Wize Monkey

Literally all I could think while drinking this tea was this stupid phrase:

Make it strawberry, but crisp!

The last tea from Wize Monkey’s product offerings that I needed to try in order to be able to say I’ve had ’em all! I want to cold brew this at some point, because that seems like it would be super delicious – but this first tasting was just a hot, plain mug.

It’s good! Brews up a bright red colour and has some solid clarity to the liquor colour and flavours – very clean, bright and juicy strawberry notes accented with just a hint of hibiscus tartness. You don’t loose the subtle smoke and herbaceous note of the coffee leaf though, which is also very impressive for what is a pretty dominant flavour.

Big fan of this one, just based on initial tasting of it.

(Also – apparently my unofficial theme for the teas I drank this week was strawberry!? I had a lot of strawberry teas…)

Geek Steep S1E6 – Spiderman: The Animated Series

This is one of two teas that I paired with our Geek of The Week because, well, this is the first Geek we’ve done so far where I watched the episodes over multiple nights and thus got the chance to “do over” or “improve upon” my first pairing.

I wont give you the full background on why I chose this tea because I’ve gotta save something to get y’all listening to the episode – but the simple background is that I was trying to create a feeling of nostalgia surrounding my first ever time watching the animated series, and that sense of nostalgia is/was rooted around my binging the show while sick.

This is a go to sick tea for me – I love being able to just rip open a teabag, dump it in a mug and fill it up with boiling water and lemon/ginger is the sick tea flavour that I like the most. It just makes me feel comforted and secure, and it nice on both the throat and tummy. For all of those reasons, this sort of capitalized on the nostalgia that I wanted. It didn’t get me all the way there though, so I did my best to improve upon it with the next night’s pairing…

Really though, this whole week’s fandom was basically a nostalgia trip though!

Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
(FYI – usually Marika write the blog post for the week, but this time it was me!)
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/

Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website

DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!

I had this one at work yesterday with lunch – I have a couple sachets of Wize Monkey teas stashed at my desk in case I want something quick and dirty, that I can just plop into a mug and go. They’re perfect for that, especially since the quality is actually super good for something in a sachet format. This was such a nice, clean lemon flavour with warming ginger and that yummy coffee leaf that I love. It was perfect for lunch, which was a ginger and coconut rice! they worked great together…

A cup from last week.

I had a day during the week where I just really wasn’t feeling so hot – so after getting home from work I basically just popped a few advil, steeped a cup of this tea with plenty of honey, and curled up in bed for the whole evening. I took baby sips from the mug for a while, but eventually I just passed out and most of the cup went undrank. It was soothing though, prior to falling asleep, and it gave me some brief respite for what was a foggy (mentally) and achy (physically) day…

Thankfully when I woke up I was feeling right as rain – so whatever it was passed quickly.

Midafternoon cuppa from yesterday. So zesty, with a nice kick of warmth from the ginger! Really enjoyed this mug a lot; didn’t even mind the ginger getting all up close and personal with that beautiful, bright lemon flavor.

Another from my recent Wize Monkey order – one of the three on their site that I hadn’t tried yet that I added in. I normally wouldn’t go for this flavour combination, but when I met the guys from Wize Monkey this was the tea that they said, from their line up, they drink the most on a day to day basis so I was especially curious about it.

I’ll admit, I think I’d enjoy this more if it was JUST a lemon profile and didn’t have the ginger – but it’s good! There’s an amazing clarity and natural quality to the lemon in this blend and it feels both very refreshing and hydrating as well as soothing on the throat. This would double amazingly as a hot “sick tea” and a good iced tea. The ginger is there, a little warming – but for me it’s more a detracting from the really amazing lemon notes and tastiness of the coffee leaf.

All that said – I like this A LOT! I like to always have a bagged lemon tea in my stash for when I’m feeling really sick and too awful to fuss around with loose leaf tea and right now that’s Pukka’s Mandarin Lemon or Stash’s Meyer Lemon but this definitely tastes nicer than both of those – so it will probably replace them as my bagged lemon tea staple, once I finish those two off from my cupboard.

