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Well, trying the second coffee leaf tea that I grabbed from Wize Monkey…

The dry leaf of this one smells really lovely; a strong, and very ripe mango aroma. I’ve been craving mango for like two weeks now, which I think is why I even ordered this one in the first place – so I was very excited to get this one steeped up.

However, I don’t think I’m really a fan of this one. The mint coffee leaf tea I tried earlier in the week is DEFINITELY better and there’s something just off about this one? It is very mango heavy and that’s not actually the thing in the blend that bothers me. I think it’s the coffee leaf base? There’s a strange buttery element and it tastes a lot more roasty than the other one did; like a really roasted yerba mate tea. That buttery roasty and almost nutty flavour just doesn’t suit the mango at all in my opinion and it really ruined the profile for me.

Ughhhh….

Hot cuppa, from last night.

I was craving dragonfruit quite a bit last night so I just grabbed the first dragonfruit tea in my stash that I saw – which was this one. The other option would have been DT’s Magic Dragon. It wasn’t actually nearly as dragonfruit heavy in flavour as I wanted it to be. In fact, it was more of a hot lemonade with strawberry and dragonfruit undertones.

I drank this one right before whatever is making me sick really hit me though. Like, I literally finished the mug off and not five minutes later I threw up the entire thing…

So, you know, I don’t think in this particular situation the fact it was more lemon heavy than dragonfruit actually matters all that much – I’m sure it would have tasted equally disgusting coming up if it were the other way around in terms of the lemon/dragonfruit balance. So… yeah…

Cold Brew!

I’m still disappointed that this one doesn’t brew up blue/green in colour – that’s arguably one of the coolest things about spirulina so it kind of sucks it doesn’t happen with this one. Oh well, it tastes pretty good and that’s the most important thing anyway. Even as a cold brew, it’s still very much an apple cinnamon/apple pie kind of flavour. Differences I’d say at that this is a little more tart apple/Granny Smith in flavour with a little bit of a stronger grassy undertone to the whole thing from the various herbal elements.

Still very enjoyable, though. Blue or not.

Last tea left to try out of my November Sipsby subscription box!

I wasn’t thrilled to see this one in my box if I’m being completely honest; I haven’t had wide exposure to Yaupon tea before (in fact I don’t think I’ve had a straight one) but I’ve tried a few yaupon blends and I’ve yet to actually enjoy one. Most notably, the yaupon blend that DAVIDsTEA carries may actually be my least favourite tea currently sold by them and I very memorably described the taste of it as being similar “to the smell of a gerbil’s scent glands”. So, eww…

I was actually really pleasantly surprised by the one! Maybe it’s because it is a darker roast and that obviously affects flavour a lot but I though this one was actually super enjoyable! It has a very lovely roastyness similar to roasted yerba mate, with some nuttier undertones as well. Quite smooth as well; no astringency or bitterness from over roasting! Only aspect I didn’t love was that there was still a bit of a sharp/sour grassyness in the body of the sip but I mean it was still like 99% better than any flavour I’ve ever gotten from an unroasted Yaupon blend.

So yeah, this is something that’s actually drinkable and enjoyable for me! It was a really nice discovery for me, if nothing else. Also good to know that Yaupon isn’t something I hate in all forms.

Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome but this one is actually growing on me the more I drink it. I have a nice mug of it yesterday morning with breakfast and I actually found it to be very smooth and fresh with a really nice sweet, ripe strawberry note and just enough crisp but sweet spearmint in the undertones. I mean, it tastes a lot more like a herbal than it does a Pu’erh or an oolong but it’s growing on me pretty quickly.

Of the Teavana haul I got my mom to pick up for me earlier in the year, I think that for the moment this one may even be my favourite that I grabbed!? That feels pretty weird to say. Upping my rating…

First Vadham order showed up last week!

I was actually wicked impressed with shipping times; the estimate on the site for the shipping level I paid for was like roughly a month, and it got here in like a week? So, that was a very pleasant surprise! It was a small order – just a bunch of Nilgiri tea in different types since I just wanted to get a rough idea of what the company can offer, and I thought a comparison of one region of tea in different styles might be interesting.

This one was a free sample that showed up with my offer – a Darjeeling white tea with bergamot. Can’t say that’s something that I’d have ordered myself since I don’t love the taste of bergamot unless it’s paired with something else to cut the potency, like vanilla or other fruits. It’s also NOT on the site right now; I don’t know if that means it’s something they used to carry or if it’s something that they will carry. I typically try not to complain about free samples ‘cause, you know, they’re free but it does irritate me a little when I get a sample of something I can’t purchase. I mean, what if I LOVE it? I’m now kinda SOL, right?

Anyway, steeped up I was actually pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this one! It was pretty mild and soft, with more delicate notes of fresh bergamot and some floral/hay undertones. I will say that in general, bergamot is nice with the light, gentle profile of white tea. More so than I actually think it suits a black tea base. I think what really worked for me with this one was how fresh everything came across as, and the fact the bergamot was more of a gentle touch to accent the white tea rather than a blunt, heavy handed profile that masked the tea base. That would have likely tasted awful.

Also, this definitely got increasingly better as it cooled as well – so much so that I bet it would make a really lovely iced or cold brewed tea! I’ll try to mentally remember that for next time…

A coworker decided that they’re really not a fan of this one, and knowing that I really am asked if I’d want the rest of their tin – I happily said yes, and thus my tin got a nice little top up a few days ago. To celebrate, I made a Western mug of it in the biggest mug I own and enjoyed sipping on it for a good, long while. It’s still delicious! Like peanut butter and apple slices! Wasn’t that the perfect afternoon snack as a kid? I certainly think so.

I know this one wasn’t super well liked overall – but I loved it, and I’m never gonna stop waxing poetic about it in the hopes that eventually it’s brought back again in some capacity.

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.

Treated myself last week to a cup of Birthday Cake from my dwindling tin of it. It’s been a long time since I last had this one – I’ve been scared of running out of it. I think it’s time to loosen the reigns a little bit though and let myself enjoy this one more often…

This time I had it with some unsweetened almond milk and it made for an interesting cup. I think I underestimated how much flavour this has lost with age, and because I didn’t over leaf to compensate for that it was a lighter vanilla/marshmallow flavour which then felt equal in presence to the added in almond milk. So, it was a very vanilla and almond tasting cup, with a viscous mouthfeel, and herbaceous undertones.

Still pleasant, though!

Made this one cold shaken yesterday in straight eggnog using a little bit of the vanilla matcha from my mom’s stash. I don’t personally own this one – but I thought the vanilla would be a nice compliment to the eggnog. I didn’t like it that much though; it actually almost made the vanilla taste too sweet, and bottom line I just don’t like the coconut sugar in this one. Oh well – trying certainly didn’t hurt at all.

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.

Evening tea, from last week.

Mostly I just chose this one to get one last minute cup in before bed – and I figured that worst case it didn’t have caffeine so it wouldn’t make sleeping any worse and best case the Valerian in it would help me get to sleep faster. I think it definitely helped though; not even half way through the mug I was feeling mighty drowsy/just ready to pass out for the night. By the end of the cup, I was basically already asleep mentally – I just had to get my body slowed down to the same spot.

Just to help illustrate all of this – I was drinking this out of a Nordic mug in bed, and when I woke up in the morning the empty mug that I’d drunk the tea from was laying in bed next to me. I was so tired I didn’t even bother to set it on the nightstand less that a foot away. I just set the empty mug down next to me and passed out. So yeah; very tired.

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.