226 Tasting Notes
Meh. So much for adding another lovely white tea to my favorite’s list. It isn’t terrible, just not my cup of tea;)
It’s sweet 1st taste but at the tail end of it, it’s dry and bitter. I’m going to wait til it cools down, if it tastes a little bit better, I’ll keep it for the summer, might make an ok iced tea. If not…giving it away or throwing it out.
I broke my promise to myself about not buying more tea til March/April. Truthfully I didn’t even try to stop myself. But I’m not going to waste time and beating myself up for it, just try to restrain myself from getting more. The rule moment of truth will be when I go get some replacement rock sugar at Teavana’s sometime this week. I was there today, (Had to go to Whole Foods for grocery shopping, and with Somerset Mall just a mile from WF, I stopped there 1st to have a up close look at the Breville 1-touch. I’ve been thinking the last few days of saving for one for when I get a new job and would like to wake up to a morning cup of tea.
Preparation
Been a while since I’ve had this tea, and wanted to review again. I am starting to get where I can taste the artificialness of some teas….though this has yet to really bother me. I imagine it can be difficult to add certain flavors to tea, such as fruit. Though I do wish for a more ‘fresh fruit flavor’. I still like this tea though, and now that I am getting close to the end of it…need to make that decision to buy or fly past it in favor for others….as there is like 50 odd more teas from Teavana’s that I wanted to try. Another complaint is that (as with most of Teavana’s teas I am noticing.) there is not alot of tea, more dried fruit and ‘stuff’ so what I am thinking is that I want to pair this with a plain white tea (or maybe a plain black tea or earl grey might be intriguing.) My craving for white tea has certainly gone up! lol. Of course I would pick the type of tea that is usually some of the most $$ of the tea world. Though for the Strawberry Paraiso at $10 isn’t bad…I know with the straight white teas such as Silver Needle it is much more pricey. I do hope that the more traditional tea drinkers don’t think it blasphemy at the idea of pairing these up….though if anyone has a suggestion as to what would be a better pairing, (preferably unflavored, as I am looking for a combination white tea taste with the Strawberry Paraiso.)And preferably one that Teavana’s has as it seems easier to blend that way.) I am also contemplating adding just a pinch of Hibiscus to it. I am not a huge fan of tart, but I do like it in the sense to make the flavors stand out and be somewhat complex. Or maybe some lemon rind? Let me know if you got any ideas….the idea of doing some blending is exciting!
Preparation
ooh maybe the strawberry lemonade herbal they make?
I was thinking of that, since the site recommends it, but with the strawberry already in the Paraiso, it seems kind of silly and not balanced out…..I guess there is only 1 way to find out.
I would be tempted to blend this white a regular white as well. You can get several steepings out of this tea, which I love, helps cushion the cost. Have you tried any other blends with this?
LOL. I did try blending it with a white needle, though not Teavana’s because of the price. It was ok, particularly as a iced tea. This summer I’m thinking of maybe doing it again though combine it with Peach Tranqulity, or Dragonfruit Devotion, as those are my 2 favorite herbals from Teavana.
mmm, I’m going to have to try the Peach Tranquility. It keeps popping up
Ok, back to reviewing my David’s Tea Samples…Maybe about 1 a week? Hmm maybe that’ll help me in maintaining not buying any tea til March/April? LOL.
On the plus side: I have found a tea that that doesn’t have that Graham Cracker taste. (Well a slight undertone.) But covering that is a strong maple syrup taste. Now if your expecting/wanting a heavy syrup taste: Do not get this tea! But if your looking for the sweetness of syrup but none of the sticky heavy mess, definitely buy it. That being said…though I don’t mind the idea of finishing this, I doubt I will buy this tea. I couldn’t really say what turned me off from it….the temp suggestion is 208, and so I usually just go for the boiling and most 208 teas taste ok/good with that, but I think next time I will try the 200 setting. I am not counting on the taste really improving though. Ahh well:)
Preparation
Drank a cup of this tonight, along with 2 other cups, (Working on drinking down my stash so when March (and hopefully Spring!) Rolls around I’ll have a nice excuse to buy more!
Well, I got to say that even though I really liked this one for a while….I highly doubt I will be getting this one again. To me it now tastes overly sweet and fake. Reminds me more of koolaid then tea. This is the 2nd tea that I had acquired as a favorite but ended up practically detesting it after a while, and I havn’t even had it that much! Maybe I will buy it again in the summer to see if I like it again.
Preparation
Weird. This is the…I think 4th? tea I’ve tried from David’s Tea and with exception of the Mango Madness, all of them had the Graham Cracker taste. In of itself, that isn’t a bad thing…I like Graham crackers. But I was hoping to get a nice peachy flavor to this tea, but I don’t taste any fruit let alone peach. Plus not to mention I like tea for variety of flavors, so got to admit…starting to annoy me.
