Épices de Cru

Adventaggedon Day Six – 5/5

We had company at the office today so my last few advent teas were consumed very quickly so I didn’t miss getting all my photos in before five. I wish I had gotten to spend more time really sitting with this mug and focusing on the flavour instead of speed slurping. Darjeeling is not a chugging kind of tea.

Dry leaf smelled really fragrant though with a nose that reminded me of walking into a florists right before Valentine’s Day. Steeped up, I got notes of sugar snap peas, just a hint of freshly zested lemon peel, and a lovely thick heady floral that was like fresh cut roses that still have a bit of that greener “chlorophyll” smell to the stems from being trimmed. This was a very evocative Darjeeling to me, and I look forward to revisiting the rest of the sample sometime when I’m less rushed.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl16y9KOY7N/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpkOwmsk8kw

It’s been a hot moment since I’ve done this, so I thought I’d do a “Teas I Drink In A Day” roundup a few days ago – no theme. Just whatever I wanted to drink.

I ended up picking this one out for the day to break up all the caffeine I’d crammed into the morning, but also because I was craving cardamom. It was a very smooth and aromatic cup of tea – the quality of the spices used in Epices de Cru’s tea blends are always just so much higher than the typical tea company and you really get that from the fragrant citrus-y and camphor notes that shine through in this tea along with that floral, soft orange blossom finish to round up the cup. I find this so well balanced.

That said, I did kind of wish I had vanilla paste bean paste with me to stir in, because I feel like this is just one step away from being the more elevated sort of Creamsicle profile as well and dang do I want that!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5RdiYtuAuR/?img_index=3 (3rd Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hver5f5HErw

Late afternoon sip during this past week – I’m finding some afternoons I want a caffeine perk up and some, like in this case, I want more of a “caffeine cool down”. Not because the caffeine is bugging me, but I’ve just been a little stressed lately and there’s something a little more soothing to me about the idea of having a herbal blend. Which is silly, because caffeinated blends can be equally soothing in their flavours and ingredient compositions…

Anyway, this was highly aromatic and driven primarily by the taste of fresh cardamom with it’s natural citrus undertones and faint camphor finish. The camphor leans into the hint of cooling mint, and the citrus notes to the light and delicate orange blossom flavours. All very well connected to each other as a complimentary trio of flavours. And yes, very soothing…

Advantaggedon Day Five – 3/5

This was my favourite of the day.

In particular, this combination of flavours was just exciting to me as a concept. I did have some worries though; orange blossom is such a delicate flavour and cardamom is not. It would have been so, so easy for the cardamom to totally swallow up the rest of the flavours in this tisane. That didn’t happen, though!

As I said to Marika earlier today, it was just incredible how this ended up being such a strongly flavoured and intense cup with such deep, fragrant notes of cardamom while also perfectly conveying the delicate and more fragile flavour of floral and slightly citrusy orange blossoms. Like, those two things shouldn’t be able to co-exist in one sip as well as they do. It’s crazy. In a very good way.

Also – this is probably the first “orange blossom” blend I’ve ever come across to use real orange blossom and holy shit it makes a world of difference. I love orange blossoms so much; they’re one of my favourite flowers. It’s just a cool inclusion and, once again, speaks to the authenticity of ingredients that EDC always delivers on.

(Tiny criticism though – didn’t really taste the mint in this blend at all! Just blends a little too seamlessly with the camphor qualities of the cardamom.)

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClzWCzSvEvU/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g8x-ER2n70

Adventaggedon Day Four – 2/5

Since I had two chai blends today (boo!) I decided I wanted to brew them in different ways to keep things a little varied. I decided to do this one as a stovetop chai simmered straight in coconut milk. I wasn’t 100% sure if this particular mix of spices was necessarily the best suited for this preparation method, but very rarely does Chai not go great with pretty much any type of milk/alt milk.

(I know Marika is reading this, and I’m sure she can tell me the many different kinds of chai you shouldn’t add milk to – but today I don’t particularly care.)

The most prevalent aroma coming from the pot as this simmered was a combination of mace and black pepper. It was interesting because those aren’t two spices I would probably match up together. But what do I know about spices. Once I had strained everything out, I was really mesmerized by all the black flecks of vanilla bean within the cup. They were so beautiful against the creamy rich brown liquor. It’s a sight that you don’t really ever see with “vanilla chai” blends because they rarely use authentic vanilla and, when they do, not enough of it for it to be as visible in the cup.

