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Can’t base my review on much since I just tried a sample in the store, but…I have mixed feelings. I bought a small amount because it SMELLS so good. The taste as a sample was a bit of a let-down, so I’ll have to write a more complete review after my first cup I make myself. Don’t know if I’ll get around to trying it iced, since I bought so little (the stackable tin…24g of tea, so about 5 cups?). We’ll see.

Verdict so far: great smell, less great taste.

I remember having this tea last time David’s introduced it, but didn’t get around to buying it. I remember the feeling of intense disappointment when I realized it was a limited edition tea and that I had missed my chance to buy it.

When I saw it was being reintroduced as a spring tea, I didn’t get my hopes up. I remembered my experience with Mom’s Apple Pie: the original tasted exactly like apple pie, and when reintroduced it had a plastic-like aftertaste. “Don’t get excited, self” I said. Went in to get an iced tea with my mom, and saw the monster-can sitting on the counter. AH-HA! I thought. I’ll try it now.

So I tried it. And yummmm. Iced, at least, it was really good. No astringency, no bitterness, no weird after-taste. Just fruity yum. I would get some just to make iced tea this summer.

Verdict: will buy.

Had it as a sample hot, then got a cup of it iced. Yum yum yum yum yum. I dragged my mom to David’s for her Frequent Steeper card, and convinced her to get a cup of it iced. Her opinion is also yum yum yum yum yum yum. I’m glad we’ve reached a consensus. I’ll have to buy some of this to have it iced over the summer (I think I’ve created a monster…)

Fruity, has a wacky colour (and who doesn’t love a tea with a wacky blueberry-induced colour?!), smells delish, and tastes like tropical. And it doesn’t have coconut in it! WOO! Seems like nearly every one of the teas that has sounded good recently has coconut added. Blech. But not this one. (excuse me while I dance in my chair)

Verdict: Will buy.

Day 11 of my Easter Advent calendar!

To be honest…I don’t understand how anyone can like this tea. Granted, I might be biased for two reasons: 1) I don’t like coconut (more on that below…), 2) I have two friends that make me chai blends from their home countries (Ethiopia and India), so I’m a tad spoiled on the “chai beverage” front.

I can’t usually tolerate coconut in anything, so the fact that I don’t like this tea shouldn’t be all that surprising. That being said, I DO like some teas with coconut in them, especially from David’s; Elf Help is one of my favourite teas on the planet, and that has nice big strands of coconut in it that I don’t even try to pick out (I thought of it at first…). So the presence of the coconut isn’t the only thing that makes this tea disgusting to me.

I can’t quite put my finger on WHY I find this tea so terrible. I think it might be the rooibos, but I’m not sure on that one, either. I love cardamom, I love peppercorns, I love cloves, I love vanilla. I should, except for the coconut, love this tea. But I don’t. I got 5 sips of the tea down before I was all “I can’t do it without barfing” and was about to throw the cup out. I thought I would try a last-ditch effort of throwing out half the cup, filling the other half with milk and adding some agave to see what would happen. I couldn’t make it worse, right? I was already at the point of feeling nauseous from it. Well, the “latte” didn’t make it any better. Five more sips and down the drain it went. I’ll try to find someone to pawn the other cup. Even if I detest the tea, I still feel bad throwing it out.

Verdict: you couldn’t pay me to drink this again.

Day 6 of my Easter Advent calendar!

Can’t believe I didn’t add a tasting note from when I bought a bag of this. Whoops!

This is a tea I always get excited about drinking, make it, love the smell of it, love the taste of it for the first few sips, then it’s just SO SWEET that I can’t finish the cup. It tastes like artificial cake (because: flavouring), has the oily layer on top of the cup from the chocolate chips (which I’m not totally against…works like lip gloss), and that OHMYGODIJUSTHADACUPOFSUGAR from the sprinkles. I don’t understand the point of the white sprinkles, and the red ones impart their lovely artificial colour to turn the tea pinkish (did you know that red velvet cake shouldn’t ever have red food colouring in it? It turns “red” because of a chemical reaction between the fine cocoa powder and the vinegar added to the cake base. Now you know). It doesn’t matter how long I steep this tea, I always get that raunchy after taste from steeping black tea leaves too long. Boo.

