Davidson's Organics

No doubt I’ve said this before, but I am always intrigued by the subjectivity of flavors in tea reviews—what tastes like homemade Christmas divinity to me may taste like sweaty sneakers to you. Case in point: this Keemun Congu, that according to its proprietor, has a wine undertone and a smoky finish.

My take on it is completely different: light-bodied and very fruity, maybe cherry-grape (I guess that’s where they’re getting the wine) and if there is any smoke at all, it’s just a teensy wisp from a snuffed-out candle. However, this is not to say it’s bad tea. It drinks like a very well-behaved English Breakfast blend. I wonder what you’d think. :)

Received in my first Sipsby box. Tea was ok. I’ve had much better tasting chai teas.

In my desperation for finding a replacement for the Starbucks blossoming rose rooibos latte, I bought a gigantic 16 oz bag (that’s 455 g!) of this on amazon.

Pros
-cheap because it is in bulk
-ground rooibos is difficult to find

Cons
-more gritty than Starbucks or Red Leaf/Matcha Outlet rooibos matcha
-doesn’t really dissolve very well
-larger bits tend to accumulate at the bottom of the cup

So for the price, this can’t be beat. However it is definitely not as fine or powdery as any other rooibos matcha I have come across. Even mixed into milk you can feel all of the gritty texture.

I bought this bulk from the co-op.

I like Earl Grey but I can’t say I’m a fan of this. It smells and tastes rather medicinal and woody and is really drying. Not what I want at night. I can’t imagine when I would want this. The rooibos looks nice though and it’s not dusty.

Addendum: The bergamot is not overpowering by any means, I think I just don’t like it mixed with a woody rooibos that’s lacking in sweetness.

I use this tea as another daily grandpa style drinker. It’s cheap enough that if you use too much you don’t have to worry about resupplying. It’s convenient that it’s on Amazon for 2 day shipping. It’s not the best gunpowder you can fine but it’s a good daily drinker to have around.

I bought this tea for very cheap off of Amazon Prime. The price is about 8 cents per gram when you get a 16oz packet. This is more of an everyday drinking tea than anything else. I bought this purely to grandpa style while at work.

This tea works pretty well for that. The small pieces of stem that are placed in tend to stay floating however they are pretty easy to skim off. While not the highest quality of tea it’s one you can just use willy nilly and not worry about breaking your bank. Don’t expect the highest quality out of this.

After yesterday’s election, I find myself selecting something that will hopefully be comforting this morning.

Got this from Sips by. It’s funny, I complained in the comments on my last box that I had been hoping for something pumpkin spice, and in my next box, there it was. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or if they actually do read those. Either way, yay.

The first thing I notice is that the bags are really powdery. I found myself wiping my hands off on my sweater. Cinnamon is the main scent I notice, and the tea brews up to a lighter shade of tan than I expected, leaving me worried this will be weak.

Hmm. And it kind of is. Cinnamon leads this tea, followed by nutmeg. Clove also makes an appearance, along with something unexpectedly leathery. Ginger and allspice are sort of hiding in the background, providing a little warmth, but not standing out. There is also a baked note. Sort of like pie crust, but without the vanilla. Something also reminds me of the original flavor of Chapstick. I’m not detecting anything pumpkiny, unfortunately. This isn’t bad. Just kind of lame…

I really liked this tea. It’s not overpowering but has just the right amount of apple and cinnamon flavors. Not too sweet or too bitter, just right.

Work Tea Swap

So, apparently there are ‘hardcore’ tea drinkers besides myself in the office. I was drinking some Taiwanese Pear (?) Oolong from a farmer on IG, when my co-worker brought it to my attention that she’s “pretty much into tea, too,” so we exchanged samples.

Now, I oftentimes rate a bit easier with tea swapped teas. But with this one, I can’t mildly fake it. I don’t like it. Too much jasmine or perhaps something else. It starts out okay, but it quickly turns into a bitter ball of jasmine as it cools. Maybe this would be and/or is okay as a near-boiling tea, but overall, I don’t like it.

