Sloane Tea Merchants

Geek Steep S2E6 – Critical Role: The Mighty Nein

Cold Brew!

Since I’ve continued to watch the series since recording I’ve gotten to experiment with all different types of tea pairings, but this was my first one for that Campaign 2 first episode. I didn’t put thought into it – I just went with the cold brew that I already had strained in my fridge and dove right in.

It’s a nice tea, and it works really well cold brewed because it captures the light floral and citrus balance super well. However, it was not the right tea for this fandom. If I’d paused for even a second to think about it, I would have known that – that light soft floral profile doesn’t mesh at all with anything I know about D&D and, even without being familiar with this set of characters, I should have known better.

Oh well.

Hot cuppa from late last week – good tea, but triggered a sense of nostalgia/deja vu in me from the jasmine and citrus combo that I just couldn’t put my finger on and, admittedly, that made the cup less relaxing because I spent so much of it trying to figure out what I was remembering/thinking of…

Light, fresh, and perfectly balanced between floral and fruity though.

Perhaps it’s because DAVIDsTEA’s “Fruity and Floral” collection just launched today and I spent much of the day keeping tabs on people’s first reaction to the teas/teaware – but I’ve been craving this tea literally all afternoon. So much so that the very first thing I did when I got home, before even taking off my winter coat, was go and get a mug of it started…

I know this one does have the tendency to get bitter quite quickly if not brewed REALLY precisely, so I dropped the water temperature a little lower than I typically would and I also added a smidge of creamed honey to the cup as well. The resulting mug of tea was quite delicious, with a more bright and juicy lemonade note and a very fresh feeling jasmine. No bitterness. It got a little better as it cooled, mostly because colder lemon teas evoke more of that “lemonade” feeling for me whereas hot lemon teas make me think more of Wellness/“Sick” teas.

Good cuppa; craving quenched.

Made this in a tea press.

Overall it was drinkable, but it came out somewhat bitter and with more of a distinct ginger note than any sort of lemon/lemonade. So, it wasn’t really my favourite cup and I ended up pouring out the last third of it in favor of just moving on and making something new.

Revisited this one hot, with a smidgen of honey and a pairing of prosecco gummy bears! It was a much better experience overall! The tea was a lot smoother, with more of the citrus coming out – which is why I wanted this one in the first place. The jasmine and citrus does taste really nice together; very much reminds me of a jasmine silver needle infused lemonade I made last summer. There’s still a little bit too much ginger for my own personal tastes, but it’s a lot more reasonable than the cold brew and not enough to put too much of a damper on the overall cup for me.

I doubt this will ever be my favourite tea, but it’s really good to know that it’s not a total write off and here are ways to steep it up where it’s still tasty.

Cold brew!

I wasn’t as crazy about this one initially as I was about the Peaches & Cream from Sloane. For starters, it’s very jasmine heavy and I wouldn’t mind that so much if it weren’t for the obvious fact that jasmine is coming from the green tea in the blend, and not on its own or with the white tea. I don’t mind a little green tea added into a white tea blend (like DT’s Cherry Blossom, for example) when the primary base flavour is STILL the white tea but this felt like more of a green tea to me.

It’s also really ginger heavy, and I hadn’t really realized there would be so much ginger flavour when I purchased this. Like, I knew I was gambling with the jasmine notes but my assumption was that the citrus/pink lemonade elements would outweigh any potential ginger notes and I actually thought that the citrus was the mildest flavour out of all of them. So I was disappointed. I mean, I’m not writing it off or anything – I definitely need to try it hot and experiment a little before I come to any sort of definitive conclusion. It just wasn’t the most thrilling/exciting first tasting.

No rating yet.

I love ginger, spicier the better. This blend is similar to others I’ve had from other vendors, but I still like it. There’s lots of lemongrass in the dry leaf, and it gives the ginger something strong and bright to play with. There’s also a good dose of licorice that helps soothe a sore throat, and adds and herbal sweetness of its own. I don’t notice anything particularly tropical or fruity about this blend, unlike the tropical ingredients list, but it’s still a solid herbal blend. For ginger lovers, you can’t go wrong with this tea.

Congratulations, Canada! IIHF world champions!

Yesterday, I went to Remedy not once, but twice, and this was my second time around. Finally they had this in stock. They carry the sachets. The tin is bursting with chocolate mint, but unfortunately, it’s not as flavourful as I had hoped. I didn’t add any milk or sugar, the chocolate and mint flavours are quite balanced, but I still wanted more. It’s very similar to H&S’s Chocolate Mint. Maybe this one is a little more chocolatey.

