The Nordic Mug

So I remember looking through the DavidsTea site several years ago, seeing that they mostly had flavored teas, and then I kinda forgot about them. I only recently discovered the teaware selection!

I got the double walled glass Nordic mug with stars on it and it looks even prettier in person than it does online. I thought it just had the silver stars on the outer layer of glass but it has white dots (smaller stars? Snow?) on the inner layer of glass too. I made a matcha latte and the decoration showed up really well against the opaque tea, plus there were shadows of the outer layer’s silver stars on the inner layer and it gave the whole design more depth. The mug’s handle is nice and big so I don’t have to squash my fingers in to hold it. The top edge of the mug is pretty thick but I feel like it’s shaped well enough that it isn’t as awkward as some of the other thick-edged double wall glasses I’ve tried. It doesn’t keep things warm as long as something like an insulated travel mug but drinks maybe stay warm a little longer than in a standard single wall mug and I don’t have to worry about burnt fingers. The lid serves its purpose, I guess. I was excited to have a double wall glass mug with a lid since my other ones are lid-less, but the lid feels kind of cheap compared to the mug. I think being double walled gives the illusion of the mug being fairly substantial and the lid feels really thin and almost like an afterthought. I meant to order the infuser thingum to go with the mug but since it was a promotional add-on thing instead of a regular item added to my shopping cart it disappeared each time I got logged out of my account and I missed that I’d forgotten to add it back in there until after I’d already checked out. Thankfully, I already have other infusers I can use if I decide to brew directly in the mug.

I finally bought a clear glass Nordic Tea Mug (16oz), wanting a mug with larger capacity than my go-to grey Perfect Tea Mug (12oz) and something that would allow me to watch hand-rolled tea leaves delicately unfold for a bit of a show. The packaging was absolutely lovely, but the second I got the mug out I was incredibly unimpressed. I am used to heavy, sturdy mugs, and this is thin, THIN glass. It feels cheap and I’m extremely worried that its heat-holding capacity is next to nil. If I had known the glass was that thin I would have never ordered the mug, but rigged something up with my thick-walled clear mugs instead. As a personal note I’m not very fond of the Davids Tea insignia at the bottom – I want to be looking at the colour of the tea when I drink, not staring at a corporate logo. The only plus is that it’s dishwasher and microwave safe. Unless you can gulp down tea quickly and don’t mind the cheap feeling of the mug, I would give the clear glass version of this a pass and stick with the ceramics.

I absolutely love my octopus Nordic mug. I’ve had it more than a year and it goes in the dishwasher and microwave a few times per week with no damage so far.

I have three of these now, and I don’t know when I’ll stop! I got two of the Breton Octopus motif from the 2014 Spring Collection (thanks to a friend who found them when they were on sale and had vanished from almost all stores and I suddenly decided I couldn’t live without them – oops!), and one of the Multi Raccoon from the Fall 2014 Collection. I’m about to swap out the Octopus at work for the Raccoon, since autumn is nearly upon us, so I imagine I’ll likely have one for each season. I wasn’t taken with any of the Summer 2014 Nordics, so perhaps next year. Eager to see what comes out for winter/Christmas!

Tea-wise, this is a giant mug of tea! It’s thick-walled, so it keeps a nice temperature for a decent amount of time (I’m kind of a delicate flower (hah!), so I don’t drink mine while it’s scalding hot…ymmv). I love having the infuser nestled in under the lid, and having a resting spot for it on the lid after steeping is great when you’re at work and not keen on making constant trips back and forth to the kitchen.

New Teaware!

That now makes for eight non-tea things here in my Steepster cupboard. Honestly, I’m getting a little sick of doing the split numbers for sipdowns (tea without teaware/tea with teaware) so I might just take all the teaware out of my cupboard.

It just bugs “my OCD” to have teaware accounted for in my cupboard and not separate it from the tea blends (ex. my cupboard reads 149 at this moment, but eight of those things aren’t tea so the number isn’t true) but I like having that represented when you browse my cupboard. Just reviewing the stuff I own seems like not enough. Oh well, regardless I’ve over complicating something that doesn’t need to be made difficult.

But anyway, this is my first Nordic Mug. I haven’t gotten one previously because, while I typically really like the designs, I don’t so much like the size. 12 oz. is sort of the perfect size for me; it lets me drink something and really drink it, but it also allows me to have several cups in a day or even at the same time. But I guess what is good about this size of mug is that it’ll be better for sipdowns.

I got the Raccoon one, and I’ve decided to name my raccoon Randall. It was a toss up between that and Resteep, but Resteep felt disingenuous given that’s something I’m not in the practice of doing. Rooibos was also under consideration – but I think Randall is maybe cuter?

The design on this one is really cute; I especially like the inside of it. That burgundy colour is beautiful! And it’ll be nice because it wont show the staining as much like my white teaware often does since I drink so much black tea. It’s also a lot sturdier than my perfect mugs seem to feel (especially my glass one). Not sure why that is, especially given that the perfect mugs have a flat bottom. But this one just feels more secure. Sadly the lid doesn’t fit quite right, so I’ll be mostly using it as a saucer I suppose.

But overall I’ve really enjoyed using this one since getting it, even if there are a few cons.

BIG MUG! 16oz / 463ml! I got the spiffy Brenton Navy Octopus design (spring 2014 design) which is very attractive and tentacled.

The mug is taller than I thought it was, from pictures online. Handle is big and easy to hold, the mug isn’t thick so is easy to sip from.

What I didn’t like is now I have 3 perfect tea infusers. I don’t think I really need anymore and wish I could just buy the mug on its own. The nordic mug came with a bigger infuser than the Perfect Tea Mug’s infuser, and I’m probably going to use this new tea infuser more.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/nordic-mug-davidstea-oolong-owl-teaware-review/

I walked into Davids Tea. I was going to buy a perfect glass mug, until I took a closer look and realized it seemed a bit… Delicate(I don’t want to say cheap). So I took a look at the other mugs. “I’ll just get a normal perfect mug”. Then, at the end of the display I see this beauty – something I haven’t seen on the Davids Tea site. White is my favorite color, so seeing this variation of the perfect mug in white was awesome. (Not to mention, I’m Nordic).

When I got home, I brewed a cup of my new Kokomo green. I over brewed it a bit, so it was a tad bitter. The strainer breaks into two pieces, as with any perfect mug, so you have to pour the water slowly over the tea leaves. Other than that however, this rare perfect mug variation really is perfect.