Floragold

Sipped on this while actually eating a slice of cherry pie.

Unfortunately this is another one of those herbal/fruit blends that is basically just acidified apple and hibiscus (ie. TART!) with some flavouring tossed into it that doesn’t resemble what it’s named after. It’s cherry, in the biggest stretch of the word. A hint of red fruit that could be cherry, but mostly just super tart and generic berry flavour. I mean, it was nice alongside my slice of actual cherry pie but drinking it while actually having a slice of pie only seemed to really emphasize just how much the flavour didn’t align with the real thing…

So this “Swiss Herbal Infusion” is comprised of three main flavour profiles: orange, mint, and ginger. I’m not sure if that’s actually a common Swiss flavour/tea combo, but I’ve definitely never seen it before (well, I mean, I’ve seen those three ingredients paired together but never under this name) so I’m not sure if this is a case of me just not knowing a thing or if it’s one of those weird German tea names that doesn’t quite fit…

Before I get into the tea, though, I have to share a short story that kind of ties in to it:

So, when I moved into my apartment here in Montreal I was told that there was a private gym in the building for tenants to use. At first I kind of scoffed, because I’ve not been to a gym since high school/am pretty unfit in general and don’t have a strong desire to focus super heavily on my physical well being. Like, it’s not that I want to be unhealthy/out of shape – but I don’t feel shitty about my body type/shape/size as it is so “fixing” it isn’t a priority for me. Over time I became more curious though, so I went looking for the gym because I figured there are aspects of going to the gym that do appeal to me…

I like being able to listen to music, and the gym can be a nice way to do that interrupted. I also like walking, but don’t love the outdoors – so I wouldn’t be opposed to having a casual walk/stroll on a treadmill or elliptical. Especially if it’s more private/there are less people around. However, I simply could not find it. Like, I walked up every floor in my building and didn’t see a gym anywhere. So I just gave up, and assumed I had misunderstood the person I’m leasing my apartment from.

Until last Sunday where, after going for a walk in the afternoon, I got in the elevator to head back to my floor. Now, there are four elevators in my building and I guess in the last four months I have, purely coincidentally, only been in three of them. Well, this time I got in the fourth elevator and, low and behold, there was a button on the elevator panel labeled “Gym” that doesn’t exist in any of the other elevators! So I clicked it.

Well, the elevator went all the way to the top floor of the building – which I hadn’t been to. I guess it’s not accessible by stairs – at least, through my apartment building. I explored the floor a little bit, and there is a stairwell that gets to the floor (in addition to this elevator) but if you take the stairwell down you wind up in the apartment building directly beside mine – which is kind of weird. Sure enough though, there’s a private gym that’s only accessible using the door badge/pass of anyone living in my apartment building or the one next to it; it’s fairly decked out with equipment, and pretty nice. There’s also a rooftop patio, and a “common room” with some seating/a pool table/a TV.

So I guess that whole story is my lead in to saying that, for the first time in six years, I went to the gym! I did a 30 minute walk on the elliptical, at a setting that was probably higher than what I should have started with. It was exhausting and hard but despite thinking several times about quitting halfway through I DID finish the walk. I’ve even been back several times since last Sunday and completed the same walk, with it getting easier each time. I like how private the gym is; there’s never been a time I’ve got where there was more than two other people there and since I live ina building a predominantly Chinese people who either don’t Speak English as a first language or well at all, it’s pretty quite – no one trying to chat. I certainly don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I could get really into going in that sort of atmosphere…

As for the tea!

Well, I think this is a flavour combo that I normally wouldn’t like all that much, especially since the ginger was pretty strong. However, after a half hour of hard work at the gym (especially with how long it’s been since I last went) I think that ANYTHING would have tasted good. I made the cup right after getting back to my apartment and I guzzled the whole thing!

I had low expectations for this tea – it’s another “fruit blend” with a name that doesn’t sound fruity at all and an ingredient list that tells a completely different story. Like, I’m sort but is the “mild” part of this Gingerbread House tea the fact it doesn’t taste like gingerbread at all? ‘Cause, if so, then I guess they’ve nailed it?

Basically this tastes like DT’s Sleigh Ride blend but with less cinnamon and a TINY touch of ginger. It’s very tart, very hibiscus and apple forward with a kind of floral-ish note. More of a fruity profile than anything else.

Nah…

A strong lemony profile but one with a decent amount of clarity and flavour, without tasting medicinal at all or harshly tart. You can tell that there’s also a great deal of lemongrass in the blend, as well. It’s simple and plain, but for a bagged lemon tea it’s also fairly nice. Pretty average overall, but I like to always have a bagged lemon option around (for when I’m sick) and it’d be perfectly content with this being that bagged lemon tea if I didn’t have anything else on hand…

Sipdown! 112/365!

Another fun sample from Roswell Strange – thanks!

