16396 Tasting Notes
Hot tea latte… creation… thing…
Started with a normal hot cup of this one, then added some milk half way through steeping to add some creamy elements to play up on vanilla in the tea. I probably could have stopped there, but I didn’t. Nope – after that I frothed up some milk and honey for a sweet, fluffy foam to top off the mug!
And from there I just enjoyed sipping the tea through this mountain of sweet, airy honey milk goodness. I’ll be honest, it was a little more like drinking milk with added tea than the other way around but I did like the flavour a lot! It was really smooth and creamy with the taste of the milk itself and the vanilla in the blend with this brighter passion fruit top note. Not much overall body; just a nice fluffy and light sort of thing.
Easily finished without much thought.
Revisiting this one for two reasons:
Firstly, it’s very convenient for me to get a hold of and, secondly, because I’ve now had way more different kinds of kumbucha than when I first tried this one. Sipping on it now and I’m noticing a few things; it’s much sweeter than I initially found it, and it’s a lot more juice like than I found it at first taste. It almost even reminds me of a sweet, fruity spritzer type thing – if it weren’t for the hint of cider like tang in the background.
Also, very guava.
Cold Brew!
I do think I enjoyed this one a little bit more as a cold brew – the flavours seemed a bit juicier and the finish was very crisp/clean. I got a lot of apple, again, but also quite a strong presence of lime and hints of lemon as well. However, once again I just did not taste the peppermint in the blend apart from the part it likely played in terms of that really clean/crisp finish. What is a Mojito without mint!?
Maybe this is a good candidate for some peppermint agave experimentation…
Uh, yum!
Thanks Sil for unknowingly convincing me to buy this one. It’s really fucking good – and not even “good for a green tea” good, just straight up delicious!
It’s really, really banana heavy but that’s not a bad thing. I fucking ADORE banana teas and I’ve always had a soft spot for 52Tea’s banana teas whether that be under Frank’s ownership or Anne’s. I initially ignored this one ‘cause green tea base – but it actually works very well because it just adds that grassy sharpness that you get with slightly underripe bananas anyway. So that’s basically what this tastes like: sweet, delectable bananas that are maybe just a pinch away from being perfectly ripe. It’s really, really silky smooth too!
Also – eating the banana bits out of the steeped up leaf? Hell to the yes! 100% recommend doing that – it was a fucking delicious treat.
Just a feel good cup of tea.
I made this one at work to enjoy on my break, shared it with a few coworkers though none of them liked it. They just found it too anise heavy, and struggled to get the pear notes. I mean, I kind of agree with them – this can sometimes read as very weighted towards the anise in the blend, but the pear is there! It likes to roll in and out of the sip, and is very dewy and floral when you pick up on it.
If you don’t mind anise, it’s good shit.
Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/xbw4Av4gbYA
Using up this lower-ish quality yellow tea from Teavana while it’s still pretty fresh…
This time around I tried adding in a little splash of pumpkin agave with a quicker than usual steep time. The resulting brew was actually really good, smooth and enjoyable! Basically, I got the toasted nut notes I generally associate with yellow tea and a bit of a straw/hay flavour alongside this nice semi-sweet pumpkin flavour. It made me think of carving pumpkins and the smell of the pumpkin guts but also harvesting the seeds and toasting them in the oven along with some chopped up nuts.
Yes; a toasty/roasted pumpkin seed and nuts flavour with pumpkin gut undertones! Might not sound the most appealing, but it was super smooth and relaxing!
With just a hint of milk to temper the smoke oh so slightly.
This tasted absolutely delicious going down; but apparently I was enjoying it a little too much because I slurped back enough of it in one go, with enough air to give myself the hiccups. Man, let me tell you that was a BAD THING to have happened. The flavour going down may have been smooth, smoke and leather but with each hiccup the sensation coming up was that of a pissed off dragon breathing fire up my throat.
It was terrible, and it made me quite sad and this cup of tea pretty hard to enjoy.
Iced!
Made this one at work, but before realizing we were out of store use vanilla agave – so I ended up drinking this one straight instead of mixed with the vanilla agave like I usually opt for. It 100% just wasn’t the same. Too tart/cider like for my tastes, and without the sweet creamy flavour that actually reminds me of muffins. Still drinkable, but that flavoured agave completely makes this tea in my opinion.
I just tastes totally different without…
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 (410)!
This was my morning cuppa today, with some orange infused honey.
It was a very tasty cup of tea; the Darjeeling itself was quite brisk and full bodied with some heavy hitting notes of muscat and malt, and then some more delicate floral undertones. The sweetness of the honey was great ’cause it softened the astringency, and the orange notes really complimented the muscat and floral notes of the Darjeeling. It also just felt more winter-esque in general paired together.
Overall? I was satisfied with this cup but the Darjeeling itself is a pretty ‘meh’ quality one, and I have better on hand so it’s not one I’m sad to sipdown at all. It’s a welcome departure, actually.
So, I REALLY enjoyed this one.
There’s something that’s really familiar about it in terms of taste but I still can’t put my finger on exactly which tea it’s reminding me of. Regardless, it’s got a very lovely medium bodied profile with SUPER aromatic and fresh clementine/mandarin orange notes. It tastes exactly the way the air and your fingers smell right after you’ve peeled a really juicy, ripe mandarin orange. Like, that very natural and sweet orange oil/essence kind of quality. The white tea itself is also really smooth and floral, with notes of cucumber skins, and fresh hay as well as some really light lemon undertones. It’s quite enchanting.
Because of the mandarin orange quality, this is something I feel especially into around the winter season (Christmas oranges!) but it’s an amazing flavour that I’m sure would be equally as impressive year round. This may, in fact, be my favourite tea from Silk Road to date.
It was just SOOOO good.
