DAVIDsTEA

Had one of these bad boys yesterday afternoon! I did have it lukewarm since I hadn’t chilled it in the fridge prior and I don’t actually have ice access at home, and the result of that was that some of the slightly more citrusy notes of the bergamot seemed a little bit stronger. However, the overall drink was still that really nicely balanced sweetness level with the rich, cream soda-like vanilla notes that I expect not just from this RTD but from the Cream of Earl Grey loose leaf tea in general too.

(But better chilled.)

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 but not least of the new RTD line is… Cream of Earl Grey!

I think that, of all the flavours, this is the one I imagine people might be the most apprehensive about. To be honest, I was apprehensive with the development too. I don’t know a ton of people who drink Earl Grey (or Earl Grey variants, like this one) cold and the idea of carbonating it definitely takes it a step further.

However, I am here to say that this flavour is a total surprise and delight. It’s so funny because during most of the development tastings the room was pretty split between people who love and hate this loose leaf tea, and the things we all had in common was that we adored this flavour. It’s very well balanced. You can taste the black tea, and the aromatic citrusy pop of the bergamot, and definitely the vanilla and cream. In fact, time and time again we all agreed that this was basically the love child of an Earl Grey and a cream soda. Pretty literally a tea pop.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Kk6xfug2z/?img_index=1

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.

Another tea I drank at work today. I was super busy, so it was very convenient to be able to just grab a can of this from the office kitchen and have something iced to drink on the go. Sweet (but not cloying) and juicy with a combination of black currant and kiwi notes that do come off eerily like generic blue raspberry candy. The more I drink this, the more I prefer it to the Magic Potion loose leaf tea. The flavours are very similar, but I just think the sweetness level of this one is more up my alley – especially because it’s coming from cane sugar and not stevia.

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’ve been getting a little more involved with helping our social media team do some different content creation and last week one of the things I we worked on was a “dupe” of Starbuck’s Berry Lemonade Refresher. It was very simple – just mix one of these RTDs with some lemonade and popping boba.

Best part was, after filming, getting to drink everything afterwards. Definitely a super refreshing blue raspberry taste and, unsurprisingly since this is also very true of the loose leaf tea, the new Magic Potion RTD goes very well with lemonade.

Anyway, here’s the TikTok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@davidstea/video/7381581035898817798?lang=en

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.

One of our brand new RTDs!!!

I mean, is anyone surprised we turned Magic Potion into a sparkling iced tea? From the moment we released this tea years and years ago it’s been a best selling and fan favourite iced tea and tea pop. With all the many years of development work, this was always a no-brainer for us. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it out right, though…

I like this RTD much more than the loose leaf.

I said it in my tasting note for Queen of Tarts, but all of these RTDs are made by cold brewing ingredients used in the loose leaf versions of the teas. Though we generally tried to match the loose leaf blends as closely as possible in taste, we did make one change with this one that I think is pretty significant – we removed the stevia. The final drink is still very moderately sweetened with organic cane sugar, but the overall drink actually isn’t too sweet at all. As y’all here on Steepster know, I drink a ton of RTDs from other companies and I guess maybe now I can share that at least part of the reason for that is that I’ve been doing lots of analysis the last few years – and one of the things I’ve been paying a lot of attention to is the sweetness level of different iced teas. I think we got such a goods middle ground with this one! In fact, most of the times I’ve sampled it with different people during development one of the first (if not the first) comments I’ve gotten is a delightfully surprised version of “Oh, it’s not too sweet”!

But I guess maybe I’m getting ahead of myself because I’m assuming people will know the LLT this was based on, and maybe that’s not the case!? Basically, the flavour is a juicy blue raspberry – we compare it a lot to, like Icee’s or other blue raspberry slushies but essentially it’s kind of that retro 2000s nostalgic sort of blue raspberry. Ironically, the flavour is technically currant and kiwi but the combination of those two fruits just tastes so eerily like blue raspberry that most people can’t taste anything else.

And I guess the other really cool part of this blend is its colour! The LLT steeps blue from the butterfly pea flower, but this RTD is more of a deep purple since it has the same butterfly pea flower in it but is partially “pre-colour changed” from the ascorbic acid in the formulation. You can still further colour change it with the addition of lemon juice or lemonade though, just like the loose tea – and it tastes really great with the lemonade addition too!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Kk6xfug2z/?img_index=1

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.