Airplane tea number two!

This one was a bit rockier in terms of steeping. I had kind of forgotten just how small the cups of hot water on the plane are and just hot generously Wize fills their teabags, so my steeped up cup was STRONG y’all. However, I think in the end that ended up being a good thing because the second half of the flight had me in a total slump. I ended up needing that last little bump of packed in flower caffeine!

Base came off a little too green and grassy for my own personal tastes. I usually actually really love the coffee leaf base but I think in this moment those notes that were more akin to green tea, combined with the jasmine, just made the drink feel a little too like a more traditional jasmine green tea. Which is definitely a selling point for, I think, a lot of people. Just not me.

Very lazy day around the office today – most people are out at the Climate Strike, but I had some things I needed to finish before the weekend (deadlines) so I stayed behind. I will be joining a little later, though! #capitalism…

Drinking this one currently while I plug in some numbers into a spreadsheet. It’s a good tea for tasty, smooth drinking and relatively mindless brainwork. I’ll be honest, I’m getting WAY MORE of the coffee leaf’s notes (subtle smoke, grass, a fatty butter) than the jasmine – I’m not sure if I mind or not? I like the profile of the coffee leaf a lot but I jasmine might be more soothing to me while I crunch numbers?

Oh well, what can you do!?

Placed an order with Wize Monkey recently because, firstly, I love them but also because I really wanted some of the new Chocolate Dreams tea for at home so I don’t have to keep stealing it from my manager’s tin at the office – and of course you can’t just order one thing so I actually added in every other tea from their collection that I hadn’t previously tried – which ended up being a total of three other teas.

I was hesitant about this one because I don’t love jasmine too much; in some forms it’s definitely ok but I am quite particular about it – but this was actually pretty tasty! I thought the jasmine was actually pretty light handed and I can see that maybe disappointing someone who REALLY loves jasmine, but for me it was just enough to add a nice floral touch to the smooth, buttery coffee leaf. I found the cup really easy to drink, and while it wasn’t anything super nuanced or “high concept” it was tasty and made for a very nice, easy drinking/mindless cup that just felt good.

Ultimately that’s what I want out of jasmine – relaxing, simple, and smooth. So I’m actually very surprised with just how awesome I found this one! Happy I gave it a shot!

Cold Brew!

This tea has no right to be this good with a cold preparation and no addition of milk or alt milk, but here we age. It’s fucking great. As always the clarity of flavour is on point. It tastes like a rich and decadent slice of chocolate cake with that slight nuttiness from the coffee leaf and the exceptional caramel flavouring that feels like some kind of fancy drizzle on the top of the cake. I don’t normally like chocolate teas, but this one is so good and so unique. Always a treat to steep it up.

But seriously I am once again putting it out there that, if Wize wanted to make a caramel tea with this flavouring, I would buy the shit out of that.

Cold Brew!

Surprisingly super refreshing despite having a very decadent leaning profile and an almost creaminess as well. Tastes a little bit like the in between of a good slice of moist chocolate cake with a little bit of caramel drizzle and a less sweet chocolate milk. Very good, as always!

First tea of 2022!

Did I pick this tea with intention? Nope. Instead I got up and groggily was like “Hmmm, I could go for chocolate cake right now” but knew I didn’t have chocolate cake, and this tea is the best chocolate cake tasting tea that I own, so it was my alternative in that moment. It was also bloody delicious.

Cold Brew!

This is the tea that I make for myself when I’m trying to talk myself out of ordering cake/cupcakes/pastries/etc from Uber Eats for delivery – it tastes like the most perfect chocolate cake in the world, and is a very useful tool it talking myself out of those sweet cravings!

I’m actually going to increase my rating for it too from the 89 it’s currently sitting at!

Sipping on this currently!

I continue to be so impressed and delighted with the delicious chocolate notes in the cup; plus this tea really makes me crave cake. It tastes just like the most perfectly moist (I know people hate that word, but it’s apt here) slice of chocolate cake with a drizzle of caramel on top. Mmm!

