Custom

I certainly had fun coming up with a way to list this here on Steepster… I like the analogy of using assorted teas to create some kind of Frankenstein’s Monster of tea.

Side note: I will hunt you down and punch you in the face if you make the mistake of calling the monster itself Frankenstein: Frankenstein is the scientist! It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when people mix that up.

Anyway, I’m getting tired of trying to find new ways to use up the leaf I have from my DAVIDsTEA Earl of Lemon, DAVIDsTEA Goji Pop, and my McQuarrie’s Ontario Ice Wine so I figured why not try and kill three birds with one stone and throw some of each leaf into a teaball and steep myself a random mishmash of tea. I fully expected to hate it, but figured it’d use up some of everything so I might as well TRY it and then if I had to dump it I could feel somewhat justified in doing so.

Preparation was kinda tricky: I had to balance the steeping requirements of three different teas. Fortunately, I didn’t care a whole lot so I more so went with simplicities sake. I used a somewhat heaping 1/2 tsp. for each tea – bringing me up to around 1/2 tsp. for the total amount of leaf used.

Temperature wise, I used closer to what would normally be used for the Ontario Ice Wine since it’s the most sensitive to temperature (approx. 80 degrees celsius) – and then I left this to steep in my 10 0z. mug for around 8 minutes (closer to the steep time of Goji Pop). The liquor turned about the same colour as gingerale.

Well, colour me shocked… Because this isn’t so much a “monster” of a tea but a miracle of one. Somehow this has worked out to be DELICIOUS! It’s like the best aspects of each blend somehow are the only present flavours. There’s a gentle sweetness and tartness from the Goji Pop that marries nearly perfectly with the bergamot and light lemon flavours from Earl of Lemon, and then as the tartness fades there are these really gentle berry notes from the Ontario Ice Wine. And somehow the white bases from Earl of Lemon and Ontario Ice Wine work quite nicely together. The aftertaste is a lightly “red berry” kind of fruitiness with very gentle lingering bergamot.

Damn I am a happy camper! I suddenly feel like MAYBE it wont be so hard to drink down the rest of these blends. If someone sold a tea just like this one I’d certainly buy it. It’s gentle but still flavourful and none of the things I greatly hated about each blend come through. There’s also no astringency or bitterness despite this being a long steep time for the white teas – and it feels quite refreshing.

For this FrankTea blend, my rating would be around an 85-88.

My favorite combination ever is Della Terra’s Dubbelle Chocolade with DavidsTea The Earl’s Garden. I don’t really know why it works; it just kinda does.

So since I’m sick, I decided to break out the best of the cold fighting fruits. I bought fresh ginger and lemons yesterday, chopped them up, squeezed a bit of extra lemon juice, steeped in a basket for 5 minutes, and added a spoonful of honey. The result is a crazily lemon tasting concoction, quite tart and tasting like it’s full of vitamin C. Feels like it will do my body good. Almost like that hot lemon cold medicine but without the drugs in it adding a chalkiness and knocking you out lol. I’m pleased with this blend, and hope it kicks this cold’s butt! It does feel like it’s fading a bit at least.

I changed up my chai recipe a bit tonight, only 1 clove, more ginger, maybe more coriander and fennel, less cinnamon. Oh and in total used the ingredients coriander, cinnamon, cadamom, fresh ginger, black peppercorns, a single clove, and fennel. It smelled a lot spicier, I like it. I also used 12 oz water, simmered spices for 10 mins, and steeped Verdant’s Shui Xian Wuyi oolong in it for the base, one of my favorite oolongs. This made for a buttery smelling chai, and to top it off, I used 1/8 cup cream and 1/8 cup 2% milk today lol. And… If that wasn’t creamy enough.. When I added honey (1 tsp) I also added in 1/8 tsp vanilla extract (unfortunately artificial extract).

The result? The creamiest, richest chai I’ve ever had. My goodness. It probably didn’t need the vanilla, and I was worried it ruined it, but it adds a wonderful sweetness. My next experiment, I want to buy whole vanilla beans and put one in. Lol and the added cream with the Wuyi just puts it over the top into decadent, buttery goodness. I imagine my lactose intolerance will be furious with me, but I am gonna enjoy this slice of heaven for now. I quite enjoy my chai experiments!

