1 TB for 500mL teapot, bare.
I made this too strong. The buttery mouth-feel almost cloyed, especially with the peaches. Will try again, weaker and steeped less time. I expect that when properly made it’s really good. Smells great.
397 Tasting Notes
1 TB for 450mL water, bare.
Dang! I really wanted to like this more than I do. I hang in limbo right now DavidsTea enters month two (!) of reformulating my beloved Super Chocolate, a green rooibos base with chocolate bits, ciunnamon and a sprinkling of green tea. They suggested I try Spicy Chocolate Rooibos while waiting.
I drink a lot of rooibos throughout the day, as much for my health as for the taste. Colds don’t last nearly as long anymore.
But Spicy Chocolate Rooibos has a red rooibos base. I’ve really come to prefer green rooibos. At least this red rooibos base isn’t minty, but it is woody. Meh. Woody red rooibos with a slick overlay of banana. I saw but did not taste the chocolate bits and peppercorns.
I’ll drink it, but not necause I enjoy it. A real disappointment.
1 TB for 450mL water, drunk bare.
Sssslllllluurrrrrppp! Comforting, deep, creamy and strong, but not bitter. Malty of course, but not puckery. An excellent Assam.
1 pyramid sachet to 250mL water.
Competent blends, but nothing special. The Organge Spice cloys. All need an exceptionally long steep to bring out any flavour. Really, really, overpackaged; each pytamid is wrapped in cardboard (like Tea Forte) and then slotted in its own plastic compartment. Saving the cardboard (!) pyramid sleeves for my daughter to organize Legos in. Makes a pretty-looking gift, but there are better rooiboses and rooibos blends out there, with far less packaging.
1 full-leaf pouch for 400mL water, bare.
Okay, here’s a new low for MBH the Tea-Fiend. While looking in Winners last night for a can opener — a freakin can opener, people — I bought tea. Fancy schmancy over-packaged tea, left over from the ‘Desperate for a Gift?’ display. I bought a mug I most certainly do NOT need just to get the two pouches of Mighty Leaf Orange Dulce within. (Actually, a covered mug as packaging for teabags is pretty cool. Unlike the insane platic divided tray Tea of Life is using for a collection of rooibos pyramid sachets.) But I digress. The point is, I bought a mug just to get the tea. Cause Mighty Leaf isn’t available by retail here in NL.
Opening the foil packet, I could swear heat escapes. Or am I running a fever? (My household is rotten with a cold virus.) Smells smooth, not all biting harsh like Bigelow’s Constant Comment or Stash’s Orange Spice. Impressive ingredient list.
Oh, my. Gentle orange, gentle tea, but neither one is faint. Oooh, I could really get to like this. I’ve been cionsidering an order from Mighty Leaf on the description of Beatles Blend alone (major Beatles geek here). Creaminess, too — ooh, real vanilla! Not girly-shop-and-perfume vanilla. And jasmine scent. Oh. Excuse me. Orange Dulce and I need to be alone.
2-3 TB for a gourd, 1 packet stevia (equals 2 tsp sugar)
New batch — ai! David, what happened?? This is all bitter and harsh, and even extra stevia ain’t helping. My darling Jumpy Monkey has jumped away? Oooohh, it pains me, but I gotta haul the rating wayyyy down here.
1 heaping TB for 450mL water, 1 packet stevia (equivalent of two tsp sugar)
The sweetener mellows the sharp edge of the cinnamon, which, when you smell the tisane in the packet, is almost aggressive. I keep forgetting how much I like this blend — and how good it makes me feel. Offspring are home today with rotten colds. I haave the same cold, but much milder symptoms. Hmm, could it possibly be all the rooibos I’m drinking these past few days since I heard the first sniffle?
Sweetened, Cinnamon Rooibos Chai develops a creamier mouth-feel and heavier body. I may yet try some soy milk in this one. It warms the body slowly, similarly to a ginger tisane, and just makes me feel GOOD. Healthy good. Fortified good. David’sTea claims this blend — or at least the cinnamon in it — helps concentration and focus. I find that happens, to, but tht might be a placebo effect. Either way, a really good rooibos blend to have on hand when you’re feeling ill or need to fight off a cold. And best of all: the red rooibos is neither woody nor minty. Score!
