Banff Tea Co

For all his complaining, my husband tagged me in a town swap page where someone was giving away teas. Tea Enabler! The lovely gifter gave me several teas from companies I had not heard of before and some Harney & Sons. I thought I’d start with this one since I’ve not been sleeping well and could use a few winks.

I did steep for the maximum recommended amount of 10 minutes as I wasn’t sure how old the leaves were. Right off I smell the lemongrass through my spring allergy sinuses. I don’t catch any other scents off the mug but I definitely taste spearmint first, then the lavender and lemongrass with the chamomile. There is a hint of roses too.

It’s a pleasant mix and a nice way to wind down before bed. After looking the tea up, I’m shocked at how spot on I am at identifying the ingredients with this cup. I think I just leveled up in my tea drinking! :-)

I remember really liking this one, and now, it’s gone.

And it’s a sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

Five months since writing a tasting note? Sad. I’ve been dealing with a heap of health issues so sitting down and enjoying a cup of tea, writing down its notes, etc, has unfortunately not been a priority for me.

I picked this up in Banff last summer. I never cared for their setup there, with all the teas stored in clear glass jars next to a bright window, so for that reason, I never picked anything up until last time. I thought fiiiiiine.

This one smelled the most promising at the time but even then, having it fresher then, and now, ten months later, it’s a little boring. The base has always had a dusty undertone to it, and although the chocolate chips are abundant in the blend, they don’t seem to do much? I can smell nuts in the steeped tea more than I can taste them, and there’s a bitterness that makes it more akin to walnuts than pecans.

This is a very odd blend of herbs I’ve never heard of. It includes dried horsetail leaf, bamboo, and eye bright powder. It also includes passion flower, which is known to produce some interesting dreams.

I do get hints of citrus, definitely lemongrass and dried citrus peel. I like that they used rooibos as a base…althrough I didn’t taste rooibos as a centre note. It had a touch of sweetness, but nothing like the rooibos I usually drink. It let the lemongrass some through a bit more.

I only ordered this one because I have wanted to try Banff Tea Co. for a long time, and I haven’t been through Banff recently. My amoda order seemed like a good chance to support this small
Canadian company. I also needed some herbals for coldbrewing that were not hibiscus-based. This will make a few more cups of coldbrew, however it isn’t something I would order again. The herbs are not unpleasant, however I don’t find the blend remarkable.

Sipdown (636)!

Pretty damn sad to be finished up with this one; it’s been a complete delight. This time around I made it in a tea press, with a little bit of added in milk. It was still very creamy with a light milk chocolate note, hints of plums, and an almost marshmallow like quality too. The finish was a little metallic tasting though, and I’m not totally sure why. Perhaps just not SUPER well suited for tea press prep!? I definitely enjoyed this one more straight, but it’s nice with milk regardless.

I also really like that I finished this one off during my sister’s birthday party. That’s a really sweet association that I’ll probably have with this tea – it’s something I SUPER enjoyed so it’s one I’m sure I’ll look back at fondly, especially with that connection now.

I’m drinking a mug of this one right now, and it’s just the most comforting thing in the world right now – I swear, if I did RIGHT NOW drinking this tea I would be so content.

It’s got a mix of really soft but fudge-y chocolate notes and mellow plums, but perhaps more interesting to me is the fact that something in this tea is tasting SO STRONGLY of vanilla cake batter and I don’t know what it is! However, it just perfectly compliments the rest of the overall profile and is just decadent and velvety.

I LOVE THIS TEA.

So, if you’ve ever taken the Pottermore house sorting quiz you probably remember the question that asks which potion you’d want to drink – one of the options is a potion with the aroma of chocolate and plums, or something to that effect anyway. I think this tea tastes exactly like what I’ve always envisioned that ‘potion’ to taste like. It’s incredibly satisfying in a fandom-y sort of way, and the tea itself also tastes delicious! So, huge win!

This is quite an interesting blend. I like the mint and herbs blend, even the vegetal herbs are nice. Spearmint, hawthorn, and lemongrass go well together. However, the hibiscus was unnecessary.

The berries (elderberry, black current) aren’t bad…it gives the cup a trail mix/hiking snack sort of taste. I don’t really like mint and fruit together, but this is interesting.

The astragalus seems vegetal and similar to senna leaf in flavour. I don’t really know what astragalus tastes like, so it is difficult to pick out what flavours come from the astragalus and which come from the other herbs. If you like herbal mint blends, this is worth a try.

