16396 Tasting Notes
Cold Brew!
Sipped on this one while dying my hair; still not sure if I’m happy with the colour I wound up with. It’s very blonde, and a little too coppery for what I wanted. I was hoping for something softer…
The tea was lovely though; a nice combination of sweet, earthy notes, carrot, and mild warming spice from the turmeric with a soft pop of juicyness from the pineapple notes in the finish. I really, really enjoy that this is so unique, and that is offers earthiness in a very different way than you’d be getting from most other teas.
I actually was almost through my skinny tin of this one already too, and I was super ready to be heart broken about that – but we found a few more skinny tins in our back room, and of course I had to buy them. So, now I should be stocked up for quite a while! Hooray!
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 (335)!
I’ve had this one before, in past DF orders so this time around I decided to do something a little more different with the sachet. I steeped her up like normal, and then topped with a splash of Bailey’s. It was a nice mix, because this is still a full bodied and brisk enough tea that the rich maltyness, and raisin notes came through and weren’t drowned out by the strong, boozey taste of the Irish Cream.
Very tasty nightcap, if I do say so myself. Also an easy sipdown.
So, I’ll be honest when I grabbed this one I was definitely 100% hoping it would be comparable to Butiki’s Watermelon Xylophone blend which was so beloved here on Steepster, and which was a personal favourite of mine as well.
Now – I didn’t expect it to be the same. That would just been too high of an expectation to put on this tea, and Anne in general. However, similar? That would have been great!
You know what though? When I cracked open the fresh bag of this one, the smell was EXACTLY like the fresh, soft and slightly creamy watermelon notes in Butiki’s fantastic blend! I could close me eyes, take a BIG whiff and I swear it would be indistinguishable. I was suddenly infinitely more excited about this tea…
The taste of the steeped tea is actually fairly similar too – the watermelon notes in this tea and Butiki’s feel like they could be the exact same thing, though considering my last experiences with Butiki’s blend were finishing off some very old leaf this blend has a lot more freshness to it, in regard to flavour. It’s not just watermelon though, and I think it’s important to remember that – because if you go into drinking this tea expecting an exact Butiki replicate you’ll be disappointed. The flavour of papaya is definitely present, and while I often consider papaya to be a very mild/weak flavour I think it’s just as strong as the sweet, juicy watermelon notes. I think the pairing works well though, and it gives it this really light, unimposing tropical spin.
Another difference is that the white base for this tea isn’t just silver needle – so it’s a little less delicate than a Silver Needle base would have been. More of as assertive hay flavour, for sure. Still really pleasant though! Has a soft cream to it, and some peachy elements.
Overall, I like this one a lot! I think it does satisfy the part of me that was just looking for a Butiki replacement, but it’s also a great stand alone tea blend too. I’m very glad I took the gamble and got a larger size of this one.
Cold Brew Sipdown (336)!
Kind of glad to be done with this one, to be honest.
There’s actually nothing wrong with it – this is just one of those cases where I’ve drank so much that I’ve grown tired of the flavour. This last cold brew, I found myself critiquing the little things that normally don’t bother me way more than I should have been. Too floral, too much hibiscus…
It does feel good to sipdown something that wasn’t originally just a sample, though!
So, I admittedly lost my shit when I found out we were getting a new pear tea.
I fucking LOVE pear teas; and DAVIDsTEA has yet to come up with a pear flavour tea that I haven’t liked. In fact, my favourite tea to EVER come out of DT is Cranberry Pear. Plus, a herbal pear!? That sounds like a great idea, and definitely different from any pear blends the company has done in the last few years…
Tried this one first iced; instantly fell in love. The flavour is really supple and dewy, and I very much love that it’s mellow and not overly sweet. I think it really tastes like ripe Bartlett Pears, complete with subtle creaminess and floral undertones. Of course, the floral undertones are only further drawn out by sunflower as well. I do find it interesting that it strikingly resembles Bartletts to me though, since DT actually specifically says that this is Anjou pear – I guess I just associate that floral flavour more so with the former? Both have a creaminess to them, though.
I also like that while this is mostly pear flavour it’s not JUST pear. While I get a sense of pineapple and apple flavour, the main “accompanying” flavour note for me is the peach. It’s also pretty dewy tasting, but it has a similar ripeness that the pear notes are giving off, and the addition of a stonefruit taste is a nice touch. I also sort of associate peach with the transition from summer to autumn as well (think like peach pies/cobblers) so maybe part of why I’m latching onto the peach more so has to do with the fact it strengthens the idea of this tea as a “Harvest” flavour for me.
I’ve heard others comment on how they noticed the papaya right away; but for me? That just wasn’t the case. I mean, papaya has never really been a fruit that I’ve found overly flavourful though – so I think in this blend it just hides really well among the other fruit notes. Also! The stevia wasn’t an issue for me: I didn’t notice it at all. Now, to be fair I am a little hot/cold when it comes to stevia. I find that unless it’s just REALLY heavy handed, I don’t taste it at all. So, maybe others would notice it but I found it completely not problematic.
