Roswell Strange Send Message

Just got some really nice teaware in from Bitterleaf, so I figured I’d have a Gong Fu session this morning since I have time before work and break some of it in a bit. I ended up picking this as the tea because I wasn’t really in a black, white, or pu’erh kind of mood and I wanted something creamy so this seemed to check all of those boxes.

To be honest, I didn’t really measure out the leaf for the session – I just eyeballed it. I’m probably gonna keep this session fairly casual anyway so it didn’t seem like a huge deal to me.

Infusion One – Ten Seconds
Light bodied, and very warm/buttery. Notes of buttered greens, condensed milk, and orchids but all fairly muted and even. Smooth.

Infusion Two – Ten Seconds
More overtly buttery notes in the top of the sip, but body is a lot more noticably green and floral with notes of orchid. Finish is very lingering, and sweet/fruity with very distinct and haunting notes of nectarines! Super yummy.

Infusion Three – Fifteen Seconds
About the same, but more of that sweet nectarine note both in the finish but also creeping into the body of the sip now! It’s so lovely! Condensed milk and nectarine has such a decadent feel to it!

Infusion Four – Twenty Seconds
Less buttery in the top; more of a floral and fruity body note taking over the rest of the sip. Just a hint of grassy sourness? Not much, and not to the point where it’s intrusive. More medium bodied overall profile now too.

Infusion Five – Twenty Five Seconds
Ok, this probably got a lot more than twenty five seconds; I definitely lost track of how much time this one was steeping. It’s actually not bad despite stupid steep time though; very fruity and sweet! Less and less ‘milk’ quality to this one as the session continues, but I mean how can you be upset about that when you have such AMAZING nectarine notes?

Infusion Six – Thirty Seconds
Oh, this one is a little more buttery? Like a buttery spinach sort of top note and then the body returns to what I saw/tasted in the last infusion.

Infusion Seven – Thirty Seconds
This one is where I’m going to have to end the session – not for lack of interest in the tea but because it’s time for me to get ready for work now. This one is reading as especially floral though; creamy greens and a LOT of orchid/jasmine sort of notes in the body with that deep, sweet nectarine/peach finish. I really, really have appreciated the overall profile of this one as I’ve drank it. It’s evolved ever so slightly, but the flavour notes have stayed true at the core to that first infusion. Really lovely; couldn’t have asked for a better tea to sip on this morning.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BeVzhedlGiQ/?taken-by=ros_strange

Super, super stoked to have this one back! It was easily in my top five new teas released in 2017 by DAVIDsTEA and I was crossing my fingers so badly it would make a triumphant return! Plus, as February’s TOTM that means it’s here to stay! Yay!

In addition to being featured as a TOTM and part of the Valentine’s Day collection, this tea is also getting featured for the next week or so as a limited edition signature/specialty latte. We’re calling it “Chocolate Creme Brulee” and essentially the drink is a concentrated version of this tea made up as a latte (which is delicious; this makes a KILLER latte) but with chocolate agave. I was definitely excited to try this one out because I already know I love this tea as a latte – but I was a little fearful that the agave would make it a bit too rich/sweet and it’d be over the top.

I had it at work today though, and it was delightful! I think we actually found a really nice balance of agave overall and while this is a sweet drink I don’t think it’s any more sweet than you’d expect a creme brulee inspired tea to taste anyway – especially in latte format. Far from being cloying or over the top, in my opinion. In fact, I actually thought that the chocolate notes were quite light? I mean, present for sure but not as rich as anticipated. I ALMOST wanted just a touch more – and I mean you could easily do that at home just by upping the amount of chocolate agave you’re adding to your drink. Depends on your own personal tastes, of course.

Bottom line? I think this one was well executed and a fun revamp of one of my favourite teas from last year. It’s also simple to make – and something that I think could easily be replicated at home once this one isn’t being made in stores anymore.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BeTRBlNl268/?taken-by=ros_strange

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.

So, I own a cake of Big O – but in an order other than the one where I bought that cake I did end up getting a Little O coin as well. I was just gonna log this one under the Steepster entry for Big O, but I guess it has its own entry so might as well pop it on this one?

Normally I’d use a coin of this size for a Gong Fu session but since I know I have a lot of this one in cake format to drink I ended up just breaking the coin in half and using it for two different Western style mugs of tea while I read a new comic book with some music going in the background. It was very relaxing, and a good atmosphere!

