16790 Tasting Notes
Adventageddon Day 22
I was so surprised opening this up in the morning because there were actually two sachets of this tea. At first I thought it must have been a packaging mistake, but then it clicked that it’s actually a very sweet and cheeky bonus inclusion to fit the name of the tea. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone at home with me right now to share the extra sachet with – but I think it’s an adorable concept.
As far as taste goes, this is a pretty standard breakfast-style black tea. Brisk and full bodied with strong malty and woody notes and just a bit of a brighter citrus edge to it and some softer floral undertones. Really coppery and rich tasting. I debated adding some milk and sugar to make it more “classic breakfast blend” feeling but I was enjoying it a lot on its own so I left it that way.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5YtkaSoDn/?img_index=1
The mug I drank this out of is new (from the market I went to yesterday) and just STUNNING. I was scrolling through the artist’s IG page today and I think maybe it’s inspired by a pidgeon that got into her studio earlier in the year – a bit terrifying in practice because a wild bird is going to knock delicate teaware off shelves. However, I love the inspiration it clearly gave her – this cup series was so beautiful and I had a hell of a hard time deciding on which colour way to purchase. The white and pastel pink were really, really gorgeous as well.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCABjShJ5Zk&ab_channel=Birdtalker
Adventageddon Day 22
Gongfu!
Another interesting W2T tea from the Tea Thoughts advent today – both one I haven’t tried before and that I probably wouldn’t have thought to order for myself since the description doesn’t really speak to the flavour at all…
I liked this a lot. The leaf is a bit coarse and choppy looking, but it was velvety and roasty tasting with strong mineral and charred peanut/chestnut top notes before smoothly sliding into a round, mouth-coating sweet and jammy plum note with floral undertones of orchid and magnolia – an easy stand out for the day! Very happy that this was a larger 25g bag and that I’ll get to enjoy it more in the future.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5YtkaSoDn/?img_index=1
A few months ago I cracked the side of a pastel green gaiwan that I just adored, and after a few days of hunting I finally found this one from Yunnan Sourcing to replace it. It’s not an exact replacement since the interior is a different colour and has some fish and lotus detailing on the rim, but it’s pretty close!!
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3P987miBp8&ab_channel=TheHowl%26TheHum-Topic
(I think The Howl & The Hum is a VERY slept on band, and this most recent album is really fucking good. I’ve been listening to it a lot over the last month or so.)
Adventageddon Day 22
I’ve been following along on TikTok with someone who’s doing daily reviews of this advent, and he opened up today’s video by saying he was excited to see this “holiday classic” in the advent and, like, the amount of joy that brought me is just crazy…
At this point I’ve developed a bunch of new winter and Christmas teas for DT, but this is really the first one that I worked on that got SUPER popular to the point of being brought back year over year. For, like, three years now. And it’s just really, really cool to have had a hand in crafting some of these flavours that people have built holiday traditions around.
I also happen to really like this tea personally, so I was excited to see it and brew it up this afternoon. Though, I will admit that getting “sleep teas” during advent season is always a little awkward because I drink all my advent blends before 5PM so that I can post them at the same time on instagram. So, I made my cup of this and then probably in a not entirely unrelated chain of events ended up feeling really sleepy not long after and took a big cat nap…
I love the brightness of the orange in this tea, though, and how it’s then balanced out by all the warming, cozy notes of spice which take a bit of the edge of what might otherwise be interpreted as a little more of a lively and energizing flavour. It’s not as intensely spiced as Orange Spice/The Spice Is Right, but you still taste cinnamon and allspice pretty clearly and that bit of clove as well.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5YtkaSoDn/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZCCc5lEx74&ab_channel=EmmaHarner-Topic
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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Adventageddon Day 21
Is it even the 24 Days of Tea if it doesn’t include Santa’s Secret!? I think this is probably DT’s most iconic Christmas/Winter tea, so I knew it was going to pop up eventually. Honestly, I’m surprised it wasn’t the tea for the 24th though!
In the great “battle” between this tea and Candy Cane Crush I’m really much more of a Candy Cane Crush person, but I have to admit in the last year or so I’m starting to kind of level out between the two and I think my preference today would honestly be something somewhere in the middle.
Anyway, I saved this one for last today – not because of any negative reason but more because I knew I was going to be spending my afternoon at a Christmas/holiday art market called Puces Pop and I wanted to bring tea in a travel mug/thermos and this was my most festive adventageddon tea by a long shot. The market was really cool (and crowded!) and, of course, I didn’t leave home empty handed. I’m proud of myself for not picking up a ton of jewelry I won’t wear despite how freaking cool it was, buuuuut I did get a bunch of ceramics/pottery. Mostly teacups, but one mug too.
My biggest gripe with this tea has always been that the vanilla note tastes more like fondant than creamy vanilla, but actually sipping on this in the cold from my travel mug kind of took the edge off the vanilla and let me just warm up and melt into the smooth, silky black tea base and that hint of cooling peppermint. It really more like a gentle candy cane profile than thick frosting/sugar dough and I appreciated that a lot! Kind of crazy how drinking a tea in a travel thermos versus a mug versus a teapot can impact the flavour of a tea so noticeably – but not in a bad way. Those little inconsistencies add to the magic of tea for me.
Today’s Advent Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1
Not pictured – me opening this door absentmindedly and almost immediately falling down ten feet of stairs because the STEEP staircase to the market floor was less than a foot in front of this doorway. Thankfully I noticed at the very last second.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gDUUp5iKns&ab_channel=CigarettesAfterSex
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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Adventaggedon Day 21
Gongfu!
