15662 Tasting Notes
This was a morning cuppa paired with an Amazing Spider-Man comic reread. Some old arcs, like Kraven’s Last Hunt, have been reprinted lately, so it’s been really lovely exploring or, in some cases, re-exploring them. I thought that not only was this a really lovely white tea, but it also paired quite nicely with this early morning deep dive. It was smooth and creamy with fresh green notes of cucumber pulp alongside tastes of condensed or steamed milk and a subtle cocoa finish. Crisp, cool, and calming – all the things I want in a good Shou Mei!! Plus, hot damn look at those tea leaves!! What a stunning, intense green colour!!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2fuFpYOdkq/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdCs72DUAs4
Another quickie note just to say this newly organic tea is back up on the website now – and as a core flavour!! I was so bummed when we discontinued this flavour because it’s so good for matcha lattes, and then when we started the giant project of converting all of our matchas to organic I was very worried this was a flavour that wouldn’t work well in matcha. Organic fruit flavourgs are much easier in organic but “sweet browns”, and really decadent flavours in general, are much more challenging…
However, I think this might actually be the best organic version of any of the flavours except for, maybe, vanilla – and really with vanilla it’s more the sugar difference than a flavouring difference. It’s got that perfect rich maple-y goodness that I’ve missed, and I’m just SO THRILLED to have virtually unlimited maple matcha lattes at the office again.
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.
Just a quickie tasting note, as I’ve been doing for all the recent organic matcha conversions. In case you’ve missed it, we’ve been slowly converting all of our core/seasonal matcha flavours to organic. It’s been a long process, but I’m excited by the two we just rereleased: this one and maple.
If I’m being honest, I was deeply worried that we wouldn’t be able to achieve this flavour in organic – the range of flavourings available in organic is quite a bit less diverse than both artificlal and natural flavourings, and often even if you can find an organic version it’s usually less potent tasting. I’m super happy with this one though! It tastes so close to the previous version (which I’m a major fan of personally), but perhaps just marginally less sweet. Honestly, even if it’s subtle, I kind of like that change.
I have a lot of the non-organic version of this at home still so I’m probably not bringing some of this one home any time soon – but I’ve been drinking it a lot at the office lately. Especially as an iced matcha latte!
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.
Iced Tea!
Made this last week to both drinking during a longer afternoon meeting and because I just wanted to revisit one of my favourite blends! I definitely under steeped my concentrate by a few minutes because I was trying not to be late, but the cranberry and sweet soda-like finish were both still there – just without quite the same oomph I’m used to. The ginger seemed unphased. Still lively with a gentle heat, and a great offset to the fruit,
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.
Gongfu!
It felt like for a few weeks there I was so deeply caught up in the dark, dense and cozy heaviness of ripe pu’erhs and roasted teas and now I can’t seem to get enough of the fresh florals and cool, crisp greener notes of white teas like this one. The gentle sweetness of the snow pea and freesia notes just created such a calm energy that I can only hope to carry forward into the rest of the day!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2lFGUfu9Zu/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_RSwwpPaA
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.
This weekend I rewatched the Sense8 finale because I just needed something familiar to revisit, and this is the tea I was drinking throughout it. If I’d stopped and thought a moment about it I probably wouldn’t have picked this tea because it feels like a sort of weird fit, but actually the softer and soothing herbal and earthy beet profile wound up being quite comforting and cozy. Not something “on equal playing fields” with some of the really intensely choreographed fight scenes or very high energy and colourful moments, but deeply emotional and somber moments? Oh, this was grounding and exactly the right sort of profile for those moments.
Latte!
Made this today as just a hot latte using oat milk. I’ve definitely had a lot of iced lattes lately, and hot matcha lattes but I think it’s been a moment since I made a hot latte using loose leaf tea. I’ve just been on just a large iced beverage streak…
I adore the dry leaf smell of this. It’s very, very anise forward in that sweet but heavy/dense molasses and black licorice sort of way. On top of that there’s a nice hint of clove, but otherwise in aroma I’d call this a bit of a licorice bomb.
Steeped with the added oat milk the colour is actually pretty close to the more intense orange/brown of a traditional “Thai Tea” (like, the bubble tea) but just a more natural hue. Like the smell, it’s a black licorice/anise forward profile but with a whole lot of body and maltiness from the base tea, as well as a more earthy spice undertone. I’d wager this is probably pretty darn polarizing given how mixed opinions on anise and clove can be, but I quite enjoyed it as a latte today. In fact, it was probably the best tea I had all day. I feel like it does a nice job nodding to its inspiration while still being its own distinct thing!
This is my first time trying this blend from Tealyra, but I’ve purchased it from other companies in the past (it’s a catalog blend) so ultimately this was more of a revisit than a new experience. Definitely very cinnamon forward, but also strong notes of clove and a peppery undertone alongside that rich, jammy apricot note.
In the past I’ve likened the combo of fruit and spices to ketchup, and I think kind of stand by that. Maybe, though, in hindsight it’s a little more chutney than ketchup!? Despite being a wholesale/catalog blend, I think it is one of the more unique chai profiles I’ve come across and many, many years later it continues to be a favourite.
Definitely a bit of a generic hot cinnamon and sweet red apple profile. Not in a bad way, but just in a matter of fact one. I liked the body the black tea base gave though – it’s different from the rooibos base I see more commonly. Mostly, though, I ended up making this because boy oh boy did I need to jump of caffeine! And it made a huge difference in the flow of my day today, let me tell you…
Made myself a mug of this yesterday morning. On one hand it did feel a little weird to be kick starting my work week with a prosseco flavoured tea. On the other hand, it was exactly the sort of lightly tart, juicy and effervescent sort of profile I needed to put a little pep in my step that early in the day.
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.
