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Sipdown (191/195)!

Well, I’m not so sad to see this one go. Actually, I’m really thankful that the sample VariaTEA sent me was small enough I could use it all up in one go. Anymore and it would have been swapped to some poor soul or just tossed out.

It. Was. So. Gross.

It was like I was drinking this bad combination of citrus fruit that’s sat out the counter too long (where the fuck would citrus notes even come from!?), stale caramel, and butter that someone dropped on a dirty kitchen floor. I’m honestly shocked I even finished it: I guess I was really thirsty.

Sipdown (192/196)!

This was an easy enough sipdown to take with a cold brew so that’s exactly what I did with the sample from VariaTEA since this totally just screamed cold brew.

When I opened it up to set up the cold brew the smell was intoxicating and intense and smelled so strongly of sweet, borderline overripe strawberries. I knew in an instant that I would love this tea and I was so sad to be parted with it already. The colour of the cold brew threw me off a little though; it’s was really light and pale.

Taste wise: like a strawberry bomb went off in my mouth. It really was a sensory overload in the best way ever and now I’m crushed that this is gone. So, so sad. However, that makes two Cornelia Bean blends that I’d order in an instant which is actually 2/2 tried. That’s promising, and I have lots of other Cornelia Bean samples to try out so if there are a couple more I fall in love with then who knows – there might very well be a CB order in my near future!

I was totally shocked to receive this and some other matcha in the mail this morning from the so lovely Courtney who sent me some surprise tea!

This is one I had planned to add into my matcha order, despite never having tried it, so I was incredibly stoked to get to taste it today to confirm whether or not I need 30g of it. The short answer is: yes I do. It was so so so good! Like the creamiest tastiest coconut milkshake type thing. I have literally nothing to complain about.

In other news: I couldn’t put in my tea or my t-shirt orders tonight despite a huge paycheck. When I went to the store to buy my prepaid cards they charged me for them ($400 dollars worth) but immediately after doing so the Assistant Manager, who had sold them to me, declared that the cards had not activated like they should have.

Seemed like a simple fix to me; just refund them and sell ‘em to me again but with working Prepaids… Apparently not so easy! Now I’m $400 short in my till and have to come into work early tomorrow and stop at the store to get this resolved by the store manager himself (who had to contact the “higher ups”). I’m incredibly pissed off. This should have been resolved TODAY because now I’m $400 out which is a very uneasy and scary feeling.

Ugh.

So, here’s hoping I can place my orders tomorrow…

Continuing to whittle down the Butiki teas I don’t plan to restock, such as this one. I’ve forbidden myself from placing another Butiki order until I’ve cleared out this one, Irish Cream Cheesecake, and Traditional Plum Pudding (as well as tried my new Butiki samples from VariaTEA and the impending ones from 221Tea) from my cupboard. There are several I know I love that I plan on restocking, such as Pistachio Ice Cream, Cider Guayusa, and White Rhino and plenty more that I’ve yet to try but really want to but I’m not allowed to do that until I have room!

So this came with in the timolino today. I actually drank it in the evening not the morning Good Evening Sunshine, but shhhh it’s a secret. It feels wrong going against the tea’s name.

There was something off about it and I struggled to place what but suddenly it hit me while sipping at it: it needed honey! Thankfully and coincidentally we received a shipment of honey, jam, and PB to the store today so I just bought one of our bottles of honey, squeezed a little in, shook it around a bit, and continued sipping. With the new addition of honey, all felt right again.

Mmm!

Despite an awful work day, I had a pretty good tea/mail day today! When I left to catch the bus my small swap with akgrowngirl was waiting for me in the mailbox so I scooped it up and brought it to work with me where I then whisked a pinch of this up into some cold water to get an idea of what it tastes like.

(I also sent out packages to VariaTEA and 221Tea! Hopefully they have a speedy delivery!)

Mmm! It’s good: basically a straight up no frills peppermint taste which was very refreshing and helped with the fluctuating stress headache I’ve had as of late. I can’t wait to try it in some cold milk: I feel like it has so much potential to make this creamy "Candy Cane’ type drink, especially mixed with a little bit of White Chocolate Matcha.

Sipdown (190/194)!

Cold Brewed this baby and then took ’er to work today. I ended up doing some extensive labour work for a few hours during my shift (transporting freight across the warehouse, moving the metal shelving units around, etc.) so I was pretty exhausted and definitely in need of something cold to drink up.

