Metropolitan Tea Company

It’s been ages since I just dropped off the face of Steepster, but I’m hoping to be back with some consistency moving forward. I got really overwhelmed with an intense job application process, and then I got the job, which has been one of the most amazing and stressful experiences of my life. I’ve been working ridiculous hours and travelling the world which hasn’t left me with a lot of time and energy to think about tea. End of the year projects are wrapping up now though, and I finally decided to sort my tea cupboard again. I’ve been drinking tea but mostly a few reliable teas that I love, or whatever is conveniently near the top of the pile. So hello again Steepster. I missed you!

Today I’m revisiting and finishing up one of my old favourites. It’s still delicious, with raspberry and honey flavours, and a mildly astringent black base. However, I find that my tastes have shifted pretty firmly toward unflavoured blacks, so me and this tea aren’t the perfect fit we used to be.

I will pick up some more again in the future, just not right away.

I have been neglecting my old favourites so that I can focus on trying new teas, and while that has been lovely, this morning I’m reminded of why I love some of my old favourites.

For a while I was drinking this one every single morning for a while. It’s amazing. The dry leaf smells like fresh, juicy raspberry – sweet and tart and complex. The raspberry awesomeness carries through to the flavour, which is beautifully balanced with the Ceylon base. Hints of sweet, tart and distinct raspberry flavour. Subtle bitterness and astringency. Honey and floral notes.

I think my palate has evolved a lot over the last few months, but this remains a favourite. It restores my faith in flavoured teas, and it makes me happy to be drinking it this morning.

Drank this in the rain, in the woods. Tasty as always, even with lake water. I definitely needed a hot cup of tea.

This has become one of my favourite morning teas.

The fragrance of the dried tea is bold and powerful – very fruity and sweet.

In the cup, dark midsize leaves unfurl with rose petals, and whole and pieces of freeze dried fruit, steeping to a reddish liquor that’s fragrant with berries.

On the tongue, the honey and raspberry notes are strong but don’t overpower the tea itself. It’s a nicely rounded cup with a lot of sweetness and just a touch of tart, making for a very nice whole mouth flavour.

This is such a pleasant, easy tea to drink, that I find myself drawn to it over and over for my first cup of the day.

I’m having toast for lunch, with this amazing plum, lime and cardamom jam I got from the Duluth Preserving Co, and while I am all caffeined out for now, I needed a good tea to go along with it.

I’m craving a good cardamom heavy chai, but I don’t actually have one in my cupboard, so I took 3 tsp of Metropolitan Tea Company Rooibos Chai that I have and threw in a teaspoon of green cardamom pods that I bruised in the mortar.

I steeped for 10 minutes and added lots of milk and sugar and I’m pretty happy with this. The extra cardamom makes it much more appealing to me, and this is pretty close to what I was craving.

The woody flavour of the rooibos overpowers the complex chai spices, leaving only ginger noticeable at the front of the mouth,and some flavour and heat from the pepper in the back of the throat. A pleasant cup but lacking the depth that I enjoy in a good chai.

It’s funny being the only one that’s reviewed this tea. I found it to be too weak over the last few weeks that I’ve been drinking it, but tonight after my weak tea this morning, I’m finding this one to be so much better. It does have a hint of something like floral, but I don’t mind.

Sip down the other day.

Usually with a Metropolitan tea, I only steep for 3 minutes, but this one needs at least 3.5mins or 4 minutes.
This isn’t a bad tea, but it’s not my favourite. I prefer the Decaff Irish breakfast that Metro offers.

Long time, no Steepster! I have been MIA lately, but every so often I come on and read a few reviews because why not?
This one has made its way back into my cupboard after a sip down quite a long time ago. I have it back in there because I’m pregnant with baby #2! Munchkin #1 is just over 1.5years old, and baby #2 is currently at 22 weeks, due date is Christmas Day! haha

Anyways, after an hour drive to pick up a final piece of the bed for munchkin’s big boy bed and the hour drive back and putting munchkin to bed late because of how it just worked out, it was time for a cup of hot tea, even though it’s like 9:15pm. I just needed something hot and comforting and this one totally hit the spot. Milk and sugar and a 3.5min steep. Yum. And tonight I’m going to be early because I’ve been up late the last few nights and it’s starting to catch up with me.

