Metropolitan Tea Company

This is straightforward but awesome. Vegetal sencha, cherries and rose petals. Well balance, very flavourful, not at all astringent. A bit of sweetness and some moments where the flavour was strong enough to make me think artificial, but its actually quite an authentic cherry flavour, with less tartness.

This flavour combination has been a love of mine for a very long time, and this one does it well.

I’m pretty sure I have a straight Earl Grey in mu cupboard, but I couldn’t find it, so I grabbed this to make a latte, and it’s delicious.

2tsp steeped in 8oz of water for 4 minutes, added to maybe 4oz of hot milk, 1.5 tsp of sugar and 1tsp of matcha powder. The flavours of this come through really nicely and are complimented well by the matcha. Nice and decadent.

This smells amazing. Full of bergamot, creamy vanilla, caramel notes.

Steeped, the cup was a little bit bitter when hot, but mellowed out as it cooled. There’s a good balance of bergamot and creamy vanilla, with some pleasant sweetness that fills my mouth mid sip. There’s a bit of astringency and bergamot on the finish.

A very nice morning cup.

This is tart and pretty hibiscusy, but it’s also nice, because there are some distinct non-hibiscus fruit flavours in here that linger nicely on the finish. The orange and pineapple notes make this juicy and pretty pleasant. I do wish it was a bit sweeter naturally.

I think this would probably be pretty lovely iced, with some sugar.

I got this as a free sample from Sonya’s Flowers. That’s the only reason I have this and the only reason I’m drinking it. I don’t like hibiscus in blends, so I wouldn’t expect it to be different when it’s straight. And it isn’t.

The liquor is an intense red, which is gorgeous. The smell is tart and floral, and the taste is mostly tart, with a light floral hint that I don’t usually detect (or at least, identify as the hibiscus) when it’s in blends.

Best to send the rest of this sample off to someone who can appreciate it, because I definitely can’t.

Another sipdown today. This is such a lovely watermelon oolong. Sweet, natural melon flavour that is supported nicely by a green oolong base.

Cold brewed this over night, as I have it in my sipdown box (one teaspoon left and then it’s gone!)

This is really nice – melon and vegetal notes, with a bit of natural sweetness that isn’t cloying at all. Mostly tangy vegetal on the finish.

I’m reminded of my Cool Cucumber cold brew from the other day, but this is like a more mature, refined version of it.

The person at Human Bean gave me a very generous sample of this to try today. I tend to quite like melon teas and I’ve never run across melon with oolong before.

This is really nice. It’s very sweet and melony smelling, but much less sweet on the palette. There’s a bit of roasty and vegetal flavour from the oolong, but it’s pretty mild, and goes surprisingly well with the melon. This is light and smooth and there’s a pleasant cooling sensation. Very long melon finish.

I’m not sure I like this enough to pick up 50g of it, but I’d definitely drink it again. I imagine it would be fabulous iced.

So smooth, delicious, addicting. The cream flavor is vibrant.

My husband loves this tea, and as a brilliant and creative surprise last night, he mixed this with Roasted Almond by Capital Teas, Inc. LOVED it. It was creamy, yet nutty, had a vanilla aroma and still bit like an earl grey but had an almond aftertaste. Highly recommended combo. <3

I could definitely taste the cream and it was such a pleasant and welcome surprise. I will drink this again and again – it may even be hard to go back to regular Earl Grey now that I’ve had it with the lovely cream flavor! Also, I enjoy the bergamot flavor, and this tea did not disappoint.

Sipdown.

Slightly bitter from oversteeping. Hints of smoke and dried fruit, cooling menthol on the back of the tongue and roof of the mouth. Slightly astringent finish.

I like this better than the last time I drank it, and I think it would be quite nice if not oversteeped.

I’m going to let this one go for now, try some other Darjeelings, and then maybe pick up another sample of this once I’ve figured out Darjeelings more.

Edit: Second steep, 3min, 80C is less bitter. More of a fruity character, what I’m guessing is the muscatel, but I’m not sure. A touch of flatness mid sip that makes me think of old or cheap tea, but overall still pretty good. Could be all the dust in this sample too.

The sample of this I got has a lot of dust in it, so we shall see how well this steeps at 4 minutes.

This is interesting. It smells kind of fruity, something dark, maybe black currant? It tastes similar. Dry, a touch floral and dried fruit. No sweetness, a bit of astringency and a touch bitter. There’s a nice, cooling sensation, almost a subtle menthol note.

