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Sipdown (204/206)!

Stupidly generous VariaTEA’s Birthday package pushed me back up over 200 teas and negated all my sipdown progress, so I’m definitely taking advantage of all the easy sipdowns I have and trying to balance this with drinking older teas too. I’d very much like to be under 200; but it looks like that’s not really in the cards for me. Wah.

Anyway, the sample of this comes from Lala and I’m enjoyed my first cup with breakfast a few days ago, but thought my opinion could have been tainted by the heavily breakfast focused mood I was in. However, I finished this off in a timolino and took it with me yesterday, and throughout the day I thought it tasted just as good as the first cup (and was impressed at how the black base did not outway the other flavours in the blend).

I would get this again over Pancake Breakfast, that’s for sure. However, I still have lots of Pancake Breakfast to get through since that’s the full pouch I bought and this one was only a sample…

In a timolino as a travel companion yesterday. I’m working my way towards a sipdown. Cavocorax’s sample was super generous.

Last night I really got the “cake” out of this one, and much less of the spice. I also got lots of anise/chocolate which made for a delightfully sweet treat. I was a pretty happy camper ;)

First time I’ve ever used this, and it’s odd.

The show I went to last night was a primarily metal concert which is very much outside of my comfort zone (live music in general is outside my comfort zone – but I know nothing about heavy metal as well), but Kristina really wanted to get me out of the house and meeting people, and the metal communities in Saskatoon and Regina are both ones she’s heavily involved in. She knew a few of the people who played last night personally.

Normally, I wouldn’t be able to go to a show because they’re typically in bars and for thirteen more days I’m still underage – but this one was held in this really beautiful and lovely cafe called The Underground Cafe. It had tons of art and paintings on the wall from local artists and a giant fish tank with tons of really neat fish, and the barista who was hosting the event was really friendly and took time to talk to everyone who showed up and introduce himself and it was just a very cool atmosphere in general. It kind of reminded me of Roca House, in Regina.

Kristina and I have already decided we want to come back during the day sometime; I’m interested in trying the vegetarian sandwiches when they have the lunch bar open. The vegetarian menu was pretty extensive (always a plus) – and everything was named after The Beatles or their songs, which was a neat touch.

As far as food/drink goes, I ended up getting a cup of Chocolate Truffle black tea after talking with the Barista and confirming it was loose leaf and such (it was Chocolate Truffle or Blood Orange). Overall, it was pretty good; light black base and a fudgey chocolate taste. I think that they used leaf from Tea Desire because it tasted nearly identical to the identically named blend from Tea Desire – but I can’t be sure which is why I’m posting it here.

http://steepster.com/teas/tea-desire/39005-chocolate-truffle

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch; they certainly have access to Tea Desire blends – and it’s not uncommon for people to label Pu’Erh as “Black” teas. But again, I’m not totally sure which is why I’m posting it here.

The concert itself was really interesting. I’ll admit, I wasn’t really into it until the second band did an amazing cover of The Cat Came Back, which is a really neat song. It was sort of “popularized” by Fred Penner as a folk/children song but it’s much older than that (it’s from 1893). I know this because I studied the origins of the song for an art piece in my advanced art course (I was doing children’s songs/poetry/story inspired Disasterware in the style of Shel Silverstein on plates). Originally it was titled The Cat Came Back: A Nigger Absurdity. It’s very much not a child’s song so it makes sense that metal bands are drawn to this as a cover piece (I know a few who cover it, thanks to Kristina).

After that, I think I enjoyed the concert a lot more, and got a lot more into it (thought not as into it as she got). The other interesting cover they did was a heavy metal cover of a Bob Dylan song…

Also, for those who are curious – here are some really neat pictures of Distasterware, which is the art style I mentioned/one of my favourite art styles. The man who pioneered the art style is ironically more famous for one of the teapots he made in the art style (the first link):

http://thewhitenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SA_hitler-teapot-with-eyes.jpg

http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/charles-krafft-mike-leavitt-pitchfork-pals-1.jpg

https://far4.net/images/products/charles_krafft_kim_jong_ill_teapot_far4.jpg

https://far4.net/images/products/charles_krafft_martha_skateboard_far4.jpg

https://far4.net/images/products/Charles_Krafft_smith_wesson_far4.jpg

http://www.antiquesatoz.com/artatoz/krafft/murder.gif

http://reubenmiller.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/05/krafft_disasterware.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e67/dezeedoesdance/ceramics/charliekrafft5.png

I find the art style just fascinating. Basically, it’s defined as: Ceramic art using traditional ceramic decorative styles to capture modern disasters or horrific images. Krafft also uses a technique called “Spone” where he turns human bone remains into ceramics.

