Blenz Coffee

I couldn’t figure out where Blenz gets their loose leaf, all their website says is that they use only high quality loose leaf. Oh well, I’ll just create the tea under the coffee shop I guess.

This was one of the more interesting looking options available at Blendz. We don’t have one near my house, but I needed a drink on the road trip and happened across this shop. The rest of the teas were the usual sencha, chamomile, peppermint, English breakfast, etc. I don’t actually like charcoal roasted oolongs, but in the spirit of familiarizing myself with them, I figured why not?

I asked for this with some cold water added, but I think it was still steeped too hot or too long (still fairly hot water, about 3 minutes in a 650 or 700 mL cup, about 3 tsp looseleaf used). I would not recommend trying an oolong western style if you aren’t careful about the water temperature and leaf to water ratio. My tea ended up extremely bitter and almost undrinkable. However, I do think this was probably a decent oolong if it was steeped properly (less leaf and much shorter steep).

As far as the flavour of the oolong goes, I would describe it as being dark toasty, roasted, quite astringent and bitter in the aftertaste. The toasty flavour is nice, though, almost like grain and oats. Subtle floral (gardenia and nasturtium) and fruity notes, but no sweetness or tartness.

Had this one yesterday to go from Blenz while meeting up with a friend to study at the library. I was actually delightfully surprised with this tea. I never knew Blenz had such a unique variety of teas to choose from! Much better than Starbucks’ options, that’s for sure.

The aroma was actually very citrusy, and since I was only told this tea was “dragonwell”, I wasn’t expecting such a zingy, fresh aroma. It was quite nice, though. The flavour was also very delightful. While hot, the citrus did not come through in the tea. It was more creamy and smooth, a solid and quality green tea base. As it cooled down, the zesty citrus also appeared in the flavour, and tasted just like it smelled earlier. I really liked it, and wanted to go back to buy some for home, but the sales associate didn’t really know what he was doing and I had to catch a bus, so I left it for another time.

I will be revisiting this tea!

I really like this tea, surprisingly so. It’s a black with some sort of “gingerbread spice” in it. No idea what it is, but I can see how it would be so divine as a latte. I’ve had it the past few times I’ve visited the Blenz by my house. As long as I take the teabag out after a few minutes… really lovely. A bit better with some sweetener.

Writing in a coffee shop, and this seemed like the best bet after downing a large cup of iced mate just prior. Struggled to find anything at all about this online (where does it come from? is it a proprietary blend?) and said – the hell with it, I’m posting it anyway. The pic is my steeped cup, because it’s a pet peeve of mine to have zero picture for any teas on here.

I can smell the mango wafting from the cup as soon as the barista handed it to me, and I’m excited to taste it. Unfortunately, the mango is uber-subtle, and while it does make sweetener unnecessary, it’s still a bit drying and too faint for my liking. The rooibos is nutty and full, and I’m looking forward to steeping this again and seeing how it fares.

So we went to Blendz for fancy drinks and I grabbed a shaken iced tea (black dragon blend). It’s really good. They added lemon to it and I can’t help but wonder why my ice tea isn’t as good when I make it.

More experiments needed. Maybe they added sugar to this?

Had Blenz matcha today at another location, not as well mixed unfortunately :(

Unsweetened matcha with soy milk. Slightly sweet, somewhat nutty. Well poured today.

Sweeter than the green tea I’m used to (whatever they serve at my favourite sushi place.) Clearly I need to broaden my tea horizons.