…and after all of that, I didn’t really like it. I mean, what did you except? This is a chai-y chai, and a chai drinker I am not. However, EDC never skimps on the quality of their spices and I have to say that this was a complex and nuanced blend with a lot of really distinct notes. I tasted the cinnamon, the mace, the fennel. Definitely the pepper. I think it would appeal to so, so many people. I am just not one of them, haha.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClwxRN7O-LO/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLgwCQKBcP8

EDIT: I wanted to add in/point out that this song has one of my favourite lines of lyrics that I’ve heard in quite some time. Well worth a listen, IMO.

I love soba so much, whether it be on its own or mixed with a tea base such as this one. Though it’s a light touch of toastiness, it works well with the present notes of cornsilk, steamed vegetables, and nutty undertones. Very genmaicha reminiscent, though just a little more tea-forward in my experiences.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCIJ1N8StX6/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2_E0Z3diLE&ab_channel=BloomsdayVEVO

Gongfu!

Pulled this one out last week to sip on while enjoying some sweet, zesty and tangy kumquats!! The tea is very smooth, toasty and nutty and in many ways shares a lot of similarities to Genmaicha though I do find that there’s more longevity to the flavour payout of this blend, so it works better for gongfu style brewing than a Genmaicha typically would. The kumquat have an intense taste that can’t be fully enjoyed in tandem with the tea, as they overpower the more delicate notes. However, eating one in between each steep works wonderfully because the flavour lingers on the palate long and strong enough to still be discernible with the tea – just not in as over bearing of a way!! If you haven’t tried pairing citrus with more roasty teas, personally I think you’re missing out – it’s a stellar duo!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CryWMF0Oca_/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uhymhTYk8w

Adventaggedon Day Three – 5/5

More green tea… but with soba!

I actually just got a giant bag of Soba from Harney & Sons during their Black Friday sale because I enjoy it so much, so I was interested to see how the taste would suit this Korean green tea. I mean, basically today’s selection is just Korean Genmaicha.

Normally I steep my Genmaicha at a boil for about a minute because that pulls out more toasty rice notes and less of the green tea, but because this was my first tasting of this tea I dropped the water temperature down to about 85C and gave it a little bit of a longer steep time. It’s still plenty roasty toasty with a lot of pleasant and slight caramelized nut and grain notes. Snap impression is that I’m actually enjoying it more than the standard Genmaicha. That’s probably because there’s just a lovely absence of those marine tasting notes that turn me off Japanese green tea so much.

So, this one is a winner in my books!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CluMZkouA7b/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW-fppK8vew

Adventaggedon Day Fifteen – 4/6

Cold Brew!

I think this is the first double up of the advent teas this year, which is pretty damn good batting average compared to past years! Since I tried this gongfu on the first day, I wanted to go with a totally different prep method today. Cold brewing was so refreshing! The overall infusion was definitely lighter in taste and body that my gongfu method, but it’s really smooth with such crystal clear notes of the balsam fir. I’m enjoying it a great deal, especially as a bit of a digestif after a long sushi dinner at an all you can eat restaurant!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmNGE2juu53/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIEWJ1ljEro

Adventaggedon Day One – 2/5

Gongfu!

So, back before The Tea Practitioner announced their advent, I was really struggling to decide on a fourth advent. It was at that point that Marika came up with this secret plan to put together an advent for me from Epices de Cru – the spice shop owned by her family, which also has a really solid tea assortment.

Now, Epice de Cru doesn’t actually sell advents so this is one that she had picked out and packaged for me – it’s honestly one of the most thoughtful gifts anyone has ever gotten me around the holidays. I’m also sure it totally confused her parents when I tagged them on IG and announced that I was doing an advent from their store.

Today’s tisane was a slam dunk for me, though! It’s a blend of mostly fir and cedar, with some Labrador Tea and Tamarack. I decided to basically stuff a little tiny glass teapot with as much of the needles and herbs as would fit to brew gongfu earlier this morning. It’s a bit of a lighter tea just by the nature of its ingredient composition, so this is definitely a full rolling boil and long infusion sort of tea. Even still, I found it surprisingly more flavourful than other cedar or fir based tisanes I’ve had. Mostly it tasted of fir – crisp, sweet and woodsy. Really refreshing. I liked the addition of tamarack though, I thought it really did add a pleasant sweetness – a bit honey like and a bit like wintergreen. Of course I liked this tisane though, my predictable palate is on board with any tea that tastes like drinking trees.