Preparation
I find that David’s seems to use the same set of flavorings and mix them a little differently together to create a new blend. I find that Toasted Walnut, Mulberry Magic and Forever Nuts have the same cake-like flavoring, for example.
lol….well thanks for telling me…Forever Nuts is one of the samples that came in the gift set. It’s not really a bad thing…I’m just going to go slower in trying them out, so that way maybe I won’t be tasting practically the same thing all the time.
Good thinking! Variety keeps tea interesting. :)
1st smell: Fruity, but not sickingly fruity.
1st taste: Mango-ish. Can’t decide if it tastes like true mangos or not though. Been years since I’ve had the fruit.
All in all: While I enjoyed this tea alot more then the last tea (I reviewed this evening.) and would be pleased to get a 50 g bag as a gift, for the price…at $10 that’s just a wee bit steep for me. And considering my current trouble in buying from DT’s non issue.
1 last comment: I am definitely seeing why some people are comparing DT’s to Teavana’s….yes I am still a Teavana fan;) I just find it interesting that DT’s is overloading their stock with bits of fruit like Teavana’s. Not a bad thing or good thing…just commentary.
Preparation
I have to say that I’m generally not the biggest fan of DT’s white blends. The prices are jacked, and they are full of fruit, and rarely have any white tea flavour. Butiki and other blenders, who may use more flavourings in tea than pieces of real fruit (keep in mind that DT also uses flavouring as well as fruit chunks), achieve much better flavoured whites at reasonable prices.
That said, I liked this tea, but not at that sort of price!
Got this in my Xmas gift…
1st smell: Peppery. But not overpowering.
1st Taste: I am starting to think that the Graham cracker taste is a signature flavor with all David’s Teas, though maybe only with the Black Teas. I don’t I tasted that with the Goji Pop……
It’s overall an interesting cup, I love the creativity that went into making the tea, however, I don’t see myself needing to keep this in my cupboard.
Preparation
Grrr Still having trouble in editing my tea notes, and I don’t want to bother with Firefox right now….Just wanted to add a quick note: I ended up not being able to finish my cup of Read My Lips. As it cooled, it got to weirdly peppery for me. Generally if the peppery taste were offset by something else, like a contrast, I might like it better. And plus, like other experiences I’ve had with Chocolate in tea…hasn’t worked for me, but I can’t seem to resist trying them anyways.
Weird! Did you get a set of sachets for Christmas? I got a 5-pack of this from my sister and haven’t tried them yet (although I’ve had this tea before). Wondering if there’s something different about it now.
As for the graham cracker thing, I wonder if that’s an artifact of the black base, or maybe some specific flavouring element. It’s not something I’ve picked up on, but perhaps that’s how something is coming across to you!
I got this tea in Christmas present package from my Auntie including a teapot, the Sweet Indulgence sampler set, and of course a few samples…got plenty of tea to review!
Dry Smell: MMmmm smells like Gingerbread. Of Graham Crackers. I don’t think ethier is a part of this tea, but I’m not complaining. I didn’t want to put the top on my cup so I could watch it sparkle….very cool.
1st taste: If liquid gold could be made into a tea, I think it would taste like this. I really like this and am going to be sad when it’s gone bye bye.
Preparation
Yay! I got my David’s Tea gift today!!! Was not expecting it til sometime next week! Anyways, given the fact that I didn’t get home til close to 9, I decided that it would be best to start out with an herbal. With any luck I will be getting up at a reasonable time tomorrow and will be having a black tea to help wake me up.
1st smell: Dry, interesting, but not especially notable. same wet.
1st taste: Odd. Not bad, but odd. As I am looking at the reviews, I am realizing that I didn’t get really any of the notes others picked up. Well ok got the apple, (kind of reminded me of hot apple cider.) Of course, I have never had Goji berries, so that is probably part of why I had no idea what to expect. Overall though I liked the cup, though I am thinking that I probably would not buy this tea on it’s own. And to me, based on the tastes, this is more of a Fall tea.
Preparation
1st smell: A very faint hint of peach
1st taste: Same. I know, white tea is not terribly distinctive, but I’ve had white teas that were much more distinctive then this. It isn’t bad, it’s just boring. I am thinking I will mix it with Peach Tranquility for more peachy flavor, or maybe with Berry Basil Blast just to make it interesting. I didn’t care much for BBB either, but maybe combining them will make it more drinkable til they both get finished. Truthfully, I am kind of surprised that this tea made it out to the floor, it being so…bland. Considering Teavana’s tendency to over flavor their teas.
