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At the time I placed my Della Terra order, Tre owed me $40. I told him he could pay me back by buying me $40 of tea online since he has a credit card and I don’t. I ended up needing a few filler teas to reached the $40 he owed me and this was one of them. It just sounds really interesting. I don’t own any teas with cherry in them even though I love cherries and I’ve never tried a tea tht was cola flavoured so I figured it was worth a shot.

I can’t really decide whether or not I actually like the smell of the dry leaf for this one. I think it’s the most interesting smelling black tea I’ve ever owned. I can definitely smell the cola which is really strong and reminds me of those “Coke Ball” candies you get that sort of taste like flat coke. I THINK I smell the chocolate, but it’s really burried under the super intense smell of coke, and there’s a note in there that’s familiar fruity but I’m not totally sure I would call cherry.

I had Tre smell the dry leaf without knowing the name of the tea or what was in it, and he said it smelled like orange peels or orange zest, and I can’t help but sort of smell oranges and coke now.

For my 6 oz. cup I’m using a level tsp. just because this smells so weird and so strong and fragrant that I don’t want to be totally overwhelmed; if it tastes weak I can always use more leaf next time. I steeped this one using boiling water for 5 minutes.

The liquor of this tea is actually really pretty; there are little silver specks all through it that are very shimmery in my mug. The smell is definitely cola, with something else that smells mildly like cherries or chocolate? Either way, it just kind of smells… “off”. Curse Tre mentioning oranges – I can’t get that out of my head, and I’m not sure whether or not there really are orange notes or whether I’m tricking myself into thinking they’re there.

Taste wise, this is totally the weirdest tea I’ve ever had. I’m tasting coke for sure, but it’s hot which is such a weird experience and sensation. I can taste the chocolate, actually, which I wasn’t sure I’d be able to. And, I taste oranges! Blerg. Coke and oranges is such a weird flavour combination. I also THINK I taste cherry, but it’s SO much in the background that it’s almost impossible to taste. I’m also not getting anything “cakey” about this tea.

Overall, I just can’t figure out whether I like it or not. I’m so glad I tried it, because this was so weird how could you not try it? But I don’t think I’m going to repurchase it. I’m not even really sure how I want to rate it…

Decided this morning was a perfect time to try out the next Della Terra tea, and I settled on this one. The dry leaf was just SO enticing, I couldn’t resist the smell at all.

Initially, I thought the dry leaf smelled like Juicy Pear flavoured Jelly Belly candies, and I still get that smell from it. However, the longer I stood at the counter smelling the package, the more I was reminded of a different, albeit sort of similar, smell. When I was around 12 I had really, REALLY long hair and I didn’t take care of it that well so it always got tangled in ridiculous knots; we had a detangler spray that we used to douse my hair in to help with brushing it and the scent of the spray was “apple pear”, although it definitely smelled more like pear than apple to me. I think I even used to spray the stuff straight onto my skin and wear it as “perfume”. That is TOTALLY what this tea smells like; really fresh pear candy with slight apple notes. The smell of the black tea is totally drowned out.

I steeped a heaping teaspoon for my 6 oz. cup for around 5 minutes – I sort of lost track of time. The smell of the tea hot is a much lighter pear smell that still retains faint notes of apple. Also, you can finally catch a whiff of the black tea base.

I was really rushed on time, so I poured the cup I’d made into my metal water bottle, which got so hot as I was pouring that I actually lightly burnt my hand (another sign that I need to invest in a timolino). I left and caught my bus not even five minutes later.

I actually forgot about my tea for a really long time, which is sort of shameful. However, I was really busy at the mall distributing resumes, and then I stopped at DAVIDsTEA (dropped off a resume there, so fingers crossed) and restocked on Blueberry Jam and Tropicalia. I now have a full tin of both! And lastly, I went and had another job interview with Calendar Club (though this time for a different branch which would have a location closer to my house). So having all of that going on is enough to justify forgetting about my tea, right?

I finally got to drink it after my interview on the bus ride home, and by that time it was luke warm so I’m taking that into account with my overall rating, and noting that I need to make sure I have my next cup of this either as a hot tea or an iced tea; none of this halfway BS.

I was actually shocked by how muted the pear taste in this tea was, however. I mean, the dry leaf smells SO strongly that it completely covers the smell of the black base tea, but as I took my sips the most dominant flavour was definitely the black base. In fact, I found that you could only taste the pear at all in the first few moments of the sip, with some REALLY subtle apple notes. The black base DID taste good (actually it was really sweet, which I think I’m going to attribute to the little gold sugar balls in the dry leaf), but it’s not what I was expecting or wanting.