I originally bought this because I have been wanting to try teas from Banff tea co. for many years and I wanted to support the small business. Also, I think a lot of their blends are extremely creative and unique. They use a lot of native (to Alberta/Canada) herbs and berries, which gives buyers a chance to try lesser known ingredients and sustainable harvested local traditional foods.

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Definitely, definitely a more savory and herbaceous blend. Made me think a little bit of drinking some sort of soup stock that uses really nice spices and herbs in it. Sage notes, of course, but also rosemary!? Hints of pine, which I’m sure is the juniper. I might be tempted to revisit this again – but not for a good while; I think I’m a little over it right now.

First cup of the morning!

I feel like I’m probably gonna have a ton of tea today; I chipped a tooth yesterday on my lunch break at work and I’m just feeling a little hesitant to eat anything hard or chewy until I get it looked at by a dentist (doing that later this afternoon). So, lots of tea in the meantime.

This was really more of a soft, herbaceous and relaxing sage and lavender blend. I’m surprised, actually, how much I loved the tea considering how much lavender there actually was present in the cup. It was good though; woody, floral, savory… Basically all the things, apart from sweet and sour? Not a TON of juniper but I do think a lot of that woody quality probably does come from the juniper berries even if the rest of their flavour doesn’t shine through too prominently.

Had this one yesterday, and I honestly can’t decide if I liked it or not.

So, I’m a complete sucker for any sort of tea blends that includes hers like sage, thyme, and rosemary so I really thought this would be up my alley – and it definitely did have a lot of really great notes of strong, bold, herbaceous sage that I just loved. However, there was also a lot of lavender and I found that to be somewhat off putting. The combination of lavender and sage also didn’t work great for me; I found myself thinking of bath soaps – and, like, really nice high end bath soaps but bath soap is, well, soap regardless of the price tag attached to it.

The surprising amount of body that the white tea and sage/juniper combo had would have been so great with just like half as much of the lavender – but as is I was left feeling mixed. Huge pros, and huge cons just equates to general adequateness.

Thank you Evol Ving Ness for sharing this with me. As I drink it now, I feel like I have had this before. Tea deja vu. It’s really juicy and has a pretty accurate blackberry/berry flavor. This is not a flavor I quickly reach for so I probably don’t need more than the sample but as far as the flavor goes, it is certainly done well. I won’t struggle to finish this off.

Sipdown (412)!

#VacationTea

Wow, my cupboard has just blown up so much…

But hey, I finished off one of the teas I brought with from home! Like, actually truly finished it off. So that’s something. On the other hand, I’m bringing home 34 new teas tomorrow, so one tea is really only a drop in the bucket.

This was my tea for in the car, on the drive back in from Fargo to Winnipeg. We got back into Winnipeg around 6PM and from there we went to my step sister’s house to go out trick or treating with her and my step nephews. Dominic, the older of the two, is thirteen and he was very “over it”/was acting like an ‘adult’ who was disinterested in Halloween and ‘baby things’. What!? Who gets sick of Halloween!? It’s the best holiday of the year! At least my younger nephew, Gabriel, was super excited! He’s only five, so he was really into it. We went like seven blocks before he got too cold and wanted to head home and then we had a good time sorting his candy/counting it.

As for the tea; I added a little milk to it this time. Mostly, I just wanted it to cool down quicker so that I could drink it sooner in the car during the trip back into Winnipeg – but I didn’t hate the idea of adding milk to a tea that reminded me so strongly of oatmeal raisin cookies. This was better straight though; the milk drowned out a lot of the flavour in my opinion without adding a whole lot substantial flavour wise. Thankfully, the cinnamon and raisin notes prevailed, although they were certainly muted.

I’ve never actually ordered from Banff Tea Co. and to be honest I definitely wont be any time soon with the state that my cupboard is currently in, but if I was going to I think this is actually something I’d seriously consider adding into an order. It was a delightful surprise, and apart from the awesome kombucha I got to experience this trip I think it’s actually one of the best teas I’ve had so far on this vacation.

#VacationTea

Just got home from a day of hitting up various tea stores in Winnipeg, and then stopping at Central Canada Comic Con (aka C4)! It was a really fun day! Now we just have the full afternoon/evening to chill out at the house we’re crashing at and then tomorrow we head off to the US for a couple of days!

I brought this one with me to sip on at C4 – there’s no way I was going the whole afternoon without at least one guaranteed cup of tea! It was really good, too! Very thick mouthfeel, rich flavours overall and a good amount of natural sweetness. It reminded me very much of an oatmeal chocolate chip/raisin cookie! I think that’s probably the cinnamon alongside the chocolate and raisins – with the caramel perhaps just tying the whole thing together. Really good, though!

