TeaTaxi

I sipped the rest of this down, dumping the remaining 10g in, just to get it done with already. I also let it steep for a while, and upon lifting the basket out, thought I might have overdone it based on the dark colour of the liquor. Yet, with some whole milk, this still wound up tasting a little blah. Barely any pear flavour. Huh. Maybe some spice but it was very mild. This one seemed to lose its flavour rather quickly. I’ve only had it around for not even three months. I’m trying to sip some stuff down before opening the tins of tea I found at Winners. I’m also still too lazy to put them into the system. So FWIW, I’m down to 36 without the three tins!

I keep drinking and drinking this tea, and as my 50g dwindles, I keep telling myself to write a note. Even then, I’m writing this in hindsight because I last had it last night.

My apathy is probably due to the fact that I personally find this mediocre. I keep hoping for more. It smells more like pear than it tastes. There’s cinnamon with a hint of ginger but the cardamom is far too faint. This is like a weak version of DAVIDsTEA’s Poached Pear but with a black base. Milk unfortunately drowns out the spices even more. That is what I find about these TeaTaxi teas in general. There are so many with flavour profiles that would ideally benefit from milk, but once added, the flavour profile is nearly ruined. You can’t really win.

The sore neck/stiff neck has been hanging around for over a month now (I’ve lost track at this point) and I’m feeling a little drained energy-wise this afternoon, too drained to even make more tea even though I know I should be drinking and writing. Blah.

Sample from VariaTEA This is a decent enough tea. I still think my other fav bluebrry tea tops this one, but i do like the blending of this one. I wouldn’t say that there’s a lot of chocolate in this though…it’s closer to a straight blueberry tea imo than a chocolate blueberry. But it’s tasty. thanks variatea!

sample from variatea this is more green tea like than the AU one i had. I don’t love this one, but that’s MY preferences, not the tea. I’m getting much more of a green tea vibe from this one which means i like it less just because of that. I DO like the pop of cranberry in this one – it’s got a tart, fruity taste. If you like green teas, this one is probably not half bad :)

Sipdown (146)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! I THINK this may be the last one from Tea Taxi that you sent? But I’m going on memory so I could be wrong about that too. Regardless, thanks again for introducing me to the company! I feel like I got to try a really nice range of the teas they offer thanks to you.

I drank this one from a teacup while indulging myself with a bubble bath before bed. The caffeine may or may not be a bad idea; I guess I’ll find out soon. Regardless, I needed a little indulgence and “me time”. Even though I did pretty well nothing today but run down the clock until tomorrow could begin that’s really only because I’ve been trying really hard to keep myself constantly preoccupied and distracted this week. I’m not gonna lie; it’s been a really hard and painful week not having Kyle to talk to. I feel like I lost my best friends in a lot of ways. The parts that have been the most emotional, awkward and difficult in general like having to work with him and the fact he wont look me in the eyes right now are the things I would normally turn to him to talk about if they were going on with someone else. And that’s not an option…

Mentally, I know that my relationship with him did NOT define me as a person and I don’t regret ending the relationship in anyway but at the same time it feels like a big piece of me is missing right now and I’ve just been filling it with other things, like Netflix, icecream, and tea. And distractions. So many distractions. I haven’t told anyone this in person, but apart from the day I broke up with him I’ve only cried once and it was after waking up from a dream where he had started dating a friend of mine the day after I broke up with him. He was so happy, and all our other friends were so supportive and kept saying things like “This is so much more right for you” and it’s irrational, I know, because it was just a dream/nightmare but that hurt SO MUCH. I’m not ready to deal with that yet…

BUT ANYWAY:

This tea! It really hit the spot when I just tried to stretch out with all the bubbles in the tub and just release all of the pent up stress, and frustration, and hurt I’m feeling. The soft sweetness and silky flavours really matched up with the mood I was trying to achieve. I hadn’t looked at the ingredients of this tea prior to brewing it up so the flavour was a “blind one” to me. That said I felt like the maple element of the tea was really, really well executed. It was subtle but definitely very distinct. I WAS surprised to see there aren’t nuts in the blend: I was sure I was getting the rich, sweet flavour of pecans or maybe walnuts? I guess I was getting the sweetness of the chocolate; but still it really did taste nutty to me. As for the other elements of the tea, I can see how the honey was coming through in overall sweetness and the delivery of those sweet notes. However the jasmine/rose are totally lost on me: I didn’t get anything floral out of this.

