DAVIDsTEA

My third purchase from David’s Tea yesterday. I’ve never had oolong before so I didn’t know what I was getting in to. I love lemon and citrus in general, so this was a safe bet, but it turned out nicely. I found the flavours mixed nicely and the lemon wasn’t nearly as overpowering as one would expect from the smell.

I found it to be a really smooth tea and I really enjoyed it. I look forward to my next cup!

I have been a hardcore fan-girl of this one since I first got it from Davids about 2.5 years ago. I was broken-hearted every summer when it did not return and I stock-piled all I could from the store and swaps. As a result, I still have 3/4 of a tin of it, which I found at the back of the cupboard lounging by the Extra Bold Masala Chai.

Steeping it up today, I long for the joy I have known this tea to bring – minty, limey, sweet with proper tea underneath it all. Heaven, yes? Well, apparently over the course of my tea journey, rooibos has become less palatable to me. This tea happens to contain a lot of rooibos, and it is giving it a sour smell. Uck. Sometimes I wish my tea tastes never changed at all.

Over-coming the sour rooibos smell, the first sips are mild. Way too mild. Wait, there is something building on the back of the tongue. It is sweet and creamy, almost like vanilla with a hint of lime. None of that sour rooibos smell in the taste but the aroma is really off-putting. As I sip more the mint comes out stronger and the tea is a supporting cast, accentuating the aromas I already described. This is one that has an accumulating taste, becoming stronger as I drink. Heaven!

While the smell is really gross, the taste really does deliver as well as it did for me a few years ago. Hallelujah! This remains one of my favourite flavoured teas and while I would prefer to add a bit more tea (maybe a light ceylon or a sweet chinese black) and cut back on the rooibos, I still love it. I will leave the rating this high as it has delivered consistently for so long. Mmm..

Second steep…All the little bits of mint and rooibos are floating at the top of my mug…I love watching tea steep! This steep is a little weaker than others have been in the past, but I’m also dealing with a larger mug than I’m used to. I don’t think I’ll push it to a third today, but this second is really quite good. It is more of a true mint flavour, since most of the creamy and tea aspects backed off in the first. Not a sharp mint, still true to the mojito flavour, but really good. I so love this tea, even if the liquor does look nasty like swampwater in my blue mug. : )

Yay! Now that the spring teas are out, it’s getting ever closer to summer teas, which just might bring us closer to…more mojito! I really hope it comes back, or at least a very similarly delicious cousin does. The spring focus on coconut was a big turn-off for me, and I hope they leave that behind for this year’s summer blends.

I’m enjoying a nice steaming mug of mojito (with my standard extra dash of spearmint)…in my new perfect tea mug! The beau caught on! : ) He got me the blue spring one with the pretty birds on it, and it adds a lovely dash of style and convenience to my tea drinking habits. Who doesn’t love to drink the taste of summer out of the beauty of spring? David’s Tea, you really know the way to this girl’s heart! I think my current favourite aspect of this mug, style aside, is that it holds nearly as much as my travel mug, but allows for very precise steeping…and soon enough, re-steeping!

As for the tea: there’s nothing new to say. Creamy limey vanillay minty flavour, super delicious. Never gets bitter, never needs sweetener and always lives up to my expectations.

Gotta spend the next hour at switchboard, so I’ve got some of my perennial favourite – a big travel mug full of mojito, with an extra splash of spearmint to really mint it up. I know it’s not summer yet, but the time change has led me to believe it can’t be far away. There was sun in my apartment after 6 pm yesterday! Now if only the sun planned on coming out at all today…

Update: This is delicious. A little slice of minty heaven to bring me through this long strange day. My brain hates the time change, but the love for this mug of tea is stronger! : )

Getting more of a rum and coconut taste from this right now, but my tastes are being played with by my cold. The coconutty edge doesn’t make me happy, but it’s definitely still drinkable. There’s also a stronger black tea taste – I am reaching the bottom of the wee bag I have at work, so my guess is that the component distribution isn’t so hot anymore. I also didn’t add the extra spearmint I often do. Maybe I should have, hmm.

