Tea Desire

I feel like I’ve sent this tea off to a lot of people, but have been personally putting off trying it. So, since I’ve talked Pineapple/Bacon tea I decided there was really nothing left to keep me from tackling this one.

When I bought this one sometime around December(ish) I bought it on smell alone; I asked the Tea Desire sales associate to pull a really unique/interesting black off the shelf for me and not tell me what it was – to just let me judge based on the smell. And man this smells intense; like a full on blast of sweet marzipan and almonds and almost sweet candied cherries. I don’t know if the amazing smell of this blend has carried over in the samples I’ve sent off to people; but it just smells GREAT.

So, I bought some. And then I was really disappointed when I read the description: bitter almonds. Why the hell would you make a tea that is DELIBERATELY supposed to be bitter? Are there actually people out there that enjoy bitter food/drink? If there are, then they’re crazy. And that supposed bittness is what has kept me from trying this for so damn long.

Steeping this, I knew it was intended to be bitter so in an attempt to minimize that I kept my steep time very short; just around two minutes. I typically never steep blacks so briefly; the exception maybe being DAVIDsTEA’s Salted Caramel which also gets very bitter very quickly.

I have to say, I was bracing myself for the worst – maybe that’s why I’m so pleasantly surprised. I mean, there’s nothing jaw dropping or fantastic about this but my mouth has not been flooded with a tidal wave of bitterness and astringency like anticipated so I’m really happy about that. It also takes very sweet and confectionery-like. Marzipan (and also cherries; which I ALWAYS associate with marzipan) is the predominant flavour and it’s pretty ok, even borderline “nice” :P

There really wasn’t a need to be scared of this blend.

Sipdown!! (195)

Thank you Roswell Strange for sending this my way. I was hesitant about this given the chai spices and though I am not loving that component of the cup, the apricot is AMAZING and makes me want to keep on sipping. It is sort of a weird experience because at the start of the sip, I find myself making a “blech” face because it is all peppercorns and chai spices but as I continue that gives way to an awesomely fresh apricot flavor that hangs out on your tongue for long after the sip is done. If only Tea Desire made a version of this that was just plain apricot because I could get behind that. However, sipping this now, I am enjoying the cup (at least partially) but I think I will pass the rest of the sample on to Kat_Maria as she might be able to appreciate this whole tea as opposed to merely elements of it.

Sipdown. Wouldn’t buy again since it wasn’t anything special. Still on the hunt for that perfect vanilla black.

Ok peeps, I’m finally getting down to this tea even though I purchased it last time I was in Edmonton just after the New Year. Time’s flying!

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this when I picked it up, but I got some anyway because I’m always in a TRY ALL THE VANILLA EVERYTHING mode. The vanilla pod pieces were a good sign too so I figured why not.

The dry leaf smells promising, at least. Like a brown sugary vanilla. But I agree with others that the base is quite robust and astringent. I didn’t even steep it for that long (maybe no more than three minutes) and I let the water cool down a bit before infusing, and it’s All Your Base Are Belong To Us. Almost. I do taste a little of the vanilla in the background. It’s kind of like a watered down syrupy vanilla, like what I’d imagine vanilla-infused-golden-syrup-diluted-with-water would taste like. Low viscosity syrup, for real.

So enough of that banter. Yeah, it’s not offensive but not amazing. It kind of reminds me of Silk Road’s vanilla since that one had an astringent, drying Ceylon base. This is an East Frisian blend so I’m sure it’s the Ceylon and Darjeeling having a massive freakout.

Would I repurchase? No, but I still want to do a side-by-side vanilla comparison soon, and I could always mix this tea with other stuff, mainly sweetened teas like H&S SoHo.

TY MissB for this tea! I thought this was a black, took one sip and was like ooooooo! pu’er! Nicely rich, chocolately and earthy. Very good, though I am partial to pu’er and interested in pu’er blends. I may have to secure some more of this tea. I’ve been feeling under the weather the last few days and this perked me up a bit.

Since my leaf is aged and not as flavorful, I am using this tea to mellow out others. Today I had it cold brewed with DAVIDs Coco Colada. My review can be found here: http://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/337949

Found a way to use the last of this leaf – combining it with DAVIDsTEA Bear Trap. Thank you Evol Ving Ness for the idea! I wrote about it here: http://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/336660

This tea is suffering from old age and unbalanced distribution of leaf. What was once a beloved fruity tea is now almost a chore to drink. Luckily there isn’t too much leaf left so once I finish that up, I’ll probably take a break from this for a while.

