DAVIDsTEA

Day 9 of my Easter Advent calendar

The smell of this one really got me. Smells very peachy, which is fun because there’s no peach actually in it. Interesting. Oh, right “artificial flavour”. Peaches. Expectations: decreased.

Tried to scoop out a little of everything to put in the steeping basket. I think I was at least mostly successful. Steeped probably too long, since it was a little bitter towards the end of the cup. Ah, well. No one ever said I was an expert.

The taste is distinctly peachy. Not like the fruit…like the sour candy. Since I don’t really like fuzzy peaches I wasn’t all that impressed, but I wasn’t necessarily disgusted. It was…weird. I would have liked the tea, I think, without any kind of flavour added. Why does it have to have flavouring?! Why not just the goodness of tea?!

I have at least one more cup of this left, maybe two. Before I decide if I’d recommend it, I’ll drink it again.

Verdict: because it’s a white base I doubt I’d ever buy it because it’s expensive and not outstanding.

Day 5 of my Easter Advent calendar! Catching up on the 4 days I’ve missed, all at once :)

I thought this one was pretty good. I had this as part of my Christmas Advent calendar, and thought it was…strange. Not necessarily unpleasant strange. But strange. I’ve bumped up my rating, because I think this one is starting to grow on me. I don’t like it as much as I liked luscious watermelon, but I do really like it. And I think it would be glorious iced. If I had enough left I’d try it, but alas…‘tis not so. Maybe I’ll go buy a small bag at David’s for the sole purpose of trying it iced.

Anyway, I still don’t know what goji berries taste like, so maybe that’s what tastes “strange” for me. Not sure. But now it’s becoming a good strange, not a bad strange :) One more cup left to decide for good.

Verdict: it’s growing on me. I may buy some.

Cold Brew: 16 hour total? Right around there – maybe a little longer though?

This was nice! It’s a refreshing peach punch type drink with a crisp, vegetal undertone. That said, it didn’t knock my socks off and I don’t feel that compelled to quickly stock up before DT stops stocking this one (it’s being “retired” as a blend; there’s a week or so left to stock up. Something like that, anyway…). Not when I know there are other bamboo teas to keep stocked/try out.

I am a little sad it’s being discontinued though; even though I don’t want a ton, it’s something I would have liked to occasionally refill for cold brewing…

It definitely put me in a peach mood, though! I have another peach tea cold brewing for tomorrow. We’ll see if this flavour craving carries on into tomorrow by the time it’s ready.

Today this tea was my savior!

I closed last night at work, which meant I was home at around 11PM – and then today I opened and closed, which meant my shift was from 8AM to 7PM (we closed early because of the holiday). Not counting breaks, that’s a 10 hour shift! I’m exhausted…

Plus side? Stat pay! And, because my shift was so long I ended up with two hours of over time stat pay. I’m just beat right now (I ordered in pizza again… welp) but man that’s awesome!

Anyway, this was my savior because of the massive and noticeable energy boost it gave me when I drank the timolino full of it that I had brought for break. Such a tasty, tropical citrus blend and such an energy booster.

You go Mate, four for you Mate!

I bought this forever ago for my partner. She is an occasional tea drinker so this is still lingering in my cupboard. As a general rule I avoid jasmine but today I grabbed it. I remembered it being a little strong, a little bitter but it’s been months since I made it so I forgot to alter my steeping parameters to allow for this. So I’m drinking a strong, slightly bitter cup of jasmine/peach. I’m not enjoying it much but I have the pot with me and I’m too lazy to move and make something else just yet.

I wonder if anyone’s tried cold steeping this. Easy to find out, I suppose, just read through all 99 tasting notes on it. Umm… Nah.

Replenishment of the stash by Ceylon Star. Thank you! <3

Your batch smells even more coconutty and spicy and cake-like. Yay!

I’m kind of grateful for teas like this that remind me why I don’t race onto the DT website and throw everything that sounds good into a cart. I love mango and pomegranate, the latter is easily on of my favorite fruits and seriously fun to eat, but I’m so eh about the blend.

Both the mango and pomegranate seem to come through, but I guess I’m not finding them really natural. It’s all right until I swallow, then it tastes like gummies that were left in a hot car where they all melted together but I ate them anyway. (I don’t reccomend anyone try that for comparisons sake).

