Anti V-Day Treat

I had to work on Saturday (I do hate 6 day weeks), so this came with me in my Timolino to make my morning more bearable. I used 1.5 tsp of leaf, gave it approximately 3.5 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. I don’t usually try a tea for the first time in a Timolino, but I feel like I’m familiar enough with Della Terra’s flavoured blends to do that. This one is good – creamy from the vanilla, mildly minty, with a hint of chocolate smoothness rounding out the sip. It’s delicately sweet – not overpoweringly so, but enough to know that this is a dessert tea. There’s a hint of the base in the aftertaste, but it’s mostly malt and I can’t argue with that. Malty teas are my thing.

I enjoyed this one (although why it’s anti v-day, I’m not sure). My one real complaint is that it’s clearly a re-named version of an existing tea (or teas, actually). I’m thinking Swiss Mountain, Bats in the Belfry, Minty Cow…they’re all vanilla/mint/chocolate blends of one kind or another, and they all taste pretty much the same. So, while I enjoyed this one, I do feel like I’ve been here before. There’s nothing unique to be found. Still, sometimes familiarity is what I crave. Never more so than at 6.30am on a Saturday, when I should be in bed. Thank goodness for tea!

I love/hate all the colored sprinkly things Della Terra throws in there teas. It’s cut and fun and visually appealing. Fine mesh filters + sticky melted sugar is a special hell, though.

This tastes like a candy cane, though! Sweet and vanilla-y with just a pop of mint. It’s creamy without milk, but far better with.

I don’t know if I’m behind the sentiment, but a satisfying, well-rounded blend and totally covers a dessert-like mint tea craving.

omg i never post on here any more wtf

and even right now i ran out of time and need to log off and run. ugh.

here is a video of oddree’s cat http://shmiracles.tumblr.com/post/86616074858

i bought this tea from VariaTEA yay!
i’ll write a real note later.
happy friday everyone!

It needs to be said here that VariaTea took a look at my shopping list, and then proceeded to put pretty much the whole thing into a package and mailed it to me. Our dear Anna in Italy did likewise, and this has resulted in an incredibly spoiled keychange indeed. You guys are so lovely. As my friend read out name after name of teas I’d coveted for so long, I just kept gasping and nearly teared up.
“So you guys just all send each other tea? Like, from around the world?”
“Yup, we sure do.” I said proudly.
“Wow. So isn’t coming home to your mail box and packaging off tea to send so much fun?”
“Oh, you have no idea.”

And man is it ever true.

So this tea was one I’d read really good reviews about, and a little while ago, i went through a phase where i wanted to try a lot of mint teas, especially vanilla mint teas, because I don’t typically like chocolate flavouring in my tea. But I’ve also come to realize that it sounded so much better in my head than it was in the cup, and this goes for pretty much any mint tea I’ve had: mint to be, Santa’s secret, the various dellaterra offerings. I think the only exception is Stacy’s peppermint patty, but I can’t remember that one nearly as well since I had it a while ago.

There’s a distinct smell to all dellaterra teas, I think, and this one was no exception. It did smell of vanilla or chocolate though, and I set to brewing it for four minutes. The mint is a bit muted here, covered by that vague dellaterra cake/vanilla/sweet combination of stuff, and the cup was definitely easy to drink, although I am grateful to know that I now won’t have to charge out and buy an oz of it (which I couldn’t do anyway LOL—the site is out).

Thanks so so much, VariaTea! Your package goes out Tuesday!