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Spearmint is my favourite kind of mint – hands down.

I’m so happy to have this one in my possession. Right now, I’m using it as a palate cleanser while I switch back and forth between my Peach Bloom tea and Chocolate Orange (both from DT). The Chocolate Orange is really oily and sort of sweet and strong, and the Peach Bloom is very delicate and floral so I don’t want to jump right between the two. This is a very tasty and refreshing transition.

Take a sip of Peach Bloom, take a sip of Absolute Spearmint, take a sip of Chocolate Orange, back to the Spearmint, and repeat…

Plus any excuse to enjoy Spearmint is something I can get on board with.

Also – I just discovered this very neat show called Intelligence a few hours ago and I’m on episode 2 now. It’s basically about a crime solving type dude, but he has a very high class chip in his head that allows him to connect with the internet at all times in his mind. So, he can access all sorts of things that are useful for solving crimes (DMV records, as an example, or building layouts) so long as he’s in internet/satellite range.

Bonus points: The protag’ is played by the highly entertaining, amazingly skilled, and overall very attractive Josh Holloway, who LOST fans will know as Sawyer. Be still my heart; I’m sold!

One more cup and this is gone. I’ll see if I can pawn that cup off on Tre later tonight when he gets home…

I added milk to this cup, but I don’t think it took it exceptionally well. I find this one has an oilyness to it when consumed straight, and that mixed very funnily with the milk. There’s a whole layer of oily scum on the surface of my tea which is offputting; mostly because it translates into the taste. I want this to be a tea that I can relax with – but everytime I drink it I find that it’s… Distracting? And not in a good way.

Plus side – the tea liquor is a really beautiful colour despite the oil drops. The artist in me had to go scour Google Images looking for visual representations. Something like these:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U30zqUrq4NM/T3BI0zatdWI/AAAAAAAAG38/WFU2GtgaJIc/s400/cherry-0810-4-mdn.jpg

http://www.africanafrican.com/PhotoAlbum3/fullsize/cherry-wood.jpg

http://www.art-paints.com/Paints/Marker/Liquimark/Global-Colors/Mahogany/Mahogany.gif

The colour is so relaxing (I would want my dream house to incorporate this colour; either on the bathroom walls or in hardwood, accessories, trim, something…) but why can’t the damn tea be just as relaxing?

Sipdown (201/203)!

VariaTEA sent me a whole bunch of bloom teas – which I’m very excited about. It suddenly came to me that my mason jar is large enough to handle a bloom tea and clear so I finally have some equipment that’ll let me properly enjoy them! Very cool! Seriously, Keychange – this was the gift that keeps on giving.

So, for my first at home bloom tea I went with the one she sent which I was least excited about – just in case it was a giant fail or the mason jar didn’t work for whatever reason. But nope, it turned out really neat and I’m very much enjoying the beauty of the tea. I took a whole bunch of pictures and changed my phone background to a picture of the fully bloomed tea – it’s the first time I’ve switched my background since probably… June? Maybe early July? My previous picture was a very (deliberately) terrible selfie from when I worked at the movie theatre.

The tea itself is ok; I’m finding the flavour a little weak compared to other blooms I’ve experienced and it definitely leans heavily to a floral side. If I had to give a brief flavour description for the package or something along that line it’d like be “Floral black with light peach notes”. But, you know, jazzier because of marketing and all that…

The blooms are supposed to be good for multiple infusions, but I’m not sure yet whether I’ll do another infusion after this one. I’m probably going to decide against it though; I don’t think I’m loving it enough to want another 25 oz. of it. Maybe if I was sharing with someone – but I’m not…

Sipdown (202/204)!

This went completely cold before I got to it; I was too busy enjoying the complexities of White Rhino – and now this blend is falling a little bit short as a cold tea; I think hot would have hit the spot much more. So a little bit of a let down as far as sipdowns go.

Still, the tang is quite strong in this cup (I think it gets stronger the colder the tea is) but the chocolate is totally MIA.

