C-chan

Day 65 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. More backlog catchup!!

I found that this had a… rounder, sweeter flavour than the mint did. In something like chewing gum, I might prefer it. However, in tea, I much prefer the straightforwardness of the regular mint.

I oversteeped it the first time, which brought this out more. However, I still got it a second time around (new leaves) with a much shorter steep, though to a lesser extent. Short steeps help, but I still prefer the peppermint amour.

My mom loves mojito and mint teas, and she likes both of these as well. I’m slowly beginning to understand her tea preferences, even if my own seem much broader! (My tea selection has long-surpassed hers to the point that I’m storing most of it in my room to not clog the kitchen. …eep?)

Day 79 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

2.5tsp in my two cupper.

It smells SO FANTASTIC — like a spice cake. And this comes out a bit in the taste a bit as well. Buuut…. it oversteeps easily, and doesn’t resteep well.

I think that it would’ve tasted great if I’d had the first cup with milk in it — it was a little strong on its own, but it was too strong for the milk the second time. I’m going to have to try it again — perhaps as a milk tea and see how it tastes that way. I think it would be much improved.

Day 74 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog once again!

Dumped the advent tin into my two-cupper.

So I totally mistook this as an herbal tea when I first brewed it. Which would be why I dumped it all in, and brewed it for quite as long as I did. Which, as it turns out, isn’t far from how it should be steeped. It was quite nice for the first cup, but the second cup was all bitter and… well, I figured out what I did wrong. The resteep agreed with the first cup on the true, nicer flavour of the tea.

It has a nice citrus tang to it from the orange. I could taste the tea in it, which I think confused me because I wasn’t quite sure what it was, having convinced myself it was, in fact, an herbal tea.

I’d like to try this again now that I understand the nature of the tea. I’ll have to get some and try it out again sometime soon.

I will say, though, having been subject to a church potluck and then Sunday dinner, this tea did its job as a good digestive aid! Probably worth it for this benifit alone!

Day 75(!!!) of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog once more.

The mix of chocolate, roses, and strawberries is certainly romantic in concept, and makes for an interesting (and tasty) tea.

I find this tea tastes best with milk. On its own, it seems too strong, and not exactly balanced. Milk adds a richness to it that makes everything come together perfectly. I would love to try this brewed as a milk tea and see if it’s as wonderful that way as I imagine, from what I know of it, that it would.

Day 76 of my 101 days of tea. (Catching up on the backlog again)

1tbsp of this in 4 cups of water. For Valentine’s Day.

Wow this tea steeps fast!

It says 30 seconds to a minute, and that’s really all it needs. It was nice and soothing, with a hint of that cool minty aftertaste. Very nice, even with the extremely short steep. I prefered this a LOT over the spearmint — and it’s less expensive. Win-win!

This is coming from someone who’s never been a mint tea fan… and I quite enjoyed this. Definitely going to need to stock up on this!

Day 77 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. (Catching up on the backlog again!)

Dumped what I had of this (16g) in a good-sized teapot, in celebration of Flag Day (Febrary 15th, for all us Canadians!!)

I found the flavour combination of this a little odd. Nothing was bad about it, but the flavours didn’t seem to meld together as I would have liked them to. I suppose the minty and fruity flavours just didn’t…. coalesce as they should have for an optimal combination. I’d like to see if another tea can make the combination of fruity and minty work better.

Day 78 (yesterday’s) of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge!

Bought a cuppa in store.

I found it a little strong the first time, though I might have oversteeped it a little. The second and third steeps were much better — lighter, but still very good. It has a strong fruity flavour to it, which I honestly mistook as pineapple before learning it was blueberry and pomegranite. I suppose I need to work on my fruit-identification skills!!

Not bad, in all. Not my overall favourite ever, though, either.

