Camellia Sinensis

Sipdown (606)!

Finished off with coconut agave, just like the last cup of this that I had. I did say I was going to finish this one off soon – and I managed to remember that goal and stick to it. This is only a temporary sipdown though; I’ll be restocking in the summer when I crave this tea more consistently. It’ll be easy to do given that I now live not more than a 30 minute commute from Camellia Sinensis’ store.

The coconut in this is right on the cusp of going rancid – you can sort of smell the sourness in the dry leaf, but thankfully it doesn’t really translate into the taste. Yet. It’s going to really soon though! I patched up my mug of this by adding in some coconut agave. The base/pineapple are strong notes though – if there was any sort of small sourness creeping into the cup they covered it up.

I only have one, maybe two, cups of this left – so the goal is going to be to finish it this weekend before it has the chance to get any worse. Then, a restock in the summer when I’m able to drink this faster (so it doesn’t turn on me like it’s doing right now). I fucking adore this tea when fresh; the problem is just that with so many teas in my cupboard I didn’t get through the leaf as quickly as I’d have liked…

This was the other tea I brought with to brunch/the restaurant.

I’m a touch worried about this tea; it’s still very enjoyable but it’s definitely getting old now and I’m concerned about when the coconut might turn. I think I need to power through whats left in the tin, like I do every summer, and then restock with some fresher tea.

Like I said though, this hasn’t really turned yet and it still produced a strong cup at the restaurant. I added cream to it which definitely tied together those Pina Colada elements a bit more strongly – though this definitely tasted more like pineapple than anything else. Creamy pineapple. There was a funny moment when my brother looked over after I’d added the cream to the cup and very audibly voiced how incredibly strange/unique it was that my tea had brewed up such a distinct, opaque white colour so quickly. ’I’ve never, EVER seen one of your teas do that!’ I debated not filling him in, but ultimately my Aunt spilled the beans for me.

Mouthfeel was a touch oily, but I think that’s a result of the cream and not the tea.

Pineapple, yes.

But mostly very buttery coconut and toffee/caramel undertones. I must have had this tea like twenty times now, and I still don’t know exactly where those toffee notes come from but this certainly is NOT the first time I’ve experienced them and I doubt it’ll be the last time. But yeah; sometimes this is delicious Pina Colada and sometimes it’s coconut pastry/toffee with sweet pineapple undertones. This is one of those times.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/RYr96YYEaZY

This song is a bit of a recent obsession, even though it’s not really new in anyway. I just like that the background music is a little upbeat with those higher notes that almost sound like, I don’t know, beeps – but the voice of the singer is sweet and buttery in the same way I find the coconut notes in this blend to be right now.

Iced.

Really, really heavy on the buttery coconut notes today. In fact, that flavour was so dominant and in your face that literally everyone I shared this with today made comment of that – and between sharing sips with the not-boyfriend and my coworkers that worked out to, like six people!?

With milk.

So, so creamy/silky with the best light, buttery coconut notes and sweet pineapple. I’ve said it what feels like a million times, but damn I just really love this blend.

Made a mug of this one a few nights ago with some cashew milk added in! It was very nice and silky, with more emphasis on the buttery coconut and whisps of sweet nuttyness from the milk I’d added in. The pineapple was still present, but more muted/less bright and it served as a sweet undertone more so than anything else.

So this was cold brewed, then run through the soda stream and finally topped up with white rum and ice. Yeah…

It kind of sucked. It was just really bitter and astringent, and almost had a chemical/cleaner like finish to it. Something a public elementary school janitor would use to scrub down and sanitize the toilets. I let my mom try it while I took a picture of her taking the first sip. It looks like someone just told her that her brand new puppy, that her parents bought her for Christmas, was run over by a bus.

Nope.

Had a lovely teacup of this in the morning while I was making myself some brunch!

I was craving the sweetness of the pineapple, but because I wanted some creaminess too I added a splash of coconut milk. This is one of those teas where coconut milk is the perfect pairing because this tea already has delicious, sweet buttery coconut notes to it already. So, more than anything else it just really exaggerated those. That didn’t diminish the sweetness and candy like flavour of the pineapple though – if anything it just made it richer and more perfectly pina colada like.

Unrelated; the other show I’m really into right now is Riverdale! I used to read as many Archie comics as I could get my hands on in the summer when I stayed at my Grandma’s house; she owned a lot. So, Archie has always felt very nostalgic to me. It’s been the weirdest, but most pleasant, experience seeing the Riverdale world reimagined as this style of TV show. I’m just completely encapsulated by it all. The characters, though! Seeing what they’ve done with them has been the best part for me.

But anyway, I made an aesthetic blog on Tumblr today surrounded around Riverdale’s Jughead character which you can check out here if you want: https://juggy-j0nes.tumblr.com/ Not gonna lie, I’m pretty proud of it.

