16396 Tasting Notes
So, I grabbed this one from this small little store in Winnipeg called The Canister. I’m not really familiar with Winnipeg’s layout but it looked to be in a pretty out of the way location, tucked down a flight of stairs and hidden away.
It wasn’t the world’s nicest store if I’m being honest – looked a little like the owner was a tea addict right on the cusp of being a hoarder. Just tons and tons of stuff everywhere lining the walls and shelves. Crappy little boxes of tea, and tacky ass mugs. The man working there was friendly enough though, and the pricing was really reasonable so I ended up grabbing two different teas to try. Why not, right? I opted for the two most unique looking blends – this one, and a black tea.
The owner described this as a blueberry herbal – and it definitely smell like blueberry. It’s also really citrus heavy though; definitely has a lot of orange in the blend. When I brewed it up, I definitely got both of those flavours too. It was weird though; it started off very tart with this sour kind of fusion of apple, orange and hibiscus. However, the body of the sip was where it was at! Very smooth, mellow plump and creamy blueberry notes. It reminded me of blueberry pie filling! Really pleasant; it would almost be better if that was what the whole sip tasted like if I’m being honest.
Overall, quite pleasant/enjoyable but not without room for improvement. I was still pleasantly surprised though! Plus – since the smallest amount this store sold in was 1/4 pounds (113g!) I definitely have a lot to play with.
Sipdown (411)!
#VacationTea
Yay, another sipdown! Right now, that’s a real celebration.
This is the last vacation tea; and don’t get me wrong I’m definitely glad I got to get away for a while but it feels nice to be wrapping everything up. Hotel food and stranger’s beds only go so far, you know? I’m happy that I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.
I enjoyed this one – I’m glad I chose it to bring with me for this trip! It was pleasant having this one on the seven hour car ride back from Winnipeg to home; slowly sipping at it as it gradually cooled down. It was very much like the cup of it that I had earlier in the trip though; more dense/syrupy in flavour with less bright fruit notes. A little apple heavy. Still loved it though.
It’s a happy good bye.
#VacationTea
Wow!
This is the last bottle of Kombucha from the vacation. Who would have thought that my trip would be filled with so many interesting and diverse kinds of kombucha!? Certainly not me. I mean, counting the bottle I brought with from home I tried SEVEN different kinds of kombucha over the last five days. That’s a lot of kombucha.
This is the second flavour I’ve tried from the company; the other one was the cola flavoured one. I was pretty impressed with that one, but I have to say that this one was just mind blowingly good. I definitely have to put it on par with Humm’s Strawberry Lemonade which I had said earlier today was my favourite from the trip. They’re very different flavours but both completely mind blowing. I mean, this is ALSO something that I’m totally gonna seek out/try to find either locally or potentially to order online.
I mean, simply put it tastes like rootbeer. A very natural rootbeer to be sure, and less sugary/sweet than a can or bottle of normal rootbeer would be but it’s just insanely delicious! I mean, I like rootbeer in general and I tend to LOVE rootbeer teas so this definitely follows a trend and isn’t surprising in anyway. I’m just blown away with how accurate they’re able to get that flavour. It’s creamy too! Like, it almost feels like I’m drinking a float, just in kombucha form. I have zero criticisms; this was perfect.
I want like six more, right now. God, I really, really hope I’m able to find someone back home that carries this… It’s just so good.
#VacationTea
So, I’m not the only one on our trip who bought tea. Much to my surprise, my Dad actually ended up grabbing some tea at two of the locations we stopped at. In Fargo, at Steep Me A Cup Of Tea, he grabbed three different herbal wellness blends and from Cornelia Bean he grabbed this one – a simple dark chocolate black tea that he thought might be really nice for the evenings since he’s been cutting out A LOT of sugar from his diet – and I mean a lot. He’s limiting himself to no more than 20g of sugar a day, and zero breads. No real reason for it; he just doesn’t want to consume it anymore.