I’ll try the rest iced, but I’m just thinking this one isn’t for me.

Thanks for letting me try it, though Shadowfall

Pretty tasty, but the lime flavour tastes a bit fake to me. I want to try it iced, since I feel like that will be delicious.

The first couple of sips I took I did not like. Way too pepperminty. As it cools down the flavor blend better but I still don’t like the pepper mint. Don’t get me wrong its a good tea. I guess I’m just not in the mood for peppermint right now.

Had some of this one again today with the beau while enjoying a work day off together. It is beautifully sunny out though still chilly. We’ve got the fire going, video games, books, tea and time to ourselves. Woohoo! On a side note, I feel like I SHOULD put something about the tea at the start on the off chance this is selected as a blurb but that’s not how I roll so I’ll keep on talking about myself at the start for now.

I guess this tea has been around a time or two but when the beau went to Davids this Spring to pick up some Blue Lagoon to try out he was tempted by this as well. Now that I’ve had it a couple times I can say it is too too sweet for my tastes but that is a personal issue. It is actually a good tea, with a nice black base that doesn’t get bitter but also isn’t totally swamped by the flavouring. The flavour itself comes off as peachy to me, maybe because I’ve never eaten a pomegranate and can’t be sure what it tastes like. It would be good iced if I were the sort to drink iced tea. I could probably serve it to my little cousins as iced tea and they would be over the moon because it’s one of those teas that seems more like juice than tea. Not my thing anymore, but still well done unlike others that taste of chemicals or sugar rather than sweetness. This is definitely a result of the candied fruit in here. I used to love candied pineapple but ate too much and now they all taste too sweet to me.

I got an e-mail from Davids that Eastier tins are 3 for 30 in store and we are going to the city tomorrow for record store day and to visit some friends. I see a trip to Davids included in there to scope out some tea to add to the collection. We’re so glad we moved to the country but since I only order online once or twice a year, I miss being able to go to Davids or Winners and find some new tea when the mood strikes me. It’s not often, but seeing all the new acquisitions on Steepster makes me a little jealous! :)

Sipdown!

I used to have this at work for a pick me up but since I’m home on mat leave I brought all my teas home…there were lots….

I recall this being a favorite, something to drink when I felt like coffee, since at the time, I was off coffee. It’s very strong flavored, between the almonds, raspberry , chicory (that coffee feel), and chocolate.

To be honest, I have no idea what mate (sorry, no accents on my iPad) tastes like.

I took a Contigo full of this when I went for a stroll with the baby, glad I did because it was colder outside than I thought. We Canadians get absurdly excited when the Spring sunshine finally arrives. You’ll see the braver ones outside with flip flops on in April. I only put a hoody on but it’s definitely still jacket weather.

Unfortunately those Contigo mugs keep the liquid so hot that I didn’t get to drink much while I was out there. Just burned my tongue mostly.

When I got home I realized I wasn’t in the mood for this after all. It’s SO flavored. I almost had myself convinced I could taste the artificial flavoring.
Not at all what I wanted.

I emptied it out and decided to bring some Laoshan Black to the movies in my Contigo, so I rinsed it. Then I got to the theatre and all I could taste was this damn tea! So I had to remove the contaminated lid and drink it without.

Too much flavoring for me, too much going on, I seem to be moving away from this sort of thing. It served me well at work but I won’t restock.

I’d rather have coffee!!

Thank you Roswell Strange. Thank you.

I forget how much I love this tea because I drink it so rarely but it’s… amazing. It’s just what I needed after a stressful day at work. I’m on my second steep and I’m getting ready to pick the mulberries out so I can eat them.

And I take it back – Rivertea’s Mulberry White is good, but it’s not creamy coconutty like this. It’s good but it’s a different animal. I probably want both around.

I got this from VariaTEA pretty recently!
She was so eager to get rid of it, but the second I smelled the package, it was nice! A nice mellow chocolate/peppermint tea. It smells like chocolate peppermint cookies, but with the woodsiness of rooibos! Ahh smells so good okay.
It does have a kick with the peppermint, and a nice flavour from the chocolate.
I’m just using this as tummy tea okay. Peppermint is great, but I wanted something a little bit more than just plain old peppermint so this one it is!
It is a good tea, and I really do like it :)

Don’t know how I feel about this was. It seemed a little bland for my tastes. I plan on trying more of it the next time I steep to see if that improves it :)

It’s been a while since I’ve had a straight black tea. This is a rich, malty tea with a deep amber color. It tastes like your basic everyday black tea. No complaints but not raving either.