The only other pear tea I’ve had is DAVIDsTEA’s Cranberry Pear, so that’s what I’m comparing this to primarily. I liked that there was no tartness since this blend doesn’t have cranberries in it and overall I think both blends have a nice tasting black base – but I was missing the impact of the pear or the creaminess that Cranberry Pear has. So, ultimately, I THINK I like that one better.

Still, this was not a bad tea.

I got my Della Terra order today!

It actually showed up at about 2 PM, which was RIGHT before I left to go to my interview, so I only had time to bring it downstairs and leave it on the table. I couldn’t even tear into the box and look at my beautiful teas! It bugged me all day, but finally I got home and unpacked everything from earlier in the day and then quite promptly tore into the box (literally, I couldn’t find the scissors to cut it open).

I ripped open each package to smell all six different teas I bought, and the all smelled absolutely amazing (especially Cherry Cola & Cake, The Perfect Pear, and Monkey Bread). I only really have time tonight to try one tea, so I decided to go for this one since it was the tea that initially made me want to place an order, plus Tre seemed most interested in this one so I brewed him a cup too.

I’m not gonna lie, there were a few teas I probably would have wanted to try over some of the ones I got, but I strategically picked a few of these because I knew Tre wouldn’t like them. Anything with Strawberry (Strawberry Zest, in this case), Cherry (Cherry Cola and Cake) or Mint (Strawberry Zest again, and Minty Cow) he wont even try. Does that make me an awful roommate? Even better question, do I care?

Dry leaf of this one smells like pure cinnamon. I don’t smell the black tea base or the yogurt bits. I think Tre was interested in this because it has cinnamon which is his favourite kind of tea. However, he claims to hate Chai teas and wont try anything with “Chai” in the name. I THOUGHT he wouldn’t want to try this one because of the chai spices, but I guess he didn’t read the ingredients list or didn’t care because the smell is purely cinnamon.

PS. I don’t think he really understands what Chai teas are because I’ve made his Hot Lips from DAVIDsTEA and Chai Apricot from Tea Desire and he liked both…

First few sips were all cinnamon and, admittedly I thought I was going to be disappointed because I had heard this one tasted creamy and like cinnamon buns. I was looking for the flavour and I was getting something one dimensional. However, as my tea cooled down I was able to taste multiple levels of flavour and different notes.

There IS a really creamy, icing kind of flavour to this tea, it just took a while to hit me. I REALLY understand the comparrison to cinnamon buns that I’ve seen other people make. For me, I’m getting really strong notes of cream cheese similar to a cream cheese icing you would have on a spice cake. That’s exactly what this tastes like! Cinnamon bun-like? For sure. But more so spice cake with cream cheese icing. I’m absolutely loving it.

The mouthfeel is pretty thick, and I don’t know if it’s possible but this tea TASTES gooey to me. It’s like I’m in pastry dessert heaven. Also, groundbreaking news! This is the FIRST tea I have EVER seen Tre drink without added sugar. He literally said it was sweet enough he didn’t need it. I feel like a proud mama.

For my first ever Della Terra tea, I think I made a great pick and I’m really satisfied.

Backlog from this morning! I had a busy day today and am only now getting home after leaving the house at around two today. I brought this with me for my job interview (at Fuddruckers), to kind of keep me awake.

I made it as an iced/cold tea using my usual method (steep one extra strong cup and then do a second steep that usually tastes more watery, resulting in an average taste). This was my first time drinking this one iced, and I really liked it as an iced/cold tea. I feel like the chocolate, raspberry, and chicory flavours were more enhanced than usual and the taste of the almond and mate were more muted.

I think my job interview went well, but I don’t want to be cocky about it and therefore jinx it. If I DO get the job though, I’ll be working hours ranging from 6:30 AM until 5:00 PM which is REALLY early for me, especially in comparison to what I’m used to. The guy who did my interview was pretty cool – we actually ended talking about tea and whether tea is better than coffee (it totally is). He said he’s an Earl Grey fan, and his friends are green tea fans even though he hates green tea (something we have in common).

At the university, I went to an event called Queers and Ladders with Robyn, which was pretty fun. Basically, it was a games night for LGBTQ and allies and it was really cool meeting new people, especially since I know so few here in Saskatoon. They’re doing a movie night tomorrow and showing a movie/documentary called “Call Me Kuchu” (anyone know of it?) about the first openly gay man in Uganda. I think I’m gonna go tomorrow with Robyn again, so looking forward to that.

I also gave the rest of my White Peony sample from Teavivre to Robyn today, so I guess I can remove that one from my cupboard.

