16414 Tasting Notes
Hot, with some freshly sliced lemons tossed into the mug too.
I’m sure it’s partly because I added actual lemon to this cup, but this was super tasty and very heavy on the lemon; sweet sort of pastry lemon notes, with some tang and acidic follow up to them. There’s this local bakery in town that sells lemon cranberry muffins, and they’ve got these really thick muffin tops that have an almost ‘crust’ of sugar crystals sprinkled on top; they crack when you bite into them, and then you hit the most fluffy, moist muffin afterwards with this burst of lemon and berry – and I just deeply found myself going back to that imagery, but with blueberry.
Lots, and lots of ‘pow’ to the flavour.
So, I finally took a page from VariaTEA and made myself a chocolate milk latte!
I took a very long time deciding what tea to use for my first; I didn’t want to do something already chocolate-y because I felt like then I’d be losing flavour – and it had to be strong enough to stand up to the flavour of the chocolate milk. Eventually I just decided to go for my current DT fav; Blueberry Jam!
It was actually so good! The blueberry was very, very bright and juicy with the same sweetness that it normally has – however contrasted against the very creamy, rich chocolate milk it seemed especially piercing and just did a spectacular job cutting through the milk to create this great effect where drinking the tea was like biting a chocolate covered blueberry. Sweet, creamy chocolate and then this piercing burst of delicious fruit. I. Was. Salivating.
More of these to come, I’m 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.
This one is lovely! I hope it sticks around for a long while :)
I love this one,the smell, the taste!
Still need to try this one. Hopefully in my next order.
How do you make a chocolate milk latte anyway? Do you just steep the tea in chocolate milk? Steep it in a small amount of water and then add the chocolate milk?
Same way you’d make a normal latte – just sub in chocolate milk for regular! So, I steep a large amount of tea into a very small amount of water and pour it together with hot, steamed milk.
I’ve only ever made matcha lattes and not regular tea lattes is why I ask.
Iced cup! Many iced cups, in fact – I think to date I’ve probably already had this iced like a dozen times…?
This is by far my favourite of the new and returning Summer teas; in fact I think the staff at the store where I work are honestly getting sick of how much I talk about it. It’s also probably a fact that the wall tin for this is almost always within a two foot radius of where I’m standing; I’m constantly picking it up to smell the sniffer. On the day of the launch, I probably bought close to 200g of this (one of the silver tins completely stuffed full) and not even counting the cups I’ve made of it at work I think I’ve already gone through about 50g? And it’s not even that heavy of a herbal tea – unlike, say, Mango Fruit Punch.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I completely understand why this one wouldn’t be for everything. Maybe you’re not into the creamy, sweet elements of the blend and maybe on the flip side you don’t like the tartness of the rhubarb and soft tropical elements on top of the creamy profile. That’s totally fine! For me, though, I love just about anything with rhubarb in it – and my favourite rhubarb pairing is absolutely rhubarb and cream or rhubarb and vanilla; so this makes me weak in the knees for sure.
I actually personally think this tastes more like cream soda than anything else though; a more natural, somewhat stripped down version though! Like, the fancy kind that comes in glass bottles from weird ‘Indie’ Soda companies you’ve never heard of, and not the bubblegum/pepto coloured pink stuff that tastes like it’s going to put you in a sugar coma. Just, very smooth and silky with rich vanilla notes. Of course, it’s fruity too but I don’t find it tart the way that most rhubarb things are, and if anything I feel like I get more of a subtle candied pineapple/mango kind of flavour going on. I also really like that despite having hibiscus in it this one doesn’t fall into the super tart hibiscus ‘trap’ a lot of herbals do where it becomes hard to differentiate the blends because there’s so much hibiscus in them.
This is unique, refreshing, sweet, fruity, and well balanced and I fucking LOVE it. Seriously. I’m putting it up at the same level of awesomeness as my beloved Blueberry Jam and Cranberry Pear; it’s that good.
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.
huh kinda want to go try this now but so unmotivated to go to DT….maybe monday during lunch
Mmm, this sounds so good.
DT emails keeping trying to get me to buy this one. It even made it into my cart before I started experiencing technical difficulties with their website. Maybe I’ll pull the trigger next time.
Sipdown (529)!
Honestly I’m just happy to have one less boring, straight peppermint in my life. Like, it didn’t taste bad but is this the kind of thing I really need to hoard that one last cup of? Definitely not, especially when I have better mint teas in my cupboard like straight Wintergreen or a million different mint blends.
Cold Brew Sipdown (530)!
It’s a bit of a relief finishing off a DT blend; they’re beginning to take up quite a large chunk of my cupboard – and I mean, I work there so that only makes sense but still, this is one I have no desire to hoard in the long term.
I added some vanilla creamer to this cold brew and the result was actually pretty good – and I say that as someone who does not like coffee. It was smooth though, and very rich with a velvety sweet almond undertone. What it largely reminded me of was the pre-bottled Starbucks “Mocha” Frappacino things that you can buy from like any convenience store. Mostly they’re like milk and sugar, but with a very mild coffee taste. Coffee with training wheels, if you will. That’s exactly what I need.
