The Canister

not sure what i did differently for this one today but it’s not drinkable lol. Iif i were to rate this based on this cup, it’s closer to the rating of variaTEA. Funny ’cause my other 2 cups were really enjoyable.

Roswell Strange is the only other person to review this tea and she gave it a 48 so that’s not a great sell. I honestly only picked it because I am at my sister’s and it’s snowing and I just wanted any tea for my tea photo and this is what I grabbed.

I also had no idea how to go about steeping this so I used 90C water for 2.5 minutes and one current perfect teaspoon for a Nordic mug.

With that said, I went in with low expectations and this just sorta meant them. It’s not bad but you get some tannins and a sweetness and that’s sort of it. It’s just pretty lacklustre in flavour with just the slight astringency from the tannins and that’s not what I want in a tea.

Thanks for sharing Roswell Strange but while this isn’t particularly bad, it’s not food either.

A little flat tasting but that’s mostly (though not entirely) due to the age of this tea. Even with more muted flavours, it still had a comforting baked apple flavour that was soft and smooth enough on my stomach after a bit of a greasier meal that had left me feeling just a littttllleee bit off and nauseated. Oily mouthfeel though. Like, very oily. Which maybe wasn’t exactly what I needed in the moment. Taste trumps texture, though.

Drinking this currently – possibly the last tea of the night, though I guess it’s past midnight now in my time zone so I suppose that technically makes it the first tea of the day, doesn’t it? It’s alright though. The flavours are dull and lack the kick they might have fresh, but the backbone to them is good – baked apple, creamy yogurt, malty black tea base. I wish I knew who the wholesaler of this blend was because I bet I would enjoy it at peak freshness – my gut tells me that even when I bought it, it wasn’t all that fresh…

I bet if I spent enough time looking at the cut size of the ingredients I could probably reverse engineer who the wholesaler is using knowledge of other blends. I just don’t know if it’s worth the trouble.

First tea of the day…

This wasn’t as bad tasting as I remember it being in the past, but it was pretty boring. The liquor was a little bit slick and oily from the melted down white chocolate/yogurt (not sure what they are, exactly) drops but the flavour was a perfectly fine muted, creamy apple. Not memorably pleasant or unpleasant; which kind of makes it the perfect tea to drink while watching TV – which is exactly what I was doing.

Milk and some type of sweetener could have maybe made it pop a little more.

I had this one during the week but I don’t really remember much about the cup other than being somewhat pleasantly surprised by how sweet it was…

Large pot of tea, with some coffee flavoured honey added to it also.

This was a decent pot; strong and full bodied with a brisk/bold flavour from the black tea base. A sort of “simplified” malt flavour, with baked apple notes and a vaguely boozey stewed fruit sort of note. Some creaminess in the top of the sip. Definitely all notes that I’ve experienced from this tea when I’ve made it normally – but just a little bit amplified.

Also a honey sweetness, but not much of the “coffee” from the honey. I think it ended up masked by the black tea since this flavored honey is a little more on the subtle side.

Hot with a little milk.

This was the nicest cup of this that I’m managed to make to date; it came out surprisingly smooth and well defined in flavour with sweet, boozy apple notes and creamy yogurt undertones. I was actually kind of shocked and taken aback by how tasty it was; I hardly believe I was drinking the same tea! I don’t know how I coaxed out those wonderful caramelized sugar, apple pastry, brandy, and velvety notes but if I can replicate it again then that’ll be some major turn around for this bad boy!

Tried making this one last night, with a splash of blueberry liqueur in it because I thought that would compliment the boozey nature of the blend. It was very gross though; came off as bitter, and medicinal. I don’t know if that boils down to the tea or the liqueur causing that, or if it was just an unholy pairing. I wont be recreating it again, though.

Gross.

Still have a shit ton of this, so I pulled it out tonight and made a mug for myself and one for my mother while we did various Christmas things, like set up our Pine tree and decorate Christmas cookies…

We definitely half-assed the Christmas stuff for the most part though; the tree wont have ornaments on it, and we didn’t decorate anything else save for a giant bowl of walnut on the coffee table. Plus, of course, cookies are only a temporary Christmas thing – they’ll definitely be consumed sooner rather than later. It’s SOMETHING though, right?

This felt thematic to Christmas/semi Christmas decorating though – and my mom even spiked her cup of it with some actual Brandy. Personally I just stuck with a little bit of cinnamon flavoured honey though since I remembered this one tasting a little flat last time I tried it. I figured a flavoured honey would at least add something to the blend. If I’m being honest, it was still pretty light/mild though. Not bad, though! I didn’t get much boozy from it – just like a soft, kind of creamy apple flavour a top a sort of malty/bready black base tea, with cinnamon finishing notes from the honey. It reminded me a lot more of like a baked apple/generic cinnamon apple flavour than anything else.

Still, not bad – and totally appropriate for the evening! I feel like this should taste so much better than it actually does, though…

Tried this at work today.

I can tell right away that this is something I’m going to need to play with a lot to be really satisfied with it. It’s not that it was gross, but it was just really lacking in flavour all around. Really bland, and just a little bit stale tasting. The way it was stored prior to my buying it is probably a factor here – big glass jars in direct sunlight. I fucking hate when vendors do that. It just degrades the quality of the tea so rapidly…

So yeah; hints of apple and some creaminess from the yogurt drops but not much going on here. Really had to focus to get any sort of clear flavour imagery. Bleh.

