DAVIDsTEA

David’s Tea has a most delightful habit of including several free samples with each order I place. I had an order come in today along with three free samples and one of them was Senchamental. I don’t mind a bad pun. I don’t even mind a ridiculously bad pun. I don’t mind a reference to Star Wars either. It takes me back to the days when my children insisted that we constantly play Star Wars. They were Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, respectively. Their father was Darth Vader (alternating with Obi Wan Kenobi). And I got the best role of all—I stepped in as the Princess Leia, as Jabba the Hutt, as Greedo, as Boba Fett, and as a jawa. My own private young Skywalker is a balding middle-aged man and he hasn’t come at me with his light sabre in decades.

So this tea begins as a sentimental journey for me. The dry aroma is pronouncedly orange. And a delightful orange with a true flavor. Nothing synthetic here. Orange is the predominant taste as well. And it’s vigorous and strong. The mint makes its way though but it’s clearly a supporting member of the orchestra while the orange is the soloist in this concerto.

I like this blend because it’s an original to me—I’ve never had such an intriguing marriage of mint and green before as back-up players to orange. The aftertaste has more mint, but remains quite orange-y. The orange – mint blend is strong to the point that I don’t taste the vegetal elements of the green tea coming through. I’m enjoying this hot, but it might make the absolutely perfect iced tea for the summer (I’m doing iced tea auditions right now and this one has made the cut). Now I’ll have to put in a full-order with David’s Teas. Was I compliementing them on the free samples? Now I say it’s like the old dope peddler giving a free sample to a gullible child.

Super-nice tea.

You know what? This isn’t half as good as the Tea Gschwendner version. Same exact concept, better executed by the latter as usual. Of course, in TG you have to buy 100grams without trying it first, unless you’re in Chicago (I miss their shop. Sniffle.) Anyway, a nice sweet tea- perfect for dessert (or, if you’re me, afternoon lulls). It really doesn’t need any sweetener. I think I’d have rated this more highly if I didn’t know that it could be even MORE intense and delicious. My husband even cut TG’s with plain Darjeeling tea and it still tasted strongly. That said, I mixed what was left of the two bags together because, hey, close enough. ;)

Went to davids tea for a mug…saw the cream of earl grey on the shelf and had to try it. very nice, almost nutty flavour to it – but not too deviated that I didn’t recognize the signature Earl Grey flavour! I liked it.

Milk Oolong remains in my top five favourite teas, and I love the one from David’s Tea. From the mythical story about the tea, to the taste itself, this tea is hard to beat. It’s also great for re-steeping, making the initial expense worth every penny.

The greatest part of this tea is that nothing is even added to the tea itself – so the unusual, amazing flavour of the oolong is completely natural. The flavour comes from very specific conditions in weather caused by a rare, sudden change of temperature during harvest.

The smell of the tea itself comes across as a strong milky odor. The taste keeps this milk flavour with some hints of light orchid, a usual characteristic of oolong. To me, this tea tastes like milk and cookies – a delicious combination reminiscent of a shortbread cookie.

Try it – you won’t be disappointed!

Mmm! Another swapped tea from Doulton, and another tasty tasty rooibos. This one smelled nutty but had more of that woody-rooibos taste (the one that apparently you either really hate or really enjoy) which I like with sweet teas. Very smooth. I might try this with a bit of milk next time, I think.

I picked this up on the recommendation of the guy behind the counter at the David’s Tea on Mont Royal in Montreal – didn’t catch his name. He definitely didn’t steer me wrong, though. The dry leaves don’t have much smell, but as soon as you add hot water, it’s stunning. It smells like spring to me – lillacs just starting to bloom.

The flavour isn’t as strong, which is probably a good thing. It’s a somewhat delicate oolong with a very slight flowery taste to it…

I think I may have found my new favorite oolang tea!

David’s Teas have consistently pleased me. I had this in the late afternoon, instead of “after midnight” as the title suggests. The good news is that it works at any time of day, I believe.

The complex blend of chocolate and orange and a touch of spice takes a couple of sips to establish itself. And then it explodes! I could really tell that the chocolate was dark—deeper and richer and with just a tiny touch of bitterness. It ended up being more effective than milk chocolate teas, I believe, in delivering the chocolate taste.