Verdict: I want to love this tea because I love red velvet cake, but nope. Just can’t do it.

Day 10 of my Easter Advent calendar!

It’s pretty obvious that I like this tea already (d’uh) and I have some both at work and at home. My mom loves this one, too, so we go through an obscene amount of it in this house! I like how nutty and pie-y it tastes, but almost more like apple crisp. I love it. And I love that it’s pink, and from rather flavourless beet juice. Doesn’t take away from the flavour of the tea, and doesn’t add tangy-ness. Yum yum yum.

Verdict: will definitely buy more when my stash is gone.

Day 8 of the Easter Advent calendar!

I still love this tea. I heard it was being discontinued…I hope whoever said that to me was full of it, because I’ll be sad if this one disappears. I love the creaminess that it has, almost like key lime pie. It’s lime-y, without being like green tea with lime juice squeezed in it.

I liked it so much I had both cups right away. Now I’m sad it’s gone. lol

Verdict: will go buy some on my next trip to David’s.

Day 9 of my Easter Advent calendar

The smell of this one really got me. Smells very peachy, which is fun because there’s no peach actually in it. Interesting. Oh, right “artificial flavour”. Peaches. Expectations: decreased.

Tried to scoop out a little of everything to put in the steeping basket. I think I was at least mostly successful. Steeped probably too long, since it was a little bitter towards the end of the cup. Ah, well. No one ever said I was an expert.

The taste is distinctly peachy. Not like the fruit…like the sour candy. Since I don’t really like fuzzy peaches I wasn’t all that impressed, but I wasn’t necessarily disgusted. It was…weird. I would have liked the tea, I think, without any kind of flavour added. Why does it have to have flavouring?! Why not just the goodness of tea?!

I have at least one more cup of this left, maybe two. Before I decide if I’d recommend it, I’ll drink it again.

Verdict: because it’s a white base I doubt I’d ever buy it because it’s expensive and not outstanding.

Day 5 of my Easter Advent calendar! Catching up on the 4 days I’ve missed, all at once :)

I thought this one was pretty good. I had this as part of my Christmas Advent calendar, and thought it was…strange. Not necessarily unpleasant strange. But strange. I’ve bumped up my rating, because I think this one is starting to grow on me. I don’t like it as much as I liked luscious watermelon, but I do really like it. And I think it would be glorious iced. If I had enough left I’d try it, but alas…‘tis not so. Maybe I’ll go buy a small bag at David’s for the sole purpose of trying it iced.

Anyway, I still don’t know what goji berries taste like, so maybe that’s what tastes “strange” for me. Not sure. But now it’s becoming a good strange, not a bad strange :) One more cup left to decide for good.

Verdict: it’s growing on me. I may buy some.

Tried it for the first time after receiving it as a “presenter gift” from a conference I recently attended and presented at.

Normally, as should not be a surprise to anyone that reads my tea notes, I’m not a fan of any kind of “plain” black tea. Yes, I consider Earl Grey to be a “plain” black tea. I don’t care what you consider it :) This one has more “fancy things other than black tea leaves” added in, so I was excited to try it. May I have finally found myself a “plain black” that I want to keep stocked?! Could this possibly be the case?!

I definitely get creaminess, I definitely get Earl Grey, I definitely get black tea (didn’t forget about it while steeping, so didn’t get any astringency), and I definitely get “something else”. It’s almost a chocolatey flavour to me, which makes no sense, I know. But there is a hint of “something else that’s sweet” playing around in the background.

Shocking to admit, but I REALLY like this one. Could it be that I’m growing up into a plain tea kind of person?! Shocking.

Verdict: a creamy yum. Will probably buy more when this is done.