Tease

TTB sample! I was dubious about this one based on the scent alone, but I ended up enjoying it! It’s a little mapley and pretty desserty. I feel like I get mostly a brown sugar vibe from it. Nice with milk and sugar!

Though the absence of cherry in this blend named after cherries will always frustrate me, I do usually enjoy the taste of this tea a pretty reasonable amount. However, I had a mug of it last night and I just kind of found it watered down and weak tasting which was especially disappointing because I actually left the sachet in the mug the entire time I was drinking it. But it was like having hot water with a hint of cranberry juice.

So, my reentry to Montreal after my vacation was pretty rough

A few days before I was supposed to fly back I noticed my ear was a little sore. So, we picked up some drops from the pharmacy and hoped that would help. It didn’t. In fact, my ear very rapidly started to get worse and worse to the point where I ended up missing my flight on Sunday because I was in the ER. Turns out that was maybe a good thing because the doctor (after six hours of waiting to be seen) said the pressure build up from all the swelling was so bad my eardrum could have ruptured mid flight. Yikes.

I ended up getting put on some antibiotics, and for the next few days I just waited in pain and misery for them to kick in enough to be able to fly home. Eventually I flew home on Tuesday. The most painful flight I’ve ever been on. Mind you, this was after spraining my ankle and getting Covid at the start of the vacation. After all of that I come home and find out that my hamster, Gorilla, had died while I was away. It was a fucking lot, and I’m still kind of in a place of rest and recovery just processing all of it. Like, just too many fucked up and awful things in too short a time span. I actually ended up not drinking any tea for three days in a row. I was just miserable.

I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to start moving forward.

Anyway, when I eventually started making myself tea again this was the first thing I steeped up. Sachet format was crucial as I just wasn’t in a place where I could mentally handle anything else, and a stress relief blend felt pretty… well, on the nose. It was pretty good. As I said in my last review of this, I actually think this tea tastes pretty solid (especially when it’s your first cuppa in three days). Lots of red fruit notes.

Picked this one up last night while shopping with Marika.

If I’m being honest I sort of bought it our of anger. That’s probably a stupid reason to buy something but the name really appealed to me because of the cherry and then when I turned the container around to read the ingredients I saw there was ZERO cherry in the blend. It’s a flavouring free tea as well, so you can’t even make the argument that the “cherry” they named the tea after is coming from there. I hate that.

So, of course, I had to taste it and see exactly how cherry like this non-cherry tea is.

First things first, it did taste really nice. Good balance of sweetness and acidity, with a surprisingly rich mouthfeel. The blend contains ashwagandha (that’s the “chill out” part) which is a hard ingredient to work with because of it’s intense and off putting taste, but I thought they balanced it out with the fruit REALLY well.

But cherry… I mean, I guess?? I tastes like red fruit, for sure. Not debating that point at all. It’s one of those weird cases where it’s a generic enough type of red fruit note that with a name like cherry your brain will probably fill in the gaps and it becomes passable. However, without the name to prompt that almost placebo effect I don’t think most people would blindly say this tastes like a cherry tea.

I guess I just don’t understand why push an angle like cherry with the name/copy if you’re not putting it in the tea?? Especially when the taste could be described a thousand other more accurate ways that are still super appealing sounding.

TeaTiff TTB #4

This tea made my kitchen smell like pancakes with maple syrup while it was brewing! Hot, I was a bit disappointed by the flavor. It’s a pleasantly smooth and creamy black tea, but I wasn’t really tasting the maple at all. However, as it cooled down, the maple flavor started to pop out more. It’s still more subtle than I would I have expected based on the aroma, but it’s quite enjoyable! I’d like to try it as a latte.

Steeped this up during an evening a couple nights ago but I felt like the taste was a little jumbled and non descript. There’s a fruity, almost strawberry, aroma on the nose of the dry leaf but the actual brewed tea was more herbaceous with some of that moringa green bitterness and a little cinnamon. Not a clear direction, but not a half bad flavour either.

Skysamurai’s TTB Thank you!
After long travels and even longer (feels like) customs clearance and then handing over back to the post, I have received my first ever TTB. I haven’t expected such filled up box. So many teas. And I have to decide which one I will drink? Oh well. But today, it has helped me out with afternoon cup.

Tea #1

Today ride home was good. Short as usual, no delay, just the weather stays same. As I was heading home, I stopped in for third Covid vaccine.So far I don’t feel any side effects. That’s good. I should rest till Monday, but tomorrow some “hard” work awaits. I have to move 3 bags (each 25 kg) to the drums as we need to ship them out. Easy peasy.

