10283 Tasting Notes
Cold Brew!
I sipped on this one last night when I got home from work and, despite it being probably the coldest day out yet this fall, I felt like this was the perfect tea for my mood. It was sweet, fun, and tropical – with really forward candied pineapple and mango notes and that creamy under currant of coconut to add a little more nuance to this sweet and fruity blend and just give it that pina colada twist I adore. Sometimes I don’t enjoy this tea; occasionally it just comes off as too artificial/intense in its flavours or even a little chemical; but when you get the steeping and the leaf ratio just right it’s a pure delight. Rhyme unintentional.
Also, weirdly, I feel like I tasted banana in this cup too and that was strange but nice.
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Cold Brew!
I feel like I possibly like this one even less than last time I had it. It’s just so far away from being anything like a blueberry cheesecake. There was zero creaminess in this cup, and aside from that the blueberry notes were awful too! It tasted like a muted/flat/stale sort of berry mixed with earthy beets and an incredibly mineral forward tasting rooibos base. Nothing came together, and the blend needed either more sweetness for the blueberry or acidity to make the flavours pop – just something to make it feel less dull and sad.
Gongfu!
I had this with some plumcots for lunch a few days ago! I’ve been drinking so much Shou lately that it almost felt weird steeping up an oolong, but this was a really nice one. Approachable flavour with mild minerality, gentle orchid notes, and a touch of woodiness, but mostly medium bodied fruit notes – lucuma, & fruit leathers made with assorted stonefruit. I would have expected a bit more sweetness/vibrancy given the “punch” part of the name, but it definitely delivers on the fruit!!
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CG739jEgVtn/
The elephant tea pet is new, and I am obsessed with how cute she is!
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5PG0W9oSA&ab_channel=GoodnightGoodbye
Cold Brew Sipdown (1173)!
This was just the prettiest cold brew – it steeped this rosy and pretty pigmented pink and it just made me happy to look at. The taste was nice too – mostly rose forward, which of course I loved, but also some spice undertones, a little citrus, and a hint of something more herbal. There’s a lot going on, but overall rose stood out the most. I liked it more cold brewed than I had anticipated, actually.
Worked late from home on Thursday and, around five when I realized I wasn’t going to be done for a while, this is the tea I steeped up a small pot of to sip on while wrapping up my ongoing project…
It was really nice and, actually, nicer than I remember it being. The hibiscus was so think and tart/juicy but the really cooling and sweet elements of the spearmint just kept it feeling very fresh. Even though this is a herbal blend without caffeine, because of the very full of life and well balance hibby/spearmint duo I actually felt energized and perked up during those last few hours of work!
Sipdown (1174)!
Enjoyed this a surprising amount – especially because at the start of the cup I found the flavour of the cinnamon a bit strong, and the tea a little harsh and astringent. Letting it cool down helped immensely though, and the tea seemed to ‘level out’ a bit more with the cinnamon softening and the black tea taking on more of a bake-y and bready note quite fitting of pastry. I realllyyyyy got that cinnamon bread vibe from the cup in an impressively delicious way. It was missing the hint of vanilla or cream for the icing, but regardless this was a lot more accurate to my expectations of a cinnamon roll type of flavour than other comparable concepts I’ve tried this year…
I had this as an evening cuppa the night before last and I actually found it to be completely delicious, but it did weird me out a bit because I could have swore it had a fruity note mixed in with the sweet/fresh jasmine – and not the grape that I usually get. This was more of a dewy honeyed pear flavour, but I’m not sure where it was coming from because the ingredients list of this blend is so clean and simple and pear it not a flavour I typically get from jasmine or rooibos. It was very good though so I didn’t mind it.
This was kindly added by Cuppa Geek as a free sample in my recent order, so thank you! She actually added several free samples, and quite generous portions of them also.
I’m not massively into Chai, but I do often like fruity ones and I saw a lot of clove in the sample bag so I was actually super excited for this cup! I’m not sure where I ultimately land on it. The clove actually is super strong/forward which was exciting to me! The fruit note is vibrant and sweet; and surprisingly more cherry than either cranberry or orange but I do taste both of those fruits as well. It reminded me of a cup of chai but with a shot of grenadine in it – and that’s not unpleasant, but it is weird.
Hence why I’m not sure where I stand on this tea, yet…
Still plucking away at new tea reviews but life is a bit busy this week so I’m getting through them a little slower than usual…
I said this earlier in the week with another tasting note, but I seem to be in a weird “tea mood” lately where I’m craving Earl Grey/Bergamot a lot so this tea launching this week as part of the Frequent Steeper sneak peak of new and returning winter blends actually PERFECTLY hit the spot for me – I’ve had a few cups over the course of this week now, and I normally drink verrrryyy little Earl Grey at all…
This is basically a holiday version of Earl Grey/Cream of Earl Grey – inspired by how successful the holiday adaption of Forver Nuts was last year! I love the visual of this tea! It’s your classic black tea leaf dotted with bright red peppercorn and fuzzy silver needle. Neither of those two things really add to the flavour of the blend at all – it’s really to boost the aesthetic of the tea blend. It feels very Mariage Freres/“Marco Polo” to me; how European to use tea leaf as the visual accent of a blend, right!?
In terms of taste, I find this closer to Cream of Earl Grey than Earl Grey – primarily for the vanilla note that is definitely present in the cup. It’s got a nicer bergamot note than Cream of Earl Grey has though, in my opinion, and the vanilla/cream isn’t as thick. I think I prefer it to both CEG and EG, but I do feel like since CEG and EG have just a bit more body/intensity (in their cream and bergamot notes, respectively) that either of those teas would hold up just a bit better to milk/cream and sugar.
I’m not sure I’d love this blend as much right now if I wasn’t going through this particular flavour craving – but I think I’d still like it, and I did get myself a little pouch as well so I’ll do more experimenting outside of this flavour craving I’m currently affected by.
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Geek Steep S1E7 – The X-Files
This is the tea that I drank while recording for this episode; I picked it because after having now watched more episodes of X-Files spanning multiple seasons, doing some background research, and thinking about it more critically I thought the name of the tea was a cute reflection of Scully and Mulder and their two different view points of the world. As I explain in this week’s episode, both of them basically are taking the stance of “knowing something by heart” – at least, in the beginning of the series anyway. They sorttttaaa find a middle-ish ground eventually. Basically, Mulder “knows by heart” that aliens/the supernatural exists while the more grounded Scully “knows by heart” that they don’t.
I actually hadn’t tried this tea before we recorded this episode so aside from feeling inspired by the name I had no clue what it would be like. I don’t feel as if the actual flavour of the tea matches the feeling of the show – but it was a delicious cuppa! Very almond forward, in a way that reminded me of an almond cookie or even just marzipan. Not overly sweet, but rich tasting and the floral orange blossom was the perfect compliment to that coating, lux tasting almond note. I’m actually a little surprised how well they complimented each other. Something about the overall flavour also made me think of Christmas cookies!? In a more loose sort of way, though.
This might be one of the better August Uncommon blends I’ve had – but I will reserve officially making that statement until I steep myself another mug and am able to taste it without the excitement of geeking out about new fandoms bleeding through into my judgement.
Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/
Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website
DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast
If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!
