Sweet Almond Green

Holy almond, Batman! The smell of this one is straight-up almond extract, or marzipan or something else delicious. Mmmm. I think I thought I liked almond taste better than I actually do, because now that I’ve had some of this one, my original OMG WOW thoughts have tapered off. It’s a flavoured green, which I do like better than the straight ones, but I think I oversteeped this one, as the taste is almost too powerful. A good problem to have, LOL.

Sipdown!

Sadly I haven’t been drinking as much tea as I’d like and what I have been drinking hasn’t been new or brought out any new notes I hadn’t noticed before so I haven’t really been on here for a while.

This was a sample leftover from last year’s advent calendar. From my memory, this had been more almond-y than green, but today it was definitely more green than almond-y. Actual a very typical straight green tea (actually rather salty) with a hint of almond. I don’t know if it’s the age or just the sample, but this is definitely not the same as the last time I had it. Overall, not an unpleasant cup this morning, but I won’t miss this one. Lowering my rating.

Oh yeah, so my interview yesterday went… alright, I think? I answered most of the questions quite well, made them laugh a couple times and they seemed to appreciate it, and they told me that I’d hear back from them in two weeks about their final decision. It’s not my dream job or my first choice, but perhaps it would be a good place to start if I were to get it.

Onto this tea. The dry leaf is sharp almond on crack. Think Amaretto or pure almond extract. I grew up loving almond. It’s always been my favourite. But even this is a little too hostile for me.

Sure enough, this tastes like a mild green tea with a teaspoon of pure almond extract added into the mug. It’s good but maybe it would be better as a latte. I can see milk and sugar transforming this into liquid marzipan or biscotti.

Kudos to DAVIDs for not adding any weird sweeteners or artificial flavours to this. It really is an almond extract extravaganza. That latte experiment needs to happen soon.

Dry: really strong almond smell. Reminds me of amaretto or just straight up almond extract.

Brewed: almond taste is a bit more muted, I hoped it would be stronger but it balances nicely with the green tea. Taste isn’t very sweet – I added half a teaspoon of honey which improved things. It’s a bit reminiscent of a macaron or marzipan.

Based on the intense marzipan smell of this, it instantly became the tea in the winter collection I was most excited about. Along with the deep, very sweet marzipan smell of the dry leaf, you do get a hint of that smell you first notice upon entering a place like an outdoor sporting goods store or Canadian Tire. I swear, just sniff it and think of those things-I can’t see how you wouldn’t smell it! haha. But it wasn’t evena little off-putting.

I brewed it for three minutes, and the scent wafting up from the cup was still quite marzipan-esque, although there was an underlying “grassiness” that put my nose on alert. I don’t actually dislike green tea, but if it’s too vegital, I find it kind of distracting. Anyway, I didn’t get enough of the marzipan flavouring, and I kind of wanted to be knocked about by it. I did get an underlying vegital kick from the green tea, which seemed a bit odd, and so I added in a bit of rock sugar hoping that would help. But that just ended up overwhelming everything and I dumped the cup because ain’t nobody got time for bad tea. Maybe a shorter steeping time? i don’t know. It’s just that the taste does not reflect the smell, and that’s just so disappointing.

The first time I had this one I didn’t care for it, but I think it was much overleafed. So today I’m trying it again with a three minute steep and only a perfect spoon in my mug. It’s grassy with a lovely almond flavour. I probably could have let it steep 30 more seconds, but I’m glad I tried it for less. This tea has a nice flavour. Almost like an amaretto but not as sweet unless you were to sweeten it. I would be intrigued to try this iced.

Dry leaf: Very sweet, candy-like almond smell. Lightly floral, fresh and delicate.

Liqueur: Clear green with a tinge of yellow. Almond aroma.

Flavour: Smooth and velvety texture. Sweet almond notes are up front and compliment the floral and nutty notes in the green tea base very well.