Tea Desire

I’m an idiot; just hours ago Tre supposedly ruined his phone by dropping it in a sink full of water while he was shaving. It’s pretty water damaged so he stuck it in a bag of rice – but he’s too impatient to give it a day or so (he expected “instant results” which is just crazy) so he has now gone to Target to replace his phone tonight, which I again think is hasty.

The me being an idiot part is introduced because I texted him ten minutes after he left asking him to pick me up some fruit gushers; half an hour later I’m only just realizing that’s a really stupid thing to do because obviously he’s not going to get the text…

Anyway; the tea! I actually botched this cup, but not for the reasons you’d think. My water temperature was way, way too low – and it came out an unappealing temperature with a wonky, half assed taste. Oh well. At the time I was making this, days ago, I had a whole bunch of other blends on the go which turned out ok so it wasn’t as harsh a loss as it might have been otherwise.

And, despite a weird flavour, the champagne actually came through pretty strongly!

I’m in a weird place right now; one that I’ve never really been in before and that I’m not sure how to navigate – and when I opened up to Tre about it he basically called me crazy and we got in this huge debate/fight and I guess that’s led to my opening up to you guys on Steepster about it?

http://globalnews.ca/news/1263356/18-year-old-charged-with-attempted-murder-2/

I found that article by accident today while looking up some other reports on things going on in Regina (updates on the Cornwall Stabbings and on the arrest of Peter Labarbera and Bill Whatcott for their anti-gay rights protest at the U of R, and subsequent arrest – some serious stuff is going down in Regina as of late). Normally I think I would have just glazed over the article, except for one crucial thing…

I know Tristan. I grew up with him; we went to elementary school together and highschool up until he dropped out. We were never the type of “friends” who interacted during school hours but he was the sort of friend who I would FB at one or two in the morning to have those late night, depressing conversations with were both parties kind of bare their soul a little bit.

This is even an “excerpt” I said in one of our late night conversations a few months after I moved to Saskatoon.

“But yeah – as long as what you’re doing isn’t harmful to another person (like going around stabbing people just for kicks) I think you should be able to do whatever makes you happiest.”

I just feel really… Shellshocked. And a huge part of me wants to reach out to both here his side of things and just see how he’s doing too. Tre thinks that’s wrong of me; that he’s clearly guilty and that people’s past and the trauma they’ve experienced shouldn’t warrant my guilt or his forgiveness. In part I think he’s right, but still. He was/is a friend; why is it wrong of me to want to reach out to him?

Oh well; at least this tea is light and fruity and just divine enough to put my mind somewhat at ease for now. But I don’t think this is something I can just “move on” from like Tre thinks should be easy for me to do.

Mmm, yummy sweet ambrosia! Delicious!

And that’s really all I have to add for this one; it’s a favourite that I’ve written about a lot.

So, a few days ago (two?) I burst a blood vessel under my right eye, or something along those lines. So, my face is really swollen/tender around that area and it hurts to blink! Bleck. Also, it looks like I was in a fight, heh…

Kinda sucks.

Had a round of white tea while there was company over. Nothing new or all that fancy – just some teas that I find to be really consistent in flavour that I knew would be enjoyable while Kristina was over.

Of course this was one of them! It’s my first flavoured white love and my favourite currant tea and just so delicious!

Well, that finishes up the cold brew of this one! Delicious!

Also, I just got the day’s mail, which included a very mustachioed swap package from VariaTEA! It’s huuugeeee and I can’t wait to dig into it!

I completely forgot I had a pitcher of this cold brewing. So, by the time I finally remember it was in my fridge and I had strained it, it had been cold brewing for over 24 hours. Eeeik!

That said, it was really good regardless! The current flavouring was very rich, and I actually got a strong taste of the champagne! There was also a light, vegetal taste to the tea but I actually found it pretty refreshing. I seem to not mind the vegetal quality of some teas when they’re cold brewed – maybe I should try more green teas as cold brews (although this isn’t a green blend).

Yet another way to enjoy this blend!

Making a note for myself to drink this on New Years; it’s the only “themed” tea I really have for the day! Maybe I’ll try it as a tea soda so it’s more ‘bubbly’ (laughing at my own horrible, horrible joke). I honestly think that might be good, though!

