DAVIDsTEA

When I ordered this, I had a bit more licorice in mind. It’s kind of blandly herbal with a little step-kick of ginger and a licorice aftertaste that kind of coats your mouth and settles down thickly for a moment before it finally gets around to hitting your taste buds.

I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by DavidsTEA black teas, especially ones that are supposed to be flavored like dessert. I was hesitant to try this one as I very much dislike all things anise. I used the full 5 gram sample for my 16oz steeping mug, steeped for 4 minutes and added sweetener. It’s not something that I would dump out, but I’m not sure I would keep it in my cupboard. It’s ok? It actually seems a little weak as far as flavor is concerned. Did I do something wrong?

I was afraid to steep it longer than 4 minutes due to the black tea base but the packaging recommended 4-7.

This is another tea that had to grow on me. I first tried it with the starter kit and liked it, but wasn’t sure on it. I like the chocolate and raspberry taste to it.
I decided to buy some more when I wandered into a store and found a 100g tin.
I have no idea if I will ever pronounce ‘Mate’ right.
It will definitely be on my shopping list when I start to run low.

well.. i forgot to take my anti-biotics this morning, so on my little hiatus, i decided to have a nip of tea. I bought this right before i got sick, and didn’t get to dig in. I found out one of the davids near us is an extended flavour store.. so they still carry this blend. I don’t think I had it when it first came out because I was going through an I hate floral tea phase. Well, I actually do like this blend. Its lovely.. I went and bought an oatcake to dunk in it because it is totally a tea and cookies tea… I don’t regret this rebellion whatsoever.

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.

So…. funny story.

I was looking online with a coworker at the Davidstea website, and we saw this one on there. I was floored by how awesome this one sounded. I thought I’d buy some when I went to my nearest store, but then I didn’t end up going. I was looking through my collection and guess what I found! This tea! It makes me wonder though how long I’ve had it… It’s probably been a bit..

So, I decided to have it tonight. It definitely needed some time to cool before I tried it ’cause when it was hot, I found it hard to get much flavour.

Now that it’s cooled, I really like it. It’s got a lemon/lime combo to it. It’s pretty tasty! I did overleaf a little bit ‘cause I know I’ve had it a while and I’m glad that I did. I think I would add a bit more next time. I’ll probably finish this one shortly. It’s yummy

And I’m one cup away from a sipdown of this. :( Too bad as this is a green that I can get behind!

I’m rewatching Doctor Who now that it’s on netflix, but OMG, those early episodes are really pretty awful. And I love David Tennant and his Doctor, but going back just reminds me how flawed some of the characters are. :( Maybe I’ll just skip an episode or two. :P

This is a good though because TEA plays an important role. Even if it is an awful Christmas episode. (Those are generally cringeworthy, aren’t they? Aside from the 2 newest ones!)

i’m drinking herbal. cuz i need to get better sleep. cuz let me tell you, i went to bed early last night on the super rare occasion that i was actually tired AND could also fall asleep. and as a result…? I HAD THE BEST FREAKIN RUN THIS MORNING!
i was resenting the fact that i had agreed to get up early and start running at 6am when it’s still dark out and everything is annoying cuz it feels kinda wrong. but my pace was probably the fastest it’s ever been for 10 miles. and if not THE fastest, then damn close to it.
thus, HERBAL!

too bad i find most herbal boooooring.
though i’ll snap out of that eventually i hope.

i love the smell of this one! but but but the taste is kinda just fake. i’d rather eat a mango. or an orange. or maybe even an orange squeezed into hot water.

(TMI! reference to lady parts and stuff! bee doo bee doo!
today i am celebrating my 7 year anniversary of being sterilized. i’m gonna honor it with a craft beer and the watching of the Agents of SHIELD pilot episode. Happy Comic Book Day ya’ll!!)

