16396 Tasting Notes
Hot cup, yesterday.
Wasn’t nearly as flavourful in the black currant department as I’d wanted. In fact, for whatever reason this cup hardly tasted like black currant at all. Instead it was very floral with a potent malt/yeasty kind of quality from the black tea base. I ended up adding a little bit of frothed milk to kind of lean more into the malty/yeasty quality as it was reminding me a little bit of breakfast blends/Irish Breakfast.
It wasn’t a bad cup but it wasn’t really a good cup either.
Merry Christmas (Eve) Steepster!
This is something that I wasn’t sure I was ever going to visit again but I actually ended up buying a tin of it for my mom as a Christmas present – and since we’ve already celebrated our Christmas this year she’s already opened it and we’ve tried it out as a family.
I still don’t love this one because I don’t find that it’s a good representation of the tea it’s based after, but at least this cup of it had more of the malt and bread-like notes I’d associate with black tea/the tea base as well as less of that weird “Fruit Loops” quality that I observed last time I tried it. So, I guess it was a better second cup than the first one.
I think she really liked it though, and since it was a Christmas gift for HER that’s the part that really counts the most!
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, my mom drinks a lot of tea at work. I mean, not nearly as much tea as I drink at work but enough that I guess her coworkers have sort of pegged it as ‘her thing’. If they only knew. This year they did a workplace Secret Santa exchange though, and the person who got her gave her a bag of tea and a mug. She’s actually already broken the mug though; it said it wasn’t dishwasher safe and she popped it in the dishwasher anything and it just cracked into like a million pieces…
She’s still got the tea though – and of course I had to give it a try! I have to give every tea a try, if we’re being honest. This one is apparently just a rooibos with vanilla, according to the ingredients. I think they’re wrong though because visually I can see little bits of cinnamon chips mixed into the dry leaf and sipping on my cold brew now there are DEFINITELY cinnamon notes as well. So, something doesn’t add up completely here. The rest of the tea is pretty good though; the vanilla is REALLY strong and kind of artificial but I like it as a cold flavour paired with the woody aspects of the rooibos. It reminds me a lot of DAVIDsTEA’s Birthday Cake blend, just with those very mild/soft cinnamon spice elements.
I don’t think I’m gonna be sneaking cups of this one from her stash any time soon, but it was nice to try and enjoyable overall.
Short, but very relaxing/pleasant Gong Fu session yesterday morning before work. I absolutely love this tea Gong Fu – I get the best of both worlds in terms of flavoured/scented teas and straight teas! This was definitely a good choice to break in my new Ling Long gaiwan from BLT as well!
I didn’t really track the session at all but I’d guess I only did about six or seven infusions? No rinse on this one, either. I don’t tend to push this one very far when I do it Gong Fu because I mostly want a few steeps with the sweet, floral jasmine notes and a few after the bulk of the jasmine has been steeped out where I get more of the malt and cocoa powder notes to appreciate the black tea. Anything more than that and I feel like the tea has just lost a lot of its magic to me.
But these black pearls are so good, and so wickedly smooth. I definitely recommend trying this one Gong Fu if you’ve got in on hand. It’s such an improvement over steeping it Western style.
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.
Enjoyed this one as a late night ‘treat yourself’ kind of cuppa, earlier in the week.
I’ve never had Pumpkin Seed Brittle before, but I like roasted pumpkin seeds and I like peanut brittle so I figured if this was like either of those things it’d probably be a hit.
It was definitely a little heavier on the spice elements than I’d expected but I didn’t dislike it; it was just a bit of a surprise. Basically the spice elements tasted a lot like the traditional mix of spices used in “Pumpkin Spice” – cinnamon, clove, a little bit a nutmeg? There was also a prominent sort of earthy edge to the profile, mixed with a pumpkin like/squash component? So like a mix of petrichor/dank vegetal sort of notes with underlying sweetness? Kind of dark, rich caramel notes and nuttier aspects transitioning from the petrichor/spicy heavy body into the tail/finish of the sip.
It’s a little much going on and I don’t know that it connects together for me in the most natural way – but I don’t dislike the overall flavour. It’s a little past autumn/pumpkin spice season but I think it’s still a nice enough cup to have around for cold, dreary winter when you just want a big mug of something cozy to hold close.
Hot with milk.
Kind of understeeped this one, so it was a little watery without as potent a roasty chocolate/raspberry as I wanted. However, it was under steeped because we were starting to get a rush of people and I knew that if I didn’t strain is ASAP it’d end up continuing to steep for another half hour+, so under steeped tea was more preferable for me as opposed to painfully over steeped 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.
Left the pyramid bag in the teacup to keep steeping as I drank this one, this time around. Doing so definitely produced a liquor with a lot more overall mint flavour to it, but it did pick up a very slight bitter edge too. It was worth it for the extra mint notes, imo though. Definitely prefer this one to the mango I also bought.
Cup of tea, before bed.
I left the teabag in the mug for this one to steep up and get really potent while I sipped on it, and it definitely got quite intense! Not in a bad way – but in the exact way that I wanted it to be. Strong, thick orange and gooseberry notes with a big punch of sweetness and a big punch of tang! The spearmint is just this lovely, crisp extra layer of sweetness that finishes the sip in such a pleasantly smooth, and relaxing way. It’s kind of Creamsicle like overall, but also absolutely nothing like a Creamsicle either…
I’m happy that throughout all my tea drinking years I’ve never gotten totally sick of this one. I mean, there have been times where I’ve just done too much in too short a time and I needed to take a break from it but I can always come back and enjoy this one.
Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/aDAWbO8Hask
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.
I keep finding myself inexplicably drawn to this one…
Had another hot cup of it earlier in the week and while I thought it was a little more weighted towards the peach in terms of flavour, with some nectarine undertones, it was still a complete and utter home run in terms of flavour. So smooth, and deeply satisfying and capable of conveying both the peach and cream notes in such an authentic, realistic way!
