Tea Desire

Today is just one giant countdown until store set up. I keep telling myself that it’ll be fine, that everything will go smoothly, and I’ve gotten myself to the point of half believing that. Since I’m out of bed now I’m taking advantage of drinking some tea. Right now, I’m in the mood for creamy and fruity. So far I’ve polished off the last of the Buddha Bamboo that was in the fridge, and now I’m drinking this one.

Steeped 1 1/2 tsp. in oz. of water at approx. 75 degrees celsius for two minutes. It’s looking pretty good and smelling pretty good too: like freshly baked, buttery raspberry scones. Yum. Although, this has served to remind me I need new mugs in a darker colour: my cream coloured mugs are looking awfully stained from all the black tea I drink.

Taste? Rich raspberry with a smooth and vanilla pastry type of aftertaste. I think I’ve really mastered brewing this one – or at least found the perfect sweet spot for my own tastes. No funky grassy notes in this cup! I’m not sure if I’m up to an immediate resteep: I want variety today. But I’ll save the leaves and maybe have another glass later tonight.

Next up? I’m thinking Birthday Cake. I could go for something very much vanilla and eggy. Yeah, that sounds good…

Only 6 hours and 24 minutes left until set up…

As part of my initiative to, primarily, spend the week drinking down teas I either have excess of but don’t plan to restock or teas I’m not sure if I’m going to restock, I made this in the morning to take to work with me (it was my training shift as a manager today – eeps!).

Preparation:

- 1 1/2 tsp. used for approx. 8 oz. of water
- Steeped at roughly 80 degrees celcius (I didn’t actually use the thermometer to check the temperature – I was running late) for 2 1/2 min.

The first cup I had of this was odd: there was a nasty kind of after taste to it and it tasted very artificial. The second was better – still semi artificial and funny tasting, but more creamyness and raspberry confectionary goodness. This third time trying it? OH MY GOD. It was so freaking good. I have no idea what the variable was that made this come out better, but there was no funky aftertaste or artificial taste, it was smooth and creamy and very intensely flavoured like a raspberry shortcake or raspberries with cool cream or something of that nature. Yummy, confectionary raspberry deliciousness.

After starting to drink this one, I don’t think it lasted even 5 minutes? I basically chugged it. It was SO good.

Maybe it has something to do with my drinking it at room temperature as opposed to hot? Someone wrote a review about this one saying they left it in their fridge for two weeks and it came out tasting delicious and uber creamy and natural tasting. So maybe the temperature of this is a big factor that quite significantly plays around with the flavour?

Anyway, point is that if I can recreate how tasty this was today it’ll move out of my “maybe restock” list to my “restock list”, for sure.

Aaaannnd more teas going into the cupboard… I want to tell myself this is a good thing; but I also want to be saving up to place online orders for Butiki and Della Terra as well. Ughh. It’s just hard since I work in the same mall as a tea store (so very accessible) and get a discount there too because of it.

Anyway, I purchased three new teas today (50g of each, since that’s the min. amount you can purchase): a flavoured green tea called Japanese Cherry, and Milky Oolong and Raspberry Oolong. I got home and immediately wanted to drink one; and this is the one that my friend Robyn suggested so trying this one first.

In all honesty, I’ve tried very few oolong teas – and basically all of the ones I’ve tried have been flavoured. I’ve also liked almost everything I’ve had. I decided today that I’d pick up at least one oolong tea to try out and after talking to the sales lady (a different one today – so now I know there’s at least three ladies who work there), she told me that this is easily the staff favourite out of the oolong teas they sell, the runner up being milky oolong. I smelled this one – and it was pretty heavily so I figured I’d take a chance since the only other tea I have right now with raspberry in it is Chocolate Rocket – and that tea is basically different in every other way.

Listed ingredients for this are oolong tea, raspberry bits (lots of them – they’re really noticeable), and flavor. Not sure whether or not that’s natural or artificial flavouring. The dry leaf smells like raspberry sweets and desserts. ALMOST pastry like, but the smell of the green oolong base cuts through and adds a sort of grassyness that kind of offsets the small of baking. It’s very sweet smelling – though.

I’ve complained before about Tea Desire’s generic brewing guide and how non-specific it can be. This is my first oolong from them, and the brewing guide for Oolong teas is pretty bad too. They suggest using 1 tsp/ for 2 to 5 min. – that’s fine, and not really unusual. However, the temperature they recommend is 70 to 90 degrees celsius. That’s a big difference – especially with tea. I think what I steeped mine in was around 80 degrees(ish). Middle ground is usually fairly safe…

I wish I could say I’m drinking this hot – but alas I ended up having to do some domestic things and left my tea to sit. Now that I’ve come back to it, it’s kind of lukewarm and really not a good tea temperature. I’ll have to go back and drink this at a proper temperature some other time this week (hopefully before I leave for comic con).

