16393 Tasting Notes
Sipdown (279)!
Hot, and straight this time.
Consider me still in a bit a shock, because this is the first time in a long time that I’ve actually really enjoyed a Chai blend. They’re just generally NOT my forte. This one is so light and smooth though, and I greatly enjoy that it’s not really ginger heavy either. In particular, I found this last cup was more cinnamon/clove heavy and as far as the spectrum of Chai spice goes those are probably two of the ones that work the best for me. With that bit of underlying, somewhat pineapple-y, sweetness it all came together in a way that reminded me of some sort of light, airy cinnamon sugar dusted pastry.
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t order this one again. Though we you consider I had essentially picked it up as one of those teas I wanted to challenge myself with by getting out of my comfort zone with something I wouldn’t normally drink I think that this was a HUGE success.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skwkfl6iI5w&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=19
Iced Latte.
I have so much of this left, so I’m trying hard to put in more effort to finish it off…
This latte brews up such an ugly colour; it’s just this kind of nasty olive/vomit green. It looks the way the colour ‘puce’ sounds. Does that make sense? Like, puce is this purple pink colour – but it sounds like it’s the colour of sick.
Thankfully, the tea itself doesn’t taste like ‘puce’. Instead, it’s much more of a creamy, sweet nutty flavour with hints of butter, vanilla, and something both lightly earthy and vegetal. That doesn’t sound like it should work, but it does. All in all, it’s smooth and relatively light bodied. I’ll say it again, though it feels like I say it far too often, whenever I make this tea I actually enjoy it A LOT but there’s just this quality to it where I absolutely NEVER crave it/want to make it…
Hence, it needs to be sipped down.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxxhIXIgZ-o&index=35&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ
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.
Finally cracked into the pouch of this I bought from White2Tea like half a year ago…
It had been long enough since the last time I had this one that I didn’t remember super vividly what it had tasted like – though “cinnamon” was definitely mentally jumping out to me still. I enjoyed revisiting it a lot though: it was smooth with a whole array of different tasting notes from the straight blacks I’ve been really enjoying as of late.
The top notes, which were all very smooth but simultaneously rich and intense were composed of a combination of rye bread, nuts, and not surprisingly cinnamon. These intense top notes did carry into the body of the sip as well, just not at the same degree of richness. The nutty notes weren’t sweet so much as they were somewhat dry. Kind of like the skin on an almond? The undertones were sweeter though, and that layer of sweetness made up for some the bite that the top notes seemed to have: they were a mix of honey, malt, and wood. More of a refined wood note though, like wood chips? Less indicative of trees or anything placed in a more natural setting.
I’m still a fan.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPUS86YKyyY&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=10
This is a queued tasting note.
So, this tea is retiring – and I’ll be honest it’s not a blend I’ve ever felt super excited about or been madly into, but I do enjoy it every now and then so I’ve been mulling over the idea of grabbing a tin of it for at home before we run out in stores. As it stands, I’ve got about twenty grams or so to enjoy for occasional cuppas – I just don’t know if that’ll be enough… You know?
I made this one the other day before I started work: I felt like I needed the caffeine and I wanted a sweeter tea as well – this checks off both those boxes. It’s a very weird, almost muddled kind of berry flavour to me generally: however this particular cup really had some bold raspberry notes to it. Like, a lot more so than I usually expect from this particular tea. I was pretty into that extra burst of raspberry flavour though: it was almost like drinking a sweet, juicy raspberry concentrate or syrup!
I’m still undecided whether or not to bulk up on this one, though…
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kC87v_z2IU&index=5&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ
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.
…yes, I bought bagged tea.
This was pretty much a hardcore impulse purchase; however, it WAS on sale for like 99 cents a box which is a hell of a deal plus I have been curious about this particular flavour combo from Stash for literal years so I think it was worth the buck spent on it.
Actually, it’s not bad! I steeped this one up at work today, near boiling water for four minutes and it was REALLY smooth with a very nice, creamy chocolate flavour and a cooling peppermint finish. Sweet, and refreshing. I felt like I was channeling some serious “Aero Mint” chocolate bar flavours, too. Totally not as good as I’d imagine a loose leaf version with a higher quality oolong base could be but I think this is a completely viable option for just hard core lazy brewing, or for travel.
