Østerlandsk Thehus

Had a whole ass mug of this during the afternoon today, but it’s crazy because while it was definitely an alright mug I still couldn’t tell you anything about how it tasted – I simply don’t remember…

Thank you for sharing VariaTEA! I skimmed the ingredients of all the Copenhagen samples you sent when I was adding them to my cupboard, and I believe this one had the most interesting/unique combination of ingredients during that initial skim so I definitely prioritized it a little bit when deciding what to try…

I think it’s very fun/clever to use ingredients like seabuckthorn and seaweed in a “mermaid” blend – though I couldn’t actually taste the seaweed at all in the infusion; perhaps it blended a bit into the green tea base flavour? Though even that was pretty mellow and approachable…

The flavour was good; definitely felt weirdly berry heavy for a tea that doesn’t look to actually have any berries in it though!? I felt a bit like I was tasting that generic sort of “mixed berry” flavouring, accented by a slight hint of tartness and sweetness from the gooseberries – and elderberries, too.

Overall, a good cup!

Sipdown (795)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the share! This is my current cuppa as I try to pop out some tasting notes from this week’s queue – and while I don’t hate the flavour of this mug of tea there’s nothing really great about it either. It’s got the sort of sweet but generic apple/orange/pineapple flavour that a lot of herbal blends do, but at a level of density and acidity that is actually STRONGLY making me think of the off brand “Tropical Juice” flavoured juice boxes my mom used to include in my elementary school lunches. They were the no name brand tetra packs that were just solid yellow with a basic black font on the front, and they didn’t taste bad but you always felt kind of shitty drinking them at lunch break when the rest of the kids around you had Kool-Aid pouches and other, better drinks…

Thanks VariaTEA for the share!

I made a mug of this last nigh to drink while packing up all of my stuff; it was pretty nice though very apple heavy. I don’t think I find anything unique or exceptional about it, but as a mildly sweet apple-y tea with some gentle tropical hints it’s pretty nice and smooth. Simple can be good.

Unfortunately this one is not for me. I tried this gongfu and it had that typical darjeeling dryness. That was after a rinse and several steeping attempts. Eventually it ran out of flavor around the same time that astringent quality went away so I gave up and tried making it Western style. It’s better than the gongfu but still has a strong metallic quality. Into the swap box for someone who would appreciate it more.

Tea Limade Sipdown (260)

Wanted some more key lime pie. Added bonus of finishing this one off. Yay!

This tea has always been meh then today my brother-in-law accidentally bought limeade instead of lemonade. My sister isn’t a limeade fan so we said we’d drink it and for some reason I thought it might pair well with this. I was right because somehow the combination of the two tastes like key lime pie. Yum!

This is today’s cold brew since for some reason, I have been cold brewing daily during the quarantine. This tea sat next to me for the hours I spent inventorying my teas…so.many.teas. Except I was so into what I was doing, I actually didn’t drink at all.

So now my job is done and I am enjoying a glass of this fruity and tropical blend. it’s not my favorite if I am being honest but I have a lot of it and so cold brewing is a good way to power through…not that it uses more leaf, it just seems easier to drink for some reason.

Finishing the cold brew with a splash of peach Perrier. I think it definitely helps to cut through the sweetness. I am still getting a lot of the sweet and sometimes the sweet borders into waxy for me and that is still true here but I think made as a proper teapop this could be better.

I was dumb and set up a cold brew of this last night and then just left the bag completely open on the counter overnight. So that was not a great discovery this morning but now it is put away and I doubt any damage was really done.

As for the cold brew, it is apple-y and tropical. I get a thicker mouthfeel. At times I get more strawberry and at other times I taste more pineapple/mango. With no hibiscus it is mostly sweet on sweet on sweet so I think this needs something to cut through. Perhaps a teapop would be the way to go here.

The second November challenge in Instagram had a prompt today that was “your birthstone”. As a March baby, my birthstone is aquamarine. Honestly, I just think of a mermaid movie that came out when I was a kid called Aquamarine. So that led me to this tea.

It’s smooth and has a nice touch of tart gooseberry. However, it’s not particularly exciting which is sad since I have a fair bit of this that I need to work through. At least this prompt had me pull it out.

I have been having this issue with my phone where it drops network and picks up network like a light switch. Off. On. Off. On. Constantly…for hours. And then it is fine for a week and then it starts its shenanigans again.

