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Stressful afternoon. At least I finished tidying up all the junk in my old bedroom. It’s so dusty and gross in there; cobwebs everywhere. Honestly, I don’t think it’s been properly cleaned in years! Definitely long before I moved out: I can’t believe I used to sleep there. I just feel all gross and itchy and just bleck from cleaning it…

So, some tea to calm my head after an awful afternoon, and then a nice hot shower to wash all the dirt off.

Parameter for the cup: 6 oz. of boiling water, 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped for three(ish) minutes. Despite being overleafed, I didn’t taste a whole lot of the normal rich, caramel flavour. Mostly, I got a semi generic sweetness, strong mint taste, and slightly woody rooibos base. It was still pretty good overall.

We cold brewed this basically not even an hour after I arrived at my Mom’s – as per my brother’s request to try something else cold brewed – and it was ready to be strained out this morning.

So far the ones I’ve got my brother to drink and enjoy are:

- White Chocolate Frost
- Mother’s Little Helper
- Baboozled (Cold Brewed)

His verdict was that this one was just “ok”. Personally, I found it to have a strong Guava/Mango flavour and slight perfumey taste that I don’t remember being present hot. I guess I too would call it “ok”.

My rat Eloise has made a home in the hood of my sweatshirt and she hasn’t really moved from it in a few hours. It’s cute but kind of preventing me from being mobile at all. My brother says she hasn’t slept so soundly in months (since getting sick), though. Not sure if this is a good or a bad sign.

Steeped up a timolino full of this, which leaves about a cup worth of the leaf I brought on vacation with me.

Parameters were 3 tsp. of leaf in boiling water (12 oz.) for somewhere over six minutes and under ten. I lost track a little bit. Well, maybe a lot bit.

It’s maybe a little weak, but pretty good overall. A good night time/sweet relaxation tea. Delicious! I can really taste the nuttiness tonight.

Parameters: 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 6 oz. teacup of 80(ish) degree celsius water for about two minutes. Liquor is a pale yellow color. Smells like caramel and fresh, sweet flowers.

This tastes to me like the Pokemon move Sweet Scent would taste/smell like. Super fresh, kind of apple-y with hints of papaya and maybe jasmine (definitely a fresh, floral quality) and lots of sweet caramel-y mulberries. Yummy!

It feels like lots of my white teas are caramel kind of sweet. I don’t know; Big Apple, Gold Rush…

Maybe it’s not as much as it seems. Either way, it’s not a bad thing in my mind.

Made my brother and myself each a cup of this, which was a sample provided by VariaTEA. My Mom has 8 oz. mugs and 6 oz. teacups, so he got an 8 oz. mug and I made myself a teacup worth (so I could get in several teas in a shorter period). 1 tsp. for my mug, boiling water steeped for four(ish) minutes. Liquor is a pale pink colour.

Even between my cup and my brother’s mug, I still have enough leaf left for another teacup size.

Taste wise; this is mostly like a watery hibiscus with peppermint in the background. Not getting much else out of it; something sort of grassy, maybe. Anyway – it’s not for me. If my brother likes it he can have the other teacup worth.

Watching a Bronie (My Little Pony) documentary which was prompted by my brother. I’ve just been counting fedoras…

Met up with Lala today for tea The Vintage Tea Room! It’s super cool meeting people from Steepster in person; I’ve met Kittenna and Janelle for swaps, but this was the first time I really got to sit down and have an extended conversation, and it was just a really fun, good time.

Of course, Lala brought samples – some from 52Teas which I was expecting, and then lots of neat extras including what will be my first Pu-Erh, and what will be my first teas from Nina’s Paris and Fauchon. So much kindness! My mom keeps snooping through the tin she brought them in smelling things; right now she really likes the smell of the Dreamsicle Pu-Erh and to be honest so do I.

I wasn’t super adventurous in what I got to drink and eat, and I stuck to the same flowering tea and sandwich as I had earlier this week; but that’s because it was delicious! This time around, the tea tasted a little bit greener and more vegetal, and I did pick up some lavender which I struggled to pick up earlier in the week. It was nice getting a whole pot to myself, and the blossom was just beautiful like usual.

I should really get a clear teapot…

Watched Wolf of Wall Street last night, and it was definitely an interesting movie. It definitely had really good moments, and was pretty funny but there a fair amount of sketchy scenes too…

Anyway, I’m at my Mom’s now. I kind of had forgotten how messy it is here. My Mom is sort of a borderline hoarder, which is something I grew up with but now living on my own I’d sort of forgotten just how bad it is? Right now my “room” is completely trashed, so I’m probably going to try and tidy that up while I’m here so I don’t have to sleep on living room couch.