I think this may be my second favourite of the Tea Taxi blends that VariaTEA sent my way though; tied with the Cranberry one with the green base and closely following Choco Blues which is my favourite overall.

Oh, and a song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ideQmMCE7ws&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=7

Every good bubble bath needs mood music.

Drinking up this sample brings me back down to 40! I’m glad I picked it up because the mint in this is very icy fresh, close to the mint you specifically find in After Eight. They were fairly generous with the chocolate chips in here too, especially considering that I had a sample packet.

I accidentally brewed this for like twenty minutes because I got distracted looking stuff up online, but I figured it should be ok. And it actually is. There’s a nice balance of chocolate and mint here, and the rooibos surprisingly didn’t get too strong. I’d say it’s one of the better chocolate mint rooibos blends I have had, except it still doesn’t beat Zen’s fantabulous offering. Maybe what also made a difference in the flavour, and what set this apart from others, is the brittle in this? I didn’t notice it while drinking it but my guess is there was just enough in there to sweeten it a touch but not too much. I also enjoyed this with milk and was pleased that the flavours weren’t drowned out.

Sipdown! Finally got my cold brew up and running again. My empty jug was just casually hanging out in my fridge for a while waiting to be used. I’ve been too busy at my new job to plan out my tea adventures, it seems.

Nice berry notes but nothing I haven’t had before. Not too sweet, yet not too tart from the hibiscus either. No repurchase but it was worth a shot.

My 7-year-old+ laptop has not been making me a happy camper as of late, showing me the Spinning Wheel of Doom and running more and more slowly by the day, it seems. It’s cooperating now at least, hours after finishing this jug, but oh well.

I’ve been really distracted by university- and job interview-related stuff lately, especially today, so that jug was absentmindedly chugged without very much consideration. Despite the distractions, my brain happened to pick up on a ton of tart hibiscus with a dot of strawberry. Not much else going on. It’s ok, but not even close to exquisite or magnificent.

Whoa, it’s 11°C outside right now? What am I doing inside? No wonder why I feel like cold brewed tea today. I should go for a walk but I’ve been so lazy trying to heal this sore neck. Hmm. Fresh air is good air though.

The name of this alone warranted the purchase. I do feel like I’ve had this tea ten times before. It’s that classic berry/hibiscus blend, but the hibiscus is on the softer side. I can pick up on the kiwi a bit in the background but no passionfruit, sadly. I wish I could think of specific blends to compare this to, but that’s just it. Because it is so generic and common of a berry flavour, it makes it all the more difficult to think of one. They’re all the same after a while. Know what I mean?

Bayswater definitely had one similar to this. In regards to DAVIDsTEA, it’s like a muted version of Bear Trap. The sample packet was more than enough for me. I can take it or leave it. Another example of a decent, drinkable cold brew that isn’t special enough to restock or keep on hand.

Oh! This was rather delightful. It could very well be because it was just a small sample packet, but upon opening it, I didn’t pick up on any of the peppermint that is supposedly in here. There is also supposed to be lemongrass but I didn’t get that distinctive note either. Perhaps it blended in with the lemon because it was weak but all in all, it has that lemon pie/pudding vibe going on.

Steeped with milk added, the lemon pudding flavour isn’t as strong as I would have liked, and while the rooibos base dominates those other flavours, it’s not too bad. I’ve had worse. For the most part, it semi-lives up to them expectations by delivering a gentle, creamy lemon pudding flavour. I say pudding more so than pie because there are no meringue/whipped topping or pastry crust notes in here. Although I haven’t done it in forever, it reminds me of when I have made the Jello stovetop lemon pie filling as is. No crust, no whipped cream/Cool Whip (sorry, if I were to make a pie, I wouldn’t make meringue).

