Cotton Candy

Sipdown. I’m annoyed with DavidsTea right now. They changed their frequent steeper rewards program with no notice. Apparently other people got an email at least letting them know of the change when it happened, but I didn’t. And something got lost in translation because I’ve lost two free teas and my super steeper status under the new program. I would have at least redeemed my teas if I had known! Of course it’s been hard to get a response from customer service; my guess is that I’m not the only person having issues and they’re not sufficiently staffed to handle it. Genuinely am starting to wonder whether DavidsTea is intentionally trying to make sure they never have a holiday season go smoothly again.
So! I like this tea, which I’ve said before. It tastes exactly like the name suggests. It’s better hot than cold, though. Which is a bit surprising, you’d think that a sweet tea that’s cotton candy flavored would be more enjoyable as an iced tea. But the sweetness somehow feels heavier when it’s cold. The heat seems to disperse it a bit more and match that fluffy quality of cotton candy better.

This tea is so weird to me. Weird in a mostly good way, I think, but I struggle a little bit with it too – I just can’t make up my mind whether I like this tea or not, overall.

The scent is a cloying candy flavor, almost tart. Sipping it is sweet, but in a pleasant way, unlike many of the artificial flavors I get from this company. I don’t like rooibos much and definitely get the woody aftertaste – another point in the cons column. I can’t imagine adding anything sweeter to mask the rooibos, so it’s just sort of there at the finish.

Not a very satisfying review because I remain completely torn on this tea!

Tried it from the latte pack and would be interested in trying it again. Tasted like cereal milk

After trying it again I have to say its a little too sweet for my liking but honestly not the worst

I haven’t had this one in a long while, but one of my friends came through town and spent a couple days before visiting her parents (the first big drive I had in my NEW CAR (actually my first car)) in the Okanagan. She got me this tea and a hedgehog mug.

The mug is cute, but in true DT fashion the print is already peeling. I only hand wash, so that’s still a disappointing quality issue.

This tea is so so so sweet. Lol. Not surprising. Sweet candy mango melon taste, with some woodiness from the rooibos. Not bad, and something I’ll enjoy finishing, but not something I’d go out of my way to get.

Hope everyone is doing well. I logged in again as my random password had a security issue and I had to change it. So if you haven’t changed your password you might want to…

I received a tin of this in Ost’s summer 2018 cupboard sale (thanks Ost!) I’ve been (slowly) trying to make progress on that 50g tin in the evenings after my caffeine cut-off.

This is a sweet tea, but I wouldn’t really expect otherwise from something based on a treat made purely out of spun sugar. I’m not sure if it reminds me of cotton candy, persay, just because I get such a strong nutty/caramelly note from the tea during the sip, which makes me think more of some gooey praline sort of dessert, instead. The aftertaste left on my tongue after the swallow, though, does remind me of cotton candy, so I can see where that association is coming from.

I do like dessert teas in the evening, but I’m not sure if the over-the-top sweet profile of this one is one I would ever feel like reaching for very often. I’ll probably be drinking it in a rotation with a couple other herbals just because I can’t imagine doing this as a “nightly drinker” until I’ve finally finished off the full tin, which I’m fairly certain is quite old at this point. (I am impressed the flavor has held up remarkably well considering the age, though!)

Day 2 of my exclusive “Sara’s Old Tea” Advent calendar! This one takes me back to strolling the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, eating cotton candy. Which I haven’t been able to do for quite a while now, since my 50th birthday last year. I love 52teas Cotton Candy tea, but I like this one even slightly more. I think it’s kind of hard to nail down exactly what cotton candy should taste like if it doesn’t come from artificial flavors, but this tea really gets it. It’s there at the beginning of sip, and in full force at the end of the sip. Well done.

A gift from amandastory516. My brother and I had a cup of this together and he swears it tastes just like cotton candy. I didn’t get the cotton candy flavor much at first, but as it cooled I feel like it came through more for me. There is definitely a sweetness here that’s more than just sweet, like the flavor of the sugar itself. I haven’t had many cotton candy teas (though I do love cotton candy!), but this one is definitely the closest I’ve had to the real deal.

I’ve said in the past that green rooibos doesn’t really have a reason to exist (meaning that it doesn’t have much flavor and doesn’t help make a tea distinctive). As a base for amazing cotton candy flavor, though, it works.

I only get to visit David’s Tea when I go to New York City, and the last time I was there I didn’t get to go, so this packet of tea is nearly two years old. Rummaging around amid my tea packages, it popped up, and I don’t really want caffeine at 2 in the morning, so I brewed some up. I did a paper-filter mug brew because it’s the only thing that keeps bits of rooibos from showing up in the brewed tea; it’s also convenient.

In the package you can smell the cotton candy flavor. It’s that particular cotton candy flavoring that the cotton candy Lifesavers in the Easter mix had—I used to buy bags of those just for this flavor. Some cotton candy flavored products have it; some don’t. For example: Dippin’ Dots cotton candy flavor yes, Ittibitz cotton candy flavor no. Pearl Ice Cream Parlor in La Crosse, WI yes, Chocolate Shoppe in Madison no. Now that they’ve discontinued that particular Lifesavers mix, it’s not easy to find it. So I was happy to smell this tea in the store and immediately catch the scent of the “good” cotton candy flavor. I don’t smell hazelnut in either the leaf or the brew, and I don’t taste it in the brewed tea, but then, I’ve never paid much attention to artificial hazelnut flavors in coffee or tea; I prefer roasted actual hazelnuts. The cotton candy scent may be covering it up for me.

In the brew, one reviewer is right that this has a thick, slightly oily mouthfeel, I assume from the bits of “brickle” (pink and blue cotton candy bits) that dissolve during brewing. The liquid is darkish brown and opaque, a little odd to see in brewed tea (again I assume from the dissolved candy bits). Neither of these things bother me. But if you expect tea to be clear and clean on the tongue, I could see where these characteristics would bug you.

I avoided adding anything to the cup, though I was tempted to sweeten a bit more—just because partially-sweet things bother me. For some reason I think tea should be not at all sweet, or quite a bit sweet, not in the middle. But after a few minutes I felt like it was plenty sweet for me.

In short: drinkable, might be good iced, might be good with extra sugar, but pretty nice just the way it is. I put this down to the particular cotton candy flavoring used, which is something I was already aware of and have been looking for. If it weren’t for that, I probably would find it pretty boring. (’Cause green rooibos.)

I have always loved Cotton Candy, from the type you get at the fair to cotton candy ice cream. I was excited for this tea, and I am still very excited.
I decided to start my day with this tea, because I wanted something sweet and fun. I brewed it with about two perfect spoons because I really wanted that strong flavor. Starting with the smell, it smells just like fresh cotton candy. I had my first sip, and was very happy, it was sweet and sugary and still had that slightly bitter rooibos taste somehow (but I found that to be more of an aftertaste).
I do not think I would add sugar to this tea just because I do find it to be very sweet. I might add milk, or maybe try it as a dessert latte next time.

My problem does come in when it comes to the aftertaste of the rooibos, its a little strong and not very sweet, not a bad flavor just not the same flavor of the tea.

In my mind, this tea sounded delicious, but I was disappointed by it. I got it in one of my advent calendars… I’m trying to try all the new ones that I’ve never tried because I want to put in an order here before the end of January and use my coupons. I found it plain but sweet. I didn’t taste the cotton candy. At least I can say I tried it!