Smell is a more subtle and mild raspberry, with buttery notes that again sort of remind me of baking if not for the grassy notes of the oolong cutting in between. It smells pretty good – although the grassy smell is sort of reminding me of some green teas that I’m not too fond of.

This might be because of the temperature I’m drinking it at or maybe I left it to steep a bit too long, but the raspberry is tasting kind of funny. I’m getting great buttery pastry kind of notes and the aftertaste is creamy, sweet raspberries which together remind me of really good, flakey pie or raspberry danishes – but as I’m taking the actual sip there’s a bitterness to the raspberry that seems a tad unpleasantly artificial. I’m glad I can quickly swallow and enjoy the pleasant aftertaste, though.

I’m also tasting the oolong base, and it’s good too. Buttery and kind of lightly vegetal: definitely not as grassy as it was smelling.

I’m gonna resteep this a little later tonight, and I’ll add on to this note with my opinion on the resteep. For now, though – I’m kind of liking this, but that odd raspberry taste as I’m actually drinking is also pretty unpleasant – however, I don’t want to immediately pin it to the tea: it could be user error from over steeping and it might be the wonky temp. I’m currently drinking this at (so, conservatively rating this – and reserving the right to change it later).

EDIT: Second steep – this time much more attentive in regard to the steep time and temperature, and I’m drinking it hot. Oolong base is more present, and there are some lightly vegetal notes because of it. Still getting the buttery pastry taste, especially in the aftertaste which is creamy and delicious. The odd raspberry flavour I had before during the sip is way less pronounced, although still slightly there. However, the small amount I’m tasting it works (and I’m thinking it might be from the vegetal notes mixing with the pastry/dessert comparison I seem to have going on). I’m not sure if the change in taste is because this second steep has brought out different flavours or because I did a better job brewing it.

Regardless, I feel more comfortable increasing my rating slightly – but I’m going to have to try a first steep of this again while having the same attentiveness brewing it so I can confirm the flavour of this tea for myself.

Received this one from Roswell Strange.

This one smells very minty. To me it is spearmint and peppermint.

The tea initially tastes like strong mint. It seems spicey to me, but I would not call it pepper. It quickly fades into what I would describe as the mate taste. I find there is an earthy taste and feel to mate. There is kind of a creaminess to it that reminds me of vanilla or tobacco (I know those two things are very different from each other but those are the tastes I am getting). I am finding that this mint blend is not very sweet, which actually I like.

Yum Yum Yum. Mountain Herbs has a brilliant aroma and flavour. It really does smell like your hiking in the Mountains. Fresh and vibrant.

It is like the ultimate cold fighter. Had a super bad cold last winter, one of those colds when your downing bottles of cold meds and nothings working. Mountain Herbs with a touch of honey did.

I needed to add some honey to this tea, I tasted a lot of eucalyptus and fennel which for me that isn’t really a wonderful flavour, but honey made it taste yummy.

All time FAVORITE TEA!

Holy Hannah, this tea is fantastic hot.
The raspberry is everywhere. In the smell, taste and sight. In every scoop of this tea you can see the raspberry bits.
It’s a really nice Oolong base, and the raspberry tastes like you just picked it off the branch. Naturally sweet, it doesn’t require any sweetener.

BEST COLD!

I really didn’t like Summer Meadow as a hot tea, but cold, oh my god! It’s fantastic on hot days when your doing yard work.

I brew it hot the day before, brewing it at double strength and stick it in the fridge to chill, adding enough sweetener to approx. 1 tsp per cup. The next day you pour it in a half full glass and add ice. So fantastic, slightly sweet but mostly from the natural fruit sugars, very fruity a little lemon-y, which is great when your working up a sweat. Since you added ice to a strong brew you don’t have to worry about the flavor diluting horribly.

Its a wonderful alternative to powdered ice tea mix.

This one is a must try at least once!

I love the warm spice of Chai, but you rarely see it as a green tea, so I figured what the heck.

I’m not actually a fan of apricot or ginger but this was pretty yummy. Warm and spicy, but fruity undertones calming it down. The Apricot avoids letting the spice get overwhelming. But at the same time the Apricot doesn’t steal the show from the chai.

You want to make sure you don’t boil the water. I found that the chai didn’t hide the bitter flavour green tea gets if you burn them with boiling water. That attempt was just weird… spicy bitter blah.

But if made right super yummy!

Thanks Roswell for this one.

Darn hungry steepster, eating or should I say drinking all of my tea notes.

Dry, this tea doesn’t smell like much, brewed this tea smells deliciously fruity and sweet, very red berry.

