Roswell Strange Send Message

Had this one hot yesterday, with a splash of milk.

Taste wise it was pretty solid; mostly a smooth, silky Creamsicle sort of flavour with grassier, floral undertones from the matcha base. There was something about it that reminded me a little of soy milk, and that was a touch weird because I hadn’t used soy milk in the cup – I was using regular 2% milk.

My boyfriend wont drink matcha because he doesn’t like the “powdery” mouthfeel. I’ve literally never had problems with that when drinking matcha… up until this cup.

I think it must be the power of suggestion/the fact I had his opinion on matcha in the back of my mind when I was drinking this, but I definitely thought the mouthfeel was really powdery. Not unpleasant; but definitely noticeable. Damn you, boyfriend, and your heightened sense of touch/texture! Seriously; he picks up on food texture SO MUCH. I mean, it’s because he has a bad sense of smell/taste so he relies a lot more on touch/texture with food, but now it’s got me noticing things that I’d really rather not be noticing…

Oh well.

Iced tea.

Still totally in love with this one; a good mix of sweet apple notes and delightfully tart, sour cherry with a little bit of a pop from the cinnamon with makes the apple notes a little more autumnal and pie-like. I think it’s a really nice summer/autumn transitional sort of flavour, too! This particular cup was a little underleafed which just meant that the apple was a little stronger than the cherry this time around, but it still tasted great.

I need to remember to pick up another pouch of this one before the Farmer’s Market closes down for the year because then I have to wait a whole six months to replenish my supply and that’s just not ok with me…

Drank this one hot, yesterday.

I had actually kind of resigned myself to fact that this was probably just going to taste like rich, earthy Shou and not be rose-like at all, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. Of course, it was very smooth and earthy with sweet notes of dates too. However, the rose was actually noticable this time! Very sweet and fragrant, and definitely not part of the body profile, but it snuck in smoothly with the finish, and then danced on the surface of my tongue in the aftertaste.

It was delightful, and added a really interested aspect to the overall flavour! Now that I know that it can be detected in this tea, that makes me a lot more excited/hopefully for the rest of the tuochas. I just wonder why I noticed it this time, but not in the past with prior mugs of it…

Well, I said I was gonna set this one aside until the fall and that’s what I did!

Come the first day of Autumn, I pulled this tea out and whipped myself up a nice hot mug of it. I did add a splash of cashew milk for creaminess, and some pumpkin agave to amp up those pumpkin notes as well! It was really good, although QUITE sweet. Even with the pumpkin agave, the pumpkin isn’t as strong as I’d personally want it to be – I think the apple is a far more piercing, full bodied and forward flavour. I still enjoyed it though, and I was right that it feels a little more natural to be drinking this one in autumn over the summer.

I’m also a little surprised just how many other people must have been fans of this one! People have been coming in and asking for Pumpkin Chai since I started working at DT (it happens like at least once a week) but ever since September first we have two or three people come in a week looking for this blend in particular too. I just never realized it was that well loved…

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.

Iced.

Dry, this one smells SO MUCH like root beer to me, but when I steeped it up as an iced tea the other day I found that the illusion was actually sort of broken? I mean it still reminded me of root beer and it was still delicious, but mostly I just tasted the individual flavour notes and I had to actually focus on not viewing them that way to taste what they were forming as a ‘whole’.

I know there isn’t cinnamon in this, but it still STRONGLY reminds me of cinnamon regardless. I’m convinced at this point that it’s a combination of the clove and the black base tea itself that comes together and creates that flavour in my head. I just can’t shake it; for me the whole body of the sip was strong, but smooth, cinnamon notes.The top is more sweet and anise heavy, and I thought the finish was the most Root Beer like aspect to me because it had the most vanilla and sarsaparilla notes to it.

I wish it blended together a little bit more to create a more concise flavour, but I do still really enjoy it regardless – it just takes a little more work for it to feel like a “root beer” tea this was, and not just a smooth, creamy mix of spice elements. It was a little more root beer like as a hot tea, funnily enough.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/jHu160KUB3M

So, this is my first time drinking this tea since it was brought back as a TOTM/core tea.

It’s not that I actually dislike it in anyway or that I’ve been putting off drinking it; I actually liked it a fair bit when it was a limited edition tea. My biggest thing was just the mouthfeel/general oilyness from the melting down sugar brittle. However, taste wise it was totally fine. It’s just that there are a lot of other sweet/dessert teas I generally reach for over this one, so it’s kind of been forgotten about?

I drank this one as a latte though – after months, I finally decided it was just the sweet treat I really needed to perk me right up on a day I was feeling a little down. My immediate feeling was regret. Not for making the tea, but for waiting for such a long time to revisit this one after it was brought back as a core tea. It was so good! Instantly made me think of cotton candy/cotton candy flavoured candies but with a bolder flavour and a strong creamy factor. Of course, the creaminess/silkiness comes from the latte style prep. Regardless, it was REALLY good and not actually as cloying as I was bracing myself for. I mean don’t get me wrong, it was sweet. However, for something cotton candy flavoured I didn’t find it over the top.

Also, the mouthfeel/texture thing? Really not an issue for a latte – the milk hides that unpleasant feeling. I’m sure I’d still get it if I were drinking this one straight but not this way.

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.

Cold Brew!

Very smooth, and tasty with creamy pineapple and coconut notes and then softer, ripe mango and sweet apple undertones. The perfect example of a sweet, but not cloying, and smooth tropical flavour. However, mouthfeel wise this was a total mess. I don’t know why, but the coconut peeling completely disintegrated in the water as this was cold brewing and so the the whole liquor had this weird, oily/pulpy coconut aspect to it that was…

No.

