16396 Tasting Notes
From earlier in the week!
I had some fun the other night with tea mixology/tea infused cocktails and from that kind of wave of inspiration I birthed a really tasty tea cocktail using this as the base! I started with a cold brew of this tea, and that ended up being used as the bulk of the drink. Here’s the recipe though:
I started by prepping the glass I was going to be serving in by giving it a vodka rinse, then in a separate glass I prepared the following…
- 1 oz. of brown sugar simple syrup
- 1 1/2 oz. of Grand Marnier
- 4 oz. of Sage Rose cold brew
- Shake with ice, then pour into already prepared glass
- Express with an orange peel
Pretty simple, right!? I mean, it’s definitely not the strongest cocktail in the world/not something you’d drink to get drunk but flavour wise it was really good. Just this great balance of smooth orange, sweet molasses like brown sugar, and then this great undertone/finish of herbaceous sage and floral rose in the finish from the tea base. I think it leans a little to the sweet side ’cause the brown sugar is a pretty strong ingredient but you could either experiment with a smaller amount or possibly try adding in drop or two of saline to see if that helps balance it a little bit more.
Also, as far as the brown sugar simple syrup goes you make it that same way as normal simple syrup but just sub in brown sugar instead of white. Very, very easy to do and really lovely flavour. Plus is adds this gorgeous deep brown hue which has a nice aesthetic factor too.
A picture: https://www.instagram.com/p/BdwcmAsFAXD/?taken-by=ros_strange
I need to work on my garnishing skills. Also, I’d love if that wasn’t the only cocktail type glass that I owned, but oh well.
Last new one!
I was kind of scared of this one when it was announced to staff; I’ve had some pretty unpleasant tea experiences with blends that had hot pepper in them. 52Tea’s Napalm Ferret springs to mind as well as Chocolate Kisses Chili from RiverTea. I also don’t love the use of the word ‘Cleanse’ in the name of the tea – it’s right up there with teas that use the name “Detox” or “Teatox” for me, but that’s a whole ‘nother thing that I don’t want to get into. If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while you’ve heard me express distaste at that usage and know my thoughts…
As far as the cayenne in this tea goes? Not an issue for me! I have the most delicate taste buds when it comes to spice – I am a complete and total wuss. So take it from me that this barely has any spice to it at all. Just a little bit of a tickle in the finish, the same way I experience with ginger or peppercorn heavy blends. I don’t think anyone is gonna be burning their tongues off with this one. Which for me, at least, is a good thing.
And the rest of it is pretty lovely! It’s really intensely lemon flavoured but in a way that feels both natural/realistic and also sweet. Like, I get hints of pith/peel from the flavour but also fresh squeezed lemon juice. In fact, I think this would make a REALLY SOLID lemonade like flavour if you iced it. Apart from that very rich lemon note, there are undertones of both lime and apple as well but they’re very much not the focus flavour here. Just something that adds a bit more depth to keep this from feeling more one dimensional/flat.
I’m really into this one, guys – I didn’t expect it to be the kind of tea that I would eagerly/enthusiastically be recommending to people for taste over wellness benefits. I mean, I’m still going to end up talking about it from a wellness perspective a lot – that’s unavoidable with the name, but at least I can lead with the fact I genuinely loved the taste.
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.
Next up from the new Spring/Wellness collection.
Personally I was disappointed when I saw we were using GABA green tea rather than oolong for this blend – partly ‘cause I just usually don’t like green tea but also because I think a more exotic/tropical fruity oolong would have been more diversifying to the current tea wall line up while still tasting really delicious. There are so many fruity green teas; and I mean one of the other teas in this collection is already a fruity green so I just think that would have been the more interesting choice…
That said, I kind of fucking love this blend. I definitely did NOT expect to, but when I cracked open the first bag of this to fill the fresh wall tin I was blown away with how yummy and fruity it smelled. I mean, total guava notes but also a lot of other really enticing, rich fruity aromas like the red currant. I never would have thought to pair red currants and guava, but it works.
Taste wise, this is fruity and sweet while still having good balance/overall smoothness to it and not tasting cloying or artificial at all. It’s got some lovely guava notes, but also a good mix of sweet orange and red currant that all play together in a way that deepens the flavour of each fruit as an individual tasting note and makes the juiciness/ripeness kind of pop a bit more in the top notes – especially the orange. Totally the more elegant, more put together version of Guava Cadabra, which is also delicious but pretty sweet/juice like. And I don’t mind the green tea base at all. It works with the delicateness/smoothness of it all. I really, really love blends that can be soft and delicate but still flavourful; it almost feels like an oxymoron but it exists and is tantalizing.