I have to say that my only criticism is that the Labrador Tea in the blend feels redundant. It doesn’t detract from the infusion, but I didn’t feel like it added any noticeable body or taste either – and at the end of the day I’d probably take more fir in the blend in place of the labrador tea. That’s splitting hairs, though.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClpC3C9OZ7i/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZu8-d8_8Q

Our final tea of the night was actually a tisane! This was a straight sage from the spice shop owned by Marika’s family and it was easily the best sage I’ve ever had steeped. It was so intense and aromatic, and you could just tell from the first sip that it was insanely fresh with all of its natural oils still… intact? That’s not really the word, but you know what I mean. After a night of heavy tea drinking it was really great to end on something so fresh and cleansing feeling, and I think it was just the perfect cap to a great dinner/evening.

Sampled from the TTB, and I might have to keep some of it! This is so tasty. I wasn’t expecting much because the scent of the dry leaf was verging on that almost artificial vanilla cake scent that can be a bit cloying, but happily the tea itself has a much more refined vanilla flavor. It’s a light but true vanilla, subtle but present.

I don’t think I’ve ever had osmanthus before, and I’m not quite sure I can pinpoint the flavor in this blend—I guess it’s the kind of floral note? Regardless, it works very well with the vanilla. Yum!

Shae Advent Day 21

This tea is so fun and unlike any I’ve had before. The flavor is very fresh, light, earthy, and piney. I really love it. Pine is the primary flavor I get. I’d totally order it. Thanks for letting me try something that’s been on my wish list for a while, Shae!

Shae Advent Day 20

I’m not home, so I made this using water of an unknown temperature, and I steeped it for longer to try to make up for that, but that may have been a mistake because it tastes a little oversteeped now. Luckily Shae sent extra so I can try again later! The scent reminds me of marzipan, and that’s the flavor I’m getting most strongly too. I’m not fancy enough to recognize saffron when I taste it, but I do taste something unfamiliar, so maybe that’s the saffron! This one is interesting and different, and I’m enjoying it with some milk.

Adventaggedon Day Eight – 4/5

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – this may just be my favourite vanilla black tea. It was really nice to see it pop up today as my selection; having something not just familiar but familiar and beloved was the win I needed after a week that felt almost endless. I drank it with some holiday cookies and it was just aromatic, indulgent, authentic vanilla perfection balanced with a pleasant note of osmanthus.

Mostly I just care about the vanilla in it though.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl7EWxIOUU2/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nGHFpmlwgc

Geek Steep S2E25 – The Music of John Williams

This was my pairing for Hedwig’s theme from the Harry Potter series.

This pairing was definitely one that came immediately to mind when we decided on this episode. As one of the compositions that truly defined my childhood, there were a lot of emtions that this pairing would need to touch on. The song practically starts like a lullaby with a sort, airy gentleness to it and from there the pace crescendos and descrescendos and exploring more of a whimsical (or dare I say “magical”) playfulness to more mysterious intrigue, drama, and even a little bit of a dark wickeness.

So why a vanilla tea? We say at work a lot that vanilla has “suffered the Breyer’s effect” where now most people think of vanilla as this default or neutral flavour that’s very creamy and custardy. However, actual vanilla isn’t creamy or custardy at all (because with Breyers and any other ice cream brand that flavour is coming from the ice cream and not the “vanilla”) and it’s really not a simple or neutral kind of flavour. Instead, vanilla is aromatic and floral and also indulgent and complex with a wide breadth of top notes and undertones, and it builds on your palate as you consume it.

All of those things – the general dynamacism of vanilla – are why I knew I wanted the best authentic vanilla tea that I owned and that is handidly this blend. To me, as I sipped it, the flavour morphed and progressed at almost the same pace as the music does. Light and aromatic to complex and coating and full of depth. It. Was. Perfection.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtHra9tFISY&ab_channel=JohnWilliams-Topic

This is definitely one of my favourite vanilla blends; it’s just simple but so well balanced and authentic. Highly aromatic with the soothing and just a little floral taste of true vanilla. Not vanilla custard or vanilla cream, but real vanilla – no flavouring. Don’t get my wrong, I do love my creamy vanilla teas, but they’re so easy to come across while this tea feels like a hidden gem. One I’m so happy to have discovered.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbYJiSkOh9Z/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWDtE7RfAts

V is for… Vanilla Osmanthus!

Ok, now this is proper vanilla tea. Not really sweet/creamy/custardy like the way you so typically see vanilla flavoured things presented to North Americans but an authentic and aromatic vanilla! I have nothing against that style of vanilla – but it is definitely weird to me that the sort of vanilla flavour of vanilla ice cream has become the default for so many people – and it’s just refreshing having this level of high quality, realistic vanilla in my tea rotation…

I learned this term from my good friend/coworker Marika a few years back – but the “caviar” (the small black “speckles” that you scrape from the inside of a vanilla bean) of the vanilla bean used in my measured leaf actually formed a ring around the interior of my mug because there’s that much vanilla actually in the tea blend. It’s impressive – vanilla is one of the most expensive spices in the world and this tea is just so full of such high quality vanilla. It infuses alongside the deep, darker cocoa, malt, and red fruit notes of this black tea really, really well.

