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Iced Tea!

…but a bad one.

I want to really like this one; but something about it doesn’t sit super well for me and I think it’s very fickle overall with regard to steep time. Like today I made a cup of it at work and I under leafed and only gave it two and a half minutes to steep just because I was so worried about burning the leaf. But guess what!? I still burned it.

All this tasted like was bitter, harsh notes of hay. No orange. No yuzu. I drank less than a quarter of the cup I had made for myself, and then the rest got pitched. It was very disappointing.

Iced tea.

- Very medicinal tasting; though not bitter/astringent at all
- I think the medicinal quality comes from the acai NOT the blueberry
- Jammy undertones that were nice though!
- Also pine notes that reminded me of juniper; but I don’t THINK there’s juniper in here?
- All in all… not good.

Free sample that came with my Adagio order.

This is one I certainly wouldn’t have chosen for myself, and for that reason alone I think it’s a good one to get as a free sample. It’s low risk, and challenges some of my flavour prejudices.

I brewed this one up hot and straight, and while I didn’t dislike it my initial opinion was that it was very drying, so I did add a little bit of the coconut sugar we had lying around the store to sweeten it up a bit/give it more life. While the coconut sugar didn’t change the overall flavour of the tea too much, it certainly gave this the sweetness I think it needed for it to really be enjoyable for me personally.

Dominant note was the coconut, which of course I only added to by using a coconut flavoured sugar; however, I liked that stronger coconut flavour! It’s was sweet and dessert-like but not overpowering. The body was made up of many warming spice notes, the crown jewel being cardamom. There was also lots of cinnamon/ginger though. I only wish that there had been more clove overall. The finish was a little bit lemony, but in that lemongrass way and not like actual lemons.

Overall, with the sugar, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I’m sure I’ll finish off the little sample that Adagio gave me no problem! If I had more of it, I think this would be a fun one to incorporate into some tea baking/cooking too: either in like a frosting for a sweeter touch or perhaps as part of a soup stock!? I don’t think I’d want more of it once I finish off my sample though, so I doubt I’ll end up testing either theory out.

Oh well.

Trying to put in some work drinking off older teas…

This one doesn’t taste like it’s aged at all though; which is good! I found it to be a little better once it was just above room temperature; much smoother tasting overall. Lots, and lots of bergamot flavour. I do enjoy this one as an EG, but since I don’t reach for EG often I feel like it often gets neglected a fair bit.

So I didn’t love this one the first time I had it, however I recently tried it again as a Western style mug of tea to much better success. I honestly don’t know what the difference was; I think I prepared it essentially the same way? However, this time around it tasted a lot brighter and smooth and the top and body notes were dominated by a very smooth, juicy flavour of peaches and nectarines! It was very natural and vibrant, and I was really into the nectarine notes in particular.

Like, just to give some sense of how intense/vibrant they were – had I not prepared the tea myself and seen that it was indeed a straight white tea I would have been CONVINCED that this was just a really well done nectarine flavoured white.

The finish was more like what I experienced with the last cup; very vegetal and buttery. In particular, I thought it was very brussel sprout like. I few years ago that would have been such a turn off, but my palate has changed so much in the last few years and that buttery brussel sprout flavour was actually really nice. I’m not sure that had it not been contrasted against those fruit notes I would have loved it the same way but for this cup at least it was really smooth and pleasant.

Good thick mouthfeel, too.

So my mom was recently in Edmonton, and with Teavana recently announcing their impending closure I asked her to grab me a few different teas just so I could try a few things before I ended up losing the chance to…

This was one that I saw on the website that I IMMEDIATELY wanted to try. I love blooming teas in general, but for me it’s always a huge plus when they’re not green teas since that seems to often be the case and I’m not the biggest fan of green tea. Plus pineapple! That’s like my favourite fruit. I was so all over these…

50g of blooms worked out to about eight; so I’ve got a few of these to experiment with and enjoy. For my first tasting, I just went with some Grandpa style brewing in one of my clear glass Nordic mugs since I don’t actually own a glass teapot – something I should really add to my teaware stash.

I would definitely say that I enjoyed the flavour – but I was kind of thrown by it too. While yes it certainly does have notes of pineapple there’s some other weird ones that pop up too. For example, the cup(s) had a strong overarching flavour of anise? I like anise too, but it seemed out of place and a weird match up with the pineapple too.

Other than that, this was obviously floral but actually a lot less so that I would have expected just given on past experiences with blooming teas. There was also some malt and cream notes, which I think were from the white tea used to compose the bloom. The finish was a little artificial; likely from the pineapple flavouring added to the tea.

