Tealish

variaTEA sent this one my way and it’s not half bad. this is very much a fruity sort of melon punch tea. I enjoyed a couple of cups of this today. Happy to have tried this.

Cold Brew Sipdown (151)!

Thanks to VariaTEA for the sample! I’ve tried a few different “Prairie Berry” themed teas, and I’ve quite liked them though my favourite has definitely been the Saskatoon Berry oolong offered by DAVIDsTEA. This is actually the first one I’ve tried that hasn’t used Saskatoon berries, and I do think that’s a bit of an odd choice. What makes this a prairie berry inspired tea?

But it doesn’t taste bad – I expected to be hit with a whole lot of tartness and I definitely got some tartness but mostly a relatively mellow, smooth berry blend that was refreshing and relatively juice like. Strongest note was the elderberry, but I got lots of apple too. VariaTEA seems to have found this one cloying, but I thought it was actually very nicely balanced. I appreciated what it offered even if I feel somewhat cheated that this “Prairie Berry” tea didn’t offer any Saskatoon Berries.

Thanks VariaTEA!

Sipdown (143)!

Thank you to VariaTEA for the tea sample!

Apart from the Ceylon tea comparison cuppings that I had to do for class today, this is probably the only tea I drank today that I didn’t pick out because of the rainy weather. And honestly, that’s mostly because I already had the pitcher going in the fridge so it was more a selection driven by convenience.

I think this MIGHT be my first tea from Tealish? I’ve tried over a thousand different teas now and some just don’t make an impression and so they just slip through the cracks of my memory. But I have to say, that this is a company whose name definitely sounded foreign to me when I was prepping the cold brew of this one. I think it was a nice selection for a first offering from them though.

The flavour profile was nice overall, if not rather Spring/Summery in vibes which was admittedly a bit of a mismatch with the weather. I swear; at one time there was a point where I didn’t view teas so seasonally but that has since changed… a lot.

The dry aroma and the smell of the strained, infused liquor is quite potent though: really effervescent notes of green melon/honeydew that takes me back to the vibrancy of Lupicia’s Golden Honeydew. That’s really promising given that they even share a green rooibos base. Now, I do have to say that the same brightness of flavour doesn’t perfectly translate to the taste: the melon is a lot more muted than the aroma would lead you to believe, and it’s cut with other fruity notes like strawberry and kiwi. But the flavour that does come through is smooth, natural and pleasant and I’m really enjoying the strawberry notes accompanying it in particular. It reminds me of something but I’m struggling to place exactly what. Sadly, the base is just a little too potent to completely sink into the cuppa without distractions.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QyoRzZrF00&index=4&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

So, now that it’s officially October we’ve started playing our Halloween soundtrack over the speakers at work ‘cause holy fuck do thrift stores push Halloween. It’s busier for us than Christmas, by A LOT. This is one of the songs in the Halloween rotation, along with other ‘gems’ like the Adam’s Family theme song, The Monster Mash, the Ghostbuster’s theme song, and Thomas Dolby’s ‘She Blinded Me With Science’. Finding Halloween music is apparently a bit of a stretch. But this song is SUPER catchy; and so I added it into my tea music rotation figuring I’d eventually pair it with a more Halloween like tea; you know a Pumpkin Spice thing or something that reminded me of Halloween candy?

Instead I found it fit the magical, sort of whimsical nature of this blend. I mean, it is named after fairies. That counts! Right…?

Nice

I’m craving coffee super hard this morning, but I’m trying to kick the habit again, so I reached for this tea instead with a little bit of soy milk. It reminds me of a coffee crisp, a strong coffee flavor with a bit of chocolate. I love this tea and I’m nearly out…this is sad news! Although it does give me an excuse to put together another Tealish order XD.

I made a teapop to go with all the hot teas I have been sipping on today. This is peachy with a bit of tartness and quite a nice way to enjoy the last bit of this before I pass the rest on to the GCTTB.

Tried this hot and though it was a little bit waxy and a little bit too hibby, it was still a pretty good fruit tea. http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/01/31/southern-belle-from-tealish/

Brewed this hot and it is not as enjoyable as the cold brew was. The hibiscus is taking over a little with a lemon juice aftertaste. There is also notes from the marigold. I also find that when you have fruit blends like this, they can come off generic and sort of waxy or artificial/weird and that is happening here in the hot brew, though I don’t recall it in the cold brew.

