Roswell Strange Send Message

#ProjectTeaWall

I avoided this one for the longest time because it’s marketed as a Chai, and I typically don’t enjoy Chai spices – but through working at DT I’ve realized that it actually really only has the one spice: cinnamon. I feel like the name is pretty misleading, since that’s the case, and I can’t help but wonder how many other people have avoided it for the reason I did so long…

It is CRAZY popular though; like to the degree that Pumpkin Chai or Santa’s Secret are where people will come in on a VERY regular basis and buy 200g+ quantities. So, I knew that I definitely needed to see what the hype was about.

Honestly; I kind of liked it. Really my only issue was that it comes off rather sweet/strong, but I’m sure that slightly underleafing would fix that problem for me. It tastes much like how I remember Hot Lips tasted; really robust cinnamon candies. Like the cinnamon hearts you get at Valentine’s day, or Red Hots.

If you like cinnamon, this is the cup of tea you want/need!

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Sipdown (159)!

So, my dental claim came back from my root canal which means I’m not super broke/just scraping by right now! Hooray! That’s actually really exciting.

Since it finally came through, I decided to grab the things from DAVIDsTEA that I wanted to buy on the staff shopping day but didn’t have money for – I only got my normal discount instead of the staff shopping day discount, but since they were things I wanted anyway it was fine. So I ended up leaving with this lovely list of stuff…

- 100g Magic Dragon
- 100g Coco Colada
- 100g Melon Drop
- 50g Guava Cadabra (Restock)
- 50g Bear Trap
- 50g Movie Night (Restock)
- Gravity Steeper

As you can see, my herbal options at home were obviously lacking a lot. I go through them so fast because I do pitchers of cold brews two or three times a week though, so having lots on hand is smart.

This is one I’m actually very happy to see go though; I never intended to get 100g of it in the first place – when my old roommate Tre (not the current Trey) bought it for me I had asked for 20g because I just wanted to cold brew a pitcher to revisit, and then he showed up with a 100g tin which was just… tons.

I’m really not the world’s biggest fan in the first place either; I find it MUCH too tart. In fact, even this last cold brew was so tart that I couldn’t finish it and hand to dump out most of it. I see the appeal, don’t get me wrong, but the hibiscus is just too heavy handed for me to personally enjoy it. At least, now, the tin is being filled with something I’ll like much better. So it’s a better use of tin space.

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Advent Calendar Day Ten

Hmm; don’t know that I like this one a whole lot. I’m drinking it currently, after having now gotten home from my DAVIDsTEA shift; I didn’t bring anything from home in with me today because I knew it would be really busy this weekend and it would just be easier to drink my own teas at home…

A lot of aspects of this blend aren’t working for me though, to be honest. The biggest is just that it’s quite bitter though – even with 80 degree water and a short three minute infusion. I mean, that’s pretty safe parameters for greens typically and just, no. However, aside from that I just don’t enjoy the sencha base and for whatever reason the orange tastes rather artificial/perfumey which is especially odd given that I’ve never had an issue with any of DF’s other orange teas.

The aspect that does work is the gingerbread though; it’s sweet while still having a bit of that spicy kick in the finish, and there are these nice well rounded molasses and brown sugar notes wrapped up in the overall gingerbread flavour. So that part does come out nicely. It’s just a shame I don’t love it as a whole.

This is a queued tasting note.

Had this one cold brewed the other day, but I was so tired when I drank it that I mostly did so without any real conscious thought. The only thing I wrote down for notes was “pleasant fruit and Gaga”. At least I remember enough to know the last part of that statement is a reference to the fact I was listening to this song while drinking it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB94lvJbETE&index=1&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

Hooray! The regional group buy I bought from LP on Black Friday is here, and I’m cracking into it today before I have to head off to DAVIDsTEA for work…

I’m starting with the black Nepalese tea because that’s the one I was most excited about; I have a particular fascination for Nepalese teas more than any other region/country so these were the teas I was most eager to get my hands on. I just love everything I know about the country; and the idea that the terroir is so similar to India’s really intrigues me as well because I do enjoy Indian black tea a lot.

I’ve even been off and on planning with a farm down in Nepal to come and work for them for a couple weeks during harvesting season – the only thing stopping that from happening, at this point, is just the money/travel costs. Someday, though!

I’m really enjoying this one though; the flavour is sort of medium bodied on the cusp of a full bodied flavour with a nice briskness to it. It finishes very cleanly, as well, with a honey sweetness. As far as body flavour goes, I definitely feel like the primary notes coming through are malt and raisin, with maybe a bit of a rye bread sort of mild undertone. There’s also something very autumnal about it; sort of the autumn leaf pile sort of flavour. As it cools down some of that fruity flavour described by the company comes though, but I’d argue more of a red fruit note than a stonefruit.

It’s nice! Very smooth, and clean. That keeps in line with the other Nepali black teas I’ve tried; all have had very clean profiles and medium(ish) bodied flavours. I’ve yet to try a Nepali green/white from what I can remember, so I’m really curious for those experiences next! I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with this group buy…

Advent Calendar Day Nine

Drinking this one in the evening at my mother’s house – I’m crashing here tonight so I can spend some extra time with my siblings. ‘Cause family, and all that; also it’s the first evening I’ve had to myself (between the two jobs) in over a week so I wanted to do something with it.