Not bad, not terribly impressive. Different from the blacks I usually like, but I’ll finish this sample and give it another shot.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from this tea. This is my first cup and I just grabbed the first thing out of my box of blacks that I hadn’t tried before. I had assumed that this was a straight black blend, but when I got the cup steeped, lo and behold, there was a lot of bright green leaf in there.

Initial impressions on the nose were a lot of malt and fruit, which is borne out on the palette. Nice, round malty flavour, a touch of vegetal and lots of distinct black currant.

Black currant is one of my favourite fruits, but I never like it in tea as much as I feel like I should. I drank the first few sips of this straight, and then something about the black currant flavour was bugging me, so I added some milk and sugar, which has made it a much more enjoyable cup to sip in the morning.

I’m not in love with this, but I’ll definitely drink it again, and experiment with steeping it more like a green, though with steeping it like a black there was no astringency or bitterness.

Hmm, I think I was expecting a bit more from this tea. The tasting notes suggest a lot more fruit, but I’m only getting the slightest hint of orange, and mostly just lots and lots of cinnamon. I’m also not sure about this black tea base – for a 4 min steep there’s a lot more bitterness than I would like or expect, and I’m not getting much earth or malt or other black tea flavours.

I think with a lot of cinnamon notes, I’m also wanting some other flavours to round it out and give it a more full mouth taste. Something more like a masala chai. Which maybe is unfair to this blend, but it just seems like there’s some back of the mouth flavour that should be there but isn’t.

This isn’t bad, and the more I sip at it the more I like it, but I’m not impressed either. I wonder if playing with the steeping will resolve some of the bitterness. Maybe some milk and sugar would help it along too.

Oh this is different. I was expecting something more neutral, but but this has an acidic juiciness, tartness, like a fruit tisane.

There’s some notes of sweet hay and fruit – apples, grapes, pineapple maybe? A bit of earthiness. All in all a light, fresh cup, and different from any of the white teas I’ve tried to-date.

I think my rating on this is going to shift around, as I try different steeps and more cups of this.

Edit: A second steep is more mellow. The tartness is less prominent, a bit more fruitiness on the nose, and the hay comes more toward to the forefront.

Hmm, not really feeling this one. I think maybe my water was a touch too hot? This smells a bit fruity but mostly tastes bitter with a touch of astringency and soapiness. A bit floral on the finish.

I added a bit of sugar and maybe it helps, but I’m not excited by this cup.

Mmmm. The dry leaf smells sweet, fruity and floral, with blueberry notes. In fact, I was so distracted by the smell of this that I forgot to put my strainer in my cup and just dumped the leaves straight in. Oops, not so good for this style of cup.

Steeped, it smells very light, with the same fruity, blueberry notes. On the palette, the start of the sip is kind of boring. There’s more floral notes, and then on the finish, things get more interesting, with berry notes and a hint of caramel. Very light and easy to drink. It’s pleasant but it’s not really exciting me that much.

Malty, bold, thick, dark, smooth. A touch of cocoa, a touch of astringency and bitterness on the finish. All in all pretty good, and not as generic as I was anticipating for a CTC tea.

I’m home! The comfort is much needed. What an awkward trip that was.
A friend of mine is going through a rough time and blames me for part of it (because I am not romantically interested). I feel terrible about it, but I just can’t date someone I have no feelings for. I’ve been there and no, they don’t “grow over time”, at least not for me. Even still… If it hurts me to see my friend go through what seems to be a deep, legit depression, I don’t want to imagine the suffering he is going through. So much frustration! I don’t know what to do about it (and still respect myself at the end of the day)

Anyhow, while we were in Ottawa, we stopped at a place called Tea Store. In the Market. A cute little shop with all sorts of pots and mugs on display. They sold loose tea as well, mostly from Metropolitan, but also Kusmi and a few other brands.
Unfortunately, only the Metropolitan Teas were available by the cup, so I settled for this one. Lately, I’ve been craving Yunnans every now and then, but not enough for me to keep any in my cupboard. Well, maybe a few cups worth, but certainly not in the minimum purchase amount I’d have to buy.
So yeah, this cuppa really hit my craving. Or it would have if the mood hadn’t been so melancholy.
It was sweet like honey, or maybe honeysuckle, with an edge of hay or straw. Dusty sunshine! A little complex, which I love.
I also really enjoyed the smoothness. However it was a tad thick, and heavy. Sadly, that is the part that makes me pause, and not indulge very often. Ah well, it really is great once in awhile!!

My favorite grape flavored tea, delicious!

Its alright, you have to be very careful brewing it, as others have noted the flavor becomes bitter quickly. Not the best blueberry tea I have tasted but passable.