We’re back in Winnipeg right now for the evening – we leave for home tomorrow morning. He decided he wanted to try his new tea tonight though, so I made cups for him, myself, and our two hosts. My Step Mom decided to pass; she wanted coffee instead. Which is fine. I think Dad may have actually preferred that; more tea left for him when we get back home, right?
Personally I didn’t think there was anything special about this one. I mean don’t get me wrong; it was good! Very rich, full bodied taste and it produced a very smooth cup with a clean profile/finish. In particular, I really like that it achieved such a pronounced chocolate flavour without relying at all on chocolate chips. I HATE chocolate chips in tea; they just ruin the mouthfeel completely because when they melt down they make everything so oily/scummy and they often taste very artificial. This has none of that; which is good.
I’ve just had so many simple chocolate teas now at this point that I’m just not easily impressed and to me at least I think this is just like so many of them. It’s definitely going to serve the purpose Dad wants it for though. So, I’m glad he found something here in Winnipeg to bring home with him that he’ll enjoy.
Sipdown (412)!
#VacationTea
Wow, my cupboard has just blown up so much…
But hey, I finished off one of the teas I brought with from home! Like, actually truly finished it off. So that’s something. On the other hand, I’m bringing home 34 new teas tomorrow, so one tea is really only a drop in the bucket.
This was my tea for in the car, on the drive back in from Fargo to Winnipeg. We got back into Winnipeg around 6PM and from there we went to my step sister’s house to go out trick or treating with her and my step nephews. Dominic, the older of the two, is thirteen and he was very “over it”/was acting like an ‘adult’ who was disinterested in Halloween and ‘baby things’. What!? Who gets sick of Halloween!? It’s the best holiday of the year! At least my younger nephew, Gabriel, was super excited! He’s only five, so he was really into it. We went like seven blocks before he got too cold and wanted to head home and then we had a good time sorting his candy/counting it.
As for the tea; I added a little milk to it this time. Mostly, I just wanted it to cool down quicker so that I could drink it sooner in the car during the trip back into Winnipeg – but I didn’t hate the idea of adding milk to a tea that reminded me so strongly of oatmeal raisin cookies. This was better straight though; the milk drowned out a lot of the flavour in my opinion without adding a whole lot substantial flavour wise. Thankfully, the cinnamon and raisin notes prevailed, although they were certainly muted.
I’ve never actually ordered from Banff Tea Co. and to be honest I definitely wont be any time soon with the state that my cupboard is currently in, but if I was going to I think this is actually something I’d seriously consider adding into an order. It was a delightful surprise, and apart from the awesome kombucha I got to experience this trip I think it’s actually one of the best teas I’ve had so far on this vacation.
#VacationTea
Ok, this is my favourite kombucha so far! It’s funny, I actually grabbed it because of all the flavours I chose I figured that this would be the safest bet and I suppose I was correct, because I adored this. That said, it also pleasantly surprised me with just how much I enjoyed it.
It was certainly more of a strawberry flavour than lemonade; very rich and sweet! It read as so pleasantly ripe and juicy! Also a little syrupy/jammy – in the same way that freshly made strawberry waffle topping is. You know, the stuff that starts off as fresh made strawberries and then gets mixed in with sugar so that the fruit breaks down and gets all tender/soft and delicious. It’s hard to describe, but if you’ve had then you’ll know exactly what I mean. That’s not to say it didn’t have the lemonade element; but it was lighter. very fresh though; the whole drink just evoked the feeling/taste of fresh fruits and lemonade. The kind of fresh squeezed, sweetened lemonade that a five year old would slap together to sell on their front yard. Made with love, and labor.
No typical kombucha bite, either. Just pure, smooth delicious fruity goodness! I’ve never seen this company before in Canada, so if anyone has please let me know where! I definitely, definitely want to seek this out if I can! It was just so incredibly perfect.
