Tea Desire

Made in my timolino and sipped at all morning while at work. This blend is kind of unique because it’s a rooibos – but a caffeinated one because of the coffee. Because of that, it doesn’t get a TON of drinkage because I usually opt for cold brewed fruit rooibos blends for breakfast (which this is not), or at night time before bed.

I LOVE it when I do have it though; it’s the perfect balance of woody rooibos, kinda earthy coffee, and then sweet, creamy chocolate. Yum!

Today my work shift was short; basically all the new store employees went into the store and did the pricing of our inventory/got to know the store layout/met the other employees. It looks like, myself aside, there are three other Keyholders/Cash Managers; the two I trained with over the last two weeks, and then one other one who trained somewhere else. I got to meet her today, and she seems really cool (I adore her name; it’s Morningstar). However, she admitted she hasn’t really received proper keyholder training so it looks like the other keyholders (Bobbi, Hazel, and I) will be training her.

I didn’t get the meet many of the other employees; but the two I did meet left distinct impressions. The first, Arlene, seems very well put together and professional – I get the problem that we’re NEVER going to have problems with her as far as cashhandling/stock goes – she just went at it and worked super hard.

The second, Karen, I actually know! She worked with me at Calendar Club before they promoted me to manager and transferred me to my own store – and let me just flat out say that I was NOT happy to see her. She’s an older woman (I’m going to guess very late 40s or early 50s) compared to that age of all the other employees (both at Dollarama and Calendar Club) and she has a very extreme and annoying personality type; no matter what she’s doing she HAS to be the center of attention and is a very obnoxious “social butterfly” type. At the same time, she reminds me of that kind of stereotypical “redneck mother” type of thing. I remember at Calendar Club she got incredibly agitated when she couldn’t go for her “smoke break” when SHE wanted to go, and I swear I smelled booze on her breath one morning.

I could tolerate all that if she was at least a strong enough/competent employee – but she was HORRIBLE at any kind of cash handling/paperwork and the source of much grief on my/Jen (CC Manager at the branch that Karen worked at)’s end.

Thank GOD she didn’t recognize me – I don’t want her to “bond” with me in any capacity. This’ll be… Interesting.

Guzzled down while it was hot this time – no chance for it to get cold. I watching a really emotional episode of Bones while drinking this one, and I was very caught up in the episode and wasn’t paying attention to the taste of the tea I was very quickly sipping at for comfort.

I’m sure it probably was as delicious as usual.

“For those times when you want a caffeinated Rooibos blend”

I’ve been craving this for a while, though I’ve put off making it because usually I want rooibos at night time – and this one actually has caffeine in it from the coffee beans (mind you, not a ton).

Today has been a sleepy day though which made me think of rooibos, though since it’s not late in the day I thought caffeinated rooibos would be excellent! Mmmm, I was right!

Very rich, and full taste with only a hint of woody rooibos. Mostly, this was thick, creamy dark chocolate with espresso/mocha goodness! I’m not really a coffee drinker at all and never have been – but occasionally I do crave the chocolate/coffee combo flavour, so this is the perfect thing to satisfy that. I let it get cold, but it was even better that way!

This was the third tea I took with for the roadtrip from Saskatoon to Regina. I barely drank it on the ride up though, because I wanted to save some for my brother to try. He is definitely not a tea drinker; in fact he hates most teas, but I thought this might be something he’d like because he is a coffee drinker and this is a coffee flavoured tea.

The preparation, was 2 tsp. of leaf steeped in boiling water (in one of my 12 oz. timolinos) for six minutes. Steeping, it had a very bold and rich coffee smell with hints of chocolate. Very robust in smell.

Flavour wise, still super flavourful but not nearly as robust and bold. The woodiness of the rooibos comes through consistently and constantly in the background of the sip. The mocha flavour is quite strong and bold, but in a sweet way like the creamy and sweet coffee flavour of an iced cappuccino. There are wisps of darker milk chocolate fluid throughout. Super tasty – and a nice in between of a sweeter coffee and regular tea.

I was never really a coffee drinker, even before I got into tea. I did enjoy the occasional iced cap though, so this is nice to have around. I think it’d make an incredible iced latte or latte slushie! Probably going to be a restock; I don’t really have anything like it.

I did share some with my coffee loving brother, but he thought it was revolting and actually spat it out… Drat. I thought I had found a winner.