Anyway, made this for the day to take with to work! It’s Boxing Day, which means plenty of self centered shoppers and returns and refunds and the like. Ick – no thanks, I’ll pass. Except, I’m the manager so I can’t pass – instead I have to be here all day. This was my sweet treat and comfort tea to myself, to make it all better.

For preparation I made two separate cups with 1 1/2 tsp. of new leaf for each. Cup one was steeped in 80 degree Celsius water for 1 min. 30 seconds – and that was the plan for cup two, but instead I got distracted by the fact my rice was burning and this steeped for about four or five minutes instead. I poured both cups into my water bottle hoping they’d even out, but they only kinda did.

Taste wise, it’s the normal sweet currant taste but there’s just a hint of “cough drop” taste to it that’s not normally there. Of course, it’s totally my fault and not the tea’s. It’s not a horrible medicinal taste: more like the sweet cherry Sucrets which I always hoped my mom would buy me when I was sick instead of Halls. Those things were good, as far as cough medicine goes.

So ultimately, not so bad and still pretty good – just not the normal hundred I typically feel with this one. More like a high seventy or low eighty. Totally my fault, though.

Ok – so not my best cup of this but that’s totally my fault :/ I decided that I really wanted a cup of something sweet, fruity and white (it’s just a white tea kind of day, I guess) so why not drink some of my Champagne Cassis? It’s a beloved part of my stash.

However, I’m really tired and loopy and not totally there so I had all the prep done and leaf measured out – and the water was boiling. However, after the kettled had boiled I kind of instantly reached over and poured the boiling water over the lead without giving it time to cool, and this is definitely a tea that needs a lower temperature of water to steep in. Urgh.

So, today it’s kind of a little bitter – although not as bad as it could be. Still an overall good cup, but just not great. Although, I’ll admit to getting more champagne notes this way and less of the sweet currant jam flavour I love (expect I was totally craving sweet currants and not really banking on strong champagne notes).

Also, my internet is being stupidly slow which is really frustrating since I’m trying (unsuccessfully) to watch Degrassi online. Boo.

Next up? I think I’m gonna try the white tea I received from RiverTea!

Nothing of significance to add today, but MAN this is good!

1 1/2 tsp. in a 10 oz. mug steeped in 80 degree celsius water for three minutes.

I think I’m gonna finish my mug and then resteep the leaves right away while I enjoy catching up on Misfits. It’s nice to have all evening off to just do whatever I want.

After work today I realized that since I was going to DAVIDsTEA in the mall downtown by bus but had forgotten my bus pass (I was rushed and forgot my keys too, luckily I was also so rushed I forgot to lock the door as well) I was going to have to break one of the twenties in my wallet since I had no other change. I had forgotten about the second thermos of tea in my backpack (the first I had drank was Raspberry Oolong from Tea Desire, the second was a 2nd steep of David’s Choconut Oolong), so I decided to break it by buying a Tea to Go at Tea Desire.

Since last time I bought a tea to go there I wound up finding another one to add to my stash (Buddha Bamboo – which I purchased 50g of yesterday), I decided to play it safe this time (on my wallet) and get something I was familiar with… So, this one (a favourite of mine)!

It was really nice sipping away at something hot while I waited in the cold for the bus, and it was good (this one hardly ever disappoints) – but I found that it was actually really weak and that was a little disappointing. Although (while I love everyone who works at Tea Desire), it was made by the young lady who works there who seems to be the newest employee (and also my least favourite, but not because she’s new) so maybe she underleafed it.

I also had another realization today… Since I’m moving malls because of my promotion I’m going to be in a mall that doesn’t have ANY tea store. That’s really disappointing since 3/4 of the major malls in the city have loose leaf tea shops (two have a DAVIDsTEA, and the one I’m currently in has Tea Desire). So, no daily Tea to Go during my shift at a discounted price anymore… That’s really sad. Although, I’ll still be over there enough because my bank is in this mall too.

Dammit! Steepster ate my tasting note – and I had this one really well written out! Urgh. I guess I’ll summarize basically what I had said…

First, I had started with an interesting story: Last time I went into Tea Desire I was looking to get more of this, but I was unable to do so because apparently it’s so popular here in S’toon that a woman came in about bought 450g of it – cleaning out the rest of their stock, so now I have to wait. I believe I also shared that story on Lala’s tasting note of this tea…

And then I also mentioned that I haven’t bought tea in a really long time – actually, since my first day starting at the mall. Yay me! I’m just biding my time until I have enough saved up from paychecks to put in a really large Butiki order though, so maybe not yay me?