Day 66 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!
Eyeballed the amount – I just-under half-filled a set of tea-pincers for brewing in-cup.
Perhaps I didn’t have quite enough tea, but it honestly tasted pretty “meh” to me. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I couldn’t find anything particularly interesting about it, either.
This is something I’d like to give a second chance to at some point, but at the moment, it’s not something I’d particularly go out of my way for.

Day 68 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

1.5 tsp in my tea ball, brewed in-cup.

As a tea-drinker brought up in the English tradition, this is pretty much of the basics of the basics of the basics. So, understandably, I was interested to see how DAVIDsTEA handled it.

First cup was had clear. Interestingly, I liked it a lot hot, but found that the flavours became less enjoyable as it cooled.

I had my second cup with milk, and found that helped a bit.

As I normally have my black tea with milk, or milk and sugar, I can blame this on my own tastebuds. Still, a good black tea that requires no additives is my ideal. So, not bad, but not as excellent as I’d perhaps love.

Day 69 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

3-ish tsp in my two-cupper.

Yummm. This tea has a really interesting flavour, in a very good way. I was surprised to find the citrusy hint , but it added really nicely to the flavour, and definitely did reflect some of the notes found in the real treat, from what I can recall from my few encounters with it. For a red tea, it’s resteeped quite well as well; I still got the creamy, citrusy notes after a second and third brewing!

I look forward to finishing off the sample I have. It might be another one that I want to restock soon!

Day 70 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

1.5 tsp in my teaball, brewed in-cup.

This is easily my favroutite minty tea that I’ve tried so far (perhaps tied with Santa’s Secret, but that’s more of a chocolate mint…). The green tea mutes the mint just enough to make it delicious but not as overpowering as I sometimes find mint to be. Second steep was just as good as the first.

This is a great tea for relaxing at night, I find. Definitely something worth having in a tea stash.

Day 64 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

I had this as a cuppa in-store.

This… tasted far too much like coffee for me. I don’t mind having coffee in my tea — look at coffee pu’erh. I actually rather liked that, because it balanced the coffee in chocolate. However, this tasted more like a slightly watered down cup of coffee, which, as someone who really doesn’t like coffee as a beverage… didn’t really make me enjoy it at all.

Coffee lovers may enjoy this tea, but those of us who enjoy tea but not coffee? Well… perhaps this is one to pass on.

Day 63 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

This was had as a cuppa in store.

I was amazed by how rich and layered the flavour was. It was very intriguing and stimulating, mentally, trying to figure out all the different levels of flavour I was getting in one mouthful.

Certainly an interesting tea, and worth trying. While I’m not sure if I’d add it to my regular collection, I’d definitely like to have another cup of it sometime in the near-future.

Day 62 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

Bought a cuppa of this in-store.

I found this to be a really nice tea. It was a little mild, but that matches well with the flavour profiles it’s portraying — it would be odd to have them too strong.

I’d love to have more of this soon, it’s tea-licious. (Yes, I am that lame.)

Day 61 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. Catching up on the backlog!

Cuppa bought in store.

I have to say, I wasn’t expeting to enjoy this as much as I did. I’m not a coffee fan, and expect to dislike things that include it. However it tasted rather like a coffee crisp, which is something that I actually quite enjoy! I suppose it’s the mix of chocolate and other flavouring along with the actual coffee. Chocolate just makes everything better!

The one major downside of this tea was… it had an odd chalky texture to it…. Outside of that, I quite enjoyed it!

Day 73 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

This was a little sample pack, and I made it in my 2-cupper.

Not my favourite tea by far. Was a little better with milk put in, but still tasted somewhat… off. I’m not sure precisely what it was, but the flavours just didn’t seem to come together pleasantly.

Well, you can’t win ’em all….

Day 72 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

1.5 tsp in a tea-ball, brewed in-cup.

This tea has a very interesting flavour profile. I… never thought I’d meet a tea that smelled or tasted like Indian spices — curries and samosas.

This tea, however, does it. And does it quite well.

