97 Tasting Notes

94
drank Pure Chai by DAVIDsTEA
97 tasting notes

As a latte with frothed vanilla almond milk and sugarfree Torani vanilla syrup. So heavenly.

So hi!
I had my 3rd relapse not long after getting out of the hospital in May. In September, a few weeks after walking out of my job (due to horrible managerial abuse), I fainted on my kitchen floor and was forced back to emergency. I was 65 pounds, again. Since it was so soon after my discharge they refused to let me back into IP, told me I was anemic, and sent me home. I realized that I now had two choices: recover on my own, or die. I came to the conclusion that I really don’t want to waste my life like this.
So I’ve been recovering at home ever since and making huge progress while following the guidelines of a wonderful website I’ve been reading. I’ve learned more about my illness than I ever have before and my attitude towards food has never been better. I’ve been seeing a therapist on an outpatient basis and he seems to think that this time I’m going into permanent remission.

I just had my first cuppa in quite a while and remembered how much I love the stuff. So it brought me back here for a visit. <3

Lindsay

Welcome back! Glad you’re feeling better. :) <3

Ysaurella

welcome back Yvonne. Hope you’ll get better soon and leave your illness behind for ever.

Roswell Strange

Welcome back! Glad to hear that despite some bumps in the road you seem to be doing well currently.

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50
drank Chocolate Macaroon by DAVIDsTEA
97 tasting notes

I tried this tea at the mall when going for a job interview on the weekend. I absolutely loved it! So nutty and creamy and chocolatey…reminds me a lot of Choconut Oolong actually.

I did end up landing the job, by the way. I now work at a chocolaterie and I love every minute. However, after work yesterday stupid me went into my local Davids and bought this on a whim without really looking at what was in it. The fact that there’s sugar in this really pisses me off. Is there really any need to pre-add sugar into their teas? What the hell?

Thus, why it gets a 50. I don’t appreciate being tricked into consuming sugar.

TeaBrat

congratulations!

Yvonne

Thanks :)

Indigobloom

congrats!

caile

Congratulations!

Dustin

Maybe they are trying to follow Teavana’s lead with those god awful samarai chai rock sugar samples they push on you with every order. :/
Congrats on landing the job! It’s great to do something you love for work!

Yvonne

I wouldn’t doubt it. I hate it when companies try to cram things down your throat. I hope this isn’t a trend for DT.
Thanks guys :)

Sil

Grats on the job!

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100
drank Choconut Oolong by DAVIDsTEA
97 tasting notes

So, where the hell have I been, you may ask?

I’ve been on a general psych ward as an inpatient for the last 3 months due to my eating disorder nearly killing me off (again). I’m 5’4 and at 60 pounds, the doctors couldn’t believe how I hadn’t dropped dead. It’s not my first admission, and I’ve been dealing with that shit for pretty much all of my teenage and young adult life, but hopefully this was my last time on the ward. Although I’ve met some wonderful people in treatment, it’s also a really fucking scary place to be. I know I’ve said this years ago, but never again. I mean it this time.

I’d like to thank anybody who sent teas to me during my period of being extremely nutritionally deprived in every way. It made me happy at a time where I was so sick and depressed that nothing else would. My brain wasn’t functioning correctly due to the extreme malnutrition and I was acting fairly loopy – I’m not normally one to accept charity like that. But thank you guys for your incredible generosity. You guys are wonderful. :) I now have a drawer of enough tea to last several lifetimes.

keychange

Yvonne, I was really worried about you. I hope you know you’re stronger than you feel, and that you deserve health and wellness and treatment. Be well.

Sil

Woohoooo! Welcome back! So very happy to hear you’ve made it through to the other side of things.

caile

Welcome back! : )

mewakeling

Welcome back! I am glad to see you back!

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83

Yesterday my sweet mom decided to get me a little Valentine’s Day present – the new design Perfect Mug from Davids. :) She also treated me to a small sample of this tea and Cherry Blossom. I just love my mom to death despite everything.

As for this tea…not bad, I don’t mind it. Reminds me of a very sweet and woody After Eight chocolate mint. Unfortunately my stomach isn’t really agreeing with it right now – I feel a little queasy. :(

Gotta run though – longer review to follow with my next tasting.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
TheTeaFairy

Awww, what a nice thing to do, your mom is great! What does the new mug look like?

Ana

That’s so awesome of your mom. :D I was thinking of picking up a sample of this and compare it to DTT’s Swiss Mountain Rooibos.

keychange

I’m also curious about how the new mug looks!

