Tea Desire

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96
drank Caramel Pu Erh by Tea Desire
4170 tasting notes

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – April 2023 Tea #2 – April 5 – National Caramel Day

A really great caramel puerh.  I think a caramel puerh is definitely a cupboard essential for me.  The deep puerh flavor with the sweet caramel is the perfect combination.  Love it.  Another caramel tea note tomorrow!  When I finish the second steep! oh cool – both the teas today I have 96 ratings to! Definitely some old favorites today!

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96
drank Caramel Pu Erh by Tea Desire
4170 tasting notes

Additional notes: This one is so good. Definite caramel flavor from the tiny caramel cubes that look like the actual caramel cubes you can buy in the bag. It seems like MissB sent this one to many many people. :D And like MissB, I’m going to try for a many minute steep on the last steep (MissB says she steeped this one for 1-2 hours!) It’s also a ton better with two teaspoons rather than one. Raising the rating from a 91.
Also, this one is still available on teadesire.com which I have never visited before!

Flavors: Caramel

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96
drank Caramel Pu Erh by Tea Desire
4170 tasting notes

Oh how I love these caramel pu-erhs. Thanks for the sale, MissB! This one is delicious. Sometimes in teas the caramel cubes don’t actually look like edible caramel cubes… they might look a little dry. These caramel cubes actually look like tinier versions of those wrapped caramel cubes you can buy in a bag that actually ARE edible… and there are plenty of them in the blend. The fragrance is very caramely but I’m not sure if it’s from the caramel cubes or added flavoring. But the flavor is very sweet and is great with the medium strength ripened pu-erh. It might only be a deep red cup rather than dark black though because of all those caramel cubes – less pu-erh leaves!
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 7 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

ashmanra

I wonder if this is the same as the one from Gurman’s in Dublin? It sounds like it.

Stephanie

Yeah I think they are all sourced from the same wholesaler…

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drank White Angel by Tea Desire
1113 tasting notes

I believe there is too much going on in this tea for me to realize that it was a white tea. I was hoping to enjoy it, but it was more of a cup to get to the next if you know what I mean.

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78

This is very chocolatey, and the richness of the puerh does give it a more dark chocolate vibe without being bitter or lacking any creaminess. I am normally not super into chocolate teas (as I usually then just wish I had the real thing) but I was pretty pleased with this, and how it retained some flavor as I resteeped.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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61

Grabbed this one in store iced; the sales associate actually kind of warned me against it saying it’s probably the worst fruit blend the store caries and her least favourite and, well, for me that’s basically like issuing a challenge. I just had to try it and really see for myself.

Admittedly, the dry leaf really doesn’t seem promising; it’s very intensely tart and sour and I’m struggling to see how the blueberry or cream are going to be playing into this. I actually couldn’t believe there isn’t hibiscus in this; the smell seems so hibiscus-like!

The taste is actually better than I was led to believe it would be though it’s not really ideal either; it’s like sour blueberry candies. For me that’s a negative; I’m not into blueberry unless it tastes very natural, and to make that claim about this flavor would be a stretch. It’s got such a sharp, tart taste, as well as some rather apple-y notes. I still don’t get how there can’t be hibiscus in this blend – the taste is there! The colour is even indicative of hibiscus; it’s got that bright redish pink hue. To be fair, it is pretty obvious that’s from the beetroot though.

There’s something else that’s off about this blend; for a blend which has ‘cream’ in the name that flavor is very absent. Even looking at the ingredients list, there isn’t really a single ingredient that could be construed as creamy. I also think it should probably be a rule that when you’re trying to make a creamy tea you DON’T include beetroot. Unless, of course, it’s a ‘beetroot and cream’ tea, in which case the beetroot is probably pretty essential to accurately capturing the flavour.

The name of this blend is simply, and painfully, inaccurate. The taste itself could be worse; but there’s lots of room for improvement, and alongside a bad name it’s just a bit of a flop.

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72

I grabbed this newer Tea Desire blend earlier today ‘To Go’ – but also not really To Go ‘cause I stayed and talked for three hours… It’s one I wanted to try a few months ago, but my branch hadn’t received a shipment of it yet so when the associate today recommended it I was pretty on board.

Based on her recommendation I got it iced, and trying it now I definitely think that probably was a more appropriate way to try it than hot would have been. This is a very floral blend; it’s supposed to be rose and while I did taste rose I definitely thought the floral notes seemed a lot more like peony. There was a light, pleasant vegetal taste from the green tea but mostly the black tea came through; it was smooth softer with floral notes of its own; very characteristic of a good ceylon. For those familiar with DAVIDsTEA’s Elderflower Spritz I’d say this one tastes similar, but has a base with more backbone. Same sort of fruitier elderberry notes, too.

