Østerlandsk Thehus

Another sample from VariaTEA! Thanks!

This one is another fruity tea that while, tasty, the fruits are somewhat difficult to distinguish. I would say there’s a rhubarb quality and I think I’m getting a hint of strawberry. It’s definitely tasty though, and I like the black and green base.

I always gravitate towards this one due to the dry scent over Copenhagen, but I really do prefer the flavour of Copenhagen.

This one has that sweet scent that doesn’t translate as sweetly into the flavour. But it has more of a peach flavour here mixed with hints of tartness that could be raspberry. It’s a tasty cup, but between the two Copenhagen rhubarb will always win out!

I’m enjoying having these teas in my cupboard, courtesy of VariaTEA.

Sipdown! A loved this one and Copenhagen Blend so much that she requested I look at an order from this wee company!

Thanks for sharing VariaTEA!

A sample from VariaTEA :)

This one smells quite fruity but tastes less so. I’m finding it difficult to distinguish which fruits exactly, but I am enjoying the scent and the cup overall. As the tea cools, I’m getting a hint of grapefruit. I also enjoy the mixed tea base of black, green, and white.

Thanks for sharing VariaTEA!

Sipdown sample from variaTEA. This one was a pleasant cup of black tea. I enjoyed it quite a bit even if it was pretty middle of the road in terms of things going on.

Iced Latte Sipdown (198)

I haven’t been drinking much tea but a couple nights back I got inspired to attempt to make vanilla sweet cream (which can be used to make cold foam). I ordered French Vanilla syrup and it arrived this weekend so I made some up.

I made the first latte yesterday using Hummingbird by AQ2T. Funnily enough I asked Roswell Strange what I should do with my concoction before making the latte and her suggestions were an Earl Grey or Bananas. Without actually seeing this, I made it with a banana tea yesterday. I debated an Earl Grey but wasn’t interested in that flavour profile. I laughed when I realized we had the same idea though.

Anyways, today I thought the Earl Grey would be fun and as one of my oldest teas, I thought it would be a good call to finish this off. Plus I tend to enjoy this as an iced latte anyways and thought the French vanilla in the cold foam would compliment the rose in this tea nicely. I was right since drinking this was delightful. It was like an affogato almost since the cold foam has a thicker/creamy consistency with a classic vanilla custard/ice cream profile thanks to the French vanilla flavouring. That combined with the soft notes of bergamot and rose made for such a lovely drink. A wonderful way to see this off.

I think I will get other flavoured syrups for further experimentation. So many options…

It’s just past 3 am. I have submitted a paper for school and placed two Black Friday tea orders. I should probably go to sleep before I spend more money. Though I do have plans to possibly buy something at noon tomorrow…I guess today.

I drank this tea much earlier as an iced latte. It had a whole lot of rose to it, which can make this nice. However, sometimes the bergamot tries to compete with the rose, which makes this too floral and that happened slightly with today’s…well yesterday’s…latte.

Had this as an iced latte.

Oh, look! Site layout! Wow, I can actually decipher information on the page.

Anyway, look, let me preface this by stating that I’m extremely attracted to anything that says caramel on it. Extremely. I am also extremely attracted to anything that says vanilla on it. Extremely. If you add the word ‘cream’ onto either of those two, well… Take a guess.

The name of this one is super weird. On the website, I’m pretty sure I bought what is listed as ‘Vanilla Cream’. (Not in translation, btw. ØT has gone with the English words for this one) On the pouch it says ‘Caramel Cream’ and then ‘Vanilla Cream’ underneath as a sort of subtitle. There’s nothing on the website called ‘Caramel Cream. So what is it actually called? I went with Caramel Cream because that’s what it says on the pouch, and also, I admit, because of the nice alliteration.

So is it vanilla or caramel? Don’t know. Do I really even care? Heck no, gimme!

(Actually in the blurb on the website it says it’s flavoured with both. I’ll get that translated and added on here… eventually. )

To be honest, it doesn’t actually come across as one or the other. It’s just something kind of generically dessert-y. I mean it’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t really shine. Once I’d got through all the name confusion I was sort of hoping that it would be like this toffee flavoured one I had once upon a time. I can’t recall where it was from. Les Palais des Thes, possibly? I don’t remember. Anyway, I remember that one as managing to be strongly vanilla and strongly caramel at the same time. Sort of side by side flavours, rather than this more melded together one. So my initial impression wasn’t sending my socks into orbit, but I’ve made my peace with it now. I’m enjoying it for what it is, and it really isn’t fair to try and compare it to something I had years ago and can’t even remember where came from. My memory could be skewed.

So yes, I like it. I would buy it again.