TheTeaFairy

Lol, keychange, we both seem to have a vast interest for teaware…

Yvonne

It’s the pink one with the birds! I have the Christmas red one with the birds as well so it’s perfect :)

Plunkybug

I got the love birds mug yesterday! I love the design….soooo freaking adorable!

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46
drank Cherry Blossom by DAVIDsTEA
97 tasting notes

Eh…first off, white tea and green tea don’t usually get along with me. So I took a real big chance trying this – I figured maybe I won’t like it.

The tea is super flowery tasting, and I can definitely taste cherry. It’s not cloying at first but I still find it hard to keep drinking my cup. The entire time I was drinking, I kept feeling the tea just wasn’t for me.

Added to my swap pile.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Ana

At least you tried something new. :)

Yvonne

Yup! I’m always up for trying new things :)

TeaLady441

That’s too bad that it didn’t work. Did it tell you to steep it at boiling? I think it might work better at 80C so as not to burn the leaves.

VariaTEA

This tea says to be steeped at 90C for 3 minutes. Your steeping might have thrown off the flavor.

Yvonne

Ah – maybe that’s where I made my error. I’ll retry it.

VariaTEA

It is worth testing out. You should really watch the brewing temperature (especially with whites and greens) because you can burn the leaves and really throw off the flavor. It is best to stick to the steeping parameters (at least when first trying a tea) to get the tastiest cup.

TeaLady441

I hope it works out for you! Maybe you’ll end up liking whites/greens after all!

And I only pointed it out because it’s a common mistake! I had no idea that different teas needed to be steeped differently, and DAVIDsTEA’s labels are so generous with the range that it’s not always so obvious. (i.e, steep 4-7 minutes – there can be a huge difference there!)

Alysia

I don’t know if you still have this for swap, but I missed out on this one and would love to try it :) Check out my cupboard if there’s anything you want in there!

VariaTEA

Alysia, her account has been inactive for about two months now. You might have better luck posting in the swap board: http://steepster.com/discuss/5156-us-and-can-tea-swaps-for-us-and-canadian-folks-north-america?page=1

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100
drank Cafe Vanilla by Della Terra Teas
97 tasting notes

This is absolutely PERFECT. PERFECT.
Exactly the vanilla I was craving. To a tee. Down to the very last drop. Oh my god, this was just divine. So smooth, so creamy…

This is a purchase for me in the future. Undoubtedly. But thank you so much, keychange, for giving me the generous sample!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
keychange

I’m so glad this was a hit with you!

Starfevre

This tea reminds me of my turkey poop experience.

TeaLady441

Yes! I love this one too.
I uh… huh. Do I want to know Starfevre?

Yvonne

I can’t thank you enough, keychange. :) You are such a dear!!

Starfevre

If you really want to know, it’s all revealed on my latest tasting note for this tea.

Yvonne

Hahahaha oh my.

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92

Thank you so much Courtney for a sample of this! :)

Hm, this wasn’t bad! I could definitely taste carrot, although the vanilla notes didn’t shine through as much as I’d have liked them to. It was still very sweet but not exactly what I would call “frosted” much like what I got with Della Terra’s Carrot Cake. But this was rather enjoyable regardless and did subtly remind me of a carrot cake.

Props to Butiki for being vegan and using natural flavours – that gets a thumbs up in my book.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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94
drank Cacao Tea by Herbal Infusions
97 tasting notes

You guys are 100% right – the longer you let this steep, the more decadent it becomes.

At first I steeped it for 6 minutes – the colour was an extremely light tint of brown, with very little cacao flavouring. It was there, but it was extremely underwhelming and left a weird chalky feeling in the back of my throat. Then I decided to put the steeper back in and let it sit for another 10 minutes…and it turned HEAVENLY. Deliciously rich and cacaoy with zero chalk. It was like drinking hot chocolate without additives.

Truly a delectable treat and something I’ll be ordering in the future.
Thank you so much Courtney for sharing this with me!

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
mewakeling

Glad you also had success with the longer steep!

Indigobloom

I found this loses more flavour over time. I just use a little more leaf! :)

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61
drank Jumpy Monkey by DAVIDsTEA
97 tasting notes

All I can really say about this tea is “eh”.
I wanted more chocolate and less gritty nutty taste. :( It didn’t really taste like much of anything but grainy almonds, which I don’t mind, but it’s not what I was expecting. Almost grassy. I don’t want to be drinking grass. I detected no chocolate or even coffee for that matter.

