Vanilla Matcha

Ingredients: Coconut nectar, matcha green tea, natural vanilla flavouring

I think that this is an excellent way to introduce someone gently in to the world of matcha.

It is incredibly mild; a very gentle flavour of matcha, sweetened slightly with some creamy hint of vanilla.
I was expecting something rather potent, in both the matcha and vanilla categories, but was pleasantly surprised.

The flavour is almost spot-on to matcha pocky!


I think that next time I will be using a little bit more powder so I can get more flavour.
It's a bit bland in a regular serving for someone who really enjoys regular matcha.


Short and sweet.
I was able to write a hot tea review because I woke up insanely early, so it is not yet blistering hot outside.
I've been sticking mostly to water the last two weeks.

I promise to try harder. I have some birthday money to spend on some o DT's new iced tea flavours.
I'm pretty excited for electric lemonade!

Happy Steeping,

~K

Vanilla Orchid

trip selfie

Woop woop! I'm baaaaack!

Sorry this took so long to do. My jet lag was deadly this go 'round, and my trip was full of first world problems that left me feeling exhausted.
And in my first week back, I had to call in sick because I swear I was gonna die. Protip, I'm writing this review sick and sore. So pictures are not gonna happen.

So I did a tea review. Because oolong tea is always a treat, and I got lots of tea stuff for Christmas so I felt like using it.

Today's review is Vanilla Orchid by DavidsTea. I've never had this tea before, so I'm pretty excited.

This tea smells divine. Like someone slapped me in the face with vanilla pre-steeping, then after it was a beautiful not subtle yet not overbearing level.

It's a nice tea. The first sip at first made me go "whoops no 'nilla taste." Then I let it sit and I began to taste it more.

Tis good. Steep at least twice!

Now off to bed.

Lavender Faery Tea

This 'wine' is normally supposed to be for the first of February, but screw that I wanted to match it up with the Spring Equinox (which is on March 20th). Also, it's a fucking tea not a wine because fucking hell this isn't even close to a wine. Any people upset by the change can come yell at me I guess.

Let's usher in Spring, shall we!







Lavender Faery Wine Tea for Imbolc
(better late than never, Sort of)

You can use the recipe I used as inspiration, which I found here. You can totally use the one here, that this one was based on. Or mine, which is below.

• 1 cup of milk per serving. (Soy/almond/coconut optional)
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract (Optional. I used about the same amount of vanilla agave)
• 2 scoops of lavender tea
• Lavender buds or cinnamon (I used cinnamon)

Warm a cup milk on the stove (Or microwave, who am I to judge); be careful not to burn it. It will taste like shit if you do. 
Once warmed, steep the tea, honey, and vanilla extract (or whatever you used).
Serve in a teacup and sprinkle lavender buds or cinnamon on top. 

No dogs. We cannot share.

Okay, so if you like warm milk and honey you will like this. Because that's exactly what it tastes like.  You can sorta taste the lavender, and sorta taste the cinnamon, but it's fairly yummy. It left me relaxed, warm and happy. Like Spring does.

Feeling optimistic about the warmth, and bitter about the cold,

Laura

Orange Blossom

Orange Blossom from DavidsTea

 Ingredients: Rooibos, currants, orange peel, orange blossoms, vanilla pieces, marigold blossoms, safflower petals, artificial flavouring 

I steeped this for five (maybe six, I got slightly distracted) minutes in my steeper from DT, which I use for practically all of my steeping. I'm a creature of habit, what can I say?

This is one awesome rooibos. I really love it. Super creamy vanilla with a punch of orange peel and blossom (two very different things, let me tell you), but never overpowering the rooibos. I am just in love with how all of the individual flavours shine, while coming together to make something so delicious. 

Now, it could be that I am a sucker for neroli (orange blossoms) ever since I started working with the essential oil as a massage therapist, but damn! I really really like this. I have stopped writing about a million times because I can't put my damn cup down!

I think that's all you need to know.

I'm going to go melt into my cup of nirvana now.

I know shit about photography.
Stop trying to be fancy, Kayla

Happy Steeping,

~K

PS. Sorry I didn't say anything funny... or write very much... or... screw it, who cares?! This tea speaks for itself *GLUG GLUG GLUG*
PPS I just got bitten for not sharing this delicious tea. birds are dicks

Raspberry Vanilla Rooibos

Raspberry Vanilla Rooibos from TeaDesire

Ingredients: Redbush Tea, raspberry pieces, raspberry-vanilla flavour and taste


This tea has a little bit of everything I love. Vanilla, raspberry, and tea!! So, it was obvious that I had to try it.

I definitely recommend a high steeping time for this tea (even longer than five minutes) to get the full potential of the flavour. And it is a pretty awesome flavour.

