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Backlog: Re-steep of Friday’s “leaves”. Gave this about 15 minutes to sit and get tasty, and boy did it work. From unable to get it nice for even one steep to enjoying two in one fell swoop. Was sharper apple this time, more like a red delicious than a cinnamony baked apple, but that wasn’t a problem by me!

Ugh. Oh boy. I can drink it, but only if I don’t smell it. I have yet to develop any love or even tolerance for pu-erh, and even this mint flavoured tea is no exception. The steeped smell is slightly light wet dog, fish and dirt..the taste is more of creamy mint with a hint of cinnamon spice, but if I smell the smell at all while I drink it…Ugh! I could maybe get used to it, but it’s not my thing. I will try to finish the rest of my sample, but I’ve got so many other teas to enjoy, that drinking those I don’t really like seems foolish.

My rating, by the way, is largely skewed by the smell. If I could have the taste without the smell, it would get a 60ish.

Another of the teas we got this weekend. The beau picked this one out on it’s blueberry merits (the most blueberry smelling dry tea David’s Tea currently carries, I find). I honestly don’t even look at white teas that often because they’re expensive. Luckily, they also happen to be light. We picked up 10g of this to give it a go, and that way we can just replenish if we really like it. I’m trying to learn restraint, I swear!

As I’ve mentioned, the dry smell is strongly blueberry…but only strong for David’s Tea. You definitely smell the white tea first, but underneath that you get a sweet blueberry odour, like blueberry candies, or really ripe sweetened berries. The leaves are quite large and lightly fuzzy…all looks well enough on that front. I’m not much of a tea connoisseur, but larger leaves is almost always a good sign.

We let the water cool for 3 or 4 minutes after boiling (we really should get a kettle with a thermometer some day…) and let it steep around 4 minutes as suggester. We’re doing our standard measurements….1 tsp (now 1 “perfect” teaspoon that the beau wanted, so about 1.25 to 1.5 teaspoons) to two mugs of water, in our 11 oz cups. The liquor is a very pale yellow, and the dry smell has actually amplified. Not quite blueberry anymore, but like blueberry/pomegranate juice.

Wow. The taste is actually exactly like the smell. If anything, slightly stronger. Not mugh white tea taste, at least in this first steep (and I don’t expect a tea taste to develop, honestly. DT is all about flavours!) but I am loving it. Stupid expensive white teas. I’ll try to hold off on this and try some others, but this might be a rebuy. THank the heavens that whites are light : )

UPDATE: Made my second steep later on. I forgot about it, so it steeped for about 7 or 8 minutes. That length though was needed to bring it even close to the strength of the first. This one doesn’t really retain that blueberry flavour with subsequent steeps, but it’s still quite nice. It mostly tastes like a mildly sweet mildly flavoured mild tea. Mild mild mild. The lack of re-steep strength is a bit of a downer, so I’ve adjusted the rating a bit.

I received this and my other samples from Butiki Teas a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the time until now to properly sit down, steep and review them so I forced myself to put them to the side until they could be paid attention to. I’d like to thank Stacy right away for sending these teas to me – They are all exciting smelling! When I first unpacked the teas, they all smelled strongly of mint, so I separated them to avoid any contamination in smell or flavour. Since I’ve taken so long to get to them, they are all cleared up, and now the only smells I get from this dry leaf are sweet grape and oolong. Its reminiscent of David’s Tea’s Through The Grapevine in grape smell – Surprisingly strong, but you still know you are smelling a tea. The grape flavour is more of a ripe purple grape, if you can picture that.

For steeping, I used all of my two cup sample, since the beau wanted to try it alongside me. I ended up using my new glasses, so it was approximately 1 tsp tea to an 11 oz glass, but I figure that is close enough. I am terrible at water temps, so we boiled it and then let it cool for about 5 minutes. The instructions suggested a steep time of 4 minutes, so that’s what we went with for the first steep.

The leaves expanded very rapidly…they’ve taken up the better part of the pot in only a few minutes. It looks like someone threw a bunch of spinach in my tea! The liquor is a warm yellow with a hint of green, and the smell is lightly grape with a strong oolong/vegetal tea smell. I smell a sweetness as well, but definitely a vegetal odor. Goes well with the spinach association! : )

First sips provide a hint of a spicy sweet taste, reminiscent almost of a mild cinnamon sugar, with grape in there somewhere. I might be saying grape because I know it’s there.. The vegetal smell is there in taste, but it’s sort of hiding. I notice it, but it seems to move around on the tongue, so it’s never strongly vegetal. It is balanced nicely with the sweet grape flavour. The initial taste is unusual, not something I’ve encountered before. I definitely enjoy it, but it’s a little confusing.

I’ve saved the leaves for further steeps, I will try to update this post with my thoughts on further steeps as I have them later on. As the cup cools, the strange cinnamon sugar grape smell becomes stronger at the beginning of the sip. It is almost floral…but I am terrible with identifying floral flavours. We have a flowering tea that was a semi sweet/spicy flavour that is similar to this. Maybe jasmine-esque? Don’t get me wrong, the grape is still the dominant taste in this, it just isn’t like eating a bunch of grapes straight up, it’s as if they’ve been sweetened or are maybe a bit over-ripe. Really yummy, if you’re interested in sweeter teas. I’m sad that my sample is gone, but looking forward to future steeps!

EDIT: Second steep retained the depth of flavour…Really enjoyable, thoguh the grape has muted slightly, it is still there in all of it’s sweet glory. I gave this steep about 4 minutes as well.