About halfway through I started to pick up on sort of weird buttery notes. I actually don’t have a clue where they were coming from, but it was weird and slightly jarring. Buttery flowers is definitely not something I’d normally pick for myself; but I actually didn’t hate it. All in all, I thought this was pretty good and DEFINITELY a well put together tea for what it’s named after: sweeter floral, natural flavours that definitely evoke the image of fairies, nymphs and yes, druids too.

I’d totally revisit this one!

Flavors: Berries, Butter, Floral, Flowers, Rose, Vegetal

Christina / BooksandTea

Was the customer rep that new tea BFF you were talking about?

Roswell Strange

Definitely :P

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64
drank PassionFruit by Tea Desire
1792 tasting notes

Sip down courtesy of my relatives who came to visit. And they seemed to like it, but I won’t be getting more. They’ll be coming back soon so I need to think of something else I should cold brew for them!

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64
drank PassionFruit by Tea Desire
1792 tasting notes

I’m not quite sure what to make of this tisane, yet. I was hoping that this could replace David’s Pink Passionfruit, which I miss, but it’s very different. Even in the large canister it lends a peach undertone more than anything else. Flavour-wise, it’s mega peachy, and very much on the artificial side. No passionfruit flavour, which I’m guessing would have been in the “flavouring” along with the peach, seeing that this tisane comprise dried melon and papaya. I can a taste a little bit of the starchy papaya in the background but it’s ultimately a peach tea. Artificial yet on the old side, as if the peaches are past their prime. It’s odd.

Marzipan

If it doesn’t have to be a tisane but you want a passionfruit tea, try Ma Passion from Nina’s. It’s really great.

Fjellrev

I unfortunately found it to be a little too smoky for my liking, regarding the base, which distracted me too much from enjoying the passionfruit flavour. The search continues!

Marzipan

Smoky? I didn’t get that at all from the Nina’s tea, and I hate smoky teas.

Fjellrev

I do too, but maybe I’m a little more sensitive to it than you? I’m a big baby when it comes to it, even if I can detect the slightest touch of it.

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60
drank Sweet Coco Dream by Tea Desire
1792 tasting notes

Ugh, threw out the rest after finishing the second jug. This really got to me this second time around. Although I can’t specifically taste the weird ingredients like carrot, it just tastes off. There’s a certain dry nuttiness in this that is a little distracting.

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60
drank Sweet Coco Dream by Tea Desire
1792 tasting notes

A coconut blend with pumpkin and carrot? Hmm, I don’t know about that, especially as a cold brew, but I grabbed some anyway because the scent of the dry leaf in the huge canister reminded me a lot of Hawaii Flower from Janet’s Special Teas, which I kind of miss having around.

I luckily don’t get any of the vegetables when it comes to taste. It’s mostly pineapple with a touch of coconut, and not obnoxiously sweet either. It’s refreshing but not amazing, and I think I may even prefer David’s current summer offering, Coconut Ice.

Lastly, I think I need a bigger jug. Now with my mom getting into teas (yay!), the 1 litre waiting for us in the morning doesn’t last very long, and it’s getting rather difficult getting through these 25° C+ days with just two cups of cold brew!

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68

Sipdown! Mixed it with black tea to cut the sweetness. It feels so great finishing up a 50g pouch as opposed to the usual sample sizes I have been over the last while.

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68

It’s about time I visited Tea Desire again. The employee was über chill and honest. She didn’t hesitate to tell me which blends tasted weird to her, and we also talked about all the ones we once really liked but got tired of because we drank the hell out of them (like Irish Cream and Champagne Cassis). She warned me that this one gets super sweet, which I was expecting, and both agreed that perhaps mixing it with a black tea would balance things out.

Here I am sipping things for the first time, and it is indeed very sweet. Kind of reminds me of an even more sugary, yet watered down, rendition of DAVID’s Chocolate Macaroon but with added banana. As this cools, it sweetens up even more, kind of like licorice root-level sweetness.

I’m glad I picked this up, and between experimenting with it further with black bases and the heaviness of the tea itself, I’ll probably go through this rather quickly. But I can already tell that it won’t be a repurchase.

Kittenna

I am so much more likely to buy things if the employee doesn’t sugar coat things. I want their honest opinions – if the new tea sucks, tell me! If there’s a super awesome tea that they think everyone should try – tell me! Haha. Everyone has opinions; if they tell me everything tastes great, they’re lying.

Fjellrev

Exactly, it is so refreshing, and makes you want to give them your business.

