after midnight / oh canada

the last time i visited david's tea on mont-royal, i tried "after midnight", a flavoured black tea. from the description, it seems to have been released for valentine's day.



the tea leaves have an intense citrus aroma. once infused, the smell of chocolate is brought out. drinking this, the tea is very "warm", which is why this is part of the "winter collection". it tastes like those orange-flavoured dark chocolates.

at the time, it was during the winter olympics, so the tea shop was promoting "oh canada", a rooibos tea.



yes, those are colourful little maple-leaf candies.

i confess that i am not a big fan of rooibos in general, but i do like the maple sweetness with this "oh canada" mix.

Citron Oolong

Type: Oolong

Class: Flavored

Flavor: Citrus essences, lemon myrtle, jasmine

Intensity: Quite a blast

Mood: Techno-zen

Perks: Looseleaf

Source (in Montreal): DAVIDsTEA

I only really got into oolong after trying this one. Prior to it, oolong's signature aftertaste was consistently a turnoff. This one is a different matter entirely. It's intensely citrusy, but somehow not overwehlming; makes for a great entry level oolong, after which you are ready to wander into more traditional kinds. I had hard time coming up with the mood description for this one, because while it has rich and distinct flavor it also has a strong relaxing effect. If the word “confident” can be used to describe tea, that would be the case. A not-to-miss when checking out David's Tea

Comparison with relatives:

It is rather hard to compare this one, since it stands out from both oolongs and citrus-flavored teas; it has too much personality of its own. Personally it did inspire me to try other types of oolong, and so far ginseng wulong from Cha Guan was an awesome discovery.  

Wild Cherry

Type: Black tea
Class: Flavored
Flavor: Cherry
Intensity: Medium
Mood: Spaced out
Perks: Looseleaf, bulk, cheap ($2.39 for 100g)
Source (in Montreal): La Vieille Europe (3855 St-Laurent)

Client in the resto: Do you have wild duck?
Waiter: No, but we can piss off a domestic one. 
-- Russian joke

We discovered this one some time around 2004-2005, and it has become a staple tea, imbibed two cups for each one of other teas. The black tea gives cherry flavor a bitter twist, reminiscent of the dark ripe fruit itself; once brewed, the drink is of dark red-orange hue. Despite being a black tea, our subjective non-scientific testing demonstrated great relaxing and spacing out potential, as well as an impressive sensory compatibility with the band Sigur Ros.

About a year ago, wild cherry disappeared from La Vieille Europe, to be replaced(?) with cherry flavored green tea. While still tasty, it lacked the bitterness of black tea, making for lighter, but less complex pattern. The beginning of 2010 was marked by the return of the wild cherry on the shelves of La Vieille, and tasting confirmed that it is indeed the real thing, and not cheese.

Comparison with other relatives:
Most of the cherry flavored teas I came across so far were green teas. A very tasty variation, Kyoto cherry, can be tried at L'Escalier (ex-Utopic-ex-Ludic) near Berri-UQAM metro. It has a pronounced fruity taste, balancing out the classic green tea taste. Another variation is the cherry and rose green tea from Camelia Senensis, similar to Kyoto cherry.

White Tiger

Type: White peony tea
Class: Flavored
Flavor: Blueberry, pomegranate essence
Intensity: Mild
Mood: Pensive
Perks: Looseleaf, bulk, organic
Source (in Montreal): DAVIDsTEA

This tea does not suffer from low intensity; it enjoys every moment of it. The blueberries and pomegranate are very subtle, and don't overpower the taste of the actual tea. It has great refreshing potential, with the sour notes of blueberries, but overall taste is tiger-tread light. 

While I did expect the Tiger to be a bit more aggressive, it is a rather nice discovery as is - a good white tea with a hint of sourness, which will most likely be a remarkable drink during the summer heat.

Comparison with other relatives:

Tiger's randy cousin, the Lipton nylon bag kind of white blueberry-pomegranate  has a distinctly fruity component, overshadowing the taste of tea, and essentially shifting the balance into the herbal/pure fruit infusion territory.

Things a changin'

Howdy,

So, Tasty Hot Water shall be changing slightly (for the better). I'll be adding authors such that more tea reviewing is possible!

I shall also try to centralize tea resources/places in and around Montreal (and maybe a bit of Toronto) into one page to make it easier for people to get their tea fixes.

More to come later.
Until next time!

A Nice Cup of Tea

A friend of mine posted this essay by George Orwell on facebook the other day. As it talks about tea, I thought I should post it here :)

If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

* First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.

* Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

* Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

* Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

* Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

* Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

* Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

* Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

* Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

* Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

* Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

(taken from The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 3, 1943-45, Penguin ISBN, 0-14-00-3153-7)

Kusmi Tea

Kusmi Tea opened its first store in North America about a month and a half ago. Montreal happens to be the lucky city :)
The shop is on St Denis in between Roy and Duluth.

In terms of decor, the place is very Ikea - white walls, white tables, white shelves, white floors. Pretty much like David's tea, though the layout is different.
The lady was very nice and helpful. You are allowed to help yourself to the canteens to smell the teas and pick whichever ones you want. So you can both sit & drink tea and buy tea. They also have some little snacks if you want.

I had the Christmas tea and Paw had a different one (the name of which, unfortunately I forgot. We went two tuesday's ago). I just remember hers was a green tea.

Now, I haven't really had much Kusmi Tea in the past (I don't buy it, though it is available in some stores like La Vielle Europe and Exofruits).
I tried both my tea and Pamela's tea. I would say they were generally okay. They definitely have a very strong tea taste with only a hint of additional flavoring. But, in a way, because it's so expensive, I guess I was expecting it to be better.

The shop is a great place for gifts, being that the tea is so pricy. The canisters are very decorative, as are the teacups and tea sets. There are also coffrets available with an assortment of various teas, including their exclusive blends (of which the Christmas Tea was a part of). In addition, they have some other tea accessories, like fillable fabric tea bags (unfortunately, one use only - well multiple infusions, but you can't use it again). What's cool is that the price for their bags is cheaper than at David's tea, which is suprising considering that everything else is so expensive.

Anyways, I'm glad I tried out Kusmi Tea. I'm not sure I'll go and buy tea there for myself, as it's not my favorite thus far, but I'd definitely go back when gift shopping :)