Tealish

Brewed this up with green apple honey. It’s to sweet but its soothing my throat so I am dealing with one evil to help another.

So apparently this is marketed as an iced tea by Tealish. I suppose that makes sense since it has a whole lot of fruity flavors. So I figured I would try it out and though I still enjoyed it, I definitely prefer it hot. See why here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/05/11/fairy-dust-from-tealish/

Well yesterday was maybe not my best day. Went to work, everything was fine, went for lunch, finished eating and…fainted. Yep. Went from feeling perfectly fine to getting super dizzy, telling my friends I couldn’t see, and then passing out for what I’m told was a couple of minutes in the Richtree at the Eaton’s Center. Woke up to my friend behind me, a guy holding me up on my chair under my arm, and a bunch of people panicking. So that sucked. My sister came and got me and took me to the doctor. Not sure why this happened and my license has been suspended until we find out. So today I stayed home from work and have been told to rest up and drink fluids. So tea it is including this tasty bit of comfort.

Sipdown…sorta

Well I got in an accident at 8:40 then continued to deal with that until finally getting home at 5 only to be told to walk back out the door to do groceries and so I decided I deserved a treat…the last tsp of this tea. I boiled the kettle and steeped the tea then disposed of the leaf when I finished only to take a sip of the ice cold, colored but unflavored water. So that was a waste. Just the perfect end to a fucking terrible day.

This is tasting especially like strawberry today. Yum :)

Melon strawberry goodness. I am really loving this one.

I made a cold brew of this and I took it to go see my sister for her wedding dress fitting. Apparently she was thirsty because she took the bottle from my hand, which is rare since she doesnt love tea all that much. However, she must have liked this one seeing as she drank half the bottle before we were even taken in for her appointment. I can see why she liked it so much. Sweet, candy-like strawberry melon – it reminds me of laffy taffy, which I was obsessed with for a while – and just a hint of floral to keep things interest. Plus, the end of a sip has the slightest tartness to it which rounds out the flavor so wonderfully. I really am a fan of this one.

Hello sweet melon tea, I like you.

Ending my night with a hot brew of this while I watch Dexter.

Will provide more details with subsequent cups.

Sipdown (149)

My plan was to try this hot before I sent the rest of the leaf off to Roswell, who introduced me to Prairie Berry teas except this cooled before I got to it.

So now I am drinking a cool prairie berry tea and its alright but nothing special. I think it is better prepped hot than cold brewed because it brings out more tartness which is needed to balance the sweetness of this tea. Even cooled, I am getting just a hint of that cloying taste that I imagine might not have been in the hotter cup. Luckily, it is still tolerable enough to drink, unlike the cold brew. Here’s hoping that RS has better luck with this one. My advice is have it as a teapop.

Apparently I didn’t write a tasting note for this. Thought I did but I guess not and now I don’t remember specifics but I do recall thinking that this is much better as teapop (how I had it yesterday) than it is cold brewed

When I bought this, I did so with my tea twin, Roswell Strange, in mind. Unfortunately now that I am having the cold brew, I am finding myself a little disappointed since it is a bit bland. There is a berry flavor but it’s subtle and monotone. I keep looking for tartness where there is none. I still have a fair bit to play around with though so we’ll see how it goes.

Morning cold brew. Juicy and sweet and pairing nicely with my French toast casserole and my day off.

This + Mango, Peach, Pineapple Sparkling Water = a lovely teapop

Another tea from Sil that I am grateful to try. Today it was my school tea and definitely a welcome bit of niceness amongst my boring day. It’s got great flavor, creamy coconut (not lotiony) and tart pineapple. It comes together quite nicely actually. I am getting hibiscus but it is helping round out the flavors/sell the “pineapple” note. Granted there is also the apple flavor that comes with most fruit teas but blend as a whole does a good job of incorporating it rather than fighting it. All in all, a great caffeine-free choice for summer iced/cold teas.

