Acquired Taste Tea Co.

So, I bought this tea a long time ago, but when I opened the bag it smelled so strongly that I shut it up in a tin and left it for a long time. It smelled heavily of cherry candy, like, syrupy-sweet and the scent was so heavy I felt like it would give me a headache.

So, today, I finally tried it! And it was just okay. It tastes sort of like cherry, but as it cools, it tastes like soap. It also doesn’t really taste enough like black tea to feel like tea, it tastes like tea in a bottle you might buy at a petrol station (which I guess is its own type of tea!) but not the type of tea I was expecting. Maybe it’ll grow on me, maybe I’ll like it, but for now, I remain skeptical.

This tea is so sweet and so floral. The blend has an almost overpowering smell of roses and flowers. When I read the ingredients I saw that black currants was an ingredient, which I was then able to taste, but any time I drink this tea the thing I can taste is a lychee kind of sweetness, that almost sugary, syrupy flavour of sugar that comes from fruit.

It’s hard to know when to drink this, because it has such a distinctive flavour it’s hard to pair with my regular breakfast fare, but then any time I drink it, I enjoy it. It feels odd to say, but it tastes almost better cold, it gets a little less sugary and a little more astringent and vegetal, but not in a bad way.

Hot, this tea is magical. It’s warm, full-bodied and really strong.There are chais that are more herbaceous, more floral, and then there are chais that are more peppery, and this is the latter. This tea is smooth and not sweet at all. However, once it cools, it becomes really bitter and astringent. The body of the tea also becomes sort of powdery as it cools, which is not my favourite. I don’t love to drink my teas with milk, but this might be better served as an actual chai rather than black, which is how I take it.

I first tried this tea at a cafe called Steeps, and it quickly became one of my favourite teas of all time. I immediately bought a tin of it and then drank it with great enthusiasm. When I went back to purchase more, it had been discontinued. I was really sad! I searched high and low for it but couldn’t find it. Fast forward to several years later and I finally found it, and I recognised it because of its toffee pieces.

I ordered about 200mg because oh my god! One of my lost favourites has finally come home. And … when I tried it, I have to say I was pretty disappointed. It is nice, totally serviceable, but the creaminess and the layers of the toffee flavour seem lost to me. It seems to lose its flavour as I drink, and by the end it just tastes like hot water. It still smells good! But the taste is disappointing.

So perhaps I should beware the power of nostalgia when buying long lost teas, lol.

I love this tea! It’s sort of a dupe for one of my favourite teas of all time – Pleine Lune by Mariage Frères – of course, it has nowhere near the same number of layers, but it has a similar enough feel. It’s creamy, sweet and then has enough body to support the almond flavour. It’s not thin or watery at all and there’s enough of the actual spice that you can see it in the blend. It has a lovely quality to it. This is what I remembered Acquired Taste Tea’s Toffee blend for, but it turns out it was Vanilla Almond all along.

I thought I would like this tea more than I did. I’ve enjoyed (and still enjoy) a lot of black teas with maple flavouring, but this feels a little too sweet and too creamy, and slightly artificial? The blend looks lovely, and it’s totally drinkable, but not my favourite. It starts to have a really thin flavour profile after a while and I sometimes forget which tea I’ve steeped.

Tastes like juice, I like the vanilla and peppermint. 3/5

Easily one of my favourite black teas, and a lovely twist on the standard Earl Grey. The tartness of the grapefruit is more forward than the usual bergamot, and the scent divine. When steeping a second time, I reduce the steep time to 2 minutes or less. I often add just a pinch of extra tea to my second steep just for that fresh burst of grapefruit.

Last time I was at Acquired Taste, the sales associate (I’m sure she’s the owner) generously gave me a sample of this after having a nice conversation about black tea. She figured I’d like this since I like my bold Assams. Initially, I wasn’t exactly the most ecstatic because I haven’t had great luck with CTC. They’re usually ultra astringent and flat.