Cold Brew!

Definitely some considerably old tea from my stash, but holds up solidly as a cold brew. It’s giving me strong “Froot Loops” vibes tonight between the blueberry and orange notes. Froot Loops, but make it juice!? I don’t know, it’s nice though!

It’s been a long time since I last had this tea, and it’s not quite how I remembered it tasting! Definitely still had that slightly citrus leaning generic “Froot Loops” type of vibe, but I swear there was something about the flavour that both reminded me of grenadine and almond extract as well – sweet almond extract though, the kind that can taste a little bit like cherry if you don’t think about it too hard. I enjoyed it immensely, especially as the mug cooled down to closer to room temperature, but it drove me crazy wishing I had an ingredients list to be able to check the flavours…

Cold Brew!

Found myself really craving this one, and it was actually a challenge finding it in my tea stash so I was having one of those weird moments of confusion and panic where I couldn’t remember if I had or hadn’t sipped this one done yet – that’s a problem you face when your tea stash is so big.

I did find it though, and the tin is still pretty damn full so no sipdown any time soon. Tasted good though; like the sort of generic fruity flavour of Froot Loops, but with a smidge more orange – sweet orange candy though, not tangy/acidic orange. You could taste the apple fairly clearly as well; not as an “apple” note but more as the general sweetness that apple adds to tisanes when used as the “base” of the blend.

Sipping on this one now, while sitting outside with my earbuds in. It’s very cool outside, but not uncomfortably so – the mash up of warming, fruity tea and good music is so relaxing.

I know that’s a sentiment that I’ve expressed a lot this week; but this feels like the first week in a long time where I’ve really gotten to relax like this. Things at work are just clicking into place, and I have time for myself outside of work hours. I wouldn’t call myself ‘happy’ right now, but definitely just a little bit more than content. I’m hardly ever really happy; I think we all have default emotions and mine is usually this mix of sadness/melancholy. It’s hard to overcome that; but this is the best I think I’ve been in a while. Most days I feel relaxed.

As far as the tea comes, it’s got the orange/blueberry combo that I’ve come to expect from it and some plumpness/apple body and undertone notes. When I let myself sip on it mindlessly, without breaking it apart into pieces, I find it tastes like Froot Loops. It’s not as sweet/sugary, though. It’s hitting the spot tonight.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bcFezD7n9w&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=8

Upbeat and funky, but not too upbeat/funky. Still has a bit of a sort of sadness to it? I like the sort of whispery quality of her voice, too.

A nice hot cup of herbal tea to sip on partially during my closing paperwork, and partially on the commute home. It was really nice; good balance of blueberry, orange, and apple notes with natural sweetness and not much tartness at all.

After now learning more about Blue Moon Ice Cream from A Quarter To Tea I can’t help but wonder if that’s possibly where the name from this one comes from? I mean, I have NO WAY of knowing, but if people interpret Blue Moon Ice Cream as tasting sort of like Fruit Loops that I can kind of see this maybe supposed to be a recreation of that kind of flavour? I can’t think where else the name would come from, and the blueberry/orange pairing is a little more unique especially since it doesn’t seem to tie into the name at all…

Just a thought, though…

Iced!

I think I’m actually happy that I’m gonna have so much of this one to explore, ‘cause this is my second time trying it out and I’m finding that for a fruit infusion/tisane I’m enjoying it a pretty decent amount. It’s not without room for improvement, but I think with the quantity of this that I have on hand I can probably nail that given time.

Basically, it’s like a candied blueberry flavour/body with a bit more of a tart/sour hibiscus and orange edge to it. Ideally, I want to try and cut down the sourness and get the whole profile to more of that plump, juicy candied sort of territory.

So, I grabbed this one from this small little store in Winnipeg called The Canister. I’m not really familiar with Winnipeg’s layout but it looked to be in a pretty out of the way location, tucked down a flight of stairs and hidden away.

It wasn’t the world’s nicest store if I’m being honest – looked a little like the owner was a tea addict right on the cusp of being a hoarder. Just tons and tons of stuff everywhere lining the walls and shelves. Crappy little boxes of tea, and tacky ass mugs. The man working there was friendly enough though, and the pricing was really reasonable so I ended up grabbing two different teas to try. Why not, right? I opted for the two most unique looking blends – this one, and a black tea.

The owner described this as a blueberry herbal – and it definitely smell like blueberry. It’s also really citrus heavy though; definitely has a lot of orange in the blend. When I brewed it up, I definitely got both of those flavours too. It was weird though; it started off very tart with this sour kind of fusion of apple, orange and hibiscus. However, the body of the sip was where it was at! Very smooth, mellow plump and creamy blueberry notes. It reminded me of blueberry pie filling! Really pleasant; it would almost be better if that was what the whole sip tasted like if I’m being honest.

Overall, quite pleasant/enjoyable but not without room for improvement. I was still pleasantly surprised though! Plus – since the smallest amount this store sold in was 1/4 pounds (113g!) I definitely have a lot to play with.