After dropping off the keys I stole (took home accidentally) from work last night, I took a trip downtown to David’s and picked up a timolino! Yay! Now I can take two thermoses of tea to work for long shifts: one in my crappy metal water bottle to drink cold, and one in my new timolino to drink hot!
At checkout, the sales lady asked me if I wanted a tea to go in my new timolino, and how could I resist? I decided to pick out something from the fall collection that I hadn’t tried – so I went for this one! I love pistachios (especially pistachio pudding) but when the fall collection came out I wasn’t very inclined to pick any of this up because I was more focused on exploring white and green teas since I’m most familiar with black and herbal teas. I’m really thankful now that I did pick a herbal tea today…
Water temp was boiling water, and I watched the sales lady add a perfect teaspoon to the brewing basket (which I think is 1 1/2 tsp of leaf). She suggested taking the leaves out after seven minutes or so. Well, when I went to take the leaves out to my surprise the brewing basket was not attatched and had sunk to the bottom of the timolino. I guess she didn’t attatch it very well… There were leaves floating everywhere and since I was downtown I certainly didn’t have the equiptment to pour and strain the tea then clean out the inside of the thermos. So, I bussed back home all the while sipping at my tea.
The scent is very nutty and signature pistachio, but not very sweet. Scent alone is not something that would make me want to buy this tea, that’s for sure. The liquor started off a brilliant emerald green but by the time I’d got home to strain everything it’s now a very, VERY dark “khaki”/forrest green and it’s so solid I can’t see to the bottom of the cup. It’s actually darker now than Blueberry Jam usually is when brewed.
Taste was initially a very nutty, pistachio with a super creamy aftertaste that sort of reminded me of pistachio pudding without a lot of sweetener. It was good, but not REALLY good. I could also taste the chamomile pretty strongly, and something else that must have been the mulberry leaves (I’ve never had a tea with mulberry leaves, so not really sure what they’re supposed to taste like). The longer the leaves sat in the timolino the more strong and appetizing the smell of the tea was, but drinking it the pistachio got very cloying and it left a bad taste of cream in my mouth. But honestly, that’s to be expected since this tea ended up steeping in near boiling water for AT LEAST 20 minutes.
I’m just glad I went with a herbal tea instead of one really sensitive to heat that would’ve gotten really bitter with this amount of steep time. All things considered, this tea was not bad. I’m really glad I tried it, because with the new collection coming out in a few days (according to the sales lady, there’ll be the 5 winter teas, 3 holiday teas, AND the tea of the month ALL coming out on the 1st – so that’s NINE teas to try out) who knows if I’d have had a chance to try it again. I’m glad I didn’t absolutely love it though – that’d make the fact I wont have steady access to it so much harder.
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Ooh, what size of timolino did you get? and what colour? so excited for you!
I decided on a 12 oz, and I picked out the black one :) Figured out why the brew basket fell to the bottom too – the little “hook” notch thing on one side is broken :/ Which is stupid: I’m not even the one who made my first drink in it: the assistant manager did. You think she’d have noticed… Oh well. Guess I’m going back whenever I have a chance so I can get a replacement lid.
Oh, that’s so frustrating! Hopefully you can get your replacement lid soon.
Ooh, what size of timolino did you get? and what colour? so excited for you!
I decided on a 12 oz, and I picked out the black one :) Figured out why the brew basket fell to the bottom too – the little “hook” notch thing on one side is broken :/ Which is stupid: I’m not even the one who made my first drink in it: the assistant manager did. You think she’d have noticed… Oh well. Guess I’m going back whenever I have a chance so I can get a replacement lid.
Oh, that’s so frustrating! Hopefully you can get your replacement lid soon.