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I prepared this as an iced latte, and it was what I pretty much expected. There is a lot more emphasis placed on the “berries” aspect in regards to the flavouring. It’s reminiscent of a blueberry-açai “power fruit” juice or what have you. The matcha powder itself isn’t as aromatic as I would have expected (unlike its Honeydew cousin).

But, come to think of it, I need to give DAVIDsTEA credit for the berry flavouring to not be artificial to the point that it tastes like actual chemicals. That was a huge issue I had with Red Leaf Tea’s fruit-flavoured matcha. Almost every one I tried had an extremely off-putting chemical undertone, whereas this does not.

Iced this morning after already drinking two cups of coffee because caffeine means nothing to me. I couldn’t taste any of the maté, but what I did get was 80% coffee bean, 10% chicory, and 10% melted cocoa butter. Actually better than expected?

Sipdown, which came with the strangest surprise, but I mean that in a positive way. I only had around 5g of this left and wanted to cold brew a larger jug, so on a whim, I added some Thé du Hammam from Le Palais des Thés thinking that they may pair well together. I kid you not, it now tastes a lot more like the original SBT. It somehow acquired a more accurate rainbow ice cream vibe. On top of that, the Thé du Hammam didn’t make this bitter at all, and let me tell you, that tea easily does.

Hmm, maracuja, you say? I’m a passion fruit whore, as in, I’ll eat an entire passion fruit straight and wish I had a dozen more. I’d hook it to my veins. Hell, I’d go on a passion fruit mono diet if they weren’t so expensive.

The dry leaf does smell tropical, a touch of artificial, generic tropical fruit mixed in with dried, sugar-coated mango. But no passion fruit. I’ve eaten enough of those suckers in my life to know it when I smell or taste it.

But this was still good. I had it hot without any additives, and it was sweetened dried mango more than anything else. The base didn’t get too astringent. Would I have it again? Nah, but it was worth the experience.

Still forever pining for a realistic passion fruit tea, or a passion fruit note in a tea, though.

I tried this as an iced latte earlier today. I’m a sucker for melon-flavoured teas. There’s just something about them. 2% milk, no additional sweetener, because who needs more on top of the already-added cane sugar. It wasn’t Melona bar-level creamy honeydew, but it was creamy honeydew, nonetheless. It was around 28°C throughout the day, clear skies, scorching-heat-beaming- down-your-face. Honeydew bubble tea popped up in my head when I saw this, and it hit the spot. In spite of the cane sugar, this is still much healthier, clearly.

Mild grassy notes accompanied the melon but didn’t steal the show, either. Probably my second favourite DAVIDsTEA flavoured matcha, behind Pumpkin Pie.

I have a new version of the same name, and have been so stoked to try this because my favourite SBT was Rainbow Sherbet (although I never tried the loose version) and it tasted like rainbow ice cream, for real.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t resemble rainbow ice cream or sherbet no matter which way you slice it. The dry leaf made this seem promising, as there are chunks of fruit in this, and it smells like fruity candy. Sorry to say, but my first impression was horrible, as I tried it hot, and boy, was it a train-wreck. It brought out this mega artificial orange note in stereo. Something from my past tasted exactly like it, and I want to say powdered Gatorade.

Cold brewed, it’s not as bad, and drinkable. The artificial aspect is much more reserved, but still enough to remind me of powdered citrus Gatorade. It’s a given that I will therefore cold brew the rest of my sample pouch.

Wow, this is most certainly an EGC, with major emphasis on the cream aspect. I have prepared this in two ways: cold brewed and hot with 2% milk. A thousand thanks to the Teaguy for sending me a very generous sample of this!

Cold brewed, I initially thought I might have under leafed because the liquor is on the paler side, but whatever I did, it worked out for the best because the base is smooth, the bergamot is prominent but not too sharp, and the cream and vanilla is right in your face. Although, I have noticed that the more I drink this (on my second tall glass), the drier the mouthfeel. I notice it all the more when I take a few sips of the hot tea then go back to the cold brew. I’m double-fisting the EGC, yo.

Hot with 2% milk this is lovely too. I would say that the vanilla is even more prominent here and there is very minimal astringency with the added milk. When I tasted it before adding the milk, however, the base was quite astringent. But I have no intention on ever drinking it that way, so doesn’t matter to me!

I’m curious about how this would compare to Zen’s EGC, my favourite to date. If I were to compare them mentally, I’d say this is heavier on the creamy vanilla, maybe a little more, dare I say, artificial-tasting with the vanilla, but not in a bad way, really. I am super stoked about this one and I could see wanting more of this in the future, especially for cold brew. Thanks again to the Teaguy! This is a total winner.

Sad to say, but I’m happy with this sipdown this time around! Last fall’s batch just wasn’t what it used to be. I swear! I’m going to lower the rating (from a 91) without being too harsh so as to respect the previous batches.

I told myself to go to bed nearly an hour ago but I wanted to write about this since it’s sadly gone. And look at that, I screwed up the picture when I took the screenshot. Oh well, good enough. The soothing sound of this 1:30am rain, the cooler breeze, and the wonderful scent of ozone is highly enjoyable too.

This is fantastic, full of spices, citrus, happiness. I really can taste that cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and orange. Then there’s a soft pop of cocoa. Rooibos can be finicky and woody but this was barely detectable amongst the spice and added milk. It took me a while to figure out what this was reminding me of. The particular balance of spices along with the orange was momentarily taunting me. Why, it’s my pepparkakor! Only with a touch of that cacao. I haven’t made those in so many years and it made me wish I had one to dunk into my tea.

This goes well with whole milk and I’m curious about how it would be iced/cold brewed. It may sound odd but it also paired well with my morning breakfast treat: fried eggs and toast.

Methinks I’ll need to order a full size of this from Amoda sometime soon.

Ugh, another sad sipdown. I was hoarding the last of my sampler but thought I needed to suck it up and drink it already. Nuts, gluten-free Animal Crackers, and cocoa. So good.

I’m supposed to head to the mall now that I’m finished my tea but I just want to sit here and continue listening to The Tea Party. Ever go a long time—years—without listening to a band, only to sort of rediscover them and obsess? That’s me with The Tea Party, especially their album Transmission. This is so mind-numbingly brilliant. I am in love. And now I’m majorly regretting passing up seeing them live a few months ago because I was already going to two other concerts around the same time and didn’t want to push my luck with my work schedule. Noooo!