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I always get excited about the smell of orange teas and then when I drink them I realize an orange tea is not really my favorite. Unfortunately this is no exception. It is not bad by any means, just not something I would typically reach for.

OMG this is good! This is one of the first caramel or toffee teas that I have had that actually has a full-bodied toffee taste to it. The aroma fills the room with warm, sugary, caramel-y goodness. The pu’erh is subtly present and helps to stop the toffee from becoming cloying. Another hit from CaesarsTea!

ETA: I am happy to add that this resteeps quite well. The flavors are not as strong but they are still present and delicious.

This tastes similar to DAVIDs Creme Caramel Rooibos but with a bit of fruitiness to it (however I don’t know where those are coming from given there is no fruit in this)

Unlike many DAVIDs teas which tend to have bolder flavors, the rooibos is a bit more apparent in the CaesarsTeas I have tried. With that said, I think the rooibos used in CaesarsTeas might be better quality because it tastes pretty good.

Even my roommate has been enjoying the teas and she does not usually choose flavored teas as I have mentioned many times before.

Yet another good tea from CaesarsTea!

This smells amazingly sweet and delicious – like peach cobbler! However, the tea does not taste like it smells. It is earthy and woodsy but is given a nice sweetness from the vanilla. I don’t get much peach either but the cup is still very delicious. It is not a Peach Vanilla tea but it is a good tea nonetheless.

The website for CaesarsTea recommends adding sugar so perhaps that would help bring out the flavors some more. Something to try in the future.

This is one of my favorite cherry tisanes. It has a great tartness from the cherries but it is calmed by the sweetness of the bananas. Plus it is a true banana flavor and not the artificial banana flavor that many teas tend to have. So far CaesarsTea is proving to have been a good choice.

I had my second cup of this today because a friend came over and said she wanted something not too sweet and something with roses. I do not have many floral teas as I find they can get quite perfume-y but I recommended this. Though it is not roses, it does have a similar floral taste to it. And the lychee has a nice sweetness but it is in no way cloying.

A plus – this tea steeps really nicely a second time around.

I found a new tea shop today…and I bought 25 of their teas. The saleswomen were in awe and told me I hold the record for buying the most tea at once by far. They were so sweet though – usually when you purchase their tea you get a free sample of either a Mint Chocolate tea or an Orange-ginger pu’erh tea but they gave not only me both samples for free but also my roommate got both samples for free. They also gave us each a coupon for a free cup of tea upon our next visit. Also my cost for 25-30 g of 25 different teas worked out to about $100 but when you buy 4 teas, you get 1 free so I ended up paying $88 for 25 different teas and got 4 free samples. All in all, I don’t think I did too bad. And did I mention that they don’t use artificial flavoring??

Anyways, about this particular tea – the rooibos flavor comes through a lot but there is definitely notes of strawberry and cream. This is a subtle tea but I am realizing more and more that I like subtle teas too. I am definitely glad I have so much more of this to enjoy!

My roommate picked some of this up yesterday when we went to Camellia Sinensis. There were many matchas to pick from but the salesman recommended this as a casual matcha for everyday drinking. Though we drank the other teas she purchased yesterday, this one went into the fridge to have today as my roommate worried about the caffeine content.

Today when we were making breakfast, she put a cup of this in my hand. This is the first time I tried flavorless matcha and tbh I did not hate it. Looking into the cup, it had a vibrant dark green color and so I was definitely expecting the vegetal taste that I got. However, what I was not expecting was the creaminess that came along with it. All in all, this was not a bad cup of tea and I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Today was a fun day with regards to tea for my roommate and I. It all started when I got home and my roommate told me she wanted to go to Camellia Sinensis. This is unusual for her because typically I am the one dragging her to tea shops because I like to try all the fun and different flavored teas whereas she has a lot more plain teas that she buys in Asia. However, she told me that she is almost out of Genmaicha and she checked out Camellia’s website after I told her about it a couple days ago. She wanted to check out the store and pick up some of their Genmaicha with Matcha and Sencha and since I am always willing to visit a tea shop we decided to head out.

