The 24 Days of Candies and Tea – S12E04

It’s that yearly time on the final month of the year. It’s the popular advent calendars in the form of DAVIDsTEA and Squish Candy. Squish Candy has opened a location in Rideau Centre for several months and it’s been a great convenience in getting the 24 Days of Candy. DAVIDsTEA offered their hot selling 24 Days of Tea in late October. It used to be released on November.

Here’s the list of the advents calendars. They will be updated for the 24 days.
The openings will be shown on Instagram.

2015 Advent Calendars – S11E10

It’s back for another year and this time, I got two advent calendars to contend with. It’s been a yearly tradition getting DAVIDsTEA’s 24 Days of Tea. In the last minute, I decided to get Squish Candies’ 24 Days of Gummies.

This year’s DAVIDsTEA’s advent calendar is different it looks more like a drawer and sliding or pull the small boxes. Don’t worry, I’m not going to cheat.

For those that don’t know, Squish Candies makes gourmet gummies and candies and they’re based in Montreal. They’ve been established since 2014, so they’re basically a new and young company. The candies caught my interested when I was browsing around Hudson’s Bay at Queen St. W in Toronto.

As with past posts, I will be posting the list when opening the teas and candies for the 24 days. Keep on checking. I will also post the openings on Instagram.
Note: I’ve come to realize that Squish’s advent calendar is random with their boxes. If you check their Twitter, it will be different than mine.

The 24 Days of Tea, 2014 Edition – S10E10

It’s back again for another year and the advent tea calendar completely sold out when it was released last month at DAVIDsTEA.

Liking the colour for the box packaging this year and there’s some good selections and returning favourites for the teas.

As you remember from last year, I kept an update on what tea would be revealed on the certain day. Be sure to keep checking this entry as well as adding a link from Instagram. It will be until December 24th, Christmas Eve.

Enjoy the reveal!
Last thing, the falling snow is back again on WordPress.

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The 24 Days of Tea List
December 1: Forever Nuts [LINK]
December 2: Organic Vanilla Chai [LINK]
December 3: Quangzhou Milk Oolong [LINK]
December 4: Pink Flamingo [LINK]
December 5: Detox [LINK]
December 6: Coco Chai Rooibos [LINK]
December 7: English Breakfast [LINK]
December 8: Cocomint Cream [LINK]
December 9: Genmaicha [LINK]
December 10: Bubbie’s Baklava [LINK}
December 11: Mother’s Little Helper [LINK]
December 12: Crème Caramel Rooibos [LINK]
December 13: Read My Lips [LINK]
December 14: Sugar Plum Forest [LINK]
December 15: Buddha’s Blend [LINK]
December 16: Main Squeeze [LINK]
December 17: Organic Peppermint Amour [LINK]
December 18: Organic Silk Dragon Jasmine [LINK]
December 19: Organic Cream of Earl Grey [LINK]
December 20: Apple Custard [LINK]
December 21: Lime Gelato [LINK]
December 22: Sleigh Ride [LINK]
December 23: Eggnog [LINK]
December 24: Santa’s Secret [LINK]

The DAVIDsTEA 24 Days of Tea Giveaway [Done] – S09E9.5

Contest is finish but this post will be updating the days of the 24 teas.
Posting this again. I just want to remind certain people who reads this blog and whom I contacted through Twitter that I am doing this holiday giveaway. I noticed people missed out on the 24 Days of Tea by DAVIDsTEA. It’s their third year that the company released this hot item. The value is $34.50.
I’m doing this giveaway only in the Ottawa area for those who want this wonderful festive gift.
You have until Sunday, November 24th to enter this contest and I have to make sure I can give it to you before December 1st. The 24 Days of Tea is an advent calendar, just like the chocolate kinds.

–List of the 24 Days of Tea starting December 1st–
White Chocolate Frost – December 1st
Alpine Punch – December 2nd
Blueberry Jam – December 3rd
Forever Nuts – December 4th
Stormy Night – December 5th
Genmaicha – December 6th
Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait – December 7th
Mango Madness – December 8th
Silk Dragon Jasmine – December 9th
Coffee Cake – December 10th
Mother’s Little Helper – December 11th
Kokomo Green – December 12th
Glitter & Gold – December 13th
Cinnamon Rooibos Chai– December 14th
English Breakfast – December 15th
Main Squeeze – December 16th
Cream of Earl Grey – December 17th
Buddha’s Blend – December 18th
Read My Lips – December 19th
Vanilla Orchid – December 20th
Chocolate Orange – December 21st
Sleigh Ride – December 22nd
Gingerbread – December 23rd
Santa’s Secret – December 24th

–How to Enter–
All you have to do is tweet me at @wildworks and @DAVIDsTEA about your favourite Winter/holiday tea. If you don’t have Twitter, you can leave a comment here. I will be drawing the winner on the November 25th radio show at CKCU-FM.
Good luck entering!

The 24 Days of Tea – S09E07

I know it’s November and Christmas decorations are slowly being displayed at malls. I missed out last year as DAVIDsTEA released their 24 Days of Tea at their retail stores and online. This year is no exception as I decided to get a head start in purchasing this hot seller in time of the holiday season. I like the design and lovely colour to the 24 days of tea. There’s a magnetic to keep the box closed. I’m glad I got a chance to get it as I missed out on the 2012 edition advent calendar.
It’s definitely worth the $34.50 as it brings on the holiday spirit.

