DAVIDsTEA

Adventageddon Day 11

Today’s DAVIDsTEA selection is not only a brand new tea blend, but also one that’s completely exclusive to the advent! How fun!

It’s a green tea with a relatively simple ingredient list including cinnamon and vanilla. If it weren’t obvious from the name, this inspiration is definitely eggnog. DT has carried eggnog inspired teas before, the most recent and iconic of which is probably Let It Snow which is also green tea. That’s a blend I have a personal love/hate relationship with. I like it a lot as a latte, but I find it so sweet and the stevia in it can be a lot for me, even as someone who typically doesn’t mind stevia in my teas.

So the goal here was to do eggnog in a less cloying sort of way and with simpler ingredients, but without sacrificing on fun and flavour. Here’s a little behind the curtains for you all: before we landed on the name Noggy & Nice the “working name” for this blend was Great Aunt Ruth’s Spiked Eggnog. A bit of a mouthful, for sure, but definitely cheeky and playful. Plus, it makes sense in the context of the blend because this isn’t just eggnog. It’s eggnog if that crazy out there relative from the big family holiday get together spiked the eggnog with a little buttered rum. And, to that point, really “old school” DT fans might find there’s some similarities with this blend and the much older Buttered Rum black tea blend. Both are creamy and just a little sweet with that almost butterscotch-y lifesaver candy undertone. Of course, this one is also pretty custardy and has a light touch of festive cinnamon.

I really enjoyed this blend and, even though it’s advent exclusive, I’m just kind of glad that in some way I got to share it with more people. It was a fun concept to work on!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDdEnRYpD_0/?img_index=1

I wanted to take a cooler photo for this tea since it’s so special, but it rained all day today and the lighting was just sad and grey. So I don’t really feel this does the tea justice, but I guess better than nothing.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzUHKsywhrY&ab_channel=THUNDERJACKSONVEVO

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

David’s 24 Days of Tea Day 1:

This was the first tea of my tea advent calendar. I’ve had the David’s tea calendar several times in the past but it got pretty repetitive (that is, it featured the same teas year after year) so I stopped getting it. Well, this year I decided to go back. And I can see from the back of the box that several teas will be repeats, but there are quite a few that are new to me this year. Like this one. I enjoyed it. It was a light tea, not brisk or heavy with tannins. There was a bit of tartness but it wasn’t completely sour. I won’t order 50 grams of it but I will enjoy a second cup probably in January. I like that David’s give us enough tea to make more than one cup. Sometimes that second cup is even better than the first.

I’ve been mostly missing in action here on Steepster for a few months. I’ve had a bit of a challenging late summer and autumn. The chemo cocktail they had me on is called FolFox. On my third treatment (in August) I had a pretty severe reaction to the Oxylplatin (or however you spell it). They had to put a breathing device down my throat to keep my airway from closing completely. So since then I’ve been on just two different drugs. It has been a slog and my fatigue has been pretty bad. I have one more treatment this Wednesday. Then scans on the 18th and meet with the oncologist on the 24 (Yes. Christmas Eve!) to plan the next step of treatment. I should have all of January off from any treatment, so you can imagine I am really looking forward to January! Maybe my “Get Up and Go” will Get Up and Come Back!

Y’know, when this tea released as a sneak peak in the 24 Days of Tea this past winter I fully said I wanted to write a more detailed tasting note when it properly launched, and then I forgot to do that. So, I’m doing it now…

There’s really just so much packed into this blend that it’s hard to even know where to start. I guess flavour is as good a place as any, and wow this is one heck of an intense tasting tea! At its most boiled down, it’s basically sour cherry. Think the Maynard’s Sou Cherry Blasters but less sugary/artificial. It’s sour, it’s tart, it’s in your face. That’s for a few reasons, as well. There’s the predictable inclusion of hibiscus, but also we’ve specifically used a variety of cherry called “tart cherry” that is, well, tart. And then lastly there’s also apple cider vinegar powder in the blend which adds to the zingyness of it all. That’s where the “cider” part of cherry cider comes from. Obviously that bold and punchy of a fruit flavour makes for a great iced tea and tea pop.