I 100% bought this one – it’s easily my favourite new one.
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.
New Collection!
This last year, I’ve been pretty excited for most of the collections that have come out. However, I think this collection is probably the one I’ve been most fascinated by thus far: the variety of ingredients/flavours is just really interesting to me and I think there’s a lot going on with many of these herbal blends in particular that separates them from the other herbal teas to come out this year.
For my first round of tasting, I tried all of the teas iced in store with our staff. I kind of like staff tastings a lot, because you get a lot of really interesting and often different observations from everyone that I don’t think you’d necessarily get otherwise. From the perspective of someone who works at DAVIDsTEA it’s good professionally because it gives you more to talk about with customers because you can draw from not just your own tastes but the tastes of others. But also, it broadens what I’m able to taste myself.
Like, many of our staff were a little thrown by the idea of rosemary in a tea blend – but I LOVE teas with savory elements, and for me it wasn’t that weird so I got to share my experience with savory teas with the rest of our staff, and I think that was beneficial for them. Personally, I actually wanted MORE rosemary flavour: while it was present, I thought it was actually very light compared to the rest of the flavour. It’s certainly a nice touch, though – adds an interesting/unique element and gives this a quality that REALLY separates it from DTs other strawberry teas.
And speaking of the strawberry: it’s nice! I found it a little sweet, honestly but the vibrancy is great and I think it’s a really juicy flavour overall. A coworker actually pointed out that it’s really similar to the strawberry flavour in Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait and I think that’s definitely true – the key difference, for me, is just that it’s A LOT less tart. I definitely prefer that. Finally, there’s a very interesting creaminess to the blend. Now, normally I don’t like the artificial vanilla flavour that DT likes to use, but this time around I didn’t mind it at all.
I think the difference MAY be that it’s not just artificial vanilla flavour though; it’s a combination of vanilla pods and then natural and artificial flavours. Anyway; something was different for me. I liked that it was more a part of the undertone of the flavour too: start off with sweet, juicy strawberry and apple notes and then transition into more of a strawberries and cream/campino candy kind of flavour. It flowed nicely, for me at least.
Overall? This wasn’t my favourite or least favourite tea from this collection. I did like it enough/have enough curiosity to buy the sachet version of it though. I have enough loose leaf right now; but not many decent sachet options so I thought that this was something that I wouldn’t mind having around as a sachet…
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.
I love this tea!
…but with all of the many herbal teas that have come out this year I feel like I’ve really neglected this tea, both in my personal stash and at work. So, the other day I decided to make myself an iced tea. On the advice of a coworker, I let it steep a good half hour before straining it.
I don’t know that I like it better with the extended steep time but I certainly didn’t like it any less. It was definitely different: a little tarter, and it packs more of a punch flavour wise. Like, there’s NO subtlety to it. It reminds me strongly of peach puree. I liked it a lot; but more than anything else it made me want to find a way to incorporate that into a cocktail. That strong level of peach flavour/vibrancy!? Yeah, that would be a GREAT cocktail addition.
Muddled peaches, iced Just Peachy, vodka, lemon juice, and triple sec…
Yes please.
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.
Had a mug of this earlier in the week; I had honestly kind of forgotten I still had this one kicking around…
I think I enjoyed it more the first time I had it; this time I thought it was just VERY ‘generic green tea’ tasting and really forgettable. Like, I was actively trying to make observations about the flavour as I was drinking it and I felt like as quickly as I was finishing the sips I was losing a sense of the flavour. I mean, in my case forgettable green tea is better than green tea that’s memorable for being unpleasant tasting…
Very, very meh/forgettable.
Iced, at work.
I’m just trying to sip this one down right now; I don’t really enjoy it so there’s zero point in hoarding it at all. Iced goes through the leaf pretty quickly…
On its own I found this too medicinal/cough syrupy: probably from the excess of currants in it, in combo with the hibby. I added quite a bit of the strawberry kiwi cocktail sugar we have at work to try and soften it some more, and that made it drinkable. Not really ‘good’ but alright enough. Still very currant heavy, with some elderberry and then strawberry flavours – the latter from the flavoured sugar.
Meh.
Sipdown (337)!
Thanks VariaTea for this very strangely named tea. I decided to try it blindly, and these were my thoughts:
- Very buttery; dry leaf smells like movie theater butter in a bad way
- Steeped liquor is also very buttery, but in a more pleasant way
- Like a milk oolong??
- Both with the buttery/creamy element and because of the floral elements
- Of which there are many (floral elements)
- Has a soft fruity undertone; but it’s very mild
- Kind of raspberry(ish) I suppose?
I just looked it up for the first time and all I have to say is… MANGO!?
Yeah, definitely NOT mango. That doesn’t even remotely seem accurate. Even sipping on the last bit of the mug, now knowing that it’s supposed to taste like mango it still doesn’t taste like mango…
I don’t know; overall this wasn’t bad. It was weird though, for sure. I think regardless of whether it accurately conveys the fruit flavour it wants to, it’s just a little bit too buttery tasting for me to really get into it.