Decently enjoyable as far as samples go; so thank’s VariaTEA – but I think in the long run this will be a forgettable blend.

Thanks Courtney for the sample of this! It’s great to finally check it off the list of Butiki teas I need to try; I’ve been curious about it since Stacy released it. I will say I was really surprised that this one steeps at boiling temperature; I looked up the steep temp. here on Steepster before making it, just to confirm that what you’d written out on the sample bag was in fact accurate (not that I didn’t trust you; but my mind was very conflicted because this is a white).

While prepping this I burnt my hand pretty badly on some Spiderman Alphagetti; damn scalding hot cobwebs! That distracted me for a little while; so this has cooled a fair bit now.

It’s really good though; and I can tell there’s a lot of complexity to this one that I hope I can do justice in my description. Upon initial sip, I taste what I would describe as “Sweet Bread” and cream, sort of like Easter Buns which are like a cross between bread and pastry (but without the fruit bits). I’m not really a fan of Easter Buns because they usually have raisins in them (ew) – but the dough itself is tasty!

Moving on from that initial flavour is more of a subtle fruity/hay combo. Think… Hay, and maybe sweet cherries? The same kind of cherry flavour in pastry – not a medicinal or abundantly “stone fruit” flavour. Hmm. No, on second thought not cherry. It’s something else – but not apricot like the description says. I definitely get a different, separate fruit flavour – and it’s one that’s common to baking, but I can’t place which. There’s also maybe a little bit of malt – and then in the end this goes back to Easter Bun sweet bread.

Definitely tasty and one I’d probably keep around full time for a straight white – but only after clearing out a few more of the Butiki blends I have around which I don’t want to keep stocked full time, such as Irish Cream Cheesecake, Rhubarb Vanilla Ale or Traditional Plum Pudding…

Sipdown (203/205)!

I cold brewed the rest of this because it was really tasty that way. The fact VariaTEA sent me 25g of Creme Brulee (which I adored) was really good incentive to finish off this one quickly because I did not want Birthday Cake, Oh Canada!, and Creme Brulee all stocked at the same time.

It’s not that I don’t like this one, but Creme Brulee is so much better!

But anyway, what a nice way to polish this one off; very sweet and refreshing. I’m happy with the experience I had with this one – but not too sad to see it gone, though.

Sipdown (204/206)!

Stupidly generous VariaTEA’s Birthday package pushed me back up over 200 teas and negated all my sipdown progress, so I’m definitely taking advantage of all the easy sipdowns I have and trying to balance this with drinking older teas too. I’d very much like to be under 200; but it looks like that’s not really in the cards for me. Wah.

Anyway, the sample of this comes from Lala and I’m enjoyed my first cup with breakfast a few days ago, but thought my opinion could have been tainted by the heavily breakfast focused mood I was in. However, I finished this off in a timolino and took it with me yesterday, and throughout the day I thought it tasted just as good as the first cup (and was impressed at how the black base did not outway the other flavours in the blend).

I would get this again over Pancake Breakfast, that’s for sure. However, I still have lots of Pancake Breakfast to get through since that’s the full pouch I bought and this one was only a sample…

In a timolino as a travel companion yesterday. I’m working my way towards a sipdown. Cavocorax’s sample was super generous.

Last night I really got the “cake” out of this one, and much less of the spice. I also got lots of anise/chocolate which made for a delightfully sweet treat. I was a pretty happy camper ;)

First time I’ve ever used this, and it’s odd.

The show I went to last night was a primarily metal concert which is very much outside of my comfort zone (live music in general is outside my comfort zone – but I know nothing about heavy metal as well), but Kristina really wanted to get me out of the house and meeting people, and the metal communities in Saskatoon and Regina are both ones she’s heavily involved in. She knew a few of the people who played last night personally.

Normally, I wouldn’t be able to go to a show because they’re typically in bars and for thirteen more days I’m still underage – but this one was held in this really beautiful and lovely cafe called The Underground Cafe. It had tons of art and paintings on the wall from local artists and a giant fish tank with tons of really neat fish, and the barista who was hosting the event was really friendly and took time to talk to everyone who showed up and introduce himself and it was just a very cool atmosphere in general. It kind of reminded me of Roca House, in Regina.

