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L is for…Lemonberry Whip

So I started work this week. I was commuting from Hamilton to downtown Toronto to take Teams calls which was time consuming and seemed silly. Even sillier is that I am working at the company I have worked at off and on since 2016 and had to do all the training…again…for the 4th time. In fact, I was referred to in some of the training sessions because my experience with the company was extensive. Also, I get panic wheezing aka stress induced asthma and I guess from adjusting to the commute and new schedule, my body freaked out and I had to work from home for 2 days and get a covid test (while remotely attending a work meeting). No covid. Yay! Also, I found out I passed my second bar exam which means I will be a lawyer once I finish my articling. Also yay! This is all to say that this week has been hectic and I have been off tea for a little while and finally today I had a moment to breathe so I decided to do another day of alphabet teas.

This tea came from me from the subscription Roswell Strange enrolled me in for my birthday this year. Thank you!! I have had this tea once before and remember enjoying it quite a bit. I do get the rooibos base a little more than I like but the front of the sip is a lot of fluffy lemon/vanilla notes. The kind of fluffy lemon that makes me think of Harney’s Wedding Tea or Butiki’s Lemon French Macaron. So that initial lemon really speaks to me. On top of that lemon, I am getting blueberry. On their own, both are great but I find they hold each other back slightly b/c they are competing for attention.

My sister bought me more syrups for sweet creams so I decided to make a latte. First I had to make the sweet cream though and following Roswell Strange’s suggestion I did a 50/50 mix of gingerbread and salted caramel syrups because that sounded awesome. I then paired it with a tea that wasn’t overly complicated so I could see if the flavours came through.

I think the combo backfired though because the gingerbread and caramel were both super subtle compared to when I just use one syrup. That meant I got a lot of cream. So this was cream, bananas, brisk black tea and then hints of sweetness from the caramel and a touch of spice from the gingerbread. There’s potential but a 50/50 split of these flavours wasn’t right for my tastes.

In other news, thank you Roswell Strange for this tea! It came as part of my subscription you got me for my birthday!!

Iced Matcha Latte Sipdown (189)

Another Matcha Monday! For the past few weeks I’ve been featuring a book in my matcha Monday posts since I’ve spent a lot of this month off reading. This week I paired a horror novel, The Taking of Jake Livingston, with an iced mocha matcha latte. The characters in the book just had fudge brownies sundaes, which made me think chocolate and this matcha. Then I wanted something cozy and comforting to pair with the scare, so I thought latte. Except our A/C broke and it’s hot so iced latte.

This was slightly overleafed and while I enjoy this a lot in part, I’m not loving this overall. There is a chocolate component that is at the front of this but it’s not sweet and as I keep drinking, it gets a bit chalky. It gives me chocolate protein drink vibes and I never liked those much.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRzPKTChI-j/?utm_medium=copy_link

Gongfu Sipdown (190)

K is for…Kuura, specifically their 2013 Honey Jar Aged White Tea

Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing this with me!

I used this in a gongfu session the other day since I did not have any tea that started with “K” but had this tea from a company that started with “K”. It seemed like a good call.

I got a fair amount of steeps from it before I gave up because it was lunch time. I think Ros mentioned buckwheat honey in one of her notes and that held true for a lot of the steeps. This was smooth and definitely had a honey sweetness throughout all the sips. Honey Jar is a fitting name – even some steeps that were a bit blander were still smooth and sweet.

I hurt my back yesterday so I haven’t been having tea so this was the last tea I had a couple days back.

We don’t actually have any milk left in the house so my vanilla sweet cream was used to make a latte with this. It’s super good but that’s more because of the sweet cream taming the strong mint than the tea itself.

Sipdown (191)

I didn’t feel like doing the alphabet teas today because I didn’t really feel like having tea at all today. Then I got a craving for Starbucks and rather than spending the money, I decided to try and recreate my order at home. I have been going to the iced chai latte topped with vanilla sweet cream cold foam. Since I’ve been making the cold foam anyways, I figured it wasn’t that hard to make an iced chai latte.

My attempt actually wasn’t bad. The chai, being double spiced, wasn’t the best since it was strongly peppery and cardamom heavy until the cream mixed with it. It also wasn’t as sweet as the Starbucks drink but given I used actual chai rather than a syrup or concentrate, that’s not surprising. The cream is the real star here though because it adds sweetness and tames the overbearing spice of the tea.

Check out a pic of my dupe here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRkJmfshgZ3/?utm_medium=copy_link

Matcha Latte Sipdown (193)

J is not for…Blueberry Vanilla

This was quite sweet today. It was basically very sweet blueberry candy. I wasn’t feeling that so this was meh for me. I’m still grateful for the chance to try it though so thank you Roswell Strange!

J is for…Japanese Genmaicha

I had no “I” teas and no “I” company so I skipped ahead to “J” teas. This is the only J tea I have.

Also, weird that Roswell Strange thanked me for this because I don’t recall ever having it. Did I have 2 packages and send you one? Did I have this and never record it? I don’t know.

This is an alright Genmaicha. I’m getting a touch too much umami from the green tea base. It’s also got a slight drying twang at the end of the sip. The rice is nice and roasty though, which is appreciated.

French Vanilla Sweet Cream Latte Sipdown (194)

H is for…Hojicha Chocolate Mint Truffles

This was a sample with an order and I’ve enjoyed it well enough as a latte. The Hojicha is a bit stronger in today’s latte and that’s not my favourite flavour so this isn’t my favourite latte and I don’t think I would get this again but I enjoyed it while I had it.