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Iced Latte Sipdown (268)

I wanted an iced latte and this seemed like the perfect tea for it. When I got to prepping everything, I quickly realized that I didn’t quite have enough of this left so I added two spoons of DAVIDsTEA’s Stormy Nights.

It. Came. Out. Awesome!

This was fudgey and thick while still being creamy and smooth. Plus, with the Stormy Nights included, it was like what I’d imagine Mexican hot chocolate fudge to be like. I was happy.

Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing!

Iced Tea Sipdown (269)

It’s cucumber. It’s vegetal. It’s not my favourite. Nevertheless, thank you Roswell Strange for sharing!

Sipdown (270)

This came from Roswell Strange and I didn’t really have must interest until I smelled the dry leaf. It smelled so mouthwateringly chocolate-y that I was itching to have it. Of course a latte goes well with chocolate teas but after my fancy iced latte yesterday I wanted another. Consequently this whole sample was used for that purpose. It turned out looking awesome: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBCLatKAUzn/?igshid=1q4wjn4xye7ah

Unfortunately, taste wise I am less impressed. It’s my fault since coffee leaf to me is not a favourite. I thought the chocolate would build on the coffee flavor (kind of like when they suggest putting espresso into chocolate cake or frosting to make it richer) but it’s a bit dirty tasting to me. The chocolate syrup and milk and whipped cream help but without those, I don’t think I’d have gotten through this. Even with them, I can tell what I do like is the chocolate syrup and what I don’t like is coming from the tea.

Honestly though, it smelled so good that I probably would have bought a crapton of this on that alone. I’m grateful Roswell Strange gave me the chance to try before I buy so thank you for the share!

I tried getting fancy with my iced latte today by drizzling the cup with chocolate syrup and then topping it with whipped cream and a chocolate syrup drizzle. My cup art sank to the bottom though so my first sip was deliciously chocolate syrup filled. I ended up mixing in the whipped cream which made this a creamy and minty cup of chocolate awesomeness. Yum!

Tea Pop Sipdown (266)

This is another tea from Evol Ving Ness. I am slowly but surely working my way through the teas from our swap and am almost done finishing them all off.

This was a teapop I enjoyed in our $30 pool after working out a couple days ago. While the pool was very refreshing, this tea was not. The base component was very sharp which made it come off medicinal and astringent. I was not a fan.

Nonetheless, thank you Evol Ving Ness for sharing this with me. It is always nice to try something new, even if it doesn’t quite go as planned.

Cold Brew Sipdown (267)…sorta since I just put the rest in my swap box

This cold brewed for almost 48 hours because I intended to drink it yesterday but had a shitstorm of a day. Back in December, I left my mom’s house to come stay with my sister due to a lot of drama I am sure I have previously mentioned. My brother arrived a few days later after my mom kicked him out. Since then, my brother has been quite difficult to live with because despite being 30, he hasn’t learned the basic skills of an adult. For instance, he can’t even seem to get his plates from the sink to the dishwasher (In London, I don’t even have a dishwasher so I have to hand wash everything so I feel like this is not asking much of him). Given his age and the fact that he has a full-time job and no debt in addition to the fact that he doesn’t pull his weight around the house, my sister told him a few weeks ago that she thinks it is time he starts looking for a place of his own. She gave him a deadline of August 1 seeing as she is expected to deliver her baby in September and wanted to get things settled and ready in her house (which includes moving me out of the room I am currently sleeping in which is meant to be the nursery to the room my brother was using, which was always meant to be for me). My brother didn’t want to move out though so he was not actively looking and since he refuses to live with a roommate or in a basement apartment but still has a fairly low budget, any decent place that fits his requirements is (and has) gone quickly. Given his laziness and apathy, we have continuously had to push him to search and yesterday my sister lost it on him when she caught him lying about it. His response to this was to decide he’d rather live in his car than with the “abuse” he experienced here. Both my brother-in-law and I tried talking to him but his arrogant attitude led to us yelling at him and he left. Of course the guy who won’t even live in a basement apartment wasn’t actually going to live in his car so he went running back to our Mom’s place.

If that wasn’t bad enough, my mom decided to call my sister and give her shit for telling my brother he had to move out. She first said that we (my sister, brother-in-law and I) were ganging up on my brother and that we were too harsh and he was sensitive. Then when she couldn’t present positive arguments for why my brother should get to stay, she questioned why my sister would let me stay and not him. Then my own mother went on to attack my character to try to show my sister why it was wrong for me to stay and not my brother. Then she told my sister that her and I were the true disappointments because we dismiss people from our lives easily like her, her brother (who once was found standing over my sister in only his underwear while she was sleeping despite her locking the door to the room she was in before she went to sleep…oh and she was a teenager at the time), and now our brother (who chose to leave). So yeah…shitstorm.

Actual tea review starts here

Today is a new day though and as things have calmed in our house, I can get back to the important things…like tea. This tea in particular which I hoped would be better cold brewed but alas it is not. I think it might actually be worse so I am getting much more rooibos than I did in the regular cup. Plus, the coconut is coming off a little more lotion-y than it did in the hot cup and the hibiscus is definitely stronger. Stupid me waiting as long as I did to try this…

I had high hopes for this, mostly due to tea sipper’s love of it. Alas, I also didn’t get to this for over about a year (this is from July 2019 and I just broke the seal this morning) and given the coconut, it’s already showing signs of age. When I steeped it up hot, the coconut smelled rather lotion-y, which to me indicates it is starting to go rancid. Thankfully that doesn’t translate to the taste though. Taste is mostly hibiscus for me with a touch of rooibos. It’s fine but not really my thing. Tea Sipper, if you want 50 more grams of this (less some tsps), let me know. Fair warning on the age though since it’s almost a year old.

I bought the pop can tin of this despite never trying it because the packaging was just so cute. Probably a terrible plan but this didn’t have stevia and seemed like an alright mix of ingredients so I went for it. Drinking it now after 24 hours of cold brewing, I am thankful to report it’s quite nice. It’s not my favourite and if not for the tin, I likely wouldn’t have bought as much as I have but it should be easy enough to drink up what I have now.

I get a pineapple punch and aftertaste with coconut popping up in the middle of the sip with flavor and creaminess that’s stays on the tongue. It’s not lotion-y and doesn’t complete cover up the black tea base. It really is quite nice.

Iced Tea Sipdown (268)

This is nice but tbh I think I hoped for this to be Cherry Snowcone or whatever the cherry tea I used to like from DAVIDs was. That’s a weird expectation for a new tea to replicate an old one but for some reason it’s what I wanted so I was a bit sad when this tea wasn’t that. So while I enjoyed this sample enough, I don’t think I need more.