In other news, I am having a bit of a moral dilemma. Got one of my exams back today and realized my teacher miscounted and gave me 3 extra marks. I debated about saying something but in the end there were so many other people in line to complain about their marks that I decided not to wait around to have marks taken away. Bad call or is it just one of those things you let slip by since no harm done? (If it helps, the 3 marks are the difference between a 96% (A+/4.0) and a 87% (A/also a 4.0))

When I decided to brew this up, I figured it had to be a teapop since most of the alcohol type teas tend to do well as teapops. The smell only encouraged me more because I can’t describe it any other way than a fizzy Apple type smell (I don’t know how one smells a texture? Sensation? Nonetheless, I swear it was there). So, I prepped this and even burnt myself in the process only to realize martinis, unlike mimosas, are normally flat. Whoops. Oh well.

Turns out this actually works quite nicely as a teapop. It’s very, very subtle. To me this is tasting like apple-flavored carbonated water. Similar to a grapefruit or orange-lemon Perrier (my fave flavored water flavors), the carbonation is what is strongest where as the fruit is more of a natural essence you notice once the sip has ended. I could see this maybe being disappointing to many but right now it’s light and fruity enough to keep things interesting while still coming off fresh.

Sipdown (201)

…and I am back over 200 again. Luckily most of my teas are samples but now I need to keep working to get my numbers down.

This was finished off as a teapop. It’s really brought out the pear flavor and made for a bright finish. However, the last of my leaf was a whole lot of fennel so in addition to the pear, the fennel was really strong tonight. That I wasn’t too pleased with but I know it is just something that can happen so oh well.

I’m pretty sure I’ve had this before and written about it but alas my note seems to be MIA. No worries, it’s just weird.

Today I am having it as a tea pop and the pear is really shining through. Granted it’s not s true pear flavor, rather it is closer to pear candies. It’s good albeit a bit artificial.

Sipdown (158)

Trying the last of this leaf hot and though I am not tasting everything properly, I am picking up hibiscus and a bland apple flavor. Alas, those two flavors are fighting to be the focus and neither is really worthy since both are lackluster. It’s gone now though and I am definitely okay with that. However, in light of the different prep methods I tried, I’d say teapop is definitely the best option.

This is significantly better iced than as a cold brew and even greater as a teapop. The cloying sweetness of the cold brew is gone and there is a hint of fruitiness I can make out as rhubarb if I concentrate on that notion. Mostly though, it’s a generic apple/fruit flavor and the taste of carbonated water. I have probably one more cup of this left and I think I will try it hot but I am just not loving this one.

I am like 95% sure this is the tea I set up to cold brew last night. I left it for 24 hrs but now I am confused since this is very sweet and shouldn’t rhubarb be tart/sour? Shouldn’t the hibiscus and rose hips contribute some sort of tartness because that is certainly lacking here. It’s like drinking berry syrup and some sort of artificial sweetner. Blech. I will not be cold brewing this again but I will also hold off on rating until I can experiment a bit more.

A sample from Miss B! After reading a couple of tasting notes, I went for a lot of leaf and a short brew time – 2.5 tsp for around 2 minutes, in boiling water. No additions. From looking at the leaf, I get the impression that this is a fairly unusual blend – citrus flavours and coconut with traditional chai spices.

To taste, though, it’s actually better than I expected. There’s an initial brightness from the citrus (orange, mandarin?) that bursts across my palate in a way that’s both sweet and slightly sharp/sour in the way only citrus can be. The mid-sip reveals some creamy coconut, which ushers in a semi-tropical vibe that’s acutally borne out really nicely in the spices which come into play towards the end of the sip.

I did wonder whether the spices would overpower the citrus flavour, but they’re actually reasonably subtle. You know they’re there when they emerge – I can pick out cardamon and pepper for sure, plus the warmth of ginger. Somehow, though, they work with the citrus/coconut combination, rather than against it. The overall feeling is of a tropical-style chai blend – the only thing I have to compare it to is Thai Chai, which generally contains coconut, but it’s not quite the same animal. The citrus here is (obviously) the really unique thing.

I’m enjoying this as a summer chai. I’d try it iced if I had enough leaf, but I think I probably don’t. Really, I’m just pleased that it doesn’t taste as odd as it sounds initially, plus it made for a good mid-morning cup.