I loved my first drink at Remedy yesterday, though. They just introduced a cardamom matcha chai, and boy, was it cardamom. Heaps of cardamom in my mug. Throughout the milky green liquor were speckles of coarsely ground cardamom. Wow! The matcha was the perfect level too. I’m definitely going back for more.

meh. Another from variaTEA and while ginger makes me happy – licorice root does not since it makes everything all sweet like. I think this has the potential to be a decent blend – minus the licorice root but since thta’s not likely to change, no thanks. Especially if you look at sloane’s pricing. this is one of their cheaper teas and it’s still 17$ for a herbal (100g).

Sipdown (115)!

From March’s Amoda subscription box. I ended up not renewing for April (to the people who did; what was in this month’s box?) but I haven’t ruled out renewing for May/future months all together though…

I cold brewed my sample, and I’m gonna humbly admit that I had already convinced myself I wouldn’t like this before even trying it. However, it actually had a much more distinct/unique taste than I would have expected given the ingredients which I find are very commonly paired together for herbal teas.

The initial taste was very robust ginger and honey, and that quickly faded into more of an apple/citrus heavy taste with a ginger/honey backdrop. I did taste the papaya a little bit but is wasn’t as strong as the other fruit flavours. I thought the finish was rather licorice-y with some super sweet honey notes as well, but after looking at the ingredients and refreshing my memory a little bit I know I was tasting a combination of the licorice root and the ginseng in the blend. The mint must be very sparse in the blend, I didn’t taste it at all.

Overall, this was better than I had anticipated for sure – though I didn’t love it. At least it didn’t fall perfectly into the mold of other herbals that utilize a lot of the ingredients here. After a while they start to feel like the same blend with different names. I wouldn’t buy this one to drink casually, but I could see it working well as a “sick tea” – it utilizes all of things that make sick teas work: licorice root/ginseng, lemon, mint (sorta), and ginger…

I keep forgetting about my Amoda tea subscription! I have last month’s stashed away somewhere and you know how that goes, “out of sight, out of mind.”
I don’t know why I picked this one first. It would probably be last on my list of the subscription teas to try. When I started my tea journey, I thought that Jasmine tea was the shit. The pinnacle of refinement. Along the way, I think either I just drank too much of it, or had some bad teabags along the way, but jasmine tea just lost it’s oomph with me.
While i’ve had better teas, this is a nice TBT tea for the day. I liked that Sloane used Clouds and Mist as the base green. It’s smooth yet brassy. Slightly grassy. I don’t have a third rhyme, but I vaguely enjoyed this tea!

Sipdown (136)!

Still trying to decide on whether I’m gonna renew my Amoda subscription; hashed out some of the pros and cons earlier today on Steepster chat. Right now I’m leaning against it; primarily because the three boxes I received in my gift subscription were pretty ginger/jasmine dominant – case in point this tea or the Ginger Jasmine green pearls from the January box. I’ve liked that I’ve been exposed to teas I would’ve otherwise ignored, but the ingredient diversity isn’t as strong as I want…

This was/is my daily cold brew – I’m finishing it off now. Plan was to drink it last night, but that didn’t happen ‘cause of the super ridiculous 16 hour sleep I had. It’s alright; but just your typical jasmine scented green. Not overly fake, I’ll give it that much – but I could always pop into one of my local stores like DT or Tea Desire and get something comparable for probably a better price.

Stumbled upon this store today: http://eclecticeccentricity.bigcartel.com/

EVERYTHING IS SO PRETTY AND GORGEOUS! I want all of it. Literally all of it. I put together a mock cart with a few things, trying to justify buying myself some pretty jewelry – my other favourite ‘online jeweler’, if you will, is NO WHERE near as affordable. But ugh; Pounds to Canadian Dollars is still so much.

Even if I just bought my favourite piece overall, with shipping, it’d be nearly $40! I know it’s really, really nice jewelry, but man I can’t afford that! I cry because I want pretty things and I can’t have pretty things!

PS. If anyone’s curious, this is my absolute favourite thing on the site:

http://eclecticeccentricity.bigcartel.com/product/swarm-wasp-earrings

So I got this in the Amoda box and I gotta say that all these herbal teas taste the same to me. Honestly. I wish I could tell them apart but I just can’t.

Very delicate hint of cherry blossoms are a lovely addition to a nice green tea.

Love the citrusy spark of lemon in your tea? Then Sloane’s Jasmine Pink Lemonade is the tea for you! The flavor of lemonade lingers at the finish of each sip of this tea. This would make a great iced tea, especially with some sugar and fresh lemon slices. If served warm, Jasmine Pink Lemonade tea pairs well with sweet fruit flavored desserts and breads.

Here is my full review of Jasmine Pink Lemonade:
http://thirstyfortea.com/2013/10/12/sloane-tea-merchants-the-perfumery-of-teas/