Jardin du Thé

Sipdown! 81/365

I drank the last of this sometime within the last few weeks, but unfortunately, the baggie got misplaced so I neglected to review it. No idea what I thought, but it wasn’t terrible?

More from MissB – thanks!! :) Oddly, I’m not really tasting any bergamot here, just a bit of a mariney green and a bit of fruitiness/floral notes. Given that I don’t believe I’ve had contamination/loss of flavour issues with any of the other teas, I’m not sure why I’m tasting something so different from everyone else, but the tea certainly looks like that in the picture. Not one I really care for.

Sipdown! 43/365

I found this tea mostly quite floral (rose) this time. Meh, not my cup of tea. Didn’t pick up on grapefruit this time.

Thanks for passing this along MissB! I recently saw OMGsrsly mention this tea, and curiosity made me pull it out of my sample bags tonight. I’m trying valiantly to make progress again (without buying too much more).

Anyhow, this tea is interesting. Definitely grapefruit, and something floral here. I’m having trouble discerning what, but perhaps rose? Only because I recently drank DavidsTea’s Vanilla Rose tea, which the flavour reminds me of. It’s not entirely my thing, as I prefer a more tart version of grapefruit than this floral melange, but it’s not at all what I was expecting based on the name (I was assuming a straight floral or berry tea).

I was excited about the raspberry component but not really that enthused about the violet or green base. Still, MissB was kind enough to share so I figured it was at least worth a try. However, I find myself drinking the cup trying to ignore the strong florals of the violet instead of enjoying the sweet raspberry or the tea as a whole. In the end, as fun as it is to try, this tea just isn’t for me. Still, I would like to thank MissB for sending some my way!

The is a nice enough tea to drink. It’s a little sweet from the goji and a little vegetal from the base (though not in an offensive way) but at the end of the day it’s not really making a huge impact. Once I finish this cup, I’ll probably forget about this tea as it’s just nothing special. Still it is pleasant to try and I am grateful to MissB and Sil for making that happen!

Here’s another sample from OMGsrsly’s endless bag of exciting samples. I think this one came from Sil and MissB, so it’s traveled far!

I was skeptical when this green tea called for such a hot steep temperature, but it all worked out. It’s smooth with the best aspects of goji berries: vitamin C sweet, a little tart, and a hint of nuttiness.

Sipdown (111)!

Thanks MissB for the sample!

This is a goji and green tea blend; that’s it. Do you know how excited that made me!? REALLY EXCITED is the answer. I’ve had this ‘theory’, if you will, that I somehow have an inability to taste goji berries ‘cause every time I’ve had a tea in them I haven’t noticed anything remotely like what they’re supposed to taste like. But the goji in this doesn’t have any other flavours to compete with aside for the base so I am stoked to put this theory to the test and maybe learn some things.

And guess what guys… I TASTED THE GOJI!

It was mind blowing; the base was there and pretty nice with some grassy notes but right over top of it, all sparkly and juicy was this pretty incredible fruit flavour! It reminded me of over ripe strawberries and the sweeter side of cranberries. WOW IT WAS GOOD. I don’t know how I’ve been missing out on this flavour for so long either!? Taste buds what’re up with you guys!? You let me down for so long with such an interesting flavour.

In other news; while my Dad was visiting we went out for lunch at the restaurant Tre works at…

I don’t get what he complains about all the time; it’s pretty small, and certainly wasn’t busy at all. There were two other people dining aside from my Dad and I. The service was really good though (maybe ‘cause we walked in and immediately saw Tre though – so he knew we were there). It was a touch freaky having the wait staff know stuff about me ahead of time though; like the fact I’m vegetarian and allergic to mushrooms.

The food was really good; I got a poached pear salad with Saskatoon berry dressing and blue cheese and it was heavenly. Of course, it’s a combination I’m familiar with – Prairie Ink (my favourite restaurant) serves a very similar salad but this one was certainly able to compete with it. When he got home later that night, Tre said he gave me the ‘big pear’. Thanks? It was good, though…

We left a 40% tip – I always tip well (if you can’t afford to tip you can’t afford to eat out), but my Dad doesn’t really believe in tipping. I made sure that it was a good one though; partly because my roommate works there, but also party ’cause it really was a good experience.

Now Tre can’t complain I haven’t been, though!

Sipdown (118)!

Thank you MissB for the sample!

