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Iced.

This one definitely still isn’t my favourite; and I can’t help but mentally break it down into all the contributing ingredients everytime I drink it rather than taste it as one ‘whole’ flavour. Apple, honeydew, and carrot. Lots of carrot. That said, now that it’s getting much hotter out I feel like I have more of an appreciation for it as an iced drink, and while it’s still carrot heavy to me, the melon has this tangyness that I don’t get from our melon teas that I do really appreciate/enjoy.

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 is definitely one of those teas that has very quickly become a regular thing in my cupboard/stash – it’s hardcore one of my summer jamss/go to iced teas for the year. You can definitely tell too; customers will come in to the store and ask what I like iced and I’m immediately whipping out either this or Orange Passionfruit.

Just… Passionfruit!

The flavour is so good, and bright! It’s full of like, and strikes the perfect balances between sweet, ‘juices dripping down you chin’ good and lightly mouth puckering, sour/acidic tropical fruit notes. I bought 70g of this originally, but if I’m being honest with myself I think I’m going to need to nab another 70g before summer’s out.

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 (286)!

Thanks for the sample VariaTea! I’m not really a big chamomile person, but I’ll try anything at least once.

- So, it’s exactly like described/advertised…
- And for many that would be great BUT personally I hated it
- However I also hate chamomile so clearly I have a huge bias
- The lemon was nice, though!
- I had to add SO MUCH honey for this to be drinkable…

So not for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s not for others. Not rating, because it likely wouldn’t be totally fair…

Find yourself a guy who’ll sit aside with you, watch the stars, and write dirty haikus.

Did you know ancient Greece was hella gay? I mean, also hella straight, too. Basically everyone was having sex – it was a very sexually open culture. This is kind of an inside joke between the not-boyfriend and I. Someone will mention Greece and then the other will say something about Socrates getting blowjobs from Greece’s ‘top twinks’. Because even Socrates probably enjoyed a good blowjob.

I mention this, because the other night we were sitting outside drinking tea and he said something corny and poetic like “I imagine the way the moon looks tonight it exactly as beautiful as what it looked like back in ancient Greece”. To which I, equally poetically, responded with this beautiful haiku:

Blowjobs in moonlight
Lips lap up waves of seafoam
Aphrodite born

Which prompted a whole massive string of dirty haikus. It was pretty great.

Anyway – the tea! It was also pretty good. I haven’t really looked it up, but I’m just guessing it’s probably 1st flush because it had the generous malt and floral notes of a 1st flush and none of the muscatel quality that 2nd flush has. I did really enjoy it, though! It was medium bodied and quite smooth. Not the worlds most nuanced, but that’s not always necessary to have appreciation for a tea.

Custom Tea Creation 2/5.

Ok, so there’s this guy I’m sort of seeing but not in any sort of formal or official sense of the word. Anyway; he’s great – and I’m really enjoying the progression of whatever this currently is for what it is, and at its own pace. We have this thing we say, whenever we disagree on something: “We Are Obsidian”.

The idea is that obsidian is made when lava and water meet; two opposites coming together to form something beautiful…

Originally I was going to let him create this blend, and have this be the name but I was trying to get him to pick the ingredients without letting him know what for – and it wasn’t working so well. He can’t taste/smell that much; maybe at 20% of what the average person can. So, every time I was like “Hey, if you could make your own tea what would you want in it?” he’d just reply with “Would it make a difference? I likely couldn’t taste many of the nuances of different flavours”. So I just ended up picking the blend instead.

I didn’t plan this one out the same way I did with some of the others; however, I knew I wanted to play off the idea of two dissimilar things/flavours to keep with the name so what I ended up going with was this sweeter, chocolate flavour using carob and cocoa nibs and then chocolate flavouring and something a little more tart/fruity to contrast – so cranberry and rosehip. Then, to differentiate it a bit from the other cranberry/chocolate teas I know are out there I added in clove and pumpkin spice flavour, not entirely knowing how it would work with everything overall. I picked as Assam base, because it’s sweeter/smoother and I thought those natural malt notes and general sweetness would work excellently with the chocolate.

This is really interesting steeped up.

I mean, I didn’t know exactly how it would play out in the first place but I’m really happy with what I ended up with. The top note is definitely more chocolate heavy, and I feel like I’m primarily getting the added chocolate flavours and carob as opposed to the nibs because it does have a sort of chocolate liquor kind of thing going on. It’s sweet, and more dark and decadent – kind of like a truffle?