I have factory reset the phone. I have switched the SIM card. And a couple days ago, after it rebooted multiple times through the night which meant I had no alarms to wake me for class the next morning, I took it to Bell to send it out since it seems to be a hardware issue. Of course this always happens when I am in London, without a car, despite me being in Toronto, with people who can drive me places for 1/2 the week every week.

So I trekked to the Bell store at the mall where the customer service rep told me b/c the issue is intermittent, Samsung likely won’t see it and will just wipe my phone and send it back. He said I would need to send it out 2-3 times and they may replace it after that. He sent me to a Samsung-authorized phone repair shop in the mall and they told me the same thing about sending it back and forth to Samsung until they decide to replace it. So, I sent it out and was obviously not too pleased with the service I was getting. As far as I am concerned, in the Android vs. Iphone debate, this is a definite strike against Android.

The one positive note from this phone experience is I was in the mall where I could hit up DAVIDsTEA and buy a mug I definitely did not need and some tea samples. Then after paying for those, I remembered the teas my sister brought from Copenhagen which are all large quantities in brown paper bags. So I picked up tins. Now I am trying to taste them to see if they are worth a tin or if I should trade them or give them away.

This tea is an interesting one because unlike most people, I hate seaweed, which is an ingredient in this tea. Seaweed, gooseberries, and sea buckthorn. All rare ingredients for teas so while I wasn’t overjoyed with some of the ingredients, it at least is something different.

The seaweed flavor is not strong at all, so sorry for anyone looking for that flavor note. Instead, I am getting a lot from the gooseberries and their sour grape sort of vibe. At first I was unsure of it but as the tea has cooled, I think I am enjoying it more.

Sipdown (309)

This sipdown feels good given it’s a tin and one of my older teas being polished off. It’s also a nice tea but not so good that I would choose it above other teas so it’s a good time to say goodbye. Today I’m getting a lot of rhubarb and black tea. It’s smooth. It’s fruity. It’s fine.

Continuing with the National Pizza Day prompt by Mastress Alita’s sipdown thread and the tea together tuesday prompt on instagram, I pulled this tea out as it features pear. Alas, that isn’t really the strong flavor here. Today this came out as a more jumbled fruitiness. It’s alright but neither tea really evoked the gorgonzola, walnuts, speck, pear, and honey of the pizza that inspired these selections.

Meant to make this as a tea lemonade only to realize we had no lemonade after I steeped the concentrate. So then it became a tea apple juice and it’s not very good.

Interestingly enough, this tea was already in the Steepster database and already had a tasting note.

This is another nice blend. I am actually surprised b/c normally I do not care for blends of different base types (i.e. black and green tea blends) but so far Østerlandsk Thehus has been delivering. In fact, most of the teas my sister got for me are blends of different types of tea mixed with fruit. I also noticed when adding the blends to my steepster cupboard that 2/8 teas she got me had quince. I found this interesting since quince doesn’t even appear to be an ingredient option here on steepster as it is not a particularly common flavor and yet my sister managed to grab multiple teas with that ingredient. Excited to give it a go.

When it comes to this tea, I would not have picked this for myself. In fact, most of the blends she got, I might not have chosen for myself but they all seem interesting. My sister actually picked them by what tins appealed to her b/c apparently the special house blends all had colorful custom tins. That’s one way to do it, I suppose.

This tea is fruity. Not the same generic mishmash of fruit flavors that so many other teas have. I wish I paid more attention and that my palate was better at picking out certain notes because I know they are there but if I am being honest, it is hard for me to pick up what is what. I think there is some creamy pear and papaya. Perhaps a nod to raspberry. I also I know there is citrus but there was not as much grapefruit as I anticipated. It is good, I just wish my note did it justice.

Sipdown (334)

This is a nice Sipdown given I started with over 100 grams of this. Granted, most was shared with Courtney but emptying a tin is still an accomplishment. Today this is a mango black tea. Just mango and mediocre black tea. That’s not bad but it’s not special, which leaves me okay with saying goodbye to this tea.

I am really grateful I was able to share some of this tea with Courtney since while I enjoy it, I don’t reach for it often. I think part of the reason for that is that it doesn’t have a clear flavor profile. Everytime I have it, I need to look up what Copenhagen blends encompasses vs. a tea like Banana Pudding Black Tea or Salted Caramel Oolong. So if there is a particular flavor I want, this is not what comes to mind because the name doesn’t give me much insight into the blend. I guess that’s the power of a name.