This is actually one of the teas you sent that I was most excited to try – I don’t know why I left it for so long. As is pretty well known, I love pineapple but don’t actually like spices too much. However, I have had pineapple curry before and I really enjoyed it so I was super open minded about this one.

The smell of this one is lightly pineapple, and steeped up it’s very supple with a soft sweetness to it. It’s a little bit candy like – but not over the top or overly artificial tasting. The osmanthus in this was nice; even though I don’t recall seeing any in the measured out leaf I felt like I was tasting the slightly sweet, whispy floral notes that I associate with it. I’m a big fan of pineapple and floral pairings – as far as I can recall everyone I’ve had has been well executed. I’m personally not very familiar with mistletoe so I don’t know if I can accurately weigh in on how that ingredient presented itself in the blend. I did try looking it up, but the one relatively reliable site I found said it has a very bitter taste – and that’s certainly not something I observed with this blend, so either that’s not an accurate description of mistletoe’s flavour or it doesn’t come through in the tea.

Sadly, neither did anything remotely ‘curry’ like – not even a little bit. That’s definitely disappointing especially since the curry aspect is in the name of the tea. If you can’t deliver on what your tea is named after, you definitely lose a few points in my book. The green base was nice; it was light and just a touch sweet and grassy. It definitely complimented the floral notes and pineapple well.

So overall I thought this was a nice tea and I certainly enjoyed it – but it’s nothing like what I expected and the name isn’t accurate at all so if you’re going to try it keep a very open mind and don’t expect the curry to come through too much, if at all.

A bit behind on my reviews. Alas, sometimes I go through phases where I want to drink lots of tea without talking about it :)

This one was sent my way from the ever lovely Miss B via Sil…. Huge thanks to you both!

I was very interested in trying this, my obsession with trying ALL THE French teas and ALL the vanilla teas!

Sadly, now that I’ve had WP Golden Orchid and also Tippy’s “Not So Vanilla”, both made with real vanilla beans…. Anything less seems uncivilized.

I enjoyed drinking this one, but didn’t find it vanilla-y enough for me. And I really didn’t get too much chocolate at all! Which isn’t bad because me and chocolate flavoured teas don’t usually mix.

If I had had the foresight to check this page first, I would’ve thought to add some sugar, like Bonny did to bring out the dessert aspect.

Anyhow, I’m feeling very lucky to have had the opportunity to try a fancy French tea!! :)

I tried this warm and it was tasty, but then I forgot about it let it cool down for a few hours and now it’s even better! Like pineapple Koala March.

(you know, these: http://www.posharpstore.com/images/thumbs/0006330_600.jpg).

Ok, maybe the fruit was less artificial when it was warm, and I could actually taste the intermingling of mango and papaya where only pineapple remains now, but the cold brew booked me tickets and flew me to a Hawaiian ABC location!

I may be going a little crazy with this final paper sitting here..

Thank you, OMGsrsly, Sil and MissB!

Sipdown (118)!

My daily cold brew! Sample provided by the lovely MissB.

I’m wondering if I should have prepared this one hot; I saw the rose petals in the blend and immediately thought it’d do well cold brewed but it was pretty weird. Initial flavours I noticed with the very first few sips were rose, cardamom and clove – but the more I drank the less clove-y flavour there was and the more the cardamom built along with a bit of heat from something else – chili? The rose stayed light but consistent and noticeable throughout. It took a while to actually pick up any substantial fruit notes; and the first one I noticed was the orange.

The whole thing was weird and very muddled; I knew I was tasting a fruit note other than orange, but I couldn’t tell what and the cardamom was very strong. I’m not the biggest fan of cardamom in the first place; it’s better as a supporting note rather than the dominant one, in my opinion. Eventually I went and looked up the ingredients – which I hadn’t prior. Mango! That was what I was missing. I’m not really a huge mango fan either; and paired with cardamom? The idea of that is one big shoulder shrug, at best.

Turns out this also is a green/black mix, which I definitely didn’t realize. I thought it was all black, so the confusion of thinking it was a black base but actually tasting green tea as well probably didn’t help with the weird muddled mess of flavours I was getting.

Hot definitely would have been better, as well as having a more clear idea of what was in the blend. As it stands, I didn’t dislike this one but it was a mess to get through and far from impressive. There’s a lot of ingredients here that I’m not big on in the first place, as well. I’d be up for trying it again hot – but otherwise I think this will be one that’s easily dismissed and forgotten.

