Roswell Strange Send Message

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drank Drink Me oolong by Plum Deluxe
16847 tasting notes

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #37

So, it looks like posts from the “Great Steepster Freeze of 2020” aren’t being lost (just a bad glitch with the cache) and sections of the website are slowly catching up, so I’m going to roll the dice and continue posting tasting notes so that my queue doesn’t get completely insane…

If anyone is able to read this tasting note in the present, when all the issues are still taking place, this is the response I got together from the Steepster FB account:

“Things may be a little spotty while we begin making the transition of Steepster over to Adagio. I’ll pass this [information] along to our team and hopefully we can get things working properly again soon.”

and

“…unfortunately, the transition of the website is ongoing and proceeding less smoothly than we had expected. The damage to the original code is more pervasive than we had anticipated, but we remain optimistic about the site’s future. Please bear with us as we go through the difficult migration.”

After that I asked if they could provide a rough estimate of the timeline for the remainder of the migration based on the current challenges they’ve come across and pace of the migration thus far. This was the response:

“It’s really hard to say. Like I said, the issues are deeply rooted and we want to take the time to get it right. But we are working on it and hoping to get it up and running ASAP.”

Tasting note starts here!

I had this as a cold brew on my way to the office today! I don’t think I had a chance to share this before the cache glitch, but I’m officially able to announce now that I was promoted at work – my new title is “Tea Specialist” which is pretty nifty sounding. It’s hard to explain all the intricacies of what I’m doing now, but a lot of it has stayed the same while I’ve taken on more things directly related to the QA. Part of that means working from home three or four days a week now, which has been an adjustment. This was actually the first day this week that I’ve come in to work at the office…

If I remember correctly, this is almond and mango? That seems like a weird flavour combination to me, but I’m always up for something strange and different. Turns out that this is way more almond than mango, and I don’t really taste the fruitiness much at all. That’s okay, because the almond flavour was delightful – very thick and creamy with some sweetness but overall more of a toasted/roasted almond than the brighter or borderline boozy almond flavours that are associated with things like marzipan or amaretto. It thought it fit very well with the oolong tea base!

Adding this back to the box because it didn’t blow me off my feet, but I’m very happy to have gotten to try it!
10 comments
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MandyJS
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Thanks so much for the update! Managed to see it relatively on time at 11 hours after posting—hey, I’ll take it! Also, congrats on your promotion.

LuckyMe
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Thanks for sharing the update about Steepster, Ros. I can finally see my tasting note from 7 days ago now. Going to try posting again as I too have a huge backlog of tasting notes.

LuckyMe
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Argh…spoke too soon. I can see my tasting note in my tealog but not anywhere else.

Roswell Strange
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I’m still posting tasting notes to keep my backlog from building up (but saving them on a word doc before I post just in case) since, while I love seeing everyone’s reviews and having people read mine, it doesn’t really matter to me if the teas from the last week+ don’t get the same “exposure”.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been playing around with ways to sort of force the cache into updating on my end and today, through the tasting notes link on the explore tab, I was able to get to the most recent tasting notes posted (as in, like, less than ten minutes old) by sorting from “date posted – all” to “most popular – all” then “date posted – featured” then “most popular – featured” and “most popular – all” and back to “date posted – all” again. A bit convoluted, but by doing that I can see all the tasting notes across the whole user base and don’t seem to have any issues liking/commenting, or even editing.

Inkling
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Thank you for the update and for sharing your trick to get things to update! I’ve been worried/frustrated the past week when I saw the exact same tasting notes and forum updates every time I logged on. :(

Leafhopper
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Yay! Steepster seems to be working again. Congratulations on your promotion!

tea-sipper
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Congrats on your promotion!

Roswell Strange
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Thanks, all :)

ashmanra
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Congrats on the promotion!

derk
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Way to go, Ros :)

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Comments

MandyJS
Delete

Thanks so much for the update! Managed to see it relatively on time at 11 hours after posting—hey, I’ll take it! Also, congrats on your promotion.

LuckyMe
Delete

Thanks for sharing the update about Steepster, Ros. I can finally see my tasting note from 7 days ago now. Going to try posting again as I too have a huge backlog of tasting notes.

LuckyMe
Delete

Argh…spoke too soon. I can see my tasting note in my tealog but not anywhere else.