So I’ve been following the local news… I’m feeling ambivalent about it all. It’ll be great to get some admins around the place. Users have done their best, but the site really needs some proper maintenance. It’s a bit like an old house that has seen better days. Totally fit for human habitation, but could use some paint, the tap drips a bit, and that one radiator just won’t turn on. On the other hand, it would have been greatly preferable if the site could have stayed indie, and previous bad experiences that some users have had are looming heavily. I have not participated in the debate, because I wasn’t there when aforementioned bad experiences were made, but I’ve been keeping up with the thread. I do get the impression that the representative of our new owners might have suddenly found himself in a discussion he was not prepared to have to deal with. It started out so well, and then there was a distinct tone of feeling pressured and maaaaaaybe not thinking things entirely through before pressing ‘post’. Okay, yes, I did leave an acerbic remark there. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation either way and I probably shouldn’t have made it. Oh well.

Anyway, I’ve had two cups of this today. It’s not actually the first I’ve had of it. My very first impression in the very first cup I had, the thing I mostly remember is that I found it incredibly fruity. Like someone had made a cup of tea, and then poured juice into it. That… sounds ghastly, actually. Poor description choice there. But it really had a distinct taste of eating forest fruits. Not any one in particular, just generic ‘fruit’. And in spite of my inability to describe this in a positive sounding way, it actually was a positive experience, albeit one that made me wonder how well it would reproduce.

Fairly well, although not completely consistently is the answer to that one. Sometimes it’s been more fruity, other times it’s had a more herbal characteristic to it. I once had a tea that was flavoured with thyme and, I think, raspberry. I can’t quite remember. But definitely thyme. When this one goes a bit herby, a milder version of that thyme tea is what it reminds me of.

I like it best when it’s in the juicier mood, but I’ll take it either way.

Once upon a time I lived in a place where there was a little tea shop. The little tea shop sold something they called ‘Krudtblanding’, which translates directly to Gunpowder Blend. The name referred to the Lapsang Souchong in it, rather than the gunpowder green tea. Anyway, it was a blend of English breakfast tea with Lapsang Souchong and an unknown green tea that didn’t look like Gunpowder. Just to hammer that home. It was not, as many people on this site reasonably assumed (and it was sometimes difficult to convince them otherwise even though the name was a translation and the original name wouldn’t work as a gunpowder tea reference in the first place).

Aaaaaaaanyway.

This was an absolutely lovely tea, but LS is fairly obscure in this country. Unless someone is actually into tea, they’ll likely never have heard of it before and the term ‘smoked tea’ is likely to make them make this face. —> O.o
And this was more than ten years ago.

So in other words, one day I went in to stock up on this wonderful blend, they told me they were discontinuing it, but they’d let me buy up the remainder that they had. I think basically I was the only one ever buying it. So that’s how I came home with some 600g of one tea.

I have never been able to find a blend quite like it again.

UNTIL NOW!

This is a blend of Earl grey with LS, Ceylon and Nilgiri and some gunpowder green. Ceylon and Nilgiri together sounds like something on the road to a standard breakfast blend. And then there’s the LS and then there’s the green tea. Which slightly confusingly in this case is actually confirmed gunpowder. It basically sounded just like that old blend with added EG flavouring.

The Earl Grey aspect is quite subtle. It’s there, but it’s not overwhelming and if you didn’t know it was there, you’d be too focused on the LS element to pay it much attention. And the LS element isn’t even actually all that strong either. I mean, it’s clearly there, but it’s not like drinking a regular LS either. All together this becomes a fairly smooth blend with a strong umami element to it. It’s actually not entirely unlike the top notes of a mild pu-erh. It’s like everything sort of evens everything else out.

To be honest, I haven’t got a whisper of a chance of remembering how this holds up to that blend of old, but when I’m drinking this, I’m thinking it’s definitely close enough. It’s right up my alley.

Hey-ho, we’re embarking on a new batch of teas! I ordered these a while back, because we were getting low on breakfast tea, but I decided to make a rule that all the old flavoured stuff had to be used up first before we could start on the new stuff. This is because a couple of them were a bit meh, and I just know it would have lingered in the cupboard forever and been forgotten otherwise. So, them’s the rules. It’s been tough. I’ve been quite excited about trying this one.

This is a honey flavoured Keemun. I don’t recall if I’ve ever had a honey flavoured tea before other than honey and vanilla chamomiles (which are entirely different beasts), so I had little to nothing to go on. I do very much like honey, though, and preferably the stronger flavoured once. We tend to buy heather honey, because it’s the strongest one available, with the added advantage of being rather on the runny side so a little goes a long way and it really seeps into the bread in a delicious way.

But anyway, I’m not here to review honey.

When making this tea, it certainly smells like honey. The whole kitchen smelled of honey while this was steeping. It was very distinctive. Sniffing the cup more ‘up close’ though, it didn’t actually smell that honey-y, but rather more floral. I wasn’t aware that it was a Keemun base at the time, but I felt like there was something else in there that I could quite put my finger on. A bit woody, I wanted to say. Maybe slightly malty. Finding out about the Keemun afterwards surprised me not even a little bit. It was rather more of an ‘oh, of course’ sort of moment.