I was a little bummed to see today’s tea was another EG variant; though I do like the idea of today’s form better than the one earlier in the month that was Bergamot & Orange. Brewed up, I think that I like the flavour roughly the same amount though even if this one sounded better to me. However, that said, that doesn’t mean I’m tasting the same thing either. I mean, obviously the bergamot is something that’s in common – but I think this is something nice, smooth and maybe a little bit softer too because of the Yin Zhen? Like an “Earl Grey Light”? Though, it doesn’t lose nuance because there’s still gentle layers of floral flavour, hay, and citrus. It’s just not “slap you in the face” bold, either.

So, another one which was a nice surprise and pretty solid overall.

Advent Calendar Day Eight

I don’t think I’d ever heard of this one prior to seeing it in the calendar today, and I’m sort of bummed about that because it sounds really interesting/like a great flavour pairing. The dry leaf smelled great too; very fresh and fruity! Lots of red currant aroma.

The flavour is so lovely; I was definitely expecting to taste more red currant just based on the aroma but I think it’s more strongly raspberry than anything else with some lighter red fruit supporting notes, such as red currant, strawberry, and just a trickle of cherry. The caramel in the blend is kind of interesting and weird; it just makes the cup a little sweeter overall and sort of exaggerates this borderline jammy like quality to the raspberry. However, that said, in the finish of the sip the caramel becomes more than just a sweetener and is more recognizable as its own distinct taste.

I like this one, and it’s one that I’d absolutely be intrigued enough by to get more of the play around with/experiment with. I can see it working so many different ways: iced, latte, syrup, in sugar cookies…

Yum!

Advent Calendar Day Seven

Slept in a little bit this morning and didn’t get to make my advent tea for the ride to work, so instead I drank it at work today. Second job, that is – at DAVIDsTEA.

I had started steeping it when I got pulled away from my tea to help a customer so instead of the three minute long steep like I’d intended it got closer to thirteen minutes. Amazingly, and completely to my surprise, it didn’t taste even a little bitter! In fact, it was super silky smooth with really nice rich vanilla and almond/marzipan notes that comprised the body. The top note was a bit fruitier; sort of apple-y? And then the finish had hints of cinnamon and green tea. It was a really, really solid tea! And I’m especially surprised by how well it held up to that long infusion overall.

When I make teas at work, I always share them with my coworkers on shift as well because that’s just how I am – if I’m having some, then you can too! The more the merrier; and sharing good tea is a great feeling. So, when my coworker Leah tried this one today I was really, really happy that she proclaimed this was “the best tea I’ve brought yet”, and that includes some straight stuff from What-Cha (black tea, I think), some RLT matcha, and the odd flavoured tea from other companies. So, general consensus between everyone was that this was/is awesome!

Advent Calendar Day Six

I think this is the simplest tea in the calendar thus far; it’s essentially a more orange-y Earl Grey… which is already sort of orange flavoured/citrus flavoured?

As weird and basic as this seemed to be to me, it was fascinating though because as much as bergamot is just citrus itself I could actually taste a clear difference between the bergamot oil and the added orange and I didn’t expect to be able to. Definitely a really pleasant cup, and very smooth overall. Not something I’d think about getting in the future because even if I can taste a difference between the citrus notes it’s still quite basic and I’ve got plenty of Earl Grey type blends on hand.

I do like that the tea basically went; “You’re gonna judge me before trying me? Well fuck you, prepare to be surprised!”. It was a nice thing, in this case, to be proven wrong.

So, just because I’ve been SUPER busy and tired lately doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening to music lately and enjoying tea along side it. Maybe a little less frequently though?

I was drinking Coco Colada the other night on shift while we were closing up the store for the night because I was just sort of tired from trying new things throughout the day and just wanted something I was familiar with, and man did I have a craving for pineapple so this is what I went with…

It still bums me out that this has hibiscus in it because that means you can’t latte it, and the flavour is actually both bright and sweet from the pineapple and really creamy for the coconut so it’s one of those teas that FEELS like it should make a killer latter. But alas it’d curdle and get gross. But yeah; sweet, juicy and tropical with some killer Pina Colada vibes. It’s a good tea; and one I wouldn’t mind stocking up on for at home if I were to finish off a tin and create space for it in my cupboard. No complaints other than the latte thing…

Here’s what I was listening to while drinking it/closing the store:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snfw0gFRQWo&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=1

I had to ask my coworker for the name of the song as she was picking the music. We seem to have similar tastes though, which is really nice because it means she’s introduced me to a few really cool songs now. It was a little odd not putting together my own tea/song pairing though, although this worked nicely because the combo of the upbeat yet chill beat and the tropical, relaxing profile of the tea worked well. You have to focus on the beat/music and not the lyrics though – the lyrics don’t match, imo.

Also, who doesn’t love a song with a kazoo part? No one, that’s who.

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.