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Sipdown! 90/365

A fun tea sample sent to me by Roswell Strange – thank you!

So the story of how I came to try this tea today is slightly amusing; my 5-month-old son was exploring on the floor and managed to get himself over to the box of teas Roswell Strange had sent me (it’s not too far away; he can’t crawl yet). Next thing I know, he’s reached his grabby little hands into the box and is clutching one of the individually-wrapped teabags she sent! And shoving it in his mouth, as babies do. I checked, and since it was a herbal tea, I let him munch on it for a bit, until I noticed that the package had opened up and the teabag, slightly damp on one side, was falling out. Since it was no longer sealed, and bonus – contaminated by baby spit, I of course had to brew it up today. I am hoping this is a sign that he is going to like tea, unlike his father :D (Side note: he was not pleased when I took it away, so I gave him back the wrapper and he happily munched on it for another 5 minutes or so.)

So this tea. It was one I was actually pretty interested to try – a chai with “vanilla cardamom taste”, basically, my favourite type of chai. Except with a rooibos base, which can really make or break the tea. Luckily, the rooibos here was just fine, doing its job of being a solid base without tasting gross or medicinal. The flavouring was pretty good, too. I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice cardamom specifically, but I enjoyed the chai spicing, which typically means it is cardamom-heavy, and there was an interesting spiciness from the inclusion of peppercorns. For a bagged rooibos chai, this was actually quite tasty. I do prefer my chais to be caffeinated, so wouldn’t likely pick this up again myself, but would definitely drink it again.

Thanks again, Roswell!

derk

cute <3

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derk

cute <3

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I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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