I also had my “Christmas” with them, and got some interesting and emotional gifts; a framed picture of my deceased brother which was really emotional to receive, a Spiderman toque, and some jewelry. I also got many gifts totally unrelated to any of my interests and which only exaggerated how well my Dad doesn’t know me; such as an iTunes gift card, a magazine about the anime Evangelion (I’ve never even seen an episode), a bottle of coke (I stopped drinking pop months ago)…

And, I also got the DAVIDsTEA Holiday Collection, despite my expressing direct disinterest in receiving it and having my brother warn them of that. Oh well… It’s the thought that counts.

Sipdown (112)!

This last cold brew was more toffee than anything else, with a strong woody flavour from the rooibos. I can’t help but wonder why it was no where near as nutty as the last cold brew, which was only a few days apart from this one. Anyway; not saying I wont EVER repurchase this one but for the time being I’m pretty sick of it.

I need to explore some new Tea Desire blends; the ones I have currently have been drank so many times I’m growing really sick of having them around.

Currently doing my blind tasting exam; my Dad’s making all of the tea since I can’t see any of the process (the dry leaf, steeping instructions, infused leaf or even the steeped liquor) and in between each cup I’m just writing tasting notes…

I thought I was breezing through it though, then I hit the third cup and now I can’t decide whether it’s a green tea or an oolong. It definitely has very buttery/spinachy notes to it that make me think it’s green tea, but also very creamy. I feel like once I taste the last two cups I’ll know for sure – the first two were DEFINITELY black and pu’erh.

This is a queued tasting note.

I think I’ve cold brewed this one before, but with the bottom of the tin insight I decided that regardless I’d push through and use up the leaf as quickly as possible to sip another tea down that I’ve been hoarding for a while.

This came out really nutty; like a very sweet hazelnut brittle – if hazelnut brittle is even a thing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a brittle other than peanut brittle. And then, the toffee kind of tasted a little more like Dulce de Leche to me. I’ve come over time to acknowledge that the base used for this is definitely a lower quality rooibos base; and it added a lot of woody notes to the brew but I personally do like that flavour. If you don’t dislike rooibos in general then I think that it actually adds to this tea.

One more cold brew and I’ll be done with this blend.

I’m super sweaty and gross right now; I suppose being hungover and drinking a hot latte doesn’t help that at all, though the latte is so tasty I refuse to put it down or wait until it cools…

Inspired by VariaTEA I bought some Cashew Milk from work this week; I’m not big into almond milk at all, but I love cashews so I thought that was something I would definitely be ok with trying out. It also happened to be on sale which was a big bonus! Straight, the cashew milk is different than I thought it’d be. I mean, it tastes great – like cashews but cool and creamy, and not too rich. But the mouthfeel is really thin, like water. A huge part of lattes, for me, is the thick creamy mouthfeel so I anticipate that I’m going to be at least slightly disappointed by the lack of that.

Since I’ve tried this one quite often I thought it’d be a good one to try as my first cashew milk latte ‘cause toffee definitely pairs well with nut flavors, and I know what it should taste like (as a ’control’ if you will). It tastes really good; the cashew is definitely a distinct flavor from the milk but it’s mild enough that it doesn’t mask the flavor of the tea, which can sometimes be an issue with lattes. Because of the toffee there’s a rich creaminess, but I was right about the mouthfeel being really different/thin.

Overall I love the taste so I’m going to continue to play with this for sure – but I think I may just have to get used to the mouthfeel before I get any major satisfaction from these cashew milk latters. Flavor suggestions for what to try out are totally welcomed though! Other than other sweet/dessert teas I’m not 100% sure what to pair with this because the cashew does come through quite clearly.

This.

Uhh, this is a tea that I made in a timolino. I drank it, and it was good?

But seriously; I actually don’t really have anything to write for this one. No new observations, no quirky retorts or stories. I’ve reviewed the hell out of this tea, and now I’m getting a little bored with it.

Just got home from work, and I’m trying to catch up on reading everyone else’s tasting notes from throughout the day – done most of them now. Unfortunately Steepster is being a little problematic for me and, for about half of people’s notes, when I go to “like” them the site crashes. And the ones I can click on, I’m not even sure if the likes are sticking or not.

I’m trying, guys!

Anyway; I made this cold brewed for work because I was following the sort of idea that since DT’s Oh Canada was fairly outstanding this, being similar, likely would be as well. And, it was a good hypothesis proved to be fairly accurate – though I think hot still is a little better. It’s more “gooey” and rich. This was nice though; it was a very sweet treat with deep caramel and butter notes and then a very pronounced hazelnut flavor that sorta ran under that for the whole sip and then lingered a little longer than the caramel in the aftertaste. Layeredis how I’d describe it, I think.

