Nurvilya

I love it! And I’m not ashamed to say it!

This was the first pu-erh I was brave enough to try, and it’s opened me up to a whole world of curiosity!

The first whiff of the dry leaves, while yummy, doesn’t necessarily have that musty earthiness. It’s all chocolate and orange and yum. But on deeper sniff, there’s something darker there. Something nifty.

It brews into a very dark tea, with a seriously rich scent. The first sips are again mostly orangey with a chocolate background. Like a delicious Terry’s orange. But as I let it cool, I start to notice what must surely be the pu-erh. Earthy is the right word. And it’s so perfect with the added flavours – each element plays in the cup by itself, but also blend together like… I don’t know. Words aren’t the point.

The point is, I like it. I love it! I will drink it all year round – Christmas tea or not!
And pu-erh – here I come!

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Oh boy, two very delicious worlds are colliding here!

I was so excited to see this one pop up on the David’s roster, that I immediately ordered a tin of it. Call it a premonition, because I knew this one would be a hit with me.

I love black-based chais, but since I like to add milk to them, sometimes I find them a bit thin on the body-side. Like if I were to add milk, they might dissolve into milky nothing. But having an oolong base changes this game entirely. No milk required or desired! The floral/ vegetal quality of the tea totally supports the spices, and the flavour is green and sweet and spicy. It doesn’t need anything added, naked is perfectly delicious.

It’s a great afternoon tea, when you don’t want anything too rich, but could use a bit of a perk up.

Yep, this one’s a keeper!

The smell of this one knocked my socks off! Gingery and spicy and earthy. A sneeze or two later, and I’m totally ready to drink it!

Once this is brewed, I am very much reminded of DavidsTea’s The Skinny. Which is suppose isn’t surprising, given that that is also an orange-ginger-pu’erh blend. How come I didn’t think of that when I was ordering? I guess I was blinded by the promise of elderberries. Anyway.

This is a very dark looking cuppa. And the scent is gently earthy, not overpoweringly musty like some pu’erhs I’ve put my nose into. I’m really new to pu’erhs, so this is a nice introduction. The flavour is earthy, with a citrus and ginger twist. It has a fuller body than The Skinny, and a more complex flavour. I don’t know that I can taste the elderberry specifically, but maybe it is what adds that other layer of complexity.

Overall, a very enjoyable cup. I can see myself reaching for this one after a rich dinner, or on cold afternoons.

Oh wow. This is so good!

I finally bit the bullet and placed an order with Verdant Tea. After all the hype on Steepster about their teas, how could I not?

Well, I am not disappointed. In. The. Least.

This is a rich, chocolatey, grainy and spicy cup. I’m positively smitten.

Maybe this will be the tea to finally kick that last lingering morning cup of coffee I’ve been holding on to drinking. Because this is infinitely more interesting than that, isn’t it?

Yum.

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Had this one at the Fairmont Banff Springs this weekend with brunch. It had a nice rich flavour for a bagged tea, and totally warmed me up. Very good!

The second half of the giant blooming tea tin that my Mum brought back from the US is filled with this peach-scented white.

See my note on Teavana’s Strawberry Misaki for my feelings about blooming teas in general.

The dry tea smells like peach candy, but not in an offensive way. It’s more delicate than some other fruity scents.

The ball bloomed fully in 4 mins. It was pretty spectacular – I like the ones with long finger-y extensions. Reminds me of an alien. In a pretty way.

The infusion is pale yellow and still has a nice peach aroma.

My first sip… I burned my tongue. Badly. Now, I’m not gonna blame the tea itself for that, but the experience overall has been somewhat tainted now. ;-)

After letting it cool down a bit, like a sensible girl, the tea is pretty weak. Like drinking peach-scented water, because I’m fairy certain that most of what I’m tasting is actually the scent. If I were to plug my nose, it would probably be pretty close to plain old hot water.

Maybe I would let this one steep a while longer the next time to see if I could draw more flavour out of it. I doubt if a second steep would yield anything worth drinking. At the price these little guys go for, I would be pretty disappointed with these results – if I had paid for them myself, that is. As it is, with these being gifts, it’s is a fine experience, but not remarkable.