1 TB for 450mL water, bare.
First, I want to get the word out for The Tea Brewery: independent tea blenders and merchants. And they’re in Nova Scotia, a sister province to my own Newfoundland and Labrador. So yay!
They carry a very full line of teas and tisanes (http://www.teabrewery.com/priceList.pdf), and I really want to try some more.
I received the Decadence White Chocolate Rooibos as a gift. It’s another one I really wanted to like. The red rooibos base is woody and a bit minty, occasional and unpreditcable features of red rooibos that I don’t care for but many others like or love. The white chocolate comes from white chocolate chips, the kind you bake with. They melt evenly with the tea, but, as the tea cools, blobs of fat from the white chocolate chips rise to the surface, like blobs of fat from a bone rise up in a soup stock. Most people will have the hot tisane drunk long before this happens, but it is an unappetizing sight. I would not recommend this tisane be brewed for cold/iced drinking. The white chocolate adds some sweetness to the overall tisane, which cuts and smooths out the woodiness of the rooibos. I couldn’t finish mine, but that’s a matter of taste in the drinker, not necessarily competenence in the tea blender … though I do wonder if baking chips are the way to go.
1 TB tea for 450mL water plus 1 packet of stevia, leaves and filter sac left in.
Siiiiggghhhh … my beloved Super Chocolate is still unavailable for online order. There is no retail David’sTea in my province, let alone city, so I rely on the heartless internet for my supply of this one.
Unless a good friend travels to a city housing a bricks-and-mortar David’sTea.
This batch, bought from the Halifax-Dartmouth store, is noticeably different from my last two batches bought online. Much smoother, almost creamy. Lovely subtle chocolate and very faint cinnamon aftertaste. Far more chocolate bits, and more long green tea leaves (they look like Dragonwell). Less apple-y green rooibos taste but stil plenty of green rooibos, which has a freshness no other tisane can match. This particular variation on Super Chocolate is my fave and tastes most like the very first batch I ever ordered. I love all the variations, but I do wish David’sTea would hurry up and get the recipe standardized — and more importantly, back online.
1 teabag for 400mL water, bare, two-minute steep.
Got a box of 50 foil-sealed bags for Christmas, as a loving gift, so I feel a bit guilty giving this tea an honest review, but here goes …
The Royal Albert crowd put out some lively china. I own a Royal ALbert “Regency” tea cup and saucer (http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Albert-1900-Regency-Tea-Saucer/dp/B001RIYRW6) and several Royal Albert mugs. Beautiful pieces.
But when the Royal Albert people urge me to “enjoy this superior [green] tea at its best” by steeping the green tea in freshly boiled water for 3-5 minutes, and then gently squeezing the teabag, I, uh, get suspicious. And I did no such thing when brewing a cuppa of Royal Albert Green.
The bags are thick and cloudy gauze with about 1.5 tsp of teeny weeny leaves — almost crumbs — imprisoned within. The tea smells stale. Or is that the gauze, which is almost thick enough to dress a wound? Steeped two minutes at off-the-boil water, the leaves release an attractively pale green liquour. However, this tea tastes about as good as it smells: stale. Stale lawn clippings. A very grassy green tea, and tending towards bitterness. Last year’s grass that dried and fell off the mower blades onto the basement floor. (Yes, there’s an unpleasant metallic tinge, too — faint, but undeniable.
Maybe it would taste better if made according to directions, but I doubt it.
I can’t even finish the cup.
BLEND: 2/3 Damn FIne Holiday Blend, 1/3 Damn Fine Captain Assam
1 heaping TB tea for 500mL water, bare.
The Captain mellows the Holiday Blend’s sharpness without overpowering it, resulting in a heavier, creamier cuppa. And quite the dose of caffeine, I might add. Will experiment later with different ratios. I also want to introduce the Captain to some Keemun, but I gotta find some Keemun first.
1TB for 500mL water, bare.
An old favourite that never disappoints. Chewy and creamy and smoky this morning — and an excellent foil for the hit and spicy peanuts that just made up part of my breakfast.
1TB for 500mL water, bare.
Dry, like a dry white wine. Floral, but a welcome change from jasmine (which I love). Dry again. A bit sweet, a bit ‘green,’ but not grassy-green. Clean. Lighter all round than many oolongs I’ve tried. Relaxing. Helps me focus.