Oh, the tea. I feel similar as a Shae, who had it before. Mellow, subdued spices and I did not notice any chocolate either. The base was somehow bold… but flavourless - or just not that great quality to notice much from it. I wonder what was most prominent spice, again as Shae noticed, maybe it’s cinnamon and white pepper. Yep, it was a bit defferent than usual black pepper note, but I liked it.

Overall, quite basic chai. Maybe for many it’s even too weak. I have been expecting stronger spicy note as well.

2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 15
From Skysamurai.

Maple teas are often so overwhelming to me. The flavoring can be strong. Who would have thought there could be too much maple in something? I was really happy to find that this tea had just enough. The maple is mixed with rose too! I love floral teas and this is a combination I don’t think I’ve seen before. They really do go so well together. I split my cup with James and he really enjoyed it too. This one’s a winner.

2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 3
From Skysamurai.

A chocolate chai today! Not only am I excited for another chai blend, but I’m also excited about seeing another new-to-me tea company. I don’t think I would have guessed there was chocolate in this if I hadn’t seen the ingredients/description. I don’t really taste the chocolate, and the spices are somewhat subdued. There is, however, a unique quality to this. I think perhaps it could be the white pepper, but I’m not always great at picking out individual flavors. I’d say the cinnamon is most prominent, but I certainly wouldn’t call it a cinnamon chai either. I enjoyed it, though I think I prefer a spicier (more spiced) chai.

I’ve been loving candy cane teas, so this one had to be the first tea I tried from the tea box. The flavor is quite lovely. It’s like drinking a candy cane. I have to say that I don’t notice the green tea, which is fine with me. The candy cane just comes through deliciously. Wonderful.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Sunday, December 26th: National Candy Cane Day Tea #1

additional notes: Of course the day after Christmas is candy cane day. Makes sense! I have plenty of candy cane teas, but not any actual candy canes to throw in the mug this year. This one is okay. I do enjoy the little red flower petals though. I will be drinking another candy cane tea, but tomorrow night will be the second steep, so no note until tomorrow!
Other holiday teas from Christmas:
Bird&Blend – Christmas Cake – still lovely flavor (tis old) (35)
Simpson & Vail – Roasted Chestnut (36)

From SkySamurai a while ago!  Thanks so much!  The perfect time for a note of this one.  It seems to be a gunpowder green with a ton of peppermint infused into it with unique and pretty white and red flower petals to make it it reminiscent of a candy cane.  Note: my tea seems entirely different from their photo and description: this is not sencha or safflowers.  I bet my blend is better.  This would be the perfect tea to plop half a candy cane in for sweetening, but I didn’t this time.  There is PLENTY of peppermint here regardless!  Somehow it really works with this green.  Fresh and herbalish.  The peppermint really takes over but this would be a great one for my headache days.  Not too many headaches lately!  The second steep is just as nice.  Neither cup was bitey from green tea.  It’s great!  The green is a great base for this STRONG peppermint. I will definitely try it again with half a peppermint stick…
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 32 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling  // 2 1/2 minute steep   
2019 Sipdowns: 85 (52Teas – Eggnog Yunnan – one of Frank’s)

Additional notes:  So SkySamurai and I actually did an advent swap BUT we both went with mystery teas, so we won’t actually know what we have until the end after trying all the teas, when we wrote down what teas they were on one piece of paper.  (If we aren’t cheating anyway! ha) So I have a mystery advent to go through until Christmas which will then be an avalanche of tasting notes once I know what the teas are!   Fun!  Thank you SkySamurai!   

Also revisiting this one which seems better with two teaspoons.  It’s a very licorice forward blend.  Less noticeable root beer this time around. But I don’t think I’ll ever love licorice. I like that the B&B advent is alternating between black, no caff and then a blend I don’t really have because they are more limited yet not seasonal.  I don’t have the advent tea for today, Fairy Dust.   I think the only TEA WALL blend they’ve included in the advent so far was Apple Strudel.  

