Tea Desire

Cold Brew Companion yesterday!

Finally kicking off my “Birthday Cake with everything” initiative; mixed in 1 heaping tsp. of Birthday Cake with my usual measure of this one to kind of do my own “vanilla mint” mate type thing. Wasn’t sure if the mate would mask the BC, but worth a shot.

And worth a shot indeed; somewhat surprisingly, there really was a noticeable difference in the taste. This was a softer, less harsh/jarring mint with a fluffy vanilla flavour mixed in perfectly. More mint than vanilla, for sure, but not by a devastating amount. So pretty much; all the best qualities of Birthday Cake transferred over to this one. DELICIOUS!

Downside, the “mate” aspect did next to nothing in regard to keeping me awake: I passed out around 6PM, and slept solidly until like 11PM – and then I had that awkward feeling of being awake from just sleeping, but also KNOWING I had to get to bed, because I had to wake up at 7AM today. And boy do I have a long day ahead of me. I’m not done at Sobeys until 11PM, which means I wont get home tonight until after midnight…

I’ve had this one sitting out in the kitchen for ages now waiting to be made, and so I made it this morning to start the day out with. You know, a little bit of extra energy or whatever. It tasted good; very spearmint. Otherwise, kinda average. Not sure how well it did in the energy department; I guess maybe I’d have felt more if I was actually out doing stuff instead of just sitting on my ass all day fooling around on the internet and writing tasting notes and stuff.

Today’s shift was hell, though only because I was functioning on maybe an hour or two of sleep, if that. So, I made this up as a timolino work tea because I knew I’d need the extra energy. I also brewed it up extra strong.

I have to say, it did help a little bit – but totally not anywhere near how much I needed it to. At least it tasted amazing! It had been a while since I’d had this one and I’d kind of forgotten just how good it is.

Thankfully, I got off at two and was able to sleep for a blissful six hours when I got home! I’ll probably be up all night now, but at least I’m rested again – and after tomorrow’s shift I have two days off so that should let me sort out my sleeping patterns a little…

Now onto yesterday’s backlog!

This was my timolino companion for my interview yesterday (which was just weird, by the way – they were really behind in their interviews so I didn’t have my interview until 2:00PM despite being scheduled for 11:45AM – if I wasn’t so in need of word as soon as possible I would have just left).

My sleep schedule is really out of wack right now though. Basically, I’m sleeping four(ish) hour between 5PM and 9PM and then four(ish) hours between 6AM and 10AM. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. And I don’t like it.

This was it’s usual consistent self, though.

Refreshing morning tea/energy boost.

I woke up feeling just dead inside this morning. I got a really crappy night’s sleep, and I’m not really sure why exactly. I think today may just turn into a “comfort tea” kind of day where I don’t try new stuff, and just stick to old favourites instead.

I had this hot and it was really good, though I do ultimately prefer it colder.

Eurrhhhhgggg…

Well, I successfully was the perfect employee/manager for three+ hours today! Basically, my boss’s (the district manager) boss (the head of the company) is doing his yearly “rounds” and visiting every branch in the country, and today was my day…

I had no idea when he’d be here, so for three plus hours I did everything I should have been doing anyway that I normally just… don’t. That included greeting every single customer, asking if they could be helped and reciting the stupid line “and if you have any questions, definitely don’t be afraid to ask” to every single one and then offering everyone a wallet calendar and giving, again, another stupid speech ("on the front is our company website and toll free number, and on the back you’ll find all of the dates for 2014). And all the while nursing a sickeningly sweet smile and “soft” voice (because having a soft voice makes you “more approachable and less intimidating”).

I know – this is my job and I’m complaining an awfully lot about things I should be doing anyway, but it’s just draining forcing a chipper attitude (and speaking in a voice that is not my natural one) for hours on end, especially when I’m listening to the same fucking Christmas carols play on repeat all day every day and nursing a killer migraine…

However, I think they were both very satisfied with my guest service and I was able to masterfully answer all their questions about stock shipments, facing our products, general reception from the seniors in the mall, what we sell lots of and what we don’t sell lots of – among other things.

I’m just so glad that I had my mate with me, because I’m just super drained. I’ve had an awful nights sleep the last two days and despite eating more healthy the last week or so compared to how I usually eat I just feel weak and malnourished. I’m wondering if I might be getting sick – and I really hope that’s not the case because I just don’t have the time to be sick.

