16017 Tasting Notes
Cold Brew Sipdown (122)!
Made a pitcher of this one, and I’m sure glad I decided to take a thermos of it with me to work the morning after I strained it because I came home from work and both roommate had already polished it off!
I didn’t mind this one; the blueberry came through quite clearly and strongly for me. I didn’t taste the other two berries so much, though. What was really missing for me was just a bit of sweetness. Instead this had a little bit of a drier, flatter taste that left me wanting more out of each sip. Not as good as DT’s Blueberry Jam, imo.
This is a queued tasting note.
Had this iced with honey the other day on shift; I’ve been drinking a lot more tea with honey as of late. Not sure why the sudden shift; I guess I just really like/appreciate the flavour? I found that the honey added to this exaggerated the red berry notes/raspberry in a very pleasant way. Conversely, aspects like the juniper seemed more masked/covered. Like anything it’s give and take.
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 is a queued tasting note.
#ProjectTeaWall
So, I was REALLY excited about this tea because it’s been a while since DAVIDsTEA has carried a straight Pu’erh and I think it’s something that’s sorely missing on the tea wall. I actually get so many people who ask about the Pu’erh category on the wall and unlike every other tea type I didn’t (until now) have something I could pull down for them to smell in reference to the straight tea I was talking about. Now we just need a Sheng tea again so I can reference both Sheng and Shou when I talk to customers…
Anyway; I was really excited. Then I smelled the dry leaf though, and I got much more skeptical because it smelled really fishy and gross. I’ve been spoiled by higher quality Pu’erh and this definitely seems like a bit of a step down from what I’ve been drinking lately. I’m gonna give it as fair a chance as I can, though!
5 Sec. Wash/rest
5 Sec.
- Thick mouthfeel; top note is earthy
- Cuts in quickly with a fishy foulness worthy of Captain Sham
Anyone else binging A Series of Unfortunate Events or is that just me?
5 Sec.
- Very dark liquor
- Still both earthy and fishy
- Some very light top note sweetness; I really have to focus in on it though
7 Sec.
- Maybe a little more leveled out?
- Picking up a barley-like note now
- Earthy body, gross finish…
- I’m gonna try two more infusions before I call it quits on this one unless it improves…
10 Sec.
- Significantly less oily/fishy!
- Does have a “muddy” earthiness
- Some barley/grainy qualities
- Finish is SO long lingering
12 Sec.
- Feels a little rounded overall
- Barley/molasses/mud/earth/oil
- Huge improvement, but…
- I don’t think I can drink more of it either; it’s not improving fast enough
I tried; really I did.
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 is a queued tasting note.
Gong Fu/Stream of Consciousness style review:
5 sec rinse and rest…
5 sec
- Slight astringency + thick mouthfeel
- Thick malt top notes
- Body/finish = Rye, raisin, cocoa
7 sec
- Much the same as previous steep
- Perhaps more sweetness and more overall cocoa
10 sec
- Definitely feels more well rounded
- Malt/cocoa/honey/red fruits
- Lingering sweet finish
12 sec
- Top notes of honey and red fruits
- Raisin/malt slowly creep in
- Sweetness has a clean finish
- Malt lingers
15 sec
- Clean, sweet, fruity top notes
- Intro. of cane sugar notes??
- Otherwise pretty much the same as previous infusion
18 sec
- Malt, raisin, cocoa, red fruit, cane sugar, honey, caramel
- Feels quite well rounded and sweet now
25 sec
- Yes! Well rounded, clean profile
- Flavour of malt/raisin/cocoa is diminishing
- Which leaves stronger feeling, lovely fruit notes
I felt like this was both the decrescendo of the session as well as the sweet spot, but like often seems to happen I looked at the clock and realized that I had to stop the session to start getting ready for work. I would have loved to see this one through to completion though. It was an otherwise A+ session though, despite a bit of a harsher start.
This is a queued tasting note.
Gong Fu Session; stream of consciousness style review.
Rinse to wake up the tea leaf.
