DAVIDsTEA

Tonight I shook things up and tried this hot. Still such a versatile tisane! Whereas the cold brew turns downright sour (though not in a bad way, I like a good tart iced tea), brewing it hot beefs up the juicy strawberry notes and really tempers the tartness of the rhubarb. As a side benefit, my tea turned a gorgeous ruby colour! Too pretty!! I tend to shy away from drinking my fruity iced teas hot, but this may have just really convinced me to give it a shot more often! (My next plan is to toss in a tiny bit of Lemon Myrtle to round out the flavour just a pinch.)

Lord do I love a good fruity iced herbal! I had tried this hot ages back and not been blown away, more fool me! Cold the initial note is a mega strawberry hit followed by a tart rhubarb ending note. I find that the mild, but slightly sour, yogurt just serves to mellow everything out. Crisp and refreshing, it was perfect for the plus forty something we were stuck in yesterday!!

Oh wow, I haven’t had this in years, apparently, nearly four now according to my tasting notes. Seriously? Time flies. DAVIDsTEA just had to come out with those damn adorable printed tins and have a free tin promotion with them, didn’t they? I went in not sure what I wanted 100g of yet, going between this, Blueberry Jam, and Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait. Well, I initially opted for SRP since I know I would easily rip through it and was still giving Blueberry Jam the stink eye for having that fleeting stevia note in it, being wary of getting so much of it at once, so I got 20g of that anyway. I was going to get 20g of this after deciding on doing 100g of SRP, but then at the last minute, opted to also get 100g of this for two of those tins. Sigh. So yeah. More tea.

I’ve been randomly craving this lately? I was thinking about ATR’s Brioche the other day, wishing I had more of that and then remembered that this tastes very similar. We also had an abnormally windier, cooler day the other day which felt very autumn-esque, and naturally, that makes me want autumn things. This is like an autumn thing, right?

First cup in four-ish years and I am definitely happy with my decision. I love the warm, well-rounded cinnamon in here, the toasty nuts, and I swear there is like a bready note in this too, hence the Brioche association. Maybe I can hypnotize myself and convince myself that this is a freshly baked cinnamon bun topped with chopped nuts and gooey baked apples, and then my brain will think I just had dessert.

Easy sip down! I enjoyed the last of it with some half-and-half (like a lighter cream). It tones down the apple and brought out the nuts and cinnamon more. Yay! I’d totally buy more in the future, but as usual, if I can just slow it down and finish off some others first.

By far the worst day I’ve had since moving here.

For years, I never made the effort to try this tea. There’s a little tea shop in Edmonton called Cally’s Tea. Cally, the owner, imports tea from all over the world. Sounds nice, but all the jars spread throughout the store didn’t say anything about the origin or company from where she got them. One of the few blends that jutted out at me was this one called Almond… something. But it was basically Forever Nuts, maybe a little lighter on the cinnamon. I liked it, but grew tired of it quite fast.

So when DAVIDsTEA moved in, Forever Nuts sounded exactly like it, so I thought meh. But last time I was in the store, I thought I should give it a chance.

Maybe my tastes have changed, but this is super yummy. I swear it has more cinnamon, and therefore, resembles baked goods even more. The apples and nuts make for a comforting evening cup.

I think I need to adjust my rating for this tea. It is just not a tea that I am as crazy about as I once was! I find it is really good with a light brew, but too much and the flavour gets overpowering and not in a good way. In good news, I brewed some up last night and, with just a bit of tea bits to steep for the night, the result is a nice, light, fruity blend.

Having definitely broken down and acquired much of this tea, I can not say I am feeling in the least bit guilty! It has definitely become one of my absolute favourites, I loved to take it to work iced in my Timolino. The tea is sweet and fruity, but not too sweet. Even better, it can handle a long brewing time without anything awful happening. This is definitely one of my better tea aquisitions!!

Finally got into a physical David’s Tea (and subsequently visited many times more) but this was truly today’s find. They offered to make me a tea to go (I should have seen the trap here coming I know) and suggested Guava Cadabra iced. Oh my god, it is amazing! I have honestly never tried guava and thus had not considered this tea as a necessity, but now that I have tried it…. I have so much tea to drink right now, but, once I get though a few of my tins, Guava Cadabra you will be mine!! The tea is naturally sweet and super tropical. I don’t get a ton of mango, but I do get fruit and it tastes great. Super smooth and refreshing over ice!

I didn’t even taste the “berry flavouring” that they added. it was mostly a red acidic ( the hibiscus) flavour and that was about it. it also made me tongue numb eventually.

Cold is the way to go. Icing it allows the fruitiness of the tea to come through in a more pronounced fashion. I personally had a hard time distinguishing this as “guava” though my dad tried it and thought the flavor was there. There’s a bit of tartness from the apple and hibiscus but it’s a true hint; generally this is a very refreshing fruit tea that is neither sweet nor tart. I don’t know that I’d buy more any time soon (I still have to try all their other teas, for one thing), but I wouldn’t object to having a cup of this.