The body flavour is definitely the intersection of all the flavours overall: you’ve got the same almost boozey dark chocolate note and then you really get hit with the clove/pumpkin spice. It’s weird to me, because normally I actually don’t love pumpkin spice but there’s like this earthyness to it that works with the chocolate and I kind of feel like I’m tasting the pumpkin itself to and not just the spices. Plus, I do really love clove so the fact it’s more clove heavy overall because I added straight clove to the blend just works for me. In fact; I generally don’t adore chocolate teas or spice teas but the combination here is very “pumpkin spice truffle” to me in a way that I’m really enthralled with. This body note also features the cranberry as well: and this to me is the most interesting part. I think what I expected was more of a contrasting tartness, but what’s actually ended up happening is that the cranberry is more of a sneaky, sweet fruity undertone that adds like this really beautiful layer of fruityness. It plays off the chocolate really well, which I HAD expected but more interestingly it works well with the clove too!

In fact, and I guess in hindsight I could have called this, it really paints this VERY autumnal picture with all of these flavour notes that I actually quite strongly associate with the fall/Thanksgiving/the change of seasons in general. It’s REALLY beautiful and well layered.

Finally, the finish definitely takes more of a shift towards the pumpkin spice/clove element and you finish the sip with that soft, sweet warming spice note and hints of brightness from the cranberry.

I didn’t expected to love this one as much as I did, but it really works for me. It does make me a little sad though, because I 100% want to share a cup of it with the not-boyfriend, but like he kind of predicted I’m fairly sure he’s not going to be able to identify the nuances of the blend the same way I do and so I worry he wont have as strong an appreciation for it. Fingers crossed, though!

Anyway; two for two success rate with these custom blends! This is another that I would actually probably buy again; though probably not until the fall/winter since that seems to be what it really evokes to me flavour wise.

So, I’m really excited to write about this one guys!

The other day I stumbled upon BlendBee – they do a monthly subscription service that looks interesting, but personally what I found even more interesting is that they also let you custom blend your own teas! Now, having done this through Design A Tea a while back I can tell immediately that there are some differences: for one, this is definitely more expensive however you also get to add ingredients like herbs/spices/flowers/fruits/and not just flavourings to your blend which is also different and lets you go a bit further/more detailed into the blending process. Then finally, as an added touch you can name your blend and come up with your own description of the blend to be printed onto the pouch. To me, this part was almost as fun as creating the blends themselves. Plus, the packaging is really cute and the added touch of seeing my custom names/descriptions printed out is awfully cute.

I ended up making five blends, and if they end up tasting solid enough/the quality is up there then I can definitely see the experience of making your own tea 100% justifying the somewhat higher price tag that comes attached.

So – this is a blend idea I’ve had kicking around for a LONG time. I named it Daughter of Satyrs because Satyrs are mythological, forest dwelling creatures and I thought the “daughter” aspect added a softness that personally I thought fit the sweetness I was hoping the berries would add. The blend itself is a mix of lots of berries, but probably most importantly the juniper berries, which have a pine quality that makes me think of nature/forests, and wild berry flavouring. In addition to the berries, I also added various herbs that have pine-like notes to them and some sage to evoke the feeling of trees and some mint for that refreshing, cooling finish that is like a crisp, cool breeze. It should feel very natural and forest-y while having this brightness/sweetness to it that gives off an almost enchanted quality. Like a forest filled with Greek mythological creatures. Personally, I’ve always pictured it on a Shou Pu’erh base because I think the strong earthyness would support the flavours I want and work well with the overall idea that this should feel like a walk through a forest – but Pu’erh isn’t a base option on Blendbee so I went with a black tea base which is the next best option.

Honestly? This is pretty much EXACTLY what I was going for.

I was worried with the amount of berry in the dry leaf, and the fact that the three flavourings I picked were also berries that element of the blend might overtake the rest of it but I think everything plays out really nicely! The berry is certainly the first note you taste – it’s a sweet, jammy and seductive top note that transitions into the body of the sip. It’s a really raw, and dark sort of mixed berry flavours: you know, on the side of acai, blueberry, juniper, elderberries and then black currant but without the brightness of stuff like strawberry or raspberry. If that makes any sort of sense at all. I feel like I really taste the juniper, blueberry, and currant in particular.

The body also has a lot of those forest-y notes I wanted: plenty of pine and hints of the herbaceous sage coming through with that undertone of super refreshing/cooling peppermint. I find it very refreshing, and I love the soft cooling sensation of the peppermint on the bed of my tongue. The peppermint itself transitions well into the finish of the sip as well, and you get not just the feeling of the peppermint but the taste of it as well.

It was really cool to see this creation finally played out because I’ve wanted a blend like this for… honestly? Definitely over a year. Even without the pu’erh base I always imagined it’d have, this was super satisfying and definitely took me out of my living room where I was drinking it and really placed me outdoors surrounded by trees and wild berries. If I didn’t know better, I’d ever say I’d seen a bear walk by me as I was taking the last few sips.

