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Another one that I’m really not a fan of, but that I should at least put in some effort with in terms of finishing it off. I’m learning, though! This was my first time doing it hot, and this time around I also under leafed, under steeped, and added in honey and for the first time ever I actually got a cup that was pleasant enough for me to finish it!

In fact, dare I say it, it was… almost really good!?

No soapy, medicinal or chemical notes to be found just a very strong honey flavour and some sweet/juicy ripe blueberry and currant notes! Definitely had a nice jammyness to it, and a very sweet profile throughout. The steeped up liquor was also this very cute blush pink sort of hue! It was actually a very fun cup, and almost unrecognizable as the tea I’d previously tried and hated/loathed.

Begrudgingly made a cup of this one earlier in the week – I need to work on drinking down some of the teas I have a fair bit of that I don’t particularly like…

Honestly, in the last four years hibiscus has grown on me to a point where I genuinely don’t hate in in most blends so long as it doesn’t completely cover the other flavours going on in the blend. However, I’m still not a big fan of it in its pure, unadulterated form. It’s too tart, and has this weird quality to it that reminds me of a mix of sheer sourness, beets, and blood. Barf.

Thankfully my coworkers like it more than I do, and they helped me finish off most of this mug. I may just use the rest of the hibiscus I have left for cooking, or maybe even see if I can grind it up and make like a lip stain or something out of it. You know, alternative uses that don’t involve drinking it – ’cause bleh.

I’m home sick from work today…

I got home last night, from closing the store, at about 10:30PM. I hadn’t felt great all day but I figured it was just ‘cause the last few weeks I’ve been doing the opening shift so my body just wasn’t used to starting work at 2PM when lately I’ve been getting off work by 4PM. Not the case though – shortly before midnight last night I threw up, and I haven’t really stopped since. So, definitely not just a break in work habit kind of thing.

I don’t really know what my tea drinking day is gonna look like today; my sense of taste is fine but I’m still DEFINITELY having some tummy issues and nothing is really sitting well. I picked this one ‘cause I thought the cinnamon/ginger notes and the soft roasty notes might sit well enough. I mean, taste wise it’s been great – very brown rice and spice cake. Not so much carrot cake today though; just spice cake. I think it’s too early to tell if I’ll be able to keep it down, but fingers crossed!

Last of the new latte mixes, and coincidentally my least favourite.

It’s worth saying that I didn’t hate any of the mixes, and I thought all of them were definitely drinkable but this one was my least favourite because I thought it resembled the tea it was based upon/made from the least. If I had been blindly drinking this one and was told to guess which DT blend is was inspired by I think I probably would have said, with certainty. that it MUST have been made from Countess of Seville.

It’s just very light in terms of flavour, and resembles green tea more than black tea to me. As well, the bergamot in it did the EXACT same thing that the bergamot in Countess of Seville always did for me: it tasted wickedly strongly of Fruit Loops! Now, I like Fruit Loops a fair bit but I’d expect a latte mix based around Cream of Earl Grey to have much more of a London Fog kind of flavour profile. I also just really didn’t taste the vanilla in this, which is what makes the Cream part of Cream of Earl Grey. So yeah – this was my least favourite just largely because of the lack of resemblance to the OG 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.

Second up, of the new latte mixes.

Of the three, I think this one falls in the middle for me in terms of flavour. To be perfectly fair, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the tea it’s based on – not that I dislike it either. It’s just that I’d probably never really buy Cinnamon Rooibos Chai for at home and the odd time I find myself craving it it’s actually usually plain so the idea of a latte mix doesn’t appeal to me as much.

Apparently, as a latte, this is one of our best selling caffeine free teas though which I believe is why they chose it for this line up. Forever Nuts is another one that’s high up there, but lets be real – cinnamon makes a little more sense for a collection tailored around winter/the holidays.

My biggest issue with this one is that I felt like it tasted more like rooibos as a latte mix than it actually does as a tea – it was pretty woody. I mean, also a TON of cinnamon but the extra woody taste definitely popped out to me. I know a lot of people don’t love the taste of rooibos so that could definitely be an issue for them, where as there are also people who love the taste of rooibos so it could be more of a win for those people. While I’m usually relatively neutral, I think in this case I side a little more with the people who don’t love that woody quality.

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.

Alright – took a while ‘cause I had to wait for DT to send up bags of the mixes specifically for staff sampling but I’ve finally tried all three of these new limited edition latte mixes!

I’m gonna make separate entries for all of them because the company considers them all separate from the teas they’re based on. Plus, they’re just such a different thing in the first place, being a milk based powder and all, so it seems right for them to be treated as their own entities.