Welp, secret’s out! This past week DAVIDsTEA finally launched our line of RTDs. I’ve been working on the RTD project for a long, long time. In fact, in total this line of teas has taken more than five years of hard work, research, and meticulous trial in order to get to our finalized line of three teas…

The whole line is based off our best selling and fan favourite iced teas and, in addition to being sparkling, are cold brewed using ingredients from our actual loose leaf teas – no tea extracts. We’re steeping real, whole tea leaves and botanicals.

Of the three flavours we launched, this is honestly my favourite one. It’s also the only one of the three that’s not sweetened. In fact, there are ZERO grams of sugar per can. That does not, however, mean it’s skimping on flavour. If you know the loose leaf tea then you know this tea packs one heck of a tart punch of ripe berry and hibiscus. We really honored that with the development, and I think the RTD does an incredible job and mirroring those traits. It’s juicy, it’s bright, it’s so refreshing. You can really taste the blackberry, and it just makes a very good on the go option when you want no fuss iced tea.

I am just SO PROUD of this development!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Kk6xfug2z/?img_index=1

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 has a lemongrass flavor plus some fruitiness that’s not tart, just smooth and tasty. It tastes quite blue, whatever that means. I guess somewhat fake? It’s okay cold, but I wouldn’t order it again.

Cold Brew!

Some afternoons our office starts to feel a bit like a sauna, so I am very much on team Cold Drinks right now – whether that’s iced teas, cold brews, or iced lattes. This was one of those drinks that I whipped up super quickly to cool down with on a particularly hot afternoon. It’s very fresh and juicy with really lush, tropical pineapple being the star of the show alongside bright orange and a hint of earthy turmeric.

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.

Cold Brew!

Our summer cold brew collection is back and, though it is primarily returning favourites, we couldn’t help but sneak in some newness too! This was a super fun blend to work on because, unlike our usual approach, we kind of worked on it totally in reverse!? Rarely do we 100% know the marketing angle of a tea long before we’ve even started working on the formulation of it…

Like, I knew I wanted something with this specific name inspired by the Snoop Dogg song. Something that you could add alcohol to for a summery cocktail, cold brew straight into spirits for flavoured liquors, or that would work as a sort of “all in one” non-alcoholic drink option. When I did the research on the most common Gin & Juice type of cocktails, what I saw over and over was that orange juice or pineapple juice were what was typically used – and, so, this is an orange and pineapple flavoured tea!

I would argue it’s pretty well balanced between the two, but definitely very juicy and tropical with a nice natural sweetness to it. Ultimately, this is probably more “juice” than “gin” when you look at the flavour overall, but we did want to make sure we weren’t neglecting half of the concept so there’s actually a few more traditional gin-associated botanicals. Juniper is the obvious one. I think most people go there when they think of gin because of that really signature pine-y type of note, and you can taste that as an undertone of this tea – especially if you steep it for a longer time than the 10 minutes we recommend. Turmeric is the other, and I personally really like the more subtle earthy undertone of turmeric when paired with pineapple. That’s a duo I’ve had in several different teas before (DT and non-DT) and it always seems to click.

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.

Got this from a Halloween sampler. The caramel flavor is pretty desserty and nice. The base is a little thin. Maybe it would have been better on a black tea or rooibos. With sugar and milk, it’s still quite tasty!

Backlog and Sip Down

I brewed this mid-shift on Friday since it was one of those days that I needed a lot of caffeine. I nearly forgotten that I’m currently working on a project reviewing all the matcha teas in my collection via YouTube, but I was in the zone to get my fix. Ha-ha.

I noted on the back of the packet, “Cinnamon/ginger spice yet creamy.” I made it as a latte, so the milk probably gave it the creamy note. I did enjoy it overall and made sure to write my rating of “75/100.”

Teabag from a TTB. The coconut smelled sketchy, so I’m relieved it’s still drinkable! It’s not bad with sugar and milk. I mostly just taste that coconut that’s right on the edge. Maybe some other flavor, but I’m not sure. I wish there were more than just coconut here.

Backlog and Sip Down

I had this toward the end of the shift on Monday due to having struggles with sleeping. It’ll take ages to get to sleep and then I will be in bed longer than I’d prefer.

Anyway, I tossed the remainder of the (Advent) tin into the brewing device. I forgotten about it for a little over or around the hour mark when I first decided to make tea… It’s rooibos heavy, but I like rooibos, so I didn’t mind. There were light clove and citrus notes which were pleasant, but the rooibos took the mainstage in the cup. Maybe if I had sipped this sooner, the spices would have been more predominate. No fault in the tea, though, I let it sip too long before getting back to it.