This is my standard green tea that I drink almost on a daily basis. Reminds me of the Dragonwell I used to buy in Shanghai but the only difference is that they would keep their tea in a freezer. Smells and looks slightly similar to alfalfa grass . Strong but pleasant taste and can be steeped multiple times. If you’re trying to find a new tea similar to Japanese green tea then look elsewhere.

Yay for herbal tea experimentation! When I smelled this in store, I was immediately drooling. Smells like baked goods with a warm, cinnamon-y, nutty smell. Apple is also in there somewhere. I kinda wanted to just eat some right then and there (it looks like trail mix!), but I resisted and waited to get home to brew it up “properly”.

Anyway, the tea smells the same but almost stronger. After the initial 5-6ish minutes of steeping, the color definitely was pink as the description promised. However, the taste was not as strong as the smell and I found it to be watery tasting. I still loved it, so I let it steep while I worked on stuff. Steeping longer definitely helped with the watery-ness, but then my tea had cooled off! Maybe next time I’ll double up and see what happens. I think this may be my new favorite herbal (although I find myself saying this constantly these days..)

Really didn’t care for this tea. The first couple of sips were chocolatey but after that it tasted oddly artificial to me. I definitely won’t buy this tea.

This was recommended to me by DAVIDsTEA customer service when I asked for an apple-free blend that would taste similar to Midsummer Night’s Dream or Pink Flamingo.

I don’t know what they were thinking. While it doesn’t list it in the ingredients, this tastes like camomile or clover mixed with a little bit of grapefruit and a tiny sliver of ginger.

It’s just plain weird, but as the 50g bag I ordered was STUFFED (it’s very light and fluffy) I have a lot to work through. I wish they sold smaller quantities online!

DAVIDsTEA recently had its 15th birthday as a company and to celebrate we had a giant office block party with some food trucks, music, tea infused cocktail classes, games, and of course different “tea stations” highlighting some of our teas…

One of the stations was an affogato station where we were serving fresh brewed Pumpkin Chai affogatos, so I of course had to scoop up one of those for myself to enjoy during the evening. I’m definitely one of those people who’s more of a “yearly one and done” Pumpkin Chai drinker but I did really enjoy the combination of sweet, warming pumpkin spices with the melted vanilla ice cream. It was delicious and perfectly autumnal for the cooler early evening festivities.

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.

Oops All Pumpkin 7/10

I mean, would it be a day of pumpkin teas without including DT’s original pumpkin blend? I certainly think not. I had this one on my commute into the office and it was fine. It’s definitely the most baseline and predictably consistent tasting out of all my many, many pumpkin blends. A little sweet and brown with simple cinnamon, ginger, and clove notes. This one goes right in the very middle of all the teas of the day – a true baseline pumpkin spice.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkYo7Xju3Rv/ (Seventh photo)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgbyRqI_2sY

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.

Cold Brew!

Happy to see I’m able to do some reviews tonight – yesterday was just an onslaught of 404 Errors but even before that I had been “locked out” of the tea page for this tea for almost a week…

This was the tea I made for the first prompt for #SipdownSeptember – which was to showcase your favourite way to brew tea. I think I surprised a lot of people by saying my favourite brew method is cold brew, but as most people here on Steepster know I’ve had a daily cold brew (or two) for basically five straight years now. I will cold brew just about everything, including teas like Pumpkin Chai that seem at first thought like they shouldn’t work…

What I like most about Pumpkin Chai as a cold brew is that the notes that are brought forward are the earthy and sweet pumpkin and carrot, with less attention to the spices. Just like what I want in a pumpkin tea – more pumpkin, less spice!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEmGzzuge1V/

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.

Yearly Pumpkin Chai!!

I rarely drink this tea, but I make a point to have a cup of it at least once a year around Halloween because I’m a slut for a good thematically appropriate cuppa. This weekend was my yearly cuppa – with a little splash of milk. Nothing super special; just a sweet spiced cuppa with a bit of that caramelized sugar taste.

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.