Kristina and I have already decided we want to come back during the day sometime; I’m interested in trying the vegetarian sandwiches when they have the lunch bar open. The vegetarian menu was pretty extensive (always a plus) – and everything was named after The Beatles or their songs, which was a neat touch.

As far as food/drink goes, I ended up getting a cup of Chocolate Truffle black tea after talking with the Barista and confirming it was loose leaf and such (it was Chocolate Truffle or Blood Orange). Overall, it was pretty good; light black base and a fudgey chocolate taste. I think that they used leaf from Tea Desire because it tasted nearly identical to the identically named blend from Tea Desire – but I can’t be sure which is why I’m posting it here.

http://steepster.com/teas/tea-desire/39005-chocolate-truffle

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch; they certainly have access to Tea Desire blends – and it’s not uncommon for people to label Pu’Erh as “Black” teas. But again, I’m not totally sure which is why I’m posting it here.

The concert itself was really interesting. I’ll admit, I wasn’t really into it until the second band did an amazing cover of The Cat Came Back, which is a really neat song. It was sort of “popularized” by Fred Penner as a folk/children song but it’s much older than that (it’s from 1893). I know this because I studied the origins of the song for an art piece in my advanced art course (I was doing children’s songs/poetry/story inspired Disasterware in the style of Shel Silverstein on plates). Originally it was titled The Cat Came Back: A Nigger Absurdity. It’s very much not a child’s song so it makes sense that metal bands are drawn to this as a cover piece (I know a few who cover it, thanks to Kristina).

After that, I think I enjoyed the concert a lot more, and got a lot more into it (thought not as into it as she got). The other interesting cover they did was a heavy metal cover of a Bob Dylan song…

Also, for those who are curious – here are some really neat pictures of Distasterware, which is the art style I mentioned/one of my favourite art styles. The man who pioneered the art style is ironically more famous for one of the teapots he made in the art style (the first link):

http://thewhitenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SA_hitler-teapot-with-eyes.jpg

http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/charles-krafft-mike-leavitt-pitchfork-pals-1.jpg

https://far4.net/images/products/charles_krafft_kim_jong_ill_teapot_far4.jpg

https://far4.net/images/products/charles_krafft_martha_skateboard_far4.jpg

https://far4.net/images/products/Charles_Krafft_smith_wesson_far4.jpg

http://www.antiquesatoz.com/artatoz/krafft/murder.gif

http://reubenmiller.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/05/krafft_disasterware.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e67/dezeedoesdance/ceramics/charliekrafft5.png

I find the art style just fascinating. Basically, it’s defined as: Ceramic art using traditional ceramic decorative styles to capture modern disasters or horrific images. Krafft also uses a technique called “Spone” where he turns human bone remains into ceramics.

Apologies for the art geek out.

EDIT: I forgot the best/worst part of the fishtank! There was a dead fish floating in the corner of the tank the whole time we were there (five fucking hours) – and the barista was freaking out because he had just bought it for the tank; he even crawled on to the table (in the weirdest position) to get a better look – like, while we were eating there. And then, halfway through the show all the snails from the bottom of the tank gathered near the dead fish and by the end of the show this dead fish was covered in about four or five snails.

I just couldn’t help but think how “metal” the whole thing was.

This is the other other tea I had as a latte in store yesterday (I was really early meeting her so I had plenty of time to kill and I felt bad just sitting in the store; which was the perfect excuse for more tea!). It was a strategic choice because I knew I’d need the energy to make it through the metal concert I was going to see later in the evening.

I have to say, I didn’t enjoy this one as a latte as much as I thought I would. Basically, the taste was the same as it is straight (I guess the chocolate is pretty milky) but just with a really thick and creamy mouthfeel.

So, it wasn’t bad just not mind blowing either.