Every black tea that Inoki has included in this advent so far has totally slapped so my expectations were high. They were also met, though, as the dry aroma smelled richly of leatherbound antique books, fudge, and cigar smoke. Steeped up it was so thick and dense with a taste like a cross between dark chocolate dipped espresso beans, flame-licked rye bread, bourbon, and just a hint of campfire smoke. Really complex but dark and dense with a fleeting bitter top note before plunging into some of those richer notes.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9InmJ0es4&ab_channel=JessieReyez
Adventageddon Day 21
This was the second in a pair of pear teas that I started my morning with and I was super excited to see it because I know I really adore this blend. It’s on the more delicate side, as is somewhat to be expected with white teas. However, despite having that softer side it’s still plenty flavourful in a more dessert-y type of way. Pear over chestnut, but both notes present and kind of candied in nature. I love that there’s this sort of creamy, fresh undertone from the white tea itself that kind of pulls back some of the sugared notes. The finish is really nutty – that’s where the chestnut shines the most.
I actually paired this teacup with some chocolate and chestnut flavoured bean cakes that had some sesame on top, which was delicious and kind of emphasized some of the sweeter, nutty flavours bringing a touch more balance to the namesake pear and chestnut notes.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol9G4mxWiIQ&ab_channel=OracleSisters
Adventageddon Day 21
So close to the end now!
I whisked this up as my first tea today – though I actually started the day with a pair of pear teas. Both were a more delicate pear flavour, though this one was quite fresh, aromatic and floral in its undertones. Even though it is sweetened, I find that compared to the flavoured matchas from DT this one is much less sweet and also a lot more matcha forward – which adds to that fresh feeling with umami and grassy notes.
I also made it in a gorgeous red shinoware chawan that I bought from O5 when I last visited Vancouver. I’ve never gotten a nice photo of it on camera since sometimes it reflects the light weird or looks washed out, but I really like the photo I got of it today!
…of course my hand placement is awkward AF though. Definitely no future in the cards for me as a hand model.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_fr05mx5rI&ab_channel=VEAUX-Topic
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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Adventageddon Day 20
Gongfu!
Honestly, I didn’t notice until I was writing up my instagram recap that every tea I drank today was a green tea. How I didn’t notice is kind of baffling to me, because I guess maybe that speaks to how nice the teas all were?? If nothing else, this was a very nice genmaicha. Now, was gongfu the smartest way to steep it? Almost certainly not. But I was just really craving a gongfu session and I did like that it let me stretch out my time spent with this tea…
I think what impressed me so much with this one was how simultaneously fresh and buttery the green tea was while having a nutty, mineral and almost cocoa-like flavour from the genmai/rice. Really great balance between those two components that made this genmaicha seem so much more flavourful and full of like. Bad genmaicha isn’t usually really off tasting but it can be quite considerably flat and his was DEFINITELY not a flat tasting tea. Of course it steeped out quickly, so my three steeps were pushing it.
(Snacking on the rice out of the gaiwan afterwards was also a really nice experience.)
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0PAQWSm53/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0PAQWSm53/?img_index=1
Adventageddon Day 20
What an insanely cool looking tea to come from the Tea Thoughts advent today! I know that the company refers to it as a cigar and I can see why, but personally it made me think a lot of a bundle of campfire wood or even a pine tree all tied to itself before being brought home as a Christmas tree…
My gut impulse was to gongfu this tea thing, but I looked up the steeping through Nazanin’s info card and the company website just because it was a nice “format” of tea to me and I wanted to see if there was a traditional way to make it or any other type of recommendation, and it seemed like it was portioned out to be the right amount of tea to just let steep directly into a mug – so that’s what I did instead.
Honestly (and maybe this is me bringing in some bias towards green teas) I sort of felt like the flavour was a little lacking? I steeped it for actually longer than recommended because my initial sips were so light, but it just didn’t really get much strong and the flavour is pretty muted tasting to me overall. Definitely far from being astringent or bitter, which was kind of concern I had when I first saw how much tea was in this one cigar. I can barely get a sort of bean-y edamame or soy note and just a bit of nuttiness.
Overall opinion? Form factor is VERY cool here, but the taste is underwhelming. And taste trumps aesthetics, so it’s a little disappointing…
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0PAQWSm53/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58wkovYRuzo&ab_channel=slenderbodies
Adventageddon Day 20
This was my first cup of the day. A nice, gentle start to the day which was nice because I woke up quite groggy feeling. Overall I found the tea fairly mediocre though. Its a cherry blossom/sakura flavoured green tea base. Very, very simple and straight forward. The kind of tea I’ve tasted from other companies a dozen times over. It’s not that it tastes unpleasant or anything, but when a blend is this stripped down it has to execute those flavours PERFECTLY and I feel like this reads almost more generic floral versus really having those clearly defined notes of sakura. But, like I said, not bad at all. And I appreciated how smooth the green tea base was.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0PAQWSm53/?img_index=1
A little mini tangent about the mug that I drank this tea in. It’s from a DT winter collection like four or five years ago, and I find the three different puppers on the toboggan so cute. Especially the poodle. But every year when I bring it out for the holiday season I forget until I go to take a picture of it that the main part of the design is DIRECTLY across from the handle, so it’s impossible to hold the hot mug of tea and get the full art in shot. Drives me nuts…
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8MLZFL9dh4&ab_channel=MACEY
