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This sipdown brings me back down to 40! I still want to sip down a few more things before I’d even begin to consider ordering anything anywhere, like Bayswater. Chocolate Mint was nothing spectacular. Average chocolate mint tea.

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.

Ugh, this one isn’t even listed on the document they have provided on their Facebook page, and I’m not even sure if they had a description of it on the poster in the store, as I recall that the sample vial had the name hand-written on it, indicating that it’s newer or at least not regularly offered. Next time I go back, I’ll check and if there’s any info, I’ll edit the information.

I ordered this last time I was there, and it was a miss. I don’t even know what was in here, but I do recall getting mostly clove, followed by cinnamon. Maybe a touch of nutmeg in the far background? Because of their stupid French press system which I’ve whined about in the past, it gets rather bitter while you’re drinking it there. The second round was rather flavourless already. Both the base and the spices were rather weak. I asked for some 2% milk on the side, and all that did was drown out the little flavour that there was even more.

Actually, to be honest, drinking tea in store is a bit of a ripoff. A small French press of tea ends up costing nearly $5. Sure you get free water refills, but it’s still expensive for what you get. Even if you drink 2-3 pots worth, their French press setup means that your first pot is usually astringent and bitter—and the flavouring is drowned out as a result—whereas the subsequent pots are weak. Sigh. I’d honestly rather just spent that money on a brilliant chai at Remedy, or for a couple bucks less, could get a cup of loose tea at Remedy, where they have a great selection of teas like Sloane, Løv, Den’s, Kusmi, etc (far too many to remember!).

Unfortunately, one of my friends only ever wants to hang out here, and when I suggested Remedy (or something else, because of course I wouldn’t expect people to want to only ever go there either, lest that would make me a hypocrite), she said she didn’t like it because it’s always so busy and noisier than Steeps. She also only ever orders the same tea from Steeps all over and over again, and is there so often (almost every single day, according to an employee) that they already know as soon as she walks in, which tea she wants. I mean, that’s her choice and all, we all have different tastes, but it’s making me spend money on tea that not even that great, you know?

I mean, for the price that they charge for bitter leaves, I’d sooner just spend an extra few dollars and buy a tin of whatever tea that I can steep at home properly and also get 20+ more cups.

I had this a while back when I was hanging out at Steeps with a friend. The dry leaf smells very heavy on the caramel. So sweet!

The main problem I have with drinking tea at Steeps, however, is the fact that they steep/serve it in french presses. They were out of their smaller sizes so the employee offered to serve it to me in one of their larger pots but still charge me for a small one. He even added quite a bit of leaf, the same amount one would use when ordering a large pot it seemed, to it was a great deal. He still seemed to overleaf, however. The leaves just continue to hang out in the pot until you finish the pot, and because it was a large pot, the tea got quite strong and bitter. So round one had barely any caramel flavour but had tons of astringency.

Steeps allows you to get unlimited refills so round two was already better. The caramel came through more, so I was able to detect those creamy caramel notes without the astringency that was running rampant before.

Third round was already watered down. The leaves lost more of the flavouring but was still able to pick up on a distinct caramel note. The second steep won out in terms of balance of flavours. Of course, I was completely waterlogged for the rest of the night and stopped there.

This is one I’d consider buying some for home because I’m curious how it would do if steeped properly.

It’s so hard to log onto Steepster on workdays. My day is just, poof, done between the shift itself commuting, getting ready, then having to do some domestic duties once I come back home before having to get ready for bed.

I bought this during their sale last month, loved the smell of it in the store, but once I got it home in the tin, I was initially a little confused. Wait. This is supposed to be vanilla and coconut, right? Then why does this smell like berries and cream? Maybe the sales associate put the wrong one in the tin? I had to wait for a while in order to investigate (that is, go back to the store and sniff their sample vials again). Sure enough, once I did, this really is the right one. The label on the tin has no mention of fruits, yet, when you go into the store, their little poster highlighting the notes/ingredients of each tea mentions that there’s cherry in here. Ohh, now that makes sense.

They’re so bad for including all the notes and ingredients, it seems, and it doesn’t help that they took down their site. Ok, at least their Facebook site still has a link to the info they have on their little poster in-store.

The taste of the tea is quite delicious. Light base with cherry in the forefront. It tastes like dried cherries and not at all cough syrupy. A touch of vanilla but I’m not getting any coconut in here. There are also cute little rosebuds here and there but I’m getting no flavour out of them.

This is even better when you let this cool down to room temperature. It’s fruitier and overall more flavourful. I should try it cold brewed sometime although I’m a little worried that the base may go weird.

First tea I’ve bought in a while it seems. I took advantage of their 40% off sale. Grabbed a glass Perfect Mug and 100g of this in the green tins that were also on sale. Excuse my absence, as I’ve been quite busy with my new job! Nothing too exciting since it’s only a retail management position, but it’s better than nothing. It’s a little difficult adjusting to the schedule since it’s always all over the place. Hard to establish a routine of any sorts, whether something as crucial as working out at the gym (which is also difficult because I have blisters on my feetz) or as simple as sitting and enjoying a tea. There isn’t a kettle there, so I’ve been going without tea for a while, but today, I’m going to break the dry spell and take a glass Contigo full of cold brewed Luscious Watermelon (and a couple shots of club soda for maximum effervescence).

Double sipdown along with Pumpkin Spice! I threw the rest of both together into a jug, cold brewed, and used for cinnamon bun smoothies for a few days. I really loved this at first. So gingery, like drinking ginger beer, but then I kind of got tired of it after a while. Seems to be the case with most teas you buy larger quantities of, eh?

I sipped this down days ago along with the rest of my Ginger Beer. Cold brewed in a cinnamon bun protein smoothie. It was quite good when fresh but lost a lot of its sparkle over the last half year.

What a delectable chocolate orange tea. More orange than chocolate, plus the base is smooth and not too astringent. My favourite chocolate orange tea to date.

I’ve been drinking orange juice lately (bought it for blueberry tarts which were devoured in a couple days) so especially after that refresher, the pulp-laden orange juice makes this taste like candy. It’s quite sweet in comparison and doesn’t have the bite that zest/peel can. The dry leaf itself doesn’t have that much orange peel in the mix. I’ve had this a few times now and every time I made a big mug of this, out of every 4-5g of tea, I’d maybe see one little piece of dried peel drop into the infuser basket. Sometimes, not always.

The chocolate is on the semi-sweet side. Realistic and not artificial or waxy at all, although I would have liked a little bit more. Overall, I can see myself grabbing up more of this.

I know I said that DAVIDs Pumpkin Spice made the best smoothie ever but this is a close contender. For two days in a row, I’ve had:

200ml Silk unsweetened coconut milk
200ml Ginger Beer cold brew
50g Syntha-6 cinnamon bun protein powder
100g frozen banana
65g frozen mixed berries

That cinnamon bun protein and Ginger Beer combination is the bomb. This tisane is ultra flavourful so it really shines through in the smoothie. It isn’t buried by the frozen fruits. My breakfast was like liquid gingerbread smothered in berries. I have one more round left of Ginger Beer so I’ll definitely consume it this way.