CaesarsTea

This is an interesting tea as it has the extra bergamot and vanilla flavors in an earl grey but it is on a rooibos base as opposed to the usual black tea base. Since I like rooibos I think it is a nice match. I get the delicious flavors of an earl grey tea that I can have anytime of the day.

This tea is actually quite similar to Jessie’s Tea/Caesars Provence as they are both lavender rooibos teas. However, this has the addition of berries and personally I find that this distracts from the taste of the tea as opposed to adding to it. This is still a very good cup but it is close enough to Jessie’s Tea/Caesars Provence that I don’t need both and I prefer the other.

There is a bit of lemon and it is blending with hibiscus. A tart drink but not horrible when cold brewed. However, this is a sipdown so I will be having this no more.

My roommate and I used this to make tea popsicles and it was a great choice. The flavors of this tea lend themselves perfectly to being enjoyed cold. Strawberries bring sweetness while lemon adds a bit of tart to round out the flavor. I can tell this is going to be an amazing tea around for when the weather gets hot. Perhaps this will be one of the teas I take with me to Florida for winter break!

This one smells great but like so many other fruit blends I find myself disappointed. I find I usually search for the tea base and miss it because it is not there. Nonetheless, this was not bad. It was a nice cup of tea that was a perfect balance between tart lemon and sweet strawberry. Something tells me this will be amazing to have iced in the summertime. Until then I probably won’t be reaching for it as a hot tea.

Sipdown!! (159)

I thought I had more of this but apparently there was merely enough for one cup. This is similar to Jessie’s Tea but with the addition of berries. Personally I prefer Jessie’s Tea but I know my roommate prefers this. It is always interesting to see how tastes can differ. Well this is gone now and I may or may not see it again.

My friend asked to try some of this but ended up leaving prior to trying any so I was left with a timolino full to drink by myself. No complaints here! This tea always hits the spot. It is floral from the lavender but not perfume-y. It is sweet from the fruit but not cloying. It’s flavors blend together to make a perfectly delicious rooibos tea.

THIS TASTES JUST LIKE DAVIDS JESSIE’S TEA!!! I love Jessie’s Tea so naturally I love this too. This one is better though for one reason – it is cheaper!! So now I can have more of the tea I love for less! Yay!

Both dry and steeped, this tea smells very similar to DAVIDs Red Velvet Cake. However, this is not nearly as sweet as RVC. It gets both a subtle sweetness and a slight creaminess from the vanilla. I did forget I was steeping this so I managed to way oversteep it but that merely resulted in a stronger black tea flavor.

I always get excited about the smell of orange teas and then when I drink them I realize an orange tea is not really my favorite. Unfortunately this is no exception. It is not bad by any means, just not something I would typically reach for.

Sipdown!! (198)

As far as pu’erhs go, this is not bad. There is a nice caramel flavor. However it is still a pu’erh and though I enjoyed this the first time I had it, it has become clear that I am not really a pu’erh fan. For that reason alone I won’t be restocking this.

OMG this is good! This is one of the first caramel or toffee teas that I have had that actually has a full-bodied toffee taste to it. The aroma fills the room with warm, sugary, caramel-y goodness. The pu’erh is subtly present and helps to stop the toffee from becoming cloying. Another hit from CaesarsTea!

ETA: I am happy to add that this resteeps quite well. The flavors are not as strong but they are still present and delicious.

Sipdown!! (93)

I am trying to watch my caffeine intake, mostly because I think the surplus of black tea I was drinking cancelled out the hydration I was getting from water and slowed down my weight loss. Consequently, I am trying to drink more caffeine free choices as well as trying to balance black tea with water. So, I made this along with Caramel Pumpkin Marshmallow in order to balance it out.

I put off drinking this a lot but when I have it, I am always pretty surprised at how pleasant I find it. It has a nice hint of caramel and is just a touch nutty. Rooibos is probably most prominent but it is neither too woody nor medicinal so I don’t mind. However, now that I have polished off my 25 g, I don’t think I will be restocking on it anytime soon.

In other news, my roommate and I have been having problems with our internet for quite some time now. We had a Bell Tech come a few months back and “fix” it and then give us this weird pitch for coffee he sold. He invited us to come meet with him to discuss the coffee further but since neither of us drink coffee, we never went. When our internet started crapping out on us again, we joked that he came back and messed with the internet as punishment for not going for coffee. Anyways, today, my roommate had another Bell Tech come and he had to replace all our cables as everything was corroded. I asked her if this tech tried selling her anything to which she responded “No but when he finished he put on Bollywood music and did a dance for me. I would take dancing over a sales pitch any day”. Haha. Gotta love Bell Techs in Montreal :P.

This, to me, tastes a lot like DAVIDs Creme Caramel. It is rooibosy, a touch nutty, and with hints of caramel. Nothing horrible but nothing special either.

This tastes similar to DAVIDs Creme Caramel Rooibos but with a bit of fruitiness to it (however I don’t know where those are coming from given there is no fruit in this)

Unlike many DAVIDs teas which tend to have bolder flavors, the rooibos is a bit more apparent in the CaesarsTeas I have tried. With that said, I think the rooibos used in CaesarsTeas might be better quality because it tastes pretty good.

