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Sipdown!
Had the last bit of this one this morning… sorta. I don’t care for it. Given though, I definitely made it much too strong. I shouldn’t have had as many tea leaves in it. When it was finished steeping it was so dark it almost looked black. Milk and sugar both added didn’t redeem my blunder.

I had enough for one or two more cups, but I decided to toss it (For shame! I know. But I haven’t been drinking this one and I really don’t think I could have handled another cup of this one again). I guess lemon in black teas isn’t my thing!

Got this tea from my dad! He was at Home Sense and saw it and thought he’d grab it for me.

I feel like I’ve tried a gunpowder tea before, but I’m honestly not too sure at the moment. So here we go!

This one unfortunately doesn’t have any steeping instructions on it from what I’ve seen, so this will be one of trial and error.

A 12oz cup with 1tsp for 2.5mins. I tried it, but I feel this one needs some sweetener. White sugar it is! I don’t care for the smell of this one at all. I’m not too sure what it is about it, but yeah…
Taste-wise though, I really don’t mind it. I think it’s pretty good! I like the sweetener added for sure. I don’t think I’d drink this one without.
How I ended up steeping this one is perfect.

I don’t think I would get this one again, but it’s not too bad.

This is a good tea. I like this one.

So, the smell of this one honestly made me think of root beer. I’m drawn in by the smell for sure. I steeped it up this weekend and had it while I was away at my aunt and uncle’s cottage, and I’m having it again now that I’m home. It’s amazing everything tastes different when you’re away and relaxing somewhere else other than home. No cellphones, no internet, no contact with the outside world. It’s just you and nature and family. I can’t wait to go back in the summer.

Anyways, the tea is really good. I love the cranberry flavour. I swear though, that this one has a bit of a root beer flavour to it. I don’t know how that is, but it does to me.
Added nothing to this one today as it really doesn’t need it.
I’m loving that I don’t have to add anything to most teas now. I’ve gotten myself to a place where I actually drink most of my teas straight. Black teas still need some milk, but that’s just a personal preference.

So, I’m going to start this tea review with a rant! Beware!

I went to DavidsTea in Ottawa as I was there for the weekend for a wedding. Beautiful wedding, great food, fantastic to see family again. I’m very happy to have gotten to go! Very long drive from where I live, but such is life.

Anyways, my rant starts now. I left the Davidstea with a smile on my face and a hot tea in my hand to drink and walked down the street with the hunny.
I see this store across the street down a ways and see it’s called World Of Tea. I think, ‘Hey, let’s go in! I love tea!’ My awesome husband said we shouldn’t ‘cause we had Davidstea in our hands, but I was like so what? Me walking in there will show them I’m not partial to one tea company over another or whatever (I know that I am partial to Davidstea over others, but I will absolute try other teas)… I thought they’d appreciate my business.

So we walk in and from the moment we walked in, to the moment we bought a tea before leaving (we ended up feeling bad for walking in there with Davidstea and wouldn’t have felt right not buying anything), the guy started just absolutely dissing Davidstea. It was unreal. I may not have said much when in there, but I wasn’t happy. He was dissing my favourite tea company. He almost made me feel bad for liking Davidstea so much. And the weird part was, he wasn’t super rude or vocal about it, he was quiet and did almost like small jabs at them. Dissing the quality, dissing the chain… etc. (Calling them the Walmart of Tea Companies for example).

We walked out and both my husband and I were stunned. We weren’t happy. He doesn’t drink much tea, but my husband really likes Davidstea. We always get amazing service and great products. I love the variety, the quality, and just the overall bright atmosphere. So after we left there, we went back to our hotel for a bit, before we left for the wedding, but even after we got to the hotel, I could tell my husband was still shocked and upset about what the guy had said. He started to google a few things about what the guy said. I ended up checking out the website. He ended up charging us $2 more for 50g than what the website has the price listed at!! I couldn’t believe it! I’d personally NEVER go back there again. I was very disappointed. He made it sound like his tea was the only good tea out there and that Davids was basically crap.

ANYWAYS, Onto the Tea!
I got this one after he showed me three different Darjeeling teas. They were harvested at different times of the year. This one apparently would have been harvested around the fall of the year.
It calls for 2tsp for 250ml (8.45oz come to find out).
Another thought, if it’s such high quality, why do you need SO much for this one?! I find a lot of the plain black teas only need 1tsp per cup or around that much.

I ended up doing 1.5tsp for 12oz. I added just enough milk to change the colour of this tea, and a tiny bit of sugar, not even enough to taste really.

I wouldn’t have gone any stronger for this one. Any stronger and I would have had to dilute this one. It would have been much too strong. I let it only steep for 2-2.5mins as the instructions said 2-4mins, and I thought I better stay on the safe side this time. Again, wouldn’t have steeped any longer than that. I could see that one going bitter quickly any longer.

