Metropolitan Tea Company

I have had this tea in a local tea shop and like it. I bought some to have at home and decided to make some today. I like this tea. I make it like a Chai with cream and sugar. It is much more mild than a Chai tea, but it is great for when you aren’t looking for the kick of a Chai.

Went to local tea shop today and decided to try this. It was good. I bought it with cream and sweetened. Oh and I had it iced. It was refreshing , hit the spot, and had a pretty pink color.

The awesome Roswell Strange sent me this in addition to a birthday card and I am able to sneak it in just in time for my birthday to be over. I am sipping away at the cup as I watch Frozen. Alas, this cup is seriously lacking. It tastes mostly like a regular orange pekoe tea. I am not sure what it is meant to taste like but I am guessing something more. Nonetheless, I was so touched to receive a birthday gift in the mail from my amazing tea triplet. Thank you so much!

I’ve got tons of this because I have both loose leaf and a tin of teabags. But that’s a-okay, because I really enjoy it cold.

I have a migraine of epic proportions, so I’ll just say this is yummy.

One of my cold brews for the day in an effort to use it up. It’s a sweet ice-winey flavor, I’m always impressed at the flavor of this one. I love ice wine, but I also love having money and I can’t do both XD. This is always a nice alternative.

Very aromatic and soothing! I haven’t had this one hot steeped in months, but from what I recall, it is fairly mellow with a warm, comforting, “homey” feeling given by the vanilla and almond slices. They don’t add too much flavor to the rooibos, but it makes it a little more rounded. Excellent cup if you add a bit of honey…really brings out the vanilla and makes this cup deliciously creamy and desert-like.

This is one I took a sample of out of the GCTTB.

I’m not sure what I did wrong with this.
1 tsp, less than boiling water, 2 minute steep = undrinkable. Strong, bitter, like coffee that’s been sitting for two days. It’s also gritty, lots of “dust” made it through my basket. Dump.
Second steep – better but not much. Nope I don’t like this one. Drank about half that cup. I’m really glad I only took a couple of tsp of this out of the box. I hope others have better luck with it than I did.

A few friends of mine run a butler café of sorts, which they run at a few events. A friend of mine got a box of tea at their reformation, and between one thing and another, it recently ended up in my hands.

I’m now planning, over the next few days, to drink all the teas from it. It aught to be a delicious few days. :) Tea companies are according to the one who packed them and not officially on the packaging, so I am trusting her memory.

I’m actually slightly torn at the first few sips of this tea — I’ve had it before and it’s been lovely and almond/marzipan-y, but I’m not getting it this time with the freshly made tea. It could be that there’s not enough actual tea — the sachets seemed on the small size.

Overall… I get a bit of the aftertaste, but I’m not getting the tea’s flavour much at all. It’s much more… pleasantly flavoured water than tea, if you will.

So, yes. It’s a bit of a shame, as I know it can be better than this, but this cup isn’t quite tasting as wonderfully as it should.

Welcome to day 5 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!
I managed to polish off 20 teas in the first 4 days!
This morning I started off with this CTC, so finely chopped that it looks like coffee grounds! I over-teaed the cup just a little, so it was potent enough to warrant the addition of stevia & almond milk, something I don’t do often these days, but nice on occasion.
Thanks to Lala for this generous sample. This sipdown brings me to 380 teas to go!

Thank you LaLa for this one, which is bold, malty, & fruity, with a slight bitter edge that I’m enjoying this morning! I’m not quite at a sipdown with this one, I have just enough one more cup, so it goes into the sipdown extravaganza box for future reference.
Unless one of my friends would like me to send it along as a sample?

This is the tea I came home to today!
I don’t drink a lot of CTC teas, but this one is worth drinking! It’s so finely chopped & roasted, so that it looks like coffee grounds, & it brews up a nice bold, malty, & slightly sweet cup!
Thank you, Lala for sending me a generous sample of this one!! :)

Best Tea I ever had

Sipdown (160)

I am questioning whether it’s me, the tea, or the water down here in Florida that is making almost all the teas I have had taste off/different than I remember. Take this one, for example. I loved this and was incredibly grateful to Roswell Strange when she sent me another little bit except when I brewed it up, it tasted like dirt. A similar thing happened a couple days back with the Damn Fine Holiday Blend. So now I’m wondering what is causing all these bad cups?

Perhaps it’s me? Tastes change and I haven’t really been drinking much tea so maybe my tastes are different now. Though, I had the holiday blend since my hiatus and enjoyed it and then I had it here and didn’t.

