DAVIDsTEA

Strange VariaTEA TTB #9

Not sure if I’ve had a Nepalese black tea before or not. It took me a while to figure out what this tea was reminding me of, but eventually I realized it was a honey oolong that TeaSource used to carry! Unlike my typical robust, full-bodied Chinese black teas, this one is very smooth with a light, slightly sweet mineral flavor and an astringent finish. Interesting to try, but probably not something I’d personally choose again.

I used to have a strong aversion to jasmine; my first experience was some green Jasmine Pearls that had SUCH a strong scent that all I tasted was “grandma perfume” and it gave me a headache. When I tried jasmine-scented black tea, I found the aroma more subdued from that early experience and really liked the taste on the black base. I really love these pearls; both warm and iced, it is delicious. It’s smooth, with hints of malt and smoke, a nice florality, and a lovely grape candy flavor. I think I’ve adapted to jasmine from jasmine blacks, because I’ve started to take a liking to jasmine greens now, too (as long as they aren’t too strongly aromatic). Between the two, I still prefer jasmine black tea to green tea, though!

Strange VariaTEA TTB #8

This is another tea I heard about on Geek Steep and wanted to try, so I was pretty excited to see it in the box. To my delight, this one totally exceeded my expectations! Seeing hibiscus so high on the ingredients list had me worried, but this is the rare blend where the hibiscus totally works for me, imparting just the right crisp tartness that my tongue reads as “cranberry”. The ginger is perfectly balanced too: not too sweet or too spicy. I drank it hot and really enjoyed it, but I think it might be even better iced!

Strange VariaTea TTB #7

I wish David’s Tea didn’t feel the need to add stevia to so many of their dessert blends! I like being able to control the level of sweetness myself and I do NOT care for the aftertaste of stevia. Aside from that, this one is really nice! The black/puerh base is robust without being bitter or to earthy and the flavor is a rich, buttery caramel.

I really like the coffee inspired teas. I was glad that this one is a decaf option I can have in the evening. Strong coffee flavor even though it does does not have coffee beans in it. Try the chicory root, roasted carob and date give it a rich flavor. I am glad that the monk fruit does not make it sweet. I like these coffee inspired teas because I can’t drink much regular coffee because of the acid. This tea is delicious with a little sweetener and almond milk. I would buy this tea again.

New tea!

This tea released a week or two ago now – but it’s something I’ve been working on for over a year now. Cold 911 and Throat Rescue are two of DT’s best selling blends – especially during cold and flu seasons. However, both of them are more the type of tea you would drink after you’re already sick or starting to feel under the weather. Not before. And, with cold and flu season in particular, you’re not really fully covered unless you have something more preventative.

Enter Immunity SOS.

I feel like this is the long missing third sibling to this trio of teas. Developing it was actually a lot harder than it might seem. We spent a lot of time looking at traditional folk remedies for immunity as well as more “modern” things like Immunity Shots, and that was a huge part of the inspiration for both taste and flavour.

Though there are several ingredients in the blend that contribute to the overall taste and function the key ones are: Orange, ginger, sage, echinacea, and – to a lesser extent – turmeric. Orange and ginger as a combination are very soothing and we thought the brightness of the orange balanced out the warming, earthy heat of the ginger. Sage compliments both of these flavours with its soft herbaceous taste, but it’s also naturally anti-viral. Plus, we loved that it added this sort of aromatherapy component. It’s just so relaxing smelling as it steeps or as you cradle the mug post-infusion. Echinacea, of course, is very well loved for immunity so this was definitely a must have ingredient when balancing everything out in the blend, and the turmeric/ginger combination supports that natural spice note but is also this added layer/duo for inflammation.

In terms of taste I find this most comparable to The Skinny – but caffeine free, obviously. Compared to Sunny C, which is the other citrus-y herbal blend that DT carries year ‘round, this is a lot less sweet and punchy/tart. Though it has bright top notes, it’s overall just more herbaceous and cozy. That was important because a lot of people consume immunity targeted products as part of a routine so we wanted to create an overall experience that was comforting/relaxing instead of in your face – those type of really intense fruity profile teas tend to not as frequently be something that people want to consume every day or over and over during short stretches of time.

