Orange Pekoe (Organic)

Smooth mouth-feel. Pleasant astringency. Sweet hay notes near the end of the sip.

Add milk and sugar, and it tastes like hugs. This is the most comforting tea in my cupboard, and the one I usually reach for most.

I grew up with two kinds of tea: Red Rose and Twinings Earl Grey. Every night around 7 p.m., my dad would ask everyone in the family if we’d like a cup of tea, and 99% of the time, I chose the Red Rose. So, I grew up with Orange Pekoe, and thus, I am very, very fond of this tea. It’s the flavour of Red Rose, tidied up and amplified. This is my hug-in-a-cup tea, and it suits all my wildly varying moods. Who doesn’t love Orange Pekoe, though?

This is standard tea in my cupboard. I have it for those times when I just want tea, nothing special or fancy. I tend to have it with a hint of soymilk and raw cane sugar.
The tea is nothing particularly special. I find it lacks a little something…sort of empty or hollow tasting. It isn’t particularly full bodied, but it serves its purpose. I think its great to have on hand for those people who expect bagged orange pekoe (I don’t think we have any bagged tea anymore….).
I always refill the tin when it’s empty, but I don’t think I’ve ever craved this tea in an overwhelming way.

Day 81 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

The tea has a nice full-bodied flavour to it, flowery with a bit of smoke. Probably one of my favourite straight blacks so far!

My mark for a good black tea is something that I can — and want to — drink with or without milk and sweetener. And this fits the bill. I tried it first plain, and had the rest of my first steep (which had by that time slightly oversteeped with milk and honey). It tasted wonderful both ways. The resteep wasn’t bad either. :)

Another one that I am tossing the last scoop or two of. I got this one because back almost a year ago I had someone say that I should keep orange pekoe in my cupboard for guests. Well, I got some and then it sat there and sat there. I started to drink what I had but honestly, I struggled to get through this one. I just love my Nepal Black and Honey Black so much more from Davidstea that to me this one is just boring… I don’t get a lot of flavours from it… Sorry orange pekoe. I wish I liked you more, but I just don’t…

Really no scent coming from the leaves, let’s hope there’s more flavour than there is scent!

All-in-all, not bad, but it’s not blowing me out of the water either. I’m used to Red Rose and Tazo Awake tea so maybe my taste buds are off? There is the taste of a black tea with hints of roses, but it’s rather weak. I want this to wow me! To sweep me off into a lovely tea-induced coma! Sadly, it’s dropped the ball. Oh well, at least I tried it right?

Today I learned that Orange Pekoe is not orange flavored, and it gets its name from some Dutch royalty convention – I really didn’t feel like getting further into that rabbit hole, so that’s where my exploration ends. After getting over that disappointment, I went ahead and made a cup.

I was surprised by this. There was something distinctly vegetal about it in a way that reminded me more of green tea. I didn’t get the usual acidity or bitterness I expect from black tea. This feels like it could be a good tea to help bridge me from my love of green tea to appreciating black tea – something to consider for the future.

Now a confession: I wanted this to be orange so badly that I finally just gave in and added some fresh orange to my cup. Absolutely delightful; would recommend.

DAVIDsTEA Around the World Advent, Day 17

Its been a couple of months. I’ve been trying to sip down a lot of teas I’m not fond of hot as cold brews, so I set this aside. This week promises to be a rather hot one, so good timing.

Came into work this morning with a fresh pitcher waiting and ready to go. And all of my hopes were realized. This is almost exactly what I was hoping for. In fact its just now 11am and there’s maybe 1 more glass worth in the pitcher. I’ve just been downing it this morning.

There is a very slight aftertaste that seems a little off to me. But I really only notice it if I’m really paying attention.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased.

Adventaggedon Day Seventeen – 1/6

Cold Brew!

So, the last few days my apartment has felt like a sauna. With snow finally sticking to the ground and the colder weather, I think my apartment has increased the heat for the building. However it’s, like, summer levels of hot. Without air conditioning going my room has been getting up to an uncomfortable 26C – and with air conditioning at its highest setting I can still only get it down to 22C, and I’m used to maintaining a room temperature of 19-20C…

So, suffice to say, I am uncomfy and looking for more ways to make my advent teas cold. When I saw this today I immediately popped it in the fridge so that I’d have an afternoon cold brew. Then, because I had time and energy, I got slightly more fancy with it by cutting up some lemon slices to add in and adding a pinch or two of sugar to make something more Southern Sweet Tea inspired.

It’s so refreshing! Very brisk, bold black tea base with a lot of malt and some floral undertones but coupled with bright citrus and a sweeter finish. It feels like this should be a summer drink, but to be fair my apartment is hot like summer anyway – so I think it’s fair game.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmSPlmfOy2m/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgBt_4FQhzw

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.