Possibly my favourite of the new teas; though Lemon Cayenna Cleanse is up there too.
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.
New tea from this year’s Spring/Wellness collection.
I think most on Steepster know that I don’t drink tea for the ‘wellness’ benefits, I drink it almost purely for taste so every year this is one of the hardest collections for me because the focus is so weighted towards the wellness benefits of the different blends. This one, in particular, is meant for digestion because of the added strain of probiotics. None of that is bad, I just wish it wasn’t the MAIN selling point. However, I guess I have learned a lot about probiotics since we launched this one – I did a lot of research because if I’m going to sell a tea with this sort of unusual added benefit then I want to make sure I’m doing so factually and accurately.
All of that aside, though, I’m just gonna focus on overall taste with my reviews because that’s what I care about – and in that regard I really wanted to like this tea because it sounded great! It’s basically mint, vanilla, and sarsaparilla with a bit of cinnamon. The combo of the first three things there had me excited though because sarsaparilla is what makes rootbeer taste like rootbeer, and the vanilla I thought could add a nice ‘float’ element. Finally, mint is sometimes used in homemade rootbeer or rootbeer flavoured things in combination with things like cinnamon and vanilla to sort of recreate the flavour of rootbeer. So basically, this should have rootbeer vibes – and I am INTO THAT.
However, in practice it didn’t really remind me of rootbeer? I just didn’t taste any sarsaparilla and while the mint, cinnamon, and vanilla were all present flavours for me they didn’t do that thing where they merged together to create one seamless flavour. Instead, they were very much all distinct, unique flavour notes. So the illusion was just broken for me. Also, I think the mint was stronger than the other two ingredients. That said, it didn’t taste bad or anything – it was just disappointing because it wasn’t what I wanted/expected. I think if I revisited with adjusted expectations that I could get into it though.
Also, worth noting that while I couldn’t grasp the rootbeer imagery I’ve had SEVERAL customers express that it smells/tastes like rootbeer to them and I’ve heard a couple staff say they really get the whole rootbeer float imagery. So maybe it comes down to ratio of ingredients in your scoop of tea or just an overall palate thing where some are able to distinguish individual ingredients rather than some who more get the ‘sum of the parts’ kind of experience? I don’t know.
One thing that’s been recommended to me is trying this iced because that helps bring out the rootbeer quality more? I guess I’ll have to try that before I make up my mind entirely.
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.
Sipdown (487)!
Another Butiki tea courtesy of Kittenna – although this another that I never got a chance to try. If I remember correctly it was a ‘mystery’ flavour that Stacy released during her closing sales? I can’t remember exactly what flavours it ended up being in actuality, though.
To me, however, I’m getting really robust and sweet notes of almond, cream, and red fruits such as strawberry, cherry, currant, and pomegranate. A mix of all those sort of red fruit notes though to create one big and somewhat more generic “red superfruit” instead of super clear distinct notes of ALL those red fruits. The almond cream mix makes me think of marzipan though, and I also get grenadine a little bit from the overall sweet, syrupy quality of the red fruit notes. It’s impressive how rich and robust the flavours are given the age of the overall.
The base itself is pretty strong too; it’s a CTC grade which means a lot more leaf surface to water when steeping which is automatically gonna make it a really intense, full bodied brew but it’s still quite smooth with rich notes of malt and a brisk, clean finish. Hints of cacao, and a bit of bread like taste too. It works well with the added flavours.
Loved this one overall – it was a REALLY strong, pleasant cup! Glad I got to experience it!
This was indeed one of the mystery flavours from the closing sales. I don’t believe I got #1, or if I did, it was a sample of someone else’s pouch.
I guess the only time I logged this tea was before the contest was over, so I didn’t say anything about what was in it! I bet Stacy might remember or have it noted somewhere.
I actually hunted it down out of curiosity, and on the FB page she says it’s the Crimson Horizon base with added marshmallow, raspberry, and pistachio flavours :)
Oh wow, I didn’t think to look there! I did check my Steepster messages + email though to see if I could find a record of my guesses, but couldn’t. That combo sounds familiar now!
Sipdown (487)!
Many thanks to the wonderful Kittenna for including a whole bunch of Butiki teas with the different tea samples she sent my way! This was one of two she sent that I’d actually tried before but when I initially tried it I didn’t get a good representation of its flavours because of the brewing conditions I steeped it in so I was really excited to get a second crack at it.
