Category: Review

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Tea by C’s Tea Tasting Triad

Tea Tasting Triad by Tea by C
$52.00 USD for 3 Teas (6oz) & Accessories

Tea By C has provided me with the Tea Tasting Triad for the purposes of writing an honest review.

Tea by C’s Tea Tasting Triad is ready for the holidays and I was quite pleased when Claire asked me if I would be interested to take a look at it. This box consists of three teas (more on that soon!), a tea tasting guide and flavour wheel (the rolled up poster at the top), and a tea infuser for any cup of teapot that you might be using. It all fits quite neatly into a sturdy mailing box and makes for a good presentation if you’re going to be having this mailed to someone as a gift – I would be happy to open this up!

Also included with the box are three tasting cards about each tea: Dragonwell Green (green tea), Blue People Oolong (oolong tea), and Rose Buds (herbal tisane). They’re quite nice quality – sturdy cardstock, lots of information about each one, and there’s a bonus card about tea in general – a nice touch for those who are receiving this kit as a gift who are new to tea or don’t know a lot about it yet.

The tins are lovely, and the lids are quite tight on, which is great for maintaining freshness of the tea and preventing the leaves from going stale. I actually had the opportunity to review all three of these teas last year, and wrote full reviews for each Dragonwell Green, Blue People Oolong and Rose Buds. I enjoyed all of them, and I had a nice cup of Blue People Oolong while working on this post.

I used the metal tea strainer that was included in the kit – it’s easy to use and similar to one that I used when I first started exploring tea. The thing about these strainers is to not overfill! Tea leaves need room to expand, so you don’t want to overfill half of the ball because the leaves won’t have room to move and open up their leaves. I would fill the half sphere about half full in order to give it space.

The loveliest part of this kit for a beginner to tea is the Flavour Wheel. A flavour wheel is incredibly useful for those new to trying to decipher how to describe tea. I didn’t want to share the whole wheel, but it’s quite lovely and a full 360° of descriptions for you to consider. For example, for vegetable flavours, it includes things like spinach, bean sprouts, peas, green beans – all with their own distinctive flavours, but also provides you with a reference because if you’re unsure of what your tea tastes like but know it reminds you of something vegetal, the wheel can help you pinpoint a word.

I loved Tea By C’s Tea Tasting Triad. It has a nice combination of teas to start off (green, oolong, tisane), the inclusion of a flavour wheel and an infuser really make this a great starter kit, beginners gift box. The tasting cards are a really nice touch to help someone really learn about each tea thoroughly. I think the flavour wheel and the tasting cards really make this box a wonderful idea, because it helps someone to immerse themselves into the teas, the language, and learn how to think about tea has having the ability to have a myriad of flavours. This would be a wonderful gift for a friend or a gift to yourself if you’re new to tea. All it needs is a cute seasonal or holiday themed mug or cup and saucer set and you’ll be good to go!

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Biskwi’s Waffles

Waffles by Biskwi
Baked Goods
$2.00 for 400g (10 cookies)

First Impressions

Stroopwafels are one of my favourite things that I discovered in the last couple of years. For those that are unfamiliar, stroopwafel is a Dutch wafer cookie sandwich with two waffle cookies with a layer of caramel between. It’s great with a cup of tea because if you put the cookie over a cup of hot tea, the heat warms up the cookie and caramel and it ends up being a delightful sweet treat with your cup of tea.

I was in Dollarama and spotted these on the shelf because I needed to make my way down a one-way aisle in order to go down the next one-way aisle. I was surprised to see stroopwafel on the shelf because it seems like such an odd item for a dollar store to carry (and I’m mentioning Dollarama by name, because the Biskwi Waffles are imported by Dollarama so I’m not sure if you’ll be able to find them anywhere else). The cookies come in a plasticky bag with a wired tab to close/open the packaging. Inside it consists of 10 cookies. I’m not terribly surprised that they’re called Waffles instead of stroopwafel because if they’re trying to appeal to more of the public, having a name that’s familiar is an easier sale than one that is not.