Even my roommate has been enjoying the teas and she does not usually choose flavored teas as I have mentioned many times before.

Yet another good tea from CaesarsTea!

This smells amazingly sweet and delicious – like peach cobbler! However, the tea does not taste like it smells. It is earthy and woodsy but is given a nice sweetness from the vanilla. I don’t get much peach either but the cup is still very delicious. It is not a Peach Vanilla tea but it is a good tea nonetheless.

The website for CaesarsTea recommends adding sugar so perhaps that would help bring out the flavors some more. Something to try in the future.

Sipdown!! (158)

So, I have not really seen my roommate in the past view days as we are both in exams and therefore cramming in our rooms. I can take some breaks being an arts student but she is in engineering and usually can’t bullshit her way through things she doesn’t know. However, today she finished and when she came in to say hi I asked her if she wanted to try cold brewed tea. She said yes so I gave her Strawberry Kiwi as that was the one I preferred yesterday. Before even telling me she thought it was very good I sorta realized she liked it because she downed the entire bottle. Since she enjoyed the first one so much, I asked if she wanted another and so I let her choose and she ended up picking Passion Berry. She downed that one too. So finally I asked if she wanted to cold brew some. We decided on making her two bottles for the morning but that quickly turned into 4 bottles when she decided she wanted to see how teas other than herbals would fare when prepped using the cold brewing method. Thus, it would seem I am not the only one who can go a little nuts with cold brewing. I suppose it is because of the sheer ease that makes it such an appealing technique so thank you Roswell Strange for inspiring me to try it.

Also, I have now learned that the problem with cold brewing 8 bottles of herbal teas at once without labels is they all turn the same color and it makes it hard to tell them apart. This one I am pretty sure is Banana Cherry Blend though as I can definitely pick up the banana scent. The taste is banana too but with hibiscus tartness. Nothing too different from how it tasted yesterday. And, although it is tasty, I don’t think this will be a restock as I am still not entirely sold on herbals.

HELP! I have developed a serious cold brewing addiction. I mean serious! There may, or may not, be 8 bottles cold brewing in my fridge right now for tomorrow. I swear I don’t like the teas cold brewed THAT much but I just couldn’t stop. I planned on making three different teas but then for 2 of the teas, there was just enough for two bottles so I figured why not get some sipdowns (so that was 4). And then the third tea was out so I thought might as well. Then I thought about Watermelon Mint Chiller and how that would probably be good cold. Then I checked my spreadsheet and saw I had a Teavana herbal I probably won’t drink any other way so might as well try. And then just to make an even 8, I prepped a bottle of Youthberry/Wild Orange Blossom blend.

Hi. My name is Rachel, and I have a cold brewing addiction.

Anyways, on to the tea – THIS tea, not the others in my fridge. This tea always surprises me as to how spot on the banana smell and taste are. I find you hardly ever come across non-artificial banana flavor but this is true-to-the-fruit banana goodness. I was a little distracted by the hibiscus trying to sneak by me but luckily it was not overly prominent like it tends to get in hot teas. Plus there is that little hint of cherry that is sort of sweet but also blends well with the tart of hibiscus. All in all, a nice cup.

This is one of my favorite cherry tisanes. It has a great tartness from the cherries but it is calmed by the sweetness of the bananas. Plus it is a true banana flavor and not the artificial banana flavor that many teas tend to have. So far CaesarsTea is proving to have been a good choice.

Sipdown!! (199 – YAY for under 200!)

I am drinking this now both as a hot and cold brew. The two together used up the last of the leaf and so I can say good bye to this rooibosy tea.

In the hot brew, the rooibos smell is overwhelming. Luckily, though it is prominent on the cup, it is not the only flavor I am getting. There is a nice hint of strawberry. Alas, there is certainly no cream and nothing I would relate to pie. Mostly it is woodsy rooibos and sweet strawberry.

Cold brewed, the rooibos is more muted and slightly less medicinal. It is still present but the strawberry flavor is more apparent.

I am dropping the rating from 80 as this will not be a restock. I think when I first rated the tea that I was very excited about finding a new company and new teas but as I continue to sip away at my cups I am finding the rooibos to be too dominant for my tastes. This won’t be a restock.

I found a new tea shop today…and I bought 25 of their teas. The saleswomen were in awe and told me I hold the record for buying the most tea at once by far. They were so sweet though – usually when you purchase their tea you get a free sample of either a Mint Chocolate tea or an Orange-ginger pu’erh tea but they gave not only me both samples for free but also my roommate got both samples for free. They also gave us each a coupon for a free cup of tea upon our next visit. Also my cost for 25-30 g of 25 different teas worked out to about $100 but when you buy 4 teas, you get 1 free so I ended up paying $88 for 25 different teas and got 4 free samples. All in all, I don’t think I did too bad. And did I mention that they don’t use artificial flavoring??

Anyways, about this particular tea – the rooibos flavor comes through a lot but there is definitely notes of strawberry and cream. This is a subtle tea but I am realizing more and more that I like subtle teas too. I am definitely glad I have so much more of this to enjoy!