I made my chai again, this time with less honey..it is definitely much stronger. The tea base is very prominent haha, I also used 1/3 of a cup of milk instead of 1/4 by accident, but I don’t mind. I might try less cloves next time though, because I think that’s my least favorite spice of the bunch. It is so cozy and warm tonight though, with the snow falling outside. I still might have my nightly matcha later too haha, we will see how caffeinated I am!

I made myself a homemade chai blend tonight! We went to the Little Italy market in the city, and I conveniently happened to end up in the spice isle..and the jar of star anise caught my eye. I didn’t get any for my chai, but I did get coriander, cardamom, ground cinnamon, black peppercorns, fennel, cloves and fresh ginger root. I blended according to Verdant’s blending recommendations on their site – blend until no one scent overpowers the others. I reached this point after adding a lot more pepper and cardamom and ginger when I put a bit too much cinnamon lol. I am not sure the individual amounts (darn it, will probably end up different every time now) but I ended up with ~1.5 tablespoons of chai mix.

For my base tea..I picked Tiger Assam by Andrews & Dunham..I know people might be thinking gasp, why would you put such a good tea in a chai?! But I wanted an Assam in it, and I am out of LB, which would have been the first choice lol. So I put in 3 tsps, after simmering the spices in 1.5 cups of water for 10 mins. Simmered another 2 mins and then took off and let sit and steep for 4 mins.

Then I strained it, and added a large dollop of honey (homemade too, my parents have bees!), probably a bit over a tablespoon. Mixed that around, and added 1/4 cup of milk. Brought to a low boil again then poured it in my cup.

The verdict? HOLY GOODNESS. SO MUCH HONEY. LOL. Maybe a bit less next time..I was a bit worried it’d be too clove-y, as that was the predominant scent when it was simmering, but it actually is pretty well balanced! I definitely taste the fresh ginger, and the cloves and maybe a bit of fennel. The honey brings out everything sweet in it, next time I will probably put less in haha. But it is sweet, cozy and soothing! Ah! And the base is there too, providing a bit of astringency I think, which goes well here. A bit of a burnt clove note too. Overall it’s sweet, smooth, and surprisingly well balanced, for my first attempt lol. Next time, less sweet things though! But I won’t have trouble sleeping after this, and will gladly slurp it down and head to bed! I think it was a good success, and I will definitely make more chai in the future! Excited that I’ve blended my first tea blend!

Oh god, my mom and I took one for the team and ordered a durian bubble tea. It was $6 since it had real, fresh fruit in there, but we figured it would be the best way to try durian.

Who here has tried durian before, and what does it taste like to you?

I’m telling you, this bubble tea tasted like a freaking onion milkshake. I’ll admit, I wimped out after a couple sips and refused to consume anymore calories worth of liquified creamy onions. Blech.

FWIW, the other day, I got an avocado (and strawberry) fresh fruit bubble tea the other day, for the first time, and it was awesome. I can see why avocado is very popular in bubble tea. It was so rich and creamy, like strawberries ‘n’ cream.

EDIT: OMG! The creamy onion bubble tea makes me think of The Rutles’ Cheese and Onions (for all you Beatles and/or Monty Python fans). It all makes sense now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaHG6g7uFw&spfreload=10

Despite being in the middle of nowhere, I made bubble tea! That’s right. My mom and I ordered boba and fruity powder mixes from nuts.com last year and they’ve been sitting around waiting to be used. Plus, we have a pineapple which ripened really weirdly, and doesn’t taste as flavourful as they can be. So why not make a fresh fruit bubble tea?

As a side note, I nearly added actual tea to this but refrained from it this time since I want to first see what this powder is like. Next time I’ll add a shot of tea.

So, this is what’s in there:

2 oz. mango fruit powder
Approx. 3/4 cup coconut milk
3 pineapple rings
Approx. 1/4 cup boba

Better than I thought! I’m impressed by the powder, as it doesn’t taste super artificial. Maybe it’s the texture of the pineapple that’s doing it, but it almost tastes like there is real mango in here. I barely taste the pineapple, though, but it doesn’t matter because it tastes great. Finally, I managed to cook the pearls perfectly.

There goes my calorie-counting for the day but oh well.

I’ve been too lazy to log the teas I’ve been drinking lately but not everyday do I grab a bubble tea. I had to go buy new toner after the union meeting (zzz…) and figured that since I was in the area, it’s Friday, and I need some excitement in my life, I skipped over to the nearby tea house and ordered one of their new flavours: chocolate banana. Crazy, right? I usually go for coconut or taro, or some random fruit, but chocolate banana sounded mightily intriguing. And it is!