Throwback Thursday! While I dearly love this tea, it was time to put it at the forefront of my sipdown efforts… it was one of the oldest in my cupboard, and I noticed that the zip seal on the bag had come loose. It’s an herbal, and thankfully the flavor hadn’t been comprimised too much.

Smelling the brewed cup, it still had a nice citrusy lemon aroma, with notes of ginger and pepper spice and a somewhat herbaceous body. I found that the flavor of this had held up; this is a lemon ginger tea that doesn’t have a weird Pledge cleaner taste, isn’t burning with an over-abundance of ginger, and I love how the tulsi base compliments the lemon/ginger notes. The lemon tastes juicy and the ginger does have a spiciness to it, but it tastes very natural, and while it leaves a nice warmth down the throat and in the belly, there is only a very mild spiciness left on the tongue, not a burning lingering heat. I find it quite soothing on the throat and stomach. The tulsi adds notes of hay, pepper, citrus, and mint to the cup, and blends so naturally with the lemon and ginger flavors. If anything, I think I’ve just become more of a tulsi fan since I first discovered this tea, and think I actually appreciate the nuances of this blend a bit more now!

I really enjoyed the lemon ginger yerba mate tea by Bird & Blend, Morning Kick, that I tried recently, which also had a very nice, natural lemon flavor, and now that I’ve revisited this tea in rather close succession to the other, I can say that it is much stronger on the spice notes than Morning Kick; the B&B blend would be my choice if I wanted a) caffeine and b) was in the mood for a more gentle spice hit. But this tea is definitely my go-to lemon ginger as an any-hour herbal tea (I do enjoy my pot of tea before bed!) or for a tolerable ginger dose for a sore throat or nauseous stomach.

I’m a bit sad to have sipped this one down; this has been noted for my re-order list for when I finally start refreshing my cupboards.

This is a tea I was gifted from an online friend; she said it was her favorite tea and she wanted to share it! What I received came from the Encore Teas tea shop in Olympia, Washington, but looking at the ingredients in the blend, I believe they wholesale the blend from Davidson’s Tea. It is one of the nicest of the “lemon ginger” variety of teas I’ve tried. It has a very full lemon flavor, and I quickly found that I much prefer the rich lemony brew of lemon myrtle to the more commonly used lemongrass. I also like that this tea isn’t too ginger-heavy; there is a nice warmth, but I’ve tasted a lot of blends that just feel way too strong on the ginger notes, while I prefer a nice lemon flavor with the ginger being a little more subdued. This blend also adds tulsi, and there is a very /slight/ pleasant sort of cooling, slightly minty flavor beneath the lemon. It is very subtle, but adds a little depth to what would otherwise be a simple lemon ginger tea. It comes together really nicely. This is also my go-to tea for blending with my Headache Tea, which is so ginger-heavy I find the flavor of it a bit unpalatable, but it is one of those herbal blends that is really great for my chronic migraine condition. The lemon flavor in this is so rich that adding a teaspoon with my Headache Tea nicely masks the “earthy herbal” flavors and also calms down some of the ginger notes in that tea. It’s my “spoonful of sugar” that helps the medicine tea go down, so it’s very useful, too!

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/tea16/

Backlog

I have started to crave random teas lately—chai especially—so, I’ve been getting some samples of everything that I find missing in my tea journey. Now, a chai, for me, has always been that special tea ever since I was a child. I remember first discovering chai at our local bakery down the road from our house while growing up.

My father would oftentimes get a dozen donuts every other week, so I’d like to tag along for the ride (I was able to choose my donuts directly, rather than relying on nasty cream sticks; which have been unappealing to me ever since I had my first jelly donut. Ha-ha).

