Erin

Oh banana nut bread, you are so heavy, so impractical, so expensive, so good.
I love this tea so much. I don’t care how much artificial flavouring they might stick in there. It tastes amazing. That is all.

There is something I really don’t like about the way this tea smells… it reminds me of baby powder or something. But it tastes alright. It’s a little sweet and verrrryy peppery. Usually I love ginger teas (plus ginger is my remedy for basically everything) but I think the green rooibos is throwing me off. Still enjoyable, and I think it would be great with honey.

This is alright, but not as good as I was expecting when I first bought it. The chocolate is there, and the cinnamon, but the vanilla tastes a little weird. I think it’s because of the coconut. Mehhhh.

Just a quick note cause I’m about to go to bed…
This tea, in my experience, works best with a long steep time— I did 5 minutes for the first steep and 6:30 for the second. Then it is deliciously fruity and berry-y. The white tea comes through in a big but not overpowering way, which is awesome because in most flavoured white teas that I’ve tried the tea flavour is totally overwhelmed by everything else going on. I drank it next to the windowsill reading A Walk in the Woods!

I brewed this today using my death star tea infuser that my brother got me for christmas! (http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ed08/) (not affiliated obvs)
The holes are too big for rooibos and the tea ball is too small for tea leaves to properly open up, but it’s great for chunkier herbals. Plus the tie fighter charm is awesome.
I used to have a tin of the original blend of this tea, but I gave it to my grandparents right before they switched to the new blend. So this is a review of the new blend. It’s true that it’s not as good as the original, but I mean… it’s still pretty good. It’s just a bit more flat tasting to me. Oh, and I drank it while playing star trek settlers of catan with my friends, so it was heavily geek-infused.

Heyyyy, do you remember me!? I took a break but now I’m back!! Happy new year!

I gave this a good long steep tonight and added some agave. I think this is the perfect way to brew this tea hot. The agave brings out the sweetness of the strawberries and the ginger has an almost sparkling quality. Yummmmm

This is good, but I feel like I’ve had it before, or something very similar… maybe I’m thinking of Cherry Blossom? But with a little watermelon thrown in. I like it a lot actually, and I think it would be great iced. It’s definitely very fruity and juicy. I don’t know about the lemongrass though. It has a beautiful clear peachy colour in my new glass mug (I got the Davids one with the branches, it’s so pretty!). I find that flavoured white teas do best with either a very long or very short steep depending on the tea, so I tried a 6 minute steep for this one and it came out pretty good. Maybe I’ll try 7 minutes next time.
During the entire time I’ve been drinking this tea, I’ve had “Indian Summer” by Beat Happening stuck in my head. I love that song, plus it mentions cherries and apple blossoms! So it’s kind of perfect for this tea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7KNRC8SSAw

Is it just me, or does tea taste better out of a thermos? I brought this with me to the ROM today (free for students on Tuesdays!) and it seemed way nicer than when I tried it the first time, in a mug. I still didn’t get much marshmallow taste from it though. It actually seems very similar to Glitter and Gold to me, but sweeter, and with a little more creaminess. Well I like it anyway, even if it’s not super amazing. And I’m so happy that it’s finally cold enough to carry hot tea around again!

This looks more like trail mix than tea! I have to say, I don’t really like the smell of it dry. But once it’s steeped it smells awesome! It really does smell like banana bread.
Okay, I’m taking a sip…
Wow. Banana and brown sugar. This is almost TOO sweet. But I love sweet, dessert-y teas. On some sips it tastes a little artificial. Overall though, I love this. I wish it wasn’t so expensive— 25g is barely enough for 2 cups!

Hmmm. This is kind of nice.
I’ve never seen a tea with pistachios in it before! The dry leaves smell like some kind of apple candy. Very sweet and very fruity.
I think this is kind of like a slightly spicy/floral, exotic version of Mom’s Apple Pie. The green tea base goes awesomely with the other flavours. But I also kind of thought it was bordering on too much of a fakey flavour like some cherry green teas have. I was kind of surprised that I could really taste the pistachios, mostly in the aftertaste.
Overall I actually really like this one. It seems like a very fall kind of tea, even though it’s not what I would think of if I were thinking about fall teas. You know??
Okay I am gonna stop here and go to bed before this becomes any more scatterbrained!

First real day of fall = Pumpkin Chai time. It’s cold outside today and I’m wearing a big sweater… omg this is what I’ve been waiting for all summer. Fall is my favourite season and I am so super happy right now.

I’m one of those people who really really loves red velvet cake, and this tea smelled amazing so I was super excited to try it. I wasn’t completely disappointed!
It tastes a lot like Birthday Cake actually, which is one of my favourite dessert teas. I was a little worried about the beetroot, since it often makes teas taste weird and metallic to me. It only comes out a little in this tea though. That’s really the only bad thing about it… otherwise it’s “sweet and lightly creamy” just like the description says. I actually get strong hints of cream cheese icing which is what most reminds me of red velvet cake here… there’s not much chocolate coming through. As far as the cake teas go, this is not my favourite, but it is a satisfying dessert tea and I will happily finish my 25g bag!

Yay, an oolong to relax with after a busy day…
The dry leaves smell lovely and woody and make me think of opening a really old book.