One sorta downside; I usually find the rooibos to be well hidden in the hot cup but it was pretty noticable (in a woody way) in this cold brew. I don’t mind the taste of rooibos, but this would totally be a negative for some people.

Pretty much just straight up, make your mouth water, liquefied creamy, gooey toffee goodness. There’s a bit of a rooibos aftertaste buried under the toffee, and some sweet hazelnut notes pop up now and then too. As far as decadent dessert rooibos goes, this one is definitely a winner.

I’m actually almost done my tin of it and I’m trying to decide whether I want to restock – Tea Desire’s Caramel Pu’Erh has a nearly identical taste just with a different base, which I suppose makes sense given they’re the same company. It almost seems redundant to keep ‘em both on hand. And, I wouldn’t mind devoting the tin space to something else; maybe The Woman which has gone tinless since getting it, or to Cuppa’T’s Apple Strudel Pistachio blend if Tre picks me up more?

Ugh; decisions. I hate decision making.

Meh.

I enjoyed a large mug of this last night while watching Pokemon Black/White on Netflix. How cool is it they added that series and the original series in Kanto!? Very cool is the correct answer. Anything else is unacceptable.

I would have watched the Kanto series first – except I just recently finished a rewatch of it online (along with the Jhoto series) so I picked this instead since I hadn’t seen it before. My strongest opinion? Trip is a dick. Also, Ash’s Oshawott is adorable! She kind of reminds me of his Chikorita from the Jhoto series; the Chikorita was “in love” with him too and was pretty jealous.

The tea was a nice, sweet treat and also offset the food I was eating pretty well too (popcorn with ketchup seasoning). Sweet and savory. Best way to go, right? Right. I’ll need more of this soon, I think…

Last tea of the night, and an extension of the craving for caramel that I had going on. When I prepared it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of MissB’s son declaration that it was/is his tea. No – my tea. ALL MINE.

Not really. I just feel protective of my Tea Desire blends. They’re my precious.

Anyway, I kept the steep time pretty short and the resulting cup was decadent and sweet and like liquid caramel with hints of hazelnut. So freaking delicious! I immediately wanted another cup, except I was already cocooned on the couch old watching old episodes of Bones so I fought my cravings and left it with that one ridiculously yummy mug.

I really enjoyed my first couple mugs of this: it was like super sweet, liquid caramel. Tonight however I’m only getting a little toffee/caramel and the rooibos is being especially woody and I have to admit maybe even just a touch medicinal.

Maybe I just brewed it up poorly? This is the first time I’ve made it in a timolino, so that could possibly have something to do with it? Perhaps? I don’t know – I just want this to be… Well, more than it is at the moment.

I know VariaTEA just her package from me which had some of this in it, so I hope she gets closer to the delicious first few cups I had instead of what I’m drinking now.

EDIT: More Toffee as it cooled!

I think this may be the last tea of the night – but maybe not? I just started a movie that I fully intend to fall asleep to, but if I don’t fall asleep right away I may make something else (maybe try and do a sipdown).

This one smells sickly sweet; delicious caramel and sticky toffee goodness with maybe just a little bit of hazelnut. I have high expectations for this tea – especially since I’ve tried Victoria Mint and know that Tea Desire can pull off caramel teas.

My preparation for this one was a heaping 1/2 tbsp. measurement for 10 oz. of boiling water, steeped for about six minutes. I feel like, if this is anything like Victoria Mint, I could have pushed for an even longer steep time, but instead I backed off a little just in case. The smell is primarily hazelnut brittle with some toffee in the background. It smells mouthwateringly delicious!

Taste… Initial taste is sorta burnt toffee/caramel with strong hazelnut notes and a bit of a brown sugar sort of feel. This transitions smoothly into a deep, rich, creamy toffee taste. The good kind of toffee that’s all sticky and requires some serious gnawing to take a bit of. The kind that makes your teeth sore but you just can’t resist eating a pound of it anyway. And then, the sweet toffee taste lightly lingers on the roof of your mouth a while after you’ve finished your sip. Yum!

(I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I really like the rooibos base Tea Desire uses – it’s not medicinal at all and only sometimes has that characteristic woody taste; and in this blend I don’t get the woody base at all. So those who fear rooibos might want to just give Tea Desire’s blends a chance; they could surprise you)

This is a tea that’s definitely for sweet toffee and caramel lovers!

Sorta Sipdown (193/197)!

