16396 Tasting Notes
Iced Sipdown (333)!
Yeah, I’m still REALLY enjoying this one. I finished it off at work, with a splash of milk to boost the creaminess/float aspect. I also gave it an extra long steep time, to leech out as much of that root beer goodness as possible.
Many thanks to VariaTea for passing along more of this in my direction in the first place; I enjoyed it a lot the first time, and she’s been way too kind in sending me more.
Root Beer teas are just the best, and there’s a special place in my heart for rooibos/honeybush based ones as well. This one does a great job of having a really clear/well defined root beer flavour and I really, really like that it’s sweet but not sugary because that’s how I think a good root beer should taste anyway! Plus, the hint of vanilla in here really brings it to life as a “float” tea, and milk just pushes it over the edge with creaminess both in flavour and mouthfeel. I can taste the base a bit; it’s a little honeyed and just a bit woody, and in this particular case those notes work well with the root beer/sasparilla to create a more layered/nuanced flavour that doesn’t feel any less accurate.
I’d definitely buy this one myself; the problem is less an “if” I’m going to buy it and more of a “when” am I going to buy it – I’ve been really trying to cut down on my tea spending because it’s very out of control at the moment…
Iced Sipdown (334)!
Made in my tea press – that bugger has been way more convenient lately than I’d like to admit. Having this tea around has been interesting: I’ve really never settled on whether or not I actually enjoy it. Which I really would have hoped to, by now. Especially given how many times I’ve tried it…
Today’s iced cup was easy enough to finish, and not unpleasant – just also not really relaxing/satisfying. I mean, it’s basically just a super nutty mix of almond and peanut flavour with a strange, sour strawberry/hibiscus note. – and I get that IS kind of what PB&J is, so it’s on the money at least flavour wise. It just doesn’t fully translate as a workable tea flavour to me. I had the same issue with 52Tea’s PB&J tea too…
Yeah; I’m confidant I wouldn’t buy this one again – but it’s not right to say that having it around was a bad experience. It IS satisfying to be sipping it down, though.
Tea Press!
To be completely honest, I had kind of forgotten about this tea. However, I was looking for something I could make in the tea press to bring with to work and I found the sample bag of this one and figured, why not?
It tasted really nice, but was quite light as well. I think this might just be one of those teas that’s a little too delicate overall to really be well executed in the tea press. However, I appreciated the mild, gentle smoothness of the grassy green tea, and the nuanced floral and dewy pear notes! I really, really like pear teas and this one feels like pear tea that’s been stripped down to the bare minimum. Not in a bad way, but it’s just a very light/pure ‘essence of pear’ kind of flavour.
Good for quite, peaceful tea drinking and reflection.
This was my first cup of tea this morning,
I wanted something with a decent amount of caffeine so I chose a black tea but I also wanted a softer, mild flavour – and the medium bodied, creamy smooth profile of this tea definitely checks off that box too. The white chocolate is very smooth, and while it does make the liquor a little oily I’m personally ok with that trade off if it means I get to enjoy that rich, silky flavour. I also had a lot of rose buds in the leaf I measured out today – so it’s very floral and rose heavy. Not that I mind that at all, it’s actually a really nice way to softly ease into my day so it’s a work day (hence the need for more caffeine) but one where I don’t actually begin until the very start of the afternoon. I get the best of both worlds, as far as morning teas are concerned!
Oh! I also added a bit of milk; not so much for flavour but more to tone down a bit of the oilyness, and make it a little bit thicker/richer mouthfeel wise. This is already a very creamy tea flavour wise, so it doesn’t change much in that regard.
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 (332)!
That moment when you almost kill your boyfriend by offering him some of your tea to drink; your tea that has apple in it, something he’s SUPER allergic to…
But I remembered at the last minute, so it’s all good.
It feels good to finally be finishing this matcha off though, since it’s one I’ve definitely not been the worlds biggest fan of. This last time, I had it whisked into straight unsweetened cashew milk, and then I just tossed in some ice cubes into the travel thermos, to keep it cool. It’s still REALLY artificial/chemical tasting, but the nuttyness and creamyness of the milk tone down that funky apple flavour quite a bit and play up some of the other pie elements, like the crust.
