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Last of today’s Winter launch!

So, this one is a white tea – something I’m always open to there being more of. I think it’s also my favourite, not just of the new teas but of the whole collection.

The smell of the dry leaf is really delicious, and I found myself constantly gravitating towards to wall tin of it while working today just to pop open the sniffer lid and get a good inhale. It smells like orange zest, and buttery, flaky pastry! Really intoxicating.

This is another one that I want to be able to latte, but that I can’t so that’s kind of disappointing. It’s a pretty big let down that 4/5 of this year’s winter teas are NOT latte friendly. If any time of the year is latte season, it’s winter – right!?

Steeped up this is glorious though! The orange is definitely the strongest flavour, but I like it a lot. It’s a lot like fresh grated orange zest, with a brightness to it in the cup and just enough sweetness. Mostly, I like that it’s a natural tasting orange zest and not something overly candied in nature. The walnut isn’t as strong as I expected it to be, but there is a sweet nuttiness to the undertones of this one that’s coming from the walnut. I wish it was a little stronger, but I’m not unhappy with how it reads. It’s light, but a solid compliment to the orange.

Maybe the most understated element of this blend is the ‘scone’ aspect though; there’s definitely a buttery element to this one flavour wise – more in the finish of the sip than anywhere else. That buttery quality is what really makes me think of scones, it’s a good touch! Apart from that, there are also light/gentle malt, straw, and lemon notes to this one flavour wise and the softest hint of apple.

It’s good! I totally got a small bag of this one, and I foresee it being a go to in store option for me this winter season, as well! I just really appreciate how smooth it was, overall.

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 new tea from this year’s Winter Collection!

This one is also a herbal; and initially I was very excited about this. My all time favourite tea to come from DT was a creamy cranberry blend (Cranberry Pear) and when I saw this was a white chocolate bark inspired tea with cranberry I was excited to see if it could possibly be something similar to that.

Then I saw the ingredients: Hibiscus.

Yeah, latte-ing this one? Definitely not an option. How soul crushing!

So far, I’ve heard the most diverse reactions to this blend of all the winter teas. People just don’t seem to know what to think of it. Here’s a mix of things I’ve heard both staff and customers say it smells like: Cheap boxed wine, Cherry Nibs, cough drops, yogurt coated cranberries/raisins, Campino candies…

So, you know, people seem to be a little all over the place.

I tried this one first as an iced tea; I just got the feeling that maybe the fruit elements in it would lend themselves to iced tea preparation. Honestly, though? I’m not sure whether or not I liked it. It was very, very weird and it seemed a little all over the place to me. One thing is sure though, the cranberry notes in this one are STRONG! They were also really artificial tasting to me though, and very sweet. Almost too sweet. I wonder if part of that sweetness comes from the white chocolate? In addition to the very sweet cranberry flavour, I thought the papaya was also surprisingly pronounced. Usually papaya is NOT a dominant flavour, so I was a little surprised as the intensity of it but not unhappily surprised. The white chocolate isn’t super obvious in flavour to me aside from general sweetness, but I did get some of the creaminess of it in the finish. It felt weird next to the cranberry though. Not natural at all. The biggest downside for me was the aftertaste though; very artificial and almost medicinal in the same way cherry cough syrup is.

I’m not ready to completely rule this one out though; despite how weird it was there was something in it that kept pulling me back for more and that makes me think there could be promise here with the right amount of tweaking. So with that in mind I did buy 30g of it to play with over my vacation. To start, I intend to try it hot and see just how that changes the profile.

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.

It’s back!

I wasn’t surprised when I found out this tea was returning – I worked last Christmas when it launched, and people were going nuts for this one. Just, really, really into it.

