Tina S. Send Message

What’s a girl to do when she wakes up at 5am and can’t get back to sleep without ruining her entire sleep schedule? Why make a good solid black tea of course! This was the one I chose and those first sips were exactly what I needed to get through those first moments of “what the hell am I doing up at this hour”. I settled in to read my RSS feeds and . . . forgot about the tea because of a few wtf things going on. This one tepid is . . . not so great. Luckily I’d kept the leaves for a second steep so I’m enjoying that now, sweetened this time with just a drop or two of Irish Cream Agave. Definitely a great way to start a day that started way too early.

I tried this one a few weeks ago and really liked it, so I was eager to brew it up again this morning and sip away. Today’s cups weren’t as lovely, but still were a good solid cuppa. This is a darker oolong, but not so dark as to make it undrinkable to my green-oolong loving soul. There are some really strong roasted notes in the first steep which require me to use sugar to balance them. Second steep though is an amazingly mellow delicious cup to sip on a dark and dreary afternoon like today.

Completely off topic, has anyone here heard of or tried the Canadian company Steeped Tea (http://www.steepedtea.com/)? I’ve been offered a consultant job with them and I’m looking for info from actual tea people before going any further.

Just got home after a few days away and I needed comfort big time, and something fast as well. This tea fit the bill perfectly. Nice and thick and sweet and flavourful, it is the tea version of hot chocolate and exactly the cup I needed to settle back into my life. Now to figure out how my cat-sitter managed to get litter in EVERY place in the house, even the keyboard . . .

I made a cup of this today and forgot, leaving it next to the computer. I came back an hour later and found it was half gone . . . my cat apparently loved it! And this one doesn’t even have catnip in it!

Finished this one up tonight in an attempt to get rid of all the little bags/tins I have with one or two cups left. This was a lovely tea, but I think I’m going to pass on restocking it for now. Even if I take out the mass amounts of matcha I have, I still have a lot of tea to sip down!

First, DaisyChubb is evil for introducing me to Drawception and giving me a new way to suddenly lose five hours of my life. (Seriously, I was up till 3am playing and reading games.)

But the tea, that’s why you’re all here. I first tried this in store and there found it lovely. It was light and lovely, with a hint of tartness and natural strawberry notes. The colour was a pale pink and while there was a sweetness to the cup, it was more along the lines of that in an actual strawberry. Really liking the sample, I got 20g and happily brought it home.

Like I always do in a first steep, I followed the “instructions” on the bag, doing a 5 min brew at about 96C. It gave me a cup of strawberry tartness, and was almost red in colour. I’m not sure if my cup perhaps had an over-abundance of hibiscus in my scoop or what, but next time I’m definitely doing a shorter steep. Brewer beware!

First let me say I like this much more than I did Mom’s Apple Pie. That one just tasted like apple juice to me. I love apples so I’m always excited when Davids tries another apple flavour, even if the ingredients scare me like this one did. I’m not a fan of pistachios or florals so I definitely greeted the tea with trepidation.

I was glad that I didn’t taste any floral notes. But I do wonder if that’s because the tea is almost all nuts and apple pieces. I don’t know if I even had a single leaf in my cup.

The flavour itself was light with definite apple notes. It wasn’t my favourite apple tea, but it didn’t suck. It isn’t a restock for me, which is sad since I’m almost out of my Baked Apple. I’ll hold out hope that it returns from the dead!

What a perplexing tea! The ingredients list looks like someone’s grocery list rather than a tea, which led me to even more confusion when I was getting it. It does smell lovely dry, although even there there was something . . . not off but it wasn’t calling to me either.

I steeped it at home and sipped hot and while I can safely say I didn’t dislike it, I also feel confident saying I didn’t love it either. I also have no idea how to describe its flavour other than sweet and complex. I finished my cup but it wasn’t memorable other than my confusion as to what exactly I was tasting. Even after two cups I still can’t figure out if I can safely say I like it. So odd. Not rating it because I honestly can’t give it a number, but its somewhere between 60 and 75.

Unlike many other fans, I’m a new sipper to this one and was excited since I know it was a front runner in the back from the dead contest last year (speaking of, anyone know if they’re doing that again this year? It was great!)

Anyways, I used half of my 10g sample of this in a perfect mug. Since it was an herbal with no hibiscus in it, I treated it similar to forever nuts and just let the stuff sit while I puttered around for a while. I guess it was about 10-15 minutes of a steep but have no clue for sure.

The flavour was lovely, and I can definitely see how it deserves its name. It is definitely a sweet tea, however, so if you aren’t a fan of naturally sweet flavours you may want to steer away from this one. Since I love sweets, and am trying to cut them out of my diet, this tea is definitely one I’ll be getting more of. I just wish it didn’t take so much to make a good cup since it is heavy.

This poor tea sat on my counter for a week before I finally got to try it. I try to drink my mates in the morning to wake myself up, but I prefer my chocolate teas later in the day. It left me not quite ever craving it or willing to risk the mate.

Finally one day my sleep schedule got all messed up and I was waking up at about 2 in the afternoon one day. It was the perfect time for this one, and I brewed it eagerly.

When I pulled the infuser out I was very glad to have used the one I have which is best at capturing floating debris. The cocoa powder does make this one messy, although nowhere near as bad as say, Southern Belle. The tea is delicious, and I drank it without adding any sugar or milk. Next time I think I’ll add milk just to round out the flavour a bit and lose that dash of watered down aspect (its a tea, I can’t expect it to be thick like milk, right?). The flavour is definitely that of cocoa powder, spiced up. I can see myself getting this one in the winter more so than summer, as it is the perfect tea for skating parties and coming in after tobogganing. Definitely a great Canadian December tea!