Granville Island Tea Co

Sipping this iced as I log the teas that have come into my house today. Umm. In my spreadsheet. I’ll do the spreadsheet first, then I’ll update Steepster.

I bought/was given 11 teas. That wasn’t really the point of today, but I’m not going to say no to moar tea!

Oh yeah. This tea won’t be getting a great rating from me even though I repurchased 100g today. I’m really undecided about it because it is everything I dislike, yet it’s so refreshing I keep drinking it. Weird, I know.

I’m pretty sure this has other things in it than just rooibos and lemon myrtle. I really dislike the fact that their ingredients lists are so flipping terrible.

Anyways, this tea is something I should hate yet I’m going through it like I’d like to go through ice cream on a hot summer’s day. I’m almost half way through the package, and I opened it yesterday. Yeah.

It tastes like rooibos. It’s medicinal. It has citrus peels of some sort and some dark berries in it. It doesn’t smell that great. And yet, here I am making another litre of it iced (hot brewed 10 mins, poured over ice, topped with cold water) to drink before bed.

Head. Desk.

In other news, the GIGANTIC Butiki order is at the post office, so I’ll be picking it up tomorrow (When do they open?! I want tea!). That should be fun. :D

Oh, and I have a job. Like, a real job as a lab tech. Flexible hours depending on how I’m feeling and what experiments are going on. YES.

Decided to have this one today, since our weather has been very pleasant for the last week, and strawberry and lemon sounded nice. It was a toss up between this one and Long Island Strawberry from Steam, but in the end, I didn’t want to fuss with the temperament of a green today, and I also wanted a bit of a caffeine jolt to help my head feel better since I am still sick (but on the mend).

This one comes from OMGsrsly from our tea swap and meetup a few months ago now. I have been saving it for nice weather, so today was the day. It was slightly floral and fruity, and I definitely got a strong black base. I initially started it without milk, but with a spoon of sugar, but later added milk.

I can’t say it is my favourite since I picked up more of the black than the fruit, but it could be my weakened senses from being sick. I’m keen to try this blend again, when I am not sick, and maybe from another vendor too.

This is a little one-cup sample that I brought back from my last trip to Vancouver. The Granville Island Tea Co seems to have a standard tea they use as a base for their black tea blends which is a decent, if not terribly inspired, Ceylon Orange Pekoe. The citrus bergamot is nicely balanced with the creamy vanilla notes. It’s a blend that’s fine for drinking plain, though in my opinion it’s better with milk. A fairly standard cream earl grey, all told.

I wasn’t expecting this one to be so juicy! It tastes somewhat like my experience with Tazo passionfruit lemonade with a tiny amount of crushed frozen strawberries blended in near the end.

Part of me feels like I’m drinking juice. I missed sipping this while it was piping hot, but it’s an undeniably fruity, cup warm to lukewarm, with a good balance of tart and fruity. The ceylon accentuates the citrus, as it tends to do, and makes a cutting beverage.

I don’t know if this is a keeper but I look forward to using the rest of the sample for a “fridge” session later. Thank you, OMGsrsly, for giving me the chance to try this!

I’m trying to use up all those little samples I’ve got cluttering up my cupboard so I dug this one out. It’s quite a lovely Assam, full-bodied and malty but without the harshness that some other Assams can take on. Actually it’s got an interesting sweet note that I noticed after the tea had a chance to cool off a bit. Really liking this one – I might buy some more whenever I get a chance to go back to Granville Island.

I wanted a nice cup after coming in from a walk in the rain and so I chose this guy! I wanted caffeine-free to make up for the delicious gingerbread latte I grabbed at Starbucks. SO GOOD.

But this isn’t about that. :P We don’t talk about coffee here. (It was REALLY good you guys!)

Oh +1 to me for not picking up Tazo Joy tea while I was at Starbucks. I was VERY TEMPTED. And also I had no real idea what the tea tasted like – I just liked the pretty red tin. #sucker So yeah – good job not throwing money away!

