16343 Tasting Notes
This is a queued tasting note.
We had a fun shift the other day where we made a couple different teas into lattes that are “do not latte” list, just to kind of try them. Of course, when you latte a tea on that list it obviously curdles – but you can strain the curdled parts out of the tea and then you’re usually left with a REALLY interesting drink.
Turns out that when you make this one as a latte you REALLY get to taste the rhubarb in it. Personally, I’ve always felt like the rhubarb in this one when prepared normally just isn’t distinctly present as anything other than tartness. This way? It’s all rich, creamy rhubarb custard notes! I greatly enjoyed it and if it wasn’t such a hassle to prepare you can bet your ass I’d be doing it all the time.
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.
To say I’m a fan of this blend is definitely an understatement – it’s probably my all time favourite “Pina Colada” blend, although Camellia Sinensis’ One Night In Rio! is certainly up there. However, since this one is limited edition it’s become one of those “treat your self” teas reserved for special occasions or really shitty days.
In this case – it was for a shitty work day. It was just one of those days where we were painfully under staffed for how busy it was, so nothing was getting done on time and the cleaning/closing duties were just piling up. That wasn’t really the fault of anyone working; it was just much busier than had been anticipated. Queue the Tropicalia Soy Latte!
It’s just so sweet and smooth, with great tropical coconut notes that meld harmoniously into the hot soy and really rich, vibrant pineapple notes. Those tropical pineapple notes are the perfect balance between candy-like and natural, and they seem to bounce right out of the liquor onto the tip of your tongue as you take a sip. As they do so, they just so slightly pull out the coconut flavour from the milk it’s weaved into so it’s present, though still melded with the soy milk.
Man – I just REALLY want a pina colada tea that I can make into a latte that’s part of the core collection; I ADORE this as a latte, and when I finish off this batch from VariaTEA I’m not going to have a herbal to escape with during the work day at DT because everything pina colada-esque has hibby in it, and would curdle.
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.
So this was cold brewed, then run through the soda stream and finally topped up with white rum and ice. Yeah…
It kind of sucked. It was just really bitter and astringent, and almost had a chemical/cleaner like finish to it. Something a public elementary school janitor would use to scrub down and sanitize the toilets. I let my mom try it while I took a picture of her taking the first sip. It looks like someone just told her that her brand new puppy, that her parents bought her for Christmas, was run over by a bus.
Nope.
Many thanks to the best tea twin in the world, VariaTEA for so thoughtfully sending a birthday package my way! The March Box from Tea Sparrow showed up this afternoon, and I’m very excited to dig into it since this is a company that is new to me!
I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate timing – but currently I’m sick so I waiting to try all of these new teas until my palate is in tip top shape. The exception to that is this tea which I decided was worth trying now for a few reasons. The main one is that I don’t like ginger a whole lot, so it sort of feels best to drink it while I’m sick and can’t taste all that well. However, ginger tea is also just a good sick tea in general so I thought maybe it’d actually end up helping in the long run, and that would be a bonus. Finally, this whole box is “honey” themed it’s recommended you try the teas with honey, and honey is definitely good for a sore throat so that just further strengthened my resolve to drink this one now.
I have to say, I was REALLY surprised how much I liked this. Now, maybe that IS because I’m sick and my palate is a bit wonky – but maybe not. I’ll have to revisit when I feel better just to see. This was just so sweet and smooth though with not only really nice honey and ginger notes but almost a molasses like quality and graham and malt undertones from the black tea base. It came together in a way that really had me thinking of gingerbread or ginger snaps. It was surprisingly strong, given my muted sense of taste, and really enjoyable.
I’ll still fighting back that cold from yesterday – though thankfully it’s yes to progress any further past stuffy discomfort. In an effort to do so, I’m drinking quite a bit of Cod 911. In fact, it was both my first and last teas of the day tonight.
To start, I brewed up an extra menthol-y tasting cuppa at job #1 to kick start my work day and get me going enough to not pass out from moving boxes/sorting donations all day. The second cup/night time one was tonight at work with a TON of honey. At that point in the day I felt fine/totally alert but my nose was so stuffed I couldn’t breathe through it at all. The second cup definitely got me just drippy enough that I wasn’t uncomfortable.
God bless you, sick 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.
Latte!
…but not necessarily one that I’d recommend. That’s not to say it tasted bad though, it’s not quite that simple I’m afraid. The main issue is that the tea DEFINITELY curdles when you latte it. To be completely fair, looking at the ingredients list for this tisane I 100% knew that was a possibility; there’s apple and a few other things that could have enough citric acid to curdle a drink.
So, I ended up with a curdled latte. That’s not the end of the world though; I just strained the liquor (twice for good measure) so all the curdled parts of it were out and then I was left with an actual latte – and a lilac colored one, no less!
And it tasted SO good! It was essentially exactly like going through the motion of eating slice of cherry pie, complete with scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream. The mouthfeel was silky and rich, sans curdled bits. The first taste? This gentle, light cinnamon that could have easily been cinnamon sugar dusted over pie crust or sprinkled on ice cream. From there, sweet and succulent cherry compote/pie filling notes with apple cider-y undertones and finally a creamy finish from the milk base.
So good – just a real hassle.
Free sample that Camellia Sinensis added into my latest order!
I swear, they’ve added in Darjeeling teas a few times now – not that I mind, but I do find it interesting since I tend to order oolongs from them primarily (and Lapsang/blends) so it does seem like a bit of a weird choice.
I added a smidgen of honey to this one because initial sips were a bit too astringent for my tastes. With the added honey, that resulted in a pretty smooth muscatel blend with an overarching autumnal feel to it and a bit of a floral undertone. Relatively enjoyable, though nothing exceptional.
This is a queued tasting note.
Had this one iced a while back during a shift; I greatly enjoy this one, it’s just so robustly fruity with really amazing raspberry notes and pomegranate undertones. Plus it hardly tastes like a green tea at all, what with the three different base teas all contributing a bit of flavour each.
So happy that project tea wall led me to trying this tea – I doubt I would have otherwise.
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 (203)!
This is another tea that I get to thank the wonderful VariaTEA for! Sadly, I didn’t get to experience as much of this as I would have liked to. I had the cup all brewed up and was basking in my first initial sips which were lovely and filled with sweet maple, and a thicker mouthfeel from the milk I’d added to the brew. It was at that point, however, that I bumped the counter that the cup of tea was sitting on, and tipped the whole cup over.
Just like that – more than three quarters of the cup were gone. I did enjoy the little bit of a taste I did get though; reminded me a lot of DT’s Cardamom French Toast but more maple and less astringency.
This is a queued tasting note.
So, I haven’t been a big drinker as of late – not that I’ve stopped, I still enjoy the casual cocktail every now and then – more often than not tea infused as well. Saint Patrick’s Day rolled around though, and I realized I had literally no interesting in drinking to celebrate it. So what did I do instead? Well my mom and I decided to just do something small and grab an iced matcha latte. That way we were still participating by drinking something green, even if it wasn’t a pint.
We grabbed the same thing; an iced peach matcha latte! Perfectly green and appropriate for the day, but hangover free! This isn’t my favourite of our flavoured matches, but I have to say that I do have a particular fondness for it prepared iced, either straight or as a latte. As always it had that candy and artificial sugary sweetness to it, and the fruit notes are just a bit too juicy/lively for this to seamlessly become a “Peaches and Cream” style flavour in latte form, but it was still really good and very satisfying in the moment.
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.
