16384 Tasting Notes
Meh.
Made a hot cup of this, but if I’m being honest it’s probably the least impressed I’ve been with a 52Teas Genmaicha blend in a while. It doesn’t taste bad per say, but it just tastes like regular Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha – no hint of banana what so ever. I was really excited by the prospect of a banana flavoured genmaicha, so the absence of that flavour is a pretty big let down.
I’ve got a cup worth of this one left though, so maybe I can turn it around with the next cup worth. Maybe.
Drank this one again as part of my “only green tea” day – I did oversteep it by a few minutes because I was helping out some customers, and as a result there was a bit of a bitterness to the finish but for a green tea that got like a seven minute Western style steep it DID hold up pretty impressively. 100% still drinkable and buttery. Good to know this one can take a little heat.
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.
Realized earlier in the work week that I had unintentionally drank only green teas throughout the day, so I decided to continue that trend deliberately, which led to me steeping up a hot cup of this one, with some milk.
I’ve never tried this one with milk before, and I was curious to see how it would effect the taste because normal EG is pretty good with milk, but this is much lighter typically with more of a defined lemony quality. So, not too surprisingly this one wasn’t really all that good/impressive with milk. I mean, it didn’t taste BAD but it just felt like the milk was bogging down an otherwise light and bright flavour/tea.
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 (237)!
Made this one as an iced tea at work, but to be honest there was something about it that I REALLY didn’t like, and so I actually ended up giving away the last cup or so of the sample to a coworker. The lime taste itself was actually really nice; very bright and both sweet and tangy. It reminded me a lot of that “Green Skittle” sort of flavour that DT’s Sweet Lime has, but without the apple-y undertones. The part that didn’t work for me was the aftertaste – something about it was just… wrong.
Maybe it was too much linden? I don’t know – it just didn’t sit right for me, and I couldn’t even finish the iced tea that I’d made.
This is a queued tasting note.
So, I made this one for myself at work while I was sampling; just as an iced latte, which isn’t a huge jump from my typical matcha milk. I will say, that as much as I enjoyed the flavour it didn’t remind me of rum at all. More so, it was grassy/floral with a sort of boozy sweetness but nothing that would immediately be pinpointed to rum; white, spiced, dark or otherwise. So, I’m definitely going to have to revisit this one straight and reassess.
Finally trying this very weird oolong.
It’s actually really good, which is a relief because I have quite a lot of it now. I think that overall the flavour could probably just be summed up as “earthy” but there some slight complexities/nuances to it as well.
It’s weird ‘cause as earthy as this tastes, it does so in a way very unique from other earthy teas I’ve consumed – it’s not like pu’erh, or the earthy notes sometimes found in darker oxidized or aged oolongs or black teas. It’s a, and I know this is an obvious statement, ‘beany’ sort of earthiness. It’s also weird because it’s got a little bit of a bitter top note but the finish is sweet and somewhat cocoa like. I don’t know if I’ve ever really experienced a tea with a bitter start but such a smooth, roasty and sweet finish like this. It’s very pleasant though! A great way to finish off a sip, and encourage taking another.
Apart from that, there’s some overall roasty notes, hints of smoky notes (sweet smoky), and almost this coffee like flavour as well. That’s in addition, of course, to the already mentioned earthiness, cocoa, sweetness, and beany qualities.
I really like it! Bonus points for it being really affordable too.
Lazy midday cuppa,
Basically I just brewed my cup, hit play on a nice mellow playlist on Youtube and kind of lazily sipped away while reclined on the couch in a state of half sleep. It was nice, and relaxing. The downside being, of course, that I wasn’t super concentrated on the flavour of the tea itself and mostly I sipped without any sort of focus.
It was good though, and I know it was both floral and very mildly ginger tasting – I just wish I’d shown at least some attention to the flavour before completely mentally checking out though.
Companion Tea!
I made a hot cuppa to take with for a few hours of errands/shopping; the flavour was really nice, like a sweet and tangy lemon candy. However, I misjudged how nice it would be outside today and so I found myself sipping a hot cup of tea during a VERY hot afternoon. It had me sweating, for sure.
My brother and I went to Sarcan today to bring in all of my mom’s pop cans/bottles, milk jugs, alcohol bottles, etc. She hates going there because of the smell/loud noise, so we go for her once every half year and in exchange for bringing the bottles in we get to keep the money we get back for them.
Today, that was enough money for us each to grab a poutine and italian soda down in the arts district of the town, with a bit of change left over. I grabbed a peanut butter flavoured italian soda, just to try something new/different and weird. It was unique, that’s for sure and it tasted VERY strongly of peanuts. I didn’t dislike it, but it was kind of like my experience drinking peanut butter flavoured teas – disjointed and uneasy feeling despite a fine taste. I just don’t think peanut butter should be carbonated.
After that we stopped at Cuppa’T were I managed to walk out with only one new tea, which I think was a pretty impressive feat all on its own. It’s called Market Fresh and it has not only cucumber in it but tomato as well. It was too unique to not buy. Finally, we rounded out our shopping in the arts area by checking out the hand craft/pottery store where I ended up impulse buying a BEAUTIFUL bowl with a very unique glaze pattern. I’m sure it’ll end up being used as a Matcha Bowl; the last one I purchased from there works very well with that use. I was also really impressed because I’ve been to the store once and the owner still remembered me. Though I suppose it is hard to forget that weird person walking around and very thoroughly feeling the inside of the bowls for nicks/abrasions. Can’t have anything that a whisk might snag on, though.
All in all, it was a good day!
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.
Morning cuppa.
I kind of like the simplicity of this one; it’s just Genmaicha with strawberry – no frills, straight to the point. I do find that the strawberry is actually almost a little too bright to really work with the roasty rice but that might just be because the leaf I measured out this morning had a lot of strawberry in it. Plus, while it treads that line very closely I don’t think it actually crosses over it.
I’m feeling this one.
Stole this mug worth of tea from my mom’s stash.
It’s a sipdown, but of her tea not mine, so shhh…
I’m definitely still not a huge fan of this one but I think MAYBE it’s growing on me a bit just because I’ve adjusted my expectations of the flavour so drastically since the first time I tasted it. It really does taste a lot like a spice cake of sorts, and in fact the strong concentration of cinnamon and ginger is REALLY tickling my mouth as I drink this. More than tickling, really – it’s like a very soft stinging/burning sensation?
Also, still way too much licorice root sweetness in the finish.
Only aspect of this cup I’m actually super on board with is the apple/cinnamon pairing in the body of the sip, prior to the weird mouth sensation and cloying licorice sweetness. It’s a little like apple cinnamon oatmeal, with a bit of a gingery kick and some molasses undertones. That part of the flavour is enjoyable.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRb4xqFpOvY&list=PLDcnymzs18LWbmCFUlZie7VsxQ_FIF0_y&index=117
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.
:( moar banana!