Steam Tea House

This is the maple tea of my dreams. Some almond milk was added, but no extra sugar.

I got a cup to go as I’m heading out on a hike. I didn’t pay attention to the steeping as we were geeking out about teas. I think I’m bringing some samples by my next day off!

Delicious with a tonne of honey and a little this morning. I haven’t had a plain black tea in a while, and need to remember to make them in the mornings!

Yum! A nice strong breakfast tea with soy creamer to go with my ridiculous birthday breakfast (2 eggs with Korean chili pepper, 2 gluten free toaster waffles with yogurt, Happy Planet smoothie, water… although the smoothie might come to work instead).

I’m blaming my hangry state on the fact that I forgot to eat yesterday when I went to Langley, and that when I finally did eat I ended up with a tummy ache. So far today, so good.

Anyways, the tea. Rich, malty (oh, can I ever taste that today), smooth, delicious. This is my favourite Irish Breakfast blend.

Strong tea with a little sugar and cream. Just perfect this ‘morning’. I feel like I should be mainlining coffee, I’m so exhausted… but that’s the asthma talking, I think.

Next up: More strong tea and a visit to Steam.

I made a mug of this about 5 hours ago, and it’s still somewhat warm! I put loads of honey in this tea this morning, and the honey flavour just isn’t doing it for me right now. That might be because i broke down and had a latte this morning (Such a mistake! My poor tummy.), or maybe because I’m not feeling so great (See: latte.).

I think I’ll dump this and remake it with some brown sugar, or cane sugar if i have it, instead.

(I did another 3 minute steep with 1.5tsp tea for about 15 oz. A splash of soy creamer, and way too much honey.)

Made a cup this afternoon, after trying to get myself hydrated this morning. It was really good. Strong, super in-your-face breakfast tea that takes a LOT of cream and sugar. Totally having this in the morning, too.

I actually bought this to blend with my Della Terra flavoured blacks, because their black base is so delicate. I need more TEA in the morning, under all the flavour.

It’s probably time for me to start exploring unflavoured black teas. Once I get my Verdant order, I’ll think about it. :)

This sample is from OMGsrsly and I think it may be my first assam!

Does it seem like I’m always coupling Greek yogurt with black tea before noon? I should stop doing that because it makes the tea taste deliciously creamy in ways that I am not 100% positive it would otherwise. Not the best for getting an accurate first impression.

This tea is very smooth and full, with a bit of mouth-drying astringency near the end to keep things interesting. It contains some pleasant malty and sweet components. Yep. I’m enjoying this cup. I’ll be exploring this kind of tea in the future.

Edit: The second steep smells lightly fruity.

I looked Assam and Hathikuli up on a map and learned stuff. Should probably do that more often.

Eggnog latte!!!

Not bad, but not the best. I prefer the strawberry and blueberry. I think perhaps I didn’t use enough eggnog, so. Yeah.

Anyways, I had it and I drank it all.

Pretty good this morning, although what I really really wanted was a giant steaming latte. One made with coffee, not tea.

Nice and blackcurranty, although I think it’s nicer as a latte with a tiny bit of sugar to bring out the fruitiness.

As a latte, with a little honey added. Pretty nice. Not sure if it’s exactly what I wanted, but I’m still enjoying it.

I just realized that today is actually Monday. I thought it was Sunday, wow. I’m not back at work for a couple more days, so maybe I’ll do a local hike tomorrow, with a cooked lunch on top of a mountain. :)

(1/3-ish cream, 2/3-ish water)

Iced! With honey! I’m so glad I have 3 ice cube trays now that it’s getting warmer.

I steeped 4 min instead of my usual 3 because of the honey, so it’s a bit bitey, but so so good.

It really is like blackcurrant juice or ribena mixed with strong black tea. Yummers!

I picked up some of this the other day because it was back in stock and I missed it.

Now with dried local blackcurrant berries!

Tastes the same as I remember, though. Ribena tea. This is gonna be so good iced, and also as a Hong Kong style milk tea.

Ok, so this is really good.

I made some of this tea triple strong – 1.5 tbsp tea leaves in 1 cup of water, then cooled over 4 ice cubes. I then froze the tea into ice cubes. Just now I made a smoothie – 1/2 frozen banana, 200ml soy milk (or whatever, really), a little honey (not needed!) and 4 ice cubes. I forgot my protein powder (unflavoured, unsweetened), but that’s OK.

This is delicious! It would work so well with so many different teas. I might do this purely as a drink with no banana, so the tea flavour isn’t masked so much. If I don’t use a banana, I’ll use an extra ice cube.

I’m going to have to do this with chai! Mmm, chai frappa-whatsits. Homemade. Super easy and delicious. Definitely a good reason to get a cheapie blender.

Busy studying, so I need to either drink candy flavoured things or eat candy. This round of internal arguments, tea won!

Yum. With milk and sugar, of course, to intensify the candy flavour of the tea.

So far I’ve done 2 sets of file card review, plus 3 practise exams. The mistakes I’m making are foolish algebraic nonsense. – * – = +, self! Yeesh!

Now that I’ve brewed this differently, it’s pretty amazing. It’s recommended to use boiling water and steep for 3 minutes, but I found the blackcurrant flavour to be pretty weak last night when I did that.

