1443 Tasting Notes
This is a delightful oolong. I’ve tried a fair few from Verdant, but without having them side by side I don’t really feel qualified to say which is better. They all taste like lovely oolongs. There is none of the mineral like taste here that I’m not overly fond of, but there is a delightful, extremely subtle hint of sweetness. We shall see what resteeps bring.
Thanks for sharing KiwiDelight!
Preparation
Sipping on this while working on a sustainability assignment, watching Friends, and preparing a few swaps. Multitasking at it’s finest.
This tea is so amazing. I’m a cup away from a sipdown, but there’s more en route. This will hopefully never be a permanent sipdown because I require this in my life. At all times. The natural honey-like sweetness is irresistible.
Preparation
I’m not the biggest fan when oolongs don’t have specific steeping instructions, since in my experience, I’ve found them to be somewhat finicky. I went in the middle and steeped this for 2.5 minutes, and just let the water cool while I put dishes away.
It did turn out just fine. It’s a green oolong, so it has that familiar slightly vegetal flavour, but with an added sweetness at the end of the sip. The sweetness is interesting. I generally prefer darker oolongs but I am impressed with this one.
Preparation
I have now finished my updated bio. Woot!
This tea I picked up a while ago, from the London Drugs handy my house, when there was an extensive discussion on someone’s review of it. I must say, although I’m not really a chai person this one is tasty. I do have to steep it for quite a while, but that could be because it’s a bagged tea. I love that the coconut makes it creamier and it’s a subtle chai overall.
I’m not always in the mood for it, but it’s tasty when I am, and it is such a delight I can get this at London Drugs.
Preparation
I think I’ll go with the thinking that my stomach was still a tad off when I tried this yesterday morning, because I just resteeped the last of my swap from VariaTEA and it doesn’t have the same fake smell to it I got yesterday. Just strawberry and cacao. Although, I may have also forgot about it steeping on the counter as I drafted a message to VariaTEA as well haha. Oversteeping Cacao teas is always a great idea I’ve found. Yum.
You know, this one may actually be an order. My January tally is getting out of hand.
Also, I’m working on updating my bio, so I shall have actual tea-related info up there soon! For now it’s just a wee paragraph saying so in addition to my two lines of bio that have always been there.
Preparation
I am kinda off the cacao tea right now but this to me smelled like a strawberry milkshake and I really like strawberry milkshakes so I just can’t let it go. I am waiting in hopes that one day I will be into the cacao tea again.
I hope so too! I have phases of cacao for sure. But I do always come back to it. And I have so many black teas, the few herbals I enjoy, I need to keep around haha.
I realized the other day that I only have about 50 decaf teas among all the other caffeinated ones. That would be a lot but unfortunately most are to be swapped because I don’t really like them. So the occasional time I do find a decaf tea I like, I tend to stock up.
I’m the same. I’ve tried many herbals and while they’re tasty, they usually aren’t tasty enough to keep around. Or I get tired of them. But look here! This swap has introduced me to another possibility. This could be herbal #4!
You don’t know how long it’s been since I could have a strawberry milkshake – my eyes weep from the fond memories :(
Haha yay for 4 herbals!
which are your other 3 courtney?
Winter Blend from Tealish, Peppermint Patty from Butiki, and Original Cacao Sil :)
Thanks sundaysipping for being awesome to send some of this my way, so I could have another go of it. :)
I will say it’s better than the first time around, not that that went badly, but I steeped it longer this time and it does seem more flavourful. I will also say, despite rarely, if ever, adding anything to my teas, it seems like a wee bit of sugar would help the flavour pop more.
I’m a little sad that I seem to be a bit over David’s, because it’s a Canadian company, and the employees at my local store are amazing. My tea tastes are evolving though, and you’ve just gotta go with the flow. I do keep David’s Guayusa and Genmiacha stocked in my cupboard at least . :)
Preparation
This one is really good with some brown sugar. :)
I had a feeling brown sugar would make it tastier. I had only enough for one cup sadly. But perhaps if it comes back round next year. :) Thanks for the suggestion!
Courtney, if you ever want some, I bought an insane amount (over 300 g) so I have to spare.
Hmm. That is tempting. Perhaps our next swap!
I love this tea!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Courtney!
Thanks sundaysipping!
Oh my word this smells delectable.
I enjoy genmaicha so much, but it often gets forgotten in my cupboard for more ‘glamorous’ teas. Tonight, genmaicha from Nina’s is glamorous.
Mmm. Oh yes. Creamy vanilla, caramel genmaicha. The black tea adds an additional magical element to the tea.
Thanks you VariaTEA for sharing! Though I fear you have created a monster. I must have more of this.
I found it on the American Amazon site! Is this the best place to buy it? Does Nina’s have a website where you can purchase online?
Preparation
OMG I AM OBSESSED!!! I am sooooooooooo happy you liked it. I have been sending it to everyone and talking about it so much that I was sure a whole bunch of people would get it and be like “why does she like this so much?”
I wish I could try this. This sounds incredible!
I am literally smiling alone in my bedroom right now because I am THAT happy you liked it.
And Yvonne, you can email the people at Nina’s Paris. They offer samples.
Yep, Amazon is the way to get it. I think they also do informal billing via email, but I don’t think their website does ordering yet.
