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Welp…

I just had sort of the best and worst day of work, simultaneously. For those who don’t already know, I was hired at Tea Desire and today was my first shift. It was absolutely incredible getting to work so closely with teas, recommending blends for people, scooping tea, and everything else. Even doing manual labor like mopping or compacting cardboard was great. It was basically a dream job.

The “worst work day” part comes in right at the end of my shift. After spending the entire day training, learning how to work the till, soaking up information on tea blends and memorizing tea ingredients, and being given forms to fill out and bring back, my trainer pulled me aside and told me that they had found someone more qualified to fill the position and consequently no longer had a spot for me.

I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m really disappointed and I feel like I was “led on” all throughout the day, but I also understand completely. So, they paid me for the day’s work and I sadly departed. Now I’m back to browsing job listings online, and it’s really disheartening. Most of all, I know my Mom is likely going to call any day now to ask how everything went (I was so excited to be working there) and I’m not sure how to tell her I’m back to job hunting…

Regardless, it was an incredible experience and I enjoyed my time there (and of course I’m going to be continuing to drink their blends – I feel like that doesn’t even need to be said, they’re too good to not drink) – and if anyone here has the opportunity to work in a tea store, if only for a day, I highly recommend doing it!

Silverlining, I suppose, is now I have more time to write tasting notes while job hunting so that I can beat VariaTEA in our competition.

Anyway, this was one of three blends I took with me today. This was the one of three that I drank cold, and it was just perfect. Sweet and floral and yummy! I’m so glad I bought 100g of this to drink whenever I want! Mmm!

Final tea before I leave to A) Mail off swap packages and B) Start work! I’m just dying of excitement and nervousness and my tummy is doing flips so mostly this morning I just made caffeine free teas that were kind of gentle to ease me into the day.

Parameters were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for five minutes. This is good, like always. I’m really getting the lavender in this mug.

I admit, a small part of why I picked this one out and did it last was so that I’d be tieing VariaTEA on the number of tasting notes we have using one of her favourite teas. I know she’ll get me back for that, but at the moment it just feels so good ;P

Started cold brewing this last night and strained it this morning. I poured a small cup for myself just to be drinking something cold. It was pretty good, and relatively thirst quenching. Pretty tart, though that’s not surprising.

Also made this in the morning whilst getting ready for work.

Parameters were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. boiling water steeped for five minutes. Tea liquor is oily and murky.

However, this is still a pretty yummy vanilla cake tea – albeit I’m not enjoying this cup as much as I usually do.

Steeped up a bag quickly this morning while getting ready for work and making all my work teas.

Since this is touchy and gets bitter quickly I kept the steep time super short (1 min 3o seconds) which was a great decision because this was a yummy, sweet Saskatoon Berry tea! :)

Sipdown (179)!

Darn it – just as I finished my Mint Chocolate Rooibos review I saw that VariaTEA had managed to get in a few more teas tonight. This is my 14th cup of tea today, so I don’t think I can do anymore after this one. Despite a competitive drive, I just don’t think I can manage. Oh well, hopefully a day surrounded by tea tomorrow will yield some more tasting notes.

Anyway, this tea is one of two teas my Dad and Step Mom owned prior to my coming down from vacation. It comes in pyramid satchets and though there’s no information on the ingredients in the packaging, visually it looks like it’s just red rooibos, lemon grass, and cornflower. It has a strong lemon grass smell. I didn’t have any while I was there, but I did take a single satchet home with me to try.

Steeped up in 8 oz. of boiling water for like six minutes? I lose track of time a bit. Steeped smell is strongly lemongrass. And, as far as the taste goes, it’s more just plain old grass…

Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh. It’s more like very wood chippy and kind of medicinal rooibos, lawn trimmings, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Yeah – I think I was right to be harsh. It’s just not that good. I think I’m dumping most of this cup. Sorry Dad, but this is nasty – I’m glad I left some higher quality tea for you to enjoy.

I couldn’t let VariaTEA finish the day with more tasting notes than me, so I did the next best thing to having more tasting notes than her: I tied with her. Fingers crossed that she’s done for the evening, because I am just absolutely filled to the brim with tea. This is my 13th cup of the day – and I think I’ve peed like ten times today…

Maybe that’s a little TMI. Gah – I had suggested a friendly competition, not realizing just how into it I would get. I should have known better: I typically have two competition modes – “Meh, fuck this shit” and “I’M GONNA KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES”. Anyway, I start at Tea Desire tomorrow so hopefully that gives me a bit of an edge since I’ll be surrounded by tea all day.