I probably won’t be looking to re-stock this one when I’ve gotten to the bottom of my tin, but may entertain some folks with a pretty display until then.

Oh I love Genmaicha. It’s probably my favourite way to drink green tea.

That being said, I haven’t had a really broad sample of varieties. I used to drink a bagged version from the Asian grocery store before I got into loose leaf teas, and this one from David’s has a much fuller flavour than those. The green tea is sweet and the rice is toasty and yum. I’ve also gotten totally lazy with this and completely oversteeped it some days, and it’s not gone bitter on me yet.

I do wonder if there are better versions out there, and I’d be keen to give them a shot once I’m through this tin.

PS – I totally judge the appeal of a Genmaicha by the ratio of popped kernels to unpopped, because I think it’s cuter if there’s more. Is that wrong?

My very generous Mum recently spent some time in the US, and knowing that I’m a tea-granny, she, bless-her-heart, bought me a whole tin of these blooming teas from Teavana. “Because it’s very fancy there, you know.” Well, we all have our own thoughts about Teavana and just how fancy it may or may not be, but who am I to turn down free tea?

First off, I’m not really an appreciator of blooming teas. I know they’re lovely to look at, but since I do the majority of my tea drinking alone, I kind of feel like the entertainment value a blooming tea provides is wasted on me. And plus, I almost never resteep them, because I’ve usually just consumed a whole pot of tea by myself. Also, I’ve never had one with a taste that’s comparable to a regular loose leaf tea.

This one is no different to me. I should also mention at this point that I quite like Davids Tea’s Strawberry White to fill the fruity/white tea niche in my tea cupboard. So this tea ball is facing some direct competition.

It smells of strawberry candy, which seems promising. It’s a little artificial for my taste, but fine.

I poured the water over the ball, as gently as I could, trying to avoid direct contact. It still fell apart a little, shedding some leaves into the pot.

After the suggested 4 mins, it had bloomed fully (Pretty! Flowers!), and the liquor was a light yellow colour. It was darker than I expected. The strawberry smell had mellowed out, and it was quite pleasant.

The flavour is pretty gentle, and it’s mostly strawberry candy. I don’t really get much white tea, but there is a bit of a floral quality that pokes through.

I don’t think I would have picked this one up on my own, and if I didn’t have a whole tin of them, I probably wouldn’t give it another shot. It might be nice to give as a gift, or to bring out when my Mum comes over, but most of the time, I’d rather drink Strawberry White, which tastes more like strawberries and white tea than this.

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The guy at Davids called this “the key to a lady’s heart” when I went there to buy some, and I completely agree! Every woman I know who has tried this tea just loves it. Myself included.

It’s not my favourite, but when it’s cold outside and I want something sweet and comforting, this is what I turn to. I like it with cream and brown sugar to add to the indulgence. I indulge even more when I get nice and lazy and just leave the leaves in there the whole time. I’ve never had it go bitter or weird on me… there’s probably enough other stuff in there to hide my sins.

The only points off are actually for the smell, which I find a bit too strong. The caramel candy smell is delicious, but just a mite overpowering. It totally mellows out when brewed though, so I don’t mind.

Now, I’m off to have a mug for dessert, because it’s -21 out there!

When I was a kid, I remember my Mum served us a Lapsang Souchong after a family dinner one night, and we all hated it so much that the very mention of the name today is still enough to make my sisters pull faces.

But I am brave, and much cooler than them, so when I started to see recipes that suggested using Lapsang Souchong to impart a smoky flavour to the dish, I was intrigued.

Now when I smell that distinctive smoke from this tea, it hits me in the same spot as the smell of baking bread, or macaroni and cheese. It’s completely comforting, and makes me want to snuggle up with a cup of this and a book and read late into the night.

The smoke flavour profile in this one seems to be lower that whatever it is that I had as a child. It’s definitely strong, but not like drinking a cupful of ashes. The tea adds a nice astringency, and the smoke lingers in a very toasty aftertaste.

