Pluck

GCTTB DAY 3

Had this one with dinner (which was actually more like breakfast for dinner) and it actually paired pretty well. I made some fried ham and eggs sunny side up with toast and avocado, and the tea complimented my meal quite nicely. Although I enjoyed the pairing, I can’t say the tea itself was impressive. I should have probably known better just from the description and ingredient list on the package, but it was too tart for my liking. Not only that, but I felt like that flavours of was unbalanced and I competition with each other. The tart apple pieces and hibiscus only managed to bring out more tartness and bitterness in each other, while the cinnamon was rather heaped onto it as if trying to cover up a huge mess. Honestly it wasn’t that bad, but that was the general impression I got. My first try of a Pluck tea, hopefully the other one I want to try (ice wine) will be more successful.

A sample from Miss B! This one has had me intrigued for a while, from the name to its rather odd appearance. I finally got around to trying it today, and the first thing I noticed is the incredible scent – sherbet lemons, pretty much as soon as the leaf hit the water. I went for a pretty quick brew time with this one – no more than 2 minutes. The leaf is so fine that I didn’t honestly think it’d need more than that.

To taste, it’s actually pretty good. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s very much in line with the scent – a sharp initial lemon flavour, followed by a sweet sherbet-like hit, with just a touch of warming, spicy ginger at the end of the sip.

Rather unexpectedly, I’m a fan :)

GCTTB V1

Thank you Jillian for including this in the box for me! I wanted to try it because I’ve had two or three other Ice Wine blends including one with a black base quite recently that I really, really enjoyed and I wanted to see if this would be a potential replacement for it despite the difference in base.

I cold brewed this: it was solid but definitely not as good as the Victoria’s Tea one I was hoping to replace. I’m guessing that the base choice just makes a world of difference when it comes to the way the flavours play out; and why wouldn’t it?

This definitely had more of a syrupy, somewhat boozy berry flavour as opposed to a sweet, syrupy grape-y flavour like actual ice wine tastes like. I mean, either way ice wine is meant to be quite fucking sweet and I think in that aspect that was pretty true. I was not cloying, though, which was nice. The finish was also lightly floral which was a pleasant way to end the sip, and throughout the sip there was a nice, light sweet hay kind of background flavour from the Bai Mu Dan base. Like I said, a solid and enjoyable tea for sure but not the replacement I was hoping for.

Also; side note…

I was looking at Pluck’s website ‘cause I know they actually make way more tea than the five or so blends my Chapter’s store stocks and this isn’t on their website anymore? I wonder if it’s been discontinued? Anyone know?

This is a queued tasting note.

Sipdown (138)!

Finished as a cold brew with a bit of vodka. Not a lot; but just enough to make finishing this rather lackluster cold brew worth while. I say lack luster because the off, semi tart apple notes and abundance of rosehip flavour dusted with cinnamon really just didn’t do it for me. It’s just another “Forever Nuts” type of tea, and not a super solid one.

Revisiting this tea, I’m finding my initial observations are still ringing true. Tonight, I’m really tasting the cinnamon chips. I pulled this out because I was craving tart apple flavour but now that I’m getting that flavour, along with the cinnamon, it’s not that satisfying. I left it long enough that it went cold; and while it still wasn’t satisfying it was better that way.

In other news…

Anyone else really into Hamilton right now? After hearing enough friends praise it so highly, I took the time to introduce myself to it today. I’ve gone through the soundtrack once now, and am currently on my second listen through. Enjoying it a lot, so far. I totally understand why it’s cleaned up in regard to awards and award nominations. It’s truly unique…

Impulse purchase!

I was having a bad day on Sunday, so I took a trip to Chapters with Trey because what could possibly make me feel better than books? Well, turns out the answer is tea. How could I have forgotten that Chapters carries a pretty good selection of tea!? I didn’t have a lot of cash on me ‘cause I was trying to be fiscally responsible, so even though I wanted to drop like $50 on Republic of Tea’s whole iced collection I only grabbed a little pouch of this tea. At the time it seemed the most interesting of Pluck’s selection.

Cold brewed it up today; it’s certainly not bad but it’s not exactly the most satisfying/overwhelming tea either. Frankly, it reminds me a lot of DAVIDsTEA’s Forever Nuts blend and all associated ‘clone blends’. Though, this does differentiate itself ‘cause it’s a lot more tart than Forever Nuts. That’d be because this specifically uses Granny Smith apples and lets face it, those are some pretty tart apples. But it’s not a big enough of a difference to really set itself apart. I’ll enjoy finishing off the pouch, but probably not in a rush: those Forever Nuts type blends are really nice in the fall but not as much in the summer…

Another tea that I recently brought home from work, this one because they were discontinuing it so I got it for a very nice discount. I’m not normally a big lapsang fan so I probably wouldn’t have paid full-price for it just as a matter of principle. It does smell very camp fire-y though I can pick up a bit of sweet maple in there too. The flavour is quite smokey and, while the black tea base is quite smooth, unfortunately I can’t taste all that much maple flavour. Next time I’ll try adding milk or agave nectar to see if that brings it out a little bit more.

I am that fortunate individual with whom MissB shared this desserty blend. I am always on the hunt for good chocolate mint blends, and especially a tasty chocolate mint rooibos/honeybush blend since I love Zen Tea’s but they got rid of a lot of other blends I like, making an order from there not as worthwhile anymore.

This would have to be my second favourite chocolate mint rooibos blend. They were rather generous with the peppermint leaves which is probably why this one comes closest to Zen’s (which is loaded with peppermint leaves). The cacao bean pieces in here also sets this apart from other blends. Sure, the rooibos blend is a little too woody and prominent for my liking, but still, in comparison to others, such as DAVIDsTEA’s, the chocolate mint flavouring is at least more prominent than the base itself.

Thank yo so much to MissB for passing down a ridiculously generous amount of this!

This is a weird ass tea. It smells really strange (like… dried apples and… something weird I can’t place), it’s ridiculously, painfully sweet (added stevia, didn’t know this beforehand), and, well.. it’s more like candied apple. I normally love ginger, apples, etc. but this just.. no, no thank you.

I know I’ve had this, I know I’ve reviewed it, and yet…. nada. I remember as being not so much like an after eight (mint chocolate) and more like, well, rooibos. Dunno any more though, it’s been so long, and I shared it with someone else. Ah well, hope they love it!

Definite smoky flavor, reminds me of smoked ham almost. The smoke flavor is strong, putting me off at first,but it does sort of bring you to a memory of a campfire. I would like to try it in a latte, to dim the smoky flavor. I

Sipdown. The icewine flavour has faded a bit since I got this tea – but it’s been awhile so fair enough. It’s a shame that Pluck seems to have discontinued this tea – it isn’t on their webpage and we haven’t stocked it in the store for awhile.

I’d never heard of Pluck Teas until we started selling it at the Chapters bookstore where I work. We only sell five blends although apparently the company makes quite a few more. I acquired this one when I was receiving a box of teas and accidentally cut too deeply with my utility knife, slicing the top pouch open. My boss knows I Iove tea, so she just wrote it off and gave it to me.

This white tea is a bit – twiggy I guess, lots of little bits of stems, although there’s plenty of nice, whole leaves too. The icewine flavour is quite distinct, a slightly boozy fruity grape flavour – it actually verges on being a bit too much, so I don’t think I’d steep this tea longer. Altogether I quite enjoyed it – maybe I’ll see if I can’t ‘accidentally’ acquire more Pluck teas from work. ;)