Another from SkySamurai! Thanks so much. You all spoiiillll meeee. I’ve never tried this tea shop before. This blend was odd immediately… upon opening the pouch it smelled distinctly like cola…. slightly strange, as that isn’t what this was supposed to be: a wintery, black chai. The closest reason this might smell like cola would be the anise, as I think they use that in root beer. So drinking, it tastes like half cola and half root beer. Very weird, as the spices didn’t really translate to either cup. It’s very COLA. Very ROOT BEER. And not really any other flavors. So I know where to go if I’m craving soda but don’t want actual soda (like when I’ve already had 4,000 grams of sugar that day)! So the rating won’t be so high for this one, as it isn’t what it says it is.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon (and a half an anise star) for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 5 minutes after boiling // 4 minute steep

Flavors: soda, cola

This is my favorite out of the two Teatox pouches. It is also decaffeinated. The use of senna is interesting though…We shall see what is does…

I am not a huge fan of yerba mate but I can see myself tolerate drinking a cup of this in the mornings. It also has lemon essence in it along with lemongrass. This is only my first morning drinking this so too early to notice any improvements but I will update with any news.

I received a sample of this tea along with my 30 day teatox kit from Tease. I am not a huge fan of earl grey teas but this one was drinkable as a latte.

I received this tea as part of my Taste The World subscription box. Based off the name of this tea, I was skeptical that I would like it as I’m not the biggest maple syrup fan.

BUT, this tea is delicious. After black tea, safflower petals and rose petals are the primary flavors with a touch of maple sweetness at the very end. The tea is very well balanced with a smooth creamy flavor with only a touch of sweetness. Tastes great straight or with a splash of milk.

If you look at these ingredients you can probably imagine a few of them being eliminated to make a better tea.
While the taste of this was decent, I am quite sure that with the same ingredients it could become a wonderful cup if some stuff was removed.

Backlog:

The third and final tea from my first box from Postal Teas.

A very smoky tea (most Lapsang Souchongs are!) and like other Lapsang Souchong teas, it smells smokier than it tastes. The difficult thing is getting past that aroma. It was especially difficult for me the first few times that I tried Lapsang Souchong, and for a very long time I wouldn’t even keep the tea in my house because the smell was just so off-putting for me. I’ve since been able to come around and not only “accept” Lapsang Souchong’s smoky quality but actually enjoy it. For some of us, it’s a bit of an acquired taste and it takes some know how on how to acquire a taste for it (the way it’s brewed is crucial.)

This is a pleasant Lapsang Souchong. Beneath the smoky notes, I taste a luscious caramel-y undertone and a note of ripe plum. I like the way the plum and the smoke unite in the sip … the flavor tastes a bit like a smoky, charred plum. Sweet and lovely.

Backlog:

The second tea that I sampled from my first Postal Teas subscription box. While I was less than excited about the teas of my first box (the theme behind the choices were tea cupboard staples and this seemed a little boring to me since I’m always looking for something I haven’t tried yet!) I’ve been very impressed with them. I like the personalized attention that is given to the customer. It’s easy to find a company that will sell you tea. They’re all over the internet. Not all of them will take the time to write you a personalized note. I like that.

This Genmaicha is … well, it’s a genmaicha. It’s not really an extraordinary Genmaicha. It delivered what I expect from a genmaicha: sweet, nutty notes with a light grassy note. I enjoyed it.

On another note, this is my 4500th tasting note!

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/08/06/first-date-genmaicha-green-tea-from-tease/

Backlog:

This was the first tea that I tried from my first box from Postal Teas. Postal Teas is a subscription service that is a little reminiscent of what Amoda Teas used to be.

Anyway, this Black Pekoe tea is a Kenyan black tea. This first box that I received focused on tea cupboard staples, and a good black tea is something that everyone should have in their cupboard, right? This is a good one.

Robust, full-flavored, smooth and rich. Malty. It has that chewy taste to it that you might experience when you’re biting into a piece of freshly baked bread … the crust has that chewy texture and caramelized crust. YUM!

This is a great black tea with plenty of gusto. Makes a great morning cuppa.

And the box from Postal Teas is a fun one to receive! My first box even came with a small notebook for tasting notes. Cool! And best of all, the note that was enclosed with the box was handwritten to me specifically. I dig that. I like it when I get that kind of personal attention from a tea company.

From the reddit 2014 travelling tea box!

I got the box at like 630pm, just enough time to squeeze one cup of caffeinated tea. I went to take pics for the tea blog and my battery died plus my spare battery wasn’t recharged. Pretty sure my memory card is bursting full too. Crap. So much for getting stuff done sooner.

This tea, I think, is from Tea Guys technically. Anyways I got sucked in with the maple leaf on the package – miss you Canada! This one has a nice maple flavor, woodsy, smokey, malty and sweet. The maple isn’t as intense as say, DavidsTea’s Oh Canada, but it does come through. Only weirdness to this tea is the oily film floating at the top of my cup.