16316 Tasting Notes
Gongfu!
Happy (belated) Canada Day! In honor of the day I’m steeping a session of White Mist, a Canadian grown white tea that I had the pleasure of seeing grow in person last summer during my vacation to BC. The dry leaf is pretty aromatic, with a mix of cocoa and crisp cucumber coming through on the nose. Steeped up, this is one of the most chocolate-y tasting white teas I’ve come across, with supporting notes of roasted nuts and quinoa and a cool, crisp finish of snow peas. There’s less cucumber than I was getting from the dry leaf but there’s still a bit of a green snap to the taste almost as if you were biting into cucumber peel without any pulp. Though my first impulse today was to pull out a bunch of maple teas, I think this was better! It does steep out quickly, but dang, if it isn’t both interesting and delicious!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C85DkYIOX8c/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6QgbhA8sNM
This was basically love at first sip. I simply could not get over how smooth, creamy, and rich feeling the mouthfeel was. It was also just so in sync with the tasting notes: fresh, buttery and unctuous with a lovely overarching nutty and umami profile. Quite chestnut forward which is sublime with the creaminess and, of course, makes a ton of sense since this green tea powder is made with the same cultivar that would be used to produce Dragonwell.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C87eAWxOENI/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0a1N7Xe40c
Gongfu!
After hearing all the hype surrounding the original pressing, I’m finally taking W2T’s 2024 Moon Bear Mini for a spin – and of course I had to do it in the matching teacup!! I know this tea sits somewhere inbetween being a white tea and a sheng pu’erh, but personally I found it a little more white tea-like. Once the dragonball started to more fully open up the liquor became quite viscous and creamy. Hard to sum up the overall taste profile, but in its sweet spot I found it somewhat at the middle point of when you take sweetened condensed milk and cook it stovetop to make dulce de leche – but with a more savory and brothy backend. One thing that did surprise me was how prone to bitterness this tea was; a few times I lost focus on infusion times while snacking on dragonfruit and the resulting brew definitely had some punch to it. Very interesting, very complex. I definitely get why there was so much demand for it!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C89zwqnOrHa/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko-DAwsi83U
Gongfu!
The dry leaf aroma of this tea is just intoxicatingly rich and earthy. I could smell it for hours and hours; there’s something so nostalgic and peaceful about the notes of petrichor and wet garden soil. Steeped, it loses a little bit of the edge but is still such a fantastically smooth and full-bodied earthy profile. Petrichor, yes, but also freshly pulled garden carrots and beets with the soil still caked to their sides. That kind of earthiness that is rich yet sweet and clean. The undertones make me think of old, antique books bound with thick leather coverings. Overall, the profile is very round and coating with all of these tasting notes that evoke such fond childhood memories of helping my grandma in her vegetable garden in the summer mornings, and ravenously reading books until the late hours of the evening. Such a beautiful tea.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9ASlQPu_LD/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zRI_2S7na0
A late night cuppa from a few nights ago. I’m not feeling sick or anything, I was just kind of craving mint and eucalyptus. I’ll be honest, I did expect the eucalyptus to be a little bit stronger and more cooling – I think Cold 911 has forever ruined me by conditioning me to expect liquid Vick’s Vapor rub whenever I see eucalyptus in an ingredient list.
With that said, it was still a very good cup of tea. Rich, soothing and slightly cooling peppermint with eucalyptus undertones, supported by notes of citrus from the lemongrass and just a hint of chili heat in the finish. Great for a late night cuppa to wind down with. I just felt so relaxed by the time I had finished my mug.
This was also really good! Usually ginger plus fruit is a pretty safe and enjoyable combination for me, so I expected to like this and was pleased those expectations were met. It’s very gingerale or gingerbeer-like in taste, but with a vibrant and lively fresh and tart blueberry note. Super well balanced, and just delightful!
I thought this was going to be like a Strawberry Lemonade kind of vibe, but it was more dense and jammy tasting than expected with overt raspberry notes instead of strawberries. Still, of course, had a brightness and overall tang from both the lemon and the kombucha vinegar itself, but was just more complex and layered than I’d expected of it. Still super summery, and overall one of the better GT Kombucha flavours I’ve had in a while.
Edit: Apparently this is my 16,000th tasting note. Dang.
Pulled this one out last night to sip on!
I was a little impatient to drink the cuppa and I ended up slightly burning the tip of my tongue, but it didn’t detract from the deliciousness. Very smooth with an overarching “sweet brown” note that worked splendidly with the more molasses-y gingersnap cookie and dense, almost caramelized fig notes. Very rich! Made me wish I had cookies to dunk in it…
It rained a lot of this past weekend, so this was exactly the right kind of cozy and warming vibe that I wanted from my tea the past few days. I spent most of the mug trying to figure out exactly what the notes of hot cocoa and chili were reminding me of and I came up with a few close-ish things before solving this brain puzzle. At first I was thinking, like, snickerdoodle vibes since there was a very baked/cookie quality in addition to the cinnamon/spice. Then I thought of DT’s discontinued “Cocoa Canela” blend which was also a mate with chocolate and spices – though that one was much, much more chocolate forward. Finally I think I nailed it! One of the cafes that I order from a lot here in Montreal has a “Spicy Brownie” that’s made with a bunch of cayenne in it, and there’s definitely some major flavours/vibes overlap between the two!
Cold Brew!
I recently had some pineapple flavoured gummy rings, similar to the peach gummy rings. As I was sipping this tea, I couldn’t help but think how similar the two pineapple notes were. Though, in this case, much more smooth and creamy due to the presence of the coconut. Not as tangy either. Still, that base note of gummy pineapple was all that was on my mind finishing this off.
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.