Anyone know why the coconut shavings would have done that? I’ve never really had that issue with this tea before and I’ve had it quite a few times – so it seems like a weird thing to have happened just out of the blue.

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.

Currently sipping on this one.

This is a really interesting Australian black tea that I got my mom to pick up for me on her vacation to BC; it was one of a couple teas from Terroir Tea Merchant that I was specifically interested in. I’ve had a few green teas from Australia now, but I think this is my first black tea? What’s really interesting to me is that basically Australia is modelling their tea growing after Japanese practices – but Japan isn’t exactly renowned for the black tea, are they? So I’m curious what exactly this will taste like…

The dry leaf is certainly inviting enough though; lots of sweet malt and cocoa notes coming off it, and a bit of an earthiness? I wonder how that will translate flavour wise.

Steeped up, I’m enjoying this one a lot! It’s very smooth and full bodied, with a thick soup that coats the inside of the mouth. The top notes are sweet, and are all elements/flavours that I would sort of associate with being inside of a bakery: malt, cocoa powder, honey, fresh baked bread, molasses, and a touch of cinnamon. The body is a bit deeper, a little more savory while still being sweet: malt, wood, dark chocolate, raisin bread, and maybe even something kind of like leather?

The finish is the really interesting part to me, though. It’s a lot less sweet than the rest of the sip, and has a bit more of a burnt toast and dense black pepper kind of thing going for it on top of that malty quality. It’s tickling the back of my throat in a similar way to how blends with actual black pepper or peppercorn in them do. It’s also a little drying.

I think right now I like this one on the whole, but I’m curious to explore it a little further and see if the flavour profile is consistent to what I’m getting from it now. I wish it was just a touch sweeter going into that finish because the black pepper tickling sensation isn’t my favourite thing ever. It’s not a deal breaker, though.

Another sample from teabento!

Personally, I adore jasmine scented silver needle teas. In my opinion silver needle/yin zhen is the best kind of tea to be jasmine scented because it allows the jasmine to really shine through without any other flavours negatively impacting the flavour or drowning it out; and it’s the most peaceful/tranquil and relaxing form of jasmine scented tea. Greener oolongs and black tea aren’t bad options; but you’re always going to get a more full bodied tea flavour that’s in a way competing with the jasmine and not showcasing it.

This afternoon I’m in a bit of a ‘blah’ mood – it’s very dreary and gross outside, and there are some life things happening that have left me feeling a bit down as of late. I started the morning with some pretty rich tasting flavoured teas, but this afternoon what I really want is something peaceful. So currently I’m curled up in bed drinking a Western style mug of this from the cutest little robins egg blue mug covered in little white french dots. My cat Eric is curled up with me; coincidentally he kind of looks like teabento’s cute little cat design for this tea; he’s very white and fluffy – though also significantly fatter. It seems especially fitting that he’s joined me for my mug of Silver Cat tea.

The whole aesthetic right now is delicate, cute and peaceful.

The tea fits pretty perfectly with that theme, too! The first thing I have to point out about the flavour is just the overall freshness of it; everything about the jasmine flavour screams natural/authentic – though because we’re going for tranquility here I think it’s probably more apt to say that it ‘whispers authentic’. Truly, though, the jasmine is really lovely and relaxing: very fragrant and smooth with a bit of sweetness lifting it up to near ethereal stature. Like I said, one of the reasons I really like silver needle tea as the base for jasmine scented teas is because it REALLY lets the jasmine come through, and that’s 100% the case here.

The white tea itself is nice though; while this is mostly delightful jasmine notes you can’t ignore that the base offers some elements too. For starters, there’s a lovely mix of sweet, fresh cream and hay notes in the background of the sip that are definitely from the tea. There’s also just a hint of something fruity; like a fragile mix of sweet lemon and peach juices; definitely something you’d get from a really nice, quality yin zhen. The sweetness of both that fruit element and the jasmine lingers lightly in the finish of the sip, and the way it coats the mouth only to pop off the edges of my tongue makes me feel like a graceful ballerina is dancing in my mouth. Elegant movements, but so full of life and emotion.

This is exactly the kind of tea I wanted this afternoon; it captures exactly what I was in the mood for and all in all everything has come together so beautifully – from the flavour of liquor to my surrounding aesthetics. I feel at peace and relaxed; full of warm cozy tea and fat, cat cuddles. This might just be my favourite tea from teabento yet!

This is a queued tasting note.

The night before I drank this one, I think I got probably about an hour of sleep. Maybe two, generously speaking. There wasn’t anything in particular preventing me from sleeping; no noise, I didn’t feel ill, and I was comfortable…

I just could not fall asleep.

So, I ended up starting my shift the morning afterwards with two large iced teas of these bad boys. This is, for the moment, my favourite high caffeine tea – it’s really refreshing and thirst quenching and I really like the combo of fresh, sweet red apples and ripe blackberries. Plus, I really don’t mind the beet either. The more I drink this one, the more I pick up on the flavour of it. It’s definitely light and more of a soft undertone alongside the light grassy/earthy yerba mate base and as a delicate lingering note in the aftertaste. Because of that more soft, nuanced nature I still think this is a nice tea for people who are skeptical of the taste of beet in their tea or who just don’t like beet in general – I’m just saying I appreciate it in addition to everything else, and I’m happy I can taste it even if it is really subtle.

So yeah; this tea was a life saver! The caffeine boost was so important to me making it through the day – and the flavour was spot on and delightful!

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.