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.
I love this one mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with Birthday Cake for a cup of tiramisu or 3/4 coffee puerh with 1/4 lapsang for a cup that is reminiscent of Butiki’s Coffee and Cigarettes. I don’t think I ever drink it straight!
Ooh – thanks for the suggestions! Eventually I’ll have to try both, as both sound like good ways to switch up the coffee flavour! :)
Sipdown (531)!
I had every intention of finishing this one off on Easter because it was so thematically appropriate – but I ended up finishing it off the day after instead because I got tired and went to bed a lot earlier than intended. It feels like all I do right now is work and then sleep…
This was actually the most impressive cup of this tea I’ve had to date though; it had hints of cakeyness but most importantly it had some very nice, balanced spice notes (both allspice and cinnamon, but I swear nutmeg too) and a very authentic, sweet carrot undertone and finish. I think in the last half year I’ve really come to greatly appreciate carrot as an addition to tea, and the natural sweetness it can provide a blend. It really is a much better alternative to licorice root or stevia. So, a very nice cup.
And one less number to worry about.
Cold Brew Sipdown (532)!
So, this tastes to me the way that postage stamps smell – and I know that doesn’t sound very appealing, but I’m actually finding that despite the bizarre comparison I’m enjoying this a fair bit more than I would have expected to. I mean, I guess there is something sort of satisfying about licking the back of a stamp? I think it’s a mix of the veggie notes and smoke though that’s creating that flavour profile for me, though I’m not certain on that? I don’t know – ultimately I think this tea is somewhat neutral for me. Gunpowder just isn’t my favourite or least favourite type of green tea…
Another crepe tea from AQ2T! I’m so on board the crepe train; I want to see all the crepe teas! In fact, I’d be so here for an entire crepes collection:
Peach and Custard Crepes topped with Icing Sugar White Tea
Cinnamon Poached Pear Crepes Rooibos/Honeybush Tea
Crepes Slathered in Maple Syrup Oolong Tea
Lets make it happen, Lauren!
I kind of clocked Lauren’s last crepe tea (the chocolate hazelnut one) for not really having an element that reminded me strongly of crepes and just sort of tasting like Nutella – but this one definitely really brings home that pastry component. It does remind me a little more of Stroopwaffles than it does crepes though, and I’m having a really hard time describing what it is that so distinctly differentiates those two profiles for me and why this is the former rather than the later. It simply just is. As for the rest of it, I thought the strawberry was a little mild; I wanted more of a sugary strawberry compote OR overripe sliced strawberry taste and I didn’t feel I distinctly got either. The cilantro was fine though! I was scarred by it initially because, while I’m not really in the camp of people who find cilantro tastes like soap, I don’t really enjoy the taste in large concentration. I thought that there was just enough for me to taste it in the blend though without it overwhelming the whole thing. Very good proportions! Pleasant tea overall; not without cons but also had some very nice pros too.
I just want more crepe teas!
Where do all these cool AQ2T blends come from and why do I never see them on their website? Rawr
This one was a February Subscription box blend, and the chocolate hazelnut I mentioned was January – if I’m remembering correctly.
I suspected it was the subscription boxes. Thanks for confirming! Maybe I’ll check them out when my tea cupboard is more balanced :)
I’m all for a crepe collection! Stay tuned haha!
Cold Brew!
Paired up with a good comic book, and some brown sugar, brie and plum topped crackers!
This was a delicious cold brew; notes of roasted nuts, wood, and florals in the top of the sip and then body notes that were more reminiscent of deep, overripe stone fruits like plum or dark cherries. I actually picked the food pairing because of the intense plum notes in the tea as well; it felt like a really nice carry over/tie in for that sort of rich, haunting kind of oolong profile that captures so perfectly the more earthy/natural flavour notes and fruit elements. The brown sugar topping on the crackers made the nut notes in the tea really pop in the top of the sip, taking on this sort of glazed charred toasted almond/hazelnut sort of feel that was full of life and exciting but not so whimsical/adolescent. If that makes sense. The brie was just creamy and delicious, and cut any astringent notes that may have been in the end of the sip.
It’s immodest to say so because I curated the whole shebang, but this was beautifully put together…
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BguilbXAi4W/?taken-by=ros_strange
Ok, this has the dry aroma of ZOMG peaches! Like, it smells like an intense, heavenly mixture of pretty much everything peach flavoured that I like; Peach puree.compote, canned peaches, Fuzzy Peaches, peach fizzy drinks, and peach jam.
That’s a whole lot of peach!
I don’t know if I’m thankful for this or not, but the steeped up tea really isn’t nearly so overwhelming. It certainly has a very, very well defined peach flavour but it’s a little more of a mix between medium bodied and mellow. There’s a little tartness/tang that makes me think Fuzzy Peach candies, but mostly it’s a very nice, natural peach taste like that of peach puree or canned peaches – with undertones that remind me a lot of champagne and slightly sweet, grassy green tea. It would be perfect for me if it was on a white tea base instead of green, but really it is a very tasty tea overall that very much captures its namesake.