Unfortunately despite its close proximity to our apartment we got lost and ended up wandering until we were near a shop, NosThes, that according to my roommate makes “the best bubble tea in Montreal”. So we decided that once we were nearby we might as well pop in there and get some tea. Based on the recommendation of the waitress we both ended up getting a Vanilla and Nuts black tea. Mine was a hot latte with no sugar and no bubbles and my roommate got hers done as a hot latte with some sugar and bubbles. This tea done both ways was AMAZING! My roommate was still talking about her bubble tea hours later and as I said before, she does not usually like flavored teas.

Anyways, while we enjoyed our NosThes, we looked up the location for Camellia Sinensis and so we back tracked towards our apartment and finally found the shop. First of all, when you turn onto the street where the shop is, it looks like you teleported back in time. The shops have an old-timey look to them that is just super adorable. Inside, Camellia Sinensis, is quite lovely. Its walls are lined with silver tins filled with tea (although there are no labels – you have to look through a book to see the different types of tea they have) and different mugs and teapots they have for sale. I was tempted to buy some of their tins because they are really pretty however they were also quite expensive and I could not justify spending surplus amount of money on tins. However, while looking at tins, I noticed a small tin filled with Lichee (their spelling, not mine) and peony tea that my roommate and I both thought smelled amazing. Then I realized the small tin was actually one of many small tea-filled tins that were for sale so I picked on up and we headed over to the counter. My roommate had come prepared and knew what she wanted to buy so she ended up getting 50 g of the Genmaicha with Matcha and Sencha and a small tin of Matcha Uji that the salesman recommended for casual matcha drinking. I, on the other hand, had made the mistake of not checking out their teas beforehand and because their tea book was in French I got overwhelmed and intimidated and decided just to stick with my small tin of Lichee and Peony tea which my roommate ended up buying for me.

We left the shop with our new purchases and made the short walk home. When we got home, my roommate quickly started the kettle so that we could try her new teas. This was funny because usually I am the one who comes home with a million new teas and I make her drink them with me but today was her turn to brew cup after cup for us to try.

We started with the Genmaicha with Matcha and Sencha. I had never tried Genmaicha and I have only ever had flavored green teas so this was a brand new experience for me. Anyways, the first steep, though delicate, was definitely far more vegetal than any tea I would ever by however to my surprise, I quite enjoyed it. The second steep brought out more of the toasted rice flavors which I thought was quite delicious. However, my roommate, though she quite liked her new tea said that the Genmaicha she already had was better. She started to brew that so that I too could try both and compare. Her Genmaicha had more of a robust and roasted flavor to it upon the first steep. Similarly to the other Genmaicha, the second steep once again brought out the flavors of the rice. So basically from this tasting, I learned a couple of things – I no longer mind a vegetal tasting tea and apparently I prefer the second steep of a Genmaicha because I like the roasty-toasty rice flavoring.

Once we got the ball rolling on tea tasting, my roommate seemed to realize why I like sharing teas with her so often and so she decided we should switch things up and try the Lichee and Peony tea. This tea was delicate and floral but the lychee helps balance the floral taste so that it did not come off perfume-y. The second steep of this tea was quite similar to the first with the exception of the lychee flavor being a bit more pronounced. Our third steep lacked flavor so we both concluded this tea should only be steeped twice.

After all that, my roommate thought I needed to try a good Pu’erh tea she had from China. She got very excited and had me smell the dry leaf. She then poured boiling water over the leaves and dumped it out since apparently you should always rinse a good pu’erh to bring out the scent. So once she rinsed the leaves she made me smell them again and she was right as the scent was definitely more robust. She then informed me that a good pu’erh is always better after the second steep so we had our first steep and then a second. Since the tea was fermented I worried about the flavor but I was pleasantly surprised. The second steep was definitely more delicate than the first but both were delicious. Unfortunately, we then had to rush our last cup because we decided to go to a Body Pump class at the gym.

All in all it was nice exploring new flavors that I would not usually pick myself. I tend to go for bold flavors but more and more I realize the value of a simple yet delicious tea. That is not to say I plan on giving up my love of flavored teas anytime soon. In fact, arriving home from the gym I found a swap package from Courtney in my mail box filled with many new flavored teas that I can’t wait to try.