Really? Yay!
How do I order from them VariaTEA?! I cannot live without this haha. I can’t seem to find if their website offers online shopping?
Thanks Tealizzy :)
Their website doesn’t offer online ordering yet but you can either email them directly or buy the stuff on amazon. Honestly though, I would email them if you are ordering. I met them and they are amazing. Plus you can also probably ask them for samples. I bought mine from them in person. They made me a cup and I was sold.
Mwuahaha.
I have some weird obsession with this tea. If my whole stash disappeared tomorrow and I just had this tea I would still be happy (okay probably not but I do like it a lot).
It’s so delicious! I can’t get over it. Like this creamy, toasty, caramel deliciousness. Gah.
Does anybody know their email address? I think I need this tea in my life right now.
Oooh! I have a sample from my swap with VariaTEA but I want to wait a few days for this head cold to clear. I really want to try it!
Also I thought from their fb page that the Web store might be up soon. I sent my email in for notification. Maybe in a month or two I can justify a small order as I (ahem) loved je t’aime.
Laurent(at)ninasteastore.com
This one came my way from VariaTEA :)
I’ve had this one before, a while ago, and if I remember correctly I enjoyed it, but not enough to keep it around. This evening is a better experience. The Ceylon base is not too strong, and the raspberry flavour is coming through nicely. I read a few of the tea notes on this one and it seems to be slightly finicky. Perhaps if I can perfect the steeping parameters I would consider ordering this one.
Preparation
Wish I could try this!
I remembered really liking it the first time I had it and then not really liking it the second time around. I am glad you enjoyed it though.
Yeah after 6 oz of this one I am done with it.
That and the shipping from the UK makes it harder to justify!
I was exploring their site last night, but I just can’t get £30 worth to manage free shipping.
I was sick to my stomach yesterday, but I had to drag myself into school for a group meeting for a debate we have to present today. I managed to survive with a sleeve of crackers, and I only just made it back to my house in time. Ugh.
This morning I’m feeling slightly better, so I’m hoping it was a 24 hour bug. I couldn’t really decide what tea would be best on my stomach, and this one probably wasn’t the best choice, but I was excited to try it.
The strawberry cream scent really comes through, although it’s smelling slightly fake to me. Hopefully that particular part of the scent doesn’t come through to the taste. The general cacao scent is also there, which makes me feel a little better about this cup.
Thank goodness the taste comes through more ‘true’ than fake, although that scent is slightly off-putting. The cacao is prominent here with a creaminess and then the strawberry flavour towards the end of the sip. To be quite honest, I’d almost just prefer a cacao cream. The creaminess is a delightful, but I’m thinking perhaps the strawberry could use a bit of perfecting.
This one was good hot, but I’m thinking it’s even better as it cools. As are all the cacao teas I’ve had haha.
Thanks for sharing VariaTEA!
Preparation
Oh no, sorry about your day…I’m glad everything worked out in the end, and that you made it back to your house! So happy to hear you’re feeling better today as well, stomach bugs aren’t fun.
Oh man – I absolutely NEED to try this. This sounds amazing!
Glad you’re starting to feel better!
Several really nasty flu viruses are going around, if it isn’t against your beliefs, get a flu shot. As for the tea, I really wish that I could find a chocolate tea that I really like but so far no go.
This is a sipdown this morning. I partly chose it because I really wanted it, and partly because the packages with one cup left call out to me to be finished. Also, I may have placed three tea orders last night and room needs to be made in my tea cupboard.
I hope I’ll be able to ask Stacy to make this version when I next want to order it.
Yum. This is really hitting the spot. I’ve been actively trying to drink my teas as soon as they’re cool enough to handle, so still quite hot. Sometimes it really does make all the difference.
Preparation
I actually searched for a place to order tea from last night but was uninspired to actually press checkout (with the exception of Steep City Teas because I want their Choco-Honeyberrt but then gave up on the website when they were charging $20 shipping on less than $9 of teas). I don’t know why I wanted to order teas so badly other than I have a balance on my paypal that apparently I am just itching to spend. I guess it is for the best though given I have a lot of tea already and many packages on the way.
Where did you end up ordering from?!?
I ordered from Butiki, which is far too regular haha, because I just needed White Rhino. Then I also ordered from S&V and Teavivre. This was my first Teavivre order actually, woot!
I understand the shipping conundrum. I really want more Winter Blend from Tealish, but that’s all I want from them. They offer free shipping over $50, but for my $6.50 Winter Blend the shipping was something like $12-$14.
Yeah. Definitely not worth it when the cost of shipping outweighs the tea. I actually looked at Tealish and Teavivre and Simpson & Vail. I was about to order from S&V because I loved the Gingerbread Black you sent but then I remembered JustJames is sending me one of their teas so I should wait to try that.
You definitely made good choices though. I hope you enjoy the teas you got.
I avoided Butiki though because I have a whole bunch of their tea in my sample box that I have yet to try. I figured I should try what I have first and then can reorder more of the blends I love.
Enjoy!! :-)
The S&V shipping to Canada on their site is pricey, but I believe it was Cavocorax who told me if you call them, the shipping is less. Butiki is definitely my weakness, last night I was just re-stocking some of my favourites.
Yay! Glad you like this one :)
Thanks :)