Disappointing.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec
Roswell Strange

The name of this one always makes me think there should be bananas. Banana, coffee, chocolate, and almonds sounds like a great idea to me…

Yvonne

I totally see what you mean! It would be 10x better with some bananas or some sort of fruit…it needs a natural sweetness of some sort to it.

Nxtdoor

Yah, I totally expected banana in this one because I kept thinking of chunky monkey from Ben and Jerry’s (ice cream, not tea). Anyway… It was a no go for me

Kamyria

Ha ha ha… I immediately thought of chunky monkey too! When you call something monkey it better got bananas in it… lol

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71

This one comes to me from the wonderful Missb! Thank you :D

This tastes wonderfully malty and grainy, almost, with a dark dark chocolate undertone. Almost reminds me of licorice – and in a way, the maltyness comes out in a way in the aftertaste that reminds me of eating rice.

I have a feeling I may have underleafed this however – so tired this afternoon. :P So a rereview is coming in the future, definitely!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Roswell Strange

Mmm, this one sounds great. Shopping list!

Sil

this one resteeps well too, i think :) just go for a bit longer, with a bit cooler water

Yvonne

Does it? Oooh, thanks :D Glad I kept my leaves!

caile

I agree, it re-steeps great!

Sil

anything from verdant tends to resteep well for a second steep..often you can get more than the second one as well, depending on how strong a brew the others are.

TeaLady441

I was just talking about this yesterday and the sound of it got me excited.

Did it not taste like a Crunch chocolate bar? Because that’s what I want and if it doesn’t I’ll be very disappointed.

TeaLady441

Also, good luck with the re-steeps! Verdant tea is awesome for that. It’s expensive stuff but you can really make it last.

Yvonne

It did taste SLIGHTLY of a Crunch, now that you mention it, but without most of the sweetness of a Crunch. Like a dark chocolate Crunch. :P Very weak though…I’m pretty sure I underleafed. :(
Thank you for the good luck wishes! :)

Plunkybug

This is one I have been craving to taste. I have seen so many people review this one. I love genmai cha, and with the chocolate, how can it be bad? It’s on my shopping list. I need to sit down one day and see what I want to get from Verdant…or maybe I’ll do a co-op order with local tea friends so we can make a large order and share.

JustJames

i like the sneaky under tongue honey flavour.

TeaLady441

I added it to my list, only to realize that they’re out of stock! Well, I can wait a few more months for the next harvest. I guess. Gives me more time to earn points!

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Profile

Bio

My name is Yvonne. I’m 21 and live in a snowy Canadian wasteland known as Manitoba.

I’m relatively new to the loose tea world, although I used to drink generic Red Rose tea constantly. A friend introduced me to a Teavana tea one chilly winter and I got myself slightly intrigued. Went to purchase it myself, used shoddy equipment to prepare it, and was discouraged.

Christmas 2013 rolled around, and despite having an awful holiday for other reasons, I received some of Teavana’s Cha Yen Thai as a gift after asking for chai tea. I went out and bought a proper infuser cup and was instantly hooked. Now my tea collection is steadily growing! I’m obsessed!

I like:
Dessert teas, black teas, oolong, rooibos, pu’erh, mate, chai, chamomile, chocolate, coconut, cinnamon, pineapple, tropical mixes, nutty, sweet, complex flavours, indulgent flavours

I do NOT like:
Green teas, herbal teas, white teas, teas too overbearing with fruit, pure tisane, cloyingly sweet teas, hibiscus, peanuts, burning my mouth

I am lactose intolerant (pretty severely, actually – I do not consume any dairy product) but I find that the miniscule amounts of dairy found in some teas don’t bother me for the most part.

100 – My absolute favourite teas. Without them, I will cry salty tears of despair.

99 – 95 – Cream of the crop, although missing SOMETHING to make them a perfect favourite. Not something I couldn’t possibly live without, but pretty darn close. Lots of teas in this category tend to reach 100 eventually.

95 – 75 – Yummy, but if it disappeared tomorrow I’d quietly mourn it for about 15 minutes and move on to a favourite. Leaves something to be desired.

75 – 50 – Passable, but not by much. Something I’d really have to be in the mood for to drink.

50 and lower – Nope nope nope. Not for me. Probably couldn’t or had a hard time finishing the cuppa. Doooown the sink.

Location

Canada

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