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55
drank Strawberry Champagne by Tea Desire
57 tasting notes

The dry leaf smells exactly like some sort of fruity gum. When brewed it’s really true to its name, strawberries and champagne. The taste isn’t vibing with me for some reason. I really want to like it because it’s fresh and fruity (the quality is clearly really great) but the champagne note is throwing me off. I guess they can’t all be winners!

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70
drank Cream Caramel by Tea Desire
1908 tasting notes

The mix of creaminess and sweetness blends surprisingly well with the vegetale flavours of the green tea base. The base by itself would otherwise be pretty mediocre I think but the flavouring really improves matters. I don’t know if i like it enough to buy a large quantity of the blend but the small sample was enjoyable.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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80
drank Raspberry by Tea Desire
296 tasting notes

This smelled really nice! I cold brewed half of my sample from the fabulous Roswell Strange and did not leave enough for a hot version. Duh.
Not to worry! While the hot brew was weak, much to my fault. But the juicy tart raspberry still whispered at me from the cup, as well as the floral that complimented the raspberry super well.
But the cold brew was really great! Nothing was dulled by the temperature. There was fresh raspberry, tart in the best way possible, and ever so slightly sweet. The floral was in the background, but not to be subdued, the bouquet was full, but not in-you-face. The two samples I got from Ros from this company have been pretty good. Two for you Tea Desire! You go Tea Desire!

Flavors: Floral, Raspberry

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83
drank Caramel Pu Erh by Tea Desire
296 tasting notes

Yet another sample from Roswell Strange!

I sometimes get a smooth, creamy caramel note from a few shou puerhs from time to time, so it seems like this is quite the fitting flavoring for this type of tea. There are large happy chunks of caramel in this blend that do make for some interesting sludge in my infuser of choice, but this tea is so delicious, that I don’t mind the cleanup.

The first steeping is so sweet and creamy. The caramel is definitely prominent here. the earthy and damp-mossy puerh was a background flavor to the sweet richness of the caramel. The earthiness of the puerh came out in the second steep. Man, this is a really good tea! It is perfect for those who are trying puerh for the first time, or have had it in the past and though that it just was not for them. Thanks Ros! This was a great sample. It’s really cheap for 50g on their website, so I may just need to grab a some to fill my sweet tooth every once in awhile.

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74

So I wrote about going to the mall like a week ago? Or something close to that I think? I know I talked about having to go get new work shoes or whatever – but I definitely didn’t write about the rest of the trip!

Since I was in the same mall as Tea Desire I had to stop in and get something new to sip on with my shopping. This actually isn’t what I had in mind – Tea Desire recently starting selling a few fruitier green/black mixed blends and I was leaning towards one of them, but my store didn’t have them in stock so I went with this instead. Since I’ve been on a little more of an oolong kick lately as well as trying to figure out this whole “goji immunity” thing I’ve got going on where I can’t seem to taste them, it sounded like a good one to tick off my tried list.

It was pretty good; I wish I’d have written more notes about it when I got home because I know I made several observations when drinking it but now, writing about it, I don’t really remember all of them. Definitely tasted the jasmine; but it was the right amount of it to not taste soapy, chemical or like perfume and to not overtake the flavours of the oolong base. The base, to me, tasted rather roasty with some mineral notes to it which was a touch surprising given what it’s paired with. It worked though, and was both comforting and playfully juxtaposed.

As for the goji – ah, the goji…

I saw so much of it in the dry measured out leaf and I know I very faintly tasted something fruity but I don’t know if it was from the oolong base or the sweetness of the jasmine or actually, for once, the fruit. Whatever it was though was watered down in flavour and non-descript. I think bottom line is that I’m gonna need to try a straight goji tisane to draw any conclusions.

Tea was good though; happy I picked it.

As for the rest of the shopping trip; Tea Desire got bombillas and mate gourds in their most recent stock shipment, and somehow I found myself suckered into buying one. I had no idea how to use it; but it’s gorgeous and if nothing else it gives me something else about tea to learn! Teaware collection is expanding fairly quickly; I’ve hardly bought any actual tea this year, just accessories and stuff.

Also stopped in at the fancy candy store in the mall and picked up some Turkish Delight and fudge, both of which are long gone. I should have got more Turkish Delight though – they make the best I’ve ever had with rosewater. Absolutely amazing, and really affordable. Next time I’m there I guess…

…And it’s after 9PM now. Tre said he’d be home on Monday but he’s not here yet. It’s getting pretty late. No messages from him either; I wonder if I should be at least a little concerned?

Evol Ving Ness

Ah, Turkish Delight! My favourite is the one with pistachios.