I know I say this about pretty much every tea from this shop, but the level of detail, quality and authenticity they put into everything they do… mind blowing!

This tea is really cool! It’s really like you are sipping all the scents in the forest! It’s a little bit of pine, maybe some spruce… cedar? I have no clue, but it’s really great! The scent is very light and deceiving when it comes to the flavor that comes through when I taste it. It’s strong, but smooth and vibrant. The finish is slightly sweet. It’s also a really magical looking tea, meaning that it’s made up of little bits of green plants that all have different shapes and textures. It’s pretty to look at! I can totally imagine while sipping this tea walking through a forest and nibbling on little bits of the various greenery I come across. I’m really taken by this tea!

Thanks so much to AmandaStory for the sample of this!

Adventaggedon Day Ten – 2/5

I seem to be hitting a bit of a patch of teas that I already own – not just in this advent, but in general. In some way it’s kind of nice because the predictability of knowing what I’m brewing allows me to really tailor my steeping and I don’t feel like I need to dedicate as much mental capacity to each cup.

Marika said something in that vein on the Carnage episode of Geek Steep. Basically, even though we’re always excited to try new teas, each of them is usually double or triple as mentally taxing because our R&D/tea nerd brains can’t help but dissect every angle of the tea. From ingredient balance, the intentions of the blender, how it compares and contrast to other blends of a similar style, etc… And on top of all of that, we’re trying to commit the flavour to memory as well, to add to that flavour library that will be used with each new tea after this one…

All that to say that I was actually a little relieved to see this tea today, even though it’s not my favourite blend from EDC. I knew what I was going to get from the mug. Well, at least I thought I did. My cup actually surprised me greatly because it had such a strong note of allspice – stronger than anything else I’ve ever gotten when brewing this blend. Sure, there were heady floral top notes and some ginger as well. Just… a lot of allspice.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmAN8XEuu6t/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8L_yK3r44

There was some unintentional irony between this song name and my experience with today’s cup…

From last week! I was craving rose, and the delicious rose flavour and undertone of anise in this blend stood out in my mind as the perfect solution to that craving. Yes, there are other flavours happening here – namely aromatic cardamom and a nice peppery undertone – but the full bodied black tea with that lovely medium astringency paired with those two aforementioned dominant flavours kind of made my heart sing as I was sipping on the mug.

This is my current cuppa and it’s suiting me pretty well. There’s an almost brothy quality to the mug as a whole, especially at the top of the sip where I’m hit with a wave of more savory spices and fennel. The body is rounder and sweeter though, with distinct notes of heady thick rose coming through. I can’t honestly say that I’m 100% loving it because it’s still a little too spiced to be my jam and the combo of rose and savory things is a little strange to me but there are a lot of elements of this that are working well for me.

This tea came up in a conversation with Marika earlier this week and that prompted me to steep it up and give it another taste. I remember my main thing with the last cup was that the flavours were all excellent and the tea felt very balanced/well crafted for the average consumer but I personally wanted more rose…

Well, with this cup I felt like it actually struck the perfect level of rose in the taste. It was sweet and fresh and brought a lightness and delicate/elevated nature to the more ginger and fennel forward mix of spices. Rose and ginger is not something that I’d have really thought of together, but I liked the weird mix of the two – with the sweetness of the fennel acting as the bridge flavour!

Like the rest of my Epices de Cru teas, this was a Christmas gift from Marika!

It makes sense that a company like this, which is an artisan spice shop, would carry a bunch of Chai – and I have no doubt that all of them are exceptional quality. Marika has, for a long time, been on a hunt of find a “perfect chai” for me since there are literally THOUSANDS of Chai out there. This was one of those attempts, and it’s honestly not a bad one given that I love rose and rose teas – and this is a Rose chai.

It’s honestly very good, but I will say that it’s probably my least favourite tea I’ve tried from them. Like everything they do, the quality is exceptional – and I can tell that all of the many spices in the blend as just so well balanced and thoughtfully curated. It’s just too much of them for me, without enough rose to compensate. Like, if I want a rose tea I want to be slapped in the face with it – and this is delicate rose undertones to a complex and entrancing chai…

But I will keep playing! Because it is still a very good tea.