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Hot with milk.

This is just one of those ‘treat yourself’ teas that just feels so good and so right every time you drink it. The jasmine was so soft and delicate and relaxing which is the moment of zen that I needed post holiday/retail nightmare rush but the creamy vanilla custard and caramelized sugar notes are the satisfying, sweet element that sells this tea for me. It’s one that I want to sip on and savor but that 9/10 times I end up selfishly finishing off in one go. Like, I’ll pick up a full mug from the counter but the next time I set it down again it’s completely finished off. No pauses.

No shame.

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 think this will always be a favourite of mine.

I made a mug of it earlier in the week, and got to enjoy about half of it before we got busy as work and I had to step away from it to help out. I had also offered to let a coworker try it, as I often do when I bring something new in to work with me. When I came back following the rush, the tea was gone! My coworker had tried and instantly fallen in love with it, finishing off the cup! She was super apologetic, but I wasn’t angry at all. I totally get it; this tea is amazing and I can absolutely see how one sip simply isn’t enough!

I just finished binge watching all of season one & two of Netflix’ Shadowhunters series…

In four days.

It’s kind of consumed my life, to be honest. I pulled this one out and enjoyed several mugs of it during my binge though in honour of the fantasy element connected to both the show and the tea. When I made this tea though, it was that sort of mythical/fantastical element that I was trying to replicate the feeling of – and when I saw the Seelie world in the TV show it almost perfectly mirrored the image I’d had in mind when putting this together.

Like, this is a pretty shitty fandom/fan made video type thing, but if you’ve never seen the show before just pay attention to the backdrop/setting of the video and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about: https://youtu.be/PQ-nykjzotM

A perfect visual pairing for the profile of the tea.

Hot cuppa.

Still working on the right balance of leaf for this when making it as a hot tea; too much and it’s overly tart and a little cloying and underleafed and it tastes more like apple/fig than fruit punch on top of being a little watery. This cup was the latter; just not a great representation of the flavour notes that I know are generally present here. I mean, smooth and I like fig teas but when you want fruit punch you want fruit punch. Am I right?

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.

Actually purchased this pouch from Matcha Outlet rather than RLT, but they’re essentially the same thing anyway…

So I bought this earlier around summer, but when I bought it I definitely had the intention of drinking it/having it around for winter. The other day I realized that we were already half through December and I hadn’t even had a single cup of it! Of course I had to remedy that. Since I’ve had this before, I skipped the “trying it straight” step I usually take and I just went straight to mixing it with eggnog for an iced eggnog matcha latte, twofold. It was very thick, and rich and of course tasted really heavily like eggnog. I loved it though!

Super enjoyable.

First of the new W2T teas that I’m cracking into from by BF order. Trying this one Western first though; it’s just more convenient for work drinking.

The cake of this is amusingly large, and really thin. I got a pick out to break off a couple of the squares and I didn’t end up needing it at all. This was thin enough that I could easily snap off the amount I wanted by hand. In fact, I fear it was almost too easy to break up. I almost snapped off substantially more than I actually wanted to.

As far as flavour goes, this was wicked smooth. I’d call it medium bodied overall. My mom actually hates like all Pu’erh – I’ve yet to find a non flavoured one she’s been willing to have more than a few sips of but I bet I could serve her this one and she wouldn’t even blink! I got your typical earth/petrichor sort of notes from this but they were actually pretty mild. The most interesting thing to me was the mix of mild cocoa and date notes in the body, and then this really sweet, silky finishing note. I’d describe it as almost like vanilla or tonka? I want to lean a little more towards tonka though just because it had that sort of exotic flare and bordering on floral element that the few tonka teas I’ve experienced have also had.

This would make a really good daily drinker – and I’m definitely happy to have bought it.

Took a small risk with this one and just based on the single cup of it that I tried last time, and loved, I ordered a pretty substantial amount of this one (for my standards, anyway) during AQTT’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale.

I’m happy to report that now that I’ve cracked into what I purchased that weekend I can confirm that this is still every bit as delicious and succulent as the first cup I tried. In fact, I may love it even more now that I know it’s able to consistently deliver that rich, sweet but ultimately natural orange flavour with the soft, playfully sour/tangy tamarind undertones. Somehow, Lauren has taken the effervescence and sweetness of orange soda pop and captured it in a way that feels accurate to the drink while staying away from cloying, artificial or chemical flavours.

It’s really impressive.

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

I’m playing with my steeping parameters for this one, as well as additives to get the best flavour. So far the best has been a three minute steep with a 1/2 pump of agave. It doesn’t take this to a cloying level but I think adds the right amount of sweetness to really make the maple notes in the tea pop to a level that’s more accurate to the sweetness of real maple syrup. Very smooth, with a rich mouthfeel.

I shared it with some coworkers and everyone loved it.

Drank a mug of this one yesterday.

I don’t often appreciate Chai blends but this one was actually pretty solid. More medium bodied than the typical full bodied chai, I really appreciated the overall sweetness and fruit undertones (apple) present in this on top of the softer spice elements. Prominent spice notes were cinnamon and ginger but both complimented the apple. Even the very small amount of hibiscus, which I think was probably mostly meant to lend colour to the blend so it looked softly red and welcoming/festive, didn’t clash with everything else.

This will be an easier chai sample for me to finish off, for sure.

Cold Brew Sidown (456)!

This one was one of my free samples from Citizen Tea from my first order. I kind of grimaced when I saw it included, up until I read the ingredients anyway. I was definitely expecting a “fruit cocktail” tea that would play into the very overdone and often just not pleasant category most fruit cocktail blends tend to; really hibiscus heavy, probably lots of apple and pineapple and just very sweet and cloying.

I think this one has much more unique ingredients; pear, dates, and sultanas and I’m really intrigued and pleasantly surprised by the use of green rooibos as well. When I saw the ingredients, my expectations shifted drastically and I was not left feeling disappointed!

Most importantly, I think this does taste like a fruit cocktail – and without being an overly tart/cloying and hibby heavy mess of a cocktail. It’s very light, with a natural sweetness. Apart from the stronger pear and the distinct lemony notes from the lemongrass that are present in the top of the sip, I think the other fruit notes forming the body of the blend muddle together to create this really refreshing but fairly non-distinct orchard fruit like mix of flavour. But that’s essentially what a fruit cocktail is anyway; a muddling of fruit notes. In the top of the sip with the pear/lemon there’s brightness and a lively fruity character that entices you in, but this finishes clean and crisp.

Green rooibos was a great choice too; there’s no woody/peppery quality here to distract from the fruit notes and in blends almost perfectly into the fruit. I think people who don’t generally like rooibos might be ok with this one. Anyway – based on this tasting alone I think I would buy this one again next time I order from Citizen Tea, whenever that may end up being. I was so pleasantly surprised by this one!