For Tea's Sake

Finished the 2 liters of this pretty much all by myself. The flavor was pretty bland after being in the fridge overnight. You can’t seem to win either way, room temperature it’s way too perfume-y and cold it is bland.

I drank this up by mixing each cup with 50 percent flavored carbonated peach water. This made it drinkable.

Made this as the instruction say to like an iced tea.
I’m drinking a cup of this while it’s still slightly above room temperature instead of cold.(refrigerated) so I won’t rate this cup. This tastes just like the Spice and Tea Exchange Blueberry black tea. It’s similar to some earl grey but much more perfume-y. I’d imagine this could get quite soapy tasting if over steeped. The perfume aftertaste lingers for a long time.
Even though I’ve never had an herbal blueberry tea I think I would much prefer the fresh taste to the perfume-y one from this blend. I will have to ask my family to help drink the 2 liters I have of this in the fridge. Although I imagine they won’t enjoy this tea either.

Sipdown (610)!

Goodbye and good riddance to this miserable, unpleasant tasting mashup of awful “nighttime” oriented floral flavours. I hate chamomile; so this sipdown feels like a HUGE achievement for me! And while lavender may be slowly growing on me, it’s not at a pace that makes me want to hoard this even a little bit. Only saving grace is the lemon notes in the mix.

I just don’t get why anyone would want to subject themselves to chamomile though. It’s so unpleasant tasting…

So, my new bed is REALLY stiff/firm so I’ve been having some issues falling asleep since moving to Montreal – I do think that I’m slowly adjusting to the bed but in the mean time I’ve pulled out all the stops and whipped out the chamomile teas. You know I’m desperate for a good sleep when the chamomile comes out – it’s so vile tasting.

Made this one with a little bit of lemon infused honey also, because I needed to mask the taste somehow. It helped, for sure; much less of that gross taste. I’m not totally sure if it helped me sleep though; it was still hours after finishing this cup before I actually fell asleep…

I think a big part of it, too, is that I’m used to falling asleep to music. I set my laptop up on my desk and just let it play my giant Youtube playlist of music until I pass out. Eventually the laptop’s battery dies, and when it dies the music stops. Sure, I have to charge my laptop every morning but it really, really helps me sleep. I’ve not been doing that though because I don’t want to play music super late into the evening and potentially upset my new roomates – that seems like a very poor foundation to our new living arrangement…

Idk; thoughts from others definitely welcome – I just want a good night’s sleep!

Hot cuppa in the evening, as sort of a bedtime tea.

I added some lemon flavoured honey to try and inject some sweetness and flavour into this tea but it didn’t do a lot to help the overall profile of the tea – basically still just a very, very intense chamomile flavour which just isn’t for me. Nope. No can do. I wish it tasted better/like something other than chamomile but even this lovely honey can’t completely redeem this one for me. I mean, I expected to not like it but…

I was hopeful that I’d be pleasantly surprised.

Cold Brew Sipdown (826)!

This smells really good, though kind of like Applejacks cereal? Y’know, an almost artificial sweet apple aroma with a subtle sweet, warming cinnamon. If it tasted like that I would have been REALLY happy – but instead it’s more like woody rooibos with the sweetness of apple (without the flavour) and just a tinnyyyy tiny hint of cinnamon.

I’ll finish it though because it’s caffeine free (it’s too late for caffeine now), and cold and refreshing. I’ve been DYING of heat every afternoon going into the evening for the last few days and I just didn’t get why and then today mother nature decided to visit a week early and it suddenly clicked. So, the more refreshing things to help balance out the swing of hormones the better…

A share from VariaTEA!

I seem to recall enjoying this one in the past – and this most recent cup wasn’t bad but it was awfully heavy on the really woody and mineral tasting rooibos notes with a very minimal amount of cinnamon flavour present. Maybe I under leafed? I did eyeball this one instead of measuring – so I feel like I should probably chalk it up to user error.

Sipdown (529)!

Actually a little sad about this sipdown. It was mellow, smooth gently spiced apple goodness. Really nice red apple notes too! But For Tea’s Sake will probably bring it back around Christmas this year so I can always try to reign in my cupboard a little bit and then repurchase then when I have things under better control…

From last week.

Really thick, viscous and almost syrupy mouthfeel with deep woody notes, some cinnamon, and almost candied red apple notes. Very well balanced and interesting profile overall; it made me deeply like cinnamon sugar crepes or French Toast. Something about the sweetness of the spice overall and thickness of the mouthfeel…

Sipping on this one now.

It’s ok, but pretty simplistic in the flavour profile. I mean, it’s essentially just an apple cinnamon rooibos and that’s not exactly a ‘new’ or ‘edgy’ flavour combo/pairing. I just think it tastes like a more toned down version of DAVIDsTEA’s Cinnamon Rooibos Chai blend with a punchier apple element.

