Sloane Tea Company

With milk and sugar, I enjoyed this! I distinctly tasted the rooibos with a hint of vanilla. It’s creamy and pleasant, though not super special. This was my second favorite tea from the afternoon tea in Toronto.

Not my favorite EG. I taste the bergamot, but it’s not as bright and zingy as I prefer. The tea base isn’t amazing. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I haven’t preferred Sloane’s black tea compared with its other bases.

Not a bad milk oolong! The oolong itself is a little floral. There’s some butteriness, though I would have enjoyed even more. It lasted for two quick cold resteeps as well. It was my favorite tea from our afternoon tea.

I had afternoon tea at a restaurant in Toronto, and we got this tea with our first course. I taste a sweet cinnamon, but not much else. It’s almost a little fruity and a bit thin. It’s not bad with milk and sugar, but not something I’d want again.

One of the things that I did with my mom while she was in town visiting was go for high tea at the Ritz Carlton – it was probably the fanciest place that I’ve ever gone for high tea and I have to admit that I felt very under dressed the entire time we were there…

That said, it definitely wasn’t the nicest high tea experience I’ve ever had despite the glitz and glamour of it all. All of the teas that they carried were from Sloane, which is a nice tea company so I was excited. I grabbed this one because it’s one I’ve been curious about before and debated ordering, but hadn’t yet pulled the trigger on. It was pretty nice, but definitely very light on the pear flavouring and didn’t feel like it exactly met the expectations I had given that I love so many of Sloane’s other white tea blends.

The main thing was just that the food was kind of only okay. There were some really delicious things, like the cranberry scones and the rose jelly they were served with or the hibiscus cheesecakes that were served for dessert. However, all of the sandwiches were super dry and had such a minimal amount of toppings – all of which were just not great tasting.

I think at the end my take away was that I definitely wouldn’t go high tea at the Ritz Carlton again. Nothing was awful but it was just so underwhelming for the very extravagant price tag that came with it – and I know I could get better tea elsewhere or pastries that are just as nice but much cheaper from one of the many, many bakeries in the city…

I don’t know how old this is, but there is pretty much no flavour left :( I’m actually surprised at the complete and utter absence of flavour, aside from white tea. Oh well.

Had to have another cup of this because I could smell it through the package and it was irresistible. Haha. Similar thoughts, great aroma and creaminess, not the biggest fan of the base tea.

Picked up some of this from Amoda when placing a recent order, mostly to get free shipping (it’s very expensive and I wouldn’t normally. By the time it arrived, I’d completely forgotten that it was a cream EG, so was very pleasantly surprised when I opened it up and smelled it! Brewed it up, and the flavouring is absolutely perfect! Creamy and decadent, definite bergamot but smooth instead of sharp, like some EGs can be. However, I found that the the base could be a bit smoother – especially on subsequent infusions, the base was more astringent than I’d like. I see that it’s a base of Indian black tea; I feel like Chinese blacks would suit my palate better and provide a better base. Still good, but I do think it could be better.

So, this was actually a mistake because I had thought that I was pulling out a different tea to steep. All good, though.

I’ve been staying away from rooibos and honey bush for a long while now. Just have found myself veering towards black, green, white.

The absence has been good for me, apparently, because I am quite enjoying this one. A bit formal, a bit tart, a bit berry. Haven’t checked the ingredient list or the description, but I suspect lavender, hibiscus, berry, and vanilla to tie it all together.

Also, does anyone know what’s going on with FB?

Gorgeous tasting tea especially with steamed milk

Great. Just great. My tea kettle has been erratic. It started turning itself off just after I pressed the on button for it to boil. I found a workaround.

Now, a new level of just great. It has begun turning itself off before it reaches boiling. Infuriating because when I touch the kettle, it feels hot, so I think it has boiled. But when I pour the not-yet-boiled water over my leaf, it doesn’t quite steep.

Ugh.

