658 Tasting Notes

74

I can’t think of much to say about this one. It’s pleasant, but I feel like it tastes like all of DT’s other mint teas and all their other lemony teas. Nothing remarkable, but it is clearing my head. The Oolong is small, tight balls of leaf and it seems to be about half-and-half ratio of tea to lemongrass/peppermint. It’s a good balance between green Oolong flavour and lemon with nice but not overpowering mintiness. Everything is boring me lately! What’s with that? None of the winter teas are really exciting me (though I still bought the whole collection) and I’m underwhelmed by most of the flavoured teas I’ve tried lately. I like this but I want to love something!

Uniquity

The winter collection looks kind of boring. I started thinking a few months ago that I had moved beyond DT in my tea loves and that seems to be true. : ( I hope you find something to love soon!

Plunkybug

See, I think the Winter Collection looks intriguing! I can’t wait to try it.

nomadinjeopardy

Uniquity, I’ve felt the same while for a while too. I actually have no shortage of teas that I LOVE and have found several more recently, but the constant change at DT makes me feel like I must buy them all (and thus like I’m supposed to love them all), and I’m pretty sure that kind of hype is how they’ve become so successful. I think I was just feeling whiny! I was so enamoured with DT a year ago.

Heather, I ripped open all the pouches for a sniff and they smell more interesting than I thought they sounded. Didn’t mean to be a downer. :)

Plunkybug

No worries! Do tell us what you think!

Uniquity

It’s like Pokemon – gotta catch em all! : )

Daisy Chubb

Oh my gad your comment made my day Uniquity. Thank you.

nomadinjeopardy

Haha! Extra-funny because it’s true.

Lisa

I think it’s because DT is recycling some seasonal favourites. I just started drinking DT two months ago, so I am going through the excitement of trying out new teas. I do find that a lot of them are in my meh list. I have come across some treasures though.

Do you normally buy 50g? I usually buy 10g bags to take home to try for 1-3 cups before committing to a tea.

Uniquity

I always used to buy in 50 g or 100 g incremements because it never occured to me (nor was I told) that you could buy in different amounts. I do my DT shopping in store, but their price lists are for 50g or more so I thought it was a minimum. Accordingly, I still have some very boring tea on my shelves, but at least I’ve learned! : )

Lisa

I am glad I found out early. I would be really broke if I bought in 50g!

Plunkybug

Yeah, I rarely but 50g these days for something new. It depends, but on average I get 25g unless I am getting a lot of teas to try, in which case I will often get 10-15g…sometimes 20g if I’m not too broke. :P

nomadinjeopardy

Yeah, I find 20-25ish grams a pretty good starting point and not too big an investment. Though they often seem to mishear me. I intended to get 12ish grams of Oh Christmas Treat to try out today but he gave me 26. That should be okay as it smells quite good, and isn’t too much for me to use up especially as I tend to make flavoured teas by the pot and share with the boyfriend.

Uniquity

I’m starting to wonder if DT hasn’t picked up the Teavana technique – I’ve had a couple people give me double what I’ve asked for recently. They do offer to adjust it back to what I said, but I usually don’t bother. Maybe it’s intentional?

nomadinjeopardy

I’ve wondered that, too. Last night at least it seemed like he had actually misheard me, but then I’m pretty trusting! It’s definitely been on the rise lately.

Cattibrie

It seems to be the new people at David’s that do that. I was there yesterday and the girl was really great about adjusting the amount in the bag or tin to what I asked for before I could even mention it. 2 weeks ago when I was there I had to ask her to do a smaller amount like I asked for. The girl yesterday has been there for awhile and the girl 2 weeks ago has only been around for a little while.

nomadinjeopardy

Yeah, I think newness does play a factor.

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79
drank Checkmate by DAVIDsTEA
658 tasting notes

Interesting. Dry, it does smell like chocolate. It doesn’t taste strongly of chocolate, mostly of black tea with a nice hint of malt, but at the same time I can taste the Bai Mu Dan. It’s pretty odd. I didn’t expect to taste the white in there. I do have a bitter but mellow cocoa taste at the back of my mouth on the end of the sip. I actually can’t pick out the coconut and/or chamomile flavours, so I think this is pretty successful in its goal of blending them seamlessly. I am left with a chocolate taste in my mouth after drinking it, which is pretty cool.

Plunkybug

I find it to be a rather mellow tea myself. Nothing astounding on my tongue, but at the same time, the marrying of the flavours to create something else entirely, is pretty neat, like you said. I think this one might be best as a latte.

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88

This tea is absolutely fascinating. It’s the first aged Oolong I’ve ever tried, and I’m really enjoying its complexity. I should wait a few more infusions before logging it as it’s changing with each cup. But, I’m taking a break from paper-writing.