Re-steep from earlier. Switched to my more conventionally sized mug, so I can wrap my hands around it. This is the third day in a row that I’ve had a headache after lunch, so the extra mint will hopefully help with that. if not, I took an ibu, because working and smiling at people with head pain is not fun.

Mojito is delicious, at least!

Didn’t know what I wanted, so went for mojito. It’s the only loose tea I have at work right now other than spearmint, so I popped some in my travel mug and I’m off to the races.

Unfortunately, the new travel mug (being plastic) retains smells far more than previous one did (also plastic). Tastes don’t transfer over, but it’s a little freaky.

I threw an extra half spoon of spearmint in here because I love it and because I can. Yummy!!

I ended up erring on the side of caution with my first steep and took the (awesome!)infuser out of my travel mug altogether after about ten minutes. In a stroke of brilliance, instead of dumping the tea leaves I put the infuser in my work mug, that way I can resteep without any mess. So, that’s what I’ve done!

I know that I’ve drained a lot of the flavour already, but I figure I might as well maximise what I have here at work. I think a big mug of spearmint will come after this, since I’m really enjoying just filling the travel mug with tea you don’t have to worry about. It keeps it substantially warmer than my work mug as well, so I don’t have to get up and make a new tea every 20 minutes.

Last logged Jan. 27? Seriously???

Throat starting to feel more and more like I will be ill by tomorrow, so I filled my travel mug to the brim with some hot water and threw in a teaspoon of mojito. I actually tossed another half teaspoon or so of David’s Tea’s spearmint in there for a mintier kick. Tastes delicious! I’ve actually burnt my tongue, which is a bit of a downer, but I still get the lovely taste.

I persist in deliusions of vanilla in here, with a muted flavour reminiscent of lime bang. (Which I find to be vanilla-ish). I don’t get the black tea, but I definitely get the mint! I’m still on the fence about leaving the tea in the mug for the duration (I’m lazy!) or if I should take it out to avoid over steeping the black tea and ruining the whole thing. Past experience dictates that this is an extremely forgiving tea, so I think I will leave it, unless something terrible happens.

Staring at the tea I realize that one of the flavours I can never pin down is Rooibos…this tea has everything! While others claim to get a coconut taste I (thankfully!) don’t. I do get a hint of a rummish something, sort of reminiscent of a buttered rum life saver.

Sidenote – When David’s Tea discontinues or retires a tea, they remove it from the website. Accordingly, I can’t see the ingredient list anymore which drives me bananas!!

How did this become an everyday tea? This is my third steep of a T-Sac that I threw together on Monday. I keep forgetting it’s hiding in my teapot. If I think about it too long, that’s really gross, but the tea still is coming through strong and clear.

Needed something I know is delicious after 24 hours of shady teas. Stand-by, ahoy! : )

My heart is breaking – Somehow, out of nowhere, this tea has become one of my favourites. I honestly considered not having a cup right now because I wouldn’t be able to squeeze in my other two customary steeps and I didn’t want to waste them (then I realized I could steep the bag again tomorrow, huzzah!). Anyway, it is excellent that I love this tea, because I have 3/4 of a tin of it. It is devastating that I love this tea because it was apparently a summer only tea and isn’t available anymore. Not to mention that it might not ever be again. I can see myself now in 6 months, begging the lovely ladies at David’s Tea to find a long hidden stash. My best hope, other than the tea coming back into circulation permanently, is that I will fall out of love with it and I will be able to move on. Until then, I drink happily, but sparingly. Three steeps per ‘serving’ – this will help it last : )

Second steep – mint is strong again. Why is the second steep so strong on mint???

Anyway, this might only do cups today, because this isn’t quite as strong as I would like. The mint is taking over, the base is muted, but a nice complement.

Figured I’d go to this delicious tea for work today – I learned yesterday that I can get three solid steeps, so it’s perfect for no fuss no muss tea that’s still delicious! I’ve interested a couple people in this by the smell alone, though most baulk at the price. Why is coffee allowed to be expensive but not tea? Mmm, I love the mint in this..