I treated myself to it in latte form today; my first time actually ever trying this one as a latte. It worked really well though, which isn’t surprising in any way to be fair. It was VERY creamy with distinct white chocolate and vanilla notes and an equally rich, thick velvety mouthfeel to match the intensity of the flavour. The mint was also really strong, but tempered by the creaminess. It was like drinking white chocolate peppermint bark, but just in beverage form. Also, very candy cane like too. It’s just…

Really, really good for an indulgent sweet treat. This will totally never be a go to/all the time tea for me because it is really sweet and I don’t think I could handle that regularly but I look forward to the odd cup of it here and there this holiday season.

Also, I did pick up about 30g of it – inspired by VariaTEA, I look forward to trying this one as a chocolate milk latte!!!

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.

Well, don’t ask me why it’s so early ‘cause I don’t know the answer, but DT’s first Winter launch was today! Five winter teas – three new, two returning. It seems a little weird to me that we’ve launched them before Halloween, but oh well.

Personally, that meant I got to grab the teas I wanted/try everything before going on vacation which I’m pretty happy about. I was worried when I booked my vacation that the collection would launch while I was on vacation and I wouldn’t be able to try everything right away.

This one is a new herbal tea – I think this year’s collection is a little herbal heavy, and personally I would have liked to see a flavour like this on a rooibos or a white tea base but I’ll take it as is. I mean, I have no choice not to. It smells very familiar as dry leaf; kind of like the super popular Caramel Corn blend from DT that’s made an appearance the last few years. It’s fruitier though; which makes sense since this blend has sour cherry, raspberry, and elderberry in it. That’s also weird to me; I mean when I think shortbread I think buttery flavour notes – not fruit. You also can’t latte this one, I think probably because of the sour cherry in the blend. I’m foreseeing a lot of people disappointed that they can’t get this one as a latte ’cause in theory it sounds like it should be really good…

Steeped up I find myself a little underwhelmed by the flavour. It’s not bad at all, but it’s not exactly strong and not what I would have expected given the name. The bulk of the flavour is almond/hazelnut and in that regard it reminds me a little of Forever Nuts, especially since this also has cinnamon and apple undertones. It’s got caramel notes though, albeit light ones. The more I sipped on it, the more I kind of started viewing it as a mix of Forever Nuts and Caramel Corn – with one big exception though.

The cherry.

I don’t exactly understand why it’s in this blend!? It’s a very strong flavour, as strong as the caramel for sure – and it feels a little out of place? I mean, I like cherry and it doesn’t taste bad but it doesn’t fit with the rest of the flavour profile that the ingredient come together to form. If you removed it, I think this would flow together more uniformly and be a more accurate flavour representation. Those are just my thoughts though; and the rest of the staff present during our initial tasting of the new teas seemed to like it quite a bit. I’m interested to see the sort of feedback we’ll get from customers though; it’s always interesting seeing if my opinion lines up with general crowd reception of a 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.

Welp, my cold is back. Or it’s a new cold. I don’t know…

It feels like the staff and I have just been trading colds back and forth for weeks now. It’s especially frustrating though, because I leave for my vacation tomorrow. I definitely don’t want to spend my vacation sick!!!

So, I spent the bulk of the day at work drinking triple strength Cold 911 – didn’t even add honey this time! Just slurped back the tea, and let the intense Vicks Vapor Rub like flavour and eucalyptus do their job. I can tell I’m definitely as sick as last time I relied on the triple strength Cold 911 trick because this time I could actually taste the tea, and last time I couldn’t. It did not taste good. But it felt good. Really 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.

So, a fancy ass coffee shop recently opened up near me downtown and a coworker let me know that they also carried a selection of Tiesta Teas – I figured I’d go take a peak and see if anything jumped out to me.

Honestly though? The majority of the selection was pretty boring. You know a lot of standards/classics in terms of flavour: A straight green, a chai, a jasmine scented tea, a generic orange flavoured tisane…

I did want to grab something though, and I ended up opting for this one. I thought it seemed like the most original/inventive of the flavour options they had – and I thought it might be a nice addition to my cupboard. I have had different Mojito inspired teas before so there’s definitely a mental comparison between those blends and this one, but why not give it a shot? I don’t hate Mojitos in general, so this could be fun!