Ok, so now about the tea. I let the not-yet-boiled water sit with the leaf for a few hours. Now, of course, the tea is cold. I added milk. Now it is even colder.

Never mind, still delicious but cold.

A friend dropped off some freshly baked cookies. YAY COOKIES!

Maybe I’ll have one or two with my cold tea.

For some reason, I’ve been craving Talking Heads a lot and often during this pandemic. Their Stop Making Sense album to be exact.

I ordered it in CD form so that I could crank it up. And then I forgot about it.

The neighbours woke me up at 4:30 and kept me up till 6, ie. I’m up now. So I feel justified in blasting my music whenever I damn well please—in the daytime. They wake me every single night and have done since they moved in six years ago. I don’t play my music all that often.

Today was the day. But what have they done to this album? Aside from four songs, this is completely different from the original version. What is up with that?

So I am disappointed.

This tea, however, is pretty great. As soon as my hair dries, I am going to go buy some milk to inflate its deliciousness.

A creamy creamy vanilla Earl Grey Cream. (still overpriced though.)

Went to the Art Gallery of Ontario today to see the Femmes Noir exhibit. Had this while visiting with a friend in the cafe. Think thick vanilla clotted cream with the barest hint of bergamot. Delicious. I added half and half to it to take it over the top. Highly recommend. (However, the tins are overpriced.)

Awesome exhibit. Catch it if you can. https://nowtoronto.com/culture/art-and-design/mickalene-thomas-ago-femmes-noires/

Sipdown! Likely a sample from Sil – thanks! I drank this tea without looking up what it was, and was concerned that it had lost its flavouring – turns out it was unflavoured, so it actually was just fine, albeit unremarkable. A little astringent, but quite bearable, but kind of a regular old assam IMO. Not a tea I’d bother picking up, especially as it’s likely pricy, being from Sloane.

I’m glad to finish this one off. Another sipdown before the holiday season when I buy a lot of teas and justify it by saying it is for Christmas presents and then keeping it.

I wanted this to be a vanilla creamy tea, but it is way more bergamot than anything else. I also don’t love the bergamot flavour. It tastes a bit chemically and dusty, like some bergamot oils do. I also had this as a chocolate milk latte and brewed it really hot with a rich chocolate plant milk called Ripple (seriously, try it! It is like a thick, creamy chocolate malt!), but it wasn’t as desserty as I wanted. I think the bergamot just isn’t for me. Luckily, I got this as a sample size pouch, so it will only be a few more cups.

Love this chai from the Canadian company Sloane! It’s pricey but worth it! It’s my favourite tea right now. It’s great with a little milk & sugar. Five stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

March (Err… April) Sipdown Madness

I did it guys!! It took much longer than I expected, but I finally finished the March Tournament yesterday!! It was very fun, but I’m looking a lot more forward to the April alphabet challenge – having the same teas over and over during March is definitely not my usual tea drinking style.

This tea lost the final match up against Arthur Dove’s Moonbeam, so it came in second place overall. I thought this last pairing would be a harder choice, but it was pretty clear as soon as I’d sipped both teas that I was gonna pick the AD blend. This is such a good tea though! It’s gonna be a while before I go back and have it though – this was a lot of it a month!!

March (Err… April) Sipdown Madness

This tea, unsurprisingly, won its semi-final match up with T2’s Matcha Jaffa Swirl. This was the outcome I predicted, and it was a very easy win for this tea. We’ll see if it can take everything in the finals – both teas matching up are ones that I feel very strongly about.

March Sipdown Madness

No new notes for flavour here – just recording for posterity that this was predictably the victor in this tea’s match up against B&B’s Earl’s Paradise and that it will now be moving into the semi finals. Literally the only point against this was that, for first thing on a Monday morning, I probably could have used a stronger/bolder cuppa – but I couldn’t let it lose the pairing for that alone.

I’m pretty sure this will win its semi final match up as well – but we’ll see…