Oh my goodness, I am on my third steep of the same teabag [Edit – I don’t really mean teabag, I mean looseleaf tea in a t-sac because I’m at work and it’s easy!], and it is really still quite strong. I am quite impressed. Until recently, I wasn’t much of a re-steeper. Right now, I am doing the math on the many lost cups of tea. : (

Anyway, the tea is definitely starting to lose it’s zing – I found the mint to be more mild and the flavours muted, but it’s definitely drinkable. Three steep limit, I guess!

Re-steep. Still delicious. A little more minty this time, which I didn’t expect.

First steep for first work tea of the day. Warm and smooth, with an undeniable sweetness from the rooibos (Can’t miss it!). The mint comes in nicely, and sort of with a vanilla-esque flavour, as opposed to the bold mints I know David’s Tea to use. When I’m feeling like some mint but worried about heartburn (Terrible that my favourite flavour can be so cruel to me) I can turn to this. Delicious iced or hot, with or without rum!

Can’t wait to re-steep when this cup is gone. Yum yum!

Had a nice cuppa this evening. The beau enjoyed some iced with rum and I used the leftover for a hot cup. I first bought this in the summer, brewed a mug and didn’t enjoe it as much as some of the others so it sat at the back of my cupboard. Now that winter’s settled in, this is a great pick me up, reminding me that summer will come again some day. Really enjoyable, especially as a mint fan!

You know what Steepster? This tea is going on four years old and I still have 50 grams left. You know what else? It’s still really good. I get grapes, I get raisin, I get a bit of natural sweetness and a hint of white tea. I don’t get bitterness or astringency. I don’t get bubblegum. I don’t get anything overly artificial. This was a really well balanced white tea blend that Davids put out for Christmas nearly four years ago and I really liked it. I still like it. I wish they would return to these less flavoured blends that hold up to a bit of abuse. I am so happy with this right now. Trying out whites and green oolongs lately has inspired me to broaden my tea horizons, on occasion at least. Usually the beau takes care of everything that isn’t a black tea in our house but I’ve been on a sampling role lately and I will be keeping this one at work with me for the times I want a flavoured or light tea.

By the way, the grapiness of this is like purple grapes I find. No tart, not aggressive, not fake or candy-like. Really nice. A white base was the way to go. Way better than the newer grape tea they did a while ago.

Having a delicious pot of Through the Grapevine. Hopefully will enjoy another pot of the spent leaves when I get home. It’ll be a nice reward for running errands. Lovely white tea taste, strong grape smell and relatively strong flavour. Such a nice tea..

Holy Hannah, I love this tea. Brewed some up this afternoon while watching Scott Pilgrim Vs the World again with the beau. Unfortunately when we got this they were almost out at David’s Tea and the tea lady was forced to give us the bottom. Accordingly, there are lots of littles broken bits in my tea : (

I strained it through some paper towel to keep the small bits out of my mug and am enjoying it. Still really grapey, I feel confident in saying that I can taste the delicate white underneath it. I’ve had a couple different white teas now and I think I can finally identify the taste of the itself. It’s really interesting, and almost like a fleeting flavour at the end/underneath the sip.

Unrelated, but I think I will try 52Teas Cantaloupe Bai Mu Dan once again soon and see if my burgeoning appreciation for white teas allows me to more fully enjoy that one. I hope so! I also want a mug of their apple vanilla white chai. I think I’m going to end up with a tea queue if I’m not careful!

Smells amazing…I’ve wanted this since it came out but couldn’t bring myself to cough up the price. Today I gave in. And I didn’t regret it, at all!! We let this steep for a long time, though the beau poured a cup at about five minutes and it was delicious, but a really mild fruit flavour. At a ten minute steep, the tea really hits you right off. It sort of is milky, though deliciousn and sweet, though not too sweet!!

Upping the rating…Had two mugs of this today at a friend’s house and really enjoyed them. I went for boiling water with a shorter steep time, maybe 3 minutes the first and 6 or 7 the second. I did my usual 1 tsp of tea to two mugs, then resteeped for two more, so that was a good tea ratio. This tea has a richer deeper flavour that I enjoy when I am looking for something non-sweet and non-berry. Really hit the spot, and I think I’ll be turning to it more often. Still a strange smell though!