Next up for the Macaron Collection; iced for my first tasting.
Of the three teas, this is definitely the one I was most excited about…
Right up until I read the ingredients list, that is. Personally, a tea named Raspberry Meringue on a white base sounds phenomenal to me; something light, airy and fluffy with a delicate raspberry sweetness and maybe a sliver of creaminess? My biggest fear would be that there would be added sugar/sweetner, and this would become too sweet. Well, low and behold this IS sugar in this. Not even cane sugar either – just sugar sugar. Additionally, they’ve added green tea, chamomile, and a whole bunch of tropical fruits? The ingredients for this just sort of look like a mess to me, and I couldn’t see how they would come together in a positive way.
When we cracked the bag open to fill the tin for this blend it wasn’t promising either; despite being a fresh shipment of tea for a brand new launch and a sealed kilogram bag it just sort of smelled stale, flat and almost musty to me? I was really hoping to be proved otherwise though.
My first taste was not positive. I’ve tried to come up with a delicate way of putting it, but it really boils down to the tea just tasting bad. It’s not that it was over steeped/the leaf was scorched by too hot of water: I’m very careful about that, and there was no bitterness or astringency. That weird mustyness/stale quality carried through into the taste for me though, and it really negatively affected the profile. Honestly, what it made me think of was my Grandma’s storage attic where she has all these boxes that I’m pretty sure have just been sitting for like 30 odd years. They have a thick layer of dust on them and when I drank this I felt like I was licking the layer of dust. Bleck.
It wasn’t all bad though; the finish does have a nice raspberry note to it and if I could find a way to make the whole sip taste like that finish I think I’d enjoy it. The raspberry is somewhat tangy, with just a hint of acidity and it comes off pretty realistically/naturally. Like eating REALLY ripe raspberries out of my grandma’s raspberry bush. This is the aspect of the tea I’m choosing to focus on when talking about it to people coming into the store. Also, interesting that regardless of which element of the blend I talk about it all comes back to good ol’ Granny Strange.
It’s also interesting to me because I’ve had A LOT of customers come in and sample this as the TOTD and lots of them LOVE IT. I can’t help but wonder what they’re tasting that’s so different from what I getting. Taste is subjective though, so perhaps my tastebuds are just in the minority with this one? But yeah, of the three this is definitely my least favourite.
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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
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Maybe we dont have the same kind of raspberrys, because for me, this was the most on-point raspberrys flavours Davids Tea ever got. I’m loving it, and totaly get the meringue vibe from it.
“Granny Strange” sounds like she’d be a wonderful character in a TV show about a young witch (adopted at birth!) discovering her magical roots.
@Sebastien
I’m really wondering if there’s just an ingredient in this that I’m rather adverse to because I’ve retried this since and I definitely still have the same opinion, but the store I’m at has had so many people come in raving about this one that I’m certainly in the minority.
Where in Canada are you located, out of curiosity?
Québec City
Maybe we dont have the same kind of raspberrys, because for me, this was the most on-point raspberrys flavours Davids Tea ever got. I’m loving it, and totaly get the meringue vibe from it.
“Granny Strange” sounds like she’d be a wonderful character in a TV show about a young witch (adopted at birth!) discovering her magical roots.
@Sebastien
I’m really wondering if there’s just an ingredient in this that I’m rather adverse to because I’ve retried this since and I definitely still have the same opinion, but the store I’m at has had so many people come in raving about this one that I’m certainly in the minority.
Where in Canada are you located, out of curiosity?
Québec City