White House Premium Teas

Sipdown (807)!

Made this one on the weekend; it was a abrasively astringent but the flavour itself wasn’t all that bad – definitely a sweeter chai, and in terms of spices I think the ginger was the most apparent one. I don’t know that it was inherently ‘vanilla’ in any way though??

Thank you to VariaTEA or Kittenna for sharing – I don’t actually remember which of you this one was from…

Sipdown (1285)!

Finally sipping down this more lackluster tasting tea!

I was surprised how oily the mouthfeel of this blend was today because that’s not a quality I remember any of my previous cups of it having – I should cross reference my old tasting notes and see if that’s something I noted in any of them. Aside from the oily mouthfeel, the taste was fine but lackluster. Somewhat sweet and maple-y, but very under flavoured with a particularly flat black tea base. I know some of that is just age though, so I’m more forgiving of the waning flavours.

Overall more of a neutral morning cuppa to sip on from home. More than okay with finishing this one off, though!

From the weekend.

Very, very bready tasting but in a “boring white bread” kind of way, and atop a really flat/dull tasting generic black tea/Red Rose type of flavour. No maple to be found.

It was a sad mug.

Had this one with my lunch last week; it was something that was shared with me by VariaTEA and I thought it was alright the first time I tried it but not amazing.

This time around, I actually liked it a little bit more. I do think the maple note is pretty flat/mellow and not super authentic but the tea was creamy and did have some buttery and bakey pastry type elements. It was smooth overall, and not unpleasant to drink even if the flavours were a little flat/lacking life.

Thank you to my lovely tea twin VariaTEA for sharing this with me!

I had it as a morning mug of tea today, with a little bit of cinnamon flavoured honey added in as well. It was a pretty nice cuppa – medium bodied with a light, and almost woody, maple note with a malty and bread-y tasting black tea base that leaned into the cookie notes. It’s not the best maple flavour I’d had before but it’s also certainly not the worst. If I had any criticism it’d be that I think it’s a little bit bland tasting overall. The slight hint of cinnamon was quite a nice addition, though.

Thanks for sharing!

Voting Day!! It took me almost an hour but I did it. Never has the process been so slow so I blame London. It is done now and I have since returned home and made a latte. Unfortunately that didn’t go as planned either since the milk didn’t seem to want to froth and then I waited too long and the whipped cream melted.

So now I am drinking the maple themed latte in honor of the election but similarly to Adagio blends, I feel like the base used by this company is low quality because the teas I have had from there have all been sort of muddy. A lot of maple flavor but muddied maple.

Sample from variatea….since the furnace is out and my kid appears to want to sleep for 20 hours a day, I have time to drink tea. So I thought I’d try to get through a couple samples. This one isn’t much to write home about. Boring base, some chai like spices but the vanilla appears to be on vacation. Lol. Glad to try it as it’s someting I would totally want to try…but that’s about it.

I made this as a nutella latte and it just has such a muddiness to it. Perhaps I should have gone with a snickerdoodle latte because I think this needs more sweet than nutty/chocolate. It is just a mess of flavors. Also, I reviewed the tes time on yell and the shop got a bit defensive which I dont like. I gave them a solid review and 3/5 stars, nothing particularly harsh I dont think so it was a bit awkward to get the response back. I suppose they can defend themselves though.

I’ve been trying to figure out other teas to try with the EG hot chocolate recipe I have been enjoying. Most of my teas are in smaller sizes so that limits my options to the few I have in large quantities and can spare a TBSP of. This is a tea I have plenty of and since it is fairly flavorful, I thought it could hold up to the richness of the milk, cream, and bittersweet chocolate.

Unlike the EG which has a citrusy brightness to play against the dark chocolate, the chai here is adding to the chocolate and making this rather fudgey. It is interesting but (1) I think I could use one ounce less chocolate and this would still be good and (2) I think I prefer the EG version.

I have a lot of Candy Cane Crush so maybe I should try that next…

My sister recently moved to Waterdown, ON which has a large tea house on the main street. That is one of two tea houses. So when I went to visit my sister last weekend, we decided to try one. Honestly, I have never been more proud of my sister and brother-in-law.

My sister and I went and when we sat down, she immediately commented on how the tea was not stored in light-proof jars (the jars were clear glass). Then they brought the tea in tea pots with no way to strain the leaves from the pot. She also noted all the teas were brewed at 195F. I was so proud because she knew that these were all wrong. Then, I bought this tea and another, Maple Cream Cookie, and she watched as they used a tin to measure a small amount of tea and then dumped the tin in a bag and then used the same tin from measuring this tea for measuring the other tea.

When we got back to the house, my brother asked how the tea was. We said it was alright but they made some mistakes and he immediately responded with “did they brew the teas at the wrong temperature?” When we said yes, he then asked “and did they leave the tea bags in the pot too long?” Honestly, the fact that they both knew this stuff was so delightful. Means they are absorbing some of my passion which is nice.

As for this tea, I made it as a latte because it is a vanilla chai and really what other way is there to make this tea?! It’s good but not amazing. It’s sort of the generic muddiness that you sometimes get with chais with just a bit of vanilla flavor. It is creamy and nice but there are much better options out there.