Apologies for the art geek out.

EDIT: I forgot the best/worst part of the fishtank! There was a dead fish floating in the corner of the tank the whole time we were there (five fucking hours) – and the barista was freaking out because he had just bought it for the tank; he even crawled on to the table (in the weirdest position) to get a better look – like, while we were eating there. And then, halfway through the show all the snails from the bottom of the tank gathered near the dead fish and by the end of the show this dead fish was covered in about four or five snails.

I just couldn’t help but think how “metal” the whole thing was.

This is the other other tea I had as a latte in store yesterday (I was really early meeting her so I had plenty of time to kill and I felt bad just sitting in the store; which was the perfect excuse for more tea!). It was a strategic choice because I knew I’d need the energy to make it through the metal concert I was going to see later in the evening.

I have to say, I didn’t enjoy this one as a latte as much as I thought I would. Basically, the taste was the same as it is straight (I guess the chocolate is pretty milky) but just with a really thick and creamy mouthfeel.

So, it wasn’t bad just not mind blowing either.

Before heading to the metal concert with Kristina, I met up with her at DAVIDsTEA. I was a little early though, so I had a fun time talking with the employees (the hot one was there; and he gave me the biggest smile when I came in!). I actually ended up pawning off some unwanted tea samples on the employees. That’s maybe a weird thing to do, but I’m pretty comfortable around them all so then again maybe not?

“You know you’ve got too much tea when you start giving rival tea companies’ tea away to DAVIDsTEA employees…”

I also had a cool talk with the manager about flavoured matchas which was brought up when I was disappointed they were sold out of the matcha infused white chocolate bars.

But anyway, I ended up getting two lattes and the expenditure was funded by VariaTEA’s generosity (birthday DT gift card). They were both really good, but I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more!

I don’t think I’ve ever had this one with milk at home, but that’s something I’m going to have to keep in mind from now on because it was so creamy and delicious. Like – I’m struggling to come up with words because the overall experience was really different than just drinking this one plain. Mmm!

Backlog from yesterday!

This was a cold brew that I forgot was cold brewing so in total it sat for 20ish hours doing its thing. I poured it into a water bottle and enjoyed sipping on it during the day while I was out with Kristina. Very juicy and refreshing with a strong kiwi taste; a lot better cold brewed than hot too (hot it’s very sour).

This will be a summer staple!

I forgot I had this in my cupboard, heh…

Anyway, I pulled it from my sample bags in the closet and moved it to my sample drawer in the kitchen so I can work on sipping it down. There’s no reason to keep hoarding a tea I forgot I even had, right? Right. So now there’s only one more cups worth of leaf left!

Try saying that five times fast: Leaf left. I had a hard enough time typing it, but saying it trips you up too…

This tastes decent enough; you get the honeybush, and a tang from the “cheesecake” and then this funny peanut/chocolate aftertaste. I guess I must have liked it a fair bit last time too – I rated it ‘80’.

Only one of two more cups of this one left. I may give them to Robyn, or see if I can throw them into a swap or something…

This smells really foul today – oily and fishy and gross. However, it’s not nearly as rude as far as the taste goes. In fact, it’s fairly light in comparison to the highly aromatic smell that’s filling my kitchen. So that’s not so bad, I guess.

Right now I’m just killing time while my nail’s dry – and then I’m out for the day! I have to go fill out some forms and stuff at the bank, and then I’m meeting a friend downtown at DT before we head to a metal concert. I’m gonna be pretty out of my comfort zone there, heh…

I don’t really do things, and specifically I don’t really do things in loud concert settings. Plus, I know next to nothing about metal music. But, she invited me and it is a chance to get out of the house so I guess why not?

Thanks Sil and VariaTEA! This was an awesome (early) birthday present! Seriously; I opened the birthday package I got today from VariaTEA and this was all I could smell – even through the tin foil! Mmm! Bananas!

It’s, of course, the first one I tried out and the first tea I made for myself today – whisked into cold milk. It tastes exactly like it smells – and that’s banana medicine (the best kind of medicine; I feel for my brother who never got to have it because he’s highly allergic to penicillin) or those marshmallow-y banana candies.

I may have gotten a bit too excited though, heh…

I chugged the whole 12 oz. of it in about two minute and the felt immediately full and bloated. Too much yummy banana! I’ll try to be more patient with future cups.

(Banana Cheesecake, anyone? YES!)

I’ll be pretty sad when this is gone – though thankfully I still have at least 25g worth of it to enjoy. I didn’t even mind the oilyness last night and the peppercorns weren’t bugging me; it was just a very creamy mint tea that allowed me to let go of all the tension in my shoulders.

Perfect for right before bed!