(Store-made, medium size, 2% milk, with a full-leaf teabag rather than liquid concentrate.)
Meh. I remember these being much tastier. Or maybe my palate’s matured / gotten snootier? Last time I had one was 2008.
Woody and minty rooibos, something a bit like toothpaste, and tepid milk. To be fair, did a great job of calming my jangled nerves, but I did not enjoy drinking it. I really don’t care for minty/woody red rooibos. There must be region/farm/estate differences with rooibos leaves just as there are with any other tea or tisane leaf. Anyway, this tasted at once medicinal, fakey-sweet and grenadine-y to me. And it cooled off very quickly.
BLEND: one part A&D Earl Grey, one part A&D Caravan. 1 TB tea for 500mL water, bare, drunk while nibbling peppered nuts and strong cheese.
The Earl spent the night at the pubs and finally a coffeehouse at the docks and just stumbled in to his ancestral home, where his mother entertains various hoity-toities with tea and cookies. Breaking out some peppered nuts and strong cheese, the Earl adds his smoked self to the party. While his mother worries he might be suffering an identity crisis, the Earl himself rests confident — if bleary-eyed — that the mind-altering night spent with that mysterious woman who writes and sings and wafts out ancient yet spicy campfire smoke each time she adjusts her pashmina is worth each and every strange look from his mother. His mother’s friend continue discussing a shocking new novel … and the author photo reveals to the Earl yet another layer of truth: the smoky pashmina woman.
A startling blend, the A&D Earl Grey and A&D Caravan on a 1 to 1 ratio, but bracing and unforgettable. The bergamot ultimately surrenders to the smoke, but only in the sense of the smoke riding on top.
BLEND: one part A&D Earl Grey, one part A&D Caravan. 1 TB tea for 500mL water, bare, drunk while nibbling peppered nuts and strong cheese.
The Earl spent the night at the pubs and finally a coffeehouse at the docks and just stumbled in to his ancestral home, where his mother entertains various hoity-toities with tea and cookies. Breaking out some peppered nuts and strong cheese, the Earl adds his smoked self to the party. While his mother worries he might be suffering an identity crisis, the Earl himself rests confident — if bleary-eyed — that the mind-altering night spent with that mysterious woman who writes and sings and wafts out ancient yet spicy campfire smoke each time she adjusts her pashmina is worth each and every strange look from his mother. His mother’s friend continue discussing a shocking new novel … and the author photo reveals to the Earl yet another layer of truth: the smoky pashmina woman.
A startling blend, the A&D Earl Grey and A&D Caravan on a 1 to 1 ratio, but bracing and unforgettable. The bergamot ultimately surrenders to the smoke, but only in the sense of the smoke riding on top.
1 scant TB for 500mL water, bare, 4-minute steep.
I’ve written a lot about this blend already, but today I’m picking up some delicious new notes in the aftertaste as this cuppa cools to tepid: floral (from jasmine) bright honey (Yunnan?) winey-ness (Keemun?). I bet this blend would be lovely cold-brewed.
BLEND: Caravan with A&D’s Earl Grey, 1 part Caravan, 2 parts Earl Grey. 1 TB tea for 500mL water, bare. Water just off the boil.
I’ve been mulling over a blend of A&D’s Earl Grey and Carvan for some time. I even open both tins side by side and inhale. I’ve been wary of experimenting with blend ratios, only because I have a limited amount of both teas and really like them — especially, to my surprise, the Earl Grey. And A&D’s Caravan is a very bright Caravan blend, not just crappy stale black tea doused in liqud smoke and then laid out to dry. (I’ve drunk Caravans which taste like that.) Both the Eargl Grey and the Caravan seem to lean very much to the China tea end of the spectrum, so the tea bases, at least shouldn’t clash.
Liquor: dark copper.
Aroma: bergamot and smoke, big surprise there.
At 3 minutes of steeping: Top notes of citrus and bergamot, with a savoury, almost salty bite. Smoky finish. Wish I’d upped the Caravn j4st a bit — maybe a equal parts, but I want a marriage here, not a brawl.
At 5 minutes of steeping: more depth, more ‘ting’ from the Earl Grey and more ‘tang’ from the Caravan. Sharp and smoky finish. Hot toast with a bitter marmalade would go soooo well with this.
Conclusion: A really good wake-me-up-after-lunch tea. Will try equal parts next time.
