16384 Tasting Notes
Hot Cup – underleafed and a little understeeped to try and cut back on tartness.
It worked! This cup was very fruity, but not very sour/tart. In fact, more than anything else it tasted strongly of red currants! It also had a touch of rooibos woodyness to it, and the faintest “red wine” flavour. Like, a dry red wine though.
Not half bad. An improvement, to be sure.
Drank this one again iced on shift – it was my favourite when I went through all the cocktail teas the first time around, and I wanted to revisit it to get second thoughts/make sure what I thought of it the first time around wasn’t just excitement from all the hype I’d built up.
It was interesting trying it again – I still really liked it and I think the “Welch’s Grape Juice” observation totally still holds up. However, I was more acutely aware of the hibiscus notes this time around. Also, I think I picked up on more of the currant, too!
It’s also strange for me, because normally I can down an iced tea really quickly. Especially when I’m working, and I’m moving around all the times doing things and I need to keep hydrated. However, drinking this one I felt way more compelled to sip at it slowly. In fact, it took me about three hours to finish off my mug of it! It’s just not something I could ever chug, though I’m not really sure why. Thoughts to contemplate another day, with another cup of tea – 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.
Western style tea pot!
Is it wrong to admit that I blindly bought this cake just because I love the aesthetic look of it so much? Like, I was pretty sure I’d enjoy the taste BUT visually this is just so stunning.
- Medium to full bodied flavour
- Notes of hay from the white base
- Floral undertones; chrysanthemum, gardenia?
- Also very herbaceous with strong rosemary notes
- And a bit of a woody/pine quality
- Overall does a great job of delivering a smooth profile that evokes the feeling of nature
I can’t wait to try this one Gong Fu because if it’s this fascinatingly nuanced and unique as a Western styled brew I can’t wait to see the fascinating layers of flavour it’ll have Gong Fu! I’m glad I enjoyed this one a lot, on top of it just being so pretty to look at.
So this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while that I finally made time for…
Gnocchi with matcha sauce! Hawaiian Honey matcha cheese sauce, to be particular. I wasn’t totally sure which matcha flavour would be the best to infuse into this dish; something super fruity would just feel out of place and I didn’t think that one of the alcohol themed ones would work either. So, that sort of left this one? And a bit of sweetness with the gnocchi and cheese? Sold!
Pictures:
The second one is my very dumb, very socially awkward/introverted brother thinking he’s being funny by throwing up a gang sign to photobomb my artistic pictures…
- Very creamy, buttery with a very delicate sweetness
- The sauce had a lovely consistency; light, fluffy and silky smooth!
- Only criticism is that I used a sweet cheese, so with the sweet matcha it’s a bit rich
- Perfectly satisfying and indulgent otherwise
Yummy!
Sipdown (230)!
Turns out a smidgen of honey is all this one really needs!
I made a hot mug of it last night to drink while closing the store, and it was pretty good. With the honey in it, this actually tasted quite pleasantly nutty. Sort of like honey nut cheerios, but without the starchy/grainy cereal component. Other than that, it was its normal grassy self; you know, green tea like but not actually green tea? Now that I’m reflecting on it, I think it could be argued that this resembles Dragonwell in many way but with more body and a touch of a herbaceous quality.
Overall, this one really isn’t a favourite by a long shot and it certainly wont be missed in my cupboard either, but I don’t think I ever really had a “bad” cup of it either.
Well, I’m halfway done my online keyholder training now – I did another segment of it this morning, and now I’m just sipping on a mug of tea and having a bit of an informal breakfast/snack before I get ready for work.
I think I understeeped this a bit; the cherry note is really bright and sweet but everything else tastes a bit watery/bland. I know I know, I’m complaining now that there’s not enough ginger when normally it’s the other way around. When will I ever make up my mind!? Though, that said, the crackers I’m eating are strangely enough making the ginger seem a little bit stronger. They’re rosemary, pecan and raisin crackers and if anything I actually thought that the cherry and raisin would end up being the flavours pulling out the sweetness from one another, but the rosemary seems to make the ginger feel especially strong even when it’s not when you drink the tea on its own.
The power of tea/food pairings, I guess.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUExzis2Jo&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=3
Tea and chocolate experimentation, take #2!
This time around I went with a classic; chocolate dipped strawberries! My spin on it, however, was to use a white chocolate base and mix in some kiwi flavoured matcha. Everyone knows that strawberry kiwi is a killer combination!
- Like the grapes, the crack of the chocolate with the juicy strawberry is very satisfying
- The creaminess is really good too
- It’s definitely a sweet treat, but I like that it’s fruity through and through
- Also a touch of a floral quality to the matcha too
- Best part is that I can share with Kandyce who is allergic to cocoa
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUQNqsO_SjM&index=2&list=WL
Sipdown (231)!
Thank you VariaTea for the tea! Sorry it took so long to get around to trying this one.
Honestly? I expected it to be a LOT more lemony than it actually taste. However, it’s not bad though. The green tea is actually pretty strong; it’s both grassy and kind of kelpy. It reminds me a lot of Sencha, though I don’t know if it actually is. The lemon comes through in the undertones; it a bit sweet but mostly tastes like lemon zest/rind to me. Maybe some sugar or honey would really make it pop? It’s not bad for a bagged green overall, though!
EDIT: Darjeeling green tea, apparently. Interesting!
More tea cooking! This week my focus was kind of on experimentation with different tea infused chocolate things – and while I do eventually want to try to make my own tea infused chocolate bars I’m definitely not there yet – so I’m starting with chocolate coated things.
Grape skewers, to be more exact.
https://www.facebook.com/resteep/posts/10210327118348274?pnref=story
So DAVIDsTEA makes a white chocolate bar infused with Strawberry Colada; before I decided to use this tea as my test tea I tried it on its own first to see what I was working with. It wasn’t bad at all; very sweet, to be sure. One thing that is REALLY nails is a very vibrant, juicy strawberry flavour complete with a lot of strawberry pieces mixed into the bar itself. The coconut was also present, but not as strongly. Yup, this was the tea I wanted to test things out with!
- DT White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate 50/50 blend
- Chocolate covered green and red grapes!
- Super tasty; like a milder, creamier milk chocolate with lots of sweet strawberry taste
- And hints of coconut
- Over soft, juicy grapes
- The ‘crack’ of the chocolate as you bite into it is so satisfying
- And mixed with the pop of the grape as you bite into that, it’s the best!
I think overall the only real issue with this tasty treat is the visuals. It’s not a pure milk chocolate blend – in fact, there’s a lot of white chocolate mixed in there BUT visually it doesn’t look it at all. As well, try as I might, this has a very strong “turd on a stick” appearance. Sprinkles help deter that, but if your mind is even a little dirty you’re going to eventually wander to that place.
Still SO tasty, 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.