The only problem? I don’t quite know what to make of it. It’s certainly an interesting tea, and it tastes just like I suppose it should. And it works, which is something I wasn’t expecting either. I just don’t know if I quite enjoy it or not.

But it definitely is an interesting tea, at the very least. Worth trying for sure!

Day 71 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. (I’ve got a backlog of about ten days to put my logs in for, I’ll probably get to those tomorrow.)

I was cosplaying Honey-senpai from Ouran High School Host Club for a lecture today (yes, I was doing a lecture in costume. Yes, the costume was relevant. I feel like such a happy dork right now). I hadn’t tried this one yet, and it seemed appropriate, seeing as Honey and bunnies seem to go hand in hand. (I also had a slice of delicious cake. Tee hee!)

This tea has a nice blend of fruity-sweet to it. I’m on my third steep right now and it’s still coming through. The flavour is a little more subtle than I’d like it to be — I will try steeping it a bit longer the next time I have this flavour to see if that will make a difference. But it is a lovely tea, and I’m sad it’s only part of the seasonal collection. (That and Hot Toboggan. Mmmmmm.)

Day 60(!!!) of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge. 1.75-ish tsp in a teaball, brewed in a somewhat bigger mug.

Not bad, I must say. I like the orange hint — orange zest always seems to make me happy. The first cup seemed to have a metallic tinge to it — probably from somewhere between the orange and the green tea, but this disappeared by the second cup. Although the flavour weakens, the tea is resteeping well — I’ve been nursing the same teaball-full all afternoon!

I really should invest in another infuser, though — these teas with the looser leaves would be best in a kind of infuser that would give them more room to expand in the cup….

Day 59 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA. One-and-a-bit tsp inside a teaball for my… larger (not big/oversized, but still bigger than average) mug.

This is one of my dad’s favourite teas. He’s been trying forever to find a great green jasmine, and this is among his favourites — much preferred over the dragon pearls.

I seem to be of the opposite view. While this tea wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as good in my estimation. I found the jasmine to be a little strong, and there wasn’t as much of the tea coming through — it wasn’t balanced enough for me.

It also didn’t resteep as good as Dragon Pearls — I can’t nurse it as long and that’s disappointing.

Still not a bad tea, just not my favourite jasmine green from DAVIDs.

Day 58 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

Brewed at 3 minutes, this tea is pretty good — the apple flavour comes out, and the tea is subtle enough to make for a good blend. However, it oversteeps very easily, as I found out.

Resteeped, and ended up pouring two cups at once for myself to avoid the problem again with my two-cupper.

Definitely one you want to use a teaball in a cup for, if you’re making it for yourself.

Day 57 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

I have to say, this tea was too weak for me. I followed the directions on how much to put in and how long to steep, but… I just found it to brew very weakly. There was a hint of a fruity flavour, but nowhere near strong enough for me to properly enjoy it.

I resteeped it and left it overnight to see how it would react to uberoversteeping. It didn’t bitter (THANK YOU WHITE TEA!), and the flavour was more intense, but still mild.

I still have a little left of this 2010 winter tea… I suppose I will have to put it to good use, letting it brew for a LONG time before I sip it.

No notes yet.

Day 56 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

My dad calls these “dragon balls,” to which I can’t help but giggle and think of tea leaves with little stars inside…. perhaps I should brew seven and make a wish on them sometime!

Geekiness aside, it was an interesting experience. I brewed around 1tsp in a clear cup, mostly in a tea ball, but I put three in the cup itself so I could watch them unfurl. It was a nice little show, I must say, though not as colourful as a blooming tea.

The taste… I’m not a fan of jasmine, but this was a lot better than I thought it would be. Not at all bitter when a shorter steep time is stuck to, and it’s still rebrewing quite nicely a few cups later (I save the tealeaves in the ball and have had a couple cups since). I plan to milk this teaball-full as long as I can before getting rid of them!