Today was my last day off from my “Mini Easter Vacation”. I enjoyed the extended time off immensely; I’m so very much not ready to go back to work tomorrow. At least I get to sleep in since I’m working a night/closing shift. Oh boy, my favourite…

Sipdown (125)!

Thank you MissB for the sample!

This is another tea from her travels abroad, and it’s perfect for spring; it’s light, fruity and floral which is all of the things that’ve been hitting the spot this last week with my daily cold brews. I’m sad to report that I made a bit of a mistake measuring it out though; by which I mean I sneezed as I was pouring, and half the sample fell on the floor. NOOO! So, my cold brew was very small compared to the typical 25 oz. I usually make.

Dry, this smells amazingly fresh with super intense and realistic raspberry notes; definitely reminded me of picking raspberries from my Grandma’s garden as a child. We’d get stuck with the thorns from the seemingly endless raspberry patch, but it was all worth it to lick that sweet, sticky red juice from our grubby fingertips after collecting an icecream pail worth of berries for the night’s dessert. I don’t smell the violet in the blend; but this is already earning ‘nostalgia’ points. The liquor is a really pretty almost lime-y green, but with a bit more of a yellow tinge to it. It smells very fresh, and very fruity.

The taste is spot on; I taste the raspberry first and foremost and it’s everything I’m remembering from those vacations at Grandma’s. The green base cuts through it a little bit and it a touch grassy with a little bit of the chlorophyll/fresh cut lawn taste. Both flavours compliment one another quite well though; it makes the whole ‘garden’ imagery I’ve got going on significantly stronger. And at last the violet in the blend is making an impression! While it IS present throughout the entire sip way down underneath the raspberry and base, it comes through the strongest near the end of the sip after the initial sweetness of the raspberry has started to subside. I don’t think it’s necessarily distinctly violet; but it is nice and very natural. Floral things seem to get chemical tasting quickly, even when they aren’t artificial but this stays away from that. Finally, I think there are some extra notes in here that are a little softer and sweeter; my initial impression was something like sugar cane but by the end of the cup I was definitely leaning more towards honey.

So all in all, I was very impressed by this tea! I just wish that I’d been able to steep up more of it because it was fresh, and juicy with that sweet sensation of nostalgia and all the elements necessary to invoke the imagery of a Spring time garden!

Yup, another tea from MissB and Sil. Thank you!

So. Flowers, curry something, pineapple, green tea. Again, this smells intensely fruity when dry. Steeped, it also smells fruity.

Oh, and this is good. Wow. I don’t know that I’d pick out the pineapple, but the blend with the different flowers is really nice. I think it’s the osmanthus. Because “curry” flavour? IDK that I’m getting any.

Thanks for sharing! (I see I had planned to cold brew this. Whoops. Next time I need to write notes on the labels.)

Whoa! I really liked this one!

It’s like CANDY. Sort of. With a hint of something extra.

Yum yum yum.

Too bad I have to share. :D Definitely going to try a cold brew of this one, but I’ll make it a short cold brew of 4-6 hours.

Thanks so much, MissB and Sil!

Sipdown (130)!

Thank you MissB for the sample!

Cold Brewed this one; I have a lot of experience with Gin (it’s my hard alcohol of choice), as well as some experiences with Gin Fizzes, and my opinion is that Gin should be consumed cold and only cold. So that’s what I did with this one!

Overall, it was a pretty big flop. Not that it tasted bad; it was just really subpar with bland, predictable sort of flavour notes: Ginger, lemongrass and lemon/less distinct citrus in particular. It had that super distinct licorice root sweet finish; but I don’t see any mention of there being licorice root in it though. I find that hard to believe.

Yeah; didn’t remind me of a Gin Fizz and had just an average at best flavour; this one wasn’t a winner for me. It’d have been one thing if it didn’t taste like Gin Fizz, but was really unique or tasty. Such was not the case though. You can’t love ‘em all though; thankfully I don’t seem to be in the minority here…

Today’s word of the day is: exorbitant! Exorbitant means ‘going beyond the limits of what is fair, reasonable, or expected’.

Sipdown (131)!

My tattoos are so damn itchy; and I know that’s an entirely healthy part of the healing process and I haven’t caved at scratched/picked at them because I’m determined to make sure they heal well; but man my will power is being tested!