There was something really off about this one though, and it took me a really long time to be able to place what. In addition to the typical melon bubblegummyness of it there was a very strong and powerful taste of cinnamon. I clean my thermos out thoroughly every night and neither the last tea in the thermos or in my mason jar were cinnamon teas so the contamination issue must have come from somewhere else.

It was really frustrating: this is not the final note I wanted to finish the tea on and not what I was looking forward to either: this is a discontinued blend and I might not get a chance to have it again – I was saving the final cold brew for a perfectly “Spring” day, and that’s exactly what today was. Argh!

Work in general was frustrating though: I feel like The Witch only assigns the hard labour tasks to me – I’ve never seen any other employee have to do as much hard labor as I do with the possible exception of our Assistant Manager Val. On top of that, she fired 10 more people and cut everyone’s hours but hers/Val’s (their hours actually increased). It kills me every time I have to say goodbye to more friends and coworkers – this time especially since our previous manager had promised the cuts were done.

On top of that one of the people cut was a fellow keyholder named Hazel: we trained together and are very close. I’m going to miss her a lot and I know she’s going to be devastated: she was relying on this job so much to support herself after immigrating and divorcing her husband.

Fuck.

This generous matcha sample comes from the wonderful VariaTEA who not only sent me this one but a top up of Bananas and Cream as well. From the moment I pulled it out of the box I was dying to try it, though I was patient enough to wait until this morning to have it in some cold with with breakfast (don’t judge – but “breakfast” was a massive bowl of buttered popcorn).

VariaTEA compares this to a strawberry milkshake, and just let me say that she’s 100% accurate in that description. Seriously I can’t think of a closer comparison to anything else. I’m instantly in love with this one, and I will be stocking up.

Actually funny thing; payday is tomorrow and the plan is to place a Red Leaf order as well as a Red Bubble (T-Shirts) order – so when I say I’ll be stocking up we’re talking, like, tomorrow…

But seriously: mmmm!

Last tea of the night! I was digging through my sample bags earlier today was sorting the new samples from VariaTEA out into the appropriate tea type bag for each when I happened upon this one! Of course I had to rescue it from the back of my closet…

Last time around I was getting pretty sick of this one but it’s been a while since then and I’m happy to report that, for now at least, this one it hitting all the right notes once more. Although, maybe it was more enjoyable tonight because I added a twist to it: I paired it with some cinnamon toast eggos and mixed in a bit of homemade strawberry syrup to sweeten it.

I did find the cinnamon in the mug to be the most forefront flavour but the new strawberry/plum duo followed close behind and was sweet, juicy and fun. An awesome way to end a pretty awesome tea drinking day. And I’ve got some great teas picked out for tomorrow so I’m definitely looking forward to that!

Sipdown (190/194)!

From VariaTEA. I know she’s a fan so I was really hoping to like this one but I’m finding myself kind of fighting to finish off the cup. It smelled really yummy too, so that just kind of adds to the disappointment.

I’m getting a lot of bitterness in the cup and it’s really hard to push through it, though when I do I get fleeting notes of strawberry. The one redeeming quality is that the bitterness doesn’t hang around in the aftertaste but there is a faint vanilla creaminess sort of like a Campino that does linger and that makes fighting through the cup at least somewhat worth it.

Oh well; one less in my cupboard and I’m thankful to VariaTEA for sharing and for the chance to try something I likely wouldn’t not have picked out for myself.

EDIT: Hmm, I seem to be the only one to have experienced such extreme bitterness. I’m confidant I didn’t oversteep though – I was very diligent about the time after how long I let Checkmate sit unattended today…

Sorta Sipdown (191/195)!

This little guy is headed off to 221Tea and is officially the last of the six “sorta sipdowns” that I’m sending to her. I saved him for last mostly because I was putting off having him: the bacon teas still intimidate me and the smell of this one always makes me feel a bit nauseous. Still, after recently falling in love with 52Teas’ Pineapple Bacon rooibos I really wanted to give this another shot just in my tastes had changed enough for me to reevaluate my first impression and give this a better rating…

That’s not the case though: while I don’t completely hate the flavor it is making me feel somewhat queasy, which is probably only exaggerated by the fact I’ve been drifting in and out of headaches and cramps all day. Ugh.

Oh well; can’t love ‘em all – an important tea lesson that I still sometimes need to be reminded of. I was hopeful though; especially after loving Pineapple Bacon so much. I still think this is a something every tea drinker needs to try at least once though which is why I don’t feel bad passing it along to 221Tea: worst case she dislikes it too but has had a memorable tea experience and saved herself some money buying a pouch…