Tea Desire

I really like caramel/toffee style rooibos blends, they’re possibly my favourite way to drink rooibos and a good staple to keep around for an evening when I’m craving something sweet. This is a really good one, and I finished off the last of it as a tea latte a couple of nights ago. I actually think I prefer this regular western steeped, without additives. That way, it’s delicious nutty toffee with a mild woodsiness from the rooibos. Drank as a latte, though, the base was a little overpowering of the gentle toffee and dessert flavours, which only really came out in the aftertaste. I think a touch of sweetener would have helped to coax them out more, but I didn’t have any maple syrup or brown sugar left so I drank it without. That being said, I did let it steep for a full 10 minutes, so it might be my fault that the rooibos was so prominent this time around. I still enjoyed it, but not necessarily quite as much as usual. I’ve added this back onto my wishlist, because when I eventually get through my old teas I might make a Tea Desire order, and if I do, this will be the first thing on my list.

Thanks for sharing MissB ! Sipdown 246/405.

Bought this tea on a visit to a Mariage Freres in Paris with the husband in mind, since oolongs aren’t my thing, but I had to try it anyways. I hope I get to go back and visit again someday. Wish I could download French into my brain before that!
The tea does remind me a bit of Theodor’s oolong. They both have creamy light caramel like flavors. Most oolongs fall flat for me towards the back of the sip, but this one has a light creamy grassy hint to it. Creamy and grassy are not flavors I’d have thought I’d enjoy together. As it cools it looses a bit of it’s magic. I think the taste of the unfiltered water starts peeking through. I really should get a good water filter. I think I kinda like this tea!

Kind of bland & unremarkable. 2.5/5

Not overly remarkable, kind of bitter. 2/5

Sipdown 125/395

Thank you thank you thank you MissB!! After the disaster of a tea I had earlier (liquorice root overload) to say this was an improvement would be a HUGE understatement. I know I tried it and liked it when I first received the same but hadn’t had it for a couple of years and wasn’t expecting the full amazingness to still be shining through. But it totally is!! The pu’erh is an interesting choice but it pairs so well with the sweet, buttery caramel and makes it the perfect amount of sweet without being overpowering. I was worried that it might be too sweet because the scent of the brewing tea was identical to the scent of homemade caramel bubbling away in a pan. I needn’t have worried. This is a tea I will look into getting more of when I’m finally out of my no buy (if it’s still around by then – 270 teas to go, yikes!)

Haven’t quite put my finger on things here. There’s a vague vanilla aspect going on in addition to the dark red fruit. That’s all I’ve got so far.

Day 9 of attempting to stop drinking caffeine after three. Mostly failing at this. However, aiming at reducing the hours of caffeine consumption is propelling me towards caffeine free teas that have been neglected. So there’s that kind of progress.

I’m pretty sure this is the right tea on here… The photo looks the same as my flowering tea. It’s called Winter Fantasy, but I don’t see the name Tea Desire on the package, it says Asiatica Blooming Tea. Anyway, this is pretty good – my first time having blooming tea. It’s so fascinating! It’s just green tea so it just jasmine tasting. Pretty simple, but with sugar it’s good!

Sipdown 104/395

Another of the oldest teas in my collection, acquired some years ago now from a mystery box I bought from MissB. Drank after receiving some bad news, and while coming down with a cold. I barely tasted it. Some maybe-pineapple fruitiness. I was surprised to find it was a green tea.

I’ve mentioned more than once that I am not a big cinnamon person. I am discovering though that it depends on the kind of cinnamon. Here, the cinnamon is gentle, warm, and woody. As others have mentioned, this blend is luscious cinnamon bun coated in vanilla icing. Delicious. I can see this becoming part of my regular rotation, if only I find a way of regular access to it.

Thank you, Steepsters, for bringing this stellar blend to my attention.

So, my mom drinks a lot of tea at work. I mean, not nearly as much tea as I drink at work but enough that I guess her coworkers have sort of pegged it as ‘her thing’. If they only knew. This year they did a workplace Secret Santa exchange though, and the person who got her gave her a bag of tea and a mug. She’s actually already broken the mug though; it said it wasn’t dishwasher safe and she popped it in the dishwasher anything and it just cracked into like a million pieces…

She’s still got the tea though – and of course I had to give it a try! I have to give every tea a try, if we’re being honest. This one is apparently just a rooibos with vanilla, according to the ingredients. I think they’re wrong though because visually I can see little bits of cinnamon chips mixed into the dry leaf and sipping on my cold brew now there are DEFINITELY cinnamon notes as well. So, something doesn’t add up completely here. The rest of the tea is pretty good though; the vanilla is REALLY strong and kind of artificial but I like it as a cold flavour paired with the woody aspects of the rooibos. It reminds me a lot of DAVIDsTEA’s Birthday Cake blend, just with those very mild/soft cinnamon spice elements.

I don’t think I’m gonna be sneaking cups of this one from her stash any time soon, but it was nice to try and enjoyable overall.

Not bad, but I found the base to be a little bit wimpy and bland. The vanilla cream flavours were more apparent when I added milk to my cup and there was a pleasant mildly floral scent and aftertaste. Not bad, but certainly not the best cream earl grey I’ve tasted.

Tea Infused Salad Dressing! …part three?

This is one of two teas that kind of originally inspired this idea, the other being Spicy Pina Margarita. That’s because I really just did not like the tea on its own but found it unique enough to hold on to because I was convinced I could find something brilliant to do with it culinary-wise.