This tea is from April 2014 so it really is quite old. Also, a lot of the larger fruit pieces are gone leaving the bamboo and black currant leaves, as well as a few red currants. Sometimes currant can get rather medicinal but today it is contributing to a generic sweet, red fruit flavor. It’s nothing to write home about but its pleasant enough.

So sweet and fruity. Yum! However, the red currant is strong with this one because there was quite a bit of red currants in the infuser. Thank you Roswell Strange!!

Oh Buddha Bamboo, I am happy to have you back in my cupboard! Thanks Roswell Strange!

Sad, sad sipdown!! (195)

Goodbye Buddha Bamboo, you will be missed a great deal! I am so grateful Roswell Strange was able to part with some because I don’t know if I would have been able to. Thanks Roswell Strange!!

I wasn’t a lover of DAVIDs Bamboozled but this, I really like this. The bamboo provides body and a solid base for a nice fruity flavor of berries and currant. I could definitely enjoy this often. I think I see a Tea Desire order in my future. Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing it with me :)

Mmm…. steeped a bit longer than usual today, and it’s so good! Why haven’t I steeped this tea for 5 minutes before?

It’s not super sweet, but there is some caramel. Lots of tea flavour. So good with milk.

(This one is almost a sip down as well. I have quite a collection I could finish! Maybe this coming weekend. :) )

Drink drink drink. With milk, of course.

So sweet and also earthy. A nice choice to calm down after having to call tech support for my no-longer-under-warranty computer (Also, Dell’s website is not super accessible on a phone or ipad.. And when you call for parts for personal use, the phone line tells you to go to the website and disconnects!! If my computer worked, I wouldn’t be calling thanks people.)

PLUS DeleriumsFrogs was super SUPER sweet and sent me a present! Aww, tea frens! ♥ I got the wee crackley porcelain cup and a teensy wood tray from Zen Tea.

That was an excellent end to a terrible morning. Now I need to go get ready for work because I have equipment booked in a couple hours that I need to go prep for.

I’m feeling lots of love today. (A friend happened to have the part in his computing graveyard, so I’m getting a replacement for the price of a coffee. Ha! Take that, Dell!)

Oh. Yum.

Steeped for about 10 minutes as my coffee cream + water mix heated up on the stove. Pretty much just steeped until the caramel all dissolved.

SO GOOD. Incredibly rich, I mean, this drink has got to be 10% milk fat. But so good! Definitely recommend this as some sort of tea latte.

I steeped this low and long this afternoon, and drank it with cream. It was my first tea today, and it was delicious.

Yep, that’s about all I have to say.

Finishing this sample up tonight while I 20/10 my house into submission. I’m going to Nanaimo tomorrow, and will pester my friends until they take me past the Tea Desire! So I’ll soon have lots of this tea. :D :D :D

A nice introductory flavoured puerh, this is mostly caramel and there is no mushroomy fishy weirdness that seems to put people off this general type of tea.

So if you like caramel and are starting to investigate puerh, try this one! So good. :)

Eee!!! MissB was king kind enough to share a couple mugs worth of this with me. More if I resteep it. And you bet I will.

Thank you!

This smells AMAZING. Wow. So much caramel. Not all of it melted in my initial steep, but that’s ok. It’s almost like sticky buns (brown sugar and butter) baking in the oven, as the puerh is quite bready.

Sipping it, the caramel is incredibly sweet, but the puerh grounds it nicely. I definitely need to pick up 50g of this. Staying on my wishlist!

Thanks again. :D

It taste familiar not sure what from.

Bitter sweet almond, I defiantly taste rooibos and it made me thirsty. Maybe that is why I would rather drink a cup of hot water.

Someone said it taste better iced and sweetened. So, I decided to cold brewing it overnight and see how that goes.
Edit: This does taste good iced, It did not give me that thirsty feeling as much and it was sweet enough for me so I did not add any sweetener. I do love almond and I’m learning to enjoy rooibos. Thanks MissB

In the bag this smelled faintly creamy; there were some chocolate chips mixed in amongst the black tea and I was salivating over the prospect of a rich, creamy-sweet breakfast tea.

Instead, this tastes like bananas. I wish that I could pick up the chocolate or the cream, but instead I’m simply getting a banana front flavour with black tea behind; as someone who loathes bananas, this obviously isn’t the tea for me.

Down the sink it goes, I’m afraid.

Another from MissB’s package. I get a taste of the menthol at the end of the sip. This feels a little bland. This may be due to eating popcorn shortly before drinking this. I am thrilled to try another chamomile based tea, as i have yet to pick a favorite. This one will be getting another try. I don’t want to do it injustice by having salty snacks beforehand.