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This was one of the teas of the day today at work, so I had a cup of it since it had been a while since I last had it – and it was certainly very tart. I thought it had more of an overarching lemony quality to it though than it’s normal sour blackberry note. Not to say it didn’t taste berry-like but not to its usual standard.

Maybe that’s because I drank it hot though, and not cold. It’s definitely better cold, that’s for sure…

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.

So, earlier in the week I went to the Vintage Tea Room with my mom for afternoon tea as like an early Easter thing since I wouldn’t be spending Easter with my family this year. I actually ordered a pot of Decaf Margaret’s Hope and my mom ordered this tea but we ended up liking each other’s more so we swapped.

I definitely didn’t expect to like this one, but I think it worked better for me because the jasmine was stronger than the Earl Grey so it was like a really full bodied, robust jasmine black tea that took cream really well, because of the EG component. Plus, it complimented the lemon curd angel food cake we ordered quite nicely too which was a win. Also it was just nice to break out of my normal routine at the tea room, which is to order flowering tea.

Hello conflicting impressions…

Last time I had this one as a latte I didn’t like it, but I had it again as a latte a few nights ago because another coworker was drinking it as such and I actually REALLY enjoyed it. Enough so, that I made one for myself instead of just mooching sips of their tea.

I didn’t taste the stevia, and the pineapple and white chocolate came together in a way that was really silky and creamy with that sort of fruity sweetness/undertone that you get from teas that use pineapple/cherry to recreate the flavour of “glazes”. If that makes ANY sense!? Like, picture the way the pineapple works in Della Terra’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake/DT’s Coffee Cake – that sort of fruity sweetness. Just a hint lemony, as well.

I don’t know – it’s weird to me that sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. I just know I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this latte of it, even if I didn’t with the last.

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 (215)!

I wasn’t totally sure whether the two flavours in this would work together; it definitely seems like a strange pairing to me. However, I was really intrigued so I did end up grabbing a sample which I made iced because I thought the cantaloupe would likely work better that way.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this one. That said, I don’t know if it was necessarily exactly what Lauren had envisioned for it/what it’s marketed as. I mean, for starters, I couldn’t really taste the sage at all. So, without the taste of sage even coming through a little bit I still can’t really answer the question of whether or not it’d work with the cantaloupe which was the most intriguing thing about the blend in the first place. The cantaloupe was great though; it really complimented the grassy notes of the Kukicha and subtle peachy undertones. I have to agree with Kittenna that if you liked the cantaloupe Butiki used, you’ll probably like it here too. I mean, no “cream” component but otherwise it works well!

I’m not at a point where I’d buy enough of this for a tin, but I don’t feel like I’m done with it either. I’d consider another sample next time I order, just to play around some more/see if I can find the sage.

Sipdown (216)!

Made as a latte.

I want to be able to say that I’m really sad to have finished this tea off, but with the infrequency I drank it over the nearly two years I actually owned it I don’t think I can get away with that being a true statement. Honestly, I’ll move on pretty quickly with this one. I’m not a huge chocolate/tea person overall anyway, and I already own a few other chocolate mate teas to get me by.

This still made a killer latte though; I think it honestly tasted more like hot chocolate than the actual “Hot Chocolate” pu’erh blend we carry. It’s richer and creamier, while still having some earthiness like the pu’erh based blend has and then it gets added nuance from the cinnamon/nutmeg notes. The nutmeg is interesting in particular, ‘cause there isn’t actually nutmeg in the blend but it really does taste like there is. We should really consider putting out like a nutmeg/eggnog or nutmeg/hot chocolate blend this year in the Winter collection…

But yes, good by creamy/silky Mexican Hot Chocolate tea! You were the OG Hot Chocolate beverage from DT…

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.

The overall flavour of this tea is definitely improved by cold brewing it. It gets a bit of extra sweetness, and is much fruitier overall although still in a really muddled way. Oddly enough, I thought the undertones were rather pine-like? Both in the sense of pine wood but also like the sort of pine taste that comes from juniper berries or under ripe mango.

Sipdown (217)!

I saved this fun, Easter-y tea for today as this officially kicks off my “Easter”. I’m not doing much this year; I worked yesterday and I work Sunday and Monday so this is my only day off. My siblings and mom are spending the weekend at my Grandma’s though and doing family stuffs – it’s out of town so I didn’t go ’cause of work. That means I get to enjoy a quiet house to myself though, which is a pro in its own right.

So this is about it for Easter themed stuff!

I have to admit, I actually kind of hate peeps. They’re just WAY too sugary and gross. This tea on the other hand? I’m actually pretty in love with it. I feel like it just plays off all the thinks I enjoy about 52Tea’s Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, and then exaggerates them. So, the creamy, silky vanilla/marshmallow flavour? 100% present and delicious, with the perfect amount of roastiness from the rice.

So much yum, and a perfect Easter Treat for myself!

Sipdown (218)!

Thanks for this one, VariaTEA!

Steeped this one up hot at work, and while there wasn’t anything I didn’t like about it I also just thought it tasted somewhat weak in general. Like, watered down? Yes, there was some chocolate taste and I certainly got the cinnamon, and then some other more generic spice from the cardamom/clove/etc. but nothing that really gave this any sort of impactful presence at all. That sounds harsh, but it’s also just true…

So, I kind of decided to use this as a guinea pig tea of sorts – we just got two new kinds of agave at work, and the one the staff was most intrigued by was the chocolate so I bought a bottle for staff use. I’m not a big agave person myself, but since the flavour seemed like an appropriate match I gave it a go. I certainly wouldn’t buy a bottle of the agave for myself to use at home BUT I do think it gave this tea the extra chocolate richness needed to not feel flat/bland.

So all in all it worked out.

Made this one iced the other day at work, with a smidgen of honey because I found that the ginger was coming off a bit astringent without it. I was really enjoying the brightness of the cherry notes as they contrasted against the spicy ginger, and I would have happily enjoyed the whole iced cup but there was a bit of a mix up and one of our tea guides accidentally took my tea with him when he left for the day so I only got to enjoy a third of it.

To be fair, we were both drinking iced teas that looked totally identical and had ginger in them – his was Super Ginger. It was a completely understandable mistake. Still sucked, though…

Wasn’t sure how this one would work Gong Fu, but I actually ended up loving it a lot!

I got about five really solid infusions from it, and then two where all the jasmine flavour had completely been steeped out and all I could taste was near brewed out black tea. This certainly doesn’t have the stamina for a really long, drawn out session – I think the eight steep, had I gone for it, would definitely have been the final. However, after those first five this really stops being “Jasmine Black Pearls”, anyway.

Obviously there was some strong jasmine; but also lots of grape notes too because for me the two always come hand in hand. To kind of play off those floral/fruity notes I paired my session with some freshly sliced mango, which was really lovely and added an extra layer of sweetness to the tea. It also worked with the base tea, which had notes of malt and molasses but most importantly tons of baker’s chocolate taste. Chocolate and mango is an excellent combination!

Anyway, this session worked really well for me overall. It’s 100% something that I’d revisit, and frankly I think the best way I’ve brewed this tea to date.

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.