16396 Tasting Notes
Made this one up as a latte today!
I was going to just do a regular hot tea for my first tasting, but it was a pretty crazy day so I figured I’d treat myself and go for the ‘upgrade’. I took extra time to make it look super pretty too; I only got to make the one tea at work today so it felt good going all out with it.
Flavour wise this was pretty nice! It wasn’t overly sweet, and I think I actually would have liked a little extra sweetness – adding a pinch of vanilla would probably do the trick! However, the pistachio came through quite nicely/clearly and was a very well rounded nutty flavour! Obviously the milk made it creamier; though pistachio is a pretty creamy nut in the first place. Strong earthy undertones from the base, but not as strong as I would have imagined. Not without room for improvement, but I definitely liked this one overall! Cornelia Bean seems to really excel in the flavoured pu’erh debartment!
Possibly last tea of the night.
I enjoyed the fruity teas I had earlier in the day so I decided to pull another one to sip on tonight. I’ve had a lot of caffeine today though, so I went with rooibos. This is hitting all the right notes for me tonight; it’s sweet and fruity with just a bit of tangyness to it. Very, very mango heavy with a bit of comforting honey/graham kind of woodyness to the undertones from the rooibos base. Smooth, and pleasant!
Glad this is the one that jumped out to me when I was picking my tea!
Drank this one a few days ago when I was still feeling quite sick, but I apparently forgot to write about it. I’m still not feeling 100% better now, but a lot more than I was. Slowly but surely I’ll get there…
Thought process behind picking this one was that even if I couldn’t taste it well the energy boost I’d supposedly get from it would be beneficial. I don’t know that I did end up getting an energy boost – or at least it wasn’t noticeable to me. Who knows, maybe I’d have been even worse off had I not drank it? I did REALLY pick up on the sweetness of the eleuthero though; despite everything tasting weak/‘cloudy’ due to the sickness that sugary sweet note just really cut through the haze.
In a good way.
Sipdown (459)!
Happy to have this one finished off! It totally has grown on me since I first had it, but it’s still not something I feel like I need to keep around/hoard for the long haul. The cranberry notes are great though, and I fully support DT featuring cranberry teas for the winter collection. In fact, I’ll be the first to back a holiday return of Cranberry Pear or Merry Cranberry.
winkwinknudgenudge
Just sayin’ DT…
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.
First session of the new year – though not the first tea.
I don’t normally lean towards Sheng, but when this one popped up on Black Friday I simply could not resist getting a cake of it – and I was lucky to, these babies sold out so incredibly fast! Something about limited edition stuff really gets to me…
I hadn’t heard much about this one going into my session today other than the fact that it’s apparently pretty smooth/mellow for such a young cake; so I was pretty pleasantly surprised to find that the first half of my session was dominated by really smooth, sweet fruit notes of apricot and nectarines with subtle floral undertones and hints of cream. First half of the session was definitely the better half for me; when I do drink Sheng I generally find I appreciate the sweeter, fruitier stuff a lot more. I’ve had pretty good success with stuff from the Yiwu region for this same reason.
The second half of the session wasn’t bad though; the flavours just progressed in a way that was less pleasant to my palate. More focus on notes of camphor/wood and a heavier cream, with very faint touches of astringency. Kind of an eleuthero flavour, too. Still some floral/apricot going on in the undertones, but it was no longer the focus of the sip. Regardless of the transition of flavours, it was still very smooth and mellow and was still drinkable for me as someone not often into those more overtly ‘Sheng like’ profiles. I did brew the tea out until the leaf was completely spent.
Definitely a Sheng that I don’t regret buying, but it’s certainly not something that I think I’ll find myself craving often. For those rare times when a Sheng mood strikes, it’ll be nice to have on hand though! And perhaps it’s for the best that I didn’t fall madly in love with it – it’s not like I can get another cake once I finish this one.
First tea of 2018!
Every year I try to pick something meaningful for my first tea of the year – in the past I’ve done champagne flavoured blends or teas that were a new area of exploration for me that I hoped to further learn about in the coming year. This year, I selected this one in honour of it being the year of the dog!
I decided to do this one as a tea tasting like what I did when I was taking my Sommelier courses, so I pulled out my cupping set and got everything set up to brew this up under cupping parameters. It was really delicious, and the aroma coming from the set as everything steeped was pretty drool inducing: sweet, sticky honey notes and autumn leaves, malt, and fruit! Yum!
This was really interesting flavour wise; very, very sweet and smooth overall with the strongest note in the cup definitely being honey. I also got a mix of other sweet notes like baked bread, malt, red fruit undertones, and cane sugar. The body was a little more vegetal though with main flavours like autumn leaves and zucchini. There was also just a touch of cinnamon in the undertones and finish. It was a wide range of flavours all in all but for me, at least, it worked really well and created a very smooth and pleasant cup to sip on. I’m happy this was my choice for first tea of the new year; it was delicious!
