – so I could see it having some real potential as a cold brew or somehow infused into a lemonade type of slushy.

I could see myself picking up a small sample size of this to play around with and try cold brewing or doing something lemonadey with: but I’m not in any real rush to do so. In fact, I could probably hold off on it until late spring or early summer.

After the bus had got me to the mall I work in, I went to the post office and sent off another swap. I think I’m really bad at ball parking shipping costs because I expected this to be MUCH higher than it was. I’ve now sent swaps to Quebec, New Hampshire (in the states, not Europe), and Alaska – and so far Alaska has been the cheapest when I thought it would be most exensive. Quebec cost the most to ship to, which baffled me since it’s in Canada just like I am. I guess after time I’ll get better at figuring out what to expect from shipping.

And now back to work for a while… A lady filed a complaint with head office about my Kiosk selling model magazines (Maxim, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, etc.) so now head office had charged me with the task of coming up with a solution so they’re not as visable, but still visable enough they’re attracting the ‘right’ audience and we’re still selling them. I don’t know how to improve my set up though: they’re already kept in one section isolated from anything that is remotely targeted towards children (they’re on the opposite site of the kiosk from all the childrens stuff, dammit) and on the highest shelves so that small children for which they’re not appropriate can’t reach them and hopefully can’t see them (not in their line of sight) – so what more can I do other than removing them from my shelves? That’s never going to happen: they sell too well so head office would never approve that. Blah.