After a bit I added milk and I would suggest going with milk from the start here. The milk rounded out the slight bitterness and only seemed to make the tea richer and smoother. Ultimately I added a touch of sugar and I would recommend that you add sugar if you want a sweeter drink—duh! The tea is excellent both with and without the sugar.

Overall, David’s continues to delight me and this will be on my reorder list. So many chocolate teas simply get it wrong. “After Midnight” has it right.

Though I used to not be a huge fan of Rooibos, I decided to give the Tiramisu flavour a shot. And my thoughts? I absolutely love it!! It has a hint of sweetness that brings out its delicious flavours. This blend has got me into rooibos too, and it’s practically all I drink lately. You could say it was my “gateway” into the amazing tisane. I love drinking this in the evening when I feel like something sweet with no caffeine.

Just smelling the beautiful blend from David’s Tea was enough to get me sucked in. As a fan of tiramisu, I figured I had to try the tisane, and it was definitely worth the trial.

Scented with coconut and pineapple, while toasted with walnuts isnt nearly as nutty as I would have thought, I tried this tea on a recommendation from davids teas in toronto. Good tea for an afternoon treat.

My wife called me the other day from in front of the David’s Tea shop out in Montreal’s west island – I came home from work to find 5 new teas waiting for me. I’ll be posting reviews for the others soon.

Today I had to brave the -17C / -30C with windchill weather to tie down the cover on our balcony that had blown loose. I smartly put on some water to heat before heading outside, and I’m now sipping some lovely white tiger tea while thawing out.

The first taste that hits you is the blueberry – which isn’t bad, since I love blueberry in tea. The pomegranate is much more subtle, but adds nicely to the overall effect.

My only complaint is one I have of most flavoured white teas – the added flavours tend to hide the flavour of the white tea - if given this blind I might think that it was a very nice blueberry herbal.

I might try mixing it 50/50 with a straight up pai mu tan or something, just to see what the effect is.

Blueberries!!! YAY! LOVE this! See my previous reviews…

Last cuppa the work day!

Smells lovely…doesn’t taste too shabby either…see my other reviews of this tea…

Revisiting this one today – it is very nice.

Going out to lunch for a veggie flatbread…will be back later…

White tea and Blueberries YES. Peony – YES. I knew there was something else in there but only could identify it after reading in the description that it was pomegranate essence. This is fabulously yummy.

Sidenote: I have been getting in a rut with some of my usual words and phrases so I’m going to put more effort in when possible with help from my friend…
http://thesaurus.reference.com/

As I am drinking this – it’s starting to smell more and more like a blueberry wine…which I love.

I was looking for a substitute for straight raspberry leaf tea (can’t stand the taste, but I like the benefits), so I gave this a try. Much better than plain raspberry leaf tea, but I don’t know if I like it enough for it to be a daily drink.

They may have oversteeped it (it was a sample they gave me in store) – I think it needed some milk, as I found it quite strong. I’d like to take some home to brew myself, and experiment with steeping time.

A delicious blend that is sweet enough on it own. Tastes reminiscent of an ice cream sundae.

I am a big coffee fan and so when I smelled the canister of this tea I was pretty excited! It is highly caffeinated, which is great when you are looking for a morning jolt, but the brew is so silky and rich you may give it a chance over your morning joe. Of course, being Canadian and having a Tim Horton’s gene has lead me to primarily enjoy this tea in the afternoon when you need a little decadent pick-me-up. It smells like a confectionary went into a forest and the liquor is simply devine.

So yummy! The rooibos is a great balancer to the mint, which seems to over-power the chocolate flavor. The liquor is coppery and the brew is very smooth – definitely a nice alternative to straight mint.

Once I figured out how to steep this one correctly it was great. The first few times I brewed it the water was too hot and the scalded leaves tasted like tingles gum – ya, the one that you are sure is made of soap. Anyway, banish your judgement of my ignorance because this is a beautiful tea. Very delicate and sophisticated, one of the few florals that is not over-powering. I really love steeping some lemon peel with this tea or squeezing some into the liquor.

This is my favorite green tea, hands down! I love that you get a little show while you wait for the tea to steep as the pearls unroll and get cosy at the bottom of your mug. And as the leaves are so long you really don’t need a filter of any kind, they just sink to the bottom. This does, however lead to some very strong tea by the time you get to the bottom of the cup, but I just use fewer pearls per cup and give it more time to steep.