This morning I steeped with cooler water, and for 4 minutes. And, perfection! It tastes like those British blackcurrant-and-licorice candies, without the licorice. Since I prefer most of my black teas with milk and honey, this one is pretty much no exception. The honey brings out a sweet candy flavour, and the milk makes it even more delicious. The black tea base is pretty unassuming, and hasn’t bittered or gone astringent at all.

I hope this fares well in a mug! I’ll test that later today while annoying my mom – she loves the candy, but can’t stand flavoured tea! I can hardly wait to see what her reaction is.

Sipdown!

This isn’t a bad green, I just never ever reach for greens… so even though I’m not actually finished this tea, it’s a sipdown. Someone will receive this as a surprise tea. :D I just sanitized myself and my counter and set up little labelled baggies for a bunch of people. That should make it easier for me.

It steeps up pretty murky, and very sweet. Like, I can tell it’s sweet even through my cold of doom. I can even taste the strawberry, and think this would make an excellent cold brew. I’m just not interested in cold teas right now. Sorry, 3 litres of iced tea I have in the fridge. It’s not you, it’s me.

Made this today in a mug, then poured it into my travel thermos. Too bad I’ve had a migraine all day – I totally wasn’t in the mood for any tea, much less a flavoured one. I’ve stuck the remainder in the fridge to have iced tomorrow. Since the strawberry comes out more when it’s colder, I’m looking forward to this in the morning!

And now to decide what kind of hot tea I’ll want tomorrow. So annoyed that I slept through the post office being open – either my Della Terra or my Verdant order came today, but it wasn’t left. I really want to try the Lemon Chiffon or Laoshan Black, instead of having anything in my cupboard! :)

I’m pleasantly surprised by this tea! I asked, and was warned that it can turn quite bitter if it’s not watched, so I was careful with it. I’m not 100% sure of the water temperature, but I waited about 5-7 minutes then poured the water into my unheated mug, and pushed the tea basket down into the water.

I’ve decided to copy Kittenna by loading up my Contigo travel mugs with different teas, and decided to test this one out in this manner tonight just for kicks.

It is pretty darn awesome. The only tea basket I have that fits these narrower mugs isn’t as fine as I’d like, and there were a lot of floaties in the tea that made me worried. It wasn’t super strawberry flavoured hot, but as it’s cooled down a bit (about 1.5 hours in my mug!) the strawberry has come out. It’s backed nicely by the slightly grassy green tea flavour, and there’s definitely something else in there that’s sweetened. Candied pineapple or papaya? Something that starts with a P…

This is going to be an AWESOME mug tea for me to haul around from campus to campus and sip. Yay!

(Steep 2: Still good! Less strawberry, more green tea. I steeped for 3 minutes with IDEK what temperature the water was, as I used kettle leftovers from something else!)

MMHMMMM. Perfection. For those of you familiar with the old Teaopia blends, this one tastes like a lovely mix of the Dragonheart and Spring morning, with a hint of mint. The bamboo is light and sweet, and the mild strawberry aroma is perfect. The mint is refreshing, not artificial or bitter. I just kjbfskbsdj will be buying more of this asap at Steam. Shame they only have one location.

Compared this to Oats ‘n’ Honey this morning. I like this one more better.

http://steepster.com/OMGsrsly/posts/174048

Yep. Lighter in flavour, sweeter and a bit more floral than Black Manas by Teajo.

I still really like this one, but the other is more of a kick-in-the-pants morning tea for me. They both have a similar mouth-feel as far as astringency and bitterness at a 3 minute steep (which is incredibly minimal) but the Black Manas is thicker, somehow. I don’t get it.

Can you tell I was a coffee drinker? Heh. It seems like I’m looking for the strongest, non-roasty tasting black tea I can handle…

I swear I wrote something!

Something about a honey-sugar smell in the just steeped tea. I think that as I get used to plain black teas, and learn about flavour notes, I’m starting to learn why I like specific teas.

This one is a winner for sure. Excellent in a cup with just some cream, with sugar, good plain (coming from someone who usually adds milk and sugar to their plain teas, that’s saying something!), amazing even in a travel mug.

This is the tea I made first thing today, with a little milk and honey. I really enjoyed it, but following it up with DavidsTea Nepal Black may have been a mistake.

Between the two teas, I prefer Nepal Black. I think I’m going to have to do a comparison tasting soon, to see if I can identify why I prefer that one over this one. And then comes the fun part of trying to articulate the differences, when I don’t know much tea lingo.

I’m really enjoying exploring the teas at this wee local shop. If you live in Vancouver (or even visit), I totally recommend checking them out. Their menu is posted on Facebook.

This one is apparently from the same place as their 2012 Oats ‘n’ Honey, but it is much less prone to bitterness, and less astringent. The tea is somewhat delicate in that its flavours really don’t come through in a travel mug. However, in a regular mug it’s amazing.

As always, I add a little honey and milk, but this is another black tea that I add things to more out of habit, rather than actually needing to add things to it.

I don’t really know how to describe this tea, but wow-oh-wow, do I like it a lot. (I’d actually make some more right now and sip at it to see what I think, but I recently woke up from a 7 hour.. err.. nap, and need to be able to sleep at some point tonight.)