Hard Candy

This came as a sample with my order from David’s. I actually thought it was hard candy because of the way it felt in the package. Anyway, threw it in my Steeper for a while. I looovvveee the color this produces: a nice summery light peach. It poured it over ice and double steeped it (is that a thing? I’m not sure, I steeped it twice) and it was delish. It’s almost too sweet for my taste but it is definitely a perfect summer drink. This is something I would serve at a party instead of juice. Luffff!!!!

really yummy iced. it really tastes like Jolly Rancher hard candies. I totally expected this tea to be pink though, but it didn’t color at all! So weird. Did i just have a batch without pink-making ingredients? I dunno. Anyway, it’s light, very sweet and fruity, and I totally want to go to the dep (corner store) and get some hard candies like I did when I was a little girl!

Cold Brew Sipdown (118)!

This is the blend I was least interested in from the Summer Collection, but because it’s gotten the best reviews of the three new blends thus far I decided it’d be the one I started with for my own home prep.

Dry I think this has a really intense aroma, and it reminds me a lot of Lipsmacker’s Strawberry Kiwi flavour. It’s very over the top, and really candy sweet. And as long as this doesn’t mysteriously pick up a ‘waxy’ taste then I think that’s a good thing because candy is obviously what DT was going for. I’m not totally sure where I’m getting strawberry from though since that is definitely not one of the ingredients in this: but it’s distinctly strawberry and NOT cherry or cranberry.

Steeped up and strained this has a powerful flavour; it’s incredibly sweet with just a hint of tartness. The first thing I noticed was actually the absence of a flavor – coconut in this case. DAVIDsTEA is really heavy handed with coconut as an ingredient, in fact three out of five of this seasons blends have coconut as an ingredient! It’s only the returning blends that don’t, and I can’t help but wonder if they were maybe so popular because of the lack of coconut. I definitely anticipated the coconut to be strong though – and I’m not getting it at all. It’s really weird, actually. And thinking about it, I don’t remember seeing any coconut shreds in the measured out leaf either.

The first flavor I’m actually tasting though is the kiwi – it’s much strong than I thought it would be. It’s followed closely behind by very plump, juicy cherry, cranberry and – yes, strawberry notes too. It tastes A LOT like Strawberry Kiwi Lipsmacker, no matter how hard I try to shake the comparison. Another popular comparison with this one is Jolly Ranchers; both cherry and watermelon. I can understand the comparison, but I don’t necessarily agree with it. Although, it’s reminding me a lot of a summer cold brew favourite of mine: Prickly Pear from Tea Desire, and now that I’m thinking about it not only do both teas have intense kiwi flavour but Prickly Pear also has a rich melon flavour so maybe I am subconsciously drawing melon comparisons too.

I may be the first ‘negative’ review of this one though; while I didn’t think it was bad I did think that ultimately there was too much going on about about half way through my cold brew I was just getting really sick of the intense sweetness and artificial fruit flavours. I get why it’s getting good reviews so far, it’s different from a lot of other tisanes from DT; but I’d call myself neutral at best. It’s not going to be a restock for me.

Another tea sipped down. I initially liked this one quite a bit and saw myself getting more but after three jugs, the excitement wore off. The cherry Jolly Rancher note gets a little too one-dimensional after a while.

Picked up a pitcher pack of this online and brewed it last night.

The cherry taste is very present with the slight aftertaste of the coconut.
It’s not bad, but I don’t think it’s stock worthy in my opinion.

So, I went a good 2 or 2.5 months without buying any tea and alas, I finally cracked and bought more than I should have. My collection is down quite a bit, and how I justified buying more is that I’ve been making more iced teas and wanted to try some of the summer collection. At least they’ll get used up fast since i make it by the pitcher…

I bought 25 g of this tea and used it all for a 2 L pitcher. I heated up the water to near boiling, steeped the tea in the pitcher for about 10 min, then let it cool off in the fridge until it’s “iced”. I think it s a bit under leafed and I didn’t get a lot of the sour cherries, but the smell of the tea (dry leaves as well as brewed up) is starburst candy. Yum. I think this tea would have been better if it was stronger, but its a nice, refreshing treat to replace sugar laden juices. This isn’t something I would drink a lot due to its sweetness and artifical-ness, but it’s nice as a summer treat.

As a last minute decision, I opted to get this iced yesterday, because it was actually quite warm. I was told it was supposed to taste like a watermelon Jolly Rancher…and I agree, it did to a certain degree. I also picked up that trademark artificial flavoring that I am so familiar now with many of DT blends of late, but in this context, it was kind of ok. I don’t know if I wold go out of my way to get more of this when I know there are other herbals for the summer I like as much (or better).

Cold brew of this is better for me than the hot brew. The “cinnamon” like flavour weird taste i was getting hot brewed is gone, though there is a taste here that i can’t place. Still not a replacement for cherry snowcone, but decent enough to have tried. Won’t be a repurchase for me but i would drink it again if offered.

Hey, I’m actually logging another couple teas as I drink them! Novel. I do have a backlog from this week and last to get through (plus a very long backlog from previously, but it’s in bits and pieces and who knows how that will go…)

Anyhow, this tea. It smelled so familiar in-store, but i couldn’t place it until I was pouring it out… yep. This is the same, or extremely similar, to Cherry Kiwi Coconut Fruit, sold by many a vendor. I first came across it sold by Mahamosa, and actually have 2 oz. of it sealed away somewhere, that I need to drink this summer, because: this tea is an amazing cold-brew. No hibiscus but lots of flavour. Fruity sour cherry goodness, plus sweetness. Highly recommended, even if it is, as usual, not DT’s own creation.

Also, this tea is best steeped for a LOOONGGG time, and overleafed.

This definitely goes over better iced rather than hot. All the same, this was certainly enjoyable hot. A little too sweet for my tastes—probably why it works so well cold—and I wouldn’t mind some more sour either.