I did two rinses, then a two-second steep…

1st steep: This tea smells so nice! It’s super dark and almost chocolatey. The taste is the same way. The aftertaste is roasted nuts and campfire.

2nd, 3rd: The same, but a bit lighter.

4th: I think this tea is best hot. I let this steep cool a little too long and the roasted flavour is turning into a sort of cardboardy taste.

5th: I just looked through the other reviews and saw that someone compared it to a genmaicha. I could definitely see that! I don’t actually like genmaicha that much though, haha. I think I prefer a brighter kind of flavour? Maybe I could develop a taste for it. Now that the dark chocolate notes are mostly gone it just seems very toasty.

6th, 7th: There’s a sort of bean taste coming out now. I find it slightly less toasty, and more enjoyable.

8th: Finally I find the fruity notes everyone else is mentioning. There is a really sweet, almost creamy peachyness in the aftertaste. Definitely the best steep yet.

9th: There’s a sugary sweetness right at the front now. Such a change!

10th: Whoa. My first thought was sweet corn. Then after a few seconds a definite sense of burnt sugar comes out. Like, I can smell it and taste it super clearly. Trippy and delicious.

Overall I think this tea definitely got better toward the later steeps. At least, I enjoyed those steeps more. It was really interesting to see it change so much!

I love this. The brewed tea has a heavy sort of honey smell, it’s very pleasant. Earls are my favourite kind of tea and this one is perfectly satisfying for a Sunday night in. It has a softer edge than a typical earl grey and a slight creaminess in the texture and finish. The bready taste from the Yunnan Golden Buds adds depth. No unpleasant bitterness but maybe a little sugar or honey would be nice to bring out the natural sweetness.

Yesterday I was out observing the TIFF elite and walked right by Bono in front of the Royal York hotel! He was literally about a foot away from me. He tried to get into a taxi but the door wouldn’t open.

I had forgotten how awesome this is! And it’s so pretty in the cup, all sparkly and holographic. There’s exactly enough cinnamon in it to be super delicious and not at all overpowering (Cinnamon Heart had waayyy too much cinnamon for me!) and the black tea and vanilla mix perfectly. This tea makes me smile, it’s the best to have as the sun goes down. I used to put this in a thermos and bring it to the library with me last winter, but it’s great on a cool summer evening too.

Hmm. This was one of the first teas from Davids that I ever tried, and I remember being kind of disappointed because it didn’t taste as much like honey as I thought it would, and I didn’t get an energy boost from it. But for what it is, I don’t think it’s that bad. I get more honeybush than honey taste but it’s sweet and pleasant. Hopefully this time the energy boost will work because I’m super exhausted today and I don’t even know why! Ughhhhhh

I cold steeped the very last of my bag. WHY did I wait so long to try this iced!?!? THIS IS SO GOOD. Birthday cakey mapley amazingness. I thought maybe it would be weird since I usually like fruity iced teas but this is like, opening up a whole new world for me. This would be AWESOME in an iced latte. Now I have to go buy more…

I really expected to hate this because of the green rooibos and the lemongrass, but it’s actually pretty good. The green rooibos just barely comes through in the background for me, and not in the mildew-y way that I find it tends to appear in other teas. I think this is mostly because the lemongrass is so overpowering and covers it up. But yeah, just a pretty simple lemon tea. It seems to me like it could be really versatile, like you could mix it with loads of other teas or have it iced or sweetened… I don’t know if I would do it as a latte though. But maybe!!

I like this! It’s nice and sweet and rich. The caramel bits look the same as in the caramel teas from Davids and it has that same kind of taste too. There’s a slight fishiness from the puerh on some sips, maybe a rinse would fix that. But it has a nice, butterscotch-y, long finish. Yummm

I cold steeped this… I think I prefer it hot though. Floral iced teas are not really my thing. Maybe with some sweetener it would be better?? I mean it wasn’t that bad, it was actually kind of nice, and it went well with the peanut butter toast I was eating for some reason. But yeah I was hoping for more cherry and less blossom.

I cold brewed a cup of this for almost 24 hours and it’s nice and refreshing. Kind of mild. I feel like this would be a good base tea to mix with other teas and cold brew… hmmmm..

It’s been soooo long since I’ve put up a review! Gaahh

So, I’m drinking a Christmas tea in July… yes my bag is still one that says “Oh Christmas Treat” on it… and it is messing with my head. I want to be wearing a big sweater and watching the snow out my window! Early winter/late fall is the best time of year, I think. But I feel like whatever time of year it is, I’m often wishing for something else.
So, I guess summer really isn’t that bad. Lots of produce is in season and the summer thunderstorms are awesome. And I love iced tea, even though I go through so much more tea so quickly. I’m sure there were times in the winter when I said “I wish it was summer!” so I should appreciate it while I can.

UM ANYWAY… this tea is still awesome. It’s like a grown-up chocolate orange. It came out a little bit weak/watery this time though, but still enjoyable.

No notes yet.

Cream earl grey is my favourite kind of tea and this one is very very good. It’s even competing with the Davids version for the #1 spot in my cupboard. It smells amazing dry and even better steeped. The cream comes through in a totally satisfying way, but I wish the bergamot was a little bit stronger. Maybe with a 3 minute steep next time it will be better. Still creamy and delicious.