Judging by the smell, I was expecting it to taste mostly of flavouring and gunk, but no. The flavour high-note is the natural woody-ness of the rooibos. You definitely still taste the creamy raspberry flavouring, but the tea is the centre-piece of the flavour, which is always excellent.
And vanilla just works with rooibos!

If you are a rooibos fan, it is definitely worth giving a try. 

 The only downside is that the raspberry and vanilla totally could have been natural and made this tea taste even better. More raspberry pieces, please!


Happy Steeping,

~K

Stormy Night

Stormy Night from DavidsTea

Ingredients: Organic: Black tea, chocolate (cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, ground vanilla bean, ancho chile, nutmeg, Ceylong cinnamon, salt, allspice, clove, chipotle chile), cinnamon, coconut, vanilla. With natural vanilla flavouring. Contains dairy.

Yowza. That is a big space taken up for ingredients. Granted, most of it is for what is in the chocolate, which makes me curious to taste a piece. But it's an organic tea!

Posting early for Halloween... yay!! 

I chose this tea because I'm writing and tasting it for the first time on Halloween, and Davids was actually advertising it as a Halloween special kind of deal (which ended yesterday, even though TODAY is halloween... uhhhhh okay, whatever. ) 
I am sipping away at the first tea with chocolate I have ever tried while waiting for trick-or-treaters to take away all my precious candy...

Looks kinda yucky when it's steeping. Halloween like???

Stormy Night. When the little blurb says "hotter than an inferno", well.... not really.
Many ingredients, simple flavour. I honestly was not expecting it.

It DOES say that the tea is smooth, and it certainly is!! Very smooth cinnamon, with (too much) coconut, but the chocolate you really have to focus on to even get a hint of flavour of on your tongue. And my spoonful had a lot of freakin' chocolate in it!!
But. I really do have a thing for a super smooth cinnamon flavour. I just wish there was less coconut (it works, but there is just SOOO much). Almost a weird... cider-y quality to it. Very different from anything else I've ever tried.

~Off topic a bit... Is anyone else sick of all the COCONUT in nearly every one of DavidsTea's teas?! PLEASE. STOP. We don't want it!!~

Ahem.

To conclude... This tea has it's good qualities, but it is weak, so definitely be generous when you scoop. And if you don't like coconut, RUN. RUN AWAY!
It's not anything special to me, so I'll just stick with what I have and be done with it after... Maybe adding some cinnamon would help.

It's not a very Halloween-y tea... but there you have it.


Happy Steeping!
And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

~K

Sweet Indulgence: Organic Cream of Earl Grey

Cream of Earl Grey

So today I decided to start doing my Sweet Indulgence collection.

Apple Tarte Tatin

The idea came to me when my mum and I were making our Apple Tarte Tatin in a cast iron skillet [found in this cookbook***]. I wanted a tea that would be really nice with a dessert, that I hadn't reviewed yet, and that wouldn't conflict with the Tarte Tatin.
So I picked the Organic Cream of Earl Grey.

Keep in mind I only have the sampler pack. LUCKILY it is enough for two pots of tea (at least for Cream of EG)! So I put 1 tbsp to a 4 cup pot, and steeped for about 5 minutes. It's medium caffeine, so not bedtime safe!




I tried it black, with milk, with sugar, and then with milk and sugar.  I like it either black or with milk and sugar.
Just milk, and just sugar brought out a little bitterness in the tea. It was still good, just not as.
With milk AND sugar, it did kinda kill the bergamot flavor (you could still taste it, just not as strong). Now, you must be wondering why I liked it this way as well as black! I liked it because it was sweet and creamy and reminded me of drinking tea as a child. It tasted like an Earl Grey you'd give to a kid who wanted to try it.

Black it tasted like you mixed DavidsTea's Pure Vanilla and Early Grey together. AKA, delicious. And, as I suspected, it doesn't fight with the Tarte!
You get all the notes of a regular Earl Grey, just a little more mellow, along with some creamy notes of vanilla. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every cup.

I'm not 100% sure I'd buy it though. I have Pure Vanilla and I have regular Earl Grey...I'm going to try mixing them, to see if I get a similar flavor. If I do, then I won't buy it.

If you have neither Pure Vanilla and/or regular Earl Grey, then it's worth it to get this. Same if you have no intent of using Pure Vanilla as a stand alone tea, or mixed with others. Weight your options, and weight your pocketbooks. Tea can be very expensive.

It's a nice tea and any Earl Grey lover will enjoy.


Skål and happy creating!

-Laura


IF YOU HAVE ANY TEA YOU WOULD LIKE REVIEWED, LEAVE A COMMENT AND WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.

***I really don't recommend this cookbook. It can be very vague. The Tarte Tatin came out to taste DELICIOUS but, it doesn't look great once you flip it.

Sweet Indulgence: Glitter and Gold

v

Let me preface by saying Blogspot was being a dick when
it came to photo placement. I had to settle on where they are right now.
If anyone has any tips, please leave them in the comments.