Roswell Strange
Delete

I’m still posting tasting notes to keep my backlog from building up (but saving them on a word doc before I post just in case) since, while I love seeing everyone’s reviews and having people read mine, it doesn’t really matter to me if the teas from the last week+ don’t get the same “exposure”.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been playing around with ways to sort of force the cache into updating on my end and today, through the tasting notes link on the explore tab, I was able to get to the most recent tasting notes posted (as in, like, less than ten minutes old) by sorting from “date posted – all” to “most popular – all” then “date posted – featured” then “most popular – featured” and “most popular – all” and back to “date posted – all” again. A bit convoluted, but by doing that I can see all the tasting notes across the whole user base and don’t seem to have any issues liking/commenting, or even editing.

Inkling
Delete

Thank you for the update and for sharing your trick to get things to update! I’ve been worried/frustrated the past week when I saw the exact same tasting notes and forum updates every time I logged on. :(

Leafhopper
Delete

Yay! Steepster seems to be working again. Congratulations on your promotion!

tea-sipper
Delete

Congrats on your promotion!

Roswell Strange
Delete

Thanks, all :)

ashmanra
Delete

Congrats on the promotion!

derk
Delete

Way to go, Ros :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Hello! My name is Kelly, though many people in the tea community call me Ros or Roswell.

I am a mid-twenties tea addict, blogger, and all around nerd. I grew up in the Prairies, but a few years ago I relocated to Quebec to pursue a career with DAVIDsTEA in the tea industry! I’m still working on getting my French language skills down…

My first introduction to tea, in any form outside of instant and bottled iced tea, was about seven years ago when I happened to stumble upon DAVIDsTEA while looking for a birthday present for a friend! I tried their Birthday Cake rooibos blend, and I’ve been hooked on tea ever since! In those seven years; I was introduced to the online tea community, expanded my interest in flavoured teas to include a deep love and appreciation for straight teas and traditional brewing methods, got a tea themed tattoo, started reviewing teas, amassed a sizable tea and teaware collection, became a TAC certified Tea Sommelier, & even came full circle by beginning a career in the tea industry with DAVIDsTEA!

I consider myself a Jack of all Teas, and strive to have a knowledge and appreciation of all tea types, formats, and styles of drinking. I don’t like to feel boxed in to just being a “flavoured tea” or “straight tea” drinker – my expectations may vary depending on the type of tea or how it’s been processed/prepared but if it’s good tea, it’s good tea no matter how it’s been made!

You name it, I probably drink it- and I’ll absolutely try anything at least once.

My default method of preparation is hot, Western style, and straight – but I’m not opposed to additions if I’m in the right mood. If I ever add something to a tea or use a different method of preparation I will ALWAYS call it out in the tasting note though.

I like to listen to music when drinking tea, especially when I’m brewing a large pot at a time or steeping Gongfu. Often I curate very intentional tea and music pairings, and sometimes I share them here in my tasting reviews. Music is something that I find can deeply affect the experience of having tea.

I’m also one half of the “tea and fandom” podcast GeekSteep where, weekly, we discuss newly explored fandoms over tea as well as try to figure out the perfect tea to pair with each fandom. You can find us on Spotify and Apple & Google podcasts.

Favourite flavour notes/ingredients: Pear, lychee, cranberry, cream, melon, pineapple, malt, roasty, petrichor, sweet potato, heady florals like rose, hazelnut or walnut, sesame, honey (in moderation), and very woody shou.

Least favourite flavour notes/ingredients:
Lemongrass, ginger, strongly spiced profiles (and most Chai in general), mushrooms, seaweed, chamomile, stevia, saltiness or anything that reminds me too much of meat that isn’t supposed to taste like meat…

Currently exploring/obsessed with: Sheng from Yiwu, Yancha (Qilan in particular), anything with a strong sweet potato note. Also, I need to try ALL the root beer teas! Searching for a really good caramel flavoured blend, ideally with a black tea base.

Please contact me at the instagram account listed below if you would like me to review your teas.

Currently I’m employed in the tea department of the DAVIDsTEA head office. While I’m still sharing my own personal thoughts on new & existing DAVIDsTEA blends, I am no longer numerically rating them due to the obvious conflict of interest. Any comments expressed are a reflection of my own thoughts and opinions, and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the company. Any DAVIDsTEA blends you currently see with a numeric score were reviewed prior to my being hired there and have not been adjusted since becoming a DAVIDsTEA employee.

Location

Montreal, QC, CA

Website

https://www.instagram.com/ros...

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