This is one of my older teas now and thus it is something I am focusing on. Today I decided to make it iced and it is not my favorite way to have this tea. I am getting a creaminess from the coconut that is nice but that is largely overshadowed by a flat black base and strained fruit notes. There is punches of this astringent citrus and then some mango trying to push past the black base, but its being smothered. I don’t know if this is just the iced prep method or if my first time having this tea was fueled by excitement but either way I am dropping the rating from 80.

My sister just returned from a scandanavian cruise and ofc she came bearing gifts…ruby chocolate and tea. She knows me well.

Alas all the tea descriptions are in Danish so I have been at a loss as to what is in the teas…except I know this has mango because (1) that was the only thing I could read on the label and (2) I can taste it.

Along with mango, I also get citrus and something sweet, like berry. Plus originally I thought there was vanilla here because there is a nice creaminess but then I recalled seeing coconut bits in the dry leaf so it may be that. Overall the tea is very smooth and so flavorful. I am really liking it and I don’t know if its because it’s something new and different or if it is actually that good.

Also I google translated the tea description and this is the result: Black tea (Keemun) and green tea (Sencha) with quince, mango, rhubarb, coconut and strawberries. Lovely fruity blend that leads your mind on sunny summer days. So I wasn’t too off.

A green and white blend. Fruity, smooth. Very cozy tea, one of the best blends from Østerlandsk.

Thank you Roughage for this beautiful Sample (ha) tea!

Today I received a ‘sample’ box from the U.K. with a Postal label that said Royal Mail! Now isn’t that nice. Colorado has no such stamps. Maybe a stamp of an antelope playing on the range (where seldom is heard a discouraging word).

With a stamp like that I couldn’t just rip the box open. I had to put the pinky up and delicately open the parcel. Yikes! Nobody told my new best Steepster friend that a little bit of tea would be just fine (don’t get ideas, he now knows that a wee little bit will be ok to send in the future!).
That box had lots of tea…and all new to me. One tea (a Pu-erh) is used for making Yak Butter Tea! Oh, and Roughage sent me a Chai Butter Tea recipe that I’ll share during the Olympics so I can go all U.K.

Cool!

I chose first this tea for this evening after supper. I had a small alderwood smoked white meat chop and fresh sauteed spinach greens. Simple.
A fruity White Tea would pair well followed by some fresh cherries later in the evening.

There was about an ounce of dry mix in the vacume bag that just looked healthy. Green with white fur jasmine silver needle and lots of fruity bits. Other big green leaves and brown twiggy things. No idea what all is in there. Smells like heaven though.
The steep time was 4-6 min. at 176F (80C)

When ready, the light yellow pour was fruitliy fragrant not floral.
I took a big gulp.
Now this was good jasmine white tea! So smooth and creamy for a white at what I consider was a long steep time.
The fruitiness was mouth-watering. I could taste some of the strawberry and pineapple but no citrus. The blend was harmonious. The addition of fruit softens the jasmine, which can sometimes be overpowering.
And….NO ASTRINGENCY!

This is really, really good! Even jasmine sceptics would like this tea.

Thank you so much Roughage for this beautiful tea! I can’t wait to try all the others! I could have a party during the Olympics with the tea you sent! Come and join in!

My brother in Copenhagen sent me some of these for Christmas and finishing the packet has reminded me that I need to write them up.

I like flowering teas because of the sheer aesthetic pleasure to be had from watching them unfurl. I have a large glass teapot for this purpose and often bring it and a flowering tea out at the end of dinner when we have guests round. My family are a bit blase about flowering teas now, but I still get a good reaction from other guests.

This tea is a nice green tea that unfurls with pink flowers. The tea itself is as you would expect a decent green tea to be. It is not absolutely stunning, but it is just the thing for a hot day: light, refreshing and you can drink a lot of it without unpleasant side-effects. It is not stunning like my favourite Anji Bai Cha, but it is not awful like some of the bagged green teas either. It is a solidly good product. I shall certainly not complain if I receive more of this next Christmas! Hmm, I wonder if my brother actually reads Steepster. If so, hint, hint, bro! :-)