I treated myself yesterday to a new kind of honey – Buckwheat Honey! It’s dark, and kind of molasses/malty in its sweetness and I am all kind of excited to have it in my line up up what is an admittedly absurd amount of honey…

This was my first “trial” with it; I was trying to think what kinds of tea would naturally pair well with it and Chai was definitely one of the first things that came to mind. I went for this chai because I have a ton of it, so if it didn’t taste great then at least I wasn’t using up something I don’t have lots of. Also, this has a pretty good amount of clove in it and all day today I’ve been having a soreness in my neck and jaw, and clove has a kind of numbing quality to it that I thought might potentially ease the jaw pain? Worth a shot, right!?

I don’t know that it did anything for the pain I’ve been in all day – but as for taste I thought this was incredible! That extra molasses-y sort of sweetness was exactly what this chai needed to really get pushed over the top for me. Suddenly, this felt decadent to me and I found I was really connecting with the clove, caramel, and cinnamon in the blend. Sort of that same wonderful molasses and spiced pumpkin taste that I adore in one of DT’s other blends – Pumpkin Patch!

I had plans for other teas tonight from NYE, but with the amount of pain I’m in I may call it an early night and not stay up until midnight. If that’s the case, then at least I’m happy that this tea was my last cup of 2018 – it was damn good.

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

It’s not fall if you don’t have a PSL to mark the change in seasons, and luckily for me Pumpkin Chai Lattes are our specialty latte for the week at work. I grabbed one of the cute ‘mini lattes’ that we were sampling earlier in the week just because it was convenient, and also I didn’t want to commit to a full cup. We were sampling a batch with agave and a batch without, and I definitely grabbed one with because it was very sweet. Strong caramel/brown sugar notes and a hearty dose of spice – all warming. It was good; not the thing I want all the time (I definitely prefer S’mores Chai). Next time gotta grab one without agave, though…

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

So, it’s the first day of Autumn today!

I’m celebrating/getting into the Autumn spirit by wearing the biggest, coziest sweater I own and curling up under the covers with pumpkin teas – nothing says “Fall” more than that except for, perhaps, the crab apples tree just outside my window that’s beautifully transitioning from bright green leaves to crisp, warming yellows and oranges accented by the bright red crab apples covering the whole thing.

So; this is my first Pumpkin Chai of the year – and possibly my last. I just don’t really love Chai tea, and to be honest I find this one a little bit overhyped. It’s just a little too much spice for me, with not enough sweet, rich pumpkin pay off. I’ve kind of found a way to rectify that this year though: I’ve added in a nice squeeze of pumpkin agave to both boost the pumpkin flavour in the tea and give it more sweetness/dessert like qualities so that it’s a little more in line with what I want out of a pumpkin/autumnal Chai.

It’s still got lots of warming cinnamon notes, don’t get me wrong! And the black tea is nice and rich/full bodied and adds a nice layer of malt to the warming cinnamon elements. It’s just that it’s got a brighter pumpkin flavour, and the caramel/burnt sugar notes are a little more exaggerated thanks to the extra sweetness of the agave.

Oh! I also topped it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! That way the mug cooled down a little faster, and I got to sip the tea through the melted down ice cream foam, which made it even creamier/silkier and kind of replicated the feeling/taste of eating pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top. Only thing that would have made it better would have been a pinch of nutmeg sprinkled on top.

Happy first day of Autumn!

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Sipdown (120)!

It is the wrong season to be drinking a Pumpkin Chai Cashew Milk latte, and yet that is precisely the thing that I am now doing. I just couldn’t wait another season to get in this sipdown – I’ve wanted to finish this blend off for ages now. Plus, I really wanted to be able to use the tin for something.

This is actually a pretty decent way to finish this blend off though; it tastes good (although strongly of cardamom) and is much different than all of the other ways I’ve done and grown sick of this blend.

An observation about cashew milk lattes: my favourite part of regular milk lattes is eating the ‘milk skin’ that forms on the top of the mug. However, that is easily my least favourite part of cashew milk lattes. I can’t explain why it’s so different, but with the former the skin is profoundly disgusting…