Commute to work tea.

It’s been a while since I’ve really gotten those lovely toasted coconut/buttery toffee type notes from this blend – lately it’s been super tropical with a strong focus on the pineapple. However, those rich and more confectionery type notes are definitely what was the focus of this mornings cup. In fact, the pineapple almost felt a little disconnected because it was most distinguishable in the finish of the sip well after I’d already gotten the bulk of the toffee/coconut flavours.

Really pleasant way to begin my day, though.

Whipped up a cold brew of this into a bit of a make shift tea cocktail earlier in the week…

Basically, I just added a couple shots worth (like two and a half) of Malibu Coconut Rum into my normal 25 oz. cold brew and then I just enjoyed. It was richer and sweeter, with a more pronounced coconut flavour and exaggerated buttery/toffee sort of component with the pineapple taking a bit of a small step into the background. Though, the pineapple WAS still very much a present flavour. The additional flavour of the rum of course complimented the pineapple and coconut – I mean, this was essentially the tea cocktail version of a Pina Colada so OF COURSE it tasted phenomenal.

Delicious, delicous summer cold brew!

That said I may need to start hoarding ‘cause I was browsing Camellia Sinensis’ website and making super expensive dream carts and I was shocked to see that it wasn’t listed on the site anymore! WHAT!?

In other news, I almost wound up not getting to drink this! Typically, I drink my cold brews out of a carry mug at work because it’s nice having something cold and refreshing at work during the day. My carry mug is one of the orange/mango ones from DAVIDsTEA and turns out that a coworker just bought the exact same one. We found out because we both brought ours to work this week, and accidentally switched mugs at some point during the day.

We figured it out, though. I foresee this being a bit annoying in the future, though.

EDIT: Just went to check out the CS site again, and this is back up on the site. I can breath a big sigh of relief.

So, when Trey’s parents visited for the first time last week I made a pot of tea for each of them based on a flavour suggestion: for his Dad I made DAVIDsTEA’s The Earl’s Garden and because his mom asked for something with coconut in it I made a pot of this tea!

Personally, I adore this tea and this latest pot was no exception. The coconut and pineapple flavours were prominent, and brought about a lovely tropical/pina colada note while at the same time reeling the drinker in with their softness, and the comforting, sweet nature of the flavours. I also find this tea often tastes buttery in a confectionery way, and that the base lends an almost toffee-like flavour and that was as true about this pot as any other I’ve made.

His mother adored it as well; I’d certainly hoped she would, but she’s kind of a difficult woman and while I had confidence in the tea getting her praise still felt lovely and surprising. So, basically, I will slowly win over both the parents…

Through tea!

This is a queued tasting note.

Hot cuppa! Just this lovely combination of malt, honey, toffee, buttery coconut, and sweet juicy pineapple! This tea is so phenomenal! It’s nice to see that this cup is as wonderful as I remember it being the first time I ordered it.

I’m hiding in my room right now until I have to start getting ready for work, and I suppose I might as well be catching up on tasting notes in the meantime…

I cold brewed this one yesterday; it’s really nice to have it back in my cupboard. Easily one of my favourite blends from Camellia Sinensis, this tea has such lovely tropical and confectionery notes! It’s a blend of super fresh, yummy and sticky sweet pineapple with tropical and buttery coconut notes and a hint of toffee type flavour presumably from the base! It’s been on my restock list for a while to be perfectly honest; don’t know why it took so long for me to slip it into an order considering how many sizable ones I made last year…

Tasty as this was, though, I just have to note that I really don’t remember the coconut shreds in the blend looking as vibrantly green as they did with this order. Again – everything tasted fine but the coconut is a sort of Chartreuse green. Huh.

Sipdown (122)!

Tea Infused White Rum Part Two:

As part of continuation of my count down to my birthday (which is today), I had a few shots of White Rum last night that were infused with the remainder of this tea life. Definitely was thinking “Pina Colada” when I picked it out and cold brewed/infused it.

Despite using my finest meshed strainer, this one still had tons of little floaties. So, it had an almost grainy mouthfeel going down. Not much burn though. Taste wise, it was certainly a step up from ‘part one’ of this count down – Flowery Pineapple Oolong. For starters, I didn’t throw up. So automatic win there…

This still had a very strong soapy taste – but intense, artificial coconut soap this time around instead of floral soap. Not that enjoyable (though still better than drinking the rum straight). It smelled so good too; lots of rich, buttery toffee notes! Pineapple flavour kicked in during the aftertaste – thank God.