Drank this one hot with milk while we did a chocolate fondue to close out our Christmas celebrations today/kind of head into the new year; I did add a little milk to it to cool it enough for me to drink right away with the fondue.
The dark chocolate and fruit from the fondue were pretty strong and kind of overshadowed a lot of the subtleties of the tea – but every now and then I’d get a bite of orange or pear coated in dark chocolate that coincided with a sip of tea and the combo would be quite lovely! Sweet, creamy fruit notes – orange from the tea and fruit and pear from just the fruit, and silky vanilla and dark chocolate. Very indulgent, but also blissfully smooth and relaxing.
The tea itself was kind of medium bodied and sweet enough with strong creamy vanilla notes and a soft orange; very “creamsicle” like, without the sweetness. Some buttery, grassy/vegetal undertones from the green base but not a lot. Mostly just the added in flavourings. Decent tea overall; but one that was definitely boosted through the situation I drank it in and the food pairing.
EDIT: Turns out this was my last tea of 2017! Also, my 5750th tasting note! Pretty good way to cap off the year, I’d say!
Wasn’t really a fan of this one when I first tried it, but it’s grown on me.
The trick, for me at least, is under leafing it – it’s still got a lot of flavour to it even when you under leaf it but it’s less cloying and the cranberry seems to taste a lot less artificial to me as well. The hints of papaya and apple are pleasant too; it’s reminding me a bit of generic red jellybeans: sweet and fruity but not really a distinct fruit flavour when it all comes together. Lower water tempt seems to be the solution for some of the tartness, as well and with less overall tartness I’m able to more appreciate the white chocolate in the blend which is otherwise pretty masked by all of the fruit.
It comes together to make a pretty smooth, pleasurable drink. Good year round, but the cranberry really sells it as a winter drink – and I’m celebrating my last ‘Christmas’ of the year today with my brother, nephew, and dad and step mom which means Christmas baking/treats, stockings, board games, and of course our classic Christmas tradition which is watching Olive The Other Reindeer. I fucking LOVE that movie! So, sipping on a pleasant, smooth fruity winter blend feels like the PERFECT way to capture that holiday spirit!
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.
Cold Brew Sipdown (460)!
Put off trying this one for a long time because I was just a little weirded out by it. I mean, what does it mean that this has crackle candy in it? Like pop rocks? What could that possibly add to the tea apart from some fun initial sound that tea wouldn’t normally have and some extra sweetness? Well, turns out that the tea does indeed crackle when water it poured onto it – but when I cracked open my package most of the sprinkles had actually kind of melted and become this sticky fruity goo that was a bit of a mess. So I probably didn’t get an intense of a crackle as I’m imagining was intended.
As for the flavour, it was pretty sweet – kind of had a fruity cranberry/blueberry taste to it but with a consistent overtone of sweetness not unlike cotton candy/fairy floss. So, for me at least I spent the bulk of the brew thinking of the blue cotton candy you get around the summer at the fair/carnival. It was pretty delicious, actually! Very smooth and honestly I’d finished it off before I even knew it.
I think this one was limited edition, so it’s a moot point now but I’d definitely try this one again if that oppertunity arose. It was interesting, and I’d be curious to see what would happen with the crackle candy if it wasn’t melted down already/a goopy mess and if you brewed it hot rather then letting the candy dissolve over a longer period of time as a cold brew. Kind of like ‘tea science’, I guess…
Had this one earlier in the week.
So, I wrote some tasting notes for this one down in the little tea journal I sometimes have with me when I’m not drinking tea by my laptop but I think it’s important to note that I don’t really actually remember drinking the tea at all because I was so out of it/high on cough syrup that I totally spaced and just sort of forgot nearly the whole morning. Here’s what I wrote though:
- Dry aroma smells like very bright pear; like a crisp pear/pear skin and lemon
- Overall flavour is pretty sweet and bright
- A mix of juicy, overripe fruit notes, the crispness of pear skins, and lemon candies
- Definitely getting a “green Bartlett pear” vibe
- Overall very flavourful and smooth/sweet
- Floral undertones; possibly from both pear and Darjeeling base
- I’ve never had a sidecar cocktail so can’t overly comment on that aspect though
Honestly, I’m pretty impressed that I was so articulate and put together when I was so incredibly hopped up on pain medication. It sounds like I enjoyed it a lot overall though, and I look forward to revisiting it when I’m feeling better and will actually remember my experience drinking it.