But this is a win! The best CTC I’ve tried to date. It’s so malty, it’s like drinking Milo, especially when you add some milk. It’s a little thinner than expected. You’d think with a bold flavour like this, it would be accompanied with a thick mouthfeel. That’s my only complaint. I’m detecting some dried fruit in the aftertaste too. Maybe dried apricot and apple rings.

This CTC from Malawi is purchase-worthy. Something I would grab if I were out of black tea and didn’t want to spend $20494202 on one ounce of whatever black tea online.

BAM sipdown! I’ve been enjoying this as a tea pop at work over the past few days. I’d fill my glass Contigo 4/5 full then top it off with club soda. Delicious. It kept me company throughout my breaks. I would actually consider getting more, as I enjoyed its sunny lemon disposition.

This is tasty town as a tea pop, like a more exciting lemon Perrier. No apple, as usual. I need to work on some odds and ends since my cupboard is back up to over 50. Ugh! Getting down to 40 seems impossible.

Today is a total write-off. Couldn’t sleep so I got out of bed at 5am, browsed online for a couple hours, tried to go back to bed but keep drifting in and out of light sleep until 1pm, and now my brain is numb and I’m being a lazy bum. Also really dehydrated, possibly from the 2-hour workout yesterday evening so I’m chugging cold brew like a boss.

Turkish Apple, eh? When I opened the jar in the store, I was hit with a cloud of sunny lemon. Totally not expected. I grabbed some specifically to cold brew and I’m glad I did. This makes a happy lemonade-like cold brew without any weird sweet undertones. I don’t taste any apple in this whatsoever despite the fact that the so-called dry leaf looks like nothing but dried apple pieces. That’s how strong the lemon is in here.

It’s nice to have something different to cold brew since I’ve been running out of options as of late. As much as I like cold brewing DAVIDs Ginger Beer and Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait, it’s nice to switch it up.

I brought the entire pouch of this tea with me to work a while back, leaving it in my locker and hoping to polish it off there, but yesterday was finally the first time actually brewing a cup there. I used a tea bag and just left it in my mug while I was sipping on it, and it didn’t go bitter at all. Whatever temperature the hot water which our Keurig dispenses seems to stay kind to tea. The flavours and freshness have been holding up well considering that I’ve had this for ten months now. Still malty and slightly honey-ish, and no dusty or stale notes to be had.

Speaking of work, I did my very first full makeover on a customer yesterday and it seemed to be a success despite it being a terrifying experience for myself. She claimed she liked it! And co-workers said it looked sultry but I hope they weren’t all just being nice. Nothing is scarier than applying eyeliner on someone else haha.

Warm weather means more outdoor walking for me again, which means I skipped down to Acquired Taste and immediately went for this one since it’s been out of stock forever. The dry leaf kind of reminds me of Bi Luo Chun with beautiful gold tips.

First steep was so incredibly full-bodied and malty with a hint of honey in the background. I think I used a little too much leaf so it was really bold so I’m looking forward to try it again with slightly different ratios.

Second steep was substantially less malty, but still roasted and slightly honeyish. The first was definitely better, at least this time around.

A sample from Miss B. This one came out a lot stronger than I was expecting, in that the initial sip contains quite an intense hit of blackberry. It reminds me a little of cordial – syrupy, sweet, but very fruity and with an edge of sourness totally reminiscent of actual blackberries. As this one cools, the sage begins to emerge. It starts out as an indefinable “herbal” kind of flavour, but with successive sips I really could start to identify it as specifically sage. Stuffing, anyone?

Although it reminds me at least a little of roast chicken with all the trimmings, I actually like this flavour combination. It’s slightly unusual, which is always intriguing, but it works pretty well. The sage cuts through some of the tart sourness the blackberries present, and pushes the overall flavour away from one-note fruity. I could be a fan!

Another one from the wonderful MissB. Now that I’m back in Edmonton, where I left these, I’m polishing them off. Crazy fun last few days of being a mall rat and seeing Mockingjay Pt. II, so I really haven’t gotten much tea drinking in over the last few days.