Like drinking a slice of chocolate cake – but with beet juice mixed into it to make it a little more healthy. It’s still chocolate cake, and that can never be a bad thing – but it’s got a tinge of something earthy to it that doesn’t quite feel like it should be in chocolate cake.

Still loved it though!

I was literally dreaming about this tea last weekend (ironic given the name) so I made a nice hot mug of it during the week, with a splash of almond milk, and I drank that while out for a walk outside during a light rain. There’s something super blissful about drinking a mug of hot tea during cool, crisp rain – and this was even better because it tasted like chocolate cake! A whole lot of awesome things, just all smushed together.

Everyone at my office really, really loves Wize Monkey so when they announced Chocolate Dream as part of their line up we all got really excited about it – and of course my manager ended up ordering a tin of it, which he happily shared with all of it.

This is pretty damn incredible; I mean, I’ve been a fan of pretty much all of the teas I’ve tried from Wize Monkey – but this might be my favourite? Or, at the very least, tied with the Minty Marvel, which I also really enjoy. It was so good, in fact, that I ended up placing my own Wize Monkey order not long after trying it to get my own tin, as well as try out the rest of their line up that I hadn’t yet experienced…

Basically, though, it was like chocolate cake – in the best way! It’s not super dense/rich, but it’s still incredibly flavourful with a very fudgy tasting chocolate note. What really sold me, personally, though was the hint of caramel note in the undertone. I truly am a sucker for a lovely caramel flavour in a tea – and this caramel note adds a lovely layer of flavour to the chocolate notes.

Can’t wait to get my order!

Had a sachet of this one earlier in the day. I’m so used to drinking all of Wize’s flavoured blends that it was almost a little bit strange to taste this one on its own. However the slightly nutty and woody notes with the grassier lean of greenness in taste was super refreshing and I loved how clean and crisp the overall profile was! It reminded me why this is such a beautiful base for all of the different flavours that Max and Arnoud have created with it!

Gong Fu!

Had a cool opportunity to meet the Wize Monkey team last week, and so of course the same evening I found myself craving some of their teas – the influence of having them on the mind throughout the whole afternoon.

THis was nice – it’s similar to a green tea, but not identical. There are just more notes present in the coffee leaf that I enjoy than in a typical green tea – it’s a little bit nutty, a little bit roasty and has some nice overall sweetness. It creates an overall welcoming and approachable profile, which is only helped by the fact that it’s next to impossible to steep this poorly – at least in my experience. Good life in the leaves; this was a 10+ infusion session. I’m happy that I felt inspired to brew this one up Gong Fu!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvCFpguFsCH/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFZkonVPCbk&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=31&t=0s

If I hadn’t rechecked the label I would have assumed this was the original/unflavoured coffee leaf tea. There was no floral jasmine notes at all. There was a touch of vegetal qualities but mostly in the way of “it tastes like leaves”. It actually reminds me a lot of houjicha with its smokey and dried leaf aroma. No jasmine though, which is disappointing.

This is a pleasant EG with strong citrus and lots of bergamot. I found the citrus was almost too strong, but the coffee leaf base was slightly roasted so it was a unique take on EG. I do find EGs are much better with milk, so I added some vanilla soy milk and poured it over ice (first brewed hot but then iced and drank cold). It is almost spring here on Canada’s west coast and we have daffodils and crocuses coming up soon in the garden. It is sunny but cold today (~10 deg C) but I thought sun instead of rain/clouds was reason enough to have an iced tea.

One critique of this EG is that without a black tea base, there is no malty undertones. I also like my EGs with vanilla (cream of EG or Vanilla EG) so this plain version was made even less desirable by the lack of malty black tea and the lack of vanilla flavouring.

I’m indifferent towards this blend. I enjoy Twinnings herbal/caffeine free lemon and ginger more and it doesn’t have the 20mg of caffeine this does. I did find that if you let it steep for over 10 minutes it gets too pungent with the lemon. Either water it down quite a bit after steeping, add sweetener, or use a shorter steep. I had this iced, no sweetener.

Despite the lemon being pleasantly sour, it had this unpleasant acrid taste I did not enjoy. The ginger was spicey, which was nice.