Day 3: Orange Pekoe

Hello Tea Drinkers!

Welcome to Day 3 of 24 days of tea! With an herbal and a white tea already under our santa belts, what might be in drawer #3? Why it’s good ol’ fashioned Orange Pekoe. Time to divulge in a classic!

Tea: Orange Pekoe

Description: We’ve polled the entire country and this is, in fact, the perfect pekoe. The classic of all classics. The ultimate pick-me-up. The blend to turn to when you crave a good, honest cup of tea. Some say it evokes thoughts of warm comfort and familiar friends, others go off on tangents about doughnuts and red roses. Either way, everyone falls hard for this all-organic tea from top estates in Sri Lanka and Assam.

Ingredients: Fine black teas from Ceylon, Sri Lanka

—

Brooke: I should warn you, my sister thinks that she couldn’t tell the difference between this and a name brand! What do you think? Will we be able to tell?
Stacey:  I don’t know! I’m excited to see if it tastes like DAVIDsTEA base blend…My mom said she really likes this tea because she felt like she was sitting at her Nana’s while sipping it. I’m going to try it!

*sip*

Stacey: Oh my! I can taste the DAVIDsTEA! I can tell it’s not Tetley, the generic brand, like your sister mentioned. This tea doesn’t taste as strong, it’s a bit more delicate.
Brooke: But maybe that comes down to steeping. How long did you steep yours?
Stacey: 5 minutes?
Brooke: Me too. Hey, where are you Skyping from today?
Stacey: I’m Skyping in the cafeteria at work! Now I’m one of those people who Skype is public.
Brooke: Neat. Aw man, my tea’s still way too hot to taste.
Stacey: *cough* *sputter* My tea is very drinkable.
Brooke: But you just sputtered!
Stacey: Because I’m laughing at you! I can still see the steam coming off of your tea.
Brooke: Stacey!!
Stacey: Either way, this tastes better than a name brand. What did you smell first when you smelled the tea out of the tin?
Brooke: *sniffs the tin* Licorice?
Stacey: Oh, Eric and I smelled lemon!
Brooke: I think we’re both wrong.
Stacey: Hey, you sipped it! What did you think?
Brooke: No, I  just blew on it. Here let me try now.

*sip* (#2)

Brooke: Oooh!! I don’t have a bitter after taste with this one!
Stacey: The generic brand totally does!
Stacey: One person on twitter used eggnog to make a latte (re:@dontouchz)
Brooke: I WANT THAT.
Stacey: You can do it!!
Brooke: It’s playing with me- it’s saying “I’m a black tea, but you can barely tell!” It doesn’t have that smokey taste.
Stacey: Yeah, it juts cuts off at some point.
Brooke: We really should do a blind taste test.We’ll have to make sure they’re steeped the same amount of time. Must be a scientific inquiry. You know what, I don’t want egg nog with mine right now. I’m feelin’ this vibe.
Stacey: I wonder if she tried it first then added eggnog.
Brooke: We should tweet her! So innovative.

Final thoughts

Stacey: I feel pleasantly surprised that DAVIDsTEA created something so simple and nice. Usually it’s ridiculous and colourful but this one doesn’t need anything. No eggnog needed.
Brooke: But you don’t like eggnog!
Stacey: Well…
Brooke: I really enjoy this one. I’d buy it except it’s probably stupid expensive and I could probably buy an orange pekoe at the grocery store for literally a quarter of the price.
Stacey: Ya, fur shur.

Here’s what the twitterverse had to say about today’s tea:

@dontouchz: Enjoying an orange pekoe eggnog latte this morning #24daysoftea from @DAVIDsTEA

@DreaDreamings: Day 3 is a classic orange pekoe, and I love it. #24daysoftea #davidstea #adventcalendar #orangepekoe

@JillyMacAttack: @DAVIDsTEA My very first cup of tea was orange pekoe. I was 9. #childhoodmemories#24daysoftea

So what did you think? Better than the generic or will you stick with your trusted brand?

Until next tea,
Stacey and Brooke

“Does this have licorice in it?”

 

Day 3: Quangzhou Milk Oolong

Hello fellow tea lovers!

Day 3 is wet and snowy in Ottawa, so what better way to warm up than to have a nice cuppa’ tea? Let’s get started!

*tea kettle whistles*

Brooke: The calling!
Stacey: Let’s see what we have for day 3!

Brooke and Stacey: Ooohhh.
Stacey: Kwanzoo…Kawnzoo, Kwan-zooooow!
Brooke: It’s probably not zooow, I’d say “zooo”.

(Correct pronunciation is gawn-szoh, so looks like we were both off. Good thing this is a blog and not a podcast, Quangzhou Milk Oolong it is!)

Tea: Quangzhou Milk Oolong

Ingredients: Chinese oolong tea from the Wuyi Mountains
Description: This ultra-rare oolong from the Wuyi Mountains of China is velvety smooth and lightly creamy, with a subtle hint of orchid. It’s said that it came about when the moon fell in love with a comet. The comet passed her by, as comets will do. The moon cried milky tears, which chilled the tea fields, withering the leaves and giving them a delicate creaminess. It’s been a rare luxury ever since.
Steeping Instructions: 1.25 tsp, 85°C, 4-7 minutes

—

Brooke: Why do they call it milk, are we supposed to have it with milk?
Stacey: Is there no milk in it?
Brooke: How could there be MILK in it? No way.
Stacey reads above description a-loud.
Brooke: It’s too early for this.

