Clementine Cheer

David’s 24 Days of Tea Day 1:

This was the first tea of my tea advent calendar. I’ve had the David’s tea calendar several times in the past but it got pretty repetitive (that is, it featured the same teas year after year) so I stopped getting it. Well, this year I decided to go back. And I can see from the back of the box that several teas will be repeats, but there are quite a few that are new to me this year. Like this one. I enjoyed it. It was a light tea, not brisk or heavy with tannins. There was a bit of tartness but it wasn’t completely sour. I won’t order 50 grams of it but I will enjoy a second cup probably in January. I like that David’s give us enough tea to make more than one cup. Sometimes that second cup is even better than the first.

I’ve been mostly missing in action here on Steepster for a few months. I’ve had a bit of a challenging late summer and autumn. The chemo cocktail they had me on is called FolFox. On my third treatment (in August) I had a pretty severe reaction to the Oxylplatin (or however you spell it). They had to put a breathing device down my throat to keep my airway from closing completely. So since then I’ve been on just two different drugs. It has been a slog and my fatigue has been pretty bad. I have one more treatment this Wednesday. Then scans on the 18th and meet with the oncologist on the 24 (Yes. Christmas Eve!) to plan the next step of treatment. I should have all of January off from any treatment, so you can imagine I am really looking forward to January! Maybe my “Get Up and Go” will Get Up and Come Back!

Adventageddon Day 1

Last but certainly not least was Clementine Cheer! I decided to cold brew this one since I was able to supplement the little tin of tea with some extra tea leaf from my personal tea stash. I was super excited to see this tea so early in the advent because it’s one of the new holiday yeas I developed this year. It totally made my afternoon and evening reading and watching the different reviews across social platforms for people drinking and discovering this tea for the first time – both tea friends and complete strangers!

I actually usually drink this tea hot, but I enjoyed my cold brew a lot. It’s really bright and lively in its top notes with this fresh, effervescent mix of clementine and tangerine notes before the gentle roast and minerality of the oolong base sneak in there and ground it a little bit. Without that oolong I think the orange wouldn’t have quite as much presence because it would be brightness with no contrast, and maybe also just a little thin feeling. The finish is just a hint creamy with the vanilla yogurt flavour closing out the sip.

So refreshing, and a great way of building on that feeling of excitement for the holidays without necessarily leaning on super decadent and “heavy feeling” flavours more conventionally associated with Christmas. Those have a place too, don’t get me wrong, but I know we will have plenty of them throughout the rest of advent season so I just appreciated starting things off with something so joyful!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDDUEFtyMDA/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyi0g_ldl3I&ab_channel=NiinaSoleil

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.