Happy Halloween to all! I ended up having to spend four hours waiting in the lobby downstairs for my FedEx parcel. Needless to say, one of my legs went numb from sitting there for so long, it was freezing, and I didn’t have breakfast until 2:30pm. But it was worth the wait (was for cosmetics though, folks, not tea).

I’ve been neglecting tea again so I made sure to cold brew my sample packet this morning. The dry leaf smelled delicious and more complex than expected: red berries with a touch of rose. It’s the kind that you can already tell that it’s going to be a juicy one.

The result? Maybe not as juicy as I would have thought, but it tastes like tropical bubblegum. No floral notes whatsoever. It’s one that I wouldn’t have minded had I selected a 50g pouch but I wouldn’t buy more either.

You know how you’re on a diet and then you accidentally eat 2 slice of pizza? Or how you accidentally dropped your phone down not one, but 2 flights of stairs? No? Just me? I think I’ll blame the devil, who I am almost 100% convinced is possessing my terrible dog, Cole.

Or perhaps the devil had a role in this tea because it is just kind of disappointing. It has a strong smell of chai spices and yet it is pretty bland. Maybe some cinnamon and a bit drying but there really isn’t a lot happening here. It’s just sort of forgettable.

50g gone before bothering to write a tasting note on this. It was a heavier tea so I probably only got like six large mugs out of this. There was virtually zero vanilla in this so I don’t think they should market it as such. Furthermore, the cardamom and star anise weren’t present. I got mostly cinnamon and ginger, followed by pepper, then a hint of clove. It’s the kind of boring, generic chai I have had a thousand times before.

It especially bothered me last night when I finished my mug and was hanging out on the computer for a while. Despite the mug being empty, I kept smelling the wet leaves in the infuser a few feet away from me, and even though it wasn’t an unpleasant scent, it just rubbed me the wrong way. It was like smelling wet ketchup chips. I have gotten the ketchup chip aroma from spicy blends in the past. I recall the Tea Girl’s #YEGnog blend to take on a ketchup chip aroma after owning it for eight months or so. What’s with that?

I sipped this sample down yesterday first thing in the morning. Not impressive at all. Despite cooling the temperature down substantially and using approximately 3g out of the 5g sample in a huge mug, steeping for not even two minutes, it turned out bitter and vegetal. Grassy too, but more so vegetal. Meh. Not my thing. But I’m thankful that I got this as a free sample, anyway.

This tea looks adorable but tastes like marzipan and I am just not a fan of that.

The caramel sure packs a punch when this is hot. I let the water cool down quite a bit (no thermometer but I imagine I let it cool even lower than the 90°C it suggests) and let it steep for around 2.5 minutes to avoid any bitterness. This strategy seemed to work, initially. That caramel sure was present, all right, like hot caramel out of the pot.

It’s a good thing I got distracted with reading blogs and let this cool down even further, slowly taking my time sipping, because as time goes on, this is less than impressive. The oolong doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s bitter like roasted-oolong-bitter, yet vegetal like a green oolong. But more so the former. At the end of the day, it’s taking away from the caramel. You still get that sweetness in the background but at this stage, it’s quite mottled. I split my sample in half for my Perfect Mug so I’m actually kind of sad that this technically isn’t a sipdown yet.

Cold Brew Sipdown (149)!

This is sort of weird as a cold brew ‘cause it’s just straight up chocolate in flavour and without some other flavour to either contrast it or blend in with it the flavour just seems a little flat and out of place. It reminds me a lot of Aero chocolate, actually. Some people REALLY like Aero but it’s always been kinda gross to me because it’s JUST chocolate. Good chocolate, yeah – but I don’t like chocolate much as is so I need something with it to really enjoy it. That said – I do enjoy the cold brew more than the hot version.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F46w1M5A1E

Not gonna lie, I like these two together because of the Aero comparison. Aero does have bubbles, after all…

Drank this one late last night with a splash of almond milk added in.

I didn’t mind this one – I thought it was relatively smooth and the simplicity was appreciated because it made for nice mindless tea drinking which was a good way to end a bittersweet day. However, for a simple tea with one main flavour I actually felt like it was overshadowed a bit by the base of the blend. I don’t mind the taste of rooibos, myself, but if you’re going to create a “one note” sort of blend then really sell me on that one note, right? Commit to the chocolate!