Overall, I’m really proud of this one! I think, even if you’re a flavour first kind of tea drnker, the blend is still really delicious and interesting. However, I love the ingredient list as this final accompaniment to what we’ve been playfully calling our “pharma-tea” trio. I hope others love it too!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This is pretty good. I’ve had this sitting my tea drawer for an indeterminate amount of time, so I think if it were fresh it would likely be even better. Of course, what better time of year to drink a Pumpkin Chai than now? Although honestly, I’m not getting a whole lot of either pumpkin or chai – again, could be because this tea is a few years old at this point. Overall the flavors are mild but pleasant, and the tea feels smooth, silky, and malty.

Yuck. I feel like I taste something of an artificial sweetener in the mix, but I can’t quite pinpoint if that’s accurate. I wish some of the notes were more prominent – there’s a disappointing lack of ginger, pineapple, and cinnamon. Maybe the goal was for the flavors to be more muted so that the overall sweetness of the honey and molasses could be at the center of the profile, but I found it not only lackluster but also not to my liking at all. The aftertaste is particularly unpalatable for my tastes.

This is pretty pleasant, especially considering I oversteeped it. It tastes like an herbal tea, so I don’t know what the green tea adds. It’s not too tart, just fruity and nice cold. I’d drink this one again, but I wouldn’t purchase it due to the caffeine content. Thanks, Cameron B!

A sample from Cameron B! Thanks so much! This is one of those blends from David’s I have wanted to try for years. I used half the sample, a little over a teaspoon. I’m glad I did, because the entire sample might have been cloying. This is sweet sweet coconut. Any more sweetness would have been too much! I can hardly tell there is anything here other than coconut and sweeteners but it’s not a bad cup. It fits for a dessert blend that will also put you to sleep. I’m glad this is only a sample, as I can tell this would NOT be a blend that would age well. haha.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 minute steep

Confession time…

Halloween teas might just be my favourite to work on creating.

Now, maybe that’s because Halloween has been my favourite holiday for as long as I can remember. However, I think that’s only a fraction of the reason. I think it’s because they’re ultimately flavour forward blends where a huge part of the goal at the end is just to create an experience that’s just as much fun as it is delicious.

So, with that in mind, I’ve wanted to work on a Candy Corn blend for as long as I’ve been in research and development. Look, I don’t even personally like candy corn. I’m firmly in that camp of people who think they’re too sweet and just taste like fondant. However, that hasn’t stopped me from buying every single candy corn blend I’ve ever come across as a tea drinker. Why? Because they’re flippin’ fun. Candy corn is like the ULTIMATE expression of Halloween candy. It’s as iconic as you can get. And, maybe perhaps selfishly, I wanted to put my own stamp on that.

Now, as I just said, candy corn is very sweet. Too sweet. Ultimately, that’s why I decided to make this blend a chai. If it was only candy corn it would have captured that goal of making a fun Halloween tea but I needed it to actually have some other flavours going on too. Both to balance out that sweetness and because, as I said, I wanted my own stamp on candy corn teas.

So yes, this blend is sweet but it’s also spicy! Cinnamon, ginger, and clove to be exact. In that order. The cinnamon works well with the creamy sweetness of the candy corn in the blend (because, yes, we did put real candy corn in this tea). It’s sort of like a cinnamon bun type of vibe because of that frosting/fondant note except there’s no flavours of the pastry itself. The ginger and clove add a little more depth, and the ginger in particular with its subtle earthiness and heat does do a lot to help balance out the sweetness. It makes a mean latte too. But again, just to reiterate, it is still a sweet tea. I mean, it’s candy corn. You can’t buy a candy corn tea and not expect sweetness.

This is a store exclusive blend because, well, Candy Corn is a polarizing flavour. I know it sucks because most people aren’t near a store – but it’s just impossible to make everyone happy and stores are just the best way right now for us to test out teas. However, if it does well in stores or enough people express interest in having it online, I hope that we’ll get to release it on web too next Halloween!

EDIT: Totally forgot that this is in the “Six Steeps Under” sampler too, so there is technically a way to try it even if you’re not near a store!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Iced Latte!

For the last week now I’ve been craving this tea as an iced latte. As a general rule of thumb, I don’t actually have ice at home so I wasn’t able to make the drink the way I wanted at home. At work, I usually prefer to drink caffeinated teas. However, yesterday I finally just bit the bullet and made myself a very large tumbler of this as an iced oat milk latte in the afternoon – lack of caffeine be damned.