The third steep sat for about 7 or 8 minutes and still had some of that sweet grape flavour, but had lost most of the distinctive flavours. I could probably keep going on with smaller cups, but I think I’ve pushed this to it’s lovely end. Thanks again, Butiki Teas!

Enjoying a second steep along with the end of my book (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie…FINALLY!) This made a very handsome second steep. I find the flavours a bit muted this time, but I also had a bit of candy in between the two, so that will be changing my tastes. I get less bergamot this time, more orange/lemon. Very nice!

Well. I did a naughty thing. Yesterday we stopped by David’s Tea to replenish a few favourites. We also left with 4 new teas to sample. Today, we went back in to pick up a 2 pack of beautiful double walled glass mugs that were half price (yay!) and we ended up picking up three more teas to sample. The Countess was one of this second batch. I also ordered 4 new teas from 52Teas last night…I have no restraint this week!

Anyway, the beau picked out the Countess. He is a sucker for anything citrus. So much so that he even forgot his theoretical dislike of green teas. Since we had beautiful new mugs (http://www.davidstea.com/accessories/double-wall-glass-mugs) we thought we would brew this one up in our new pretties. We are terrible with water temps…we boiled the water and let it sit for about five minutes. It is definitely cool enough, there is no burnt tea taste at all. I’ve established that my “problems” with green tea stem from a couple cups with water that hadn’t cooled long enough. I also appreciate bolder teas, so the mild nature of greens is strange to me. I should really experiment more with them.

Anyway, the countess! Smells of froot loops and oranges. Steeped, the liquor is a pale green/yellow and smells of a traditional earl grey. Sort of dusty and froot loopy (not a big EG fan over here. I like my Twinings Lady Grey, but that’s about it). The taste is surprisingly pleasant, and actually reminds me a lot of the Twinings Lady Grey. I get a lemony, orangy froot loopy flavour. Quite mild, very sippable. You can taste the green tea, the bergamot and the additional citurs, but no one flavour dominate the rest. The bergamot is a bit forward, I find, but not terribly dusty as it can be. This is a pleasant cuppa, but not one that I would keep on hand for myself. If the beau likes it though, I am more than willing to drink a pot every now and then.

Backlog: Forgot to log this earlier today this was the treat in my travel mug. Was strangely caramelly today…I don’t even know how that happened!

Of course, now that the winter teas are long gone I finally have made my peace with this tea. It’s still far too heavy to be at all cost efficient, but it is a nice treat. I gave this a generous steep for about 10 minutes, and that brought out the flavours I’ve been missing.

Dry, it smelled like forever nuts, though a cinnamon apple spicy smell came out in the steeped liquid. The liquor is very pale which led me to believe it would be lacking in flavour. Luckily, that was a trick! I’m getting a rich warm baked apple taste, which I’ve never really got before. I think that DT’s Forever Nuts will be my year-round substitute, but the flavour punch to weight/cost ratio is never quite high enough. If I forget the price though, is definitely a tea deserving of the 80s.

By the way, does anyone else thing of David Tennant before David’s Tea when they use the initials???? You’d have to be a fan of new Doctor Who, but I’m sure there’s gotta be some.. : )

So I learned over the weekend that the Bulk Barn has tea. I couldn’t resist! This black and the orange ooolong I grabbed some of were both 2.70/100 g. That is a great price for a black tea, but surprising for an oolong. Obviously, I don’t have high expectations.

I am a big black currant fan, but the only black currant tea I have so far is Twinings bagged black currant (which I love!) The aroma of this before steeping is quite similar – just in your face juicy black currant smell. All things considered, the leaves are pretty big on this tea, though there is some dust at the bottom of my bag which I hope to avoid. Maybe I’ll give it a quick sift at some point to eliminate that.

The steeped aroma has lost some of the juicy smell, and is more like a black tea with berry of some sort. First sips are…delicious! What???? But it’s so cheap! I get a strong berry flavour, which I know to be black currant but could be confused as blackberry or raspberry, possibly. Still very juicy and fruit forward with a hint of tea at the end. I only got 25 grams or so of this in fear of it tasting terrible, but this seems like something that I might just rebuy! We’ll see how I feel as the cup goes in, but this is quite nice. I’m still getting a pretty strong balck currant flavour in the aftertaste. Not as good as the Twinings bags I so love (weird, I know!) but this was a great find. Colour me shocked!

I had a very long note written here. Something crazy happened and now it’s gone. I’m quite sad about that, and I don’t think I have it in me to re-create. To hit the highlights, this is my 300th note (yay!) and I craved this tea. This is unusual. There is mint, which is why I think I want it. Mint is fabulous. Chocolate tea is sketchy. I snuck a chocolate and a candy before pouring. I think this needs an extra hint of mint to really bring it up. Oversteeped the rest of the pot, accidentally. The tea is so-so. Hits the spot, but not something I plan on turning to regularily. Maybe if it had more mint…

EDIT: Hm. Hm. Hmmmmm. I think I like it. I am seriously considering getting 50 g for myself. I’ve got an empty tin waiting to be filled…this could fill it!

SECOND EDIT: What the what? This delicious! Maybe I need to let it cool to enjoy it, but now that it is cool (warmer than room temperature, but still pretty cool) it’s delicious! the mint is forwad (yay!) and the chocolate is at th back of the sip, leaving the impression you just had mint hot chocolate. Oh my. If I can have it like this always, I will definitely buy more. Rating goes up! (This is also a cup that was steeped 7 to 10 minutes accidentally. Maybe the extra steep helped?)