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Brought this to work/merchandising…

It was really, really good. The chamomile and orange peel was really strong in the front end of the sip, and there was the usual sweet and delicious licorice taste that lingered heavily in the aftertaste. Yummy! Even though this was a herbal with no caffeine, I felt invigorated drinking it while working.

Only complaint with this tea is that I can go weeks without even thinking about having it: it’s such a different blend in my stash. But then I’ll wake up one morning and will just HAVE to have a cup or three of this.

Today was a herbal tea day, I guess…

However, my experience with this today was just HORRID which is something I NEVER thought I would say about this peppermint tea.

I’ve made hot chocolate infused with different teas before, my favourite of which has been hot chocolate infused with David’s Buttered Rum. This is something I’ve wanted to try for a long time: I thought it’d be my favourite hot chocolate tea. I was SO wrong.

I can’t even explain: but the mint taste sour and disgusting. It almost tasted like there was curdled milk in my hot chocolate – but there wasn’t any kind of dairy in the mix at all other than the hot chocolate powder/flavouring (which definitely isn’t “curdled”). I felt sick drinking it: it was disgusting. I don’t think I even made it through a quarter of the mug before I dumped it.

WHAT WENT WRONG!? How is it that I don’t like peppermint infused hot chocolate!? Urgggg.

So when Robyn was over yesterday, she was kind enough to bring me a sample of this tea – about a tablespoon. I’ve been curious about it for a while since I’m really interested in expanding my herbal teas to include some blends with more unique and interesting fruit flavours. I think a strongly flavoured guava tea would qualify and since I was able to get a sample from her I figured it was smart to take advantage of that.

Dry, the leaf is overwhelmingly guava but there are a lot of other fruits that come through in the smell too: mango is a notable one but also subtle whiffs of pear and something melony. I can smell the hibiscus too – but since the guava is SO strong I’m not worried about the hibiscus dominating the flavour.

I brewed a tsp and a half for about seven minutes, and the liquor is a medium to deep melon pink. The smell coming from my cup is guava first and foremost, but the mango is also pretty powerful too (which makes sense since it’s the other ‘featured ingredient’) along with some appley notes and a sort of light pear type scent. It smells really good – and also really different from anything I have stocked which is good!

First few sips, and the initial flavour is a cool, juicy guava and mango mix with a tart and tangy finish that reminds me of hibiscus and sour apple candy. This transitions into a light all guava aftertaste. It’s really interesting and is playing with my tastebuds a lot. There’s quite a few fun flavours floating around in this blend.

I’m drinking this with a melted down cheese and macintosh apple quesadilla: and the flavours are pairing together in a very fun and interesting way. It feels like a lazy, summer break type of meal and is taking me back to some really fond memories. And, the closer I get to the bottom of the cup the more tangy and sour flavours I’m getting: sour apple, tangy mango, a bit of hibiscus, and the ever present guava! Yum! I like that the level of sour here seems to be intensifying.

I asked my mom to maybe pick me up 50g of this for me for Christmas (tea seems to be everyone’s default gift for me this year, and I’m definitely going to take advantage of that), but if she doesn’t I’m pretty sure I’ll be picking some up for myself anyway. If I can hold out that long.

I’m a really bad hostess. Well, not really. Just not very detail oriented or focused on the time. Today is Sunday, which means bus routes don’t run the same as they normally do: something I should have been paying attention to since Robyn took the bus here and was going to need to take it home to the University. Except I wasn’t paying attention, and we only realized what the time was about 15 minutes before the last bus was leaving for the night. We rushed to get to it on time, but still managed to miss it.

It’s freezing out tonight, so walking home really wasn’t a reasonable option for her (plus it’s like a 40 min. walk) – so she’s staying the night. That’s fine with both Tre, Robyn, and I but I still feel really bad about it.

Since it was freezing and we’d waited an extra long time outside in the cold just in case the bus was late, I decided to make everyone tea once we were back inside. Robyn and Tre both picked Della Terra’s Perfect Pear and loved it, and I chose this one since I wanted something consistent and familiar because I knew I’d be a bit more preoccupied on making their tea and being a more attentive host.

Consistent and familiar it was indeed; and in the best way. No soapy taste that I sometimes (although rarely) get from this tea and it was sweet and strong. Tre actually commented on how he’d almost picked this since it smelled really strong and powerful, but he also hates black teas. Which is a total contradiction, because he ended up drinking a black tea tonight (and loved it) and his two favourite teas I own (Red Velvet and Saskatoon Berry) are also black teas…

Ugh. Oh well – I think I’ve mostly learned to put up with his idiocy.

So, I set this sample up to cold brew last night so it’d be ready to go to today for when Robyn came over to visit. I received it as a semi unexpected sample from Lala since I’d gone to the local store it’s sold at to buy some, but was told it’d been discontinued. I didn’t think I’d have the chance to try it, but Lala is amazing and sent me some so I guess I was wrong.