…Or was it a centaur? Hmm.

Blendbee offers their teas in 1 oz sizes (what I got for all my blends), 4 oz sizes, and 8 oz sizes – while I don’t think I’d ever personally want an 8 oz amount of ANYTHING I do think I could maybe see myself ordering 4 oz of this if the rest of my sample is as refreshing and enchanting as my first cup. 2 oz would be perfect for me though, in an ideal world.

It was well worth the money, for this one, seeing my vision carried out.

…So apparently I’ve never written a review on this one before.

I’ve probably had it like a dozen times; I tried it when it originally came out as a winter tea and then this Christmas it was CONSTANTLY around because it was one of the winter teas when I first started at DT as a seasonal. I think this must be a case of “I always assumed I’d tried it and written about it, so I never did again”.

So I guess to quickly recap the last dozen or so times I’ve had it in the past:

I don’t generally like it; the almond is WAY too intense to the point where it’s both cloying, artificial, and chemical tasting all at once with a weird underlying alcohol kind of quality. Like basically, it’s bad amaretto. With a stupid green tea base.

So, why am I drinking it now? Well, curiosity really. I found a single cup worth of it in my mom’s tea stash from when it was originally released. That was like three years ago? Or something like that. Maybe two? Anyway – it’s OLD. So I asked if I could steep it because I wanted to see how the age had effected it.

Honestly? I think it’s better. I mean, still gross but the intensity of the almond and that gross alcoholic kind of quality has faded substantially which makes it smoother/more tolerable to me. Downside? Less almond flavour covering up the base means it’s especially grassy tasting. So that’s a bit of a trade off.

Eh; still not a fan. Interesting experiment though!

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 Tea Sipdown (274)!

So, I hadn’t originally planned to drink this one today but after an exchange with VariaTea I decided today was as good a day as any to bust it out and see what my thoughts were. It’s very hot in the house today, so I went with an iced cup. The exchange between VariaTea and myself was interesting: this tea tasted like cheese to her and that really through her off, and I was of course morbidly curious whether it’d tasted like cheese to me hence the expedited steeping of it.

So… bottom line I don’t think this one really screams cheese to me. In fact, I doubt I’d have pinpointed any of the flavour as cheese if the idea hadn’t already been planted in my head. That said, I there were moments where I was like “well, kind of…” and I can definitely see where she was coming from.

Like, I smelled both the dry leaf AND steeped leaf after the infusion had been strained out actually kind of did smell sort of cheese like – however neither me nor my whole family got the flavour of cheese from the steeped tea liquor itself. Mostly, everyone agreed it was a sweet strawberry flavour. Personally, I also thought it was a touch apple-y and had a bit of a tart kind of rhubarb/hibiscus thing going on too. Also, a little creamy from the melted down white chocolate. It didn’t perfectly melt though; I could see little strands of it floating in the liquor which was a bit gross.

Now, it’s a bit of a stretch but with the creaminess of the white chocolate combined with the strawberry I can sort of put together the overall flavour of, like, strawberry cheesecake? And so in that way you COULD say this tastes like cheese? I think it must probably be the white chocolate in the blend that was being weird for VariaTea though. What else would it be!?

Bottom line – I thought this was pretty nice, but there was a little weirdness to it and it is my biggest miss from Tickled Tea thus far. Still drinkable, though!

Iced, with milk and lots of added coconut sugar because that’s just what I was craving.

Normally, I really strongly get apricot from this but for once this didn’t taste like apricot at all to me. It was obviously coconut heavy from all the flavoured coconut sugar but the rest of it was surprisingly lemony with hints of pineapple. Very, very creamy lemon and pineapple – but still. I also tasted a lot of grassyness and ginkgo!

I didn’t love, didn’t hate it – and it worked for its intended purpose: something smooth, creamy, sweet and very refreshing for the hot ass day.

Iced.

We had a big staff meeting/pizza party the other night and I decided it might be a nice opportunity to bring a tea with me to make a pitcher of for the whole staff to try out. I chose this one because it’s fruity, and doesn’t have anything in it that our staff is allergic to. I just had a hunch it’d go over well.

I’d say it had a pretty good success rate – of the about eight or nine people who tried it only one said they weren’t really a fan, citing the rooibos/honeybush flavour as being too strong from them to really enjoy it. Totally fair.

My favourite comment, which I have to agree with, was made by my colleague Sarah who said it tasted like a melted down slurpee, just with less sugar. Yeah, I totally get that! A kiwi slurpee for sure, but yes that totally clicks for me.

Only a cup or two left for myself now; making a pitcher used a lot of leaf. It was worth it though for the big group share!