So, my overall thoughts… The tea itself is quite nice. I love the rich flavour of it. I do love the smell of the dried leaves as it’s nice and almost malty smelling. The flavour is good too, but I’m really not sure how to describe it. But it’s a nice rich tea and I do like the flavour.

I won’t be getting this one again. I don’t want to deal with that man ever again, even if it’s just online. I’d rather either stick with Davidstea or Metropolitan tea company, and I KNOW the Metro company have teas that taste like this one. I can get great quality and great service elsewhere.

To-go cup today from the Ottawa Richmond store! I love seeing different Davidstea stores! If I had all the money in the world, I’d travel to each one. haha

Anyways, I decided to try something different and I got this one as I have yet to try it. I’m starting to get on the white tea bandwagon finally! White teas are SO nice! (As long as you prepare it properly!)

So this one was my choice for the day. It’s nice white tea, so a bit lighter in flavour with some amazing strawberry flavour! I absolutely loved it. I had it straight up; this one doesn’t need anything added to it. I inhaled it. Even having it after it cooled, the strawberry flavour was light and sweet and awesome. I probably let it steep a bit too long, but it didn’t harm the flavours at all. I’d get this one again in a heartbeat.

WOW! This tea is AMAZING!

I’m a huge eggnog fan. I always have been, ever since I was a kid. We’d get a carton or two at Christmas and as a fan we’d polish them off in no time.
Now that I’m married, I’m the only one that drinks it! Most of the time I can’t finish a whole carton on my own before it goes bad, which is really too bad… :(

So, when I went to a steeped party and heard about this one, I knew I needed to try it! The tea consultant brought it along with her and I got to try it. SO good! I ended up getting 100g of this one ’cause I loved it soo much!

Today, I’m having it with some milk and sugar and it’s really bring out the creaminess of the tea, plus it’s really bringing out the eggnog flavour. Absolutely awesome.
This tea is interesting too ‘cause it only says to steep for 2 mins first steep, which seems really short to me, but it’s absolutely perfect. I can’t imagine letting it steep any longer than that ’cause I think it would make it bitter and would make the tea too overwhelming for sure.

My second steeping of this tea isn’t quite as nice though. I definitely added more milk than I had originally planned on. I’m finding the second steep really doesn’t have much flavour tho. The eggnog flavour is pretty much gone. I don’t know if it’s over doing it with milk or just too short of a second steep… I’m disappointed with the second steeping, but maybe that’s just human error. haha

I will really enjoy this tea though. I’m looking forward to drinking through this one.

This tea is AMAZING!!

My dad got a free sample of it one time when he went to DavidsTea, but I’m just now getting to try. I’ve been scared to have it ‘cause I didn’t want to try it and fall in deep love with it ‘cause of the price. I’m scared to love white teas ’cause of the price.

Anyway, so I finally decided to try this one as a coworker of mine just bought it and told me how awesome it really is. So, it’s been in my head for a while now and I thought I’d better give it a shot.

This tea is so good! It’s so smooth and creamy from the coconut, which I can’t get enough of right now, and the mulberries are adding a nice almost caramel taste to it. I just can’t get over how great this tea is. I’m going to do a second steeping shortly. I have enough after that to make one small cup of tea. I’m hoping that I can finish this tea and not be super sad to see it go… :(

Mystery Tea!! Love it!!

So, Davidstea has been having a naming contest of sorts with this tea. Tons of names have come in. I’m excited to see what the company decides to name this one!

Sweet peppermint and coconut mingle in this black tea to make a lovely calming sweet treat that transports me to around the christmas tree, enjoying candy canes and sweets.

As it cools and the coconut comes out more, it sends me back to summer and to heat. The peppermint refreshes and I sip.

Lovely tea! LOVE it.

SO much tea, too many options, too much love for all things tea!!

Today I haven’t had any tea yet (it’s 4pm). That’s just ridiculous!! Who waits ALL day before diving into their first cup of tea?! ;)

Anyway, another combo! This one is very similar to my last mixing, but this one is Chocolate cake from Davidstea and a mystery black tea!
I’m so mad at myself. I got a few of my plain black teas mixed up and now I don’t know which one is which, so I’ve just been drinking what I have and enjoying the surprise.
But chocolate cake with a spoon of mystery tea seems to be working quite well for me today. I’m enjoying it. It’s a very subtle chocolate tea now instead. I’m liking it much better.

Sipdown!

I’m going to miss this one a lot! This tea only gets a 45sec steeping and I increase it gradually as I resteep. It’s a lovely malty tea that’s just nice and smooth. If it were steeped longer, then I know it’d be bitter or not nearly as smooth, so be careful with this one.

But either way, I’ll miss this one and will leave it on my “To repurchase list.”