It was a bit weird/off beat but I did enjoy it overall – and it’s nice to have some bloom teas back in my cupboard. They ARE nice for sharing with others due to how showy they can be.

Sipdown (312)!

Man, I need to crank out some sipdowns…

I grabbed a sample amount of this one because I’ve been curious for a while. I tried Butiki’s Tamarind tea but from what I can recall I didn’t love it – so that’s kind of what’s been holding me back from trying this one.

- Smells strongly of orange soda/orange candy as dry leaf
- I love the taste; it’s bright, juicy, sweet and just a little bit tangy/sour
- It reminds me a lot of candied orange
- NOT orange candy, but actual orange fruit that has been candied
- It’s more natural tasting that way, with a good degree of sweetness
- The tamarind adds a bit of sourness/tang but in a way that compliments the orange
- And meshes with it in an near seamless way
- It’s got some floral undertones and a very soft malt quality to it
- Both likely from the Darjeeling base
- The finish is a TOUCH muscatel; also likely from the Darjeeling
- I think this is WONDERFUL because it’s got the sweetness of candied orange/orange pop
- Though is very natural & has some elegance in the nuances/complimenting ingredients!

I also shared a few sips with two coworkers, and they LOVED it. To the point where I had to steal the mug back because I was actually legitmately worried they might finish it off on me…

So yeah; glad I finally nabbed a sample of this one! I mildly regret not getting more of it, but I suppose it was smarter overall not to just blindly buy a larger quantity.

So, I felt pretty sick yesterday. Really sick, actually…

It wasn’t a super tea heavy day for me because of that; I had my pitiful Gong Fu session in the morning and then LOTS of this one at work. And by a lot I mean, well…

So, we usually use one perfect spoonful of tea for a hot cup of tea. I drank three cups of this one at work yesterday, but I didn’t drink them with the normal measurement of tea leaf. Instead, I drank them at triple the tea leaf for triple the steep time. The liquor was like a green black colour, and every time my coworkers walked by they’d make a comment like “Holy hell; what is that!?” I guess it was pretty intense.

Thing is, for the first two cups I drank I couldn’t taste the tea AT ALL. The third cup though? Wow. Yeah, it tasted like liquid vapour rub.

It felt SO good though. Like, instant punch to the face with menthol – in a really good 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!

This one had the opposite problem I’ve been encountering this one as of late: instead of the cucumber being much lighter than the orange it was SUPER intense. It was kind of like drink this weird slurry of blended up cucumber and water, with like hints of orange? VERY intense; and with a thick mouthfeel. While there was no pulp to the mouthfeel of the tea, the imagery of it in my mind as i drank the tea was so intense that there might as well have been.

I mean – it was still good, and drinkable but I don’t think I was a particular fan of the intensity of the cucumber in this brew. It just didn’t feel well balanced with the rest of the tea at all. I think it was the result of my cold brew steeping for a REALLY long time, though. Gotta reign it in a little, next time…

New tea! New tea!

I was so intrigued when I saw we were releasing this tea: butterfly pea flower is SO COOL and it’s very awesome getting to talk to people about it at work constantly now. Unlike everyone else at my store specifically, I was already familiar with butterfly pea flower; this isn’t even my first tea with it. However, it’s definitely not common in the tea world, so getting to share it with so many people? So cool!

Also, this is blue raspberry flavoured! I’ve wanted a literally blue, blue raspberry tea for fucking YEARS now! So, I’m very happy to see that idea realized.

- Iced tea
- Definitely a richer/darker blue than I expected
- The other tea I’ve had with BPF had much less in it so this is a BIG difference from that
- VERY beautiful aesthetically speaking! It’s kind of indigo-y…
- With an added squeeze of lemon or some lemon juice it really DOES turn purple!
- And the more you add, the brighter it gets…
- Taste wise, it’s like a mellow raspberry/apple kind of combo?
- With some notes of bilberry, and blueberry as well for support
- With an obvious taste of fresh lemon from the lemon juice
- I think the kiwi hides in the lemon/mixes into it in a non-distinguishable way
- And some very soft floral undertones
- I don’t taste the stevia much; but it definitely is a little bit present
- It’s supposed to be “Blue Raspberry” and I do actually kind of see that overall
- I’ve wanted an blue raspberry tea that was actually blue for YEARS; I’m hella satisfied
- I hope this one sticks around for a while! It’s super cool!

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.