Continuing with some tasting notes for new Summer teas this afternoon!
Something we get requests for a lot is a simple or “classic” lemon black tea, so this was definitely very much intended to be an incredibly simple and mildly flavoured lemon black tea without a lot of frills to it. It’s unsweetened and just has a veeeerrryyy simple ingredient list.
If I could give any tip or “just so you know” advance warning for this blend it would be to make sure you’re not going into drinking it expected something sweet or intensely lemon flavoured. This is not Country Lemonade or most of the other lemonade type of teas we put out every summer. Not even close. It’s really inspired by the type of tea you might use in the Southern parts of the US to make into Southern Sweet Tea: A slightly malty and brisk black tea with a tiiinnyyyy bit of astringency to it and like a squeeze of fresh lemon. Black tea first, lemon second. In fact, you absolutely could use this as the base to make a Southern Sweet Tea! It would be delicious!
Personally I’ve been drinking tea hot quite a bit lately and really enjoying it. It starts off a very mild and almost imperceptible lemon taste that, over the coarse of a full sixteen oz mug, grows and builds on the palate to the point where it becomes a more noticeable lemon – but still gentle. Not pithy or bitter, like when I found La La Lemon always tasted like. I usually drink it unsweet, but sometimes I add a tiny bit of honey. A little sweetener will make the lemon pop a bit more, but it’s just really refreshing to have a classic and simple flavour like this that really leans into that “sweeten to your tastes” preference so many people have.
It’s a blend that I’m fascinated to see the response to, for sure. It’s just soooo different from our usual style of blending tea, but it’s also something people have asked for a lot so I can only cross my fingers and hope that it’s well recieved.
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.
Interesting! I passed on this one on my initial summer tea purchase, but now am intrigued enough to get it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Country Lemonade, as it turned out.