Overall I thought this was lovely – I’ve tried a lot more Taiwanese blacks teas since I was initially introduced to this tea years ago and I’ve found that they’re almost always a real delight for me! This had a lot of notes I’ve come to associate with both Taiwanese blacks and bug bitten teas; heavy malt, underlying honey sweetness, and baked bread for example. I also found I got a little bit of a heavier, thick sort of cinnamon undertone as well in this cup and a little bit of fruityness in the top of the sip – red fruit like currants and pomegranate kind of springs to mind?
Tasty overall, and just a really good experience/revisit.
Sipdown (488)!
Little bonus sample in my most recent AQTT shipment!
I’ve definitely eyed this one up before on the site, but always skip over it because as nice as it sounds the whole orange and chocolate pairing is so easily accessible that I usually opt to focus on the more unique offerings that Lauren has.
Steeped up, sure enough this is basically just chocolate and orange. It channels the same delicious, smooth and sweet “Terry’s Chocolate Orange” flavour that I’ve experienced with so many other company’s take on the pairing and while it definitely IS really well done and balanced I’m also finding that the rum notes are missing for me and that was the only element to this tea that would have put it a notch above similar teas.
Definitely tasty, and if you’re looking for a good chocolate orange blend for your cupboard and already placing an order with AQTT then you’re not going to be doing yourself a disservice picking up this one, but it’s not the kind of tea that I think someone would go out of their way to get specifically from AQTT when they have so many other equally tasty but more unique offerings.
This one was interesting.
I grabbed it mostly for the cashew/beet components; I thought that was really interesting/unique and I was excited to see how that would play out. Steeped up, I found the most prominent flavours were actually the ‘chocolate cake’ elements; this definitely conveyed a very fudge like, moist sort of chocolate cake taste to me. The cashew unfortunately was lost to me; instead I found myself pleasantly surprised by the subtle coconut undertones to the cup. As for the beet, I expected it to mostly end up being a colour thing – contributing aesthetically to the tea. However, I didn’t see much beet/pink sort of hue to the steeped liquor – instead I did feel like I got some subtle earthiness and beet-like sweetness in the flavour, so it was represented within the tea. Very smooth overall, and not too sweet.
Overall, I don’t think that this was what I was expecting/hoping for but I did enjoy it and of the many chocolate cake themed teas I’ve experienced I think this would actually conveyed that flavour very well and is one of few that I’ve tried where I actually feel like I’m excited to steep it up again. I just wish there was more cashew nuttiness in the cup.
Late night Western mug of tea.
Mostly found this one to taste incredibly woody. It actually strongly reminded me of the smell of my Grandpa’s workshop back when I was still a small kid and he still actively used it. My grandma didn’t like me going near the shop unattended because of all the sharp things in it like the bandsaws, various chainsaws, and nails and things strewn about, but during the summer when we went to visit I used to sneak into it when she’d take her afternoon nap. I never messed with the tools or anything; I just wanted to smell it. It smelled so good.
Apart from that intense woody quality, there’s obviously some earthiness to this but also a slightly nutty finish and an almost oat-like quality. It’s very, very smooth and mellow overall and I think it’ll make a nice daily drinker sort of tea where I can just sip away at it pretty mindlessly and still enjoy the overall profile.
Sipdown (489)!
I was talking to Oolong-Nug and a few others a couple days ago about hoarding tendencies, and how I’ve held onto a lot of green oolongs because I’m scared to let go of that last session of tea and it inspired me in the moment to finish off a tea that I’ve just been holding onto a single session’s worth of – this one!
So I brewed this one up Gong Fu and enjoyed it during the hangout with some tea friends and their pets! It was actually really nice, and it was a follow up to a heavier tea I’d brewed out just like a half hour earlier so the fact it was sweeter and lighter overall definitely felt a little more overt/noticeable and I think I had a greater appreciation because I was getting that almost immediate kind of contrast.
Obviously this is really rose heavy in general – but that works for me; I absolutely love rose flavoured/scented teas, especially around Spring/the change of seasons. I went on a pretty intense floral tea binge last year in the spring time, which is I think when I initially ordered this one anyway!? Apart from the rose, it’s also pretty green. My first few infusions had a bit of sharpness in regard to that grassy element but it mellowed out overall and the later infusions were more of a mix of soft grass elements and light fruit undertones such as fresh peach.
I didn’t track the number of infusions but I’d guess it was probably close to ten. Middle and end of the session were the highlights for the more mellowed out grassy oolong notes. I’d order this again if that floral sort of obsession hits again this Spring – I’ll just have to more diligent in working against those hoarding tendencies.