I got a nice, respectable haul from C4 too!

- A gorgeous hand painted Psyduck; actually on canvas too; not just a print!
- Two Squirrel Girl comics
- A pair of D12 earrings
- A stainless steel and resin ring, with a Spiderman comic embedded within it
- And two Adagio fandom tea blends!

Of course, I had quite a haul from the tea stores too – but that’s something for another tasting note.

Sipdown (513)!

Mmmm… nope.

This one is just weird; a mix of roasty coffee and chocolate body notes, a nutty undertone, this funny overarching mustiness and the weirdest fruity/tart top notes. It just doesn’t work for me and it felt like a bit of a chore even finishing off the last cup of it. Tea shouldn’t feel like a chore.

Had this one near the end of my shift, and honestly that might have been a mistake. It’s about midnight now, and I’m finding myself a little too revved up on caffeine to quite head to bed for the night. This was a blend of black tea and yerba mate, so pretty caffeinated, which is something I definitely knew when brewing it…

So really, I only have myself to blame.

Flavour wise I was really disappointed by the one! The dry leaf smells so deliciously good; creamy milk chocolate notes, a hint of something earthy, and a really sweet smelling berry and currant aroma! I thought that based on the smell alone this would be something really interesting, and complex flavour wise. Instead, it was actually quite bland/weak in flavour…

Watered down chocolate notes, a dull/flat sort of earthyness and then a finish of almond and generic tasting berry. That’s four different flavour notes right there – you’d think that’d be at least a little interesting, right? But since they were all either bland or just very light it’s just a super lack luster experience.

Why doesn’t this taste at all as amazing as it smells!? So much lost potential.

Sipdown (637)!

So, I’m actually flying through tasting notes this morning and I think that’s because I’m writing in my bedroom and the neighbor in the house directly behind where my bedroom is has been doing very loud construction all morning long. He was doing it last night too, up until about midnight. It’s really irritating; he started this morning at around seven and woke me up with it too. Even with my music blasting I can still hear it though; it’s good motivation to keep writing though…

This tea is fine – it’s smooth and medium bodied but in terms of flavour it’s simplistic. Nice, cooling mint with a little bit of a herbacious undertone to it, and then the taste of brighter, slightly lemony green tea. Just like a higher quality alternative to a bagged grocery store mint green tea. It’s not bad, but it’s not mind boggling and not the kind of thing that I’d really need in my cupboard.

So, so long and farewell!

Had an early evening cup of this one with supper a few days ago; honestly I wasn’t really paying it much attention so mostly I just noticed how smooth it was. I know there’s more to the blend than this, but really it just tasted like a really nice peppermint tea to me. Easily finished off, and simplistic in nature.

- Strong presence of vegetal and grassy green tea
- Reminds me of cucumber skins and lawn clippings, with a touch of earthyness
- Earthyness is the from the yerba mate
- The cucumber like note comes from the cool mint combined w. the vegetal green tea
- Makes for that crisp, cool cucumber like flavour that’s really refreshing
- The grassyness is from both the green tea AND the green mate
- Peppermint undertones in the top and body, and more of a main flavour in the finish
- Like I said, adds a “crispness” to the overall flavour as well as sweetness
- The goji is subtle but does add a bright red fruit element in the body flavour
- Starts as an undertone and builds into more of a vibrant, lively ‘bursting’ type flavour
- Overall, found this really relaxing
- And a good balance of a lot of really differing elements
- It was a good early morning cup with a nice, clean profile and clear tasting notes

thanks for sharing this one with me Evol! this was a nice refreshing and juicy cup of tea this morning.

This is a tasty tea with floral, fruity, and gourmand nuances all in one. The first cup I had was heavier on the floral, probably because it had more petals when I poured it out of the sample pouch. The rooibos base is woodsy but I’ve had much worse. Then there’s a delicate chocolate note in the background. I added milk to this first cup and it worked well, I must way.

The second cup today hardly has any floral notes but more tart, fruity notes are present long with the gourmand caramel and chocolate. I didn’t bother with milk this time around and I was able to taste the chocolate a little more, this time around. Not sure if I would ever order more but if I ever find time to make it down to Banff again, I may consider giving this another chance. It’s just unfortunate that they store their teas in glass jars in their store. I ordered my sample though Amoda, so I’m thinking it shouldn’t have had as much exposure to the sun.