New tea from this year’s Spring/Wellness collection.
I think most on Steepster know that I don’t drink tea for the ‘wellness’ benefits, I drink it almost purely for taste so every year this is one of the hardest collections for me because the focus is so weighted towards the wellness benefits of the different blends. This one, in particular, is meant for digestion because of the added strain of probiotics. None of that is bad, I just wish it wasn’t the MAIN selling point. However, I guess I have learned a lot about probiotics since we launched this one – I did a lot of research because if I’m going to sell a tea with this sort of unusual added benefit then I want to make sure I’m doing so factually and accurately.
All of that aside, though, I’m just gonna focus on overall taste with my reviews because that’s what I care about – and in that regard I really wanted to like this tea because it sounded great! It’s basically mint, vanilla, and sarsaparilla with a bit of cinnamon. The combo of the first three things there had me excited though because sarsaparilla is what makes rootbeer taste like rootbeer, and the vanilla I thought could add a nice ‘float’ element. Finally, mint is sometimes used in homemade rootbeer or rootbeer flavoured things in combination with things like cinnamon and vanilla to sort of recreate the flavour of rootbeer. So basically, this should have rootbeer vibes – and I am INTO THAT.
However, in practice it didn’t really remind me of rootbeer? I just didn’t taste any sarsaparilla and while the mint, cinnamon, and vanilla were all present flavours for me they didn’t do that thing where they merged together to create one seamless flavour. Instead, they were very much all distinct, unique flavour notes. So the illusion was just broken for me. Also, I think the mint was stronger than the other two ingredients. That said, it didn’t taste bad or anything – it was just disappointing because it wasn’t what I wanted/expected. I think if I revisited with adjusted expectations that I could get into it though.
Also, worth noting that while I couldn’t grasp the rootbeer imagery I’ve had SEVERAL customers express that it smells/tastes like rootbeer to them and I’ve heard a couple staff say they really get the whole rootbeer float imagery. So maybe it comes down to ratio of ingredients in your scoop of tea or just an overall palate thing where some are able to distinguish individual ingredients rather than some who more get the ‘sum of the parts’ kind of experience? I don’t know.
One thing that’s been recommended to me is trying this iced because that helps bring out the rootbeer quality more? I guess I’ll have to try that before I make up my mind entirely.
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.
