Erin

WOW this tea REALLY smells like a campfire. I love it! There’s something else in there too that I can’t quite pinpoint. I was surprised when I steeped it that the tea smells as strongly as the dry leaves do. The taste is just the same, it’s like drinking that campfire smell. Which is kind of weird, you know? But I think if I had it a few more times I could really start to enjoy it. I see other people have compared it to a bacon or jerky taste and I think there is something vaguely meaty about it. This is just soooo smoky and leaning towards too bitter for me. Now I’m curious to try other lapsang souchongs.
Also, weird fact: lapsang souchong is mentioned in the song Beautiful World by Colin Hay, a song my friends and I would listen to when we used to go camping!

This tasted basically like English Breakfast to me but less bold. I’d say it’s medium-bodied with a lingering finish. Not too complex, just a really nice black tea. I think it would be a good go-to tea for all occasions!

This smells and tastes just like baked goods to me. Like… a baked pretzel or some kind of dark bread. I’ve never really had a tea like this before! There’s no bitterness and little astringency, and it has a really clean finish. I guess since it tastes like bread I would describe it as malty? I was so surprised by the taste but I like it.

First of all, how do they get the leaves shaped into those little balls?? Is this what CTC tea looks like? I’ve never seen it before but I kind of like it.

Anywayyy, I did NOT like the way this tea smelled when I first steeped it. It seemed to have some kind of wet vegetable smell like weird cabbage or something. When I first tasted it, I thought it tasted that way too. But after a few sips I started getting this honey-maltiness? And a little bitterness that really came out in the aftertaste. This is really unlike any other tea I’ve had, it seems like there’s a lot of subtleties to it. I can see how it would be described as “earthy” too. Also I find it pretty astringent but not offensively so. As it cools I get more of the honey taste.
In the end, I really like this tea. I’ll break it out when I have time to sit down and appreciate it. I tried it straight up this time just because it was my first time tasting it, but next time I’m gonna try it with some sugar as Tina S. suggested.

I was going to pass on this one when I went to get the spring teas, but it just smelled SO good that I had to get 10g to try, even though it has the dreaded beetroot.
I was optimistic but once it was brewed it smelled just a bit off to me and when I tasted it, it was just as I feared. Why always with the beetroot?!? Well okay, basically just this one, forever nuts, and sleigh ride, but it always gives me this aftertaste— not even a taste really, more like a feeling— that I’ve been drinking… blood? Like, blood and acid.
So yeah not a big fan, I’ll try icing the remainder of my small bag but I’m not too hopeful about it. :/

The dry leaves have not much scent at all, but once brewed it smells very nice. I find that there’s something sweet and sugary about the smell, even a bit fruity. It smells somehow familiar. What is that??
The taste is not so sweet, very malty as I believe Assams are known to be. Somehow it seems astringent without being mouth-drying. I liked the Nepal black more, but this is nice. A good tea for a rainy day maybe.

I recently went in to Davids and bought 25g of all their straight black teas (except for the Darjeeling, they were out of that one). I’m trying to develop a taste for straight, unblended black teas, and I’m starting with this one! I’ve been reading quite a bit about it but remember that I don’t really know what I’m doing.

But I liked this one a lot! It seemed to be naturally sweet, with just a bit of smokiness. It’s full-bodied but at the same time light. At first I thought there was no astringency whatsoever but it comes out in a pleasant way in the finish.
Hmmm, which tea should I try next?

I finally got the spring collection teas! I’ve been seeing bad reviews popping up all over steepster, but to be honest this just made me all the more excited, since I tend to love the blends that others hate, and vice versa.
I noticed lots of people complaining about the hibiscus in this one, but hibiscus has never bothered me. Scanning the ingredients for the spring teas, the most worrying one for me was the beetroot in Pink Flamingo (I’ve never tried PF before).
All the spring teas smelled so amazing and fruity and spring-y! Even walking into the store I could smell the spring in the air. After the heavier black teas of fall and winter this is so refreshing.
So, on to this tea. The hibiscus is definitely in the foreground and it reminds me of Kanpe. It’s actually very very close… but fruitier than Kanpe and more sweet, I think. The more I drink it the more I like it. But I can see how if you don’t like hibiscus you could really not like this tea. Of course besides the taste, the big problem with hibiscus is that it’s so overwhelming. I wish it blended a bit more smoothly.
I’m trying to find the black and green teas in here, but I can’t really identify them anywhere. I have a rookie palate though.
But I like this tea. And yes… it makes me excited for spring :)

I woke up early enough to drink this in the morning today! I brewed it strong with no milk or sugar, which is the opposite of how I like my coffee. It’s smoky, full, and bold, with an on-purpose kind of bitterness. I feel somehow more mature drinking this.

Hmm, yet another tea I’m reviewing that I already have a note on… clearly I need to buy more tea.

No notes yet.

2nd note! Lots of creamy earl greys have strong notes of vanilla, but this one doesn’t have that at all. The creaminess comes out almost entirely in the finish. It smells soooo nice but tastes a lot different. Not that it’s bad, but I find it very astringent/mouth-drying. Still an enjoyable earl grey though.