I’m jumping down two numbers because the “quest” to find more samples to add to 221Tea’s box of goodies has resulted in my giving her the last of my Asia Cocktail from Tea Desire. It’s not a lot – but I thought I’d share it since I’ve fallen out of love with it and she could possibly really enjoy it. Plus it’s from a company she doesn’t have such easy access to…

This one is also going to her! It’s honestly pretty good – like the fudgey chocolate part of the oreo without the cream (although adding some milk can partly make up for that absence of flavour), I’ve just found that for my tastes it’s a little bit too generic. Besides, it’s easily accessible so if I ever change my mind I can just go and pick more up.

Farewell Oreo Cookie tea! We had a pretty good run and I liked you more than I thought I would…

Last night’s cup of this was kind of a mess and kind of an experimentation. I brewed it up like normal, but then I added milk and also Nesquik Rolo flavoured milk syrup because why the fuck not?

I can tell you right now why not: It makes the cup a muddled, thick, nasty and oily cup of cloying sludge. Don’t do it.

So yeah, not a good cup but pretty much all my fault. We’ll chock this one up to boredom. At least I have a fair bit of this left though.

This had a longer steep than usual, but I actually don’t think it suffered at all. More so, it may have actually benefited the taste/feel of the Oreo cookie (minus the cream filling). Basically, this tasted fudgey like usual but it also had a larger pastry/cookie kind of feeling than normal.

That could perhaps be attributed to the fact there were several large pieces of dates in this measured out left for this cup – more than I’ve had in any cup prior.

Hey, would you look at that – I’m over 100 followers now!

Anyway, I’m totally indulging my love of flavoured blacks today! There are at least three more I’m hoping to get in by the end of the day, some new and some old. This is one of the ones I’ve tried before – but since I was in a chocolate mood I grabbed this one over some of my other chocolate/some other flavour like mint or fruit mixes.

Today I added milk after recalling a few reviews that said it was tasty that way. With the milk, this steeped up to be a very smooth chocolate tea today, akin to a semi watered down cup of hot chocolate. Even though I’m not explicitly tasting the dates in this cup, I’m sure they’re part of what’s adding to the cookie/fudge feeling I’m getting. I also taste a bit more vanilla than usual, perhaps the milk is bringing it out.

It’s a “lick up every last drop” kind of cup.

Tre caved and gave me a slice of pie! Yay! So, to go with my pie I made a black tea; black tea seems to go with most desserts, in my opinion anyway. I actually bought this one because of all the talk on Steepster about it; it seems like it made a rotation through several people’s cupboards and that got me curious. My favourite employee from Tea Desire also told me that she dislikes this one because she can only taste the dates in it – and that made me curious too because I hate oreos, but I like dates…

So, I’m drinking this with a pretty open mind seeing as I think it could go either way as a “love it” or “hate it” tea, and because I’ve heard a wide array of opinions on it.

Dry, this smells like creamy chocolate and black tea. Not awful or anything, but just a little bit average (in a good way, I guess). My preparation was 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf, 10 oz. boiling water, steeped for four minutes. The smell is creamy milk chocolate with a touch of sweet dates, like the kind used in pastries.

Taste wise, it’s actually a surprisingly good chocolate tea. The chocolate is light, smooth, and very creamy with nice vanilla notes. The dates are fairly present and contribute a nice fruity sweetness that keeps the tea from being too one dimensional. There’s a soft pastry or cake like quality to the tea too, which I think adds to the intended idea of an “Oreo Cookie”. The black base is light, but still present. The doesn’t taste really equal an Oreo cookie for me, but in my case I guess that’s a good thing! As it cooled down, it did taste a little watery so next time I make it I think I’ll use more leaf or a slightly longer steep time.

Ultimately; I think I’ll enjoy going through this one – but I’m unsure as of right now if I would repurchase it; it’s nice enough but not anything super unique, and since I have many other chocolate black teas I don’t think I would feel as if I was losing out by not having more of this around.

After meeting Kittenna at Tea Desire for a swap, I then rushed my ass off to get home (Day #5 of the Christmas exchange from Momo was waiting in the mailbox for me when I arrived at home) and change into something appropriate for my interview… Which happened to be at Tea Desire, the place I had just come from.

I think the interview went really well. The woman who interviewed me is someone who I already know fairly well and who I’ve had many good tea related (and a few unrelated) conversations with already. It was kind of interesting because, obviously, she knew I was super familiar with tea already and about Tea Desire’s blends in particular (I’m in there at least once a week to buy tea and sometimes two or three times just for tea to go). It was kind of funny because some of her interview questions she didn’t even have to ask because she already knew the answers. I think that’ll probably work in my favour.

