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Definitely unintentional, but I think I’ve trained myself to view this tea as a ‘sleepytime’ type of tea. I made a mug of it at work, and it was delicious with such robust notes of peppermint and berries, and herbaceous sage. However not five minutes after finishing the mug I went from so awake to instantly ready for a nap…

I mean, I fucking LOVE this tea and I have every intention of getting BlendBee to reblend it for me in a larger quantity once I finish this sample bag off – but it’s just so weird how it consistently makes me sleepy given that it’s a caffeinated tea without any of the ingredients that are generally in nighttime blends (chamomile, Valerian root, etc.)…

Iced.

I still can’t taste any rum in this one; I’ve been brainstorming ways to introduce the flavour into the tea though. I think what I want to try and do is reduce this down into a tea infused simple syrup and then mix that with some Ginger Beer and dark rum to make a tea infused Dark & Stormy…

As for this brew; it had so much punch from the lime! Just a really intense, vibrant flavour contrasted by notes of undergrowth, wet leaves and earth, and woody qualities from the pu’erh base. It’s a weird contrast between something with so much life and the danker pu’erh notes that almost have a decrepit forest vibe to them. It works though.

Early morning pot of tea (Western style) from earlier in the week on one of the days where I didn’t work until later in the afternoon…

This one was good; I think I might have a deeper appreciation for it prepared Gong Fu as opposed to Western though. The tasting notes were a mix of floral top notes, more buttery body notes and notes of sweetened condensed milk, and then an almost nectarine like fruity finish. Very sweet on the tip of the tongue, and a little lingering after the sip was finished. Still tasty; I just like watching the evolution of flavour that you get Gong Fu…

The leaf was stunning though; this continues to visually be one of my favourite oolongs just to look at – dry, steeping, and steeped out. The leaves are huge; and such an amazing hue. Take a look:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfmefjjFPxB/?taken-by=ros_strange

Ironically, I picked this one out because I was actually craving the bergamot in it which is a thing that doesn’t happen often – I’m not the biggest bergamot person. Even stranger, steeped up I couldn’t taste any bergamot at all! Instead it was sweet and very berry heavy. I mean, totally delicious but not what I was craving. I probably should have just picked out a straight Earl Grey…

Still an enjoyable cup though.

This time I’m trying orange.

So, I figured this would either be really orange juice-like in taste and natural or quite sugary sweet and possibly Creamsicle-esque. It was actually somewhere in the middle though; definitely syrupy and sweet/rich, but with a natural undertone to it, and maybe even a little bit of the bitterness of orange peel? It was ok, but I wish it had been either very natural or more of that candy sweet sort of taste and less in the middle.

As it stands, it was fine but boring.

So, what must have been MONTHS ago I first learned about red matcha/beetroot matcha from OolongOwl and I became obsessed with trying it. However, I simply could NOT find any that I could get shipped into Canada or that wasn’t like $50CAD for shipping alone. I eventually gave up on trying it…

Then, Bluebird created their ‘Rainbow Matcha’ line up and everything changed! Not only were they carrying this red matcha/beetroot matcha but a black and a blue matcha as well! I had to have them all. And so I bought them, because I have no willpower.

Well, they showed up yesterday and I’m SO EXCITED to try them all out. Of course I had no option but start with the one that started the obsession/hunt in the first place. So, bring on the red matcha!

First things first, holy hell it really is BRIGHT red! I mean, I was whisking this up in my matcha bowl and it looked a little bit like sort of semi-congealed blood. Just, you know, a little grizzly in appearance. Not nearly as fun/whimsical as you’re want a bright red matcha to be. It’s all very very fascinating though. Other observations from whisking it are that it’s a bit clumpy and doesn’t break down as smoothly as other matchas – also, it’s a little heavier so it does settle faster than your typical matcha.

Flavour wise it was… unique.

I don’t want to say it was bad because it wasn’t – but it’s certainly a unique flavour and not at all what I expected, though I guess I’m not totally sure what the expectation was in the first place. I guess I’ll just start by stating the obvious – it does taste like beets. I like the taste of beets, so it’s fine for me – but that sweet, earthy sort of quality is 100% present and strong. Other than that, the sweetness/fruityness of the currant also comes through pretty clearly, and is just a touch medicinal tasting. I can’t remember if they actually specify if they’ve used red or black currant, but it definitely reminds me more of black than red – same sort of ‘heavyness’ and medicinal leaning tendencies.

Probably the biggest issue overall though is the licorice though. I hate the inclusion of it; it seems really unnecessary and it’s very, very strong/cloying, especially right in the finish where you’re just sort of slapped in the face with the presence of it. I think there’s enough going on with other flavours in the tea that it doesn’t ruin it for me, and I suppose I can see why they’d want to add sweetness to what is otherwise a really beet heavy profile but I just wish they’d used something else to do it.

Lets be real though, the main reason you’d be drinking this tea is aesthetic. Taste is important too, of course, but I wanted this because it’s a red matcha. Visuals, folks! In this case they trump the taste. I still like the flavour well enough, though.

Excited to try the rest of the ‘rainbow’ matchas now!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfv4U1JlnWV/?taken-by=ros_strange

So, I wish I could take credit for this idea but I actually got it a while ago from a customer…

Made this one into a ‘Peaches and Cream’ soda! It was actually very easy to do; I made a small batch of simple syrup using a couple matcha spoons of the matcha and vanilla agave and extract instead of table sugar; reduced it down just a little and made sure everything was dissolved and then poured that into a glass of plain soda water and ice cubes. Give it a bit of a stir, ‘cause otherwise everything just sinks to the bottom and BOOM! You’ve got a peach vanilla matcha soda!

I’d 100% recommend trying it out because it was super tasty, and very easy to make.

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’ve made this one a couple times now, and I actually ended up buying myself a tin of it too.

I wasn’t sure that I’d like an instant matcha latte mix; sometimes these instant mixes are just too sugary/sweet or come out very thin and watered down tasting. It’s one of the prices you pay for such ‘convenience’ and I’m the kind of person/tea drinker that generally just is NOT willing to sacrifice taste for a few minutes of shaved off time.

However, I’ve found myself pleasantly surprised by this one! I mean, it’s definitely sweetened and you can tell that but when I want a latte I generally want some element of sweetness to it anyway, and matcha is such a umami sort of flavour that the extra sweetness from the ‘mix’ doesn’t actually bother me. I know this sort of tea definitely isn’t for everyone – but for me? Yeah, I think I could actually incorporate this into my tea drinking routine somewhat regularly. I mean, to be fair I don’t really have any tea that I drink on a daily basis so I’m not saying that this is a ‘daily drinker’ for me. Just, it’s not something I think I’d have to be in a particular mood or fit of lazyness to want to have.

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, with some agave.

Agave certainly made this one a lot sweeter, which did exaggerate some of the notes in it. Since this is so old and much of the flavour has faded that was largely what I wanted to happen; however, it didn’t really exaggerate all of the things I was hoping for. I mean, a brighter and sweeter lime note? Yes, I definitely got that and it was great! However instead of making the cola notes pop it instead really made the linden pop which was less than ideal…

It’s not that I mind the taste of linden leaf, but there’s just so much of it in this blend that I find it a little off putting.

Made this one two afternoons ago, when I got home from work.

Honestly the only issue I really have with this one is that even after washing the strainer like three times after steeping this I swear it still smells strongly of peppermint and chocolate. It’s just so potent of a flavour that extra, extra care has to be given to whatever you make it in…

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.