Anyway, during that time, I had made a note of their drink specials while going with my dad and saw that they had “chai lattes” for the same as a cup of coffee. One of those times, I had asked my dad if I was able to have a cup of the chai latte to try. In fear of having my mother find out that he was going to buy his son a cup of “coffee” (which during this time in my life was restricted for two reasons: I was “too young” for tea/coffee & for another undisclosed reason), he made sure that we sat in the bakery at the only table they had and sip our beverages there. I will admit that that moment was pure bliss. I had found something truly amazing & purely delightful—so much so, that I’d secretly ride my bike there every Saturday for a cup until they went out of business in early 2004-ish. ;)

So, with that said….I found this at the local Giant Eagle before work…..I wasn’t so sure how much to get, so I weighed out an ounce and took it for work….

Notes: A bit maltier than expected, but the spices mixed well with the base of the tea. I had to add a touch of cream to cut that slight bitterness out, but it wasn’t too bad overall.

PS. Sorry about the accidental story time. :p

Out of the freebie teas that Davidsons sent me, this was my favorite.

Creamy coconut with the mystery ingredient made it oh-so-delicious! I couldn’t believe it when I read the ingredient list, I’ll be honest. YUM.

Note: MUST be steeped at less than boiling to get out the proper flavors.

Not as “tropical” as I’d like, but still delicious. I’ll definitely seek this one out again.

Another really old teabag I needed to use up. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of teabags left in the box. I’m trying to get though them soon, though, because they are older.

It is pretty generic. Black tea, apple cinnamon (apple cider) flavour. Nothing really pops out at me. It is a solid cup, especially with milk to compliment a mild malty black, but it isn’t something I would buy again or drink again after these teabags are gone. I got bored with apple cinnamon after the first few teabags.

This is the best Earl Grey tea I have ever tried. It is very flavored, so you need very little for a strong cup.

In an effort to find a cheaper way to make decaf genmaicha, I bought toasted rice (yet to arrive in the mail) and a 16oz bag of Davidson’s decaf green.

It isn’t amazing, but I’m not a big green tea fan. It is very vegetal, very green, will over steep. I found 4 minutes at 85 deg C was too much (slightly astringent and bitter). I’m thinking the best genmaicha would use either a white tea or a toasty green like houjicha or kukicha. I wanted something decaf, and that’s why I’m making my own using this. Why is decaf loose leaf so hard to find. D:

Tea Swap Tea

This was a pretty solid tea to have at work. Considering I have a job where I can freely drink as much tea as I’d like; this, among other teas, was a nice little gift to get in the mail today as I was walking out of the house. I had noted that the sweetness of the pear mixes well with the spices. It’s rich in flavor, smooth, sweet, and refreshing. I think it’d be a nice tea to have either hot or cold—however, considering the weather today, it was a nice hot tea.

Again, Davidson’s tea seems to be one of those grocery store brands that doesn’t disappoint. This tea begins by hitting the tip of the tongue with the VERY slight bitter tang of a Chinese oolong.

Now, this is a jasmine tea, and I hate jasmine blends. But the jasmine was so very light and delicate that it was actually a mild flavor, like a spice, to accompany the tea instead of drowning my senses. The oolong carried the jasmine scent to the middle of the palate, where it spread like a warming cloud.

As I swallow, it gets a little strange. There’s a bit of salty greenness, which reminds me of a Chinese green tea.

I can imagine drinking this tea at a really good Chinese restaurant.

This one is a little odd. I have the looseleaf version. When I sent this to a friend, she said it was “oily.” How can a straight tea be oily? I kind of know what she means now.

The mouthfeel is like nothing I have ever experienced. It’s extremely juicy and slick. It’s not oily in an unpleasant way, but I can completely see how she would say that.

The flavor is like most whites I have had, extremely mild. Most of what I get is mild sweet grass, and maybe a little bit of hay. There’s a bit of honey sweetness in there as well.

Despite what people tend to think about grocery store tea, Davidson’s has been consistently good.