This one made one full circle being back in its hometown. The rooibos base was a little too heavy for my liking but this had a ton of spice and packs a punch. The cinnamon popped out the most, followed by clove and ginger. I wouldn’t buy any of this but it was nice to try it. Thanks again, MissB!

Sipdown! I can see myself getting more of this someday. It works very well both as a cold brew and hot. Refreshing in the summer and comforting in the winter. As long as you watch the steeping parameters, you can keep the base’s bitterness at bay and really bring out the creamy pear candy flavour.

It’s been so saddening to be away from my tea stash for nearly six weeks, and by the looks of that, that may be extended another two weeks. Had I known we’d be gone for this long, I would have brought more with me.

However, at least I can skip down to Acquired Taste now, especially with the sunny weather. It’s encouraged me to basically walk everywhere around the city. This smelled like creamy pear candy in the tin so of course, I had to grab some.

As a cold brew, it’s seriously tasty. Very true to that pear candy flavour, it doesn’t go wonky or super artificial, and no gross added sweeteners. The only thing you have to watch for is to make sure it doesn’t cold brew for too long (I did this the first time, leaving it in the fridge for over two days), because the Sencha base goes a little bitter. But do it right and watch out, your jug will be gone in a flash!

Sipdown! First cold brew I’ve had in months, it seems. Went well with my popcorn supper haha. It felt odd drinking it since it snowed today and I’ve been cold almost all day, walking around the house in a hoodie, and I don’t want to turn the temperature up too much because that would cost a fortune.

I seemed to have chosen all their newer ones because so many of them aren’t even on their website. This is a fruit tisane with hibiscus and mango and whatnot. Cold brewed, it’s sweet and tart at the same time because of these two main notes. But! Not nearly as sweet as DAVIDs mango-flavoured blends, so that’s a bonus. I’m already on my third round, so clearly that’s an indication that it’s nice to drink when it’s 30°C outside (and you’ve walked 27km in said heat!) but once it’s gone, it’s gone. I won’t get more since it’s not unique or amazeballs in any way.

Sipdown! I polished off the last two cups this morning, with the very last cup containing that sweet, sweet pumpkin spice-flavoured honey. So good.

I was initially attracted to their Toffee black in the store, based on the tea that was in the sniffing jar, but once I smelled it in the tin, I had to pass because it smelled stale and weird. The sales associate pointed me to this tea instead, which is newer, and hence, lacking in any pertinent information on their site. It smells so roasty and nutty, kind of along the lines of Forever Nuts from DAVIDsTEA (which also smells a little bit like ATR’s Brioche) so I thought I couldn’t go wrong.

Unfortunately, this seriously lacks flavour once steeped. I can just pick up on a hint of nuttiness with each initial sip but the rest is just tea and nothing more. The dry leaf is interesting, like a mix between twisted leaves and CTC pellets, with some nuts and flower petals thrown in to the mix.

But I found something today that kind of saves teas like this. So, there is a localesque business that makes flavoured honeys, and I found their ginger honey at Save-on-Foods the other week. So tasty, like fresh ginger, and/or those Chimes ginger chews. Really great on toast, and I’m sure it would be great to glaze salmon with and whatnot. Anyway, I went to Farmers Market today for the sole purpose of seeking out their booth since they have a ton of other flavours, and came across their Pumpkin Spice honey. Grabbed that off the bat, but it was tough since I was also eyeing their Espresso Vanilla Bean and Chai ones.

Long story short, I added a spoon of it to this tea and it’s glorious. It woke this tea up and breathed some life into it. I’m normally not a fan of honey in tea but I’ll definitely be drinking this tea with these flavoured honeys (I need to grab more flavours too!) from this day forward.

Sip down! Kind of glad it’s out of the way. Tastes almost as fresh as it was on the day I bought it over half a year ago but I was getting a little tired of the favour profile. Never tried Bayswater’s so I wonder how the two compare, or if they come from the same source.