I get an evergreen sap scent from the liquor and especially the dry leaf, as mentioned in the tea’s description. Also that deep, dark roastiness. It smelled quite intimidating, but I’m learning to be less afraid of the scent of roasted Oolongs. It’s woody and dark but there’s no bitterness and it actually ends with a hint of sweetness in the back of my mouth. This tastes like a wood fire to me, but like the FIRE part, not the smoke. It tastes like the point at which a fire has burnt out at the cottage but we’re still sitting around the charred logs, pine needles and soil under foot. It’s earthy and yet silken. Excellent!

TeaBrat

I am getting a package from Verdant tea tomorrow – so excited!

nomadinjeopardy

They’re exciting packages! I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Plunkybug

Wow, so many tastes! I don’t think my buds are so sophisticated as that! Maybe one day. :)

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76

Tasty! Not astounding. I think I’m getting pickier and pickier about flavoured teas, which is probably a good thing as maybe I’ll be less inclined to keep dozens and dozens on hand.

This is a nice mixture between crisp black tea, sweet pear/apple flavour, and a hint of cranberry tartness. I was worried when even the DT employee described this as “a mix between a black blend and an herbal” because the DT tea blends can tend to be insanely light on the tea. But, there’s a fair amount in here with enough fruit chunks to make the apple and pear flavour come through.

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81

Toasty but quite sweet and more subtle than my first China Cha Dao Wuyi sample (the special grade Da Hong Pao). I expected it to be more earthy from the scent, but it was brighter and clearer than I expected. I’m actually left finding it less memorable than the Da Hong Pao, but still lovely. It also has the honey and grain notes, but overall much mellower. It had me coming back for cup after cup (5 or 6) while doing some housecleaning. And the huge, long, twisted leaves were again a joy to watch open up.

Also, I broke in my new gaiwan with this one and it was wonderful! As much as I love my first gaiwan, I wanted a black one to match my tea set-up and went for one from Camellia Sinensis. I didn’t expect to be so in love with it! The black is very sleek and appealing and this thing handles really beautifully. I’d highly recommend it. https://camellia-sinensis.com/accessorie/fiche/New+Black+gaiwan

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88
drank Fairy Dust by Tealish
658 tasting notes

I saw one of Tealish’s new teas was named Fairy Dust and knew I was interested. And THEN I read the description: strawberry-kiwi green rooibos? Yes, please! The man of the house got a hair cut today down near Tealish and I had him stop in for some Fairy Dust on his way home. I have a tea courier now, and am feeling pretty victorious.

This is suitably awesome. It’s a vivaciously flavourful little blend, but not too sweet. There are some great flavoured blends out there that I like a lot but end up finding too sweet-tasting to drink regularly. This one keeps the earthiness of the green rooibos. It smells great both dry and infused, but actually more strongly once steeped. I can pick out both all the individual fruit scents. Perhaps my new favourite rooibos!

Uniquity

Oh man. That sounds amazing. So amazing.

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88
drank Forever Nuts by DAVIDsTEA
658 tasting notes

I used up the last of this today at work. I had only a tiny bit, but a big 500 ml mug, and it occurred to me that this would work with vanilla. So I added a sachet of Mariage Freres vanilla rooibos I had on me. Great combination! I wasn’t thinking I’d buy more of this tea, but it is good to have on hand for a comforting tea. I know both Tealish and Herbal Infusions have similar/nearly-identical blends, so perhaps I’ll give one of those a try.

cteresa

It is a nice tip and I am glad that it worked, but can not resist commenting that Mariage Freres Vanilla Rooibos is sort of supreme on its own and likely would improve anything roobos based (I love the quality of the rooibos MF uses, and the vanilla in their vanilla one is so subtle, just so right, for me it´s sort of ultimate pure-but-better rooibos)

nomadinjeopardy

I definitely agree! I’m not a huge fan of red rooibos but this one is just lovely.

Plunkybug

I’ve been tempted to try this, but I am so iffy about herbals…but this smells delish in the shop.

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81

To-go, courtesy of the $1 “straight tea” promotion. I was really wanting some kukicha but they didn’t have any, so I went with this as a mellow alternative, and it served me well.

This is a tasty but not remarkable Tie Kwan Yin. Sweet, floral, but a bit subdued. I wasn’t sure about the T-sac in a cup situation for an Oolng so I think it performed really well under the circumstances. I left it in longer than intended and there wasn’t even a touch of bitterness.

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53

Well, at least I’m not alone in thinking this tastes like straight-up rooibos. That’s okay, because it is predominantly, but I get only a very little raspberry. There is some added tartness and I can sense the lemongrass but it’s more a feeling on my tongue than a flavour. Medicinal! Yikes. But, not horrendous. I finished my cup, albeit in gulps.

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94

Yesterday, leaving for work, I put a teaspoon of this along with some green rooibos into my travel press with some boiling water. It had a good 45 minutes to steep before I got to it, and was delicious! Earthy but decadent.

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