I made this more my evening cup after school a few nights ago.

It smells like fruit punch. I did like the strawberry/ fruity flavour, but I don’t really like hibiscus in my tea. That always seem to come across stronger than I’d like.

Went with whatever show I was watching though.

I had this tea at work today and it was exactly what I needed. My coworker said it smelled like thai coconut soup. It has a strong coconut and lemon flavor (imagine that). It tastes like summer in a cup.

Attempting this one again as it was in my Easter Egg Tea Hunt!

I have some of this one still, hanging around from… well, I don’t know when. It’s been a long time since I bought it that I don’t even remember buying it. It’s so odd…

Anyways, so I’m trying the fresh stuff as I wasn’t super impressed with the other stuff I Have at home.

This time however, it’s not too bad! I have NO idea what the temp of water I used was. I had boiled the kettle, forgot about it for probably 10mins? Then went and made myself a second steeping of checkmate as that’s what I had this morning. When that flopped, I thought I’d try this one. So the kettle was sitting for… probably like 15mins before I used the water. It’s not too cold thankfully and when I did use the kettle water, I didn’t have quite enough for my cup so I added some tap lukewarm water to it… just a tiny bit though.

What a mishmashed cup of tea!

Anyways, this one has turned out quite nice despite it all! It’s a very light lime taste that is pretty good. I’d probably think to add a bit more tea leaves or add some fresh lime juice to bring out the lime more.

The green tea base is okay. I’m not much for green teas so I’m kind meh about it.

I’m getting a bit of the lemon from the tea, but it’s not overpower. I like but I don’t know. I’m going to have to try it cold.

As it cools I like it more and more. It’s getting more limey and I like it. I probably wouldn’t grab this one often, but I’m starting to appreciate it more and more.

Tried it for the first time after receiving it as a “presenter gift” from a conference I recently attended and presented at.

Normally, as should not be a surprise to anyone that reads my tea notes, I’m not a fan of any kind of “plain” black tea. Yes, I consider Earl Grey to be a “plain” black tea. I don’t care what you consider it :) This one has more “fancy things other than black tea leaves” added in, so I was excited to try it. May I have finally found myself a “plain black” that I want to keep stocked?! Could this possibly be the case?!

I definitely get creaminess, I definitely get Earl Grey, I definitely get black tea (didn’t forget about it while steeping, so didn’t get any astringency), and I definitely get “something else”. It’s almost a chocolatey flavour to me, which makes no sense, I know. But there is a hint of “something else that’s sweet” playing around in the background.

Shocking to admit, but I REALLY like this one. Could it be that I’m growing up into a plain tea kind of person?! Shocking.

Verdict: a creamy yum. Will probably buy more when this is done.

Day 7 of the Easter Advent calendar (5 and 6 are coming eventually…I opened the doors to know what they were, but haven’t had a chance to consume them yet).

I bought this tea for a friend (not much; only about 25 g or so) thinking it sounded good in theory, but might be terrible. And what better way to find out if a tea is good than to buy some for a friend and see if they like it? :) She thought it was good, but something was “weird” about the taste that she couldn’t put her finger on. So with that in mind, I tried it.

And I agree. There’s something “weird” about this tea that I can’t quite place. The mango and pineapple in it reminded me of Mango Madness (white tea base) but the oolong gave it a bit of a different flavour. Maybe the weird taste of the tea is the kombucha? I have no idea what kombucha tea tastes like, so that might be it. The after-taste was especially strange. I dunno how much I like it.

Verdict: this tea tastes so similar to Mango Madness, which I already have in my cupboard and really like, that I can’t see myself buying it. Plus that “weirdness” to it. Puts me off. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, so I’ll refrain from that until I try it again.

Well color me surprised. I’m trying all of the Easter Tea Trail teas coldbrewed (except for Chocolate Macaroon) and I am so happy with this one! I’m not an Earl fan, but this is like a bright, fruity lemonade-like tea. Yummy.