I’m being trained by the head of the company himself; that’s right, the guy that founded the company – Tony Auper. No pressure there, right? Who am I kidding; tons of pressure there. But hey, at least I’ll be able to get an answer to my review question from the best source there is.

Anyway, I wanted something with chocolate as my last tea but I’ve also had A LOT of caffeinated blends today and it’s getting late – so rooibos or herbal was the best option. Except, I don’t really have any herbal blends with chocolate other than my Tea Desire blends which I’m still not sure if I should be writing reviews on now that I’m working there. So I broke this one out. Funnily enough, this sample comes from VariaTEA.

My steeping parameters were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water steeped for four minutes. Based on dry smell – this is just a typical, average sort of mint/chocolate tea. The steeped smell is chocolate with a faint hint of mint. I also added a splash of milk to this to cool everything down so it could be consumed quicker. I still have lots of VariaTEA’s sample so I can try this straight another time.

Taste wise – a pretty typical chocolate mint tea. I will say that this is now as rich as I was hoping for, and I personally would prefer a strong presence of mint. Additionally, the rooibos base is very strong and pretty wood chippy, and I also get a “metallic tang” from the tea and nutty notes too. Ultimately, it’s not bad but I’m not heavily impressed either. I’m sure I could find better mint/rooibos teas elsewhere.

This one came my way because of the kindness of Keychange who sent me a very generous sample in a swap!

I just prepared myself a cup (1 1/2 tsp. of leaf, boiling water for 4 min. in a 10 oz. cup) alongside Maple Bacon because I honestly was not expecting to find the cup drinkable, so I wanted something that I was confidant I would enjoy to offset that cup.

I am not disappointed! This is a lovely cup of vanilla custard goodness with nice floral notes to accompany. Sadly, I didn’t wait nearly long enough to drink it and it was quite hot my first few sips when it came in contact with my sore teeth – and now my mouth is in pain yet again, though notably for the first time so far today.

Ok, I may have lied to VariaTEA and told her I was taking a tea break. I honestly planned to, though! Except, last cup I had was like two hours ago, so that’s break enough, right?

Anyway, I took the pouch of this on vacation with me in the hopes I’d finally sack up and try a cup. I made it for practically every member of my family, but was too nervous to have a cup myself. Thing is, I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 10 years – that’s more than half my lifetime! In that time, not once have I had a vegetarian bacon equivalent so what makes me really nervous is that not only do I have no clue what actual bacon is supposed to taste like, I have zero clue what vegetarian bacon is supposed to be like either…

But regardless of that, I’m growing a pair and taking the plunge now.

So – for preparation I went with 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for four minutes. Dry, this does smell sweet so that could be the maple. There’s also a savory and sort of salty generic “meat” type smell, which I suppose would be the bacon. Steeped up, I definitely get more maple than I do in the dry leaf, and then a slightly more mild and less stomach churning savory meat kinda smell.

Gulp.

Ok, taste wise this isn’t really as bad as I thought it would be. Mind you, I don’t really have any conclusive idea on what bacon tastes like – let alone what a bacon tea should taste like. Anyway, there’s the distinct taste of the black base that Frank uses, and then a sweet maple kind of taste which is obviously the maple. However, there’s also a very salty/savory flavour that I’m sure if intended to be the bacon. It has a kind of smoke like quality to it – and in there aftertaste I definitely do get more of a “meaty” kind of taste.

So overall, I’m glad I tried this – I don’t think I had as much reason to be fearful as I thought I did. Ultimately this isn’t bad, it’s just highly unusual and somewhat foreign in taste to me. I don’t think I’m going to reach for this often if ever as something to “just drink” but it’s a great novelty tea and I could see myself making some up for myself if I had family or friends coming over as a weird and unusual tea for them to try.

This is my tenth cup of tea so far today, and I don’t think I’m anywhere close to being done for the day…

Anyway, I’m glad I’m back to having a loving relationship with this blend. For a while it was touch and go, but now that I’m not overleafing nearly as much I think we’re in a good place once more.