This was the tea I made for the way to work though; I had it in a new ceramic double-walled travel mug I bought for myself (it’s got lots of vibrant spring coloured flowers on it and it’s really pretty) because I thought I’d lost the leaky glass double walled thermos I normally use; I had forgotten it at work, and when I couldn’t find it anywhere in the staffroom I just assumed some asshole had stolen it. Funnily enough, when I got to work I saw it sitting on the counter so I snatched it back up and now I’m back to two travel mugs (other than my timolinos; I still use those, but these guys let me drink my tea immediately). I guess whoever took it saw me looking for it and brought it back?

Anyway, this sample comes from – of course, MissB! It’s one of what seems like few black teas from her – not that I don’t appreciate the greens. Black tea is sorta my jam though; and this one certainly sounds interesting if nothing else!

The smell of the dry leaf and as it steeps is more floral than anything else; definitely kind of rosey but I was totally getting more of a softer lavender vibe than violet. Somehow, the sort of dry bitterness of grapefruit translated into the smell? I don’t know how it did that – but it’s absolutely what I was thinking of.

The taste is on point for me though; it’s quite soothing and pacifying with a sort of daintiness about it, and the floral notes match the tea related cravings I’ve been having the last few weeks as we really transition from Winter to Spring. I would call it a good “bad day” tea.

While I still picked up on some lavendar like notes as well as the obvious rosey ones, I did start to see the violet as well. And, the fact that this doesn’t taste like drinking perfume despite all of those floral notes impressed me.

The real star is the grapefruit though; I’ve actually not had many grapefruit teas to my recollection and I don’t really eat a whole lot of the actual fruit, in fact I can’t even remember the last time I had a grapefruit – because I typically find it much too bitter, but this somehow managed to very authentically capture the sweetness of the fruit while keeping the bitterness at bay. It was present just enough to kind of affect the mouthfeel and add more dimension and layers to the tea but without detracting from the experience of drinking this one. However, I know I was also very reserved with how long I let this one steep, and I can see a longer infusion bringing out some very negative traits; too much floral and too much bitterness being the worst offenders.

But overall this was, not so surprisingly, very good – I was impressed how well the floral notes and citrus cooperated while still maintaining some juxtaposition and the black base was smooth. If I have any criticism it’s probably that I would have wanted a smidgen more grapefruit flavour.

Thanks to MissB and Sil for the sample. :) Well. “Sample.”

Dry, this smells amazing. So limey and fresh! Unfortunately, once steeped it has a scent I really don’t care for. I’m not sure if it’s the green tea or the lime peel or what.

Sipping on it, it’s mostly lime and a bit of ginger. I could see this being really good sweetened and chilled, but… I’m not a huge fan of iced tea unless it’s a cold steeped fruity thing.

Tasty, but not quite for me. :) Oh well. I have more teas to try!

LOL. I thought I’d try some teas as I was packing up, and I’ve already tried this one!

It’s really floral. Yet somehow I like it.

:)

A green tea. Why do many green teas MissB? :) Ahh, well I guess it’s broadening my horizons or something.

This tea. It is SO FLORAL WOW. It does smell really good though. Like a garden or bouquet. And the flavour doesn’t move beyond floral to soapy for me.

Interestingly the tea went from meh, to weirdly grainy (texture) to thick and smooth and syrupy. I might have to try this again.

Thanks so much for sharing MissB!

1.5-ish tsp in 8 oz, 2 min at 175F.

Om nom nom. This is so good.

So, so good.

I wish there was a black tea version that was easily available for me. :)

Almost a sipdown here, and I happened to come across some other teas in the cupboard that I managed to get rid of. Teaspoons here and there that just haven’t ever been drunk.

Anyways, I still love this, and still wish it were a black tea. Violet and raspberry. Yum. So good.

2 short steeps at 175, combined into a bigger mug.

A tea thanks to MissB and Sil! :)

This smells AMAZING dry. However, I’m not a huge fan of green teas, so I wasn’t too sure how it would go.

Essentially, I wish this was a black tea. I really do. The violet is strong and true, while the raspberry is delicate candy in the background. Pretty much the opposite of the dry smell.

But this would be so good as a black. I might have to keep some of the other violet tea just because it’s so unique and it was a black base.

Thanks so much for sharing! Hopefully CrowKettle or Bear With Me like it more (or perhaps Fjellrev would provide an address to share, as I know she’s looking for a violet tea…).

I have been saving SO MANY teas.

UGH.

This is one I was saving. Needless to say, it’s lost a LOT since I first got it. It’s an OK tea now, but not what I’m looking for.

I think I need to go through all my teas and try them and just compost the ones that are toast. :/ So disappointed in myself.