Design A Tea – 3 Cups of Fabulously Yummy Tea

The slogan at Design A Tea is where Tea Leaves Dream.  How cute is that?  It’s actually very fitting because the man who found this tea company opened it based on a dream!  Brian used to be a paramedic until one night he had a dream in 2006.  This is how the dream goes

I was walking down the rural road I grew up on. I passed an elderly lady who was cooking something on a small fire in the ditch. As I approached her she asked me if I wanted some apple tea. An odd question I recalled, because I seldom drank coffee let alone tea, but being polite I reached down and took the cup. I drank it and told her, “This is great tea.” She replied with, “Of course it is, you created it.” Thinking she was a crazy old lady, I handed her the cup back. As I did this the dream slowly started to turn from black & white to color. I turned and continued to walk down the dirt road. Soon after I awoke.

I love this story because I’m always encouraging people to follow their dreams and this is a literal example!

The concept behind Design A Tea is very simple.  You choose your base tea, pick your favourite flavours and they send you your custom blend!  How cool is that!  Each person is entitled to 2 free tea samples as long as you pay the small ($1.00 or so) shipping cost.  Brian was kind enough to send me my two tea samples and a bonus sample that he concocted.  My two teas were A Rooibos Tea with Caramel & Pecan and a Rooibos tea with Zabaglione & Cassis.  The rooibos were organic grade from South Africa.  Bonus!  When I picked the second tea I had no idea what those things were at the time and I thought why not try the most outrageous thing possible and see if it can taste good.  We’ll shortly see.  Brian also sent me a Green tea with Pina Colada & Chocolate.  Dessert teas galore!

The first tea I tried was the rooibos with caramel pecan.  OMG it smells like sweet sugary caramel popcorn.  I wish the internet would hurry up and invent something that will transport smells from peoples computers.  Yum yum.  You can see the beautiful hue that came out after steeping it for about one minute.  Wow.  I’m speechless.  If candied popcorn was a tea this is it.  Holy crap.  I created candy caramel popcorn in a tea.  I should patent this and sell it to Kernels.  Anyways on to the next tea.

As you can see Brian packages the tea samples in individual tea pouches.  T-Sacs I’m assuming.  The next one I’m trying is the Zabaglione & Cassis.  Cassis as I explained in another post is the same as blackcurrant.  Which I am a huge fan of!  Okay this tea has completely different characteristics.  It smells like someone just crushed a bunch of berries with their fist.   I smell a bit of apples on the nose.  The color is a lot darker and redder in tone than the last tea.  Let’s try it.  I love it.  I can’t believe it.  It tastes even better than the last tea.  I wish everyone could taste and smell this.  It’s very fruity but not overpowering.  I can’t believe I made this!

last tea, Brian’s pick.  Green tea with Pina Colada & Chocolate.  The green tea is actually organic sencha from Japan.  The yellowy liquor smells like pineapple yogurt.  Holy crap.  This is good too.  The tastes soo much like pina colada.  I’m not picking up any chocolate notes in the nose, but when you drink the tea the chocolate follows the pineapple.   Wow.  How can something without any sugar in it taste sweet?  Think about that for a second!  I highly recommend these to people who enjoy strong dessert teas and like experimenting.  You definitely have to steep these teas for 5-7 minutes though to get the full flavouring.  Check out their website and Happy blending!  Oh FYI don’t copy me and let the TSac hang off the side, the tea will get on your table!  =)  Cheers.

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Blackcurrant Tea from Paris France – Aux Anysetiers Du Roy

Ya I know the irony, I drink tea in a beer glass and I don’t drink

If you click on the image on the right you will get a much better image of the tea. Aside from the cool crock the tea comes in, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on this tea, the aroma of the tea leaves are heavenly. It smells like they mixed in gummy bears with tea leaves. Yummy! This is nothing but a simple blend of black tea scented and blended with blackcurrant flavours. Blackcurrant is actually cassis in french and they’re the same thing, so if you see a tea with cassis in the ingredients as a flavour, its blackcurrant. Now I personally love blackcurrant, I grew up drinking the sweet sticky drink called Ribena. I would never drink that stuff now, its death by sugary syrup, but this tea is a nice transition and brings back childhood memories of blackcurrant candies (also by Ribena).

I quote from this website

“Aux Anysetiers Du Roy was first a restaurant located in the old Paris quarters, L’Ile Saint-Louis, near Notre Dame de Paris….It was very fashionable to frequent this restaurant in the 60’s, where you could meet celebrities such as Salvador Dali, who signed a small provence herbs crock, as well as Brigitte Bardot, Jerry Lewis·”

I love love love Dali, he’s a dark genius; years ago I saw an artistic film by him at the Reg Hartt Cineforum downtown. This tea instantly gets bonus points in my book for distant association with Dali.

Upon first steeping, the tea is medium bodied and actually not as heavy as many black teas. It has the slightly bitter notes characteristic of black teas from the tannins, but its very slight. It’s actually quite nice if you like black teas. I actually got a swift kick in the head, so to speak, from the caffeine. On second steeping, the tea was not bitter at all, the sweet notes of the tea were not as pronounced on the nose, although still present, and the body was less dense. I would recommend rinsing the leaves for a minute, then drinking it to remove the caffeine and the bitterness.

I picked this tea up from Chapters, it’s priced at $15.99. You can order it online from various websites, as Chapters many times only carry items seasonally.

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