16396 Tasting Notes
Hot cuppa, from last week.
I needed a pause from this one when I first had it – I had just had far too many cola teas in far too close a range of time. But revisiting this one after taking a break from cola teas only served to point out just how lovely a tea it is. I seriously understand why Sil enjoys this one as much as she does! It’s smooth and flavourful with notes that perfectly convey what it’s named for. I do love when I tea 100% nails the flavour delivery of its titular ingredients. I hope there’ll be a reblend of this one in the future!
From work today. I probably would have drank a ton of this over the last four days if I had any of it at home; I was excited to get my hands on it today though and see if it would help me with my laryngitis at all. I used the same trick I use for Cold 911 – brewed up triple strength for maximum impact. HOLY LICORICE ROOT. Like, damn that makes for a cloyingly sweet, unpleasant cup of tea. That said, it did have a very soothing quality that made me feel pretty good. So, there’s that.
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.
I was feeling very flushed/hot last night so I decided to pick out a tea that I enjoy iced that might also possibly have some sort of vitamin c sort of thing going on from the orange/citrus in it. I mean, I wasn’t sure if there’d be any benefits from the tea but it couldn’t hurt, right? It 100% helped cool me down and help me feel more refreshed/comfortable. Flavour wise it tasted very mellow and watered down, though. Not much passion fruit or currant; but a lot of orange. Still liked how it tasted, 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.
Another one of the very, very few teas I drank during the height of being sick. I had a pre-measured sample of it kicking around in the kitchen and I was craving tea other than Cold 911. I couldn’t really taste much of it though; I guess I was too stuffed up for something more nuanced like this tea. I just recall it being somewhat sweet and fruity but otherwise very, very muddled.
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!
I set this one up to cold brew a day before I got sick, and of course I didn’t really want to drink it at the peak of being sick so I’m drinking it now – surprisingly it’s still phenomenal even after an unholy six day steep. Strong currant and champagne notes. It lacks some of the sweetness that it normally has, but is still smooth and enjoyable overall! A delightful surprise, really.
Made this one hot with some milk on my way home from work the night before I got really, really sick. I picked it out because I wanted a ‘bedtime’ type of tea to sip on so that I’d be nice and sleepy when I got home. It sort of worked; I was nice and sleepy about half way through my bus ride home – but after the walk from the bus stop to my house I was back to being wide awake thanks to the cold air. This was delicious, flavour wise though! Apple and toasted coconut, with a sweet caramelized sugar finish. Mmm!
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.
One of the very, very few teas I drank while sick.
I found out a few days ago that I didn’t get have a cold like I thought I did, but in fact I’ve got laryngitis – I may not have normal speaking ability for another week, possibly two. However, apart from still sounding like I’ve swallowed Patty & Selma I feel pretty good. So, I’m excited to get back to drinking tea and writing about it!
Sadly this cup wasn’t very enjoyable – now, to be perfectly fair I was high as fuck on pain medication/antibiotics. In fact, I was so high that I managed to take a photo and post it to instagram with a full caption/list of tags without remembering taking it whatsoever. I just remember that even with a generous amount of added honey I found the steeped tea quite bitter tasting, and unpleasant.
Meh. That’s what I get for trying to be ambitious and make something somewhat nice, in terms of tea…
Back to old habits again – but good habits, I’d like to think.
The first day I was feeling unwell I worked a shift; I don’t think I had fully grasped the extent to which I was feeling sick and I was still in that ‘you can over come this in a day with proactive use of medicine and good eating habits’ mindset and while I’m sure those things surely helped, they definitely didn’t solve the issue. I spent the majority of the shift drinking triple strength cups of Cold 911 though to help ease the nasal congestion and soothe my throat, each with a small drizzle of honey because that’s also nice on the throat and does help make that level of eucalyptus a bit more palatable.
It helped in the moment; definitely aided a lot in making sure I didn’t completely lose my ability to speak by the end of the 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.
Couldn’t resist buying this one on vacation in late November; it seemed like a missed opportunity to not get at least one overly American themed tea whilst in America. Plus, the flavours looked interesting too!
I don’t like this one nearly as much as I do the other white tea that I purchased from this company and have already tried (I believe I have one more white tea I’ve yet to try still), for me I just got the impression that the white tea base used in this one was just of a lesser quality overall? It was sort of choppy and dull, with really flat straw and cucumber skin notes that seemed to drag the whole cup down.
Like, the blueberry notes and hints of pomegranate were nice and I wanted to focus in on them and let them sort of guide the experience but I just sort they were so overwhelmed by that base that it was almost impossible to get any sort of focus on those elements and that was disappointing. I don’t really think it was a bad tea overall; but it was just less than I’ve come to expect from flavoured white teas at this point in my tea drinking career and I wanted more from it. I think all in all I’d probably call it just slightly less than average.
I do remain hopeful that I’ll find a positive use for the rest of the ounce I purchased though; perhaps cold brewing will bring out some more desirable tasting notes! At least, I think that’s where I’m going to start the further exploration!
Made a pot of this one earlier last week. A big ’ol Western one, for clarifications sake.
I think I should have definitely let this one steep longer; I didn’t really give the dragon ball time to completely unfurl because I was more focused on not over steeping the tea rather than aesthetics with this pot, and in turn I think I played too cautiously. I mean, the taste wasn’t bad but it was just incredibly mild/light. Very, very soft and subtle notes of hay/straw and almond. I just found myself deeply craving more body overall from the cups I was pouring. It wasn’t a bad experience, but a slight let down.
Plenty more balls left though; so I know I’ll get it right next time.