Regardless, wish me good luck! She said that I’d likely hear back by Monday! How cool would it be if I got the job? :D

And… Of course right after my interview I had to buy tea. She knows me well enough, I think, to get I wasn’t “sucking up”. It’s literally just a compulsion I have every single time I walk into the store. So, I got 50g of Sweet Toffee Rooibos and this as a tea to go latte.

Taste wise, it was pretty decent. Just a touch bitter, but I’m 90% sure that’s because I left the tea bag in for a very long time. It was a very nice London Fog though, essentially. Definitely not something I’ll stock from them because I have better Earl Greys at home, but something nice to sip on while out doing errands and things like that!

Cold Brew Sipdown (182/184)!

In total, this sat in the fridge cold brewing for pretty much a full 24 hours. When I set it up, I actually thought I had much more of it, and I was expecting to still have a bunch left – but somewhat thankfully there wasn’t as much as I thought and I got to dump the last of it in the mason jar!

This is pretty good cold brewed; I think better than it is hot, anyway. Hot I get this really funky, ‘soapy’ after taste that competes so much with the orange and the cinnamon, and all the other fruits. As a cold brew, the main flavours of this are orange/banana as immediate flavours and this incredibly long, lingering cinnamon/clove aftertaste that’s just really lovely and adds a cool dynamic to to the fruitiness of it. And there’s absolutely no soap flavour.

I wont get this again; because while it’s a neat cold brew it’s not overwhelmingly special either, and also because the fear of the lack of “soap” flavour being a fluke it holding me back a bit too. I think I may have sent this to a few other people, and based on this cup my recommendation to them is to try cold brewing the sample instead of having it hot.

Had this about a month ago and thought it tasted soapy, so I hadn’t touched it since but I was portioning some out for a couple people a few days ago (most of it for Robyn), and realized I should try it again so that’s what I did last night.

Actually, it’s not as bad as I remembered it being. In fact, it was mostly creamy orange and rooibos, with just a touch of cinnamon to create this kind if “warm” nighttime cup of comfort. I mean, it wasn’t exceptional but the last bit of it (yay for not having a ton left) might be drinkable enough for me to not have to send it all away…

Tre was being really mean about the fact I’m sick and have had nothing but tea and breakfast foods to eat all day. He stole all the pillows from the couch I’ve situated myself on and was being an ass and laughing at how it was really arduous for me to go and pick them from the ground. So – in the spirit of revenge I used the only weapon I had; spoilers about the new Sherlock episode.

While that was happening, this tea was steeping. 1 1/2 tsp. used for a 12 oz. stein. Tea Desire suggests 1 tsp. for 8 oz., so I just upped the leaf amount a little bit. Same proportions I’d use for Victoria Mint which is from Tea Desire, and which I happen to adore. I used boiling water and this steeped for five minutes – which is on the low end of their suggested steep time spectrum. The steeped colour is a rather nice orange.

The smell is more cinnamon than I thought it’d be – even though the packaging describes this as a cinnamon orange tea, that doesn’t come across abundantly in the dry smell. It’s also creamy orange and something else super familiar that I can’t put my finger on.

Taste wise, it’s a little bit weaker than I would have thought. Maybe I did under leaf it or perhaps I should have left it to steep longer. Initial taste is creamy orange in a slightly artificial way, and then a wave of cinnamon. Tickly cinnamon that does not totally mesh with the orange. Typically orange and cinnamon compliment each other; but here it feels like two competing flavours that are both kinda, well, ‘off’.

I also get the hint of something kinda soapy – similar to what I sometimes experience with DAVIDsTEA’s Blueberry Jam. I double checked both ingredients lists though, and neither tea share any listed ingredients. As far as the other listed ingredients in the tea go, I can vaguely taste the banana but that’s about it. Like I said though, this seems rather weak (especially for a Tea Desire blend). Not really “magical”.

Right now I feel like this is something I would not stock again and that will probably take a while to get through – that being said, I don’t find it terrible and I’m going to do some experimenting to see if I can make it more enjoyable. Perhaps more leaf (though it worries me that that could make the soapy taste more prominent) or a longer steep time (which presents the same fear)…

Sidenote: I just removed a whole bunch (ok, like… 5) of teas from my cupboard! I posted several in the Take It Away thread and got a quick response, so went and dug them out and because of the quick response was able to parcel everything up to get mailed off. I don’t know if I’ll have time to go to the post office tomorrow before I leave for vacation, but they’re all officially out of my cupboard which is good enough for me!

Japanese Cherry, Lime Gelato, Cherry Cola, S’mores – this is basically goodbye!