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This is hands down my favourite summer tea.

This tea is as close as you can get to pina colada. The smell is bang on, with heavy pineapple and coconut scents. Chock full of dried fruit, the dry tea is fairly chunky in consistency.

The tea steeps to a lovely light yet bright yellow, but the smell decreases in intensity. As far as taste goes, it’s spot on. It’s like a light pina colada: sweet enough without being overpowering. Once I’ve finished the cup, the taste of coconut remains. And although it’s delicious hot, it’s incredible cold…

I don’t have any rum in the house right now, but if I did I would definitely throw some into the iced tea. This tea would definitely make a great base for a cold, alcoholic pina colada. Maybe throw in some coconut milk to give it that creamy texture? Perfection.

As my little intro note says, this is my favourite summer tea from David’s Tea. It’s a real, true pineapple/coconut flavour, no silly substitutes. It’s great hot, it’s great cold, and I’m sure it would be best alcoholic. But that’s just my opinion… Now excuse me while I tan in my backyard with this delicious tea in hand.

The dry tea smells exactly the way I hoped it would… Rich and sweet, like the perfect pear. The dry mix is chunky and heavy, so you don’t really get much bang for your buck with this tea. Twenty grams only gave me 2 – 3 cups worth.

The steeped tea has a very, very weak pear smell. The tea steeps to a lovely light yellow, but little bits and pieces sneak through even the finest infuser and end up at the bottom of my cup.

At first sip, the tea is tart. But with a few more sips, I’m able to hone in on the aftertaste – a lingering, true apple pear combination. I’m not really tasting nor smelling the vanilla beans that are included in the ingredients. The tea is fruity but sharp, true to the description… And a touch of sugar makes a world of difference. The tartness tones down, and it lets me focus on the part I like most – the fruity taste!

When iced (with sugar), the tea reminds me of Vitamin Water, oddly enough. Light and refreshing, mildly sweet. Additionally, I can finally taste the vanilla! Mission accomplished.

I have to be honest and say that this tea probably won’t be a repeat buy. It’s definitely best when served iced with sugar, but it still doesn’t compete with some of the other iced varieties I’ve tried. It’s a touch too tart for my liking, like a mixture of pear with granny smith apples.

This tea smells like autumn. The combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and caramel resemble a pumpkin pie so closely that I’m getting a little nostalgic… Is it Halloween yet? This tea has adorable little orange-coloured candies floating among the tea leaves. I can’t help but smile, it just makes me so happy.

The tea steeps to a beautiful orange-brown, and the smell is still just as prominent. And drinking it? Amazing. I taste the spices first – cinnamon, cloves and everything else that makes both chai and pumpkin spice delicious. It’s pretty light for a chai, not as spicy as others I’ve encountered. Then, the taste of pumpkin lingers on your tongue. Even though there are candies in the tea, the taste is by no means fake. The pumpkin taste is as real as pumpkin can get; I’m impressed.

As per David’s Tea’s orders, I’ll try this with a bit of sugar and milk… Oh wow, this is even better! I added just a little milk and a touch of sugar, but the effect is extraordinary. Now, I really feel like I’m eating a pumpkin pie.

This tea is up there among my favourites. When I bought it, I was told that it was a seasonal tea, but creeping around on their website – I see that it’s not! I guess they changed their minds, and I am oh so glad they did. If you want a tea that’s a lot of pumpkin and a touch of chai, this is it. Pumpkin Chai seems like an appropriate tea to drink before heading out to a costume party. It’ll almost make you believe it’s Halloween.

This is another autumn tea from David’s Tea. The dry tea smells amazing. You can smell the orange peel, but it’s not a purely fruity smell, probably because of the Saigon cinnamon. Once steeped, the first thing I do, before even touching my drink, is pick out the mulberries from the steeped tea. Unconventional, maybe. But they are so delicious that throwing them out would be a sin. I had never tasted mulberries before picking them out of this tea, and now I’m hooked. They aren’t tart like a lot of other berries, and they soak up the tea so they’re just about bursting with flavour.

But I digress, the tea is now steeped. It still smells just as sweet, and is a very dark, but clear brown. Unfortunately, I find it to be lacking a little in flavour. After taking a sip, I taste a bit of orange and mulberry on the back of my tongue, and hints of mulberry and cinnamon definitely linger. Regardless, it isn’t as full a flavour as I had hoped, and I couldn’t taste caramel at all.

I’m trying to decrease my use of sugar and honey in tea, but I’ll sweeten this a little. It makes a bit of a difference, the tea tastes a little fuller now. I can actually taste the cinnamon before I’ve swallowed the tea, but the aftertaste isn’t ideal. The mulberries are already naturally sweet and I find that the sugar makes it all a little overpowering.

I’m not sure if I’ll buy this tea again. As far as scent goes, it’s definitely at the top of my list. And the mulberries are a huge plus. But the tea is lacking taste without sweetener, and gets overpowered with sweetener. Unfortunate, since I really do love mulberries.

As far as smells go, this tea is a winner. The dry tea smells so rich and chocolaty; it’s perfect. This tea has everything from cocoa to roasted carob to white chocolate. And of course, what would a cake tea be without sprinkles? There are loads of white candy sprinkles!

I’ve noticed that this tea has an oily residue on the surface. If you let it cool down for too long, the residue becomes even more prominent. Regardless, the tea smells great. Smelling the steeped tea honestly has me convinced that I’m about to indulge in a delicious hot chocolate. This would be great in the winter!