Flavourwise, it’s quite pleasant. The honey is subtle but present. It doesn’t so much taste like a tea flavoured with honey as it does a tea with a little honey added to the cup, only without sweetening it. The base does taste somewhat generic, but it’s got a good strength to it so it feels like a robust cup of tea. Which, in my opinion, a Keemun always should. I’m forever puzzled when Keemun black is described as ‘mild’. A Keemun black should absolutely be able to stand up for itself, kick bottom and take names. I think it’s the honey flavouring that makes it feel a little generic, though. I feel like there might be a pretty good Keemun at the base of this.

So yes, pretty good. On the other hand, I suspect I could probably reproduce a similar cup by adding a small amount of strong honey to a suitable black tea myself. Don’t much like sweetened tea, though, so this probably is the better choice for me.

From Sunday afternoon – can’t remember if this is one of the European teas from VariaTEA that I’ve had yet or not, but I enjoyed this cup. More than many of the other European samples she shared, if I’m being totally honest.

Probably because it’s a very intense floral, sweet rose flavour – combined with that hint of vanilla, it reminded me a lot of rosewater Turkish Delight actually. Back when I was living in Saskatoon, there was a gourmet candy store in one of the two malls that also randomly had a Turkish delight “bar” as well with over thirty flavours – there were some damn good ones, but the traditional rosewater was always my favourite & also the best Turkish delight I’ve ever had. This tea made me hella nostalgic for that…

this doesn’t really taste like much of anything specific to me. I’ll have to try brewing for a loooooong time with my last bit of this and see what happens heh

Cold Brew Sipdown (1368)!

Regrettably I don’t remember much about this brew other than it was a bit on the lighter side with a pretty generic “sweet fruit” taste erring a bit more in the direction of rhubarb/red fruit. Very European in style, and honestly pretty good but not great/distinct.

Regardless, thank you VariaTEA for the share – I love trying teas I would have otherwise not had access to!

Made a cup of this one… yesterday? Maybe the day before?

This was a VariaTEA share but, in all honesty, the flavour of the blend did not stick in my mind and I couldn’t remember what it was supposed to me. A quick once over of the tea leaf told me to expect mix tea bases, rhubarb, and coconut for sure – and sure enough those were the flavours that stuck out in the steeped cup. Mildly flavoured, and very European feeling – all floral undertones and more of a creamy rhubarb than the tart/shrill rhubarb teas you see in North America.

Not a stand out, but better than I’d expected to be perfectly honest.

Thank you VariaTEA for the share!

Not totally sure what this is supposed to be, but to me it tastes like a weird mash up of coconut, fruit salad, and amaretto. It’s not bad, but it’s REALLY European in profile and I’m not totally sure it’s exactly what I was craving in this moment.

I appreciate the share, though!

Sipped on a mug of this while watching the last of On My Block’s third season – it was a good season, though the ending was… oof.

I still think season two has been the best one, but I really hope it gets picked up for a fourth. I’ve loved the character exploration, as well as the more unique perspective/scope on gangs. I like that it doesn’t glorify them, but does frame elements of that lifestyle in a way that humanizes how some people end up caught up in them. Not everything is black and white.

This tea was easy to sip on but pretty flat in terms of flavour and mouthfeel. I can see form it’s Steepster entry that it’s a blend of several straight black teas, but I wish I knew what the intention was in selecting those specific teas. Really, none of the trademark flavours I would expect from any of the listed terroirs come through and the overall flavour is flat, dull and one note – day old bread. The plus side to this is that it makes for a great “canvas” style of black tea where you can add sugar and milk to taste. It’s a boring cup on its own though…

Had this one today while packing up tea filled Valentine’s Day cards for my coworkers!

This was a VariaTEA share & I’m happy to have gotten to try it, especially as it’s a tea that I would not have had access otherwise given its European mom & pop shop origin. However, the only thing I could think when I drank it was that it tasted so incredibly generically “fruity and European” in style/flavour that there was nothing memorable about it. I mean, it was NOT a bad tea – but you know how sometimes something just “tastes American” or “tastes Asian” well, this was that but for European tea…

Sipdown (1427)!

Thank you VariaTEA for sharing! I finished this one off over the weekend while watching some Critical Role – the part of the series that I’m on right now involves pirates/sunken ships/treasure hunting so the mermaid name felt fun and on brand for the episode. The tea itself was fine; definitely fruity and smooth but hard to nail down really what any of those fruit notes were. Kind of had a generic apple-y “blue fruit” feel, if I had to describe it!? Not unpleasant though – possibly made better by the thematic appropriateness!?