It tastes more chocolatey than I had imagined. Almost like chocolate pudding, which makes sense since this tea house has other pudding flavours like strawberry pudding, which was a close second. This reminds me of Booster Juice’s funky monkey, only with more chocolate, plus tapioca pearls.

I promised myself that I will go to the library to work on my proposal revision today, so I’ll do that after I’m finished my bubble tea. Translation: I’m going to try to saviour this like crazy.

Last bubble tea from the week – had this one today when I went to the mall. I didn’t catch the name of the shop, unfortunately, but they do bubble tea, milkshakes, and gelato – so I expected sweet and creamy.

I opted for a Chocolate flavoured milk/bubble tea – which is another first time flavour for me. It was so rich, but also delicious because it essentially tasted like a thin chocolate milkshake with tapioca pearls. I’d only order this again if I really wanted something quite sweet and dense in flavour, because I did struggle to finish it with how decadent it was, but it was delicious!

Merging two different bubbles teas that I had last week into one tasting note…

Both came from a bubble tea store/chain called “L2” here in MTL. I was deeply craving bubble tea at work one day, so I ordered some for myself and my coworkers on UberEats. The two that I picked up for myself were:

1. Unsweetened Pink Lemonade + Black Tea w/o milk + blueberry & cherry popping boba
2. Unsweetened Red Bean + Black Tea w/ milk + added red bean paste and tapioca pearls

Both were ok, but the pink lemonade was far better. It was just a lot more refreshing, and the balance between the taste of actual black tea and the pink lemonade flavour was really well done. Plus, the little “bursts” of sweet/juicy blueberry and cherry every now and then were REALLY good. It was a little tangy, and the sweetness level was perfect. I can’t even imagine how sugary this would be if I’d not ordered unsweetened versions – definitely would be too much for this flavour combo…

The red bean was kinda meh. It was actually my first time ever ordering a Red Bean flavoured bubble tea drink – and I didn’t mind the bean-y taste at all, but I thought the texture of the red bean paste was really unpleasant, and the drink almost tasted a little bit burnt?? I think this one might have actually benefited from a bit of sweetness. I don’t know that I’d order this flavour again – if I’m going to go for something a bit more savory/traditional Taro definitely seems like my preference…

Ordered some bubble tea and spring rolls for lunch earlier this week on UberEats – it was a day where I was working through lunch to catch up on some of the work that accumulated while I was in Winnipeg. Here’s what my bubble tea order was:

Mango Milk Tea w/ Pearls, Mango Popping Boba, & Mango Jelly (Black Tea as the base)

It was ridiculously good bubble tea; so many fun additions that make the mango really sweet, fun and juicy but you can also really distinctly tell that there was black tea in the milk tea and it wasn’t all mango flavoured sugar milk. Perfection!

Grabbed a bubble tea with my supper following one of the days I was working in store during my Winnipeg trip; I picked out a peach flavour with a mix of tapioca pearls and strawberry popping boba. You can see a picture of it here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0hRrPlgApS/

It was pretty tasty – I particularly liked the combo of peach and strawberry. However, it was really more of a peach slushie…

It’s been a while since I went on a bubble tea binge; but I had two this week in the span of three days so I think that might count as a bit of a slide back into bubble tea territory…

Bubble Tea #1 was strawberry flavoured, and wasn’t bad but had a bit of a sourness/tangyness to it that, by the end of the bubble tea, left my tongue feeling a little bit raw – the same way that eating a lot of pineapple might.

Bubble Tea #2 was lychee flavoured, and from a different place than my normal bubble tea spot. This one was a cream/milk based lychee instead of just lychee “juice” – and I think I’ve decided that I actually like the more milky lychee bubble teas a lot less than the ones that are just made from a lychee juice/concentrate. Plus, all my boba clumped together at the bottom of the cup into one ‘super boba’ that was really just like forty of them all stuck together. Impossible to drink! So, not the best bubble tea.

Watermelon, this time.

I know that this flavour is usually MIGHTY sweet and sugary, but that’s exactly what I was in the mood for so this was the perfect flavour for me to pick out. Very creamy; it almost tasted like I was drinking a really melted down version of watermelon icecream with tapioca bubbles in it. Only complaint was that the bubbles were really mushy, so texturally it was off putting.