So I guess the next part is maybe the “why” of it all? The short answer is that tart cherry specifically is a functional ingredient that I’d been tracking/curious about for a while because it’s associated with all kinds of wellness benefits like gut health, immunity (very high vitamin c), muscle recovery and anti-inflammation, and also sleep as well. And it’s always great to work with wellness ingredients that actually taste good, because a lot very much don’t. Then the whole Sleepy Girl Mocktail trend/fad happened on TikTok and tart cherry very suddenly went from an ingredient that people were sort of loosely familiar with (sort of a “if you know you know” vibe) to selling out overnight in grocery stores and becoming VERY well known for as this sort of relaxing, sleep-friendly ingredient found in trendy brands like Poppi that all the girlies couldn’t get enough of…

And so I started playing around with it a little bit more actively, and we ended up with this blend that sort of folds together a bunch of different but complimentary wellness elements to capture the essence of that mocktail-trend while still being a delicious, refreshing stand-alone tea. We kept is caffeine free because of the relaxing element of the tart cherry that became such a recognizable benefit of the ingredient, and coupled it with the more gut-health oriented inclusion of ACV powder. And of course, when it comes to immunity, maintaining both good gut health and sleep hygiene can better boost your immune system too – so they all sort of comfortable click together.

Our final little “cherry on top” (pun intended) was the inclusion of willowbark, also called “nature’s aspirin”. Even though it wasn’t our primary focus with this blend, since muscle recovery/inflammation is an association with tart cherry, we wanted to take the opportunity to support that with this extra ingredient. Plus, there is something fun about the idea of an iced cup of as a sort of no-alcohol ‘night cap’ that can be enjoyed in the evenings on a long day with the duo of willowbark eases headaches/stress and the tart cherry providing some sense of relaxation.

So, yeah, a lot going on. But I think there’s sort of something for everyone to latch on to? You can 100% just enjoy the tea for it’s really punchy, boldly sour cherry flavour (and without added sweeteners!) or you can lean a little into the different wellness angle. It’s a flexible blend in that way!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Adventageddon Day 3

Cold Brew!

It was a triple cherry kind of day today. By fun coincidence both of my tea choices from DT were cherry flavoured, and by even more of a coincidence I had a sweet cherry and vanilla cream flavoured yule log cake to enjoy with them.

This was probably my favourite tea of the day, and I’m sure a part of that is some bias from the fact I developed this tea. It’s a brand new organic blend that (right now) is only available through the advent. I’ll almost certainly do a more proper review when it actually launches fully like I do with all new teas, but I’m a little too tired to dive into that right now. For the day I had it chilled because in general I prefer my cherry teas cold, and the tart cherry and green apple notes from this blend are so vibrant and full of life when prepared this way! The apple cider vinegar inclusion also just gives it a wonderfully tangy note that leans into those festive, cider-y flavours.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDIdoKPSOFh/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FnLug0BVw&ab_channel=dogeyes

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I got a horrible stomach ache from drinking this. I think it might have stevia in it, but my package does not list stevia on the ingredients. I wonder if there could be blackberry leaf as a sweetener? It tastes very sweet, anyway. I get painful stomach aches every time I consume stevia, which is why I’m suspicious but I don’t think DT would make such a big labelling error.

Some nice herbs (basil and pepper) and vegetal notes. I taste the hibiscus but it is overwhelmed by the sweetness. There are some minor fruity notes from theh ibiscus and also something that tastes like berry and dried cranberries.

Grape seems a little odd for a tea but it wasn’t awful just wasn’t wonderful.

Just ok. The stevia aftertaste kills what would be a decent dessert tea.

It’s a bit sweet but good!

Sipdown/Backlog

I quite liked this one. What sold this for me was the addition of spinach; I thought that it was an odd addition to a blend, but it drove me to grab some. I think the time spent sitting in the bag/sipdown pile for the past year (or longer?), helped bring the lemongrass and orange forward! I was a bit surprised to not find white chocolate in the blend, but I noted that flavor a few times on my scrap paper.

This is quite earthy, but it also has a distinct root beer flavor. I’m enjoying it cold, though it’s far from the best root beer tea I’ve had. I taste a little too much licorice. It was also too caffeinated for my low caffeine tolerance. It made me feel bad enough that I’ll probably drink any of my other root beer teas instead of this one. The cold resteep tastes super similar to the first.

This past week I flew out to Toronto to work several events for DAVIDsTEA including the Toronto Tea Festival, but more on the festival later in a future tasting note! It was honestly such an intensely busy weekend and I feel like I mostly go through it on caffeine and adrenaline alone.

