16396 Tasting Notes
The other fancy schmancy sachet option I got in this DF order…
I forgot to mention this with my ‘Cola’ review but the two came together in this very cute box, and are market as more kid friendly tea options which I think is pretty cool. Closest thing to a ‘kid’ I have in my life is my little sister, who is about to turn thirteen. Honestly? I think maybe she’d be into this tea but I know the cola one definitely would NOT appeal to her at all. Her thing, generally speaking, is more sweet/sugary vanilla or chocolate teas, with a special place in her heart for cake teas.
Here are my notes, though:
- VERY sweet; but that should be a given for a tea inspired by what is basically syrup
- “Fruit” syrup, sure… but still syrup
- It actually DOES taste like pomegranate/grenadine BUT with some citrus to it
- And maybe a smidge of apple?
- I like it, but it definitely wouldn’t work as an every day tea
- Not without cutting it with something else to make it more mellow, anyway
- HOWEVER if I was craving something sweet? Hell yes!
I totally see why this might appeal to kids.
Nabbed this one because I thought it might be nice to have some higher quality sachets in my cupboard for travel purposes – plus, this one is a decaf black which is always nice to have around AND it’s a more unique flavour.
All good things.
- Dry leaf/sachet smells like cola balls!
- Kind of light/mild in flavour though
- With a bitter quality
- I do appreciate that it’s decaf, though!
- I think it’s probably the same decaf cola tea they carried years ago but rebranded
I’ve been curious about this one for a LONG time; eventually I just had to breakdown, cave in and order it – and of course a whole bunch of other things too. I couldn’t wait to try it, so when it showed up I steeped it up that same day!
- A little bit astringent; not overly so
- Has a very mellow ‘mandarin orange’ flavour that comprises the bulk of the sip
- With some lemony/yuzu undertones to it
- Light, bitter peach notes and floral finishes as well
- Light to medium bodied overall
- Quite interesting; still on the fence about whether or not I really liked it
Gonna hold off on rating it, for now.
Maybe it’s the tea version of stockholm syndrome; but the more I drink this one the more I actually like it. It didn’t originally taste very fruit punch like to me, but now? Yeah, totally picking up some sweet fruity notes. In particular the mango.
I think a rating increase is in order.
There we go; up 18 points from the 50 rating it was at. Still not mind blowing, but totally moving from bad to… average?
Iced with milk.
It’s really seaweed heavy this time around. I’ve finally kind of pinpointed that it’s the seaweed that’s the cause of that weird sort of powdery mouthfeel thing this has going on. I had sort of guess it might be, but this time around I payed a lot more attention to the amount of seaweed in the leaf I measured out in correlation with that mouthfeel thing. Definitely seems to be a tie in.
Also lots of sweet spearmint too though. My coworkers were pretty into this one.
Iced.
I always forget that this is like 85% pineapple and cranberry because when you steep it up those two flavours combine into something that’s just so sweet, and well merged together that it just becomes like this sort of beautiful, refreshing tropical candy kind of taste. Neither pineapple OR cranberry, but also still both…
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 cup was a lot more floral than I’ve experienced with the last two; tons and tons of strong, heady elderflower notes. Not that the black currant was absent; just more of a jammy undertone to compliment the rich floral body.
I like this one a lot.
While I definitely like the other teas I’ve had from this company, I do think that this is the only one I’d legitimately consider purchasing again – though honestly, I wasn’t even the one who purchased it for me in the first place. Point still stands.
- Strong stevia flavour
- Sweeter berry top notes; jammy blueberry/elderberry
- More of a tart/sour finish with some LIGHT astringency
- Can’t taste the black tea base at all!?
- There’s something weirdly familiar about this but I’m struggling to place it
- Overall I don’t mind it but it’s not that exciting either
Cuppa tea from this morning.
I was pretty excited for this one; banana black teas tend to treat me well so seeing this as an option on Tickled Tea’s site definitely made me curious. I was a little disappointed to see it was a CTC blend though – I can just imagine how tannic/strong it’ll likely be. Interestingly, the base doesn’t wind up being my biggest complaint overall. Mostly, I was disappointed by the fact that this is actually wildly oily mouthfeel wise. I don’t know what the cause is; but its a major oil slick! Gross…
The taste isn’t terrible though: it IS very full bodied with a lot of black tea base but the base it very malty and bread-y and that only makes the “bread” aspect of the title/flavour profile feel more put together and accurate. I get some nutty notes poking though; sweeter ones, but not distinctly walnut. I also feel like I’m getting some hints of cinnamon and banana in the undertones. Personally, I don’t think that for a tea named Banana Bread the banana should be an _under_tone but what can you do?
So yeah – not the most amazing tea ever; there’s some mouthfeel weirdness and I don’t think the banana is strong enough but the rest is pretty decent. Overall, it’s average and drinkable. Maybe forgettable?
Hot with milk.
I feel like I’ve been experimenting with this one a little more than I have with the other straight teas I’ve gotten from August Uncommon. It’s not that there’s anything I dislike about this one, I just feel like I’ve yet to find a way where it just tastes really good or stands out as ‘amazing’.
Milk was a little weird with the flavour profile of this one. It did give more overall body to the mouthfeel, which was pleasant but that extra creaminess over top that range of spice notes in the tea (cinnamon, cumin, basil, allspice) was kind of weird and didn’t work terribly well. It wasn’t bad either; just kind of average or ‘just there’. I did pick up some light cocoa notes though, and milk was complimentary in the case of those notes in particular…
I don’t know – I still feel kind of ‘meh’ about this tea overall/as a whole.