Preparation:

- Heavily over leafed because tonight is about doing whatever I want to feel good (so about 2 tsp. of leaf)
- Steeped for a short period of time (between a minute and a minute and a half) so I can still get a potent resteep out of it
- Water temp was pretty close to exactly 80 degrees

Taste:

- Strong notes of currants which make me think of currant jam
- Very subtle and slight notes of strawberry; perhaps as a psychological thing from reading in Lala’s review that she tasted strawberries
- Clear presence and taste of the white tea base

I think I’m actually being able to taste the base in white teas much more than I used to be able to before. I think, perhaps, that’s because I’m more knowledgeable now and have further developed my palette to the point where I can clearly identify such notes and distinctions in white tea (since it’s a tea type that is pretty new to me – typically I’ve drank herbals or blacks).

Anyway, now to stretch out and do something totally lazy and relaxing. Curse you steepster for eating tasting notes! But also, bless you tea for being a great turn around for a miserable day!

I love this tea so much. I don’t know if I can pick a single tea as my favourite, but this is definitely in my top fives favourites and is by far my favourite white tea (although, I’ve recently discovered that I love many white teas). This tea alone can halt any cravings I have for junk food or sweets.

According to Tea Desire’s steeping instructions, you should use 2 tsp. of this and typically I have (and it’s be orgasmic). However, since I drink this one so often I don’t want to blow through all the leaf I have super quickly, so I decided to use less leaf this time and see if I could produce a tea that’s still great but, in doing so, average out more cups per 50g.

I steeped 1 1/2 tsp for 4 minutes, and the answer is… Yes! This tea is still JUST as yummy and flavourful, so I think I’ll be using 1/2 tsp. for each cup from now on. Yay for be stingy with my tea leaves!

Also, I think JUST MAYBE I have this whole internet issues thing figured out… I seem to not lose my connection when I stay in the laundry room, which happens to be the same room as the modem. As soon as I leave the laundry room I go back to the same issues I’ve been having where I disconnect every two or three minutes. So I’ve done the logical thing, of course, and set up my laptop on top of the dryer with a chair next to it and turned that into my desk.

If I can’t make the connection come to me, I guess I’ll come to the connection.

Final cup of the night? Probably…

Enjoying ANTM and catching up on the last few episodes. I don’t know why, but I’m rooting for the guys this cycle so much more than the girls. Only guy I dislike at this point is Marvin (though, I still like him more than most of the girls) – but I’m seriously supporting Chris, Phil, and Nina.

I keep coming back to this tea though! It really is perfect for all moods.

Morning cup! Just as lovely as last night’s cup! Mmm!

Tre’s dad is here today for a visit (and mine is coming tomorrow) – so before I woke up (Tre is definitely an early riser, while I’m WAY more of the type to go to bed at 5 AM and wake up at 3 PM) Tre made him a cup of DAVIDsTEA’s Birthday Cake.

His Dad said it was really good, but I remain sceptical as to whether or not Tre made it properly… And just how much sugar he added.

Steep #2: Yes! This tea is definitely not a one shot wonder – at the very least you can get a second steep out of this one that is JUST as juicy and flavourful. Seriously, I’m tasting everything I did in the first cup! I love love love this tea!

Final tea left to try from Tea Desire! Somehow, I managed to save this one for last even though it’s been taunting me since I bought it! This tea is $8 for 50g, which is the high end of Tea Desire’s pricing. The sales lady shared with me that this one is pricier because all of the tea leaves are soaked in Champagne; personally I just find that really interesting.

I ended up buying 50g of this one, which is the smallest amount you can get at their store, and man did I get a lot of it! The amount of dry leaf that equals 50g is about enough to fully fill one of the tins from DAVIDsTEA. It’s a lot!