A few days ago someone in the office offered to make a Tim Horton’s run for everyone and though I’m not a coffee person I do have a little bit of a soft spot for Timmie’s white hot chocolate so I requested one of those…

When she got back with everyone’s orders I decided to whisk up a bit of matcha concentrate and add it into the white chocolate. Holy fuck did that make for a very, very rich and sweet drink. It was delicious though. Pistachio and white chocolate is a very lovely, indulgent combination. Very European feeling too, if that makes any sense at all? Like I could see myself sipping a more upscale version of that combination in Italy. So good!

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.

…and last up of the new teas! Admittedly, this is my favourite of the three new ones from this drop.

Y’all, pistachio is having a BIG moment out in the world right now (especially in the cafe space) so it was really only a matter of time before we joined that party. I don’t know if anyone else remembers the pistachio flavoured Jell-O pudding mix from the late 90s/2000s but the creamy nuttiness of this blend reminds me of it quite a lot, especially when whisked up into an iced latte! I can’t even tell you how many iced lattes I’ve had of this tea lately. But, also, pistachio matcha milkshakes. I mean, that’s where it’s at. Definitely channels a fantastic pistachio gelato type of flavour.

My top favourite DT matcha flavours have firmly been Rose, Mojito, and (as of earlier this summer) Pina Colada for a while now, but if I continue to drink through my tin of this matcha at the pace I’ve been going the last couple months I think it might be an undeniable truth that this flavour simply needs to be counted among them…

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7UN0z4uMjS/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLLfZTkTMPg

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.

Melon flavoured things in general feel so summery to me, but I really love this tea so much that I saved a 1/2 kilo bag for myself for my office at work – so it’s now one of about a dozen teas I have a very large work stash of. I love my little mini work tea cupboard; it’s basically all the DAVIDsTEA blends (past and present) that I enjoy so much that I can brew them up essentially in any mood I could possibly be in. So, this bag is in good company.

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.

Iced Latte!

Another at work tea that I ended up drinking in the afternoon to try and beat the heat a little bit. It also had the added bonus of being a tea we were filming for TikTok so that was convenient too! And, of course, it was delicious. Y’all know I love a good fruity tea that works well with milk. Definitely channeling the profile of the creamy pastel green melon bubble teas, though perhaps with a little more of a bubblegum-y undertone to the melon, and a hint of floral oolong too. Really refreshing!

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.

Another new tea!

This is one that I’m really excited about. I feel like, for as long as I can remember, there’s always kind of been an unspoken expectation for a new melon flavoured tea blend from DT each year. Usually that blend is a watermelon tea, but this year I’m so stoked we’re showing some love to honeydew!

When I first started development on this tea it was actually for a completely different honeydew concept, but for several reasons we just couldn’t get it to work. A coworker during a tasting for one of those previous versions kind of just threw out something along the lines of “Y’know what would be good? Like a honeydew bubble tea…” so as a last effort I decided to tweak what we had been working on to be more of that iconic sweet, creamy honeydew boba type of flavour and, well, it came out INCREDIBLE.

I think what I love so much about this tea blend is the balance. The honeydew is sweet and ripe tasting but met with such a smooth, creamy flavour from the yogurt inclusion that it really does mirror its bubble tea inspiration. However, it’s not too cloying or sugary at all, and it also doesn’t mask the really aromatic green oolong base either. Those lovely floral top notes still shine though, and there’s even a little bit of a nuttiness the comes out as well – especially when steeped as an iced drink.

It’s rare that DT’s melon blends can be made as a latte, but this is one that actually shines quite well with the addition of milk or milk alternatives. Particularly iced. However, I do still personally prefer this blend without any additions at all – though I drink it pretty evenly split between hot, iced, and cold brewed. It reminds me a little bit of my favourite Lupicia melon blends (which are such a pain to get hold of here in Canada) – just a little more creamy. Y’all know I’m a bit of a simp for a tea with a lot of flexibility, though. So probably no surprise that this is another favourite of the summer.

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.

Iced Latte!

Steeped this up to enjoy earlier this afternoon using some oat milk. It was quite rich with that lovely sweet brown sugar and malty black tea combo. I felt like the raisin undertones from the black tea were especially prominent in this brew along with a hint of cocoa. Aside from being a pretty sweet drink, I thought that it was quite nuanced with this mix of several different distinct tasting notes.

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.