Of the three, this was my favourite – and I kind of new it was going to be, if I’m being totally honest. Of the three teas that the mixes are inspired by, CCC is my favourite so it only made sense to me that I’d like it best in this format. As far as the preparation goes, making the mixes is quite simple – you scoop three to four PS into hot water and stir and you’re basically set! Everything dissolves down, and it gets a little thicker like milk with a creaminess. It’s not something wildly new to me; I’ve tried a few David Rio powdered chai latte mixes and they’re essentially the exact same in regard to prep. Just based on my experience trying all three flavours I’d recommend going for the four spoons – I found three just tasted a little too thin/dull in terms of flavour. You could also whisk these into hot milk as well, for extra creaminess.

This one does taste like Candy Cane Crush though, just with a bit more of a toned down mint aspect. It doesn’t have the same blunt/in your face crisp menthol-like peppermint, more of a soft peppermint actually akin to candy canes, with the creamy white chocolate/vanilla element. I was pretty into it – it was silky, and smooth and I could totally see it being something that would be MIGHTY relaxing to drink in the evening. Perhaps even watching a Christmas movie!? I mean, it is December first now so that seems appropriate.

Worth noting that, of the three, this is the only one I’d probably personally buy/spend money on…

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.

Sipdown (414)!

Picked up a sample of this one a while back because frankly I’m kind of just attracted to anything with pear in it…

I brewed this one up with milk, and it was quite lovely! I kind of hadn’t realized that it had ginger in it, but that’s ok one of the few things that I think ginger really pairs well with is pear so it actually worked splendidly! The pear was really sweet and juicy, and quite smooth and the mix of ginger and cinnamon added both a nice warming spice component and a little bit of a more festive/winter kind of feel. Also tasted a little bit like poached pear! I was really, really feeling it!

I doubt I’m gonna be placing a TeaTazxi order for a long while – and generally speaking they’re more of my go to for flavoured rooibos blends but this is a tea that I could 100% see myself ordering! It was actually such a good pear tea! Like om nom nom good!

Sipdown (415)!

This is another sipdown that feels really good! I swear, I go through moods of intense love for Monk’s blend but then they just completely stall out and I dread each cup I have left. That’s what happened here; I was initially enamored but then I quickly grew sick of the sickly sweet grenadine notes and I put off this sipdown for far too long…

If I’m being honest, the tea doesn’t even taste bad – the grenadine is smooth and present, and the black tea base has a warming malt to it. I’m just not really in the mood for it. I could probably go months, dare I say a year, without having another cup of Monk’s blend and I would be completely content in that decision.

But that just makes me even more proud of this sipdown.

Latte Sipdown (416)!

Well, I’ve been trying to really work at sipdowns since I’ve got so much Black Friday stuff coming in and this is a pretty fitting on since it’s from two Black Fridays ago! That definitely makes it one of the older teas in my stash as well – so I’m feeling pretty proud of myself for finishing it off!

It was pretty good – very smooth, with lots of cinnamon and clove notes and a strong vanilla undertone. I don’t know that I’ve ever really strongly got “Eggnog” from this one though? Sometimes custard, but not really in your face eggnog. I wonder if there were many others who agreed with me, because Blue Hour Tea no longer carries this one! In fact, in looks like Blue Hour tea has really trimmed down their sticky tea offerings.

I think I’m of mixed feelings in that regard – it was something that made them really unique/stand out even if I think it was a little gimmick-y, but personally I didn’t love the mess of brewing the sticky teas and I don’t think it added to the flavour of the tea at all other than some sweetness. I probably wouldn’t order another sticky tea again; but I think I would consider ordering from the company again now that they carry more than just sticky teas.

So, I placed a Wize Monkey order on Friday among many BF orders. They’re a company that I’ve seen off and on here on Steepster for the last few years and always been a little curious about and I was able to stack a Sipsby discount on top of their BF discount so it was a really good time for me to order…

What’s really impressive to me is that my order shipped out on Saturday and it arrived yesterday! That is some mighty impressive shipping times – especially for a company that’s not based in Canada like I am. Like, holy smokes!

Anyway, I cracked open one of the two boxes I got tonight and my mom and I each tried out one of the sachets. I did a little research on what coffee leaf is supposed to taste like before hand – I guess it’s a little green tea like in flavour? I mean, I don’t love green tea but Moroccan Mint (mint and green tea) is one of the more palatable greens out there in my opinion and so I thought that if this was anything like that then it would be fine! The aroma of the dry leaf was certainly minty – very pleasant smelling, and a little sweet.

Steeped up? I don’t know that green tea is actually the thing that this reminds me of. In fact, it’s much more like guayusa in my opinion or even a very softly roasted yerba mate! That’s definitely more pleasant than green tea, in my opinion. It’s actually not super minty though; like the aroma was a lot more minty than the brewed cup is. Still, it’s smooth and just sweet enough. I definitely enjoy it – which makes it all the more easy to support this company and what they’re trying to do for the environment and create job opportunities!