I’m a little sad too – my rat Eloise, who has been under the care of my brother since I couldn’t bring her to Saskatoon with me, is very sick and visually malnourished, underweight, and weak. I’m basically carried her everywhere with me since I’ve arrived; she just curls up and nestles next to me, making really horrible noises. I don’t blame my brother at all; she was already getting sick when I was leaving, but now she’s just so much worse.

Anyway, my brother asked to try this – so I made us each a mug, and my mother a mug of Prince of Wales. She hasn’t voiced her opinion about Prince of Wales, but he says he really likes this one, so I might leave the packet with him to enjoy since I have 40g(ish) more at home.

Parameters for our cups were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf, 8 oz. mugs boiling water for four minutes. Oddly enough, while our cups had the typical oil spots associated with this tea, we didn’t have the gross green goop from the melted white chocolate swirls.

Taste wise, this is a lot creamier and more white chocolate heavy then a lot of cups of this I’ve enjoyed, with a nice peppercorn tickle in the back. Normally the peppercorn bothers me, but not so much today. Anyway, it’s a nice comforting mug.

Made a timolino full of this – not really sure why. Parameters were 2 tsp. of leaf steeped in 12 oz. of approx. 85 degree celsius water, for one minutes. That used up all the leaf I brought with of this one for my vacation.

The steeped smell is very grassy/seaweedy, but the taste is a more mellowed out vegetal green tea base with strong floral notes (but nothing super distinct), and present but not highly strong notes of mango. Not a lot of lychee this time around. As it gets cooler, it’s a bit closer to drinking semi-floral cocktail syrup.

I was really excited to try this one, so it’s the first out of the three new Cuppa’T blends I picked up that I’ve chosen to make. Visually, this blend is really pretty; it has all sorts of different sizes and colours and shapes of stuff in it – and I think that’s what drew me to it because, while I’m not anti-pumpkin, pumpkin is a flavour that I’m relatively neutral towards. So, based mostly on the visual I picked some up.

I’d forgotten what the ingredients in this one were by the time I got home and this is a newer blend not listed on the Cuppa’T website so I messaged the store owner Jule for an ingredients list and she was very quick in responding to me with the ingredients list! I am definitely impressed by that.

My parameters for this first cup were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf steeped in an 8 oz. mug full of boiling water for 6 minutes. I was aiming for closer to four, but time got away on me. Dry, this smells like an Autumn tea; it’s subtly fruity with a gentle pumpkin/apple smell and nice warming spices like cinnamon and steeped the smell gives off strong apple and mandarin notes with mild pumpkin and cinnamon notes. It sort of smells like a cider, to be honest.

Taste wise; the first thing I notice is the apple/mandarin with mingling notes of hibiscus (gentle though; not overpowering), pumpkin, and maybe mango. This gives way to a more 50/50 apple and pumpkin taste with cinnamon and fleeting coriander notes to round it out. The rooibos base is barely present at all. More than anything else this makes me think of some kind of gently spiced Apple/Pumpkin cider, which is lovely. The aftertaste I get is primarily cinnamon/pumpkin. This would probably be phenomenal as a fall tea.

I think with a shorter steep time you could probably eliminate the hibiscus/mango in the forefront and get more of the apple/pumpkin, and perhaps a stronger taste of the rooibos base. I’d also love to try this with milk.

I’m really enjoying this – though admittedly it’s a fair bit different than what I was expecting, though I’m not even sure if I could tell you what I was expecting. I think I just had a super generalized idea of what this might be.

EDIT: Slightly more hibiscus taste as it cooled.

I totally forgot that this was a tea I could have while staying at my Dad’s! He just happens to have a full tin of it – in fact, it’s the only DAVIDsTEA that he and my Stepmom have ever actually purchased (though now I’ve left a fair bit here for him to have).

So, I made this last night in a timolino and then promptly forgot about it – so I’m drinking it in the morning stone cold now. But that’s ok, I actually prefer this cold and as a morning tea anyway, so I suppose that all works out pretty well. I always consider this my “peaches and cream oatmeal” tea because that’s what it tastes like to me, though I’m finding this timolino full is pretty vegetal in taste and that’s turning me off a fair bit.