Flavour wise, I don’t think this is any different from Big O – and I mean, rightfully so since it’s the exact same tea just compressed into different sized cakes/coins. Why would it taste any different!? That would be illogical. It’s smooth and full bodied though, with a really nice, natural orange flesh/pulp kind of taste in the body of the sip surrounded by this sort of wet/damp earth and wood taste from the shou. Really, really thick liquor that coats the whole mouth, and a lingering finish that is warm and inviting and made me eager for the next sip. Or slurp, as was often the case. It was good reading tea, very calm and soothing! I have no need for the coins since I’ve got a cake of Big O for me to drink; but if I hadn’t caked it already this would definitely be an affordable approach to the tea with the convenience of not needing to break the cake up at all.

I think my cake needs a bit of time to rest/air out – but these coins seem ready to drink for me to me so if you like chenpi then I totally recommend giving these a go!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BePGJP7FmcS/?taken-by=ros_strange

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjaVrbEUbLQ&index=5&list=WL

Cold Brew.

Hmmm… This is… I feel… Well…

Ok; so I don’t know how I feel about this one. It’s kind of better than it was as a hot tea, but it’s still very weird? The really strong potent fake grape flavour completely takes over everything else and it’s not bad but it’s not good either. It reminds me of the bright purple scented marker that was part of that pack of scented markers that was the shit back in elementary school. EVERYONE wanted those markers; they were the best. They smelled SO GOOD! But as tea? Yeah, I just struggle to enjoy a tea that makes me think of markers even if I love the markers it’s reminding me of…

Iced Latte!

This is one I grabbed on the way out of work last week; I was just craving the pear and it did not disappoint! More pear than ginger for sure, with a solid brightness/juiciness despite the thicker mouthfeel and overall creaminess from the milk. Not as much ginger as I’d expected, but it was there in the finish. Not really spicy, but kind of a sweet ginger somewhat like a ginger ale? I liked it though!

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.

Hot cuppa in the evening, as sort of a bedtime tea.

I added some lemon flavoured honey to try and inject some sweetness and flavour into this tea but it didn’t do a lot to help the overall profile of the tea – basically still just a very, very intense chamomile flavour which just isn’t for me. Nope. No can do. I wish it tasted better/like something other than chamomile but even this lovely honey can’t completely redeem this one for me. I mean, I expected to not like it but…

I was hopeful that I’d be pleasantly surprised.

Happy to say I’m at a point where the idea that this tea was inspired by my now ex doesn’t bother me anymore. I can appreciate the inspiration for the name/what I felt when I made it but now I don’t feel those same attachments and that’s ok! I can just appreciate the tea for what it tastes like now – which is still a very, very solid blend with great chocolate notes, really good clove undertones and great notes of cranberry and pumpkin creeping into the body of the sip. There’s A LOT going on but it all feels connected, and it’s such a nice mix of sweet, spicy and fruity. Maybe a little autumnal for the Spring, but…

Yum!!

Thanks for the sample Kittenna!

I really wanted to order this one on Black Friday, partly for the name but also because the tea itself sounded good to me too. However, it sold out before I placed my order. Thankfully, thanks to tea friends, I’m getting to taste it after all!

I actually like it a lot! It’s got a very potent flavour that’s a little perfumey and artificial but not enough that it upsets me. However, I can see it definitely being too much for people if they’re not feeling the whole apple/pear thing. Very much the same apple sort of taste that Apple Ale and Red Wine Apple Cake have though – and I LOVE both of those teas. I think in general I must just be really into AQTT’s apple flavouring, where ever she gets it from. The pear undertones are great. Can’t even taste the green tea base at all, either! Only downside for me was that I couldn’t taste the cucumber at all even though I definitely saw some in the tea leaf that I had measured out. I think that would have been a very nice addition to that overall flavour – but it’s not a deal breaker that it’s missing.

Yup, this is some soylent green that I can get behind!

Iced.

It took me forever to place what about this one was so familiar to me but I finally got there! The oolong and pineapple combo in this one super, super strongly reminds me of Butiki’s Flowery Pineapple Oolong – but not the lovely fresh stuff but the stuff I hoarded after Butiki closed down for far too long that then lost the sweetness and robustness of the pineapple and tasted ridiculously floral/perfume-y/soapy.

Sorry, I wanted to like this one so badly, especially because the dry leaf smelled really lovely with sweet pineapple and strawberry notes. It’s just too soapy to me though, without nearly enough fruit notes. I don’t taste the mango or strawberry at all, just the pineapple and it’s not enough to redeem the rest.

Blarg.

Cold Brew.

Let this cold brew go for too long, and it got REALLY potent. Unfortunately it wasn’t the fruity aspects that got potent but the green tea base which is just… bleh. So, basically I had a very, very strong and kind of cheap tasting green tea with tropical overtones. Not enough tropical to mask the green tea, though. I tried fixing it by adding some coconut agave but it just made it worse. I mean, good coconut notes but the agave brought out the green tea even more.

Blllaaaahhhhh

My mom liked it though, so I just gave it all to her and then at least it wasn’t a total waste.