But it was a good cup overall. Thank you VariaTEA for the sample.

As VariaTEA mentioned the other day, this is totally like DAVIDsTEA’s Red Velvet Cake except it looks slightly different. It’s the exact same flavouring, and I also found this flavouring in TeaTaxi’s Red Velvet rooibos, which looks to have the same sprinkles and mini chocolate chips. Because this is supposed to have cherry in it, I did not see this coming at all. No cherry, sadly.

For anyone who hasn’t tasted RVC (the tea, that is), it does not taste anything like cake. It’s quite chemical and has a strange chocolate undertone with plastic icing. The liquor in these blends tend to get murky from all the sprinkles which leads to sweetness overkill. To think I blindly bought 100g of RVC for the cute tin and forced myself to drink through all of that. Yikes. This is reminding me of that.

On a more positive note, I’m back down to 50 teas!

If you like almond extract and rooibos, this is the blend for you. The rooibos base isn’t as noticeable in their other ones, largely due to the strong almond extract note here. There is also supposed to be papaya in here but I’m not getting an inkling of that. There’s no way such a flavour could ever compete with such a strong almond note. Milk brings out a buttery undertone which accompanies the almond. Nice, but still too two-dimensional for my tastes, and this is coming from someone who loves almond.

I feel like I’ve had this several times before, probably because I’ve encountered numerous teas/tisanes with that knock-your-socks-off almond extract flavour. At least this has super cute snowflake sprinkles?

If you’re looking for a mocha blend, right off the bat, I’m going to make this clear. You won’t find that here. This is more like a caramel rooibos than anything else. There’s supposed to be hazelnut in here and I’m not picking up on any nuttiness either. Granted, it could be because the base is ultra strong. I’m tasting mostly rooibos with a hint of caramel. It’s nice with milk but nothing extraordinary.

Whoa, I sound bitter. It’s actually ok, really. My brain’s just fried from spending the last hour filling out those surveys from various receipts (and of course I never win!). This did keep tantalizing me with its wafting caramel aroma as I was clicking buttons and what not, but each sip left me a little disappointed.

Ok weird, quick edit. My last sip had a shot of coffee in it, where you get all of that sediment at the bottom. That’s about it. Ok, I’m truly done this time.

Cold Brew Sipdown (150)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample, but I have to confess that I’m not enjoying this one all that much. Any banana in this blend it totally lost to my palate and I think the green tea base is overwhelming the strawberry notes I do get as well. But on the other hand, maybe I’m just having a somewhat underwhelming experience with it because my teeth are very sore today and the cold temperature is actually rather painful…

Eh; maybe it’s a bit of both?

Sipdown (199…yay for under 100!!)

DAVIDsTEA Red Velvet Cake, is that you? Is that what is hiding in my cup, disguised as TeaTaxi’s Fireworks? Yep. Must be. Same cake flavors. Same white chocolate note. No cherry. It’s alright but I don’t stock Red Velvet Cake and I probably won’t stock this. It was a fun trip down memory lane to an old favorite.

What’s a yummy-smelling green tea we’ve got here. Totally like almond biscotti, loaded with almond and bakery notes.

I don’t have the best luck with TeaTaxi’s green bases, it seems. I’m weeping internally because I used 3g out of the 5g in the sample pouch and let the water in the kettle cool substantially before pouring into my huge approximately 2-cup mug. I let it steep for nearly three minutes (as it recommends 3 min on the packaging), and I was left with a dark green liquor that was incredibly bitter. So I dumped that out, removed the wet leaves, then dumped the remaining 2g into the infuser, added more water from the kettle, and let it steep for a little over a minute.

The resulting cup is more tolerable. The bitterness has subsided substantially and I can taste the almond notes. Yay! The coconut comes out more as this cools even more, as well. I’m still not crazy over the base as it’s a little too vegetal for my liking, but the flavouring is lovely. I can see myself really liking the biscotti flavouring, almonds, and shredded coconut paired with a white tea base. Ultimately, I would give this a higher rating if it had a not-as-finicky base.