#VacationTea
This was this morning’s tea, which I made during breakfast in the hotel lobby. It was delicious, I just wish it was caffeinated. Sadly, at this point in our vacation journey I had exhausted all of my caffeinated options apart from the teas I’ve purshased since we left – and I didn’t particularly want to crack into any of them just yet.
Since I acquired these teabags from DF my biggest concern with the cola ones has been that they’ve tasted somewhat weak/mild in terms of flavour. This was perfect though! I don’t know what the difference was, apart from the fact it was in some crappy hotel paper cup instead of an actual mug. The cola flavour was really strong though, and really bright! I mean, I’ve had enough ‘fake’/replicated cola things at this point that I can easily break down the ingredients that are generally paired together to replicate them so I wavered back and forth between tasting cola and tasting the other ingredients: lemon and cinnamon.
Still did the trick though – I was in a happy place sipping on this, and munching away at my hotel waffles and scrambled eggs.
#VacationTea
Yes! High quality tea bags/sachets! I knew there was a reason I opted to get some of the newer teas this fall in sachets – and this is the pay off. Convenient travel options without totally sacrificing quality.
The hotel we stayed at in Fargo had free breakfast in the mornings. The first day we were there, we got in during the afternoon so it was only on the second day that I saw the breakfast set up and the fact that there was actually an electric kettle in the lobby. You should have seen my excitement as I ran back to our suite and grabbed a handful of tea gear to go make tea in the lobby/breakfast area. I’m sure the people in the lobby were looking at me like I was nuts – but it was honestly SUCH a better set up than what was in our hotel.
This was great – the smell of it brewing was so comforting and inviting. I didn’t realize just how worn out I was from all the travel across the border until I took my first big inhale of the steeping tea, and then my first big, slow slurp. The rosemary is so strong, and it’s followed up by this rich strawberry note that fills every surface of my mouth entirely. It’s a little tart/sour, but that’s to be expected with a blend that has this much hibiscus in it. It still has a nice creamy undertone though; you know, hints of vanilla.
Ahhh! So good.
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.
#VacationTea
So, I snagged a little bit of this one before I left on vacation to try and play with in the evenings. I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of it iced but I still had the impression there was something redeemable about this one so I wanted to test it out brewed hot.
It’s still not my favourite, but brewing it hot is actually a HUGE improvement in terms of flavour. It almost reads as a totally different tea, were it not for the cranberry being so similar in terms of flavour. Very sweet, cranberry jam/jelly sort of vibes without a whole lot of bite/tartness that you’d expect from cranberry. It’s a lot smoother though, and there isn’t that weird sort of clash of flavour coming from the white chocolate. In fact, I hardly noticed the white chocolate at all this time around. Yup; it was definitely primarily cranberry in terms of flavour – maybe with some apple undertones.
I’ll keep playing with it, but at least now I know that hot isn’t the worst thing in the world. A more harmonious flavour overall for surel; and if I want to just power through and sip it down that’s how I can do it.
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.
#VacationTea
This was the second tea that I grabbed at Polo Park when we stopped in to visit. Sour Appletini was the first; I grabbed an iced cup of it to drink right away and then I got this one hot in the travel mug I had with me.
I was shocked when I saw that Polo Park still had this one! My store has been sold out of it for months now; and it’s one that I heavily debated stocking up on before we sold out of it. I thought for sure that I’d had my last cup of it months ago. I almost stocked up on it while we were in Polo Park too; but I have SO MUCH tea right now and so much of it is already from DAVIDsTEA that I decided to pass. I may end up kicking myself a little for that in the future…
This cup was divine though! So smooth and fruity! Really playful floral elements from the quince, and then notes of quince, pear, and fresh red apples in terms of flavour. Just a touch of malt, and a bit of a different sort of floral quality coming from the black base. I think DT made a mistake retiring this one: our black tea selection is very limited it terms of fruity flavours and this one was something quite unique. I think the fact it was unique and many people were unfamiliar with quince may have actually been its downfall. Still, how many companies carry quince teas?
Not a lot.
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.