5 Sec
- Rosemary, cedar, corn silk, hay
- Really smooth
- Lingering Finish
7 Sec
- Really, really herbaceous
- Sweet body notes; honey
- Cedar/wet wood, hay
10 Sec
- Picking up some umami
- Wow… SO MUCH ROSEMARY
- Finish is sort of woody
- Creamed honey
12 Sec
- Basically a rehash of last infusion
- Still enjoyable albeit no new developments
15 Sec
- Repeat of flavour
- Really “feeling” the tea on the front 1/2 of my tongue
- Lingering taste and mouthfeel
25 Sec
- Strong herby/rosemary note is deteriorating a bit
- Finish is woody/salty
- I’m craving more body sweetness
35 Sec
- Final infusion because I’m growing bored and not getting much new
Today’s Cold Brew!
Big thanks to VariaTEA who recently sent me a huge tea parcel with over thirty different teas! That’s plenty to keep me all kinds of entertained for the foreseeable future as well as cull any urges for flavoured tea orders. Also, it puts me over 200 teas which is NOT where I want to be; so all the more reason not to order.
It was a little hard to decide where to start so I just randomly chose a tea for today.
It’s not nearly as tart as I expected it to be given the massive pieces of hibiscus I saw in the dry leaf and intense red/purple liquor that looks like it’s dark and rich enough to stain any piece of clothing I own; even the black clothing. The cherry comes through strongly and clearly and I’m pleased to report it doesn’t taste medicinal at all. Mostly this is just cherry with semi tartness. Given the name I’d expect a bit of flavour diversity: black forest definitely makes me think of the cake which has chocolate in it. This doesn’t.
But for what’s here it IS enjoyable.
So I didn’t realize I sent you that much tbh. I just got excited and decided to share all the things. I also didn’t actually measure out the teas I sent you so if there’s a lot of a tea and you don’t like it, obviously feel free to share.
It’s all good! It just feeds the “try all the teas” phase I seem to have reentered ;)
You and me both :P
So I realized I forgot to send you more Cranberry Pear in addition to the matchas. That’ll be the next box.
So it’s been a while since I wrote a tasting note…
There’s a reason for that though! My laptop’s motherboard short circuited and the laptop is completely toast now. So, RIP laptop. I have a new one now that I fucking HATE but for a little less than a week I was completely without a laptop/internet connection. In a way, it was a nice technology “detox” but admittedly I’m internet dependent so here I am. I’ve got lots of tasting notes to catch up on because I took advantage of the extra time to drink more tea – there may be some typing errors though, I have to learn to type on a new and much smaller laptop keyboard. Also, I have four+ years of muscle memory on my previous keyboard to unlearn…
Anyway, this was my commute tea today. I can definitely tell it’s getting to be more spring time because I find myself craving greener oolongs and floral blends this week, my ‘go to’ Spring staples. This was both of those! Really smooth though arguably more orange tasting than lemon.
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 (179)!
Very unfortunately, I didn’t take notes for this cup of tea and it’s been so long since I drank it that I hardly remember it at all. I do remember that it was delicious and amazing, but specifics? Nope. I think I’d say overall that it’s just nice and authentic to the name overall. Definitely one I’d entertain the idea of ordering more of…
#ProjectTeaWall
Finally checking off the last flavoured green on the list for project tea wall.
I took forever getting around to this one because I just don’t think it sounds good and every time I’ve opened the tin up for a customer I’ve thought it smelled unpleasant too. The ingredients are a little iffy in my books too…
All in all, I didn’t hate this. I mean, I finished the whole mug which is definitely a good sign. The best part was the juniper. I felt like I could taste it pretty well, and I like juniper a lot. The rest though? It was very wood-y with underlying grassy notes and then a strong lemon flavour which tasted very medicinal to me; neo-citron like, really.
Yeah; not buying into the hype of this one any time soon…
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 (180)!
I made this one quite a while back like probably two weeks ago for everyone closing with me at DAVIDsTEA one night. I didn’t feel super guilty brewing this one up for everyone on shift because it IS a DAVIDsTEA blend; it just happened to be online exclusive this year. Still, it’s probably good for everyone working to have tried it/have familiarity with it…
I’ve gotta say, we all thouroughly enjoyed watching this one infuse in the gravity steepers we use; it went through such a beautiful array of green shades including a STUNNING emerald green before it landed on an almost black-like swampy olive hue. That it and of itself was its own show!
I really enjoyed the cup; I love the smooth, mellow strawberry notes in this blend a whole lot. Everyone else seemed to be in agreement with me as well with the small exception of Stirling who enjoyed the tea but did not believe me that it was a strawberry rooibos. He was CONVINCED it was some sort of sweet/dessert like green tea and that I was just messing with him.
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.