This is the first Davids Tea of the Month of 2012 that I really like! The dry leaves smell sweet and cake-y and it kind of makes me think of a cross between Mulberry Magic and Checkmate. Most of the bulk of the tea is taken up by the giant mulberries and I had to reach way to the bottom of the bag to get a decent amount of white tea in there. But it tastes creamy and bourbon-y and it’s nice and full-bodied. I’ll probably be buying some more before it disappears.

I’ve been gone for quite awhile… but I’m back now! Woooo!

It’s weird that this is my third note on this tea, but there are many others that I drink far more often that have only 1 or 0 notes. Anyway this is still a great tea, with a SHORT STEEP. That is the key for this tea! Then you get perfectly strawberry/white tea, both very pronounced and at the same time seamlessly blended together.

Okay so I was totally gonna make an order from Octavia (I got these as a gift so have never ordered from them before) but their Canadian shipping was $25.75. Noooooooo! I would get it shipped to my parents in the states for around $3, but they’re gonna be gone til May. So I will just have to wait.

I finished my sample of this today. With a 2-minute steep I actually did get the caramel coming through a little. I still like this and I LOVE the smell of it but there’s that bitterness there that I can’t seem to shake. Not sure if it’s worth it to get a whole tin! I wish Octavia offered a size in between sample and tin. :/

The first time I tried this (months ago) I steeped it for way too long and hated it. A 45 second steep is perfect for this one though, and seems to take away a lot of the chamomile. I really don’t like chamomile in most things so this is a plus. Now it tastes the way I imagined it would… if only it was still at Davids. I hope they bring it back for something. I’ll be sad when it’s gone from my cupboard. D:

I bought this at the end of January out of pure morbid curiosity. Each time I smell the dry leaves I hate it more, it even made me retch! So I was very scared to try this one. But I had heard that it tastes better than it smells.
And…. it does taste better than it smells! Once it’s brewed it actually smells very familiar. I don’t know, it smells like some kind of gingery herbal tea. The taste is not bad. Lots of ginger and the ocean taste is there in a small nice way. But there is a weird aftertaste that makes me think of the dry leaves. Bleh! Overall though I’d say I’m glad I took a chance with this. It’s interesting and actually pretty good. But I’m not sad to see this one go… I’ll be finishing my 25g and not looking back!

I don’t understand all the hate for this tea! This was tea of the month when I first discovered David’s, and it makes me wish it was fall again. I loooooove it. I can’t even describe how it tastes, it just tastes like amazing carrot cake and cream cheese icing.

This smells like cookies and tastes like cookies. The cranberry is the main event, it took me a few minutes to notice the pear. But there’s something very cookie-like about it. I really like this tea. It didn’t stand up to a second steep, it got weird and weak but I was expecting that from all the fruit pieces. I had been meaning to try this for a while so I’m glad I finally picked some up!

I wanted something familiar yet new this morning, so I went with this, the only sample from the advent calendar that I never got around to trying.
Well, I like it. It’s far smokier than the other “breakfast” blends I’ve tried. I would even compare it to a yerba mate. It feels substantial and bold and makes me want to get things done :)

I wasn’t expecting much with the campy name, but this is competing with Gyokuro Yamashiro for the best green tea I’ve had. It’s buttery and even almost kind of sweet. I’ve never had a matcha/full leaf mix before. Too bad I only had a sample package of this! I’ve only got enough left for maybe one small cup. It’s expensive but I may have to get a tin of this…

Everyone has already said so much about this tea… basically is it the perfect blend of mint/chocolate/black tea with some kick from the peppercorns. The epitome of chocolate tea. Mmmmmm

Augh this tea smells soooooo gooooood. I don’t even know how to describe it except to say that it smells like berries and white tea, but that’s pretty obvious. But trust me it smells awesome. This is actually similar to my other Octavia white tea experience where it smells amazing but tastes weak as hell. What little flavour there is is actually very nice though. The white tea isn’t overwhelmed by the flavouring which often happens with whites, and it mixes really well with the berries. I did my usual short steeping time for flavoured white teas and used quite a bit of tea, but maybe next time I’ll try a longer steep.

Side note, I totally broke my clear David’s mug today. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
At least I got a lot of use out of it. And I still have its infuser and the lid so… it’s still a nice infuser. And this will give me an excuse to buy the new watercolour print one… but I really like clear mugs so maybe I’ll look for a cheap clear mug too.
Love of teaware + small apartment = bad.
Love of teaware + small apartment + clumsiness = good. Except for the whole spending money thing.

I drank this last night after a day full of (unsweetened) black tea: English breakfast, Irish breakfast, then French breakfast. So drinking this was like going to a rose garden after a day of something bold and brisk like uh… chainsaw shopping. I brewed it for 3 minutes and it came out just a little bitter, so I’ll try maybe 2 minutes next time. The dry leaves smelled like a bottle of vanilla extract to me, which I love. It showed up a great dark red colour and I got black tea + vanilla but without any creaminess. I think the rose petals are mostly there for show. I didn’t get any caramel, but maybe next time with a shorter brew? I only have a sample size but I think I might order a tin of this. It did make me picture some twee Parisian ivy-covered balcony.