I haven’t had this rooibos at all and I was completely surprised at all the cinnamon. It brought back terrible memories – wait – is this Mamma Mia? Did I get the wrong tea? :O

Happily this tastes nothing like that other one. It has that pleasant earthy rooibos taste and the cinnamon complements it nicely. It’s not TOO cinnamon-y. On a fireball scale of 1-100, I’d say it’s maybe 40. I can taste it, but it’s not crazy. I guess there are rosehips in there too but I have no idea what they tasted like.

My friend sgoertz gave me this sample as it was her favorite rooibos. I can see why!

A big thanks to Nicole for sending me some more tea yesterday! Always love trying more teas out! It’s amazing that there really are so many kinds of tea out there. I think tea has coffee beat, anyway!

This one is lovely! I’ve never heard of Lady Londonderry before. A nice black tea base with a strawberry and lemon flavor! I think both lemon and strawberry are equally represented here. The strawberry reminds me of the flavor that Butiki uses in their strawberry oolong I had a chance to sample a while ago. It’s very sweet and candylike. Yum! The black tea is perfect with these flavors. I’m surprised the black tea doesn’t hide the lemon and strawberry more than it does. Very good!

I’m wondering if anyone knows which kinds of black tea usually have a maltier flavor. (Assams? Ceylons? Others??)

Yay! Finished! I had one serving left of this tea, mostly made up of tiny broken pieces. I do like the fruity lemony scent and taste of this one, I’m just still disappointed that it was sold to me as a strawberry tea when I can’t really discern strawberry. Fresh berry, yes, but not specifically strawberry.

Oh well. It’s done, and the people I gave the majority away to seem to have appreciated the flavour, so that’s a win.

Still on my list? A strawberry black tea. Just. Strawberries.

This tea just isn’t nearly as good as some of the others in my cupboard right now. Yes, it is flavoured with lemon and strawberry, but mostly what I taste is the lemon, with a little floral berry going on in the background.

I do not care for the black tea base in this one. I steeped for only 3 minutes, and it’s already a little bitter and quite astringent, and that’s even after adding almond milk and honey. Sadly, the rating is dropping on this tea. I probably won’t be getting much else from Granville Island, as their smallest package is 50g and I’d rather try a bunch of smaller samples, then get larger quantities of the stuff I really like.

I was Christmas shopping on Granville Island and decided to stop in and see what they had for strawberry black teas. This is the one that was recommended to me, and I trusted the salesperson as all I could tell is that the tea was a bit sweet and fruity. I’m really annoyed with this cold!

I’ve had it a couple times, and although the lemon addition means it’s not quite as strawberry-y as I wanted, it’s pretty good. I just made up a mug, and now that I’m not as sick I can taste and smell the lemon. I oversteeped at ~4 minutes and it’s turned a little bitter, so I’ll have to remember to do a 3 minute steep in the future. After adding a touch of honey and a splash of soy creamer, it’s tastier… but it’s still not exactly what I was looking for. I really wanted a black tea with a strong, natural strawberry flavour for strawberry tea lattes. One with no raspberry leaves in it!

Edit: As my smell comes back even more, this tea is more lemony than strawberry-y. There’s a scent of strawberries, but the taste is more a delicate fruity lemon tea. Nice, but totally not what I wanted. Rating stays, because it’s a nice flavour. I probably won’t repurchase it, though.

I pulled this out of my black tea box, steeped it, and by the time I had returned it to the tin, had forgotten what I had made. It was a fun game to figure it out.

It seems that the pomegranates are more prominent this time around, but the black base is slightly astringent. The sweet and bitter combination is interesting and will get me through the cup, but I’ll probably switch to something else instead of resteeping.

This was given to me by a friend who wanted more out of this tea, and was hoping I might enjoy it more. So far, so good.

The black tea provides a nice base, while the vanilla and pomegranate are hints that sweeten it up. I don’t know that I would replace it when I run out, but I am enjoying it.

I feel mean rating it this low, but based on the smilies in the scale, this is where it belongs.

This was a newly arrived tea at Granville Island Tea Co. when I visited them. It was a tad pricey for my pocketbook but the vendor was nice enough to throw in a sample with my other purchases!

Unfortunately, this just confirms further that I have a taste for the expensive darjeelings.

