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Day two of being sick, and one of those really rare for me days where I only had a single cup of tea all day…

Very lemon mint heavy, with a little bit of honey added to it. Kind of reminded me of a milder version of DT’s Cold 911 – same sort of soothing/relaxing mint and herbal thing going on, for sure. Just sweeter, ‘cause lemon. I liked it though; it was a cup of tea that felt good. So that’s important! I did just leave my teabag in though so it got MIGHTY intense and you honestly couldn’t even tell there was honey in it because it was so mint heavy and strong.

My standard sick tea!

Today I only drank one triple strength Cold 911, so I guess I’m not totally fucked yet in terms of sickness. When it gets really bad, I’m sure I’ll be slurping back several of these triple strength drinks a day like I’ve done in the best. Definitely not the nicest taste, especially when you make it so potent, but damn does it feel good! The same kind of almost instant relief you get taking a teaspoon of Buckley’s – and with a comparable harsh, medicinal taste. It’s still comforting, 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.

Blind caked this one because I was so sure I’d love it; I’m generally a HUGE sucker for anything with Chenpi and I really love the Chenpi and Shou flavour combination.

I smelled the cake of this one when I first received it, and it smelled absolutely delightful! The original plan was to let it rest a while before cracking into it but when I woke up today I was quite clearly super sick/had a nasty cold and talking to the people in the Slack chat I’ve had a lot of people recommend Chenpi teas for when you’re feeling sick so I decided I’d dig into the cake earlier than anticipated and give it a test drive as a sick tea.

Since I made this one as a sort of ‘at work’ sick tea I did steep it Western over Gong Fu which is definitely how I intend to drink much of this cake – and I will say that I had a very hard time discerning the flavours of this one whilst being sick. I got some earthiness and a little bit of orange but all of it had that thick sort of ‘haze’ that everything gets when you’re really sick/stuffy. So, I’m 110$ gonna need to revisit this one when I’m in a better state to more accurately capture the flavours and nuances of the tea. One thing that can be said of it though is that it really did feel really good/soothing drinking it and it did wonders to help me feel a lot more comfortable and grounded in the moment when drinking it so I can see why people seem to like this sort of thing for when they’re feeling off.

I kind of want to stick to my standard Cold 911 as a sick tea though; it just feels almost wasteful to use this one up when I’m feeling sick when I’m sure it’s a flavour I’d enjoy whilst feeling healthy too. Cold 911, on the other hand, is something I don’t really love the taste of but that also makes me feel good when I’m sick – so better to use that one up than waste a nicer tea, right?

Sipdown (461)!

I’m really sick today; bad cold and super stuffy nose that’s throwing my sense of taste painfully out of wack. I chose this one as my late night cup of tea today because it’s caffeine free and has enough body flavour/spice that despite being sick I can still taste it. It also tastes really good, and very smooth with the spices and sweet apple/hibiscus notes having a very soothing/comforting quality to them. I’m actually, much to my surprise, really sad to be done with this one because it was a hell of a good Chai that deeply appealed to me as someone who likes sweeter, fruitier chais that aren’t overly ginger heavy – all of which are applicable to this one.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one at Chapter’s next winter for sure to see if they bring it back again for the holidays, and if so I’m sure I’ll likely grab a tin of it!

Not nearly enough mango to satisfy me in that department, but the toasted coconut and overall roastiness of the genmaicha is really doing it for me with this one. I just feel like I’m kind of missing out on a key part of what this one is supposed to taste like? Maybe next time I’ll add a pinch of my mango matcha and try and coax out more of that mango element…

Kind of feel like I need to lower my rating from the ‘91’ it’s currently sitting at: this is still a good tea, but it’s not delivering COMPLETELY on the profile it’s boasting tasting like.

Iced!

I’ve been craving this one since we brought it back as a core matcha and I finally got the chance to brew up a cup of it today at work! It wasn’t nearly as creamy/strawberry milkshake as I remember it being but still a very lovely, ‘punchy’ full bodied strawberry flavour that was fucking DELICIOUS. A mix of over ripe, succulent strawberries and strawberry candy. Almost a strawberry gummy candy, like red gummy bears? Kind of weird that it reminded me of such a specific strawberry candy, though. I loved it regardless, though.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nKooIjKtZc&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=8

Less of a deliberate pairing and more a pairing of circumstance since I was just really in a Flobots kind of mood on my bus ride home from work today, which is when I drank the majority of this iced tea.

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!

Really disappointed that this one has been retired now; but I’m at least glad I got a chance to stock up on a little more so I can have more control over my last time drinking this one. It’s a really nostalgic blend for me ‘cause it’s one of the very first loose teas I ever tried. Not even just from DAVIDsTEA but in general…

You ever find something out about something you THOUGHT you had a lot of familiarity with that just shatters your perception of it, though? I kind of had this happen with this tea. I’ve always experienced it as tangerine/grapefruit with eucalyptus and hibiscus notes but I recently learned that the “artificial flavoring” in this blend is actually derived from peaches to replicate the taste of sweet grapefruit and now, drinking this one, I can’t help but view it as tangerine/peach. It’s still delicious, but that illusion has been popped for me! And it just feels weird.

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.

My morning cup of tea today! I was a little surprised at how little of this one I had left. Not a complaint; especially because this isn’t a favourite of mine and the leaf I have of it is actually pretty old but I just didn’t realize I’d gone through it so much…

This cup was pretty good! I find that this can taste too intense for me, and kind of perfumey but today I steeped it with 80C water instead of my usual 95C and it made a WORLD of difference! Much, much smoother with a more in check level of bergamot and sweet strawberry rather than an assault of fruit notes. It was actually one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with this tea! Now I’m kind of just kicking myself for not trying that fix a little sooner…

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.

Another late night herbal option.

I do really like the taste of this one (when it’s over leafed) but I don’t think it’s possible to replicate the even more delicious, and entrancing aroma it gives off both dry and steeping/steeped. Like, it DOES taste like wintergreen but a grassy and more herbaceous version with less robustness of flavour than the aroma. How frustrating for there to be such a disconnect between the aroma and the taste. I know it happens, but…

Also – reminder to myself that I want to eventually try this one as a tea bath!

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/wXUloVYbchg

Really, really loving this one as a go to tea to steep up for a late night soak in the tub…

The best part about this one for me is the intense, full bodied and surprisingly sweet pine notes that make up the bulk of the cup. There are undertones of both sage and sweet grass with a sappy, and raisin sort of quality too but it’s mostly delicious pine. More tea companies should incorporate pine into their blends; it’s such a unique and relaxing ingredient with a very pleasant flavour. Really thick mouthfeel, too – feels quite lush.

Long steeps are also the way to go with this one to get the most out of the leaf!

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/FubvitXV_zM