I left Saturday morning for the airport at about 5AM, and my flight departed around 6:30AM. As usually I brought some tea sachets with me for the trip and this was the one I wound up drinking on the flight. It’s actually a very, very short flight – somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. I love that, despite that, they still do drink service. That early in the day I certainly needed the caffeine, and this was a delightfully sweet and smooth cup with bright orange notes and a whole lot of creamy vanilla yogurt goodness.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Adventageddon Day 1

Last but certainly not least was Clementine Cheer! I decided to cold brew this one since I was able to supplement the little tin of tea with some extra tea leaf from my personal tea stash. I was super excited to see this tea so early in the advent because it’s one of the new holiday yeas I developed this year. It totally made my afternoon and evening reading and watching the different reviews across social platforms for people drinking and discovering this tea for the first time – both tea friends and complete strangers!

I actually usually drink this tea hot, but I enjoyed my cold brew a lot. It’s really bright and lively in its top notes with this fresh, effervescent mix of clementine and tangerine notes before the gentle roast and minerality of the oolong base sneak in there and ground it a little bit. Without that oolong I think the orange wouldn’t have quite as much presence because it would be brightness with no contrast, and maybe also just a little thin feeling. The finish is just a hint creamy with the vanilla yogurt flavour closing out the sip.

So refreshing, and a great way of building on that feeling of excitement for the holidays without necessarily leaning on super decadent and “heavy feeling” flavours more conventionally associated with Christmas. Those have a place too, don’t get me wrong, but I know we will have plenty of them throughout the rest of advent season so I just appreciated starting things off with something so joyful!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDDUEFtyMDA/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyi0g_ldl3I&ab_channel=NiinaSoleil

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Last of the new teas is Clementine Cheer!

Obviously this is an orange blend, but it actually has the flavour of three different kints of orange/citrus in it: clementine (of course), your typical naval orange, and tangerine! The tangerines in it are these beautiful dried tangerine segments that come out of Georgia and visually they’re one of my all time favourite ingredients from DT. Plus, once you’ve steeped your mug of tea they’re really delicious to snack out out of the steeped leaf. Kind of like Midsummer Night’s Dream and the gooseberries in that blend.

The base we went with is oolong, and though you might assume a lighter oxidized oolong this is actually a more oxidized/roasted oolong. The leaves are beautiful and more wiry looking as opposed to ball rolled style. It’s not a strong flavour in the overall composition, but that hint of roast does create a really nice contrast pairing with the orange that makes it pop a little bit more while still adding some body.

Aside from being very bright, lively, and citrusy this blend also has a smooth, creamy undertone from inclusions like yogurt pieces and vanilla flavouring. Sometimes I think of it as a bit like Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait or Frozen Raspberry since those blends are also fruit and yogurt pairings, but I think this one is a bit less sweet and definitely not as tart since there’s no hibiscus in this tea. And speaking of comparisons, I’d say that compared to the two other core orange blends DT carries (Sunny C and Blood Orange Boost) that it’s also true this is less sweet and less tart comparatively. Also, obviously, creamier.

Even with that creamy component, there’s almost an effervescence to the citrus notes in this tea that I think work really well with the “cheer” part of the name. Like, yes it’s a nice cheerful tasting orange blend but it’s also kind of building in that idea of a orange mimosa or spritz that you might cheers with at a holiday or new year’s brunch, family get together, or party/celebration. It’s just lively, and celebratory and kind of happy feeling. To that point, it’s obviously good hot and predictably good iced but it’s VERY good as a tea pop. With a splash of champagne or prosecco if you want to go that cocktail kind of route.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Y’all. Making a gingerbread tea was so much harder than I expected it to be.

It took probably around three years to really perfect this blend to the point where we were ready to launch it. The ginger was maybe the easiest part, but getting the balance of the rest of the spices and that really distinct, borderline molasses tasting “sweet brown” flavour was tough. A lot of previous versions of this tea came out either fruity leaning or too bright and just not quite right. I love this one though. It’s my favourite of all the new holiday teas this year.

The pu’erh tea base is so essential to getting the profile right. It’s full-bodied, very rich and also grounding and earthy which created the perfect framework to layer the spices and more decadent notes overtop. In addition to ginger this blend has all the spices that are traditionally used in gingerbread. It’s really the use of allspice that gives it that especially cozy and festive sort of spice note and feeling. I just said it in another tasting note, but it’s sort of crazy how in North America we have this Pavlovian response to allspice where we just associate that taste with the holidays. I think it REALLY captures that dense, darkly spice and sweet gingerbread flavour so well though!

