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Decided to bust open the matcha package sent to me by Roswell Strange. Thanks so so much! You sent a ton for me to try, and I can’t wait to put together my rlt order.

I went with this one first because it seems to be a flavour associated with spring and summer, and although it feels anything unlike it outside, I’m still desperate to bring it about. This had an odd smell in the bag—not exactly chemically, but just…different. There was watermelon, but also something else. Actually, it sort of smelled as though a bottle of perfume had “turned”, and although that’s not the most appetizing description, it nonetheless stands. Not to be deterred though, I whipped it up in some milk. And the taste was definitely creamy watermelon, although like others have said it’s more of a candied watermelon than an authentic one. It tasted fine, but I found the whole thing to be a bit underwhelming. That being said, I downed the glass like it was no one’s business, and will have not a single problem either finishing off the sample or sending the last serving onto someone else who’s curious.
Bottom line: a good flavored matcha, although not my favourite.

Oh yeah, sipdown, baby!!

And by sip down, I mean that I had a delicious cup with my breakfast this morning, and then made a cup for my future sister in law when she came over. Then she asked if I could send her home with some and I, um, gave her the rest of the tin because why not?

Grandma, I will have your pumpkin pie again come fall, but as for now, make way for the spring teas! besides, I have finally caved and am adding swap samples to my virtual cupboard now, and it’s getting a little out of control. I still haven’t added everything!

I slept really well last night, but woke up with a resounding headache. Now that I’ve had my first cup of tea though, it isn’t nearly as bad. For some reason, I’d been craving the concept of this tea for the last few days, so dug this out of the suitcase of tea sil very generously sent me.

This tea is delicious. I don’t even know that I’d necessarily identify it as a chocolate orange tea, although that might be because I put in a bit too much sugar for the orange to really taste orangey, but it was still a creamy, slightly citrusy and lightly chocolate cup. I typically don’t like chocolate in tea because I find it to taste obnoxious, but that isn’t the case here. As usual, the flavouring was subtle but also creamy and delicious, and I love the thickness of the assam base. Way to go!

I have enough left for another small cup, and will be happy to polish that off. Thanks again, sil!

I have no idea what happened this morning, but this is in the running for the most perfect cup of tea ever made. It was oozing, overflowing, positively dripping with caramel vanilla goodness, and had a thick, buttery quality underlying the whole composition that made me want to snap my tongue greedily against the roof of my mouth. I also steeped for only three minutes and not four, and perhaps that’s where the magic happened? I should have known better than to doubt Stacy’s steeping instructions.

A computer guru is coming to try and remedy my computer problems this morning, and you know what else I’m going to get him to do? tell me who this recent tea box is from and help me identify each tea! someone sent me a box! I’ll find out who it is soon enough, but just in case it was you, and you used frilly-edged paper for labels, identify yourself at once! :)

Because I was a bit disappointed with the almond buscotti tea I’d had earlier, I decided to whip myself up some matcha milk before heading off to work. I’m getting close to a sip down on this one! It tasted delicious and buttery, although again, in the wake of the banana and cream matcha, I don’t quite know if it really stands a chance in featuring in my next order. This cup was also slightly tarnished by the fact that my magic bullet blends such that I get all this foam that settles at the bottom of the glass, and I don’t like it because it kind of has this dry mouth feel. If I blend for longer, this doesn’t make it go away, so I think I’ll just resign myself to the fact that there’ll be a bit of flavoured foam at the bottom of each glass that I shouldn’t try and sip because I won’t like it. Ah well, you can’t have it all can you?
Delicious treat. Thanks so much, Courtney!

So I think I must come to the most unfortunate conclusion that green tea simply isn’t for me, at least the majority of the time. But I have yet to taste a green tea that I don’t have to force myself to finish, and sadly this was no exception.
This sample came to me from VariaTea, who very thoughtfully combed my wish list and sent me like everything on it. I had wanted to try this for a long time, because other people who also weren’t huge green tea fans were liking it. Alas, I got a hint of delicious marzipan followed by a green base that kind of drowned out any enjoyment I could get from the almond flavouring. I thought of adding some sugar to it, and might just do that with my next cup to see if I can’t tame the base a bit, but we’ll see.

Thanks again, variaTea!

Oh man. I was craving this matcha like there was no tomorrow, and rushed to make it as soon as I got home. There is no doubt that I am going to be placing an order for this. The only question is which other flavours will I be ordering? I know I said this before, and I’ll say it again—I never thought I’d taste banana milk. Certainly you can get banana milkshakes (although to be honest, I find them to be few and far between; there aren’t nearly enough banana flavoured things in the world), but banana milk, plain and unadulterated in all its banana glory? Unheard of.

So yes. I was in nomville. And all was right with the world.

ETA: spellcheck suggested that nomville wasn’t a word. The nerve!
ETA 2: Thank you, Courtney!

I thought today would never end. I enjoyed my carry mug full of this tea today; it’s especially good for days when you’re not particularly in the mood for tea, which believe it or not can happen sometimes. i am now incredibly thirsty though, and am having some mad cravings for some banana and cream matcha. Mmm. In the meantime, enjoyed this tea. I like it either hot or very cold—nothing in between or else it takes on this odd artificially sweet flavour. Oh, and I have to say that my carry mug is scary good at retaining heat—I made my tea at 7:30 this morning, and it was still quite hot at like 2:30 this afternoon.

I woke up in a fairly bad mood this morning: my computer problems still haven’t been solved (although a solution is in the works), and I woke up to learn that I’d been locked out of my Gmail account because of some “suspicious activity”, but finally managed to prove my identity and logged back in. So far, no spam seems to have been generated from my address, but I suppose I’ll know soon enough.

So I felt as though only an unflavoured black would do. Breakfast tea, no deep thoughts. This seemed to fit the bill. I liked some sips more than others. Sometimes I got that hint of cardboard, but mostly it was a rather complex but undemanding cup of tea. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with 8 oz of it though, so if anyone wants some, do let me know. All in all, a great breakfast tea, although if you don’t like Darjeeling, if might keep away from it since it’s rather prominent in the taste.

This matcha sample came to me via the ever lovely and generous sil, who blessed me with a small suitcase of tea just because she’s lovely.

I have to say, however, that out of all the three flavoured matchas I’ve tried, I like this one the least. And I don’t even dislike it at all, actually. I found it to be a thick, creamy cup of deliciousness that I inhaled in under two minutes. But it was just rather nondescript. Creamy and full, for sure, but not distinctly cheesecake or really distinctly anything else for that matter. Absolutely worth a try, and I can see why a lot of people would like this one, but for me, it takes a back seat to banana and cream, and French butter cookie. Especially banana and cream, my gosh!

Thanks again, sil!