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#TryAllTheBubbleTea

Next up in my project of trying all the bubble teas… Raspberry!

So, this one surprised me. I was expecting something sweet, and maybe a little artificial tasting that would be really in line with the strawberry bubble tea flavour that I had a little while ago. That was certainly not what I got. I mean, it did taste a little bit artificial but mostly it tasted pretty sour/tart. Ultimately, I think the profile reminded me of raspberry Sour Patch Kids or Warheads more than anything else. It was a tasty enough profile, but that sort of tartness and candy element is not something I typically associate with bubble tea and I felt like I was drinking more of a Slush Puppy than anything else.

I didn’t dislike it, and I suppose I’d drink it again – but honestly this one has 100% been the strangest and most surprising flavour I’ve had to date. I mean, I really thought this was going to be one of the safer/more boring flavour options but… nah.

Hot cuppa, with a bit of vanilla agave.

Adding vanilla agave to this had pros and cons; it really, really pushed the creamy elements and very much helped this taste like a rich vanilla heavy tea (with undertones of lemongrass). The con was that the agave also kind of exaggerated the stevia in the tea too. I wonder if there’s any balance to that? Can I get the amplified vanilla without more stevia? ’Cause if so then I definitely want to.

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.

Decided to try the Chocolate Macaroon ‘Hot Chocolate On a Stick’ – it was actually quite good, but also not exactly like the tea at all? I mean, thick and rich chocolate notes and hints of coconut. As a hot chocolate, it totally stands up! However, didn’t remind me at all of the tea its based on, apart from the obvious chocolate connection.

I’d drink it again, for sure – but as a hot chocolate and not a recreation of the 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.

One more cup and this is a sipdown…

I over steeped it a little bit so it had a slight bitter edge to it, but mostly this was thick and rich with great malty dark chocolate notes. The bitterness almost even complimented the chocolate; sort of like a dark chocolate kind of thing? Again, almost.

Cold Brew!

I really, really should do a side by side of this one and 52Teas Passionfruit de la Creme because after I’d strained this cold brew it was practically indistinguishable from the aforementioned 52Teas blend – complete with candied fruit notes and even the vanilla. It was very weird, ‘cause while they are both white passion fruit teas they don’t share any other overlapping ingredients…

I mean, I liked it a lot though. That sort of creamy passion fruit is an awesome flavour!

Notes of grapes, lychee, and jasmine.

I wanted to like this one again; I remember being pretty impressed with it overall the first time I tried it. I think I must have over steeped it though because in addition to those lovely fruit notes and florals it was also super bitter AND astringent.

Yuck.

Finally getting around to trying this one.

It’s not bad; reminds me a lot of those little caramel squares you can buy in bulk for like five cents at most corner stores. In a way that’s a good though; I LOVED those as a kid and there’s certainly a nostalgia factor for me. However, they’re also just a touch plastic-y tasting and very artificial – not the worlds best caramel flavour. I love the base choice here though; it does have the toasty/nuttyness of Houjicha but it’s like a softer, smoother version of it from the white tea used to ‘cut it’. That aspect works very well. I’d love to see it applied to other types of flavours.

Sipdown (519)!

I had been holding out on finishing this one off ‘cause I wanted to try it Gong Fu but I finally admitted to myself I didn’t really leave enough for that to happen so I just brewed up this last bit Western instead. Not a huge deal; I do have a VERY similar purple tea from a different vendor that I’ll be able to try out Gong Fu instead.

For this sipdown, though, I decided to add in some lemon infused honey as well just ’cause I had a bit of a scratchy, sore throat and I thought that would be a good compliment to the more vegetal/edamame tasting notes that the tea already has while still being soothing on my throat. It actually somewhat eclipsed the taste of the tea completely though, and I mostly just ended up tasting the lemon.

Meh.

Sipdown (520)!

Hot with a single pump of agave.

I think I remember this one being somewhat tasteless last time I had it, and that was still sort of true this time around. With the agave, it did have a bit more ‘pop’ to it, with an almost candied lemon sort of taste. I think that lemon was supposed to be the ‘cola’ in the blend since spice and lemon are often paired to recreate the taste of cola and I think it sort of worked; but it was a transparent attempt. There were hints of cinnamon also, but very mild. Nothing that would remind me of rum, either.

So not a TERRIBLE cup in terms of just tasting bad, but far from hitting the mark for what was advertised…

From last week.

Really thick, viscous and almost syrupy mouthfeel with deep woody notes, some cinnamon, and almost candied red apple notes. Very well balanced and interesting profile overall; it made me deeply like cinnamon sugar crepes or French Toast. Something about the sweetness of the spice overall and thickness of the mouthfeel…