The dry leaf for this smells really intense: sort of like straight packaged lemonade juice mix – but definitely not artificial smelling, just very concentrated. When it came in the mail, I came home and my roommate was in the kitchen smelling the envelope. Since I wasn’t expecting any tea, I was kinda thrown off – but once he handed it over I understood why he’d been smelling it: even through the bag it was packaged in and the paper of the envelope I could still smell the leaf. Out of the sample Lala sent me, I used most of it for the cold brew today (about three cups worth) and then saved somewhere between 1/2 tsp. to a full tsp. to hopefully try a hot cup.

After straining the leaf out, there were still A LOT of little floaty bits, but Lala had warned me of this and it’s something I would have expected anyway considering how finely crushed the lemon peel in the mix is. The smell of the cold brew was really faintly lemon, and I was a little concerned that it hadn’t sat long enough to leech out enough flavour.

Trying it though, it was deliciously sweet and so much like freshly squeezed lemonade. Very thirst quenching, with some very subtle appley notes. Probably one of the best ‘lemonades’ I’ve ever had and I loved that it didn’t need sweetener at all. Robyn thinks this would be really good hot and would be great for sore throats (and I don’t disagree), but I think Lala was probably right in saying that this would be best cold brewed or on ice.

Excited to use up the last little bit of this as a hot brew!

Thanks again Lala for sending me the sample!

I almost forgot that I’d tried this in store today since it was their tea of the day! …Actually, it probably says a lot about what I thought of the tea that I forgot I’d even had it.

The liquor was a sort of medium orange colour with yellow hues and, when I tried it I had no information about what was in it other than the sales lady told me it was a flavoured green tea. I can’t say the name of the tea really did anything to educate me about what flavours I might experience.

Upon drinking, I was hit with a really vegetal taste next to something overwhelmingly fruity. So, basically high vegetal taste and high fruit taste (but the flavour wasn’t distinct enough to tip me off on which fruits I was tasting). There was also some unpleasant astringency. I wasn’t really a fan, and I think the sales lady could tell because she really didn’t suggest any green teas for me after that (even though I did end up buying a green tea it was one I had inquired about, not one she suggested).

I just looked up the tea on Tea Desire’s website, and I guess the fruit I was tasting was strawberry and raspberry. I’m not really a fan of green tea in general, but I’m learning to love flavoured green teas (or at least tolerate them). I’ve had strawberry green teas I’ve been much more happy with, though. There’s also sunflower blossoms in the mix, and thinking back now I guess I can see that. Still, not really my cup.

I slept in today, and because of that I didn’t actually have time to make myself a tea for work – which was crushing. This is the first time since starting that I haven’t brought tea with me to work, and I felt really empty handed all morning.

However, because my coworker Briana is really sweet she stopped at Tim Hortons on her way back from break and brought me back a cup of peppermint tea (without my even asking, which was so thoughtful). We’d been talking about tea a few shifts ago and I mentioned that I love mint teas – especially ones that are super strong or overleafed, and I guess she was actually paying attention to the conversation because not only did she pick the right tea (meaning, what I would have asked for if she’d told me she was gonna get me tea), but she also got an extra teabag for me so I could steep it extra strong!

Honestly, it wasn’t the most amazing peppermint tea I’ve ever had. Not by a long shot – but it wasn’t too bad either considering it’s bagged tea from, basically, a ‘fast food’ brand name. It was pretty minty – and with the extra bag I was able to make it really strong and powerful smelling. However, what I disliked what that in the end of the sip there was this odd taste like dirt. It was only really brief and vanished into the minty fresh aftertaste almost right away, but that split second dirt taste was present in every sip. It was sort of distracting, really.

Anyway, a huge thank you to Briana for saving me at work today (super unexpectedly too) since I didn’t have tea of my own like normal.

Aaaannnd more teas going into the cupboard… I want to tell myself this is a good thing; but I also want to be saving up to place online orders for Butiki and Della Terra as well. Ughh. It’s just hard since I work in the same mall as a tea store (so very accessible) and get a discount there too because of it.

Anyway, I purchased three new teas today (50g of each, since that’s the min. amount you can purchase): a flavoured green tea called Japanese Cherry, and Milky Oolong and Raspberry Oolong. I got home and immediately wanted to drink one; and this is the one that my friend Robyn suggested so trying this one first.

In all honesty, I’ve tried very few oolong teas – and basically all of the ones I’ve tried have been flavoured. I’ve also liked almost everything I’ve had. I decided today that I’d pick up at least one oolong tea to try out and after talking to the sales lady (a different one today – so now I know there’s at least three ladies who work there), she told me that this is easily the staff favourite out of the oolong teas they sell, the runner up being milky oolong. I smelled this one – and it was pretty heavily so I figured I’d take a chance since the only other tea I have right now with raspberry in it is Chocolate Rocket – and that tea is basically different in every other way.