I think I can consider myself a convert. I don’t think anyone here would see this as an everyday tea, but it’s an evocative experience in a cup, and I’m a fan.

Oh Santa’s Secret. Why are you so awesome?

I’ll tell you why – because you offer a delicious blend of subtle flavours that don’t overpower each other.
Chinese Black tea? Present!
Peppermint? Present!
Vanilla? Present!
Candy Sweetness? Present!

All that with spicy support from cinnamon, clove, and orange? Yeah. I’m sold.

Although this is a seasonal tea, I can totally picture myself drinking this while camping in the summer. It’s a decided favourite, and I’m not even ashamed to admit that I bought a whopping 250g bag of this to stock up for the year.

I think if this doesn’t get renewed again next year, I may turn my back on Davids entirely (yeah, right. good luck with that one!). But it really is that good.

Well, I’m glad I just bought a teeny amount of this in store and didn’t get overexcited and buy a whole bag online.

I want to like this tea! I should like this tea! I like floral tea! I like roses, licorice, coconut, and chili! On paper, everything seems perfect.

The dry leaves definitely smell of roses. I don’t detect any coconut in my nose, and I can’t see any either. There’s also an acidic smell that reminds me of vinegar. I disregard this and continue on.

Brewed, the vinegar smell gets stronger, and I start to feel wary. I still smell rose, and maybe some licorice, but everything is sort of blanketed by that smell.

The flavour is definitely floral, there’s a lot of rose, and some sweetness from the fennel, but I still can’t find coconut, and I don’t feel any heat from the chili. But most of all, I taste sour. Not tartness, in your usual rosehip way, but sour. Vinegary. Not very nice.

I don’t know that this would be everyone’s experience. Maybe I had a bad sample. Maybe others will find a way to brew this that totally rocks my world. But for now, I will be letting this pass.

Man, I’ve had a lot of tea today!

And I think I’ve found a winner from the bunch in this fiery sweet tea.

I love licorice, and licorice things. Fennel, anise, stevia (which I find a bit licoricey, do you?), I love it all. And this tea is just that, fennel seeds steeped with some tiny, wicked hot chilis.

This is the kind of kick I love! The tea is sweet from the fennel, but warms my throat with capsaicin heat. I got two little peppers in my infuser, so I figure my heat level was pretty high in this cup, and I definitely wouldn’t want it to go much higher, lest the heat turn to fire. I also wouldn’t steep it much longer than the 5 mins I did this time. But this is interesting and exciting enough that I can definitely see myself drinking a cup of this in the afternoon for a kick, or maybe even after a workout.

I guess this makes me a happy kapha, hey?

I’m trying to blaze through tasting the bits of all of the new Davids teas today, so I can place an order online for Santa’s Secret before it’s sold out. I may already be too late!

So, given that fact, I’m trying this one right after trying Splash! for the first time, and I may be over-gingering myself.

I like the smell of this one a lot – just like ginger beer. Spicy and sweet.

The flavour is actually a bit flat when compared to the smell. My first cup was just a 3-minute steep, so I put the leaves back into the pot to see what might happen. And still, it’s a bit flat for my taste. I want more punch! I also wish there was more of a green tea profile.

I’m giving this one a firm meh. I think that if I’m looking for a ginger hit, there are other teas I would turn to first.

Is it in poor taste to start a review with the words “not as bad as I thought it would be”?

Well poor taste be damned then. This truly wasn’t as bad as I was expecting! The other reviewers’ notes about nori and sushi made me want to cover my head and run for a pot of Genmaicha instead. But, since I was at Davids today anyway, and because I’m a sucker for a gimmick, I figured I’d get a small amount and try it.

And yeah, it’s pretty good! Lots of ginger, not so much mint, and only a slight oceanic note that I find quite intriguing. The green tea is delicate, and I totally agree that this blend would be delicious with sushi. It’s quite palate cleansing, and I think it would be nice with food.

I don’t know that I would find myself craving this regularly, but for an afternoon cuppa, it wasn’t so bad.

How’s that for non-committal?