So, here’s the recipe that I used:

- 1/3 Cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of tea
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 2/3 Cup of Avocado Oil
- Black Pepper & Salt to Taste
- Mason Jar
- Cheesecloth

I started by bringing the vinegar to a boil in a saucepan on the stovetop, then immediately removing it from the heat and adding in my tea and letting that “steep” in the hot vinegar until completely cold. Then I strained it into the mason jar using the cheesecloth, and added in my honey – shake that all up until it’s combined, then added in the oil slowly, shaking throughout that process until fully emulsified. Add in your spices/salt/pepper to taste – in this case I actually added lemon pepper instead of salt/pepper.

What I was going for here was definitely something with my tangyness to it; hence the decision to use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar. I needed some sweetness to balance all that acidity, so I did use honey instead of a different type of emulsifier (egg white, for example) but I stuck with plain honey so as to now introduce another flavour into the mix to wreck my vinegar/tea pairing. I used avocado oil for a similar reason; I obviously needed oil for the recipe but this is a kind that practically has no flavour, so it worked in regard to making sure the other flavours really came through. The tea itself has tomato, apple, ginger, chili, and pumpkin in it – so it’s already got some sweetness in addition to the savory/spicy elements. I wanted to really create something that was both savory and sweet; just like how a tomato can be on its own. I think this one turned out great! I don’t love it quite as much as I do the whisky dressing I made earlier in the day, but I think it’s still delicious and ultimately still tastes like the tea in addition to all of the other things in the recipe. Plus, it allowed me to find a use for a tea that I simply didn’t enjoy drinking. All the flavours come together really nicely!

The only thing that I think I might have done differently if I was recreating the recipe was add some fresh dill into the hot vinegar/tea mixture to steep in some aromatics as well. I think the dill would have been a nice compliment to all the other flavours going on, while highlighting the “Caeser” element of the tea in a different way.

C’est la vie.

EDIT: I forgot, I kind of took a picture of this dressing!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsgKX82l8ZL/

Tomato tea.

I kind of feel like that should be enough said? Realistically it’s just not though: especially when this is my second tomato tea this summer. I actually quite like the other tomato tea I have though; it’s very fruity in addition to having that umami tomato element. I think that’s why it works for me. This one? Definitely more of a savory flavour profile…

I made this up at work: here are the notes I scrawled down on the cup…

- SO WEIRD!!!
- In a way it tasted just like very bland/REALLY watered down tomato soup
- Salty/umami for sure, but with an underlying sweetness?
- And then it had this strange apple quality too that reminded me of cider
- Tomato Cider!? That probably just shouldn’t be a thing
- The more I sipped on it the more I liked it; though there was no point where I loved it
- Would be good for cooking though: as like a soup stock?

Also, obviously, it’s kind of inspiried by the Caesar cocktail so you could definitely find a way to incorporate it into that type of cocktail. Hit it with a splash of vodka and a pinch of Lapsang Souchong!? That’d probably be really nice… if I actually liked Caesars.

Yes, I think this tea is best with cream or milk. Today, I added a bit of evaporated milk to it. Good. I’d like to try it as a latte one day, but for me, any dairy is a bit of a thrill.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, people! It is also St. Gertrude’s Day, as in St. Gertrude patron saint of cats. So Happy St.Gertrude’s Day to you too!

And today with a healthy dollop of half and half cream. Score! I think this may be my favourite way with this tea to bring it closer to truffle-like flavour and richness. Either that or black and unsweetened.

Toted this along to a workshop today and added milk to try it that way. Hmm. Then got distracted by the workshop and the participants.

I think I may prefer it black and unsweetened, but this comparison needs another more focused go-around.

To be continued…

About this kid next door. I sit at my table about to work on something due tomorrow. Fuss, fuss, fuss. Cranky, cranky, cranky. I go to pick up some soup to nourish and sustain me, hoping the kid’s mood will pass. I eat. I set out to work on the thing again. Fuss, fuss, fuss. Cranky, cranky, cranky. I decide to lie down for a wee nap because now my energy is draining away. Five minutes lying down and the kid is shrieking, shrieking, shrieking through the wall beside me.

And so goes the day.

This tea has made life nicer. Chocolate and walnut truffle nicer.

Oh, and 300 notes—whooop!

Goodness gracious. I’ve been hanging out listening to the blues this morning and sipping on this loveliness. Such complexity that I wasn’t expecting. There’s walnut and then there’s chocolate and then there’s caramel. And that’s just straight up and unsweetened. Delicious.

I made another batch of three steeps of this to propel me to and nurture me after my yoga class today. The pineapple became a bit more prominent and the custard stepped a bit back with the rest in and between travel.

Most delicious. That white/green tea combo is completely working for me here—for the first time ever.

Very delicious, in a gentle pineapple custard with a whiff of coconut kind of way.

I was really really in the mood to start the day with a black tea like I usually do. While standing over my tea pile, I somehow managed to talk myself into a gentle easing into the day, or so I told myself. Glad that I nudged myself towards this one this morning.

I may have been inspired by Sil, a hardcore black tea drinker, who was recently smitten by a delicious banana green. And so I nudge myself towards being just a wee bit more open minded, just a wee bit less set in my habits.

A friend and I went out for Korean bbq at lunch today and then we ended up sitting in a park sipping bitter delicious Americanos. That, in addition to my morning tea was enough of the hardcore boom caffeine for me.

This tea is the perfect antidote to the strong flavours of the day. So gentle. The predominant flavour here is coconut with the slightest bit of vanilla mellowing out the pineapple apricot gently floating over the white and sencha base.