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The lovely Kristal gifted this tea to me recently, and it’s my first time trying a pure chamomile tea! I used to drink Calm by Tazo for before-bed relaxation to make me more sleepy, but after tasting this one, I don’t think I can go back.

This chamomile tea tastes like honey to me. At first I couldn’t believe it, but it actually does. Grassy honey, buy honey nonetheless! The flowery aroma is also faintly sweet but not overpowering.

I have a nasty cold, so this tea is doing wonders to soothe my nerves, especially after a rough work day.

Emilie was kind enough to do my very first tea swap with me recently too, and I have a bunch of new teas from her to try. Looking forward to the coming weeks of trying different teas!

Hooray, December Tea Sparrow boxes came early! Wanted to try this one first since it sounded the most interesting, and its evening so didn’t want too much caffeine.

This tea is quite pleasant. It has a smooth green tea base with a slightly sweet chestnut flavour. Also reminds me somewhat of white chocolate in taste, but definitely not that sweet.

Decent overall.

Morning tea.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I like my teas to have a lot of strong flavour, especially my Earl Grey where I am looking to feel that kick of beragmont. This particular tea definitely delivers on strong flavour, which is why I continue to drink it (also because I happen to have a lot of it…) However, this particular Earl Grey has a weird bitterness and astringency that I can bear but cannot ignore. I usually brew this tea with fewer leaves and a shorter steep time to try and counter-act it, but it doesn’t completely get rid of that artificial-tasting metallic(?) tangyness.

Because it’s the best Earl Grey I’ve got right now, I’ll just have to drink it until its gone.

Decided to finish off this wonderful tea with a big mug of it, and added a couple rocks of sugar and some almond milk to finish it off. This is one of the heartiest teas I’ve drank – it has a lot going on even without additions, but with a bit of rock sugar and almond milk this is creamy nutty goodness in a cup! Smells wonderful when brewing (and dry), and the flavour really lives up to that anticipation. Aromatica has some yummy teas, I must say. Local vendor, too!

My goal in buying this tea is to find something similar to Walnut Green from Aromatica Fine Teas, the latter which I discovered and really enjoyed at Tea Sparrow’s Tea-Off in October. When I went to order it, I went through the same process as with Buddha Bamboo – the shipping tacked on to the one bag of tea I wanted to buy was insane, even though I live in the same city as the vendor, and so I regretfully left the vendor’s site empty-handed again. So when I saw this tea at David’s, I figured I might as well give it a try – might be a good replacement.

The aroma of this tea is a little bit off-putting. As soon as I opened the bag and smelled, my first impression was of a sickly-sweet infused nutty aroma. I think it may be the coconut and walnut mixing in a weird way. I’m hoping the flavours will be a bit more impressive.

To be honest, I don’t really like this tea. It is not at all the same as Walnut Green that I was hoping to replicate, and so I am a bit disappointed. It is very sweet for some reason, and I can hardly taste the walnut OR the green tea aspect – they seem to be overwhelmed by the sweet coconut and pineapple(?), which make it seem like a tropical tea when it is not supposed to be. Dunno what I will do with the rest of it, I got 50g at David’s hoping that this tea could just be good if I got more of it. Hah.

I had this at Swich Cafe where my friend works yesterday. This tea vendor had lots of interesting choices, and I went with this one because I wanted something lighter and refreshing to go with my sandwich (which was also delicious).
Unfortunately they put absolutely boiling water on these delicate leaves, so I feel like a lot of the flavour was lost or burnt off, but it still had a nice greeny base with hints of citrusy notes here and there. It was just OK this round, I’d want to try it again properly brewed next time.

Finally, my beautiful Buddha Bamboo. It is more delicious than I could have hoped for. So light and refreshing, slightly citrusy with a bright finish. I love it!

I had this last night before bed, and I gotta say, this tea really surprised me. I’m usually wary of overly flavoured sweet teas, but this one is really delicious! As soon as I smelled it while it was brewing, I exclaimed “It really does smell like apple pie!” And indeed the taste was very similar too! I just love it when the aroma and flavour of a tea match, like I said and will continue saying every single tea review! The flavour profile was slightly sweet, very nutty, and I could get hints of apple in the background. I even went and added a bit of almond milk to it, the first time I’ve done that to a tea in a very long time. And it was awesome! It helped the tea taste a bit more creamy, finishing off that apple pie illusion. I really enjoyed this tea, it was festive and basically like joy in a cup.

It’s been a super busy weekend + start to this week, this is the first time I’ve actually sat down at my home computer for at least a few days. The Vancouver Tea Festival happened on Saturday, and it was a pretty big affair. There was hundreds of people there all throughout the day, and it got pretty packed. A bunch of big name and small name vendors were there, like Just Tea, Amoda Tea, Tea Sparrow, DavidsTea, and a bunch of others. I was there from 1-6 helping tea vendors get hot water and helping people at the reception desk. Most of the time I was able to just wander the floor and sample lots of tea from the various vendors, which was pretty cool. Wize Monkey was there as well, sampling coffee leaf tea. It was interesting, but not really my thing. It tasted like musky, slightly coffee-like light black tea tea, and since I hate the taste of coffee, it wasn’t my favourite sample at the festival. What WAS my favourite was White Coconut from Amoda Tea, but unfortunately they sold their last bag of it very early on. Looks like other people loved it too!

I got this tea from Buddha Leaf yesterday on my lunch break. I’ve been eyeing these these teas at IGA for a while now, and I’ve decided to try this one out. It tasted significantly more sour/fruity than I expected. The smell is very sweet and coconutty, which tricked my taste buds into expecting a sweet-tasting tea. Lo and behold, what a shock they were in for! Apart from the sourness, I did get hints of pineapple and a sweet coconut aftertaste. The flavours blended a bit better as the tea cooled down; it didn’t taste as sour after. I will try to add a bit of rock sugar to it next time, or maybe steep it for a shorter amount of time. It was an OK first try, hopefully next brew will turn out better.

My first try of a pure Assam tea! This was one of the four new teas in the November Tea Sparrow box, which I am drinking before heading off to do my volunteering shift at the Vancouver Tea Festival. I’m a bit apprehensive at being there all day, since it’s an hour away by transit for me, but I am hoping to be able to try a lot of different teas there today. Plus… I was promised a cool “volunteers only” swag bag for my time. ;)

On my first sip, I noticed that this tea is quite strong and full-bodied. The flavour tones were deep and slightly sweet, with a lingering finish on the tongue. Reminds me of the Royal English Breakfast blend that I drink, except a more sophisticated version? I want to say the the black tea flavour profile that is in both teas just tastes more “deep” in this Assam, if that makes any sense. Anyways, it’s quite nice and enjoyable to drink, but didn’t “wow” me. A nice, simple breakfast tea to go with my oatmeal in the morning.