Cold brewed this and despite the pink color from the hibiscus, this does actually taste like peach to me. Peach, apricot, and lemon…and hibiscus, of course (though not in an offensive way). It’s quite lovely actually.

Sipdown (310)

So I was rushed upstairs to shower and I asked my sister to make me this tea iced. She decided it seemed like I didn’t have enough leaf left for a proper iced tea in the press so she took the little bit of DAVIDs Cantaloupe Ice and mixed the two. On the plus side, no cigarette but I don’t know if that’s because it is covered by the cantaloupe ice or if it’s the press or maybe that was just a fluke.

What this does taste like is hubba bubba bubblegum. I don’t know if that’s because of this tea, the Cantaloupe Ice or the mixture of the two. Nevertheless, this is goodbye to an older tea so that’s nice.

So this tastes like dragonfruit while iced but there is also something that tastes/smells like cigarettes. I’m hoping the plastic of the iced tea press didn’t absorb the cigarette smoke from the chainsmokers who live in the house. This is the first I noticed it so fingers crossed it’s the tea.

I always forget about this tisane tucked away in a box but since its mostly been iced fruit tisanes for me lately, i went in search of something different. This is nice at first but without hibiscus to cut the sweeter fruit, it builds as you drink and gets a bit too sweet. Up until that point, it has a nice dragonfruit flavor and thus makes for a nice change.

This is a very subtle cold brew yet flavorful at the same time. It actually captures dragonfruit, which is a subtle flavor to being with which explains the lightness of this tea and yet there is a richness here that is keeping things interesting. Sweet and delicious and true to the fruit. With that said, I am enjoying this but I could see people wanting more!

forgot to log the last of this one….so yay! 104 to end the weekend, so now i just have to get through 4 more before next weekend. THAT is totally doable! :)

Nommy cup of this tonight! :) almost finished with this one, so close to being a sipdown. I think i’m going to have to get my drink on tomorrow – didn’t make much of a dent today!

Final Count: 113

this one keeps growing on me…it was ok then it got better…every time i have it i seem to like it a little bit more :) nearly done though, so that means another excuse to go over to tealish once i get a few more sipdowns in to pick up some herbal/fruit teas!

Final Count: 121

So apparently this tea needs 5-6 mins to become a deliciously creamy lemon cup. I have a better understanding of why this tea appeals to so many people. I’ll enjoy finishing this one out.

work is busy. i like cold weather. warm tea is great. that is all.

Final count: 67

mmm cup for relaxing this afternoon while we make the sauce for lasagna bolognese that we’re making tomorow. such a grey rainy yucky day here. banana bread tonight…oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip cookies tomorrow…. yep i love the fall!

picked this one up to try last weekend when i stopped in for more lemon meringue, mostly because of the positive reviews but because it’s another herbal. I was hoping this would be refreshing and not overly sweet and that’s what came through. I’ll have to write a better note next time i have it again because it was a few days ago at this point…just playing catch up. Have to get organised before vacation (fyi, 16 months is waaaaay too long to go between vacations…don’t do it)

Sipdown (332)

I have been terrified to drink this since the pickles yesterday but it is caffeine free and it is hot and I can’t taste anything anyways so might as well drink up an old blend. This is slightly pickle-y but not as bad as yesterday. Thank goodness!

I wasn’t planning on writing a review for this cup but then I drank it and couldn’t believe that it tasted like pickles. I would prefer to go back to tasteless if pickle is my other option.

I don’t have much to say about the tea other than I am working my way through the tin which has a best before date of the 30th this month. I was up all night coughing so I took a sick day and am spending it on my couch, sipping tea and water.

Yesterday my brother-in-law bought me a new laptop since mine was getting old and occasionally doing weird things that had people worried for my exams…which we write on our own laptops. I bought the laptop in Toronto but had an evening train to London so I didn’t have time to get Geek Squad to set up the laptop. I asked them how long it would take to do it myself and they told me 10 hours which seemed ridiculous. I think they were trying to convince me to use their services because setting up the laptop took 15 minutes and then installing all the other software took about an hour. So I really don’t know where they got 10 hours.

I made this as both a latte and a plain tea. The latte tastes mostly like warm milk. The tea tastes mostly like water. Perhaps a touch of rose here and a bit of kiwi there. Curse you cold and your dastardly wicked hiding of my taste buds!