Maybe it’s because I was hoping for a hot chocolate taste, or maybe because I love rich chocolates, but this tea is a little weak for my liking. The smell has you expecting an explosion of chocolate, but I’m tasting more of a watered-down chocolate. That aside, it definitely does remind me of chocolate cake batter. But unfortunately, this tea is more woody and bitter than the other two cake teas.

The tea is plenty creamy without milk, but I’ll add some just to see what happens… And what a great decision that was! The milk makes the tea creamier, brings out some of the chocolate and in my opinion, makes it taste more like the hot chocolate I was hoping for.

So although this tea has a rich smell that promises a deep, chocolate taste, it ends up tasting a bit watered-down. Milk improves the situation a bit, but I still think this is my least favourite of the three cake teas from David’s Tea.

Yum! The dry tea smells so sweet. Close your eyes and you’d be convinced you were about to bite into a delicious birthday cake, complete with tons of vanilla icing. This one, just like the Ice Cream Cake, has sprinkles in it. It’s important to note that this tea is extremely fine. The first time I made it I used my pincer, which let out about half my tea. Needless to say, straining the tea afterwards wasn’t the most pleasant experience.

Just as I’m about to take a sip, I notice the nice, light smell of vanilla. Maybe even maple? This one, although it has sprinkles and ice cream bits just like the Ice Cream Cake, doesn’t have a layer of residue on the top of the tea. The tea tastes great; I feel like there are hints of maple and caramel. I was expecting more icing, but I’m tasting a lot of cake batter. Definitely not a bad thing since birthday cake batter is always delicious. This tea is creamy as well, but not as sweet as the Ice Cream Cake.

After my great experience with adding milk to Ice Cream Cake, I know I need to try this one with milk too… And again, it’s a nice touch. The tea’s creamier, which goes well with the taste of cake batter. Unfortunately, I think I might have added too much milk as it’s distracting from some of the flavours I initially noted and enjoyed.

This tea smells like a birthday cake and tastes like a birthday cake with maple syrup poured over it. I’ve had some bad experiences with rooibos in the past, but this has definitely changed my opinion of it!

Something about the way this dry tea smells throws me off a little. It’s sweet, but there’s a hint of something that almost smells like alcohol. I’m not entirely certain what it’s from, it might be the stevia. But I have to say, the dry tea looks like an ice cream cake, complete with sprinkles and all.

Once steeped, the smell dies down to a light, sweet vanilla scent. Although I think the sprinkles and freeze-dried ice cream are an innovative addition, they leave a residue on the surface of the tea. Not a big deal to me, but it might turn some people off.

This tea really does taste like liquid ice cream. Obviously not as sweet, but the major flavours are all there. I would compare it most closely to Neapolitan ice cream! The tea is very creamy, as promised. And although I never drink milk in my tea, I’ll add some to see what the effect is. It seems appropriate, given that it’s an ice cream tea… Note: I am lactose intolerant, so I am taking a huge risk here.

Oh my. With milk, this tea is even better, phenomenal even. Creamier, but still just as sweet. I feel like I just took a big bite out of a delicious dessert. Awesome.

Although the dry smell and the way the steeped tea looks are unwelcome surprises, the taste is creamy, rich and just sweet enough for my taste buds. With milk, it’s a goldmine of deliciousness.

Yet again, I’ve found myself sniffing teas. This one’s amazing. A heavy dose of coconut and a touch of raspberry make for a smooth scent that really does make me feel like I’m on an island: just as David’s Tea promised.

Without sweetener, this tea is a tad bitter. I steeped it for the max time: 6 minutes, so I’ll probably just steep for 4 minutes next time. The raspberry is dominated by the other ingredients, so much so that I can barely tell it’s there. But the coconut still finds its way out. It’s as good as coconut gets: smooth, strong, lingering on your tongue… But since I’m finding the tea a little bitter, I’ll add honey. Although it’s sweeter, I feel like the honey actually distracts from the coconut, which is a shame.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this tea. I love coconut, so that’s probably a huge reason why. Next time, I’ll be sure to cut my steeping time. And I’ll be sure to try this iced, I’ve heard it’s delicious!

This is slightly nerve-wracking. My first tasting note. I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing… Well, I don’t. But I decided to start with something I know and love, Glitter & Gold.

I spent a couple of minutes sniffing this tea as the water was about to boil, simply because it smells so incredibly lovely. The mix of vanilla and cinnamon make me wish this was a perfume I could splash on for a night out. Seriously, to die for. And then once it’s all steeped and done, it’s so pretty I feel bad drinking it! David’s Tea is right. It looks like a gorgeous starry night. Well either that, or a really cool lava lamp.

Okay, but now the important part: taste! I’ve been taking myself off of sweeteners, slowly but surely. So first, without honey, then with. Without, it’s a very light tea. It has sugar crystals and the sweetness is barely there, but lingers on my tongue after I’ve sipped. I really like the taste of cinnamon, but it’s very light with this tea – something that even cinnamon haters might enjoy. I’ll try tricking my mom into drinking this. I won’t tell her there’s cinnamon it in (she hates that cinnamon can be overpowering). Honestly, I like this just fine without honey. But let’s add a drop for kicks… There’s not much of a difference to be honest. The tea is naturally sweet so it doesn’t really need any honey. Hooray!

I love this tea. The combination of glitter, vanilla scent, light cinnamon taste and a touch of sugar do it for me.