So I finally bought a gaiwan. I actually bought two of them. One is about 150ml and one is about 75ml. I’ve tried the larger one today. It’s taking some real playing to get use to. I almost burnt my fingers on the steam from the first use, which isn’t good, but what can ya do?
Anyways, this was the tea for me to try today with the gaiwan and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but the first steep was quite bitter after only 10 seconds. The second steeping wasn’t as bad at 10 seconds but still was a tough bitter. Maybe it’s also ‘cause I’m not use to drinking this tea straight up? Anyways, so the third steep I did 15 seconds and it wasn’t too bad! I was surprised by it. It started to mellow out and turn into a nice tea. Maybe the first two steeps should have been a bit shorter. Maybe this is the type of tea that only needs like a 5 second steep to start? Or maybe I just used too much leaf? I’m still trying to understand that part of it.

Either way, I’m not giving up on the gaiwan yet. I have some oolongs and pu’erhs I want to try in it once the baby is born, if I get time for tea. I’ve heard newborns sleep a lot at first so I might be okay… Maybe? Hopefully? haha

I do have a few white teas I could probably try in it too before the baby comes ’cause they are straight teas and they should be safe…

Another decaf tea.

I like this one quite a bit. I’m trying to compare it to yesterday’s decaf, and I think the main difference is this one is a bit more on the floral side, and the Irish Breakfast is more on the malty side.

Both teas are very good. I’m happy with both and will probably stock both for the next several months so I don’t have to worry about my caffeine intake. But I can see myself being drawn to the Irish Breakfast a bit more ’cause of the maltiness.

Either way, delish!

Another review of this one. I have decided I’m so over this one. I loved it at one time, but I think I’ve just had so much that I’m sick of it now. Which, does kind of mark me as funny because how is this tea different than any other regular caffeinated one? Well, I feel this one isn’t as rich and doesn’t have as much flavour profile or character to it. I really want this one to be so much more than it is, but to me it’s just a very boring tea right now to me… oh well…

Only enough for tomorrow morning’s cup so I’m going to say this is a SIPDOWN!

It’s a strong tea and is quite good.

My only complaint is that I always end up with an almost tea dust on the bottom of my mug when I use my metal infusing basket from Davidstea. I don’t have this problem when it comes to rooibos teas in the basket which is why I have to think it’s more of a dust than the leaves coming through.
I don’t know if this is because of the tea itself or has something to do with the way it was packaged/maybe got rocked around. Either way that’s a small complaint in some ways, but in other ways it’s annoying. haha
Well, since the little one will be here soon….ish…. 8 weeks, I’m not sure I’m going to restock this one. I think I might just try to stick with the other decaf teas I have and use them up. Lots of green rooibos and red in my future.

I have had the worst luck with work the last few weeks and I believe a lot of it is because I’m pregnant. I think some funny business is going on at my job and honestly I’m not surprised… anyways, I’m getting help from the temp agency again to place me in jobs again until next year when I go on mat leave. Today I’m working at a Financial place answering phones and helping people that walk in. I’ve been here an hour and had to help one person. I think it’s going to be a very quiet day. Glad I brought some tea!

I was convinced that I would drink this one faster than the English Breakfast Decaf tea that I have, but this poor tea keeps getting forgotten, while the other one has needed to be restocked already. So, today I’m enjoying it again and it’s amazing how much I love it. You really can’t tell that it’s decaf, well other than the lack of caffeine boost. I’m quite content with it this morning. It’s malty again like it always was and handles the milk and sugar very well. I love the rock sugar btw that Teavana sells (the only thing that I’ve actually liked from them so far).

Anyways, I have to share some non-tea related news too about my pregnancy. I was able to score a $25 change table!! I couldn’t believe it. It is used and is a bit worn, but my cousin said she’ll help me out by painting it! I think that painting it will help it look really good and cover over the few rough spots it has. I’m so excited. AND I went and finally broke down and got myself some maternity clothes! Got 5 tops, one pair of dress paints (they’re a bit big but whatever) and a pair of leggings for $113! All used items (expect the leggings) but I’m so excited! I have really been trying to find deals and everytime I turn around I’m finding something. I’m so happy and I’m really excited ’cause I think I caught wind that I might have up to three baby showers! I am feeling so blessed and happy about how everything is going with this pregnancy and how loved I am feeling.

Now I just have to kill the time between now and March 6!

Decaf tea! What a weird thing to have.
I’m so thankful for this tea this morning.