Also; I just have to point out that this is something I definitely wanted to restock, and somehow it hadn’t made it into either of the Camellia Sinesis orders I placed last week (yeah, I put in two – one for teaware and the other for tea). It’s probably going to be a while before I do another one now – so I’ll likely be without this tea for a while. Boo. My teaware order did show up today though! It was my birthday present to myself; my first Gaiwan and a Celadon cup and pitcher to use with it. It’s so precious and beautiful! I’ve been using it all afternoon (my first Gong Fu session ever!) – just kind of practicing using it and, more importantly, pouring from it…

Guys, I slept in today and had ZERO time to make tea if I wanted to make it to work on time today, so no tea right now. I am a sad slug of tired.

Also, this is my last day at Calendar Club; they’ll start taking the kiosk down this afternoon. Who knows, I may be back next year but as of tomorrow I’ll be down to one job again! That’s both awesome (sleep!) but also kinda shitty because it means less disposable income, which means less tea…

Also; I have no clue what it’s going to mean for my regular morning tasting notes: with a now totally open availability at Sobeys I’ll be working earlier shifts, so I may not have time in mornings anymore for tasting notes and Steepster chat. And that makes me sad.

You know what doesn’t make me sad though? This tea! Made in a timolino and awesome!

Slurp!

Guess what! This is officially my last note in my queue! I am now all caught up again!

I’m actually currently drinking this. Well, the last of it really. I brought a mug to take on the walk to work, and since starting this morning I’ve just been saving the last little bit of it and taking very small baby sips. It’s so good, and really tying me over while I wait to get off. Only half an hour to go!

The top note here is very fresh, tropical pineapple (4433). A little bit sweet and a little bit juicy. Then there’s this very buttery bottom note of coconut (4261) that really anchors every thing and gives more depth to the tea. The combination of these two glorious flavours, somehow, also makes a toffee/brown sugar flavour that very nearly (with the buttery coconut) adds a confectionery element. And then just the most perfect, smooth black base.

My favourite pineapple/coconut, no questions about it.

Love this blend. Love it.

I definitely didn’t have to worry I was being too generous with my rating for this when I first had this; it’s amazing and very deserving of such a high rating. In fact, I’m gonna bump it a little higher!

Pineapple, Coconut, Toffee, Butter, Caramel.

It’s so tropical and nummy!

First to review, and what an honor because mother fucking balls this tea is amazing!

My Camellia Sinensis order came in, and this was pretty much the tea in the order that I wanted to try most of all, and when I cracked open the packaging I was flooded with the most heavenly, amazing tea smell ever. Legitimately, I’m struggling to think of another tea which smelled this damn good when I first opened it. Basically, think really fresh, supple pineapple and coconut pastry with like pastry butter goodness and toffee. But yeah; fresh is really the most important word there. FRESH.

I was impatient to try it, so I made it in my timolino so I could have it at work with me. It steeped up splendidly. I followed package instructions, and they did not lead me astray even a little bit. The black base was very, very smooth and had notes of malt and honey to it. And then carefully layered over that was intense notes of fresh, sweet, juicy pineapple, buttery coconut pastry, toffee, and sex. So pretty much; an orgasm in your mouth.

For Butiki fans; this one reminds me heavily of Hello Sweetie in that the coconut/toffee vibe is very, very similar but instead of Banana you’re working with Pineapple – which is better, in my opinion. So if you liked that one, you may want to try this one. Really, if you like Pineapple or Coconut even a bit, you probably want to try this one. It’s the best pineapple/coconut tea I’ve had in a really, really long time (if not the best ever).

Even if the other two blends I got in this order are total flops – this one blend makes the whole order worthwhile. Right now, I’m rating it a 90 even though I want to do the full 100. I’m a little worried some of the love here might just be new tea excitement (but I’m thinking probably not) so I’m trying to be conservative with my rating until I have it again.

I want to share this gem with all of you! Except that would mean less for myself, and I don’t know if I can do that…

L&CTTB

interesting.

sort of roasty and nutty. somewhat sweet. kind of creamy taste to it.

After I had it western style, I saw that people did this in a gaiwan gongfu and I bet that would be great. Ah well.

If you like black earth, leathery, thirst quenching dark, dark chocolate tea then this is the one. Straight up it smells and tastes like black earth after rain. When I added a touch of almond milk it brought out the dark, dark chocolate taste.

Hazelnut, butter, vanilla and a slight herbal taste…this is a wonderful tea. One to be steeped in a Gaiwan starting at 30 seconds and then to be enjoyed over and over again in multiple steeps. A delightful tea for a time of pondering…best straight and on its own.

This was a sample from dexter It’s a roasty oolong, and while the brewed aroma is that oolongy taste i’m not a huge fan of, this is a really nice brewed cup of tea. it’s not overly bold, but it’s not a wimpy oolong either…sort of middle of the road with a bread like sort of taste to it. I’d be inclined to pick this one up again if i needed a ump to get me to free shipping threshold or something with an order but it wouldn’t be a permanent restock. thanks for sharing dexter!