Tina S. Send Message

There’s a story that goes along with how I got this tea. When I was at the Tea Haus in March, I asked after a replacement cup for my favourite tea set, which had the cup broken a while ago due to cat antics. Sadly the lovely owner of the store said that while she knew of a line onto the lids, the cups were not replaceable. I was sad, but completely understood since I’d gotten the set more than five years ago and just as Jenaerglas was closing. I had a great tea trip regardless, and kissed my last hope of a replacement cup goodbye.

Fastforward a week and a half, and I walk into work to see a box waiting in my work mailbox. Now I hadn’t ordered anything for a while, so my first thoughts were that it was meant for someone else. Until I saw that it was from the Tea Haus. I opened up the box and the owner? Had mailed me the last cup she had in her own personal collection that fit my set, AND three tea samples, including this one. She didn’t ask for anything in return, she simply gifted it to me out of the kindness of her heart. How’s that for customer service??

But yes, this tea. The entire box smelled of the orange from this tea even before I opened it up. How I waited this long to try it I still have no idea. I brewed up the entire sample tonight at work and shared it with a coworker and fellow tea lover. We both agreed the first thing we noticed was how smooth it was. This was a delightful cuppa, and oh man was it full of orange flavour. In fact other than the lack of the creamy factor, it is nearly identical to my beloved Honeybush Orange. If you’re an orange fan, I highly recommend them both!

I hate when the staff at David’s doesn’t know how to brew up a tea properly when they’re going to ice it. Going cheap on the leaf means that I’m going to be a very unhappy customer! I had this one in store today and it was so disappointing of a cup despite it being one of my favourite summer teas. Citrusy with just a hint of mint undernote and just so extremely delicious when made properly. I think I’ll do one up tonight at home to make me feel better about the sadness.

Wait, how have I never reviewed this one before? I adore this one, and have from my first sips. I actually have a shitton of it compared to my other teas because I drink it so often. This is such a great tea if I want a quirky mint, or if I want something to soothe my stomach or my throat, or just to mellow out with. Plus, all Canadian ingredients means its even more special to me since I am a maple leaf girl through and through. It smells like a walk through a forest after the rain, and tastes like fresh gardens in a northern town. I’m so sad this one was taken off the wall, but am glad that at least I’ll still be able to stock up online!

Had this one tonight after a long long weekend of family and stress and a lack of good tea. I was hoping it would relax me and it definitely did that. Something I’ve noticed with the toasted/roasted teas though is that if my tummy is even remotely not happy, this seems to highlight it and make it worse until my stomach churns, and then suddenly I feel amazing, but don’t want to finish my tea. Does this happen to anyone else?

I’m at my mom’s for the long weekend, and therefore at the mercy of her tea collection and old kettle. After tossing out all of her five year old teabags I was happy to see she still had a couple bags of tea from David’s that I had gifted her at Christmas, including this one. I do get a nut flavour but one that isn’t overpowering. It’s an odd tea, and one that I can see why people enjoy, but I’m not sure that it is one that I want to add to my own collection.

Stole this one from a coworker today at work for an after-lunch cup. This tea is so odd to me, some days I really enjoy it and other times I find it way too coconut flavoured. I wonder if it has to do with how the tea settles since coconut is so light.

I’ve been saving this one until I was in just the right mood to sit back and enjoy this tea. From my first smell of the leaf I knew I was going to love it and boy was I right. This is the type of tea that I can see myself sitting and sipping at any time of the day. I drank it without milk and sugar, which is rare for me with a straight black, and didn’t miss either. Mellow and blissful without any harshness, I think I have found a straight black that hit a bullseye with me!

I am so very grateful to Teavivre for this sample which I am long overdue on reviewing. I tried it over a month ago when I was just getting over a cold and didn’t get a great tasting from it, so I wanted to revisit it to give it a fair rating and review, and just . . . got distracted. It’s horrible of me but here I am now, hoping that a good solid review helps make up for my faults.

I did two steeps of this one tonight, both with water that was filtered through a Brita since my tap water can be fairly chemical. I followed the package instructions for brewing temperature, amount, etc., for the first steep. This meant a 90 degree C steep for one minute. The colour of the tea was a light yellowy-green, and my first sips were . . . not much flavour at all. In fact I got halfway through the cup and still hadn’t much flavour. Knowing that second steeps are always the better, I dumped the rest of cup one and eagerly went on to cup two.

This time I did the same temperature but for twice as long, this time two minutes. The tea was the same colour but slightly more intense, which left me hopeful. There was definitely flavour here this time. And as I sipped more and more I got floral notes.

Now I’m still fairly new to straight teas, especially whites since quality whites can run top dollar sometimes. And while I am extremely grateful for this amazing sample from Teavivre it has helped me realize that Bai MuDan teas just aren’t going to be one of my favourite types. It wasn’t until tonight as I was sipping this one that I put together the Peony in the english name with . . . floral. Stupid of me I know, but truth! I’m not a big jasmine fan so I’m not surprised to also not be a large fan of peony, but I wish it was different since this is clearly a quality version of the type of tea.

I’m not giving it a rating since it isn’t the tea but my tastes that would give it a lower number. Again, a huge thank you to Teavivre for letting me try this tea!

Stole this one from my coworkers 24 days of tea today. Wow, I don’t know if it had gone stale or what because it was not a good cup. After a three minute steep it was still almost tasteless, despite a small cup and a lot of leaf, so I left the bag in. Ten minutes passed and it was still almost tasteless so I still left it in and went up to the service desk. Where suddenly it was burnt. How that happened I have no idea but it was just overall a depressing cup of tea.

I’ve had this one twice already this morning. I brought my cannister into work and everyone is trying to steal it from me. Definitely a hit around here today and exactly what I needed to calm me as the morning went on. Nom.