Perhaps it’s the equipment? No fancy kettle or frother here. Maybe the water temperature is off given I don’t have a kettle that can brew to perfect tea temps. However, the cold brews are off too and that doesn’t incorporate any equipment:

Perhaps it’s the tea? I decided to bring all my small sample in plastic bags. Some old, some new. They have been stored in a cool, dry, and dark place but still they were all left in the sample bags they arrived in from companies/other steepsterites. However, some samples have been stored for less than a couple of weeks and even they aren’t as strong or flavorful as I would imagine they should be.

Perhaps it’s the water? So now I’m left wondering if it’s something to do with the water here in Florida versus the water in Toronto that is throwing everything off. It tastes different but would it really alter the tea that much?

Perhaps it’s a combination? Whatever it is, it’s not making it easier to fall back in love with tea when half the cups are being dumped because they taste weird. On the other hand, it’s doing wonders for decreasing my cupboard size.

Sipdown!! (208)

So I think I steeped this cup at too high a temperature as it has turned out rather astringent. I am trying to get passed it but there is no vanilla or grenadine in this mug, just the base. Thank you for sharing Roswell Strange but alas it seems i ruined the last cup.

So I didn’t know “Monk’s Blend” was a thing until very recently. Every time I saw it, I just assumed it was some company making a particular blend. However, when I finally realized a Monk’s Blend tea was a black tea with vanilla and grenadine I was all for it. I LOVE grenadine. Prior to deciding to be healthy, I would actually add grenadine to coke (the soda, not the drug). So when I had the oppurtunity to try a Monk’s Blend tea via my frequent swap pal, Roswell Strange. I jumped at the chance.

Even though this cup has cooled slightly, I still think this a great introduction. This tea is almost creamy in how smooth it is (likely from the vanilla). And the grenadine flavor really shines. This tea actually captures everything I love about grenadine syrup and leaves out the calories. It is like the tasty tea version of a Shirley Temple…YUM!!! Thank you Roswell Strange!!!

Sipdown (171/173)!

Finally through with this one; it’s a good feeling!

This isn’t the worst cup I’ve made of this one, actually. In fact it’s pretty good compared to the others; there’s no bitterness/astringency, I can almost taste the fruitiness of the black current in each sip, and the vegetal qualities are leaning more on the “buttery” side of things and are less grass/seaweed like. More like spinach, really.

I’m sending some to Cavocorax, so fingers crossed she finds it more enjoyable and gets cups like this one, not like the bitter sludgey cups I’ve gotten in the past.

I need to go into work today to check when I work tomorrow – but I keep putting off doing it. I’m so cozy at home; I don’t want to leave! I don’t trust my foggy recollection of my schedule to get me there on time tomorrow, though…

Maybe I’ll get ready after this cuppa, and then reward myself by tacking on a trip to DAVIDsTEA for some tins and Cool Cucumber/Superberry (I’ve decided I don’t need more Bamboozled when I have Buddha Bamboo)…

I need to make that trip sooner than later anyway, what with Superberry soon to be discontinued.

I steeped this cup up like a green blend because it does have green tea in it, despite being mostly black. Even still, only one word comes to mind “Ick” – and if I’m allowing myself a second word, it would probably be “bitter”.

Sadly, in order to get a sipdown (without just sending this to other people, or throwing it away) I do have to actually drink it – and secretly I have hopes that if I experiment enough then I’ll be able to find a way it actually tastes alright.

At least I paired it with the new Supernatural episode from last night! One of the two is definitely enjoyable, that’s for sure!

Also drank during the new Supernatural episode.

I don’t think I liked this cup as much as my first, and if I recall my first wasn’t too great either? Initial complaints for the first cup were that this is advertised (where I bought it) as a black tea, but it’s about 50/50 black and green – and I dislike green tea.

The cup I most recently had visually looked like a black, but tasted almost entirely like a green: buttery (kinda) with asparagus notes in between the faint black currant notes. And then a bitter, astringent aftertaste. Nope, I don’t think this one is for me.

Also made this in the morning (well, technically early afternoon) in a timolino, and then left it until I was at the movies and it had cooled down in the timolino to the perfect drinking temperature.

Parameters were about 2 tsp. (just a little more) steeped in boiling water for just shy of four minutes. When I took the brew basket out and had a trial spoonful when it was still stupidly hot, mostly everything just smelled and tasted really bitter – so I was quite worried I’d screwed up and oversteeped the whole timolino worth. When I started drinking at the theatre, however, that seemed to thankfully not quite be the case.

