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Cold Brew Sipdown (144)!

Not a real sipdown; I strained my brew and made it through about half way before I just reached my limit. I can’t do the intense, cloying licorice root flavour that makes up like 90% of this blend. The remaining 10% is mint; but even the bit that pokes through is ruined by the licorice that engulfs everything with its grossness.

I had probably another 20g of this left, but I just threw it out. I can’t see myself ever finishing it, and I wouldn’t want to pass something this unpleasant onto someone else.

Well, root canal day has come and gone!

It went well enough; pretty painless both during and with the recovery afterwards. It was a long time coming; I started saving for it months ago and even had some help from some very generous people here on Steepster who pitched in towards the cost because I was struggling so much to put together enough to get it done.

All in all the very scary final cost was $1,121. I will get 50% of that back thanks to dental benefits from Job #1, I just have to wait until my benefits claim clears first. Having to pay all of that up front was a nightmare though and after rent and groceries for the month I have literally $27.00 left in my bank account. It’s kind of terrifying, but at least I don’t have to worry about waking up in pain every few hours each night. That’s a huge relief.

I had this one at work in the evening on root canal day; because I was still kind of out of it, and had some weird mouth shenanigans going on I wanted to stick to something I’d tried before instead of making something new and not being totally sure if I was getting an accurate reading. This was as good a tea as any; really appreciate the sweet pear like fruity notes! And it was the perfect level of sweet.

It definitely helped to make a miserable day a little happier.

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally 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.

Made this one hot during a lazy afternoon last week where I was just kind of lounging around the house before work. Sort of in and out of napping, sipping away at a mug of tea in between drowsy minutes lost…

I don’t remember a whole lot about this one because I was so out of it/tired – but from what I do remember I think the ginger was pretty strong, but balanced out by the sage and then with a lighter orange like flavour in the finish. Or something like that? I liked it well enough, but I’ll need to revisit it when I’m a bit more put together.

Another of the new ones from August Uncommon.

When I saw this one, I wanted to be excited for it so badly because Pineapple tea! But all I could think about what “What if it tastes like DAVIDsTEA’s Grilled Pineapple?” ’cause the ingredients are fairly similar, and Grilled Pineapple was SO BAD. So, I had a lot of hesitation brewing this one up…

However I didn’t need to because it’s REALLY GOOD. I was expected something a bit more bold and fruity in flavour, but it was actually quite light and buttery with a sort of lightly toffee like note, some soft roastiness from the barley, and then this sort of fruity pineapple undertone that was really soft/delicate and kind of reminded me of the sort of softer pineapple glaze/sweetness on cakes like Pineapple Upside Down Cake or even the brown ‘outer crust’ type part of Angel Food cake that’s sort of like a caramelized sugar type thing? I don’t know if that descriptor makes any sort of sense, or if anyone will know what part of Angel Food I’m talking about – but like that but a bit fruitier.

So good though! I feel like even my descriptors don’t really do it justice. It was such a pleasant surprise though – it made me really happy.

Sipdown (145)!

Finished this one off on the bus ride home from work; I just brought the sample packet with me and made it on my way out of the store…

It’s weird how bang on the watermelon smell/taste is given there’s no actual melon in the blend (apart from, I assume, flavouring). It’s just so convincing, sweet and juicy though! And that also really comes through in the flavour. At first it’s light, freshly cut grass but it transitions so gently into a sweeter, fruity watermelon with bright plummy undertones. I don’t think I’d call it the most natural watermelon flavour, it’s a bit too sweet I think; but it’s not cloying or overly artificial either. What it reminds me of is those watermelon five cent candies that are like little pink gummy wedges? Very similar to that, but a fraction less candy like. It’s really good and I definitely want more of it.

Wishlisting this for future Tea Taxi orders…

Advent Calendar Day Four

This is one of those Dammann Freres teas that I feel like I’ve seen it reviewed a million time, and always sort of gone “huh, that sounds nice” and then promptly forgotten about until the next time I saw it reviewed – so I’m quite excited to actually be getting around to trying it myself.

This is just so motherfucking good. That’s right; good enough to surpass ‘fucking good’ and go all the way to ‘motherfucking’! I took my first baby sip when it was still hot, and was like instantly drooling and ready to go back for a big gulp even though that would have most definitely burned my tongue.