Woke up today with the most killer migraine, so going through my “migraine routine”. I steeped myself an extra strong cup of peppermint tea, and portioned myself a half cup of peanut butter. Peppermint tea and peanut butter almost always help my migraines go away.

I’ve also isolated myself in my room with the lights out and some corny romantic comedies at very low volume. I’m hoping this headache goes away by tomorrow since I have another job interview.

Fingers crossed I do well!

First time I had this one there was a funny soap taste to it, but I’m now convinced that must have been a result of either Tre or I not properly rinsing off our dishes and getting dish soap in the cup because I’ve had this a few times since and the soapy taste hasn’t made a reappearance.

Tonight I’m really getting strong notes of blueberry and elderberry and it’s not nearly as sweet as previous cups I’ve had which I’m going to attribute to having less stevia in the dry leaf I measured out. It’s really good regardless of whether it’s sweet from the stevia or not.

I think I have to bump the rating up on this one!

EDIT: Actually got a good second steeping out of this one! The flavour was less complex, but the blueberry and elderberry notes still came through quite clearly.

I love this tea so much. I don’t know if I can pick a single tea as my favourite, but this is definitely in my top fives favourites and is by far my favourite white tea (although, I’ve recently discovered that I love many white teas). This tea alone can halt any cravings I have for junk food or sweets.

According to Tea Desire’s steeping instructions, you should use 2 tsp. of this and typically I have (and it’s be orgasmic). However, since I drink this one so often I don’t want to blow through all the leaf I have super quickly, so I decided to use less leaf this time and see if I could produce a tea that’s still great but, in doing so, average out more cups per 50g.

I steeped 1 1/2 tsp for 4 minutes, and the answer is… Yes! This tea is still JUST as yummy and flavourful, so I think I’ll be using 1/2 tsp. for each cup from now on. Yay for be stingy with my tea leaves!

Also, I think JUST MAYBE I have this whole internet issues thing figured out… I seem to not lose my connection when I stay in the laundry room, which happens to be the same room as the modem. As soon as I leave the laundry room I go back to the same issues I’ve been having where I disconnect every two or three minutes. So I’ve done the logical thing, of course, and set up my laptop on top of the dryer with a chair next to it and turned that into my desk.

If I can’t make the connection come to me, I guess I’ll come to the connection.

Resteeped.

Right now, this is perfectly complementing the spicy beef Hamburger Helper I’m eating. The spices go together, but the apricot is something sweet and much more contrasting in flavour. I think the contrasting flavours in the tea alone are such a huge part of why I love this chai.

This second steep has really brought out the taste of cloves.

I love dessert teas so much, and they’re so good for curbing cravings for junk food. For example, I’m craving chocolate pastry right now or strawberry eggos. This just happens to be the perfect tea to combat those cravings.

Out of the tsp. and a half I measure out, there were quite a few massive chunks of strawberry (at least one was dime sized), so I’m anticipating a pretty fruity cup, at least in comparison to how this one normally tastes. The smell of it steeping is definitely dark chocolate and a huge blast of strawberry. Yum!

Yeah, definitely extra strawberry tasting! I added a wee touch of milk, mostly just to help cool it down faster. Still, it definitely adds more of a “milk chocolate” taste as opposed to the dark chocolate notes usually present. Tre was making fun of me for drinking a tea called “Love Tea”, so I just pointed out how pathetic he is for pining over a girl who, firstly, isn’t single and, secondly, he’s only known for like a week and a half. That shut him up pretty quickly.

Yeah, I’m such a nice roommate. He seems extra cranky today, and he keeps poorly imitating Australian people and making fun of my somewhat OCD organizational system for my teas. I don’t know, I’m probably just extra cranky from not eating anything today, and from how shitty the job hunt has been going. I wasn’t even able to apply anywhere new today because there weren’t any new listings on any of the job boards I use.

I’m just gonna try and relax and enjoy this sweet tea. Mmm…

Dry leaf stills smells delicious, and still SO much like the sweet and sour sauce from the vegetarian meatballs we made in class (see my previous note on this tea for a better description). Mmm, sweet apricot jelly and a tangy sort of ketchup smell. Dang it’s really making me want actual food.

The smell of this one steeping is extra smokey today with strong contributing notes of apricot, cinnamon, cloves, and ketchup. I swear, I’m the only person who has review this tea to taste ketchup notes in it. I think it’s a huge part of why I love this so much, though.

1 heaping tsp. steeped for about 2 1/2 min. – the liquor is a cloudy orange colour. The taste is a balance of sweet, tangy, and spicy like always. I think I taste the ginger more than usual, and I’m wishing the the apricot and ketchup notes tasted closer to how strong they smell. Still, this is the perfect tea the help ward of hunger, at the moment.