Anyway, this tea is a miracle worker! It’s keeping me awake, the mint is helping to curb hunger pains (seven hour shift with no food), and just tastes great in general! I don’t think, for the day, I could have made a better choice in mate!

Today was filled with good things and bad things. To start, it was Remembrance day (always a very somber day) and that happened to be a big plus for me since I had a 6 hour shift payed at time and a half because of the Holiday. Yay money! Also, today while I was opening the Kiosk the other opener was actually on time – which hasn’t happened all week! It was nice not having to rush to open both Kiosks so our company doesn’t get fined (malls fine you when you open late or close early). I also managed to contact my last two employees and confirm they’ll be at set up for the store this Wednesday. Yay!

On a negative side, today was my last shift in this mall because, on Wednesday, I’ll be starting at the mall where the Kiosk I’ll be managing is gonna get set up. I’ve really grown attached to this mall – and there are quite a few people that I’ve made part of my “daily routine” either by talking to them in their stores or getting food from them at the food court on break. Plus, no more 10% discount at Tea Desire! Boo.

Also negative, the manager at Centre didn’t do ANY of her weekly paperwork, so I got a call from head office (who were very grumpy and pissed) – and they then decided that since I’ll be managing a store soon I should have to do all her paperwork for her and send it to them via fax. Holy balls did that make for a stressful day: I was not anticipating doing any of Jen’s paperwork (she hadn’t done ANY of it – and it’s like 5 hours of paperwork that I had like 30 min. to do), and I had customers to help at the same time too so I had to balance paperwork and customers simultaneously. Also, I was supposed to train an employee (one of mine) today but she was sick – so she’s going to train with Jen tomorrow… Which is fine I guess, but that means I can’t be SURE she’s getting the training I would have wanted from her.

A consistently nice thing today was drinking my tea today. I made this and Blueberry Jam in the morning before work, and both were very good. For this one, I prepared it the usual way (1 tsp. approx 1 min. boiling water) – and only made one cup (because I had hoped to get one last discounted Tea Desire drink mid shift, but that didn’t happen since there weren’t enough staff present to cover breaks).

At first I didn’t think the Mate was doing anything for my energy – that would have been ok I guess, I mean I like the drink for its taste primarily. But about an hour and a half into my shift I found I had stopped yawning and wasn’t so groggy and sluggish. And then, about two hours into my shift I felt nice and alert. So good job mate!

I think this is truly best as a cold tea. It’s good hot – but just so much more refreshing cold (which is how I had it today).

Keeping this short and to the point since I just got home from work and my brand new copy of Pokemon ‘Y’ is sitting with my and begging to be played. Also, I have a bowl of Princess Alphagetti that I’m dying to dig into…

But basically, nothing new to report on this tea. Still brilliantly minty and well balanced flavourwise. It was my saviour, yet again, this morning at work since I had the opening shift. I got to listen to Saskatoon’s Sask. Express perform in the mall all day (they were doing a breast cancer awareness/fundraising concert) – their songs were all good, but they sang a lot of Christmas carols and it’s WAY too early for Christmas carols.

Anyway, off the play my game! Team Froakie!

Yay for sort of work!?

I was hired for one day to come in and do the stock and merchandising for a store downtown, so it is pay. But only temporary. REALLY temporary. I’ll take it though; who am I to complain – some money is better than no money. Actually, today will be paying for groceries, so that’s not so bad.

Anyway, this was my morning cuppa to kind of wake me up before leaving. I was up bloody early this morning: 6 AM!!! Bleck. Nice and minty though, and it made a great transition from miserable bed monster to hard working individual.

I think I’m gonna stop at DAVIDsTEA later and try a new tea (maybe the tea of the month) as a tea to go. Afterall, it’ll only be 3 shops down from where I’m working today.

My ‘wake me up’ tea this morning as I get ready for my job interview!

I LOVE the smell of the dry leaf: it’s all spearmint. Mmm, do I ever love mint. And, it’s nice to have more than one Mate tea in my cupboard at the moment. Options are always good.

One thing I really dislike about Tea Desire is that their brewing instructions are super generalized. However, I’d take generalized brewing instructions over no instructions at all… That’s right – they don’t have brewing instructions for any of their Mate teas. I checked the little generic brewing sheet printed on their bags, and then scoured their website. No brewing instructions. Blerg.