Ah, Glitter and Gold. This was my first time having this tea, and it was a fairly good pot.

Because the instructions say 1.25 tsp per cup, and I was making a 4 cup pot, I used about .75 tbsp for my pot.
Next time, I'll just go with a full tablespoon, see how it tastes and if that .25 tbsp makes any difference.
Then I steeped it for approximately 5 minutes. Before steeping, it smells like vanilla candy, with a hint of clove.

Once steeped, you can absolutely smell the tea leaves.

Also, you can see a very slight glitter/iridescence from the gold sugar candy that's in it once it's brewed. Especially once I got to the very end of the pot.
Or at least I could. Maybe I'm crazy though.

Let me know in the comments if you can see it to? Verify my sani-tea.

Ha. Haha.
DO YOU SEE THE PUN? DID YOU LAUGH?


Aaaaaand back to the review! 
I tasted this tea four ways: Black, with milk**, with milk and sugar***, and with just sugar.

When it was black, it definitely tasted a little like it smelled, but the tea really did come to the forefront. It was nice, but it felt like it was missing something. Almost misleading.

With just milk, it just kind of made it bland. It was okay, but just...blah and boring. When it was milk and

The best, for me, was when I just added some sugar in (per 4 cup pot it was about 1 tsp). It added that extra sweetness it was missing, while not killing off any of the flavors.

You could almost compare it to a very mild version of Sugar and Spice.

In the end, I really did enjoy the tea. I really enjoyed an iridescent cup of tea, but I prefer Sugar and Spice. And for that reason, I'm not going to get any more Glitter and Gold once my sampler runs out. 

sugar it was basically boring but sweeter.


BONUS MULTI REVIEW:

As promised, here are the mini-reviews for the free tea I got from the Welcome Wagon Bridal Expo!

Earl Grey x2, Peppermint, Jasmine, and Tamayokucha

Two Leaves Tea Company Earl Grey:
You can tell there isn't as much bergamot in this tea as in DavidsTea just from the smell.
It has a more bland taste compared to DavidsTea Earl Grey as well. It just doesn't grab my by the heartstrings and make me want to switch from DT to this.

Premium Tea Earl Grey:

This less fancy looking one actually smells a lot more appetizing. Alas, still kinda bland compared to DT!

Two Leaves Tea Company Peppermint:
Holy cannoli does this smell of peppermint!
Flavor wise, it's a nice peppermint tea. If you want peppermint tea, that is also organic, this would be nice.

Two Leaves Tea Company Jasmine Petal:

Man does this smell of jasmine! It's got an okay flavor, but it's almost SO STRONG it's like inhaling/drinking perfume. I forgot to take a picture of it sooo...here's the empty bag.

Two Leaves Tea Company Tamayokucha:
I have literally never heard of this type of green tea before.
It smells like a very basic green, and tastes like a very basic green.
It is fairly yummy and not finicky when it came to steeping.







Skål and Shine on!
-L

**All milk is skim milk
***Raw Golden Sugar

IF YOU HAVE ANY TEA YOU WOULD LIKE REVIEWED, LEAVE A COMMENT AND WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.

Pumpkin Chai milkshake!

This is the most amazing milkshake I've ever had.

Ever.

I started by brewing up 2 cups of double strength Pumpkin Chai and putting it in the fridge for about 6 hours.

Then I got some vanilla Häagen Dazs and let it sit out on the counter for about 5 minutes, to make it a little softer, just so that it would blend a little easier.

After that, I plunked the entire container (500ml) of ice cream into the blender, and gave it a bit of a blend first, just to soften it up a little more.




I then started to add some of the cold tea, until I had the right consistency.
This is where the strength of your tea matters and may take some fiddling. You don't want a watery milkshake, so you want the tea strong enough. But, that depends on how much you're making.

I only ended up using about 1 cup of my iced Pumpkin Chai. I do recommend making too much, as opposed to too little. You can always freeze it, then thaw it when you decide to make it again! Because believe me, you will.



I personally loved it with JUST the Pumpkin Chai, but you could tinker and possibly add some extra spices, vanilla, or whipped cream! (If you could make PUMPKIN SPICE FLAVORED whipped cream, I'd imagine that would be fucking amazing)

It would be the perfect treat on a hot summer day, especially if you were having an Autumn flavor craving!

5/5 stars, and I absolutely will do again!

Because of this milkshake, I'm buying more Pumpkin Chai, and I wasn't planning on getting any more. Caffeinated milkshake!





I also had a little left over milkshake, which I just popped back in the ice cream container, and put it back in the freezer. I want to see if I can get some Pumpkin Chai ice cream!


Caffeinated ice cream!

This shit is fucking amaze balls!
No. Seriously. The only way it could be better is in a fucking waffle cone...or deep fried.



Experiment with your tea! You may end up surprised.

-Laura