Oh, it was so good. So good that I almost feel bad describing it because I think we’ve actually already sold out of this online. It might still be in some stores, but it really did just fly off the “digital shelves” of the website. I was so nervous about this one because of all the things about Candy Apple that I mentioned in my last tasting note for this tea. So, it makes me really happy to see the good initial reception. Hopefully we restock it!

Anyway, the latte was smooth and not too sweet but with that scrumptious golden caramel note and the perfect hint of bright green apple. It was weirdly nostalgic, even though caramel apples aren’t a particularly nostalgic flavour for me.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

We’re not done with new Fall teas yet! …Or, in this case, new Halloween teas.

Though I really personally enjoyed the Candy Apple tea that DT released a few years ago, it was perhaps not really the best received tea overall. One of the big points of criticism was that it had too many flavours/ingredients (like the cinnamon) that made it taste too far off from the typical glossy red candy apple most people were expecting.

I’ve personally wanted to make a Caramel Apple blend for ages, so when I started working on this tea I was really mindful of all the reviews I’d heard about Candy Apple. My biggest takeaway was to just keep it simple. So, well, that’s kind of what this is. A smooth and naturally sweet rooibos base that compliments the subtle creamy, golden caramel notes with a hint of bright green apple – but not bright/sour enough that this tea can’t be made into a latte. And, honestly, it’s a pretty dang good latte. Especially iced.

If I had to compare it to some other DT blends as a point of reference, I think the one it’s most similar to is Creme Caramel Rooibos. I find this a little more overtly caramel in taste, but right on par in terms of the intensity of the sweetness. It’s also naturally flavoured instead of artificially. Plus, no stevia. The other blend that I’m sure people will have in their heads is Salted Caramel Oolong because it’s DTs current caramel tea. This is definitely less intense than that one. So, I guess, somewhere in between the intensity of Creme Caramel Rooibos and Salted Caramel Oolong is the barometer I’d give people to set their expectations…

Overall I think this blend has a very “old school” DT feeling to it, which I do sense that people sometimes miss with the newer blends. I hope people enjoy this one as much as I have been…

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

The other new Superfood Latte Powder!

Obviously, this one is a riff on a Golden Milk recipe – and certainly there are a lot of golden milk/turmeric latte powders out there that exist. Honestly, of the two that were released, I find this one the least exciting. Obviously I have a huge amount of bias here, but I do think that this is one of the best (if not the best) golden milk mixes I’ve ever tried. Yes, even though there are so many iterations of this profile out there.

It’s turmeric forward as it should be, but the things that make this feel different to me are the inclusion of ginger and molasses powder. The ginger is kind of two-fold in why it was included. Firstly, it supports the functional benefits. Secondly, having that additional spice note adds more nuance/depth to the mix. Plus, I find this ginger powder in particular is very clean with a nice heat to it, so that also helps since turmeric can taste very earthy.

I know molasses is a bit more of a polarizing flavour, but we were very careful in how much was used in the formulation. We wanted the natural dark, dense sweetness that it adds without the bitterness or is becoming too invasive of a flavour. I think we pulled that off – it’s another layer of flavour in this more nuanced mix, and a heavier and more base-y one at that – which is great because the turmeric and ginger are a little more zesty and rest higher on the palate. Plus, the ginger and molasses combo has an ever so slight gingerbread like taste which I love (even though, personally, I don’t love turmeric).

Like the Ashwaganda Pumpkin Powder, this was developed specifically to be made in milk or milk alternatives. I love it with coconut milk. However, you can have it on its own as well – it’s just really intense tasting.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Iced Oatmilk Latte!

Looks like, ready or not, PSL season is officially here, so I’m hopping on the bandwagon and enjoying an Ashwagandha Pumpkin Powder iced latté. This tea is from a launch about a week ago where DAVIDsTEA fairly quietly dropped two brand new latte powders as part of a new “Superfood Latte” line up – this one and one inspired by Golden Milk. They’re a bit like the Superfood Hot Chocolate powders from a few years ago, but also kind of like the Blume powders that feel like they’re everywhere right now.