I don’t really drink breakfast blends and as I sip on this now, it is not really an exception.I just don’t love my teas to be brisk. This one is and it has a citrus quality to it but that dissolves into a bit of astringency. Just not for me.

4 min brew, slightly cooler water = a better taste to this one but it’s nothing i want to keep around. farewell tea sample!

Final Count: 43

pepper licorice is what i get from this one. Not the right chai balance for me either, but it’s not terrible. I suspect this might work as a latte…but it won’t be anytihng i’ll be sad about when it’s gone.

Sipdown (371)

Well, it seems Roswell Strange is about to get a whole lot more of this one because I am not a fan. It is far too much star anise for my liking. It’s like spiced licorice which may be nice for some but certainly not to my tastes. Luckily, it is going somewhere it will be appreciated.

This is not for me. I don’t love really anything in this – chamomile, chrysanthemum, lavender, etc. so I definitely am not the target audience for this and yet I can appreciate there is a nice balance of flavors here.

Cold Brew!

It feels more recent than I think it actually is but a while back I had Goji Power, from Hotcups, as a cold brew and I didn’t really love it even though the aroma of the dry leaf/infused tea was quite nice. I bring it up because sipping on this tonight makes me feel like I’m drinking what I wanted that tea to be – fruity and tart with distinct hibiscus notes and some cinnamon but also a whole lot of deliciously black licorice tasting star anise. It would probably translate better hot, but it’s still pretty good!

Cold Brew!

I haven’t quite figured out how to work the air conditioning in my new place yet and it runs pretty hot (even with the heating turned off), so I’m relying heavily on cold brewed teas for some rehydration and body heat regulation…

This was good, albeit a little strange. Deeply anise/fennel flavoured, but with a hint of tarty berry to offset some of that black licorice type sweetness.

Cold Brew!

I made five spice tea eggs w/ fresh tangelo and clementine juice not too long ago for a potluck at work, and the tea eggs themselves tasted amazing – however I bring it up because something about this cold brew tasted eerily like my five spice tea eggs, including the almost sulphurous egg part of the taste. It’s one thing when you eggs taste like eggs, it’s a whole other revolting nightmare when you Chai flavoured cold brew tastes like eggs.

Barf!!!

From earlier in the week, because I figured maybe the thing that I needed in order to get into the Christmas Spirit was a tea literally called “Spirit of the Season”. I don’t think this was the solution though: it tasted very boring to me, and though I usually enjoy this tea I wasn’t finding the mix of fruit notes and spices all that harmonious.

Sipdown (461)!

I’m really sick today; bad cold and super stuffy nose that’s throwing my sense of taste painfully out of wack. I chose this one as my late night cup of tea today because it’s caffeine free and has enough body flavour/spice that despite being sick I can still taste it. It also tastes really good, and very smooth with the spices and sweet apple/hibiscus notes having a very soothing/comforting quality to them. I’m actually, much to my surprise, really sad to be done with this one because it was a hell of a good Chai that deeply appealed to me as someone who likes sweeter, fruitier chais that aren’t overly ginger heavy – all of which are applicable to this one.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one at Chapter’s next winter for sure to see if they bring it back again for the holidays, and if so I’m sure I’ll likely grab a tin of it!

Drank a mug of this one yesterday.

I don’t often appreciate Chai blends but this one was actually pretty solid. More medium bodied than the typical full bodied chai, I really appreciated the overall sweetness and fruit undertones (apple) present in this on top of the softer spice elements. Prominent spice notes were cinnamon and ginger but both complimented the apple. Even the very small amount of hibiscus, which I think was probably mostly meant to lend colour to the blend so it looked softly red and welcoming/festive, didn’t clash with everything else.

This will be an easier chai sample for me to finish off, for sure.

Thanks, VariaTEA!

And it’s a belatedly posted sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

Steeped up, this morning, this smells delicious with full on vanilla, hints of caramel and something tart like cranberry. Maybe a bit of almond too. My first sip or two or three continues those flavours with a bit of astringency at the end of the sip.. Spice is very much in the background here for me today. My spoon of leaf must have contained a whole different combination of flavours than it did previously. Nice.

On my second steep, a bit of clove is coming up with the astringency.

I wouldn’t run out and buy a tin, but I would certainly consider splitting one. This is a gentle black to drink without any additions.

Just finished the last sip and can say that enjoyed this tea up to the last drop. Nice when that happens.

Thank you for the sample, VariaTEA.

And it’s a sip down!

I was a bit alarmed when a whole clove bud leapt out of the dry leaf, but I needn’t have been. The spice mix is pleasant enough: mostly clove and ginger plus something vaguely eggnoggy. More chai-like than eggnog really, but still more on the gentle side of chai.

Imagine that it would make a dynamite latte with sweetener, but currently, I am drinking everything black and unsweetened.

Thank you, VariaTEA, for including this among your samples. I am enjoying it.