The brewed tea tastes like light white tea. I am getting notes of sweet plum and strawberries. After reading the description of this tea, I guess I could be tasting sweet red currant along with sweet lemon. Not necessarily champagne, but still good. It is a bit astringent in the aftertaste. I am very impressed with this blend.

Thanks to Roswell Strange for this one.

The sample I have of this one has a lot of fennel seeds in it. It smells strongly of fennel.

There is definitely a chai taste, but it is very strong in fennel. There were a lot of pink peppercorns in the mix, so I was worried it would be too peppery, but it was actually not too bad. There is a very light taste of apricot, which is quite nice with the chai. I am getting a bit of a metallic taste with this one, the same I have gotten with some of Tea Desire’s other blends. Overall, it is a good blend, but a bit heavy on the fennel for my taste.

Another one from Roswell Strange :)

This is a rooibos with mint flavour. The brewed tea is surprisingly strongly mint. Very much peppermint. Reminds me of those peppermint candies you get after your meal at a restaurant, the ones that are white with the red stripes. It is thick and creamy. There is a metallic rooibos tang to the tea. The rooibos is strong underneath the mint.

Thanks Roswell Strange for this one.

The dry tea to me smells almost like a cherry cola tea…hmmm… interesting. The brewed tea smells of a very strong, bold breakfast tea…hmmm…interesting.

The tea tastes like a strong black tea. It is very astringent on first sip. But towards the middle of the sip, there is a vanilla taste that does come out. I would describe it more as a fruity vanilla. Almost like there is a slight sour fruit taste mixed in with it, like sour cherry/berry vanilla. By the end of the sip, it is actually smooth tasting, which is where I would guess the velvety part comes in. Hmmm… interesting. This is a very interesting tea. It is totally opposite to what I would expect in regards to the astringency. Overall it is not too bad.

Received this one from Roswell Strange.

The dry mix looks very much like trail mix. Pieces of dried fruit, with surprising large pieces of chocolate, when compared to other chocolate teas. The chocolate chunks did not even fully melt with the first steep.

To me, this tea tastes like watered down hot chocolate, not so much like tea. I think it would taste less watered down if I had steeped longer. There is definitely a sweet banana but also a fruity taste to the tea. There is a slight creamy taste and feel to the liquor. Overall not too bad, but I wouldn’t really describe it as tea, its a good idea though :)

So on a few of my previous notes on Tea Desire teas, I made a comment that once I got home, the dry tea had no smell. This one is the exception, it has a strong smell. This one smells quite like artificial orange, much like chewable vitamin c, but not so tart. I like this taste, so I bought this tea to try.

There are cute little curly shaped, light orange yellow things mixed in with the oolong. From the ingredient list, I would think they are supposed to be orange blossoms, however they are quite thick and make me think they are more orange peel shavings.

The brewed tea has quite an oil slick on top, not surprised considering the smell is artificial orange flavour. The taste of the tea is not bad, considering I like that chewable vitamin C flavour. The oolong is very light in the background and to me tastes like a lightly oxidized oolong.

I like this one, but it is quite artificial. I have had better, ie. more natural tasting, orange blossom oolongs.

Thanks Roswell Strange for this sample.

I am finding I am having a hard time picking up the scents in the dry Tea Desire teas. This one appears to be what looks like sencha green tea with flower petals mixed in. Not getting much scent.

The brewed tea tastes very floral. It is a slightly astringent green tea, but also buttery and creamy like sencha usually is. I can strongly taste the rose, as well as the other cornflower and sunflower petals. I am not picking up much mango or lychee flavour. At the end of the sip, there does seem to be a fruity flavour, possibly mango, but I am finding it to be very perfumey tasting.

Edit: After it has cooled to almost room temp, there is more of a fruit flavour. It could be lychee, but it actually reminds me more of overripe apples.

I finally was able to make my way to tea desire. Very much reminded me of Teavana or Davids tea.

The way Tea Desire lets you smell the teas, is they open the canister and then wave a fan over the tea towards you. I understand why they do this, so you are not sticking your face into the tea canister, but I found it very hard to get a sense of what the teas were like.

As most of you know, I like lychee teas. This one, although difficult to smell in store, did smell of lychee. I thought I would give it a try.

At home, my package of tea has barely any smell. It has been less than 24 hours since I purchased it in store. It smells mostly of black tea, possibly a Ceylon but unsure.

The tea tastes like a malty and somewhat yeasty black tea. It is moderately astringent. There is the slightest taste of floral lychee.

A little disappointed in the flavour. But I am going to play around with the parameters to see if I can get better flavour.

Sipdown (115)!

Cold brewed this one to sip it down. It’s been a long time coming; I’ve had this tea since just about the first month after I moved to Saskatoon?

Amazingly, the flavor has held up really well over time; it’s still strongly spearminty with an earthy quality and strong ‘freshly cut grass’ note. However, in the nearly two years since buying this one my tastes have changed a lot and now a plain spearmint mate just doesn’t cut it for me anymore; the flavor might be solid but I can’t help but find it boring.

