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It’s been a while since my tea twin VariaTEA and I had the same time on the same day, but that’s exactly what happened last week – I’m just slower to the punch writing about it. This time around, I tried this one with some cashew milk and I let the leaf continue to brew in the cup (in one of DT’s sachets rather than a perfect infuser) while I drank it in the hope that the butterscotch chips would fully melt down and I’d get a creamier, more sweet and buttery profile overall. Didn’t really work out that way though, and instead I just got a thick, rich mouthfeel and a sweet Chai flavour. Lighter on the spices than your typical chai though, and more allspice than anything else. A fair bit of coconut though, I suppose! As a “light Chai” this is pretty good, but as “Butterbeer” I think it kind of fails to live up to its name…

So far, I think the best version of this that I’ve tried has definitely still been as a latte.

Sipdown (332)!

Thanks for the sample VariaTEA!

I ended making three different teas to drink on the drive to and from my Grandma’s house this weekend, and that included this tea steeped up in a carry mug. I debated adding milk/sugar but ultimately decided to try it straight.

It was good, but nothing exciting or out of the ordinary for an English Breakfast. Mostly, it tasted of raisins, but with malt and floral notes too. Very brisk and full bodied, as English Breakfast is intended to be. It kept me happy on the car ride, but past that I’m sure it’ll be forgettable alongside many other breakfast teas I’ve tried over the years.

Tea press, iced with some vanilla agave.

Normally, I’m pretty into this one but the agave was a bad move on my part because it took what’s already normally a VERY sweet tea and pushed it far past cloying levels of sweetness. Even worse, the currant flavour was REALLY strong and it kind of took on a sort of medicinal note. So, I was torn between sugary sweet Ribena kinds of flavour and cough syrup…

Nope. Hard pass this time around…

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 (333)!

So this weekend we took a trip to my Grandma’s house to pay her a visit, and I wound up taking a few small tea samples home with me at the end of the visit.

Even thought this is a teabag, I grabbed one of them because it’s getting to be fall now and since this is something I haven’t tried before I thought it could be a nice one off cuppa. I made it at work, with some milk because milk and chai are just really good pairings. It was pretty good, but actually fairly light in flavour overall. I got a lot of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger but not as much clove as I wanted and very little actual pumpkin although there WAS a sweetness to it that was a bit harder to place.

It was nice to sip on, but forgettable overall.

In my tea press!

Last week the boyfriend, a few of his good friends and myself all went to Market Under The Stars which is this super cool thing our city does over the summer where, for $20, you can purchase five tasting tickets to use in combination at over 25 different local restaurants/food trucks/bars. They also either bring their truck or set up a booth downtown with food and you exchange your tickets for something to sample. At most, a stand can charge two tickets for a dish so you’re getting at least three things to try!

They also host a free concert, so you grab your food and go watch a show that features local artists/musicians/bands and such! This evening, one of the performers was Bears in Hazenmore which is a really awesome band that my coworker is a part of (he’s the drummer) – they’re specifically who we went to see since the boyfriend is also a really big fan of them. Their bands was also the backing band for the headliner, Megan Nash, so we stayed to watch her perform too. It was a really good evening!

I, of course, brought tea with me because I didn’t particularly feel like drinking and the majority of the drink options for the evening were alcoholic cocktails prepared by either local bars or the nearby distilleries. I will admit though, a local vendor that specializes in kombucha brought a few kombucha infused cocktails and that was pretty tempting; they were two tickets each though so I ended up passing in favour of eating some of the more unique food options…

Personally, I ended up getting:

A Greek Salad styled vegetarian pita (1 ticket) – from my favourite bakery in town
Coconut Mango Sticky Rice (2 tickets) – from a new, to me, vendor
A blue cheese & honey perogy dish with candied flowers (2 tickets) – from a food truck

Everything was REALLY good, but I think the sticky rice was my favourite! It was just so unexpectedly good, and really refreshing!

The tea I brought along wise decent too; this is certainly not my favourite tea by a long shot but the strawberry was sweet and very summery which felt fitting for the evening, which was sort of an ‘end to summer’ type of event! Plus, the cooling mint was a nice finish. Didn’t taste strong, to be sure – but you could feel it in the end of the sip.

Also, the music and time spent with the boy were awesome too! Just, a really nice evening overall.

Song Highlights:

https://youtu.be/8j-96urmfR0 (Bears In Hazenmore)

https://youtu.be/zEbyVXLQXG0 (Megan Nash – not a recording from this concert)

Revisited this one, as a pot of tea with some milk in it.

I still think it’s very light in body and overall flavour compared to most African black teas I’ve experience; however, I appreciate that it’s very smooth and easy to sip on without much though. Definitely a black tea that would make for a very good daily drinker. I found it fairly malty, with honeyed notes to it, and a touch of a soft woody and cocoa kind of finish. Totally a mild profile, though a richer mouthfeel with the milk.

Mild isn’t bad though; and again, I think this would excel as a low key daily drinker.

Short and sweet tasting note!

This is my second time trying this one now, and I almost like it more the second time around now that I have an idea of what to expect flavour wise. Plus, since it’s basically like a dark chocolate pumpkin spice truffle kind of flavour, with cranberry accents it’s VERY autumnal and fitting for the change of season.

And clove! So much clove!

Also, I may be the tiniest bit biased as this is named after/inspired by a very loving thing that my boyfriend says to me – so I’m already filled with happy, good, fluffy feelings whenever I drink it…

This is a queued tasting note.

Iced tea;

Something about this one is really familiar tasting to me but it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what that quality is. I mean, it’s easy to say that it could just be that this blend has A LOT of hibiscus in it so it’s reminding me of the many, many hibiscus heavy herbals I’ve tried but I don’t think that’s it. Apart from a really strong hibiscus flavour, this is also pretty raisin-y, with some berry notes too. I don’t find the berry particularly distinct; it kind of just reminds me of elderberries/blueberries and everything else that’s sort of in line with those sort of berry flavours. I enjoyed it, though I wish it was more “grape”-y as opposed to a raisin sort of flavour. There’s DEFINITELY a difference, though it’s a hard one to explain…

I need to double check, but I think that this was apple free too, which means it’s something the boyfriend can have. If that’s the case, I definitely need to remember to bring him some ‘cause I definitely think he’s enjoy it!

Iced, with a bit of milk.

So, I drank this one on a very long bus ride over to my boyfriend’s house…

To meet his parents.

I think, in reality, the bus ride was only like thirty minutes long? However, it felt like it took hours. I think the evening went well though; I want to believe I made a good first impression…

Anyway, I needed something caffeinated to sort of help calm my nerves and also give me a boost to get through the evening – so this is what I drank on the bus ride. It’s weird, because it reminded me eerily of coffee despite not having coffee in it at all. I think it’s because it’s just REALLY roasty and earthy tasting though – similar to some cold brew or iced coffee in general. With a sweeter edge to it though, from the cocoa and toffee. They weren’t as sweet as I was craving though; more of a very dark, indulgent but subtle undertone to the strong coffee/pu’erh like notes. With a thicker mouthfeel, from the added in milk. Didn’t really taste creamier though…

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.

Really delicious cuppa, however this time around in addition to the very sweet and satisfying grape flavour/notes there was also a decently strong astringency. I’m sure it’s probably a result of my being a little too generous with my steep time; however it didn’t negatively impact the experience for me. It’s just that instead of an ice wine flavour it reminded me more of a drier white wine.

I’m not a huge white wine person, so I can’t really name off anything specific – but yeah, something in that sort of vein…