Also, fun fact or whatever, when I bought this one in store they printed out the wrong label for it. Instead of Mint Mate I got a label for “Summertime Rooibos”. Oops. I checked online though, and they both sell for the same price, so it’s not a big deal. It’s not like I could have been drastically overcharged or anything.

So, I’m using a slightly heaping tsp. and leaving it steep for about five minutes. The smell is primarily spearmint, but with a gentle earthiness to it from the Mate base. The taste is a very strong spearmint, with a mild earthy Mate taste in the background, however the spearmint pretty much masks this.

This cup is perfect for someone like me who LOVES mint, and I think it’d be perfect for someone who wants the stimulating effects of the Mate tea without the taste of Mate. Even though I’m frustrated with Tea Desire for not having a guide for their Mate teas, I AM happy with this purchase.

EDIT: I just checked Della Terra’s site, and my order is finally marked as shipped! Woot!

Sipdown (141/148)!

Soft, gentle mint heavy rooibos with a nice background caramel presence to sweeten things up. I’m quite content with this being the last cup (yay more tin space and finishing off one of my oldest teas), especially given it was such a good one!

Coming up on a sipdown soon. I’ve decided not to restock this one – and I have another tea in mind to replace the tin, so I could very well be hurrying up to finish this one off too, just to clear it out of my cupboard and reduce my numbers.

Tonight I added milk to this. Taste wise, it was actually much, much more minty than it was caramel flavoured, but it was a soft, smooth and silky mint flavour with a very gentle and light caramel and rooibos undertone to it that made the whole mug really calming, and very easy to cuddle up with. I wont lie though; I was hoping for just a little bit more caramel. But hey; I’ll take what I can get and it looks like a fair bit of the mint from this one has sunk to the bottom of the tin over time so these last few mugs probably will be a bit more mint heavy than previous mugs I’ve enjoyed.

Similar to Pumpkin Chai this is also one of my oldest teas, and sadly I happen to be nearly out of it. I haven’t decided quite yet whether I’d like to restock it as it is very pleasant and comforting as well as consistent or whether I’d like to devote the tin space to something else.

I am sure about one thing though; I don’t feel the need to have both this blend and Tea Desire’s Sweet Toffee around at the same time. They’re both caramel rooibos blends, the difference being the addition of mint to this one and the fact it’s slightly less caramel flavoured. Right now both tins sit in my kitchen though. And, there are so many other blends I could put in the tins…

If Tre brings me back more Apple Strudel Pistachio then I definitely want that one in a tin; it deserves it! And then, The Woman could also receive the tin space. And if I do go through with an Adagio order and get more Felix Felicis that could also get the tin space. Ergh.

So the question; do I like it enough to restock or have this blend and I run our course and will I be ok with just ending with fond memories? Bleck. I guess I want to wait and see if Tre stopped at Cuppa’T before deciding.

Anyway; smooth, creamy and comforting! A good rainy day (or in this case late late night or early early morning) tea. It’s thundering out, so cradling this one against my chest and feeling its warmth was super relaxing.

The other morning cup I’m enjoying with my extra, unexpected time. It’s nice having a few hours to kill before work. Usually I just get up maybe an hour before I start work for the day, and I typically spend that time getting ready for work; showering, making my lunch/supper for when I’m on break, brewing tea for my shift. And then I walk to work.

But anyway; I brewed this up extra strong and the resulting tea was extra good! It feels…

Serendipitous.

Last tea of the night!

I unintentionally underleafed it, so it was a little weak/bland – but the peppermint did come through quite a bit despite that. The caramel? Well, not so much. That was a bit of a shame. Also, I drank it at stone cold temperature – and it made for a refreshing late night tea.

And now I think I’m ready to go to bed!

Stressful afternoon. At least I finished tidying up all the junk in my old bedroom. It’s so dusty and gross in there; cobwebs everywhere. Honestly, I don’t think it’s been properly cleaned in years! Definitely long before I moved out: I can’t believe I used to sleep there. I just feel all gross and itchy and just bleck from cleaning it…

So, some tea to calm my head after an awful afternoon, and then a nice hot shower to wash all the dirt off.

Parameter for the cup: 6 oz. of boiling water, 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped for three(ish) minutes. Despite being overleafed, I didn’t taste a whole lot of the normal rich, caramel flavour. Mostly, I got a semi generic sweetness, strong mint taste, and slightly woody rooibos base. It was still pretty good overall.

