Splash!

This one will also be a sipdown..haha man this tea is old! It was part of my first online DT order back in September 2012. Longgg time ago! I made this in my iced tea jug, the rest of the bag (probably..15-20g?) steeped in 195 degree water (half the jug full) for 3 mins then topped up with cold water and put in the fridge. It’s now chilling for a few hours. We will see how it tastes, it smells pretty good so I think it will be quite refreshing. This tea served me well, I just had too much of it (50g) to be able to get through it quickly. When I eventually restock, I will get about 20g just to have on hand. It is more of a summery tea to me, but today looks warm out, although it’s like – 30C lol. It’s all sunny and there’s a breeze..I can pretend lol. I will try to update about the flavor, but if I forget, here’s to you old tea, it’s been a splash! Lol, see previous notes.

It’s so hard to search for this tea.
ANYWAYS I miss you guys. I’m sick.
We moved out of our old apartment and into my boyfriend’s parents basement (classy I know) right when they were bedridden with sickness.
So now I’m drinking a huge glass of this, hoping for the best, and dreaming sweet Halifax dreams.

First of all, I’m not going to rate this one because I bought it expecting not to like it, and that’s just not fair. But I put my faith in DavidsTea, they have yet to make a blend I hate. It may not be my favorite cup ever, but I’ve never had a tea from them that wasn’t at least somewhat enjoyable.

At first sniff, I was sure this would be the tea to break that record. It is very, very strong. It does remind me of the ocean a bit, but I get none of the mint mentioned. Frankly, the smell of the dry leaf turns my stomach.

The steeped tea is much weaker, thank goodness. But all I taste is the sea lettuce and the cardamom. I’m having a hard time finding the words to describe the sea lettuce other than, well, it tastes like it sounds like it would taste. Kind of like I imagine seaweed would taste. Hrm.

Luckily, it did not break the record for me. It’s a decent tea, and if vegetal greens are your thing, I’d recommend this. I’m glad I only got 10g, though. The sea lettuce is something I’d never tasted before, so I’m pleased to have tried something new…nori! That’s it, it tastes like nori to me. Which is seaweed. Hrm. Now I want sushi.

Dry leaf nose: Lemony green tea, with an oceanic note.

Liquor: Green with a golden tint.

Flavour: Citrusy and minty with a green tea base. Ocean and pine forest notes are present in the cup.

I’ve had this for a long time, and I’ve just started drinking it again. I drank it quite often when I first got it, but got sick of it quickly. I brought it to work with me in hopes of getting it finished quickly, but so far I’ve even been avoiding it there.

It’s…weird. Kind of interesting, and definitely not common, but decidedly weird. I like the ginger and the bit of mint, but I think the cardamom’s throwing me off. It tastes healthy, almost like a tonic. Which I’m sure would appeal to some people, but not a selling point for me.

Oddly enough though, I never have trouble finishing a cup. It’s pretty smooth, all things considered, and the ginger is what really makes it drinkable for me. It’s nice to have after lunch. Maybe if I start thinking of it as my after lunch tea I can convince myself to finish my 25g pouch.

This surprised me. I was anxious to try it, just from the description on the website. Then we got to David’s Tea and while my hubby started his search, I locked on Splash. There was a sample out, and I smelled it, and I started to lose my faith. Not that it smelled bad, but I realized this would be a leap of faith. I am new to tea, and this is the first tea I was going to be trying that wasn’t obvious. I have other tea’s, but I know what to expect. I brewed this for after dinner. We had mussels for dinner, and I figured that oceanic theme would match.
When I drink it, there is a nano second where I think I am eating sushi. Like a salty earthiness, but nor a fish taste – like the nori paper. The peppermint is there, but it is a savoury, not sweet peppermint. I gave it to my husband to try – I think he should drink mint teas for his stomach issues, but he doesn’t like them, but I think it because they are sweet/dessert like teas. What surprised me the most is that there is a peppery after taste.
So far all the teas I have bought are sweet, fun teas. This seems like a “get down to business tea”. I really liked it and intend to replenish when it’s done.

**Update – I am still really enjoying this tea. I think as I drink more and more tea, my tastebuds are getting sharper. I looked at the ingredients again, and now I am pretty sure that the peppery aftertaste that I am getting is the cardamom.

Given that this tea has peppermint in it, I wasn’t expecting to be a fan…. so no surprise when I tried it today as a TOTD and wasn’t a fan! Ginger was the predominant flavour I was getting, with a pepperminty background, which I hate. Drinkable, but yech. Not a tea for me. But now I can say I tried it!

I bought this at the end of January out of pure morbid curiosity. Each time I smell the dry leaves I hate it more, it even made me retch! So I was very scared to try this one. But I had heard that it tastes better than it smells.
And…. it does taste better than it smells! Once it’s brewed it actually smells very familiar. I don’t know, it smells like some kind of gingery herbal tea. The taste is not bad. Lots of ginger and the ocean taste is there in a small nice way. But there is a weird aftertaste that makes me think of the dry leaves. Bleh! Overall though I’d say I’m glad I took a chance with this. It’s interesting and actually pretty good. But I’m not sad to see this one go… I’ll be finishing my 25g and not looking back!

Is it in poor taste to start a review with the words “not as bad as I thought it would be”?

Well poor taste be damned then. This truly wasn’t as bad as I was expecting! The other reviewers’ notes about nori and sushi made me want to cover my head and run for a pot of Genmaicha instead. But, since I was at Davids today anyway, and because I’m a sucker for a gimmick, I figured I’d get a small amount and try it.

And yeah, it’s pretty good! Lots of ginger, not so much mint, and only a slight oceanic note that I find quite intriguing. The green tea is delicate, and I totally agree that this blend would be delicious with sushi. It’s quite palate cleansing, and I think it would be nice with food.

I don’t know that I would find myself craving this regularly, but for an afternoon cuppa, it wasn’t so bad.

How’s that for non-committal?

I’m not quite sure how to describe this tea. It’s … different.

The dry smell is a bit gingery, but the sea lettuce or burdock (I’m not sure which) overwhelms the senses. It’s a strange smell. I love cardamom, ginger, and peppermint, which are all in this mix, but I have a feeling they are secondary notes.

Once steeped, the smell is milder, but still smells of sea lettuce with a hint of ginger. Tasting it, well, hmm. It’s kind of blah. Not bad, just meh. I don’t taste the cardamom or peppermint at all. It tastes kind of like gingery lettuce water, if that makes sense. I like the idea of the burdock and the red clover, as I know of their health benefits, but I’m not sure what sea lettuce is supposed to be good for. I’ll have to look that up.

I’ll likely finish off my small packet of this at some time, but unless sea lettuce turns out to be a miracle plant of some sort, I doubt I’ll be getting more of this.

ETA: O.k., I just found out that sea lettuce is the name of a number of species of green algae. Algae can have quite a few health benefits, but I already consume it in a powdered form, so I’ll probably skip the tea in the future.