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I’m surprised no one else seems to have reviewed this one? When I saw it up on Bitterleaf’s site I was FASCINATED by it. It just looks so… different.

And of course, I cracked the bag of it today too and immediately I was just drawn to the visual look of the dry leaf. It’s so weirdly shaped; I definitely see the “crab legs” comparison. The leaf itself is also weirdly tender/bendy – unlike tea leaf this has a LOT of give to it. I kind of just want to play with it, if I’m being honest…

So, I made this one up as a pot of tea – and originally I only steeped it for about six minutes because generally speaking that’s kind of my sweet spot with herbals/tisanes. When I poured my first cup, it was VERY mild/delicate though. Essentially, it just tasted like somewhat sweetened water. Which I suppose, in a way, it sort of was. I finished the cup and it was nice enough, but I was sure that there had to be some other flavour this tea could offer so I grabbed the tea leaf that I had just strained out of the water, and popped it right back in there to steep Grandpa style while I finished off the pot.

Even after a near hour of steeping, the liquor of this ‘tea’ is still practically clear like water. It has the FAINTEST yellow hue to it, but it’s just so soft and delicate. The flavour is like that too; just a very refreshing, smooth and delicate profile. It’s like sweet water, but now with the longer infusion it also has some very delicate floral notes and a finish that’s really raisin like. I’m actually really enjoying it, even if it is SUPER delicate/mild. There’s just something so unique and fascinating about it, too.

I feel pretty genuine in saying that I’m not sure I’ve tasted anything like it. It’s something I REALLY want to keep exploring/messing about with!

Iced. Tea Press. Honey.

Still working on, slowly, finishing this one off…

100% I was pretty scared to try this one out as an iced tea; I was ready for a blast of intense, horrific tasting tartness. However, I think by adding honey and keeping the steep time very short and controlled I was able to actually crank out a pretty solid iced tea! It was sweet, and yes tart as well but not overwhelmingly. If anything, it tasted like some sort of sweetened berry kind of drink. Really refreshing, actually.

Iced, in the tea press…

I over leafed this one just a little bit because I was half asleep, so instead of two scoops I wound up with three. That made for a REALLY strong/intense iced tea so I did end up cutting it with the only sweetener I could find in our kitchen at the table: granulated table sugar. Definitely not my #1 or even #2 choice, but better than nothing, I suppose…

Flavour wise, and I’m not sure if it was from the sugar or not, this was VERY “instant lemonade” tasting to me. Like, the Kool Aid stuff that comes in pouches of powder than you just stir into water and sweeten. It wasn’t bad tasting, and actually was a tiny bit nostalgic too if nothing else. It did have some apple and hibiscus notes too, so it wasn’t a completely one dimensional flavour – but it was fairly close to tasting that 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.

Sipdown (331)!

So, this is the cold brew I had mentioned that I was brewing. Honestly? Drastic overall change in flavour compared to the hot cup! I mean, it was still very apple-y and the base itself was a very strong flavour but it was much sweeter overall with less straight up hibiscus tartness, and more of that “punch” sort of element to it. I also tasted bits of the goji, and it almost had like a strawberry thing going on?

I still wouldn’t call it tropical – but it was an improvement for sure. I don’t think this is something I’d want to order again but I’m thrilled that my second tasting was such an improvement and if it was served to me that way, I’d definitely drink it again if served it.

So, I had so much fun making my own teas last time and the results were good enough that I decided it might be fun to do it again! This time I only got three teas though, and one of them was almost completely designed by my boyfriend and not myself.

This is one of the ones that I chose everything for but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t heavily inspired by my boyfriend when creating the concept for this tea and the ingredients. Even the name relates to him – “Ecstatic Shock” is the name for the feeling you get when catch someone you like/love looking at you. It’s a warm, happy feeling that starts in the tips of your toes, fills and inflates your lungs and finally culminates in a big smile!

I wanted the flavour of the tea to reflect that feeling: something warming and sweet so I figured a tea with some milder spices (cinnamon/ginger) and fennel/anise for sweetness would work perfectly alongside maybe a fruit or two. In the end, I ended up choosing blueberry as my fruit. It’s the boyfriend’s favourite fruit so it seemed like a great way to use him as inspiration, and I also knew that blueberry would be a nice compliment to the cinnamon/ginger and fennel combo!