Really, I didn’t mind it at all!
This is a queued tasting note.
- Undertones of hazelnut throughout
- Top note is really distinctly nectarine/peach
- Body is more of this weird buttery, artichoke/asparagus combo w. hay and straw
- A little grassy, but leans more on the vegetal side of things
- Finish is a bit more generic nutty: hazelnut/almond
- Really creamy mouthfeel
- I think this is definitely a very nuanced and unique green tea
- I can see it GREATLY appealing to fans of green tea
- Personally I appreciate everything going on, but didn’t love the flavour combo
Lightly sweetened with brown sugar.
This is pretty smooth and silky, and it makes for a really nice evening tea. It’s got some nice woody notes to it, hints of herbs, and a lovely hay note. The brown sugar is a tiny little fleck of sweetness alongside an otherwise savory and herbaceous tea.
Peaceful.
Man, I don’t remember where this one came from at all…
I’m enjoying it a fair bit tonight though; it’s essentially like DAVIDsTEA’s Mint Chocolate Rooibos, and all the others like it – not unique at all, really. However, it’s definitely coming off as a lot richer tasting to me tonight than I normally get from DT’s blend. The chocolate is just stronger, and very natural tasting. I think the mint could potentially be a bit stronger, but it is present and does compliment nicely. All in all, it’s very much like an After Eight chocolate bar – which is what the name is a reference to, but a little more boozey tasting? Quite good, and nice for the evening.
A lot better than I remember this one tasting last time I had it.
It’s quite sweet, but definitely in a mapley and somewhat more natural way as opposed to a super forced cloying artificial flavour/straight up sugar kind of way. I almost feel like I get a bit of the “sap” from the tree too, and not just pure maple. You know what I mean? Sap definitely has this well defined almost pine-y kind of quality to it. The apple is nice; it’s not really tart and more mellow like a Gala apple – crisp, sweet, red apple flavour. The cinnamon in the background gives it this nice cider quality, like it’s named for. It’s pretty enjoyable as far as bagged teas go!
Another new Cuppa’T edition to the stash!
Yesterday I decided to take a venture down to the Farmer’s Market on my day off; I ended up with a pretty solid haul which I’ve been enjoying throughout the weekend! In addition to a pouch of this tea, I ended up nabbing:
- A sack of locally grown potatoes (very excited to cook something with these)
- Some homemade cookies for the not-boyfriend since he had kindly requested some
- Two loafs of lemon dill bread from my favourite baker
- Some vegan friendly, stone ground flour chocolate chip cookie mix
- The worlds BEST pineapple/mango salsa
- A jar of garlic infused honey (not sure what I’ll use it with, but excited to figure it out)
- A bottle of creamsicle turmeric nut milk (SO GOOD)
- A bottle of “Vitamin G” fresh pressed juice; it’s orange/cucumber/ginger/carrot/lemon
- And a homemade raspberry mint ‘freezie’ to enjoy while I shopped
I mean, that’s a pretty fucking good haul.
The bread got snacked out throughout the weekend, the salsa used today with some nachos I made for the family, the juices drank and enjoyed, and the first set of cookies given to the not-boyfriend and now it’s time for me to enjoy the tea! I’m starting off with a cold brew, because it’s hotter than the underside of a nutsack today.
This one jumped out at me because I don’t really have a herbal tea on hand with chocolate and orange and I thought it might be nice to since I do really love that flavour combination. Initial observations about this one drinking it cold brewed are that it’s REALLY heavy on the chocolate though. Like, easily the most prominent flavour is the chocolate. There’s some orange going on here, but mostly in the background and it’s hard to pick it out until the finish of the sip when the smooth, creamy and intense chocolate notes are subsiding.
Apart from that, this one does seem fairly straight forward: lots of chocolate and a little bit of orange. It’s smooth and sweet without tasting cloying or artificial. Cold brew may not have been the best way to go about making this for the first time but if I can accept that this is just much more chocolate than it is orange I think it could be a pretty tasty tea to have around in the meantime – especially for evenings.