This one was another I was looking forward to – vanilla lemongrass sounds yummy! And I happened to like DT’s Vanilla Swirl. Unfortunately, things were not in my favour with this tea, as I brewed it up at an awkward time and only barely got to taste it before it got forgotten, and when I returned to it, it had a funky aroma and got dumped. However, what I did taste (and smell) was not bad. Definitely vanilla, some lemon, but a large dose of rooibos which not only tasted fairly woody, it also left little woody pieces of residue all over my house (or so it feels) – a bunch clearly escaped the teabag and found their way everywhere.

Anyhow. Not a bad tea; I would drink it again, though I wasn’t overly keen on the rooibos.

Well, it’s a little bit past Christmas but that didn’t stop me from brewing this one up. It’s supposed to be a fruit blend, with cinnamon and vanilla? I kind of tasted the cinnamon, but certainly didn’t get any vanilla from the flavour. It’s also very, very dominantly fruity – primarily a mix of hibiscus tartness, acidified apple, and raisin. Really in your face flavours and nothing I would associate with “Christmas”.

I wasn’t a fan.

You know what’s a little crazy to think about? I wrote my 7500th tasting note six days ago, and now this is tasting note number 7550. Seriously, 50 tasting notes in six days is a pretty crazy amount, right? I knew I wrote a lot of tasting notes but I don’t think I’ve ever really processed the amount in full until right now.

Anyway – this is a jasmine and golden plum green tea. The plum aspect sounded nice to me, but I don’t have a wonderful success rate with jasmine greens so I kept my expectations low for this tea. Rightfully so; it was mighty unimpressive. Very bitter green tea, despite being cautious with my steeping, with a super perfume-y jasmine and really no fruity notes at all.

Boo.

This is meant to be a raspberry/apricot herbal tea. Don’t ask me how that relates to “Fortune” because I simply do not know. I can sort of get raspberry from the taste, but an artificial raspberry. The apricot is super, super lost. Mostly this just tastes like hibiscus though, with a weirdly chalky finish? Sort of like Flintstones vitamins…

Sipdown! 90/365

A fun tea sample sent to me by Roswell Strange – thank you!

So the story of how I came to try this tea today is slightly amusing; my 5-month-old son was exploring on the floor and managed to get himself over to the box of teas Roswell Strange had sent me (it’s not too far away; he can’t crawl yet). Next thing I know, he’s reached his grabby little hands into the box and is clutching one of the individually-wrapped teabags she sent! And shoving it in his mouth, as babies do. I checked, and since it was a herbal tea, I let him munch on it for a bit, until I noticed that the package had opened up and the teabag, slightly damp on one side, was falling out. Since it was no longer sealed, and bonus – contaminated by baby spit, I of course had to brew it up today. I am hoping this is a sign that he is going to like tea, unlike his father :D (Side note: he was not pleased when I took it away, so I gave him back the wrapper and he happily munched on it for another 5 minutes or so.)

So this tea. It was one I was actually pretty interested to try – a chai with “vanilla cardamom taste”, basically, my favourite type of chai. Except with a rooibos base, which can really make or break the tea. Luckily, the rooibos here was just fine, doing its job of being a solid base without tasting gross or medicinal. The flavouring was pretty good, too. I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice cardamom specifically, but I enjoyed the chai spicing, which typically means it is cardamom-heavy, and there was an interesting spiciness from the inclusion of peppercorns. For a bagged rooibos chai, this was actually quite tasty. I do prefer my chais to be caffeinated, so wouldn’t likely pick this up again myself, but would definitely drink it again.

Thanks again, Roswell!

I feel like it’s been a long time since I last had an East Frisian blend, but this was quite a nice one – especially for a bagged tea. I added a tiny, tiny amount of milk to the cup but I honestly probably could have left it out. It’s such an intense, full bodied black tea but at the same time is wickedly smooth – no astringency/bitterness. The predominant flavour is just a very strong, intense malt note. However there’s also a bread-y quality too; like Soda Bread. Good to start the morning with, as a Breakfast Blend alternative.

Package says that this is a rooibos with “cream flavouring”. Basically just tastes like a vanilla rooibos though; sweet and smooth and a tiny touch artificial. Not really unpleasant in any way but super run of the mill/average and the kind of profile that could be achieved by basically anyone…

This one is from a European tea company, but I don’t really have much background on the company outside of the fact that they’re based in Germany and this collection/line up of tea sachets from them have both English and German language on them…

Still, I’m always down for trying a new company!

This tea was underwhelming for me, though to be fair I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to love it anyway based on the fact it’s a lemongrass dominant blend. It’s nothing if not accurate to the name though: basically a sweet vanilla and lemongrass fusion. A touch artificial tasting, though. It reminded me HEAVILY of Vanilla Swirl, from DAVIDsTEA – and I had a very love/hate relationship with that tea.

Not the best of worst introduction to this company, I suppose. I’m excited to further explore their offerings, though.