And of course the toffee! Y’all know I love a good caramel or toffee blend, and I think the toffee note in this tea is pretty close to perfect. It’s thick and not too bright at all so it really emulates that deeply golden, densely rich sweetness very well. There’s a hint of cocoa in the blend and though I personally prefer my toffee/caramel teas without chocolate I do think that inclusion really helps give it some depth and extra decadence.

And so good as a latte. Hot, but also iced. I drink it as an iced latte very, very often. It was one of my go to iced latte blends this summer while I was waiting for it to launch. Haven’t done it as an eggnog latte yet, but I can only imagine the sublime level of indulgence that would be.

I think this blend will really appeal to fans of teas like Salted Caramel Oolong, Cardamom French Toast, Brown Sugar Bourbon, English Toffee (IMO it’s way better than English Toffee), Burnt Sugar Boba, S’mores Chai, Jack Frosted Mocha, and Hazelnut Chocolate. Y’know. The decadent, sweet, and brown tasting teas. Like, I don’t want to call it prematurely but I can see this becoming on of those big returning holiday teas. But maybe that’s me projecting a little bit.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Adventageddon Day 9

I’ve been excitedly waiting for this loose leaf tea from DT’s 24 Days of Tea to show up in the adventageddon assortment. It was one of my favourite blends to work on for this year’s holiday assortment: rich, creamy and cozy with notes of coconut and white chocolate and a playfully snowy looking visual that feels like a snowstorm waiting to be steeped! I especially love how velvety the mouthfeel is.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDX7CdLyJ4E/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C1l50UcJlA&ab_channel=PETITELEAGUE

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Last week we had another holiday tea drop and, with it, some returning blends. However, there were also three new teas for this winter/holiday season!

Snowball Fight is, in my opinion, just such fun. The key flavours of this blend are coconut and white chocolate, though heavier on the coconut. It’s very, very creamy and decadent and makes a really smooth, silky latte.

We don’t actually have a lot of teas in the collection that are coconut focused. Probably the two closest would be Chocolate Macaroon (but that’s more of a chocolate blend) and Valerian Nights – which is caramel/coconut. However, Valerian Nights isn’t really the kind of tea you’d want to drink at any time of day because of the chamomile/valerian root. So, in a lot of ways, this was meant to kind of be a coconut blend to answer that interest in something more overtly coconut forward.

However, that said, I definitely 100% started with the name idea of this tea and worked backwards finding a flavour that I felt really suited the name and visual idea I had in mind. Basically, I wanted the dry leaf of this blend to look like the embodiments of a snowstorm or blizzard. Just super playful with a flurry of white from the coconut, white chocolate, and snowflake sprinkles. I think I achieved that really well, and I’m happy that the flavour matches that aesthetic!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This is a tasty sweet latte when made with vanilla soy milk. I’ve had it plain, in cold milk, and in hot milk. All of them are very tasty. I like the sweetness, the spices are nice (generic chai), and there is a creamy vanilla note too.

Backlog/Sipdown

I’m too sad writing this review for this is one tea that I really really really loved. Truly. It was my last bag and it took me way too long to drink it down. If I’ve mentioned my love of cinnamon before, I’m sorry, but this packed that cinnamon candy spice and sweetness with every cup. The worst part is that this is no longer available; if it were to find itself on DT’s virtual shelves again, I’m buying an insane amount.

Pretty good for a white tea. Has a definite lemon and meringue flavor

Adventageddon Day 21

So close to the end now!

I whisked this up as my first tea today – though I actually started the day with a pair of pear teas. Both were a more delicate pear flavour, though this one was quite fresh, aromatic and floral in its undertones. Even though it is sweetened, I find that compared to the flavoured matchas from DT this one is much less sweet and also a lot more matcha forward – which adds to that fresh feeling with umami and grassy notes.

I also made it in a gorgeous red shinoware chawan that I bought from O5 when I last visited Vancouver. I’ve never gotten a nice photo of it on camera since sometimes it reflects the light weird or looks washed out, but I really like the photo I got of it today!

…of course my hand placement is awkward AF though. Definitely no future in the cards for me as a hand model.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_fr05mx5rI&ab_channel=VEAUX-Topic

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

The other new tea from DT this week!