The dry leaf smells very rich and decadent and juicy! There are lots of large bits of currants, and lots of full currants as well! Smelling it, I’m reminded of really high end jams and jellies. It’s so sweet smelling too! Very, very sweet. Almost too sweet in fact (but not quite). The predominant smell here is definitely juicy black currents! Mmmm

Steeped, the liquor is a darker golden yellow that smells EXACTLY like the dry leaf. Same juicy black currant scent and sweetness. This might just be the best white tea I’ve ever smelled. If this scent could be captured into a perfume I have no clue how much I’d be willing to give for it! Probably a whole lot.

First few sips: Oh it’s so sweet! It tastes just like black currant jam, with the light taste of white tea and champagne kind of floating on your tongue in the aftertaste, along with a much lighter tasting currant flavour. I have no clue how someone could justify adding a sweetener to this – it’s SO sweet as is. Every sip is perfect! There’s absolutely no bitterness or astringency either.

Honestly, this might be the best white tea I’ve ever had. I’m going to have no trouble going through my 50g of this! For sure I saved the best for last! Even if this is a one hit wonder and doesn’t resteep well, the first cup more than makes up for it (I am excited to resteep though).

However, if you don’t like the taste of currants or really sweet teas this one probably isn’t for you – just a warning.

Cold Brewed, and just… Ick.

It was like I was drinking Mango and Grass scented perfume, and the little bit I drank before dumping it all out did not sit well with me, either.

It’s hard to believe this used to be my go to flavoured green that I could actually tolerate; now I can’t wait to be rid of it. Just further proof tastes change, I guess…

Slowly finishing this one off.

This is actually tasting pretty stunning right now – and it hasn’t in quite a long time, though I’m thinking the reason it seems so good is because tonight it’s the follow up tea to a very disappointing blend; so just the sharp contrast is probably making this seem a little better than it really is.

I’m getting tons of lychee tonight; though the downside is a really grassy finish to the floral notes of the lychee. Better than my previous cup tonight; but still a “no”.

I’m sleepy again, so I may take a power nap and do some more tea drinking closer to around midnight…

I cold brewed this one over night; 13 hours in total which I’m kinda worried might have been a little too much time, but alas; nothing I can do about that now.

This tea has sort of lost its “sparkle” for me. I mean, when I first started out drinking loose leaf it was amazing to me because it was a green tea that I could actually stomach – but since that discovery I’ve found several other flavoured greens which do the same thing but taste more impressive (Pistachio Ice Cream, Potato Pancakes & Applesauce, Kiwi’s Big Adventure – to name a few). So the last few times I’ve been drinking this it’s been with a gradual sipdown in mind, and no plans of restocking.

So, I’ve adjusted my rating to something I feel it fitting, and today I transferred the last little bit into a ziplock, cleaned out the tin, and then moved Potato Pancakes & Applesauce into the tin. That blend it a little more deserving of that coveted spot.

So anyway, taste wise this retains its sweet cocktail syrup like mango/lychee notes, but there’s also a fair bit of vegetal quality that, I’m not gonna lie, isn’t sitting too pleasantly with me, and also a really weighty bitterness under the fruit flavour.

It’s palatable, overall, but only borderline enjoyable.

Made a timolino full of this – not really sure why. Parameters were 2 tsp. of leaf steeped in 12 oz. of approx. 85 degree celsius water, for one minutes. That used up all the leaf I brought with of this one for my vacation.

The steeped smell is very grassy/seaweedy, but the taste is a more mellowed out vegetal green tea base with strong floral notes (but nothing super distinct), and present but not highly strong notes of mango. Not a lot of lychee this time around. As it gets cooler, it’s a bit closer to drinking semi-floral cocktail syrup.

Brought with me to work.

To make it, I made one cup like I normally would have and then added an extra 1/2 tsp of fresh dry leaf to what I’d already steeped, for the second cup. Both were poured into the same water bottle.

By the time I started drinking it at work, it was pretty much room temperature: neither hot nor cold, and that was kind of weird. I don’t really like room temp. teas – I want something toasty I can cuddle up with or something cold and refreshing.

Still, it tasted pretty good regardless. The taste of the green tea base was extra present today – and I could really taste floral notes like rose alongside the typically present mango notes I usually get from this tea. Downside of all this was, for whatever reason, after I was about 3/4 done what was in my water bottle I started to feel just slightly queasy and nauseous. It might not have been the tea – I felt kind of the same way a few days ago and I wasn’t drinking any tea at the time, but even so I haven’t finished the last 1/4 of what’s in my thermos and I think it’s probably just going to be thrown out.