Pina Colada Bubble Tea, this time around.

I’ve never seen this flavour offered by a bubble tea place before, but last week I went out for Chinese with some friends after work and low and behold there it was. I had to try it; I have such a soft spot for pineapple and coconut things. It wasn’t really bad, but it didn’t quite taste like pina colada either!? Like, coconut for sure – but the “pineapple” element just tasted like some sort of SUPER sweet generic fruit syrup. Overall it was one of the sweetest flavours of bubble tea that I’ve ever had – and I just wasn’t that into it.

It was actually quite a disappointment…

Debating calling 2018 the year of bubble tea, because damn have I had a lot of it…

This one was a blueberry bubble tea, which had been one of my overall favourites from my usual place/the place where I worked my way through the whole menu. However, this time it didn’t taste like any of the other blueberry bubble teas I’ve purchased here. For one, it didn’t have any milk in it so it wasn’t creamy the same way the blueberry I’ve come to love usually is. Instead it was quite intensely flavoured, with more of a blueberry syrup/slushie vibe to it. I didn’t really care for it, and was disappointed to see the change from how it’s normally prepared…

Took my little sister out for bubble tea over the weekend to this small little place downtown. She went with a watermelon bubble tea, and somewhat inspired by her choice I decided that I was going to do cantaloupe – I’ve had watermelon and honeydew bubble tea quite a few times before but never cantaloupe.

I was a bit surprised by the visual look; the bubble tea was definitely more of a brown colour than orange like I’d expected it to be given my melon of choice. The taste was definitely cantaloupe though – a very creamy and sweet version of it, anyway. Why do all the melon flavours of bubble tea just come off as SO sugary/sweet!? I know bubble tea is kind of a sweet thing, but the melon flavours just push that even further than the rest of the typical flavour options.

I still liked it – but as always I wish it had the same melon taste with about half the sweetness…

Lychee!

But not from my normal bubble tea place; instead I got this at a new place downtown after work with a coworker. We also ordered a few things off their dimsum menu – in particular I grabbed some sesame balls. This lychee bubble tea was a lot different than the lychee that I get from my normal spot – for starters it was a milk tea base, whereas the other place is more of a ‘slush’ without any milk used it it at all. The change made for a more mellow, subdued lychee flavour with this one compared to the very, very sweet version that tastes more like lychee juice. I think the subtly and creaminess with this one made it seem more like an adult version than a sugary juice-like one that would appeal more to kids. The other difference is that this one was topped with cut up lychee and passionfruit jellies, which tasted amazing as well.

I still find it pretty cool that I can get the same flavour of bubble tea from two different places and have such a wildly different experience.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkx_tP-ncgH/?taken-by=ros_strange

We went out to eat recently at this new(ish) Chinese spot in town, and they had a really interesting bubble tea menu with a whole bunch of flavours I’ve never seen before/that aren’t carried at my usual bubble tea spot. I’m sure I’ll be back to try more of them, but the one that immediately jumped out to me was ‘Cherry’ bubble tea so that’s what I got.

The presentation was actually really top notch; in the bottom of the cup with the tapioca pearls was this sort of ‘chocolate cookie’ sort of syrup/crumble that tasted like Oreos in syrup form, and then the top of the bubble tea had a layer of sliced up lychee, strawberry, and passion fruit jelly as well. Way more showy than my normal place! However, presentation is only one thing; taste is ultimately what matters most!

And this tasted so good. This was a milk based bubble tea, so the profile had this “cherries and cream” sort of overall quality, but the cherry itself was very bright and sweet and it really made me think of fresh, maybe just a little overripe cherries that you get right in the heart of the summer. The ones that are a little soft to the touch and that stain your finger tips red when you eat them. Not overly sweet, just a little bit tangy, and really fresh. It makes me excited to see what other offerings from this company might be like…

The two other flavours they carry that caught my attention, but that also felt a little too out there for my first experience with this company, were chocolate and jack fruit. So, maybe next time?

Revisiting Mango today because I seem to be in a very tropical tea kind of mood. I wish there was a pineapple flavoured bubble tea at the place downtown…

This was fine; actually a lot creamier than it being the original time I tried it? However it was a little rich/sweet and after about two thirds of it I was having some serious regrets about drinking at much as I did as fast as I did. I got home from work (I was drinking it on the commute home) and promptly curled up on the couch and had a nap until I felt better.

Less bubble tea for me…