This still smells quite bitter and unappetizing, but taste wise it’s much better than before. The black tea taste is really rich and strong, and is something I would normally be tempted to soften with just a splash of milk. Surprisingly I also taste a lot of vegetal and unwelcome green tea taste. I had to double check the ingredients list and turns out that yes there is green tea in this blend which disappoints me because it’s quite present and this was advertised at The Vintage Tea Room (where I purchased it) as a purely black tea blend with black currant notes – and that is what I wanted; not black/green tea with currant. Boo.

Anyway, speaking of the currant – I can taste it. Initial and mid sip it just sort of comes out as a slightly masked generic fruitiness, but towards the end of the sip and in the aftertaste as the green and black tea mellows out I do get distinct notes of currant that thankfully don’t lean towards a medicinal quality. That sort of redeems this one.

Overall feelings? I’m not sure. I should have been more diligent in looking at the ingredients list because the green tea in this is definitely a let down and, in my opinion, takes away from the taste. Furthermore, it’s not what was advertised. However, despite being a touch astringent (possibly from over steeping) the black tea base is pretty lovely and the sweet touch of black currant is a lovely aspect.

I need to drink more of this to make up my mind.

Earlier in the week I got a chance to go to The Vintage Tea Room with my Dad; I was there at the start of the month to apply for a job but I didn’t have time to stay and actually have any tea, which is a shame ‘cause it’d been probably close to a year?

I got a cucumber cranberry cream cheese sandwich, and we split a pot of tea!

This was my pick; I remember last time I was in town and had a chance to spot in here I bought 50g of this and it was the best Monk’s blend I’ve ever tried. However, my tastes have changed a lot over the last year and I needed to know whether I’d still like this. Dad was skeptical about this tea – pomegranate and vanilla? He seemed unimpressed. However, he was won over! And you know what, I fell in love all over again. The flavour profile is so lovely; bright notes of grenadine, silky vanilla, a full bodied, malty black base…

I swear, we were passive aggressively fighting for the last cup. I don’t have tin space for any of this at home, but should I clear out a tin I’d certainly pick up another 50g of this for at home. Even though the tea room is less than a five minute walk away, it’s a lot more cost effective to be brewing in my own time.

Sipdown (109)!

I need to restock this. Need to.

But anyway; I wanted to use this last bit up in an unconventional and memorable way so last night I steeped the last of the leaf into a small, concentrated batch and made it into Simple Syrup, which I then used this morning to make into a Tea Pop to drink while getting ready for work.

I have to say; drinking this one as a tea pop was a really drastically different experience. I almost couldn’t tell this was even the same tea – though it was still really good. It had a spun sugar/cotton candy like flavour to it – you know, sweet burnt/caramelized sugar. and then vanilla. If it weren’t for the sweet, fruity grenadine at the back of the sip this would pretty well be unrecognizable.

So summary; very candy like in the sugary sweetness – more so than a Monk’s Blend usually has with the grenadine aspect.

Time to try and write more tasting notes! Mostly I think I’m just going to copy/paste my notes, though. It’s late and I just got home from a day out (or rather “in”) with Robyn at her new dorm. However, since I drank more tea than I wrote new notes for it’s time to negate some of that. You know, make my queue grow smaller instead of larger?

This was served piping hot with milk. Not sure why I added milk (this blend doesn’t exactly need it) but I did. It worked, anyway. Here are my notes from the evening:

- Very fresh/flavourful vanilla and grenadine notes
- Still my favourite Monk’s Blend ever
- Lost its “Tin Status” since there’s only a cup left; tin now occupied by Rio!
- And sadly I’m almost out… DEFINITELY need to restock.

And I will restock the next time I’m in Regina. That said, I really only have one more cup worth of it (hanging out in a baggie right now) so I’m probably going to postpone this inevitable sipdown for a little while longer. Not too long though, since I know this one wont be staying as fresh now that it’s not in a tin.

Tonight this blend made an appearance outside of the closet! Because I’m running low, I’ve been hoarding/savouring what I have left of this – but I felt like after a sort of “mediocre” tea day I really needed a pick me up, and this is what stood out tonight.

It brewed up lovely; sweet grenadine and almost “raspberry” fruit notes and a brisk black base with a touch of astringency, but in a good way.

Definitely the best tea of the day, and I think the perfect one to end the day on.