Waffles consists of: sugar, wheat flour, vegetable oils, barn egg, salt, soya flour, whey powder, emulsifier, caramel, raising agent, cinnamon, natural flavouring, citric acid, water. For allergen warnings, the packaging does mention that this product contains: milk, eggs, soya and wheat. And that it also may contain tree nuts (I assume through cross-contamination).

Preparation

Biskwi recommends placing the waffle over the top of your hot drink for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Waffle becomes soft as it sits over a cup of hot tea. You’ll know it’s ready because the middle begins to sag downwards. The Waffle becomes warm, and the caramel softens. The cookie itself has a nice sweetness with the caramel layer, and some nice cinnamon notes. It’s tasty and goes well with a cup of Hong Kong-Style Milk Tea (if you’re wondering what I had this with).

A Second Cookie?

Not going to lie, I was impressed with my first Waffle and had another (and another).

My Overall Impression

I loved Biskwi’s Waffles. I like the affordability factor ($2.00 for 10 cookies), which makes it a nice little treat to include with your daily cup of tea. It has a good amount of sweetness, without being too over the top. The flavour is nice, and the caramel gets to a nice softness within the 2 minutes spent warming on top of a cup of tea. I do wish that they had opted to call their product Stroopwafel instead of just Waffles, because that is the traditional name, but I’m not too fussed about it.

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Dessert by Deb’s Pumpkin Pie Tart

Pumpkin Pie Tart by Dessert by Deb
Green Tea / Flavoured
$6.00 for 25g

First Impressions

Pumpkin Pie Tart came to me as part of the September/October subscription box from Dessert by Deb. This seasonal green tea offering comes in a sealed, resealable bronze-copper matte pouch with a familiar colourful label on the front. I quite appreciate the colour pouch that Deb decided to go with because it lends itself quite nicely for an autumn themed tea collection since it’s a very autumnal appropriate colour.

Pumpkin Pie Tart consists of organic: green tea, apple, Canadian maple, cinnamon, coconut, pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice, mace, nutmeg, and cardamom), cloves, and calendula petals. That spice blend does a great job in coating a lot of the other ingredients, especially the dried apple pieces. It basically smells like I opened up a can of pumpkin pie spice mix, and really reminds me of pumpkin pie because of the blend. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom are my must-haves when it comes to a pumpkin spice blend.

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Pumpkin Pie Tart in 200°F (93°C) water for 5-6 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep for 5 minutes with the recommended temperature water.

First Taste

Pumpkin Pie Tart steeps to a really pretty golden yellow-orange colour. There is some dusty bits that escaped through the stainless steel infuser, but I don’t think it’s the actual tea leaves themselves and it’s the spices since they’re so fine. The aroma is pumpkin pie spice, definitely. The flavour of the green tea blend is interesting – I get a lot of the spice blend, and then there’s a nice level of sweetness that I think comes from the Canadian maple and possibly the apple. There’s a fruity background that isn’t as strong as the pumpkin spice blend, and slight sourness that I think comes from the apple as well. I don’t really taste the green tea base, but that’s because the spice blend is just that much more overwhelming in flavour. The sweetness from the maple definitely make it tastes more like a dessert, and it has a nice thicken mouthfeel to it as well.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Pumpkin Pie Tart once, but found that the spice level just wasn’t as present as I would have liked, especially when compared to the initial steep. I would suggest steeping Pumpkin Pie Tart just the one time.

My Overall Impression

I liked Dessert by Deb’s Pumpkin Pie Tart. The spice blend is well balanced with the apple and Canadian maple – it helps create some interest in the flavour profile. While the green tea base wasn’t very flavour forward, although who can blame it when its competing against ginger and cinnamon? I think it’s quite a creative way to blend pumpkin spice with a green tea base, I usually see the pumpkin spice blends with black tea or rooibos. It is definitely a nice blend for the fall, the spices have a pleasant warming quality. I’d love to see this one turned into a tea latte with some vanilla extract for extra coziness.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.