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Last tea of the night!

I think I’m half done what VariaTEA sent me? Somewhere around there, anyway. Thankfully I haven’t totally gotten sick of it or anything like that – though this cup was really sour/tart, and less enjoyable than most.

So, boo to that I guess.

So apparently I was in a “pop flavoured tea” mood tonight because I made Cola Matcha and this one. I just couldn’t get it out of my head! I toyed with trying a new rooibos/honeybush sample or trying to drink down DT’s Birthday Cake but I went back to this everytime so I just caved and went with what my stomach was telling me.

I drank it cold; and it did really hit the spot! I thought the honeybush was more prominent that it usually is but that was fine with me; when I realized I was in a rooibos/honeybush mood I was aware that a part of that was the craving for the distinct flavour of honeybush/rooibos. You know, that kinda “woodiness” of it.

Tre also tried a sip of this and the Cola Matcha soda – he proclaimed this one “ok” and then said the CMS was horrible. I don’t think I’ve found any matcha he likes, though…

Hmm…

It seems like I might have some experimenting to do with this one. I made it up tonight as a matcha soda using my usual method; 1/2 tsp. dissolved into 1 oz. of hot water, then a can of club soda poured in and a pinch of sugar.

I was ok. I did get the cola flavour, but it was also still pretty grassy/seaweedy and that made for a weird flavour duo. Also, despite being vaguely cola flavoured I still thought this left a little to be desired/didn’t quite live up to expectations. I’ll have to see what other ways I can put this one to use; somehow “Cola Milk” doesn’t seem like an option…

So thank you aisling of tea – I didn’t not like this one, but so far it hasn’t made a spectacular impression and I’m thinking that there are many more matchas that I’d want again over this one. It was need making “Matcha Coke” though – kinda the obvious thing to do with this one.

Sipdown (193/195)!

So, I made the last of this in my timolino and drank it on the walk home. It started snowing! Like, fairly heavily. Boo! Fingers crossed it all melts by tomorrow. DEATH TO ALL THE SNOW.

Anyway; this was nice! It’s sweet and maybe a little more “chocolate” flavoured than the previous cup was – but mostly it’s the cloves I’m really ‘digging’ right now. Concluding thoughts: this will be a little missed, but I’m sure it’ll be short lived/soon forgotten – it was a good, solid gingerless chai and I loved that, but I don’t think it was special enough/unique enough to be remembered over the other chais I keep stocked.

Thanks VariaTEA for the Transylvanian Transsiberian Chai!

Sipdown (194/196)!

Made the last in a timolino and brought it with to work! I had it on break with some Easter candy and a sandwhich…

Overall, I think this timolino worth steeped up a little bit weaker than the first cup I made but that could be from being prepared in the timolino itself and it really wasn’t much flavour loss anyway so I was pretty ok with it. I still can’t place WHY this tastes to familiar/what it reminds me of, and it’s still driving me totally mad! Urgh!

Anyway, this is gonna be a little missed. It was neat and really good, and if the opportunity to get more came around I’d likely consider it pretty seriously; though I think I’d be fine with just getting a small quantity like 20g – that’d probably do me enough to give this a good run and enjoy it more without getting sick of it.

So thank you, VariaTEA!

It looks like VariaTEA also decided to have this today; though mine was cold brewed (I think fifteen hours?) and then brought to work.

I normally really love this one and can find no faults with it, and I thought that was the way this brew was going, until I reached the last sixth of the thermos and then, for some reason unbeknownst to me, this went from light, refreshing “Fruit Loops” to this really weird/funky medical strawberry/red currant flavour – almost like the total clusterfuck of a mess that DT’s Currant Affair was. Umm, what? Hell no!

I’m thinking it was just from sitting all day though, because this was mostly really enjoyable and that list little bit was left alone for well over five hours during my shift today…

Until it happens again, I’m calling this a fluke!

So, this was my morning tea – but I didn’t have time to log it so I’m doing that now. It was good; although on the back of my tongue it tasted maybe just a little bit musty. The maple was strong too, but it worked really nicely with the berries and it was sorta like having a fruity pancake syrup (despite the weird mustiness which has never been present in this before; but this is old so I’m not really all the surprised/taken aback).

I dumped the rest of the leaves into my mason jar for tomorrow – so this is soon to be a sipdown as well (it will be tomorrow). That’s kinda exciting but also a little sad.

Also, VariaTEA got my package today – and it nearly pushed her past 200! MWAHAHA! She now, for the time being anyway, has more tea than me!

This tea was a lot better back when my palette was so under developed; I really got the butterscotch/rum flavour from it as a whole because I was knowledgeable about all the different things that makes that flavour up. Now I can pick apart all the contributing flavours and I notice what they bring to the tea individually more so that how they pair all together.

I think that’s why, all in all, I don’t reach for this or think about it as often now. That being said, when I do make it I still enjoy it – just in a much different way. I think it’s a pretty good coconut black, with some extra butter notes to it – it’s just not the same “OMG IT DOES TASTE LIKE RUM!” experience.

I guess developing your palette is a trade off; you can appreciate teas you otherwise wouldn’t have because all the nuances and finer details might have been missed, but things that you once enjoyed become maybe a little too simple…

Anyway, still a decent enough tea to end the night on! I’m not as let down as I maybe seem to be…

Late night Genmaicha.

I wanted popcorn, but I waited too long to make it and now it’s nearly midnight, so I’m being a good tenant and not running the popper because I know that’s a dick thing to do to our landlord trying to sleep upstairs. Still, I’m a little disappointed regardless.

Anyway, this was good! I really enjoyed cradling the cup close to me and smelling it; I’m not sure why (especially since this just tastes average), but this is the best smelling Genmaicha I’ve ever had, and it made me feel really comforted to have it close to me where I could enjoy it like that. It tasted good too, which is probably worth pointing out.

One more cup and it’s gone; but I’ve decided that once I’ve finished this, my RiverTea Genmaicha sample, and my Genmai Hojicha from DT I’m finally breaking open the 52Teas Marshmallow Treat! That’s giving me incentive to finish it up quickly.

Oh, I lost my tasting note on this! Steepster ate it on me…

Anyway, I broke this one out because the amount of Chai samples in my possession is only growing, so I figured I needed to step my shit up and actually finish (or at the very least, try) some of them. This one comes from VariaTEA and appears to be gingerless, so it was the top choice for the moment.

I have to confess; I originally thought this was called “Transylvanian Chai” and I kept getting the image of Dracula either taking a sip and his fangs being really sensitive to the heat of the liquor or him saying something like “It’s Spiiicccyyy” in his thick, sexy accent. I’m a little disappointed that that’s not actually the name…

Steeped up what I’m finding is that this isn’t as scary intense/spicy as I had assumed/feared it would be. The cloves and cinnamon are pretty strong and there’s some sort of thick creaminess/sweetness that I would maybe label as more like vanilla, but I’m assuming is the chocolate in this. The absence of ginger really helps a lot with putting this more forward in my books.

So conclusion drawn based on that? I’m pleasantly taken aback and will really enjoy finishing this off, but wont seek it out once it’s gone because I have other sweeter/fruit based (my preference) Chai blends in quantity that are more important I finish off first before getting more.

But yes; this is good and not as scary as I thought it’d be!