I really enjoyed the process of working on this powder!! Essentially, we wanted to make a more functional and better for you spin on the classic PSL or Pumpkin Chai – but without sacrificing the mix of traditional pumpkin spices that people know and love or compromising on the taste. That last point was a big one. The first versions of this powder were basically like pumpkin soup, so there was a lot of tweaking that had to be done to get this perfect!

I think we nailed it, though! Even if you don’t know what the heck ashwagandha is (an adaptogenic spice that is linked with stress reduction) or care about the functional side of the product at all, this is such an easy to make and delicious pumpkin spice tea. Basically, you take a teaspoon or so and just mix it up in hot milk. They were developed specifically to be made with milk (or milk alternatives), but you can make this in straight water too – just fair warning that it’s intensely flavoured. With this one in particular, I’ve also been having fun mixing it with different things like popcorn (as a seasoning) or in my morning yogurt. The autumnal notes of cinnamon, ginger and clove are so cozy, and the oat milk adds such a rich creaminess to the taste and texture!

Definitely not soup anymore!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CwqA7J4OCvL/

I think I should get bonus points for embracing pumpkin season by making it in a cute new pumpkin mug from Indigo/Chapters, as well.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLznwY5UZiE

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

When Roswell Strange first posted about this one 6 months ago, I was disappointed that it was an in-store exclusive since there sadly aren’t any DavidsTea stores left in the U.S. (or at least not in or near my city). So when it was released online – along with Jelly Donut, which I had already been waiting for the site to restock so I could try it – I made that purchase so fast it’d make your head spin.
I’m pleased to report that this blend does not disappoint. At the moment I’m having it as an oat milk latte, which is really upping the “cream” angle, but it’s flavorful and well-balanced without additions too. I really like the peach flavor here: sweet and ripe without being completely candy-like. The whole blend just works, in a deceptively simple way. So so glad they released it online!

I had to grab a sample from a previous TTB after I smelled how rich and chocolatey this tea is. Then I accidentally left my mug at home and didn’t realize until I’d gotten to work! It was tasty despite sitting on the counter all day. It just has a lovely, deep, rich flavor. It has a lot going on despite being unflavored.

To me, this mostly tastes like sweet almonds and a bit of green tea. I don’t taste matcha or ice cream. I think I liked this better before I added milk. It’s okay, but there’s something a little fake and strange here. Still a fun find from the latest Reddit TTB!

New Tea!

This is part of the batch of teas that launched a few weeks back (as an online exclusive) – I’m just a little late getting my tasting note for it up. I’m really excited for this tea to finally launch, as I first started working on it all the way back in 2020 after the first initial months of pandemic lock down. For the last couple of years I’ve been drinking this tea semi regularly (I have a kilo bag I’ve nearly sipped through) just waiting to finally be able to get to talk about it…

As I think I’ve said before, it’s always been just wild to me that after ten years of tea blends DAVIDsTEA had never tackled a Strawberry Banana profile when that’s something so classic, nostalgic and delicious!! So, I tackled it. My inspiration was a Strawberry Banana Smoothie, which is why there’s coconut in this blend in addition to the fresh, sweet strawberry and banana notes. The coconut adds creaminess not just to the taste but also a slight thickness to the mouthfeel as well. You can slightly taste the coconut, but for the most part I think it just blends into the already slightly creamy and tropical vibe of the banana and the overall creaminess of the blend.

This isn’t just creamy though. That’s a part of it, yes, but it works alongside other ingredients like hibiscus which acts as an amplifier to the fresh ripe strawberry notes and the oolong tea base which has a slight floral character which adds some depth and nuance to the profile. Because of that hibiscus, you can’t latte this blend but I do think it really stands on its own. Hot, yes. However, especially iced or cold brewed.

I don’t know – I just wanted to make something with those strong strawberry and banana notes but that was already really fun, playful and just packed in with flavour. I love all the blends I get to work on, but not everything is that’s developed has an end tea drinker like myself in mind when creating them. This one, though, really overlaps with my own personal tea preferences. I drink it very regularly.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This tea smells lovely in the bag, and I enjoyed the flavor profile. I would have liked it to be a bit more robust and I found the tea to be rather weak. I would and will drink it again, but not sure I would buy it a second time

Oh hey, another new tea!

