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Gong Fu session from last Sunday!

I enjoyed this one immensely, but what made it even better was brewing out the whole session over some great conversation with a whole bunch of the Slack tea chat people on Hangouts! It made for really casual, fun tea drinking where I felt like I was enjoying the tea with friends even though I was drinking solo and they didn’t actually get to experience the tea I was drinking.

It doesn’t hurt that in general Sun Moon Lake teas tend to be something that hits all of my sweet spots when it comes to black tea. This one wasn’t an exception, after the first two or three steeps I really got that lovely sweet spot where the profile was smooth, and full bodied with sweet notes of freshly baked bread, honey, malt, cocoa, sweet potato, and raisins. It’s a lovely pairing, and coats the mouth in a way that leaves you so thirty for more.

I didn’t actually track the amount of infusions I did, but it was easily over a dozen – possibly closer to twenty. I pushed this one right up until the liquor was just coming out colourless and there was NO flavour left. I mean, I really made those leaves give me all that they possibly could. It was a delicious tea, and one I’m eager to revisit!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdqNHN7FtZk/?taken-by=ros_strange

Latte!

So, I said I thought this one would make a nice latte and man I was right. Assuming you like coconut, then this is definitely something that any latte lover should try! It’s very rich and smooth, with great creamy decadent toasted coconut notes and undertones of caramel/brown sugar. Hints of apple in the top notes; but pretty subtle. Couldn’t taste the chamomile at all either, and as someone who is pretty anti chamomile that was the final push it took for me to feel like this was something actually worth buying for at home.

I’d say this is something I’d make as a latte all the time at work now, but since it’s chamomile/valerian root and both of those make you a little sleepy I think I’ll probably stick with enjoying it at home as a late night treat! Mmm!

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.

Revisited this one hot, with a smidgen of honey and a pairing of prosecco gummy bears! It was a much better experience overall! The tea was a lot smoother, with more of the citrus coming out – which is why I wanted this one in the first place. The jasmine and citrus does taste really nice together; very much reminds me of a jasmine silver needle infused lemonade I made last summer. There’s still a little bit too much ginger for my own personal tastes, but it’s a lot more reasonable than the cold brew and not enough to put too much of a damper on the overall cup for me.

I doubt this will ever be my favourite tea, but it’s really good to know that it’s not a total write off and here are ways to steep it up where it’s still tasty.

Made this one yesterday in my tea press at the start of my shift, and it was just one of those days where you’re so busy doing other things that you just never have time to sneak in a sip of tea…

So, I didn’t actually end up drinking this until after my eight hour shift and at that time it was a really gross temperature just slightly above room temperature and it tasted far to strong/cloying. Like weird overripe bananas and straight up chocolate sundae syrup. I know this one can be so good but it just wasn’t ideal circumstances to enjoy this one – and that’s NOT the tea’s fault. It just wasn’t a good cup.

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.

Thought this one would grow on me the same way Redberry Tonic did, but I’m kind of moving in the opposite direction? I had it iced the other day and it just was not working for me. The more I drink it the more I pick up on the ginger and that’s just such a deal breaker. Oh well; you can’t love them all and I’ve had pretty good success with the rest of the collection so I’m not overly hurt about the fact this one just isn’t right for me.

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.

Someone lost the cap to a carton of soy milk at work yesterday, and so rather than tossing out the carton of soy milk the whole staff just made their daily latte a soy latte and we finished off the jug. For most of them, that’s not a big deal – but I kind of hate the taste of soy milk. I mean, nut milks? Hell yeah, I’ll drink that over normal milk any day. Other soy based foods don’t bother me at all either, but soy milk is just such a no go for me. I’m a team player though, so I did my part.

I did, however, load this up with SO MUCH cane sugar to try and help mask the taste of the soy. I probably over did it by quite a lot. In fact, I definitely over did it. However it was still drinkable and I definitely didn’t pick up on the aspects of the soy milk I’m usually not into. What I ended up with was a drink that tasted exactly like the sugary sweet milk left over at the end of a bowl of Rice Krispies cereal. Tasty, but maybe not something you want a FULL cup of.

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.

This is one that I’ve been REALLY kicking myself for not stocking up on before we ran out of it, so I was super glad when we got a small amount of it sent to us for the semi annual sale! I wasn’t able to stock up as much as I wanted, but at least now I have some of this – which is definitely better than none.

Brewed up a huge mug of it, and it was a happy time all around! This one is so rich and creamy, and while I knew I missed it I feel like I didn’t realize just how much I missed it until I was taking those first few sips and was hit with that overwhelming feeling of “damn that’s good”. Just really satisfying, and smooth!

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.

Steeped up yesterday.

I’ve heard really good things about this one from some tea friends who’s opinions I trust very much. Most interestingly, I’ve heard this has a nice vanilla like quality to it. So even though this isn’t one that was immediately high on my list of things to try I figured I’d have to give it a go sooner rather than later.

It actually is really nice, and quite smooth overall. I didn’t really experience ‘vanilla’ from it at all, but there’s a creaminess to the body and finish that I guess I could see some people tying into a vanilla comparison. Since the top and body notes were also very nutty to me, I found that more than vanilla I found myself making a comparison to almond or cashew milk; really nut milks in general. Overall it’s really smooth and sweet. Finish is reminding me a little of figs. Sidebar, but it’s been so long since since I last bought figs to snack on at home – I should really do that…

Overall thoughts/first impression? Definitely a nice shou; however I don’t find it mind blowing/magical. Would probably make a good daily drinker kind of tea? I can see why people love it, for sure – it’s just missing some of the notes that are my ideal; strong woodyness and petrichor being the main ones. It’ll be easy for me to finish though, and no doubt that I’ll enjoy finishing it.

So, DAVIDsTEA has launched their new Spring Collection and I’m kind of just in love with the aesthetic of the whole collection. In particular, I’m kind of losing my mind over the Spring flower pattern atop that beautiful Navy colour and it’s been really hard for me to not just buy everything with that pattern on it.

Instead I just got the new tea press – and of course that means needing the perfect tea to christen it with. I’m sure I’m probably not the only person who puts so much thought into the first tea they steep in a new mug/pot/travel mug. Or at least, I hope I’m not the only person. Some of my coworkers were teasing me for putting so much thought into it…

I thought this would be a good one though because the name kind of works with the aesthetic of the collection, and the fresh fruity flavour seems pretty on the nose for the change of season/Spring as a whole. And so the decision was made. Flavour wise this was nice! Definitely a little bit tart/hibiscus heavy but mostly just a really nice, bright juicy pineapple flavour! It worked quite nicely and I was into it!

Still loving this one.

I brought a bit of it to work with me to drink there, and I had a couple coworkers express interest in trying it – which is something that hardly ever happens when I’m drink pu’erh. They’re just usually not interested in it. I think the fact this is so smooth and mellow makes it really approachable for people who aren’t generally into pu’erh. One of my coworkers even asked me if I could bring her a sample of it (which I happily did; gotta share the tea love) because she tried a few sips of this and it was the first pu’erh tea she ever tried that she actually enjoyed – and that includes the many flavoured pu’erhs out there like the ones we carry at work. It’s just a really, really good feeling sharing the tea love!

As for me, I still got that kind of sweet, creamy vanilla/tonka quality from my most recent cup in addition to the really soft, mild date and earth notes. However, I also got a weird level of red fruit sort of undertones to the profile. I mean, delicious red fruit undertones but ones I’m just not accustomed to experiencing with shou. It’s such a good tea. NO regrets in caking it – plus, I’m moving through this cake at a pretty solid speed…