For my first time trying this one out I made it in my tea press the same way that the boyfriend normally takes his tea. Since it’s something I want to kind of surprise him with, I thought it was important that I taste it the same way that he’ll be tasting it. Which is with added cane sugar, and lots of milk. Not my normal tea drinking method, but oh well…

- Overall, this does have the sweetness and comforting quality I wanted
- And the flavour kind of builds as you sip
- Which fits with the idea of a shock “rising” through your body
- It’s quite licorice-y though, from the anise/fennel: more than anticipated
- It works for me because I like licorice though – not good for those who don’t
- And I’m not actually sure how the boyfriend feels about licorice…
- I actually want more cinnamon/ginger: I kind of taste the cinnamon but it’s very mild
- The blueberry is softer too with an overall sweet & gentle fruity flavour I was going for!
- I enjoy this, and I think it fairly accurately conveys what I wanted
- I just wish the fennel was a touch dialed back

Tea Press Sipdown (332)!

Finished off with a bit of honey, because my coworker was a forgetful idiot who let this steep for like ten minutes which was just… no. So, the honey was a needed addition to balance out that bit of bitterness. Otherwise it was delightful lemony marzipan.

(Normally I wouldn’t care if a coworker messed up a tea, but this IS Butiki we’re talking about…)

I think I need a moment…

I’m not sure what I did differently, but last time I made this one as an iced tea is was severely weak/watered down tasting and really disappointing…

Only plus was eating the fruit bits out of the steeped up leaf.

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, in my tea press.

Speaking purely to the store I work at, this has by far been the standout favourite of the three citrus teas from the Freshly Squeezed collection this summer. I remember feeling a little underwhelmed by it myself when I first tried it, but I haven’t really revisited it at all since initially trying it and it’s so popular that I thought I’d give it another go just to reassess my original thoughts…

I actually made this one to the specifications of another coworker who’s REALLY in love with it. She drinks it this way at least every other shift, so I figured if it’s good enough for her to keep coming back to it I should probably give it a shot. So here’s what she does:

Two perfect spoons of tea leaf, steeped at the normal temperature in the normal water amount. However, instead of four minutes she lets it steep for six and to sweetened it she uses two matcha spoons worth of the strawberry kiwi cocktail sugar from earlier in the summer…

Personally, I actually really liked the addition of the cocktail sugar. I was a bit skeptical it would be too sweet at first but I think it really amps up the strawberry notes overall, and the kiwi is really complimentary to (obviously) the strawberry, but the lemon as well. The fact it compliments the lemon isn’t surprising though – Kiwi’s Big Adventure was a PHENOMENAL green tea and it was basically kiwi/lemon.

However the tea itself…

Again, I don’t find it bad. I just find the flavour combination really underwhelming/run of the mill. Maybe it’s because I’ve just tried so many teas at this point, that this is like my sixth or seventh berry lemonade tea. So, it makes sense I’d be a touch more critical – right? The lemon itself is still so light/watery though – even with the extra steep time! I want more overall body, and a bright citrus flavour that’s going to slap me, from the inside out as I take a sip. This is… almost gentle.

And overall it’s just the gentleness that really, really leaves me going “meh”. I mean, that TOTALLY works for some people – obviously. It’s been super popular, so clearly I’m the minority. It’s just not quite what I wanted out of it, is all.

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.

This one was… alright.

I currently have a cold brew of it going in the fridge, and I’ll be honest I’m a lot more excited for that than I was for this hot cup of it. I do think the company description of “tart and tangy” is pretty dead on, though. It’s just that was almost all it was? Like, a STRONG flavour of the rooibos base and a whole lot of sour hibiscus and apple notes. Nothing in it really reminded me of tropical fruits or fruit punch.

I mean, if that’s what you’re going to name your tea after you need to nail at least ONE of those elements, right!?

Iced.

I didn’t like this one as much this time around, but I didn’t dislike it. I just thought it was a lot less fruity/watermelon flavoured this time around and a whole lot more weighted towards the honeybush in the blend – quite woody with the honey graham sort of flavour and then followed up with vanilla, rose, and LIGHT watered down melon notes. In a perfect world, I’d like to see the same flavours (maybe a bit more melon) but just in the reverse flavour order. Oh well…