September Sipdown

How can it be September already?!?

Every Labour Day weekend, we go to "Canada's Largest Ribfest". This year, I was delighted to find The Fresh Tea Shop as one of the vendors. I tried out the cactus fig green tea which was a nice, light tea (and also tasted good iced!).

A friend shared this hilarious 1-minute "When you like tea too much" video with me. It's funny because it's true for this teaholic! 

How many kitchen cabinets do your teas take up? This is a safe space! I've reduced my number to 1.5 cabinets...

I've been trying to drink the teas in my stash before purchasing any new ones. Some Instagram tea lovers call finishing up a tea a "sipdown" and they even do monthly challenges! I don't usually record my sipdowns, but I'll try to track my sipdowns for the last 4 months of the year.

Sept 1 sipdown: the Lemon Coconut Pie black tea.

Have you ever participated in a sipdown challenge?

Sorelle and Co.

Last week, I visited the Sorelle and Co. in downtown Toronto (the flagship boutique is in Vaughan).

Sorelle's elegant boutique is located in the ritzy Yorkville area.

The high-end stores in this neighbourhood are too rich for my blood!

Sorelle means "Sister" in Italian.

This cute mural depicts the 5 sisters with food allergies that inspired Sorelle.

All the foods on the menu are:

Gluten-Free 

Soy-Free 

Sesame-Free 

Vegan 

Nut-Free

Preservative-Free

L-R: grilled cheese; macaroni and cheese; pizza

For dessert, we had this delicious opera cake.

The selection of Sloane Teas.

Since it was a hot day, I had the peaches and cream white tea as an iced tea. My companions had the raspberry lemonade spritzer.

I hope to return to Sorelle again to try out their afternoon tea!

A summer tea social

Last week, we had a summer tea social potluck to celebrate Afternoon Tea Week, and a colleague's new position (in a different department). Even though she'll no longer work with us, she'll still be part of our tea socials!

The tea social had a floral motif so of course, I had to bring the Garden Party Oolong by Whittard Chelsea.

A colleague also brought in rainbow lemonade iced tea by Davids Tea.

Pretty paper napkins always elevate a tea social!

I think this was the healthiest tea social we've ever had!

I got distracted and forgot to photograph: Tortilla chips (for the dips); cheese and crackers; another green salad.

Even the the desserts were fairly healthy!

Bottom right: they look like teabags, but they're actually cookies with white chocolates.

Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

What made this tea social extra special: sipping tea while listening to beautiful live violin music by our summer student!

Dessert by Deb

Back in June, I ordered some teas from Dessert by Deb, a new tea business by Deb Wong, a fellow tea lover from Toronto. Deb's first business was The Sugared Teacup Tea Boxes and Tea Subscription which she shut down in late 2018 so she could focus on her new line of organic dessert teas (a partnership with Lemon Lily).

My tea package included these super cute postcards (teabags and teapots) and stickers (bubble teas) that were designed by Deb herself.

I loved the handwritten note! I was touched that Deb remembered meeting me at the RBG Tea Festival last November.

I'm a coconut fan so I had to try the coconut teas from the collection.

The lemon coconut pie black tea was delicious and had a subtle fruity taste.

I also enjoyed the yummy coconut maple custard black tea--it made a great latte!

I'm looking forward to drinking the other teas in my package:

-Chocolate, berries and cream black tea

-Coco goji island green tea

-Berry bouquet green tea (this was a free sample)

I know, I know. I've been trying to limit my tea purchases this year, but I wanted support Deb's new business! Hopefully, Dessert by Deb will be at the RBG Tea Festival this year.

A Royal Albert Teacup: Sensation

This week, I'm sharing a teacup that I found at a church sale last spring.

I was drawn to the teal band and colourful roses.

This teacup is part of the Royal Albert Garland Series (circa 1970s to 1980s) which has six patterns. The teal pattern is called Sensation.

Cold brewed tea & cake

Copious amounts of iced teas have been keeping me cool during the scorching temperatures.

I like to cold brew my tea.

 

Last weekend, we found this tasty cake at our local grocery store: 

Lemon Blueberry Earl Grey Cake

"Earl Grey tea infused sponge cake layered with zesty lemon mousse and a refreshing wild blueberry filling. Finished with lemon frosting, and decadent white chocolate shavings."  (Source: La Rocca Creative Cakes website)

Bad blogger & bargains

I've tried out some interesting new teas and organized pop-up teas at work this month. For example, last week, we had a "Christmas in July" pop-up tea where we enjoyed Santa chocolate (a Christmas gift) with Poached Pear Brulee organic black tea. But I've been too lazy to take photos. Blogger fail!

I found this charming welcome mat for $4 at Dollarama (many items are actually $1 plus). How cute are the alphabet tea sets? It's too nice to use outside so it's become an indoor mat.

My friend made me this Taiwanese iced tea. I can't recall the ingredients. It had a delicious coffee flavour...but it didn't actually contain coffee?

Source: Breyers.com

Last week, I was craving ice cream at work. But I didn't want to spend $5 on a tiny cup of frozen yogurt. So I bought a 1.66L tub of Breyers Cookies & Cream ice cream at Shoppers (across from the office) and had a pop-up ice cream at the office. The ice cream was on sale for only $2.99 and it fed half a dozen people on TWO consecutive days!