13 Tasting Notes
When I asked to smell this tea, I was surprised by the little shocks of orange in the mixture, which turned out to be these cute little pumpkin candies! So silly, DAVIDsTEA. I wasn’t personally worried that they would make the final product too sweet, since I add sugar to even my pasta, but this may be a worry for others? Anyway, the tea is a black tea and also contains cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, caramel and pumpkin pieces.
I got this tea at the London DAVIDsTEA location in the latte form, accompanied by soy and a squirt of agave. I’m not sure if it was just how the lady at the store made it – perhaps she didn’t steep it for long enough so the flavours were under powered – but the soy seemed to vastly overpower the pumpkin, which gives me the impression that this is a tea that is easily made weak. The flavour profile of soy is certainly not stronger than that of pumpkin!
The whole of this tea was improved, however, by adding a dash of cinnamon. Pumpkin and cinnamon? A beautiful marriage.
I have a small issue with the naming of this tea, as the chai just wasn’t there, especially not under the milky cape of the soy. I would hesitate to sell this as such. This is an issue DAVIDsTEA seems to have with many of their chai teas… perhaps I’m too strict? Haha, regardless, I would certainly recommend this to be steeped with a little more than the amount they ask for. It’s got a good (albeit a little weak) pumpkin pie flavour, which can only be made better by making it into a latte with 2 percent milk, leaving no room for the pumpkin to be bumped out by soy.
I always feel apprehensive of edging my little ‘tea rating’ circle to the 100 percent spot on the meter, but this tea deserves little else. Lime Fizz is an herbal tea, first of all. It’s available at a little place called the Tea Haus in the London farmer’s market and it consists of herbal tea leaves, dried lime rinds and peppercorns, as well as some other things I can’t recall.
As for the name of the tea, they have a very particular way of putting the ‘fizz’ in. Teas are not meant to be carbonated, at least I think so… so instead of adding sparkling water or anything of the sort, they simulated the ‘fizz’ through adding ginger and pepper. The crackling sensation of the ‘hot’ in this tea gives the illusion and tingle of it having bubbles, and the extra peck of ginger adds that ‘je ne c’est quoi’. Clever!
The steep time is a bit high at eight minutes, but it’s certainly worth the wait!
Preparation
Don’t drink this expecting the typical sophisticated-like tea experience. This is a tea to feed to a teenager or child that you want to lure into the world of loose leaf; a good introductory tea for the weary. Luscious watermelon tastes a whole lot like its namesake, just with some bubblegum and melon flavour added to the mix. It does taste a tad bit better as an iced tea, but that’s how they suggest serving it on the package, so that’s just as well!
Before I get into the flavour profile of the tea, I’ll make a remark about the colours; the pretty pink speckles (which I can only assume are dried bits of raspberry) against the backdrop of dark brown and white make this tea look a bit like art.
Fantasy Island is a black tea and while you may not expect a black tea to taste good iced, that’s actually what the package recommends! And it delivers, too. None of the components come across as too strong, surprisingly. There’s a hint of raspberry and a punch of coconut, but they’re really just sitting backstage in comparison to the actual black tea flavour, which is prevalent but not overwhelming.
One thing I don’t like about this tea is how lightning fast it goes bitter. Be sure to babysit or you’ll have a very bitter cup of tea.
I’ll start off by saying that I’ve tried this tea in almost every way you can try a tea. I’ve had it in latte form, mixed in with coffee, steeped, with agave, with fixings, without sugar, with sugar, with milk, iced, just everything, so believe me when I say I’ve tried the hardest one can try to like it. First off, saying it’s a ‘chai’ is a stretch on the part of DAVIDsTEA. It tastes more like a rooibos, and that may be why I’m so reluctant to say I’m fond of it; it claims to have full flavours, but doesn’t quite deliver on any of the fronts. Almost nothing they say about this tea is accurate, from the spicey note they claim it has to the robust chocolate flavour the name alludes to. The chocolate taste, however, is at least somewhat obviously there. It’s not at all as peppery as the package claims and it relies solely on the mini chocolate chips in the tea mixture to give it any flavour beyond the default ’it’s tea’ taste. There are peppercorns in the bag/tin, but I hesitate to believe they don’t just disappear during the steeping process.
In the end, it tastes like chocolatey mud water, made slightly thick with melted chocolate.
If you’re hungering for a chai, I would recommend coco chai rooibos! It really is a much stronger player. And if you’ve got a hankering for chocolate, ladies, Chocolate Rocket is superior.
I don’t know why DavidsTea doesn’t mention that this tea tastes EXACTLY like grapefruit. Not even a whisper of its likeness is detailed in the tea’s description! It’s even got a colour that’s similar to grapefruit once it’s steeped! Silly David’s Tea.
… but yes, my review of this is ‘it tastes like grapefruit’.
Oh, and it’s better iced with lots of agave nectar. =P Like the (grape)fruit, it deserves to be served cold and doused in sugar.
Goji Pop is a tea I’ll probably restrict to mornings.
In the bag, it smells refreshingly lemony with a hint of the typical ‘very berry’ smell and something kind of flowery. It’s interesting! But the aforementioned lemon is powerful in a way that makes the whole thing taste a little too much like hot lemonade with a berry aftertaste… which is yummy, but not what’s advertised.
Instead of partaking in this tea while hot, I much prefer to let it sit out and become cold. Iced, this tea is fantastic. While still not tasting like an authentic tea, it makes up for it by tasting like a citrusy bite of spring. The smell you get in the bag is what this tea tastes like cold.
EDIT: Goji Pop is tasty, but not much of a ‘bang for your buck’, as the saying goes. =P It’s made of bulky, candy-looking bits of apple and other things and the recommended amount for steeping is 2 tsp. With most tea places measuring/charging in weight rather than ‘you will get this many cups’, you’ll probably get much less out of this than DavidsTea’s other selections.
Preparation
The advertised ‘for almond lovers’ isn’t true to this tea’s taste. I hate to break it to you, but this tea tastes nothing like almonds. I:
Instead what it tastes like is a merriment of apple and flowers and nuts. It’s a flowery (as the pinkish colour would suggest), nutty flavour that isn’t quite sophisticated but instead… peppy. I would start my day with this. And have some with dinner. And then have some while watching television, showering, making intense life decisions, etc. Really, it’s perfect for anything but pre-sleeping endeavors.
It’s kind of weak, so it’s a good idea to either let it steep for a longer time than suggested or just steep a tad more than the recommended amount. =P
EDIT: I’ve found the second steep of this is far superior to the first. The first steep wrings out an apple flavour, which makes this taste very ‘apple pie’. The second is more mellow, allowing the nuts to peek through and show themselves. Much improved, and truer to the name.