As for the days the teas are set and I’m not cheating or peeking (as the box says), here’s the list for the 2013 edition of 24 Days of Tea;

Hong Kong Milk Tea & The Radio Show – S08E43

I was a bit stumped in writing something as I haven’t had any music interviews for the past month. Instead, I decided to blog about making Hong Kong Milk Tea as DAVIDsTEA came out with a recipe to making Hong Kong Milk Tea. It caught my attention as I like things about Hong Kong.
I decided to buy Kenyan Tinderet and didn’t expect to see the tea leaves looking like coffee. Worse part was not getting sweetened condensed milk until later in the night as I walked to the supermarket and bought one. It costed around three dollars as I’m not too familiar with it.

Onto making the tea, I boiled one litre of hot water (95 degrees Celsius) and added four spoonfuls of Kenyan Tinderet in a teapot. I didn’t use a pitcher as it got used for storing water. Later, I put 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk. I didn’t know it was gooey and sticky compared to liquid-y condensed milk. Mixed it together on a cup and measuring cup due to not using a pitcher (photo shown above). Added ice and it was done. The silly part was drinking from the measuring cup.

The verdict: It tasted sweet and nice. There was hint that you’re not really drinking tea. On their website, it mentioned “light honey” and I did felt a bit of a slight honey taste. Another thing that I was reminded of drinking Vitasoy.
Overall, a nice drink but had a complicated time in making due to not using a pitcher. I’ll definitely make another drink again.

Playing Canadian Bands & Musicians with Asian Backgrounds – S07E37

It’s now May and a brand new month but first thing to mention, I had a great time on Monday night at the Ottawa International Writers Festival for the All In A Day Songwriters Circle: The Stage Name Summit. From the photo shown above, there was Masia One with DJ 2 Creamz and CBC’s Alan Neal. Other performers for the songwriters circle who attended were Snailhouse, Oh Susanna, Socalled and Joe Keithley (from the punk-rock band, DOA). Out of the five performers, the ones I’m familiar with were Masia and Snailhouse since I usually see them from time to time and been a great supporter to their works.
Overall, it was nice to watch the performers be witty among one another and giving their best performances to the audience on the final night of Writers Festival. The photos will be posted below.

The SOCAN Edition
Wednesday’s radio show was SOCAN week and to be unique, I decided to play Canadian bands and musicians with Asian backgrounds as May is Asian Heritage Month. It was a bit difficult finding a Canadian musician with Asian descent but I was able to pull through the live show. On the first part of the show, the new song by Metric got played and as usual, the Wild 10 Countdown with a new number one song to begin May.
The playlist is over at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 2nd Radio Show – Press play to listen.
[audio http://archive.org/download/WildworksOnCkcu-fmForMay22012/WildworksMay22012.mp3]

Photos from the All In A Day Songwriters Circle
  
 

The Post Funding Drive Show Plus The Interview with Gabrielle Papillon & The Tea Giveaway – S07E12

CKCU-FM’s Funding Drive is done and over with. It was a success as the donation pledge exceeded the $111,000 target. For my own show, I had to salvage a plan as the first week was slow but things picked up in the second week. As mentioned previously, I decided to do a giveaway for listeners willing to donate on my radio show. It did work because I held the draw for the two teas. I had help from the CKCU Volunteer Coordinator as I joked that I didn’t want to rig the draw. The teas I gave away were Alpine Punch, a winter themed tea and then my favourite tea, Kanpe Tea. The teas are shown from the photo above. Congratulations to the winners of the tea giveaway.
Also on the radio show was a live interview with Gabrielle Papillon. Due to the fact that I aired my pre-recorded interviews during the Funding Drive, I had someone save me because I didn’t have anything planned for the post funding drive show. It was a privilege to doing a live phone interview with Papillon. A nice indie singer based in Halifax and Montreal. The only thing now is to pay the station manager on the long distance cost because I didn’t get a calling card.
New songs were played on the live part of the show.Since they are also charting on the countdown, Said The Whale (New Brighton EP) and Coeur De Pirate (Blonde) released new materials over on iTunes this week. Both are excellent and are worth getting.
Lastly, it’s great to get a few new listeners as the person I’ve been contacting through Twitter is also on CKCU-FM but is part of the Carleton School of Journalism’s radio news show. There’s the shoutout to you as I didn’t want to publicly name you.
Don’t forget to check the November 9th playlist at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary is at this link.

Audio/Interview
The November 9th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Gabrielle Papillon Interview

The Kanpe Tea from DAVIDsTEA – S07E05

After my radio show on Wednesday, I was inspired to go to DAVIDsTEA on Bank Street to check if they had the Kanpe tea. I didn’t realize it was unveiled last Thursday while being in Montreal for the Arcade Fire free outdoor show for Pop Montreal. DAVIDsTEA and Kanpe Foundation teamed up to contribute the rebuilding of Haiti since the earthquake.
The funny thing when I went to the tea shop, I didn’t realize that they were suppose to sell it on Thursday. Luckily, the nice employee was keen enough to let me buy it and not let anyone know about it. I kind of sweet talked my way about attending the Arcade Fire show in Montreal last week.
As seen from the photo above (apology on an object being shown. It’s not the iPad, it’s something else). The 40g gift can and the labelling looks lovely. As for the ingredients, it consists of organic hibiscus, mango, coconut, banana, papaya, cinnamon, stevia and natural flavouring.
Onto tasting the tea, it had a tart and tangy taste. I pretty much liked it because it was just flavourful. I never expected a red colour (photo below). It reminded me of previous teas I drank that had a fruity and tangy taste. I just can’t remember what kind.
All in all, getting the Kanpe tea was worth it because it goes for a good cause to the Kanpe Foundation and being an avid tea drinker, I go for any kind of flavours. As the website says, it’s to “celebrate Haiti.” I don’t know if the tea is for limited time but just check up them up if they have any available.
Last thing, the photos were taken while watching Nat & Marie over from the iPad.