I’m working at a job for the last five (?) or so weeks, and today is going to be my second last day. I applied for the full-time position and even though I’ve been working in the position for this long, they decided to go with someone else. That makes me feel just so awesome. thumbs down
So, I’m trying to stay focused and actually try to work hard today, but it’s not really going super well ‘cause I unfortunately have mentally checked out.
Plus, this morning I didn’t feel super well. But that’s more or less passed now, which is good. Food and water is a good thing.

So, the tea! I got this on the weekend from the shop a couple blocks away that sells many teas (the store I believe I mentioned in my Wild Strawberry note). I picked up two decaf teas, this is one of them.

It’s tasting pretty much the same as it’s caffinated counterpart. The Irish Breakfast that I had was with Steeped Tea, whereas this one is with Metropolitan. Adding milk and sugar is making this one just so nice. I’m getting some happy vibes now coming through to me from this tea. It’s making the day much better. Much much better. Very thankful for this tea this morning. The cup is almost gone already. It’s just that delicious. I will be resteeping this one this morning. I have to. It’s too good to waste. Maybe it’s just my day, but yeah. Seriously, good.

I purchased 2 bulk bags of this, 500 tea-bags per foil bag and weighing 1 kg each. The expiration date was May 2015 and I read the reviews here before buying.

This tea smelled like a cross between old curry and dirty socks, I was appalled when I opened the beg.

Being frugal, I decided not to simply throw the tea away or send it back, so I brewed a small cup, put over ice and it wasn’t bad.

I brewed a half gallon using 12 tea-bags, the tea-bags were very small, 2 grams each. bout half the size of a normal tea-bag.

After the tea cooled I tried it over ice and although it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t real good. I then mixed it half and half with some iced herbal teas I have in my fridge at all times. (mostly hibiscus mixes) and it turned out fantastic.

This is a way to give my herbal teas a caffeine kick and it ended up being pretty tasty in the long run.

The smell really turned me off but the tea doesn’t smell after its’ brewed.

I bought this from an Ebay seller, maybe they stored the tea next to something with curry, or maybe the tea was old and they used a fake expiration tag, it was a stick on tag and I couldn’t find any bags that size online that resembled this tea. I could only find the small count boxes of 25 and 100 and some loose teas.

At this point, I would not recommend this tea, with that horrible smell. But, I am hoping it wasn’t the way the tea normally smells and it was an Ebay vendor storage issue.

Alone, the tea was not a hit with me. Mixed half and half with herbal tea, it was delicious.

Until I taste some fresh tea from this company, I can’t say what they are truly like.

I guess that’s what I get for trying to get a bargain. The old adage applies, if it seems to good to be true, it usually is :D Stick with a reputable company like Amazon.com or a well known store and I imagine that it would be much better.

There’s a new place that opened up only a couple of blocks away from me that sells like… over 100 different varieties of Metropolitan tea company. I went in there for the first time yesterday… it was amazing.

This one definitely stood out to me as I’ve been really, really wanting a good black strawberry tea. I wish I had bought the 250g bag that I saw on Davidstea website site of Strawberry Shortcake last fall, but I didn’t… and now I’m kicking myself.

Anyways, so since that time, I’ve been looking, like I said. This one is amazing. It has just black tea and dehydrated fruits. It’s so delicious. It’s sweet, but not in a bad way. It’s just perfect. AND NO hibiscus!! That’s why I love davidstea one. It had no hibiscus, and the Steeped Tea one I tried did, which made me dislike it. Obviously this one doesn’t taste the same as the Davidstea one that I love so much, but it’s so good. I’m going to keep this one in the cupboard for sure!

Much spicy. Very not wow. I don’t usually use that meme but i couldn’t help it. It’s a spicy bland chai. I’ve added some orange honey to it and even that doesn’t help much.

And here’s my cold brew for brunch today, and a sipdown!

This was definitely a lovely flavoured black. Fruity and juicy, my favourite as a cold brew but also lovely hot, plain or with a little sprinkle of sugar.

Thanks for this one, TraceyC — it was definitely a good choice for me :)

Threw some of this into the fridge to cold steep overnight and threw the last of it into a mug for dinner tonight with a little sugar. Mmm, fruity good times.

Tea #2 served in the pot at ladies’ CAH day! And I’m almost out of this one now. It’s a wonder what a pot full of tea will do to your stocks…