If I’m going to be really, really candid I was hesitant to work on a pear matcha for DT. I actually thought it would be a flavour we could do really well, but I’ve had so many pear matchas from other tea companies and it’s always a sort of uncomfortable place working on teas that I know exist elsewhere. Usually you can do a different interpretation of the profile to give it your own stamp/spin, but that’s much harder to do with matchas…

But honestly, in the end, it just made sense to give it a try. We’ve never really launched a fruity matcha flavour in Fall/Winter – the focus is always on spiced or decadent profiles. However, I think there is an interest in having some other seasonal offerings and not just bunching all our fruity matcha releases in the summer – and pear is a GREAT flavour for Fall transitioning into winter.

Though this is not a semi-sweet formulation like Banana or Pina Colada, I do think this matcha does naturally come off as less sweet than a lot of our fruity matchas usually are. It’s more of a dewy Bartlett pear flavour with some floral undertones. Not a candy-like flavour like, say, the Jelly Belly Juicy Pear flavoured jelly beans, but still juicy and fresh in its own way. The notes of the matcha definitely don’t get lost in this one.

Definitely this time of year a lot of people are drinking their teas hot, but mostly I’ve been drinking this matcha iced or as a tea pop. I’m particularly a fan of it as a tea pop because I feel like it gives off this refreshing, sophisticated “tea spritz” kind of vibe. I also think it would be great with some champagne or prosecco for a tea infused cocktail vibe – especially at holiday parties or even once we’re closer to New Years. Latte? Yeah, you can do it but I think it’s a litttttllleee strange with this flavour. But you do you!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

A late night cuppa from this weekend!

I wanted something sweeter but not chocolate and this was just calling me name. I sort of wish we’d gone with a name more like “Maple Walnut” because then maybe there’d be a shot of having it all year long. It’s just such a beautiful rich walnut flavour with that warm, buttery hint of maple. Almost pancake-like in some ways but maybe not quite there since it doesn’t have the cake-y element. It’s so smooth, though!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

The first of DT’s holiday drops has officially landed and, with that, come A LOT of returning/voted back holiday blends including (but not limited to): Orange Spice, Alpine Punch, Cardamom French Toast, Hazelnut Chocolate, White Cranberry Bark, and Brown Sugar Bourbon. Of course it’s not a holiday drop without some newness, right??

This playfully sweet and nutty blend is one of two new teas, but if I’m being honest it’s the one that I’m more excited about. I spent a really long time tweaking the ingredients and ratios of this blend to get it just right. For a long, looooonnnggggg time I’ve wanted to have a more holiday-style nutty blend with “Nutcracker” in the name. We’ve definitely had nutty teas during Winter/Holiday before (Nutty & Spice being maybe the most iconic) but it’s a little crazy to me that we’ve never explored something Nutcracker inspired in loose leaf tea when we have had some pretty cool Nutcracker teaware in the past…

So, what does Nutcracker Brittle taste like? I feel like it wouldn’t be out of pocket to assume peanuts, but you definitely won’t find any in this tea. Instead this is a rich maple walnut flavoured blend! Basically, the idea is if you made an indulgent and nutty brittle with the peanuts swapped for maple glazed walnuts. It’s just a little toasty with a distinct walnut flavour and a sweet maple syrup note.

…and here’s a secret for just y’all on Steepster: one of the alternative names we considered was Nutcracker Pancakes! There were actually a few different routes we thought the blend might end up, and one was a little more overtly maple flavoured with salt. Sort of like a more Canadian twist on a “Salted Caramel” profile. Salted maple. We dialed back the maple to make room for that cozy brittle element, but I still really liked how that salt amplified both the maple and nut notes so we did keep a bit in the blend. I wouldn’t describe it as a salty tea though. It just gives those flavours a bit of a boost! We love a good flavour carrier.

Honestly, I think this blend is gonna appeal to a lot of people. Someone described it as the love child of Maple Syrup Oolong and Caramel Shortbread, which I think is actually pretty dang spot on. But also if you like teas like Forever Nuts, Gingerbread Blondie, Cardamom French Toast, Toasted Walnut, Simply Maple Breakfast… then I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you enjoy this one too!

Hot is really my favourite way to make it, though a bit of milk is nice as well. Just be careful because, like Caramel Shortbread, sometimes there is enough acid in this blend to curdle milk (especially cow’s milk – alt milks are a bit better). Especially if you give it a long steep time.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.