Listed ingredients for this are oolong tea, raspberry bits (lots of them – they’re really noticeable), and flavor. Not sure whether or not that’s natural or artificial flavouring. The dry leaf smells like raspberry sweets and desserts. ALMOST pastry like, but the smell of the green oolong base cuts through and adds a sort of grassyness that kind of offsets the small of baking. It’s very sweet smelling – though.

I’ve complained before about Tea Desire’s generic brewing guide and how non-specific it can be. This is my first oolong from them, and the brewing guide for Oolong teas is pretty bad too. They suggest using 1 tsp/ for 2 to 5 min. – that’s fine, and not really unusual. However, the temperature they recommend is 70 to 90 degrees celsius. That’s a big difference – especially with tea. I think what I steeped mine in was around 80 degrees(ish). Middle ground is usually fairly safe…

I wish I could say I’m drinking this hot – but alas I ended up having to do some domestic things and left my tea to sit. Now that I’ve come back to it, it’s kind of lukewarm and really not a good tea temperature. I’ll have to go back and drink this at a proper temperature some other time this week (hopefully before I leave for comic con).

Smell is a more subtle and mild raspberry, with buttery notes that again sort of remind me of baking if not for the grassy notes of the oolong cutting in between. It smells pretty good – although the grassy smell is sort of reminding me of some green teas that I’m not too fond of.

This might be because of the temperature I’m drinking it at or maybe I left it to steep a bit too long, but the raspberry is tasting kind of funny. I’m getting great buttery pastry kind of notes and the aftertaste is creamy, sweet raspberries which together remind me of really good, flakey pie or raspberry danishes – but as I’m taking the actual sip there’s a bitterness to the raspberry that seems a tad unpleasantly artificial. I’m glad I can quickly swallow and enjoy the pleasant aftertaste, though.

I’m also tasting the oolong base, and it’s good too. Buttery and kind of lightly vegetal: definitely not as grassy as it was smelling.

I’m gonna resteep this a little later tonight, and I’ll add on to this note with my opinion on the resteep. For now, though – I’m kind of liking this, but that odd raspberry taste as I’m actually drinking is also pretty unpleasant – however, I don’t want to immediately pin it to the tea: it could be user error from over steeping and it might be the wonky temp. I’m currently drinking this at (so, conservatively rating this – and reserving the right to change it later).

EDIT: Second steep – this time much more attentive in regard to the steep time and temperature, and I’m drinking it hot. Oolong base is more present, and there are some lightly vegetal notes because of it. Still getting the buttery pastry taste, especially in the aftertaste which is creamy and delicious. The odd raspberry flavour I had before during the sip is way less pronounced, although still slightly there. However, the small amount I’m tasting it works (and I’m thinking it might be from the vegetal notes mixing with the pastry/dessert comparison I seem to have going on). I’m not sure if the change in taste is because this second steep has brought out different flavours or because I did a better job brewing it.

Regardless, I feel more comfortable increasing my rating slightly – but I’m going to have to try a first steep of this again while having the same attentiveness brewing it so I can confirm the flavour of this tea for myself.

I wasn’t really sure if “Bubble Tea” counted as tea and whether or not people logged it on Steepster regularly, but after a quick search I guess it does have a place so I might as well log what I had today.

In the mall I work at, there’s an Asian food restaurant (the name is escaping me – it’s not really a place I often eat) that sells bubble tea. They come in about 30 different flavours, and I’ve been curious about them since I started working there. I have had bubble tea in the past, but not often and I don’t really remember much of my experience having it other than I didn’t like the ‘bubbles’ (gelatin balls) themselves in the same way I liked the drink.

Today I had a lychee flavoured bubble tea. Lychee is one of my favourite flavours and this popped out of the list of choices for me; maybe that was because it was spelled incorrectly (‘lichee’), but still…

I really liked it initially: it was sweet and frosty. But, the more I drank the nastier it taste. It got TOO sweet and sugary, and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of flavour. Plus, the gelatin balls were disgusting and I couldn’t stand eating (drinking?) any of them. Eventually I just threw out the rest of my drink (about a third was left).

Maybe I’ll try a different flavour before I totally make my mind up, though. Anyway, since this is an amalgamation of teas under one heading I wont make an ‘official’ rating – but for the Lychee Bubble Tea I had today, I think I’d rate it somewhere between 45 to 55.

Work Mate!

I love the taste of this Mate, and like usual it didn’t disappoint today. I love that this can taste super sweet and juice like, but still maintain the earthy mate flavour. It seems like it should be a contradiction between the flavours, but it really isn’t.

Usually this does the trick energy wise too – which is why it accompanies me to work so often. However, today I didn’t think this really did anything to pick me up energy wise during my shift. I felt dead basically the whole time without any really energy boost. So, I guess I was a bit let down today.

Anyway, I still love this one regardless – and I really should go pick up some more!