BLEND: 2 parts A&D Earl Grey, 1 part A&D Caravan. 1TB tea for 500mL water, bare. (Water just off the boil; I find Earl Grey tastes better that way.)
I’ve been mulling over a blend of A&D’s Earl Grey and Carvan for some time. I even open both tins side by side and inhale. I’ve been wary of experimenting with blend ratios, only because I have a limited amount of both teas and really like them — especially, to my surprise, the Earl Grey. And A&D’s Caravan is a very bright Caravan blend, not just crappy stale black tea doused in liqud smoke and then laid out to dry. (I’ve drunk Caravans which taste like that.) Both the Eargl Grey and the Caravan seem to lean very much to the China tea end of the spectrum, so the tea bases, at least shouldn’t clash.
Liquor: dark copper.
Aroma: bergamot and smoke, big surprise there.
At 3 minutes of steeping: Top notes of citrus and bergamot, with a savoury, almost salty bite. Smoky finish. Wish I’d upped the Caravn j4st a bit — maybe a equal parts, but I want a marriage here, not a brawl.
At 5 minutes of steeping: more depth, more ‘ting’ from the Earl Grey and more ‘tang’ from the Caravan. Sharp and smoky finish. Hot toast with a bitter marmalade would go soooo well with this.
Conclusion: A really good wake-me-up-after-lunch tea. Will try equal parts next time.
2 scant TB for a 600mL pot, bare.
A warm welcome for Captain Assam, just back in port here in St John’s Harbour. Raisiny/deep cherry/cranberry/brandy scent to those gorgeous tippy brown leaves, mondo caffeine, gentle but stimulatng Assam maltiness and depth. He’s a soft soul, this captain, for all his brawn. Gorgeous dark copper-light brown liquor, perfectly translucent. No bitterness. Some pucker to the finish if you steep over 4 minutes. Bliss.
1 TB for 500mL, bare.
Ahhhhh, last TB of Holiday Blend, and the tin now sits on my desk holding my favourite pens. How does ‘Farewell, HB’ taste? Like the hug of a dear friend whose warm heart and lively conversation make me understand contentment. Yes, it’s that good. This morning I get mostly brightness and Keemun wine with a top note of honey-Yunnan. At least, I think that’s what I’m tasting. Perhaps I’m just a windbag. But never mind me. This is a brilliant blend. Get some while you can, before Andrews and Dunham start flogging single estate leaves trod on by milk-fed elephants.
BLEND: 1 TB Andews and Dunham Damn Fine Jasmine Green + 1 TB Boston Tea Company Dragonwell Green in a 600mL pot, bare, steeped two minutes.
A beautiful (not pretty) woman just sat down — intelligent eyes all stormy behind her glasses — and asked you something provocative about your favourite book. Now you know you’ll be up all night talking books and music and philosophy and comedy. You love this woman but don’t necessarily desire here. You feel no jealousy of this woman. You just want to be with her.
That’s how this blend tastes. Sweet and sharp greens and florals. Generous and gentle but no pushover. Slight smokiness from the Dragonwell; sunshine clean-ness from the Jasmine Green.
A simple blend of two complex teas.
2 TB for 600mL pot, bare, steeped 8 minutes on a warming plate.
Okay, the only reason I’m logging about Damn Fine Holiday Blend AGAIN is because I keep experimenting with it and want to share. This time I made a small pot and steeped it on the mug-warmer playe I keep on my desk these days. Highly recommend one for your small pots.
Normally I use 1 TB for 500mL, but today tried adding “one for the pot.” Then carefully poured some of this ambrosia into a small china cup.
Yep, right thing to do.
Slightly heavier body, no bitterness, dark copper liquor, bright Ceylon (?) notes, assertive Assam malt. Winey Keemun (?) in the aftertaste. Faintest whiff of Darjeeling, I think.
Every batch of HB I’ve made has been slightly different. Very glad I ordered another tin, because this one is 3/4 gone.
Thank you, Steepsterites, for alerting me to A&D.
1 TB for 500mL water, drunk bare, steeped 4 minutes in a covered mug. water just off the boil.
I’ve already made several notes on the Damn Fine Holiday blend. Today I just want to add that, as it cools, fruity notes come out. Second fruity surprise today, and most welcome.