This was amazing. So smooth. So mellow. Not a bit of bitter. Characteristically a tad dry and heavy muscatel notes in the background. I will share this with another darjeeling fiend I know and then I will be very sad when it is gone. This is by far the best 2nd flush I have tasted yet. I feel very lucky to have had 2 exceptional darjeelings close together.

This is the only Lady Londonderry I’ve tried so I can’t compare to others, but this is pretty good.

Definitely taste the lemon and strawberry. The lemon seems to intensify when this cools. It is a tart tea even when hot, though. Not sure I’ll try to keep this in the cupboard but it’s tasty.

I, like the other reviewers here, have forgotten what teas the vendor told me were in this blend. I remember Assam and strawberry and at least 2 other blacks.

The leaves are very small, some may be CTC but there are others that are a bit larger. It infuses quickly. Most definitely smells and tastes of fresh strawberry – enough so that I picked out strawberry from the smell before I remembered the vendor telling me it was in there. A hint of astringency in the last of the swallow makes me wonder if maybe a darjeeling is in the blend. The liquor is a deep mahogany color. I’m going to hazard a guess that it could border on the bitter if let go too long.

This is tasty.

Added a picture here that my husband took after my purchases at Granville Island Tea. :)

http://s1165.beta.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Q02A3541.jpg.html

Maybe my stomach is jittery due to all the caffeine I’ve been drinking?

I’m off for a walk, so I’ve loaded my Timolino with this Rooibos to see if that makes a difference. I love the sweet earthy smell of this blend. It’s surprisingly good. I figure it will nicely counter the brisk fall air.

This was the first time I added a tea to the database. Figures I had a typo in the title with my tablet, and now I can’t correct it! Can someone please fix it for me?

So this was my first loose-leaf Rooibos. I tried drinking some bagged Rooibos when I was pregnant because I wanted caffeine free drinks, but it was awful. I wasn’t too sure if this would be much better, but it was great. Now I’m excited to try more.

The vanilla and almond mix together quite pleasantly and the smell and is soooo good. I can’t wait to try more Rooibos teas.

Great iced tea.

This is supposed to be buttered rum flavoured? LOLWUT!? It doesn’t smell like buttered rum – more like a slightly fruity/vanilla scented tea and it doesn’t really taste like anything except regular tea. Epic!Fail guys.

Life has hit a few bumps lately for me so it’s been awhile since I’ve had the chance to peruse Steepster. Those of you who are waiting on packages from me – I’ll deal with those in the next few days.

Now on to the tea. This particular tea is a Ceylon from the Uva region of Sri Lanka. I picked up the last time I visited the shop in the Granville Island Public market (which is a wonderful place, BTW) and according to the owner this one they only recently acquired.

To be honest I was expecting something with a bit more flavour. It has a generic tea taste and…that’s it, mostly. The body of the tea is quite light, even with an extended steeping but oddly enough I found I still needed to add milk in the end to smooth out the taste. It would make a good introductory loose-leaf black tea I think, or maybe for an afternoon tea where you don’t necessarily want a robust, full-flavoured brew.

A lot like Earl Grey, but with a little twist! Completely delicious!

The last time I was in the Granville Island Tea Co in Vancouver they’d just got several new oolong teas in stock and I grabbed a small sample of this one to try as it was fairly expensive I seem to recall.

It’s clearly a fairly green oolong which the floral aroma seems to bear out. There’s also some sort of small, purple flower that’s mixed in with the loosely-rolled tea leaves, though I think that’s more for visual appeal than anything else.

There’s a surprising bakey note at the start of each sip but that fades into a smooth, slightly floral flavour at the end. There’s also hints of sweetness and maybe something vegetal mixed in with everything. This oolong kept its flavour well for several steeps and stayed pretty consistant throughout.

It doesn’t quite beat the awesome Iron Goddess of Mercy that this tea company also carries, but it’s a good, easy-drinking tea.

I used up the last of this sample from Jillian to make a cup of cold brewed tea for lunch. It turned out really well… citrusy and bergamotty with a hint of lemongrass. Not too strong, but nice, light and refreshing. Yum!