This was the other tea I took to work today, as a cold tea to drink. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had this one cold before, other than today. I think it’s likely though – I tend to drink mint teas cold rather than hot…

Preparation was 1 heaping tsp. of leaf in 10 oz. of water, steeped for somewhere between three and four minutes. The liquor was a much darker colour than it usually is, and it smelled intensly of caramel.

I think I ended up drinking this all in like five minutes? I was so thirsty after all the hard labour. It tasted amazing! The caramel flavour and the mint flavour are usually really well balanced, and that tastes pretty great. However, this cup definitely favoured the caramel and just had a small touch of mint to it. It was super smooth and creamy and the mint gave it a lovely refreshing quality. I definitely wanted another cup afterwards.

I think this is the only rooibos tea from Tea Desire I’ve tried – so I’m totally making a note to try more in the future!

I don’t appear to be in much of a mood to write long tasting notes this evening, but oh well. I think maybe these shorter notes are a refreshing switch up from the novella like ones I usually write.

For preparation, I steeped a level teaspoon in about 10 oz. of water for five/six minutes (somewhere around there, I was only loosely keeping track). Despite being slightly underleafed for the amount of liquid used, this is still very yummy. What I’m finding is that by underleafing the mint is more mild, which normally would bug me because I love strong mint flavours – except in this case the mild mint flavour means I can taste the caramel a lot stronger and caramel is also one of my favourite flavours (enough so that I’m willing to compromise on the mint).

It’s been a while since I played Pokemon Y (busy work schedule and all) so I think I’m gonna spend some time doing that. If I remember correctly I left off right before catching Yvetal…

(PS. I just had mozza sticks with a marinara sauce on holy butts did it taste good)

So, I made this for last night… So, again, it’s a bit of a backlog. I believe I mentioned in a note from earlier yesterday that I was craving something rooibos and comforting. And, this seemed perfect! Leave it to me to fall back upon mint as a tool for comfort.

But basically, it had strong notes of peppermint and a creamy, woody caramel taste that seemed a bit more present to me this time than my last time drinking it. Also, there was a medicinal taste – but in a good way. It almost felt like I was “taking medicine for the soul”. It’s been a lousy week…

Pardon the language, but I swear I’m gonna punch Tre in the dick. I just announced that I was going to my room for some quiet time before I go to bed (significantly earlier than I usually go to bed, I’ll admit). I need a good night’s sleep though as I have a job interview tomorrow and I’m already stressed enough as it is. I need this job. Still, I can still hear him laughing away at stupid vines or youtube videos or whichever it is tonight.

Seriously!? He has the LOUDEST laugh ever, and he KNOWS this. I’ve known Tre for years, and I swear his laugh never bugged me this much until we moved in together (even when I was seeing him on a regular basis). I know I can’t stop him from watching TV and stuff, but he knows how important this interview is… Ugh. I just wish he’d be quieter.

Regardless, lets talk about the tea…

One of my purchases today from Tea Desire. It’s mint. It’s caramel. So seriously, how could I resist? I swear the only reason I didn’t pick this up last time was because I didn’t realize they were selling it. It’s a rooibos tea, so it’s perfect tonight as I can drink some of my favourite flavours to help me relax without caffeine keeping me up and preventing me from getting a good sleep.

The dry leaf smells sort of like you’d expect: there’s an obvious amount of mint paired with a creamy caramel which, almost surprisingly, doesn’t seem masked by the nana mint – and then there’s the less noticeable (but still there) almost trademark “woody” smell of rooibos. Honestly, even though I don’t mind that quality about rooibos teas it’s not a flavour I love so I have way less rooibos tea in my cupboard than I should: I feel like the flavour possibilities with rooibos teas are less limited than herbals, which (at least what I have stocked) are more fruity.

I’m not loving how broad the steep times are for some of the different tea types that Tea Desire offers, like rooibos or herbals. Herbals have a recommended steep time of “four to ten minutes” and rooibos teas are “five to ten minutes”. Some teas types, like Mates, don’t even have a brewing guide. Regardless, I steeped a tsp. for I think 7 minutes. I lost track of time a little bit.

Liquor of this one is a really deep, red amber. Just like the Chocolate Banana Cream I had from Tea Desire earlier today, this one also has a really oily sheen to it. There’s a Scottish or Irish candy I bought at a pavillion during Mosaic in Regina (for people who don’t know, Mosaic is basically a cultural fair) that was primarily mint and caramel – and this smells and tastes just like that! I wish I could remember the name of it!