Just a few days ago we released a new mini capsule of teas that all had a bit of a boba theme. Some, like in the case of this tea, are definitely more obviously directly related to boba…

If not obvious from the tea name, this blend was very directly inspired by the flavour of Brown Sugar Boba/Bubble Tea – one of the most iconic/menu staple bubble tea flavours around. It actually took a few years to get this one quite right because, as I’m sure you can imagine, it’s sort of challenging to recreate that super iconic taste of brown sugar syrup without actually having brown sugar syrup in the tea itself. But I’m really proud of the final tea!

Lets get the obvious out of the way first. This is not a 1:1 boba tea recreation. It’s a loose leaf tea with the flavour of a brown sugar boba, so even though you can see adorable tapioca pearl sprinkles in the dry leaf (as a visual homage/nod to its inspiration) when you buy this tea on its own you wont have tapioca pearls in your beverage unless you add them in yourself. with that said, we did specifically develop this tea with the idea that the people drinking it would probably be using to “recreate” the type of drink you’d buy from a shop – whether that’s because it’s more convenient or cost effective to make your bubble tea from the comfort of home or otherwise. So, with that in mind, I would pretty strongly recommend having this tea with milk or a milk alternative (either hot or as a latte). It was really envisioned to be consumed that way and I think the flavours really shine and feel most balanced when prepped in that style. Of course, the beauty of loose leaf tea is the ability to customize and do your own thing – so if you want that sweet caramelized sugar taste and the robust black base but without milk/alt milk there’s nothing stopping you enjoying it that way too!

In terms of flavour, this is quite a rich tea. I mean, bubble teas are notoriously sweet and brown sugar bubble tea is one of the sweetest. It’s got a very dark, heavy kind of brown sugar meets butterscotch meets caramelized sugar kind of taste that works really well with the strong black tea base. On top of the black tea base being so full bodied, we also added black milk tea powder to the blend (like what would be used in a lot of boba shops as a drink base) which only ups the maltiness and emphasizes some of the tasting notes of the black tea, like a hint of raisin and cocoa. It also gives some extra velvety fullness to the mouthfeel.

I’ve made this as an iced latte a few times already this summer, and it’s just a nice rich and decadent break up from the fruity profiles that usually dominate DT’s summer assortment. I’m excited to finally share this blend with others! Feels like it was a long overdue.

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.

Sip Down & Backlog

The blueberry notes really popped in this blend! I found that it worked very well hot or iced. The hot brew allowed the thickness of the tea to add the ‘pancake’ experience by giving it the thick blueberry syrup thickness. Meanwhile, making this as an iced tea drew out the subtlety of the blueberry, and made for a gentler, mild sweet tea.

I left myself 2tsp for a hot cup once I decide to make it…hopefully this weekend. I cold brewed this overnight since I had the thought, “If I have to work a 12-hour day, then I might as well make the best of it with teas upon teas!” I’m dreading tonight and Monday (Memorial Day) since I’m on “mandatory” coverage. Whomp whomp

Anyway, here we are with Blueberry Pancakes. I think, once upon a time, I noted that the hot cup of this reminded me of blueberry and maple syrup but lacking all pancake. Cold brewed, the blueberries are predominantly present while the syrup is taking a step back. I can faintly taste the syrupy sweetness, but not very much.

PS. I’ll return for a sip down rating and if anything changes with the hot cup.

On Saturday, we hosted board game night at the house with a few friends. Naturally, I offered to make tea…and many teas we had! I was asked to brew something ‘unique and iced,’ so to the sip down pile I went, knowing that this was something interesting. I had 4 tsp remaining in the pouch, so I tossed it into 8 oz of water for 6 minutes (one minute longer than the recommendation). Before tossing it over ice, I was asked to add a touch of honey to sweeten. Let’s just note that this tea CLEARED my sinuses. It was as if I opened a jar of Vick’s and took a deep breath in. I took a small swig of the drops of tea too little to fit into the glass of ice, and it was truly a strong eucalyptus and minty tea. I may have to buy this one in bulk—I’m an oddball and enjoy ‘sick’ teas while feeling 100% a-ok—and keep it around for both the days of sickness and for the summer. I imagine this would be wonderful as a sun tea, too!

Okay soooo this is definitely a new favorite from DAVIDs TEA. I grew up in the early 2000s and this was such a nostalgic flavor for me. I honestly think it was perfectly done, not too sweet and really good hot but preferred it iced/cold brewed. I got to try this lovely blend as a part of a Mother’s Day gift plan Kelly aka @roswellstrange helped me with. Thank you thank you Kelly! Now I have another favorite to gush about!