Transition tea! Today I’m going to be trying as many of Teavivre straight tea samples from Lala as possible in between doing laundry and trying to finish season four of Supernatural. Since my breakfast cup of tea didn’t quite hit the spot I decided to drink something I am familiar with before venturing into other teas that I might not enjoy as much.

I can’t help but think that this tea tastes like chocolate covered mangoes – but that’s because I just ate a large spoonful of Nutella. I steeped this cup in a lower water temperature than when I had it last time, and for a slightly shorter amount of time. The green tea base tastes a little bit weaker than I remember it being last time.

This morning, I’m really reminded of the syrup you get at the bottom of a bowl or can of fruit cocktail – an amalgamation of sweet fruit juices (the primary one being mango). Yum.

Since I just put in a Della Terra order for six new teas to try, and since I have a package on the way from the VERY kind Dala, it’s probably a good idea for me to actually try all the teas I bought earlier this week. I only have two teas left to try from my purchases, so I think the goal for the rest of the night will be to try them both, starting with this one!

I saw this one on their website when I was looking at different things to try, and even though this is a green tea I was really curious! I checked to see what people on Steepster thought of it and, well, the tea wasn’t even listed here – let alone reviewed. I had to add it in! When I went in store to go check it out, the sales lady said it was very new – one of the newest teas they were offering, but that it seemed to be doing well with fans of green tea. I’m not really a fan of green tea, so I’m not really sure what I should be expecting.

However, upon smelling it, I was sold! I don’t smell stinky vegetal (and seaweed like) green tea – I smell fresh fruits! Like listed in the description, I honest to goodness smell sweet, juicy mangoes and lychees! I smelled every other tea they had in stores with lychees in it, and this is the ONLY one that smelled distinctly of lychees. YES! I love love love lychees! All of the bathroom products in m apartment are lychee scented (and soap, body wash, shampoo, lotions), and lots of my make up has lychee scent in it too! Mmmm! The great part is that this doesn’t even smell artificial (not that it is, but most lychee teas seem artificial to me) at all! It’s kind of interesting, actually, considering the blend doesn’t have any actual bits of fruit in it – just “natural flavour”. The dry leaf looks quite pretty too; it’s a whole range of bright cheerful colours!

For my first cup, I steeped 1 tsp for three minutes (the high end of the spectrum for their recommended steep times). The liquor is a sort of golden yellow, and smells more grassy than it did as dry leaf. It’s still quite fruity, and I get a very full aroma of mangoes, with a much subtler scent of lychee. The sickly sweet “cocktail syrup” smell the dry leaf had is gone now, but it still smells pretty delightful.

The green tea base is pretty present – definitely not covered up at all. For me, that’s a bit of a downside, but I can see it being a plus for others. Right alongside the green tea base is a very authentic mango taste. The lychee flavour is there too, but not as present and not easily detected without some searching. The after taste it leaves is really present, and it DOES remind me of a Asian fruit based cocktail. I like this tea! It’s not totally what I expected, but I like it. I guess you could say ‘come for the lychee, stay for the mango’? It’s not something I can see myself craving on a daily basis or anything, but right now it has a place in my cupboard.

I’d like to try steeping it for a shorter period of time in the future, I wonder if in doing that the green tea base would be less present and therefore wouldn’t cover up the taste of lychee as much? And, dare I say it, would sugar enhance the flavours or make it taste really artificial? Hmm…

Geek Steep S1E12 – Attack on Titan

I definitely know more about this anime than Marika did before we watched it so I had ideas for what direction I might want to take my pairing – my first thought was something that steeps the colour of blood, but that would likely mean a hibiscus blend and I didn’t think something with a bright/tart flavour seemed right based on what I knew about the tone of the show…

I ended up going with this tea for two reason – the first one, that I shared on the podcast, was because the tea base here is a Gunpowder green tea and that felt applicable to the show. The second, that I didn’t share on the podcast, was because sometimes this tea tastes like ketchup to me and ketchup could kind of remind a person of blood!? Both were definite stretches, though.

In the end, it was a nice tea but it didn’t really add or detract anything from my watching experience. Truth be told, my adrenaline was so high watching the episodes that I don’t know if any tea pairing would have made a ton of difference.

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If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!