But really, that candy was SO caramel flavoured and SO mint flavoured, but the two just suited each other so well that it almost got hard to distinguish the mint flavour separately from the caramel or distinguish the flavour of the caramel separately from the mint. This tea is EXACTLY like that! I’m noticing both flavours, but not one more so than another. It’s SO very well balanced. I can taste the rooibos base pretty clearly too, but that taste is separate from the caramel/mint, even though it’s present in the body of the sip and lightly in the aftertaste.

The mouthfeel of this tea is ever so slightly tingly on the roof of my mouth immediately following the sip, though quickly fading. My mouth is left feeling minty cool without tasting strongly of mint.

I really like this tea, and tonight it’s hitting all the right spots. Truthfully, though, I have tasted better caramel mint teas, though.

Sipdown (117)!

Well Banana Tea Chocolate Cream, we had a really good run didn’t we?

I sipped down the last of this delicious fruit blend this afternoon to balance out some caffeinated teas I was having; it was really good! Very heavy and the banana in a really sweet and creamy way, and then accented by the chocolate. I could taste the papaya too; turns out a lot of it had been at the bottom of the tin.

Speaking of, I cleaned the tin out and now it’s in the kitchen airing out. This one really has a distinct smell so I want to wait a while before putting anything in the tin again so there’s no flavour contamination. Damage control, you know?

Not ruling out restocking; but if I do it wont be for some time – this is in-affordable to keep on hand constantly. I’ve burnt through a lot of it since moving especially since I was using it in cookie batter for a while…

Made with milk; was a nice, creamy late night treat! This one gets a bit oily, but I think that the milk tempers that quite a bit and instead this had a more soft and silky mouthfeel. Taste wise, this was more banana than chocolate but both were present. The papaya was very masked, though.

I only have one more cup left and I don’t think I’m gonna restock; I love this blend but it is SO incredibly heavy and I just burn through it; it’s really not becoming very cost effective to keep restocking it.

Tre finally bought butter, so while my company was over last night we made Banana Pudding sugar Cookies, and I mixed in a whole bunch of the dry bits of this into the dough. I may have even overdone it a little bit because now my reserve of this is severely depleted. Maybe that’s for the better though? I still have tons of other teas and can take a break from this one for a while.

Anyway, the cookies were DELICIOUS! I really liked them, and I think my company did too – although Tre was being a butt and said they didn’t taste cooked enough, but I like when my baking is kinda chewy and he likes when he cookies are pucks and can get dunked in milk and what not.

I just wish I could have saved me from myself, because in the course of three hours I pounded back about 20 sugar cookies and then I felt a little sick all night from over eating (and now there’s no more cookies). Wah.

THE RECIPE:

Ingredients:

- A full pouch of instant pudding mix in whatever flavour you’d like (I enjoy banana or pistachio, personally)
- 1 Cup of soft butter
- 1 Cup of Flour (I use whole wheat, but all purpose or white would work too)
- 2 tbsp. of milk
- Approx. 1/2 cup of ‘add ins’ such as raisins (ick), chocolate chips, crushed nuts; this is optional

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream the Pudding mix and butter together in a mixing bowl (and your extras if you’ve chosen any)
3. Add in the milk and flour and mix together until a well blended and even consistency
4. On a pan, form tbsp. sized balls of dough and slightly flatten them; they should be spaced about two or three CM apart from the edge of the pan and from each other
5. Bake for 12 to 15 min. or to your own preference

Yeilds approx. two dozen.

The plan was to add this into the dough for Banana Pudding Sugar Cookies which I was going to make, but then I realized that Tre hasn’t bought butter yet (it’s his turn, dammit!) so I couldn’t make them yet. So instead I just brewed up a cup of this hot to end the day with. Admittedly it was sort of early to be finishing off my tea drinking (9 PM), but Tre had his friend Adam over (who is sort of kind of attractive and shares my love for BtVS but I wont admit that to Tre) and I didn’t want to be the crazy person who drinks 4+ cups of tea in under an hour and a half. Even though I’m totally that person…

I had this without milk, which I don’t usually do for this blend in particular – but it was really good regardless. This is always good. I’m really anxious to try it in my cookie recipe, though…