As y’all may have noticed here on Steeped I got arguably a little too into coffee replacement teas this past year. Though I found some I enjoyed, for the most part I found that a lot of them were really aggressively chicory forward to the point of being quite bitter and unpleasant. And I know that bitterness is an expectation with a coffee replacement because, well, coffee is bitter. However, I just knew I could create something more balanced that was every bit as functional.

…and here it is! Coffee Break! I have to say, I’m really proud of the double entendre of that name. It’s one of my favourite ones I’ve come up with.

People tend to cut out or reduce their coffee consumption for two big reasons; either because of the caffeine content or the acid content/effect on their stomachs. Because of that, this is an entirely caffeine free blend that is packed full of gut friendly, low acid, and inulin rich ingredients like chicory (obviously), dandelion root, and carob. However, those first two do a great job of adding the distinct and much needed roasty/earthy flavours for a coffee replacement but they also tend to be pretty harsh in their bitterness, astrigency, and earthiness – so I tried to balance them out with natural, low glycemic sweeteners like dates and monk fruit that would play into the more “dense” and “brown tasting” direction the blend needed to move towards.

The overall result is a thick, robust and really strong cup of tea with all the body and and tasting notes you’d expect to be present with just a hint of natural sweetness and a very mild chocolate note to give an almost mocha-like twist (a gentle one though) that also contrasts against the roasty roots. If you want more of that black coffee kind of profile, you can always add more leaf or steep longer and the acidic top notes of the chicory and overall bitterness will come through more clearly. However, this is also stellar as both a hot or iced latte for a more cappuccino/mocha or “Starbucks equivalent” kind of vibe.

I know I am, of course, filled with bias but I genuinely think it’s the best standard/baseline coffee replacement tea that I’ve ever tried. Though Teeccino has some very fun (and delicious) flavoured versions, my personal opinion is that this is better than their original or mocha flavours. Just as robust, but more balanced overall. I’ve been drinking it so much over the last year or so. Hot and plain or cold brewed are my favourite prep styles, personally. Maybe a splash of milk.

I think it’s a super cool addition to DT’s line – and honestly, for a company that carries tea with coffee in it, I think it’s strange that it took so long for us to have a proper coffee replacement blend.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

As I said earlier today there are a handful of new teas that launched this past week and one of them (maybe the one I’m most excited about) is this one! It’s a first for DAVIDsTEA as we’ve never carried hojicha powder before.

As I think most people here on Steepster know, I fucking love hojicha. Straight. Flavoured. Powdered. It’s all just fanastic. I own so, soooo many different hojichas in my personal collection and it’s just an ingredient that I get so excited about whenever I have an oppertunity to professionally work with it. I think it’s just so distinct and delicious – and the powder form is honestly just the next natural evolution to not only DAVIDsTEA’s matcha assortment (I know it’s not the same, but it’s made the exact same way) but the matcha boom/trend that’s been taking place in North America for the last handful of years. It’s honestly wild to me that flavoured hojicha powder hasn’t really hit the market yet…

So, all that to say that getting to put my own stamp on hojicha powder as a product not just for DT but within the industry as a whole was pretty incredibly meaingful to me both personally and professionally.

So what does this taste like? Well, it’s hojicha forward for sure which means it’s got that lovely, dark roasty flavour of different grains and nuts with a hint of caramel or coffee. Perfectly suited to really compliment the peanut butter and chocolate notes of this tea! We did initially try doing this blend using chocolate flavouring, but chocolate flavouring really just couldn’t deliver the richness that I felt the tea needed in order to stand up to the hojicha itself. That’s why we switched to cocoa powder, which adds to both the mouthfeel and the taste. The peanut element was very cool because we ended up using a totally peanut (and nut in general) free natural roasted peanut flavouring which means that the blend is actually allergy friendly. Hooray for accessibility!

On its own, I do find it a little bit harder to distinctly taste the peanut butter notes as they blend very seamlessly into the natural nuttiness of the hojicha itself. Where this tea really shines is when you make it as a latte (or even just add a splash of milk) – both hot or iced. The creaminess accentuates both the chocolate and peanut butter type flavours and makes this feel like a more elevated or mature Reese’s peanut butter cup profile. So decadent but not as superficially sweet tasting.

I’ve gotta say that I really hope this does well because boy oh boy would I like to release more flavoured hojicha powders. I have many, many ideas of different flavours that would be so fun to explore!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvxwhKiug1V/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKB2o_E0jf4

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.