*sip*

Brooke: Hmm yes, this is nice. Very japanese-esque, almost like green tea style. It has a hint of lemon but not in a citrus-y way…in a soothing way.
André: Oh yes, I like that. I could have this climbing, no problem.
Brooke: It’s very rare André, you can just drink it whilly-nilly.
André: I guess I shouldn’t have taken such a big gulp then…
Stacey: I don’t know what you guys are talking about with the citrus-y taste!
Brooke: Not citrus-y, I meant soothing like a throat lozenge with a hint of lemon in it. Don’t take my words so literally, Stacey!
Stacey: Well it is quite lovely, very “all-natural”.
As we finish up sipping the tea, Brooke disposes of the tea leaves.
Brooke: WOW! Look at these leaves, they really bulked up! They were tiny balls and now they are full-on leaves! It’s like those gag boyfriends: “just add water! and grow your own boyfriend”. Don’t worry, I already have one!

—

Tea Vibes

We turn on the voice-type feature of phone again, and speak our final thoughts on the tea, keeping whatever the phone recorded as our final words:

Brooke: Very tucked up! Um, buttercup is smooth. I like a basket of kittens. I give it a tonton.

Stacey: As he has called, I’m enjoying it more and more! It’s very all natural and i like the snow vs well. It’s going down nicely. I give it a have content.

Brooke: …Our tea vibes aren’t really going to be a tea review anymore, are they?

Well friends, that’s a wrap for today. Day 3 was was quite lovely: soothing, earthy and best enjoyed as it cools down. Our friend MK said it reminded her of fettucini (Alfredo) sauce. So, there’s that! : )

Until next tea,
Stacey and Brooke

 

Lookin’ all cute with their allergens.

 

 

 

Detox

Hiya!

Oh readers, we’ve missed you. We apologize dearly for the delay in our posts of 2013.  Since returning to Ottawa, Brooke and I have both been quite busy, so much so that we barely even see each other, let alone have a tea together. I started a new job as a research assistant and have been enjoying the freedom of post-student life while Brooke has jumped back into her Master’s, improv practices, and Girl Guide meetings full-force. Thank goodness we both drank a tea while we were at home and I finally had the time to put it all together. Rest assured our next post will be back to the norm of the two of us goofs having a tea and a laugh together. For now- onward to Detox!

 Tea: Detox

DAVIDsTEA Description:  Restart and restore

Need a reboot? Try this traditional formula. The rooibos will restore your equilibrium with iron, potassium, zinc and manganese. The sencha will pump you full of antioxidants. The ginger’ll zap lethargy and headaches. The ginkgo will clear your mind. The lemongrass will detoxify your liver. And the juniper berries will flush out toxins and any lingering regrets. Not working? Just go back to bed.

Ingredients: Rooibos, sencha green tea, ginger, lemongrass, ginkgo, juniper berries. With natural lemon flavouring.

—

I drank my Detox on New Year’s Day with my Mom (seemed fitting, given the lack of sleep and consumption of other liquids) and Brooke gave Detox a try when she woke up one morning not feeling so hot back in December. We swapped notes afterward.

Given that this was a mixture of a green and rooibos tea, I was a little shocked when the DAVIDsTEA instructions called for 98° water to be poured over 1.5 tsp of tea leaves, but it seemed to work just fine. I steeped my leaves for a good 5 minutes and Brooke went for 6.

I’m not going to lie, I was kind of  dreading this tea. The description and ingredients just weren’t doing it for me…seemed like a lot of strong flavors in one tea, and the smell…phew, it cleared my nose alright! I felt a little apprehensive when I finally took the plunge.

*Sip*

Stacey: Hmm, this tea actually not that bad. No, it’s not bad at all! The taste reminds me of a ginger tea I really like.
Lorie: Tastes like cough syrup to me…but with a fruity taste afterwards.
Stacey: It has a lighter taste than I thought it would, not overpowering at all. You can definitely taste the ginger and the lemon grass though.
Lorie: It would be good if you had a cold I think.
Stacey: Or after a night of ringing in the New Year!

Meanwhile, back in Halifax, Brooke let her tea settle for a good 10 minutes before taking her first sip. She said that Detox had the overwhelming smell of olives, which is ridiculous.

Brooke: Mmm, It tastes like chamomile; soft and soothing. There is a slight spice that lingers at the tip of your lips and tongue. The reviews made it sound scary, but it’s just another night time tea. The flavour of Detox tea definitely doesn’t bite you or even comfort you… it just sits with you. One thing I will say is this tea is doing wonders for my sore throat.  And it has a strong olive taste too!  [Not gonna lie, no idea what she’s on about with the olives.] After letting it sit for 10 minutes, the flavour dulled a bit but was still lovely. Yummy!

Tea Vibes

Stacey: I found this tea to be a lot less harsh than I thought it would be, which is a good thing. I’ve had a few “sore throat” teas that have been really strong and had an overpowering lemon flavor to them but Detox is not like that at all. I think the ingredients really worked well together and left me with a nice, pleasant aftertaste. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a staple tea, but I wouldn’t turn it down if it was offered. I give this one a 7/10.

Brooke: Oh I liked this one. It was neat- after I had this tea and went for a walk along the ocean with my parents and we went to a little tea shop down the road. There I tried their version of Detox and had fun considering the flavours. The other tea still had a heavy sense of Chamomile, seemed a little stronger but I may have felt that way because I was cold from our winter walk. No olive taste though [But seriously? Olive? I don’t even know where she is getting that]. Overall, this tea is calm and soothing. I liked it better than a regular chamomile; it made me smile. 7.5/10

Hooray, after a bit of a break ,the two tea roomies are back! We’ll be much more frequent in our posts from now on, we promise. As a nice plus, we finally got our tea together and even had a brew this evening! Brooke is looking forward to sharing our experience with you, so look for that in the next couple of days. Hope you all are having a lovely, mild January. Happy tea drinking!

Until next tea,
Stacey and Brooke

Brooke wanted me to show you all her lovely ocean walk that she mentioned, so here it is.