I just ordered a few more flavours of matcha, so fingers crossed they work out a little better for me than this one did…
First time trying this one hot was last week; I didn’t add any lemon juice to it either to do the colour changing thing – I just wanted to enjoy it for its brilliant blue/indigo colour.
The more I drink this one, I think the less raspberry like it tastes to me? I mean, it doesn’t taste bad but I feel like I’m really honing into the blueberry/bilberry flavours over the raspberry. I do like blueberry a lot though, and bilberry fruit is really similar to that in flavour as well. Also, I still personally found it pretty light but I have to say that the stevia in this one is TOTALLY more noticeable as a hot brew over an iced one…
Something for non-stevia lovers to keep in mind.
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)!
My sipdown game has really degraded over the last year…
So, this time around I tried this one as a hot tea which I think is probably how it was ultimately intended to be consumed anyway. Personally? I’m still not in love with this one. I mean, I think this sort of transitional time period where it’s going from summer to fall is the perfect time for a flavour like this but it still felt a bit underwhelming.
What it really boils down to, for me anyway, is just an overall lack of fruity elements. I wanted so much more of both the cranberry and the apple but overall I thought this was much more of a cinnamon/allspice flavour with hints of apple, and hardly any cranberry at all despite some SUPER SIZABLE dehydrated cranberries in the dry leaf. Like, I think there were four cranberries in this last cup worth of leaf, and I still really only felt like I was getting glimpses of the cranberry flavour. Really fleeting ones.
It’s not a bad tea! Just not what I thought that it would be…
Super glad I decided to get more of this one, because I made it in my tea press the other day to bring with to work and I liked it just as much as I did the first time!
It reminds me a lot of pistachio pudding, with the initial flavour. It’s sweet, and creamy/nutty. I think the black base also really nicely bonds with the flavour of the pistachio as well and it’s during this portion of the sip and flavour profile that I notice the base the most. The rest of the flavour is great too though, and the body to me has more of that sweet, dark cherry flavour. I know that there isn’t cranberry in here, but I still kind of taste cranberry notes alongside the cherry. It’s just like the flicker of tartness and then all that juicy red fruit flavour…
I don’t think I noticed the lemongrass as much my first time drinking this as I did with this steeping – it was really present in the finish of the sip. I’m kind of meh about lemongrass generally speaking; I can do it paired with other flavours but on its own I just don’t love the taste. It as a little strong for me here, but since it was paired with the cherry notes I didn’t find it unpleasant. It was the weak point in the flavour for me, though.
Still – I’m very happy with this tea, in particular just how brilliantly the pistachio flavour comes across! It’s very natural, and smooth and it just works well with everything else. It also just adds so much character to overall flavour. Anyone can do a lemon/cherry mix; that’s not exciting or creative. Pistachio though? That takes this to a different level.
There need to be more pistachio teas in the world.
Matcha Milkshake!
So, this one I decided to switch things up and instead of using the vanilla gelato I’ve been using lately, I went with a lemon flavoured frozen yogurt! I still used the same ratio of milk and ice cubes, but I thought the added flavour of the lemon might be really nice with the kiwi!
And it was! I got both of the two flavours, and it was this lovely bright but still really creamy mix of the two. I mean, it’s hard to describe it past ‘lemon and kiwi’ because that’s just… what it was. The level of sweetness was good though, and while it wasn’t the worlds most natural kiwi flavour (kind of had a candy quality to it) I think it was very well balanced with everything else!
I’d make it again, for sure.
This is a queued tasting note.
Made this one in my tea press the other night – I wanted something caffeine free to sip on, but not fruity. This is a really good option for that. I also find it hard to believe I’ve only drank this two other times before now! I feel like I’ve had it for so much longer/ drank so much more of it than that. Huh…
Recently I had a Carrot Cake tea from Tickled Tea though, and I have to say that of the two this is the one that I prefer. The spice elements just seem more balanced, I can actually taste the carrot notes, and the coconut is just such a nice element that brings a lovely sweetness to the overall profile that I just felt was lacking in Tickled Tea’s version. Of course, I do think that the carrot flavour in this tea could totally be stronger and both teas lacked the ‘cream cheese frosting’ that I think is such an essential part of Carrot Cake. So, there is room for improvement.
It’s still such a lovely flavour though – and really fitting now that it’s getting to be autumn.