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35

Another one from my tea desire advent calender! I find these are easy to take to work as theyre already made into a tea bag, however this one is kinda yuck tasting to me. Don’t know how else to describe it… haha

The tea bag it self smelled nice and orange like. However upon steeping the orange turned into what I would consider an orange cleaner/medicine like smell and the taste was just odd. I mean it wasnt undrinkable but I would NOT drink it again. Also left a weird after tate in my mouth that I need to steep another tea to get rid of.

Flavors: Orange Zest

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20
drank Vanilla Deluxe by Tea Desire
30 tasting notes

YUCK!

Found this in my tea desire advent calendar and its just straight up black tea. I steeped for the 3 to 5 mins, closer to 5 as I’m at work and easily get distracted. However I know it was no more than 5. Sad, this was bitter and gross, no vanilla what so ever. A definite tea fail. I couldn’t even finish the cup :(

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec
EmilyGee

:( I’m hunting for the perfect vanilla tea, and it seems most turn out less than even tolerable. Apparently vanilla is a hard tea flavour to pin down?

Megan Low

I’ve heard that as well! I’m on the hunt for a good one. I picked up about 3 other vanilla teas that I need to test out. I enjoy tazo vanilla rooibos, however its more like appley pie sorta flavour. Hard to describe but its definitely not like vanilla vanilla. But I enjoy that one :)

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85
drank Baked Apple by Tea Desire
30 tasting notes

So upon cleaning out my tea cupboard I found a Tea desire advent calendar tucked into the back. This advent calendar is from last year and I clearly forgot about it. Excited I opened it up and dumped all the packets into my ‘tea sample bowl’.

I didn’t fish too much as this one was on top and caught my eye. Baked apple. I immediately thought of baked apple pie and upon steeping this is exactly what it smelled like! Cinnamon and apple. Mmm so good!Simple but delicious. I feel like nothing over powered the other and this was a really enjoyable cup of tea.

I’m sure this is a holiday tea, and I highly doubt any is left at my local store, so looks like I’ll need to remember and purchase this for next winter.

Flavors: Apple, Cinnamon

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drank Chai Apricot by Tea Desire
1040 tasting notes

GCCTB
I’m confused about how I should be drinking this – I would never add milk to a fruity green tea – I would never drink chai without it…. chose no milk
This is ok – it’s a nice mild fruity chai. The chai spices aren’t too intense – just a hint in the background – not sure that apricot is the fruity part, but for sure some fruit notes coming though. Not spectacular, but a nice tea on a cold morning.

Fjellrev

Depending on how spicy it is, is should work as a chai with milk? I feel weird adding milk to green teas too yet my favourite chai is a green Kashmir one at a cafe in Edmonton. So go figure!

MissB

Oh gosh, you had to mention that Kashmir chai in Edmonton… so incredibly good.

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50
drank Colada by Tea Desire
15575 tasting notes

Had this one To Go back near the end of December when I popped into Tea Desire to check and see if they had any deals on their teaware following Boxing Day – 15% off; still couldn’t justify getting the Dragonfly themed teapot I wanted, though.

It kind of amazed me that after over a year of trying different teas from Tea Desire I still hadn’t had a cup of this one before: after all Pineapple is a favourite flavour of mine, and I am usually super quick to try a Pina Colada tea when a company offers one (although admittedly I’m finding the pairing less exciting than it used to be). So, I finally had it. I actually asked for a small, like I usually get when trying a tea for the first time, but the associate gave a large, on the house – which was very nice and unnecessary.

Sadly a small would have been more than enough; I really wasn’t impressed with this one at all. I thought that though the pineapple was very sharp and piercing in flavour, which was nice, there was this very thick buttery taste that greatly dominated the flavour of the cup and seemed to carry into the mouthfeel as well. Not a nice, confectionary sort of butter taste either, mind you – but a sort of oily, “low quality” movie theatre butter type thing? Like when crazy people get a popcorn with three or more “layers” of butter. It drove me absolutely crazy working at the movie theatre and serving people who got more than two layers of butter on their popcorn. The most I personally ever sold was nine layers – and I could feel the butter oozing out of the bottom of the bag. There is such a thing as too much butter.

Actually though; the way this is buttery really brings me back to the Nina’s Paris version of this (I think it’s called Cancer, if I’m remembering correctly) which had the EXACT SAME butter problem. Pretty sure it’s from the coconut – but not sure why I’ve only experienced it with this one and the Nina one. Rooibos base was also relatively woody in a low quality kind of way.

Glad I tried it and now know pretty definitely that this one just isn’t for me.

Flavors: Butter, Olive Oil, Pineapple

Cameron B.

Ewwwwwww oily butter tea! Blegh.

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