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Cold Brew Sipdown (227)

I wanted so badly to like this one but it never quite worked for me. This cold brew is mostly rooibos and then a hint of lotion. Not for me.

This morning it was dark and pouring rain and all I could think was “I should make a latte”. Now, several hours later and while the sun is shining, I finally made one. I think I oversteeped this though because while it was steeping, there was a point where it smelled sooo amazing and then when the timer beeped after 2.5 minutes, there was more of that tannin scent. While the latte is still nice, it has a lot of the tannin flavor that I haven’t had from this tea before. Should have trusted my nose and drained the steeper while it was in that sweet spot.

Sipdown (228)

This tea is almost 2 years old so it is about time to say goodbye. It has blueberry cotton candy flavor still. And the zomba really gives this a nice, rounded flavor. Alas, there has been definite flavor deterioration and so this last cup is a fraction of the deliciousness of the first. That is my fault though.

I am hoping this cup is a bit of an anomaly because I have a whole lot of this tea and this is slightly drying and seemingly heavy on cinnamon. Does this even have cinnamon in it? I think not. I am confused.

Sipdown (229)

So this is one of my oldest teas and I decided to use up the rest of it to make a latte. I was worried it may not taste like much but I have been drinking it while working on an assignment and honestly it has been so deliciously toffee and graham tasting. Just as comforting as a piece of sticky toffee bread pudding. So this has held up beautifully and makes one hell of a latte and I am sad to see it go. Especially since this is a forever goodbye :(

ETA: THIS IS MY 4500TH TASTING NOTE!

Finishing the cold brew with a splash of peach Perrier. I think it definitely helps to cut through the sweetness. I am still getting a lot of the sweet and sometimes the sweet borders into waxy for me and that is still true here but I think made as a proper teapop this could be better.

I was dumb and set up a cold brew of this last night and then just left the bag completely open on the counter overnight. So that was not a great discovery this morning but now it is put away and I doubt any damage was really done.

As for the cold brew, it is apple-y and tropical. I get a thicker mouthfeel. At times I get more strawberry and at other times I taste more pineapple/mango. With no hibiscus it is mostly sweet on sweet on sweet so I think this needs something to cut through. Perhaps a teapop would be the way to go here.

Sipdown (230)

I decided to stay in London this weekend with a plan to get lots of work done. However, yesterday I flip flopped about whether I would be getting on my 7:45 pm train so much that I basically kept myself in a state of limbo where I was stressed about everything. Should I do a gaiwan session? Well if I stay then I have time but if I go it may make me need to pee a lot and I don’t like using the train bathroom. Should I do work? Well I don’t want to start something to have to stop in the middle to catch the train? Should I stay dressed or should I shower? All me being ridiculous and if I just made a decision, I likely could have gotten a lot done yesterday but I did not so yesterday was a bit of a write off.

Then when I decided to stay, a bunch of my friends in London were like “cool, you are here for once, let’s make plans!” So now I have someone coming over tonight for dinner and a movie and tomorrow I am going out with someone else for dinner and a movie and I suppose so much for staying in London to get more work done.

This morning I have been productive though, though not in relation to school…yet. I have plans to watch lectures shortly. However, first, I cleaned my apartment which was a bit disastrous since I basically just crash here a couple days a week and then spend the rest of the week in Toronto or Waterdown with family. So, I finally tidied up the place and it is looking so. much. better. The only thing left to deal with are my teas. I have gotten new ones and rather than putting them in the drawers where my tea is stores, I just have boxes or bags of tea lying around. So I will have to deal with that but after my overhaul of everything else, I decided to make tea and picked this one out for a latte.

I had a bit of an issue because when I went to pour the milk out of the bag, milk came both out of the bag and the container it was stored in despite me just opening the bag. So I had to investigate what was happening and I couldn’t really locate a whole in the bag other than the one I cut but to be safe I drained it and tossed it. Bye a full litre of milk I just bought :(

Once I did sort out the milk issue, I got to making what ended up being one of the foamiest lattes ever. Honestly. The foam was put on the latte like 5 minutes ago and it is still standing and it is still wiggly which is a weird thing to say about foam but just know it is impressive.

This tea is old but it is still nice. I don’t know if its pumpkin pie per se but I am definitely getting cinnamon and cloves and those great pumpkin pie spices that work well in lattes, especially this time of the year. I put off trying this sample for so long b/c of the base mostly (a Chinese green tea which I think is probably a hojicha) but it actually worked really well with the other ingredients.

Revisiting this one b/c I recalled it not being a favorite the last time I tried it. So now I am trying it again to decide if it is worthy of a tin.

I think this cup is better than the last. Perhaps b/c it is an 8 oz cup as opposed to my usual 16 oz mug. Perhaps there was fewer currants in my filter. This time around it just tastes a lot less currant-y (though the flavor is still there). There is more rose. Fruity sweetness, though no fruit is particularly distinctive besides the currant. It is nice but still not a favorite if I am being honest. This may be one I swap/give away.

I have been having this issue with my phone where it drops network and picks up network like a light switch. Off. On. Off. On. Constantly…for hours. And then it is fine for a week and then it starts its shenanigans again.

I have factory reset the phone. I have switched the SIM card. And a couple days ago, after it rebooted multiple times through the night which meant I had no alarms to wake me for class the next morning, I took it to Bell to send it out since it seems to be a hardware issue. Of course this always happens when I am in London, without a car, despite me being in Toronto, with people who can drive me places for 1/2 the week every week.

So I trekked to the Bell store at the mall where the customer service rep told me b/c the issue is intermittent, Samsung likely won’t see it and will just wipe my phone and send it back. He said I would need to send it out 2-3 times and they may replace it after that. He sent me to a Samsung-authorized phone repair shop in the mall and they told me the same thing about sending it back and forth to Samsung until they decide to replace it. So, I sent it out and was obviously not too pleased with the service I was getting. As far as I am concerned, in the Android vs. Iphone debate, this is a definite strike against Android.

The one positive note from this phone experience is I was in the mall where I could hit up DAVIDsTEA and buy a mug I definitely did not need and some tea samples. Then after paying for those, I remembered the teas my sister brought from Copenhagen which are all large quantities in brown paper bags. So I picked up tins. Now I am trying to taste them to see if they are worth a tin or if I should trade them or give them away.

This tea is an interesting one because unlike most people, I hate seaweed, which is an ingredient in this tea. Seaweed, gooseberries, and sea buckthorn. All rare ingredients for teas so while I wasn’t overjoyed with some of the ingredients, it at least is something different.

The seaweed flavor is not strong at all, so sorry for anyone looking for that flavor note. Instead, I am getting a lot from the gooseberries and their sour grape sort of vibe. At first I was unsure of it but as the tea has cooled, I think I am enjoying it more.