Now, I’m pretty sure the sweet spot with this one is gonna be as an iced tea, but the first way that I tried it was hot despite that belief. It smelled very strongly of apple both as dry leaf and while it was steeping; and to be fair there are a lot of very large apple chunks in the blend. Like, very distinct sliced apple segments.

Flavour wise, not surprisingly, it was also very heavy on the apple notes. Now, that’s not a bad thing – but considering apple isn’t one of the main flavours in a Mojito I found myself craving more of those sort of notes. The lime was present though; it sort of transitioned out of the tartness of the apple top notes and then become part of a coupling of apple and lime notes in the body. I didn’t taste any mint though, which was really disappointing to me. I mean, what is a mojito without mint!?

Overall, I didn’t hate this – but I did find it pretty disappointing in terms of flavour profile compared to what I’d expect from a Mojito inspired blend.

Another iced tea.

This one wasn’t as good iced as it was hot; it kind of picked up this slight musty/dusty sort of quality in the finish and aftertaste that tasted really flat and stale. It’s the same sort of “drab attic” sort of taste/quality that I associate with DT’s Raspberry Meringue blend, as well. Just not very pleasing/satisfying.

It’s a shame too ’cause the rest of the cup – the top notes and body – were actually really delicious! Very strong, sweet strawberry notes with more tropical undertones. I taste the pineapple a whole lot more than the passionfruit, to be honest. Both are present, but one is clearly the superior flavour. As a punch flavour, it would be really nice…

If it just weren’t for the aforementioned dusty quality. Wish I could pinpoint what caused it…

Iced tea!

Made this one at work a few days ago; the whole staff was thoroughly freaked out by the notion of a tea with cucumber and tomato but when they tried it they all agreed that it was surprisingly delicious! Lots, and lots of sweet orange and apple notes and then a cooling, crispness from the cucumber. It’s vegetal, but very softly and in a refreshing way. Also, between the orange, cucumber, and tomato notes in the finish it’s also surprisingly sweet! I mean, overall it’s a challenging flavour to describe; but it just works!

I also made this in a glass cup for the first time ever so it was the first time I got a completely clear look at the liquor colour and it was really pretty! Just a soft, sunset like sort of peachy colour with a bit of like a red ‘blush’ sort of tint to it? Mostly orange, though. Just stunning to look at, though!

Iced Latte!

This one was really refreshing, with a thick mouthfeel. The flavour was mostly raspberry with a whole lotta creaminess. Not the most natural flavour in the world, but very delicious. I felt like I was channeling serious raspberry milkshake vibes whilst drinking it. Notes of vanilla, as well and a hint of floral in the undertones – probably from the matcha itself. Only downside was that the more I drank the more it started to pick up a bit of a chalky/artificial undertone. The only started being even slightly apparent about halfway through the cup, and never reached a point where it was actually unpleasant; just mildly annoying…

Had a nice mug of this one last week.

I’m actually surprised no one else has reviewed this one? I mean, I know when it was originally announced I was practically drooling at the thought of it. I was sure some other like minded Steepster users would have snatched this one up…

I think i was a little surprised by how light/mild the flavour is overall. I was expecting something more full bodied and I’d say that this falls somewhere between light to medium body in flavour, with a thinner feeling liquor as well. It did taste really good though! I like the choice of a roasted oolong for the base, it added a nice layer of flavour. Though, it did make this a little more of a toasty baked apple flavour, rather than a caramel apple.

Yeah, definitely baked apple with hints of warming cinnamon – and then as far as the caramel aspect goes it is there but it’s pretty light. It’s also a little more like a burnt sugar/brulee sort of element which kind of furthers the baked apple imagery in my opinion. I think I’d like a little bit more caramel sweetness, but overall I do really enjoy the flavours that are present. They work together really well.