The flavours just come through so well, in particular the sweet candied apricot with is just so sweet, fruity and uplifting. It almost feels like it’s just bouncing off my tongue; the flavour is so playful and juicy. The maple/toffee come through well too in the body of the sip, though I did feel like the finish was maybe a bit more like a soft honey note rather than maple/toffee/caramel. It also has complimenting notes of sweet, freshly sliced orange and light apple-y undertones.

Really magical, and smooth with such a lovely profile that’s clear and has rich, full bodied flavour while still feeling light and whimsical! This is my favourite from the calendar so far – though I’m hoping that I haven’t peaked at day four in this advent as there are many more teas to go…

#ProjectTeaWall

I’ve been kind of dreading checking this one off the list, but since I’d had two good green teas so far on shift I figured I’d press my luck and hope to be surprised and get a third good green one today…

No such luck; but I’m not surprised. I pretty well know I wouldn’t be the biggest fan of this one: I don’t like green tea, I don’t like ginger, and I’m not a big licorice root or stevia person either and this has all four. And I mean, I guess considering that, it wasn’t so bad because I did finish it even with all the ingredients I disliked – I just grimaced the whole time. It SO gingery, and then the licorice root/stevia kick in during the finish/aftertaste so after all that ginger you’re just ending on such a sweet note. I get why it exists, don’t get me wrong, but I’m definitely not the intended target audience.

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally 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.

#ProjectTeaWall

It was a green tea heavy day for me at work today…

That’s probably for the best given there’s so many I need to try/check off the list. This is another one that, like Witch’s Brew, is on its way out of stores once stock runs out. I had it hot and found it surprisingly pleasant; based on the ingredients list I was skeptical of whether or not I’d like it. I did keep my steep time light handed though, which probably helped.

Strongest flavours in the cup were the raspberry, fig, and rosehip with just teeny tiny whisps of the currant, and ginko. The actual green tea base was very light as well; mostly masked by the fruit notes. Overall it was just smooth, mellow and fruity which made it really easy to sip on inbetween helping customers. I’m just a little sad now that is is a retired blend but as a coworker put it today “It’s just sort of forgettable overall, even though it’s not bad at all” and I think she was right. This was nice to drink, but nothing about it stands out so I guess I see why it’s not sticking around long term.

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally 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.

#ProjectTeaWall

So, I’m not a HUGE fan of straight green tea but Mao Jian is one of the ones I’m a bit more on the fence about so I figured if I was gonna start tackling the straight greens on the wall this would be a good branching off point.

I grabbed this one hot when I went for lunch today during my shift; and I actually chose what I wanted to eat from the food court today kind of around the tea. I mean, Mao Jian probably isn’t a natural pairing for most food court type foods – but I settled on some Tzatziki fries from Opa! and it worked really well!

The tea itself was super fresh and fragrant with notes of sweet dew, fresh Spring flowers, ripe peaches, and then more mellow vegetal undertones. There’s a reason this is a borderline green tea for me, and that’s that it’s just so naturally sweet and refreshing! I was surprised that the Tzatziki fries worked so well too; the cool cucumber notes and lemon in the sauce on the friends seemed to pull out some of the fruitier notes of the tea and exaggerate that aspect, while also sort of seamlessly hiding the vegetal notes of the tea that I wouldn’t normally like underneath the cool, creamy flavor of the cucumber.

So, a HUGE success overall!

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally 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.

Drank this one earlier in the week on shift;

This particular shift I didn’t end up crossing anything off the list for Project Tea Wall because I spent the whole shift in the back stock room working on various projects, so this was the only tea I drank that day.

I made it up for myself as a Soy Latte though because I was craving a latte, but wanted to try something familiar and, at the same time, that I normally wouldn’t think to make as a latte. It was between this one and Mango Madness but I can always make Mango Madness at home, and I wasn’t 100% confidant that all the citrus in the latter wouldn’t curdle the milk.

This was definitely different as a latte; but not bad. It still had that special brightness to it, but mostly it was creamy cherry with rose/floral undertones. The coconut didn’t come through at all, really. It definitely satisfied the craving I had in that moment, and I appreciated the nice level of sweetness it had overall too. Even if it’s not my favourite latte I’ve ever had, it wasn’t the worst either.

Friendly reminder that I’m not currently numerically rating DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently seasonally 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.