Oh well; that’s just one more tin for me (once I can get the mint smell out of it)!

Cold Brew Companion yesterday!

Finally kicking off my “Birthday Cake with everything” initiative; mixed in 1 heaping tsp. of Birthday Cake with my usual measure of this one to kind of do my own “vanilla mint” mate type thing. Wasn’t sure if the mate would mask the BC, but worth a shot.

And worth a shot indeed; somewhat surprisingly, there really was a noticeable difference in the taste. This was a softer, less harsh/jarring mint with a fluffy vanilla flavour mixed in perfectly. More mint than vanilla, for sure, but not by a devastating amount. So pretty much; all the best qualities of Birthday Cake transferred over to this one. DELICIOUS!

Downside, the “mate” aspect did next to nothing in regard to keeping me awake: I passed out around 6PM, and slept solidly until like 11PM – and then I had that awkward feeling of being awake from just sleeping, but also KNOWING I had to get to bed, because I had to wake up at 7AM today. And boy do I have a long day ahead of me. I’m not done at Sobeys until 11PM, which means I wont get home tonight until after midnight…

I’ve had this one sitting out in the kitchen for ages now waiting to be made, and so I made it this morning to start the day out with. You know, a little bit of extra energy or whatever. It tasted good; very spearmint. Otherwise, kinda average. Not sure how well it did in the energy department; I guess maybe I’d have felt more if I was actually out doing stuff instead of just sitting on my ass all day fooling around on the internet and writing tasting notes and stuff.

Today’s shift was hell, though only because I was functioning on maybe an hour or two of sleep, if that. So, I made this up as a timolino work tea because I knew I’d need the extra energy. I also brewed it up extra strong.

I have to say, it did help a little bit – but totally not anywhere near how much I needed it to. At least it tasted amazing! It had been a while since I’d had this one and I’d kind of forgotten just how good it is.

Thankfully, I got off at two and was able to sleep for a blissful six hours when I got home! I’ll probably be up all night now, but at least I’m rested again – and after tomorrow’s shift I have two days off so that should let me sort out my sleeping patterns a little…

Now onto yesterday’s backlog!

This was my timolino companion for my interview yesterday (which was just weird, by the way – they were really behind in their interviews so I didn’t have my interview until 2:00PM despite being scheduled for 11:45AM – if I wasn’t so in need of word as soon as possible I would have just left).

My sleep schedule is really out of wack right now though. Basically, I’m sleeping four(ish) hour between 5PM and 9PM and then four(ish) hours between 6AM and 10AM. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. And I don’t like it.

This was it’s usual consistent self, though.

Refreshing morning tea/energy boost.

I woke up feeling just dead inside this morning. I got a really crappy night’s sleep, and I’m not really sure why exactly. I think today may just turn into a “comfort tea” kind of day where I don’t try new stuff, and just stick to old favourites instead.

I had this hot and it was really good, though I do ultimately prefer it colder.

Eurrhhhhgggg…

Well, I successfully was the perfect employee/manager for three+ hours today! Basically, my boss’s (the district manager) boss (the head of the company) is doing his yearly “rounds” and visiting every branch in the country, and today was my day…

I had no idea when he’d be here, so for three plus hours I did everything I should have been doing anyway that I normally just… don’t. That included greeting every single customer, asking if they could be helped and reciting the stupid line “and if you have any questions, definitely don’t be afraid to ask” to every single one and then offering everyone a wallet calendar and giving, again, another stupid speech ("on the front is our company website and toll free number, and on the back you’ll find all of the dates for 2014). And all the while nursing a sickeningly sweet smile and “soft” voice (because having a soft voice makes you “more approachable and less intimidating”).

I know – this is my job and I’m complaining an awfully lot about things I should be doing anyway, but it’s just draining forcing a chipper attitude (and speaking in a voice that is not my natural one) for hours on end, especially when I’m listening to the same fucking Christmas carols play on repeat all day every day and nursing a killer migraine…

However, I think they were both very satisfied with my guest service and I was able to masterfully answer all their questions about stock shipments, facing our products, general reception from the seniors in the mall, what we sell lots of and what we don’t sell lots of – among other things.

I’m just so glad that I had my mate with me, because I’m just super drained. I’ve had an awful nights sleep the last two days and despite eating more healthy the last week or so compared to how I usually eat I just feel weak and malnourished. I’m wondering if I might be getting sick – and I really hope that’s not the case because I just don’t have the time to be sick.

Anyway, this tea is a miracle worker! It’s keeping me awake, the mint is helping to curb hunger pains (seven hour shift with no food), and just tastes great in general! I don’t think, for the day, I could have made a better choice in mate!