Finished this off last night, and it has a lot of similarities to Lupicia’s Jardin Sauvage, though I think this might be less sweet. This rooibos is definitely fruity, with hints of mango flavor against a general “tropical” backdrop. The green rooibos isn’t too aggressive, but you can still taste it.

I enjoyed this more when it was closer to room temperature or chilled, so if I ever decided to by it again, I’d go for cold-brewing it to test.

Tea #17 from Traveling Tea Box C

To me this was an all around more artificial and less tasty version of Love Potion from Bluebird Tea Co. I would also prefer Adagio’s Valentine’s tea to this.

The chocolate has that same artificial twinge that Della Terra’s have, and the aftertaste is hard to explain, but when I eat cheap chocolate (Hershey’s bars for example) they give my mouth a waxy feeling that leaves me feeling and tasting like I ate crayons. That is what this does.

That sensation goes down as the tea cools. But convincing myself to take a sip after that initial feeling was hard.

As it cools, I can pick out the strawberry (very slight, and I can taste it in the back roof of my mouth, which was a strange sensation), and the rose adds a subtle sweetness.

I ended up dumping this because the crayon/waxy/candle feeling never quite got to a point where I wanted to keep going.

I had this as part of a cold matcha late with soy milk before bed time. Late cravings for it after polishing off two naughty slices of triple chocolate shortbread (which was amazing, best I have tasted). I only usually have shortbread at Christmas as I make it for friends and family as a little gift to say ‘thank you for helping me throughout the year’.

The matcha is not as strong as I was expecting, nor does it have any harsh sort of after tastes like I have experienced with a few other matcha. That makes it very fresh and grassy with beautiful smooth, green and spring like combination of flavours. I only had enough for two cups of this :( I could drink this every day.

Tea #16 from Traveling Tea Box C

This was another DT that has an absoltely stunning scent and then turns out a little lackluster. And it was so pretty and sunshine-y and had my hopes up too.

Sigh.

Very, very peachy. And apricot-y. It reminds me of peachy-o’s and dried apricots in the same mouthful.

As it cools, the almond becomes more pronounced and I can actually identify it in there. Which is more than I can say about the tea itself, so that’s unfortunate.

I would have like to try this as a cold brew, but there was only enough tea in there for one 8 ounce cup.

Dry: This one smells just like sweet and tart passionfruit. Really deliciously fragrant! Lovely dry blend of fruits, leaves, and flowers. As much as I like Harney, right off the bat this one blows the Harney raspberry herbal from last week right out of the park.

Steeped: Bright pink-red slightly cloudy liquor. Smells just like juicy passionfruit. I made this one hot, but I think it would be divine iced.

Taste: Lovely tangy blend where passionfruit meets apple. Tiny hint of sour hibiscus, but really everything goes together nicely to my palate. As it cooled, I was getting more of an apple juice note and less passionfruit, but still very good. I am apparently picky about tisanes from previous experiences, but if you like passionfruit flavors like I do, then this one is a keeper for sure. Not much of a fan of artificial ingredients, but happy to have found a caffiene-free herbal that I like so much.

I was looking for something a bit different today and this hit the spot. I’m really glad that I ended up grabbing this on DT’s going out of stock sale… Got a bit more from the mate today though, not a bad thing but just not what I was expecting.

By the way can someone please tell time to just stop moving forward so fast? I’d really like a chance to catch my breath sometime!

So I wanted something comforting and warm and I’ve been craving chocolate for the past week so I pulled out some Cocoa Canela, brewed it up but it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Time to I decided to experiment! (don’t get me wrong it was still good but I really was looking for something richer and creamy, to be honest I should have just gone downstairs and gotten a real hot chocolate but oh well.)

I started off by adding some cream to the mix, not bad. It certainly added the creaminess that I was looking for but for whatever reason it tasted a bit odd so I added just a touch of sugar to blend things out and that helped. I’m still not sure about the roasted mate flavor with the cream but in the end this was really pretty close to actual hot chocolate… just with a bit of banana and cinnamon mixed in.

I knew exactly what I wanted this afternoon… I’m in a chocolate mood, specifically I’m in a hot chocolate mood but as I’m at work finding quality hot chocolate is a bit difficult. Instead I reached for this tea. I’m still figuring out the new amounts of tea required for my Timolino (as compared to my old tumbler) but I think I’m getting there as this turned out just right; chocolatey, warm with just enough cinnamon and roasted mate to give it a whole new level. Yum.

Now if only I could fast forward to Friday afternoon I’d be all set! :D

ETA: For some reason Steepster ate the first two lines of my post… Oh well it’s fixed now!

I have a love/hate relationship with Chinooks. On one hand they change -20C weather into 0C, try to blow people over (you get used to this after a while) and totally make a mess of the roads; and on the other they give me massive migraines. So after a really poor sleep due to my head I needed something with a bit more caffeine than usual to get me going this morning. So a mate it is.

I can’t get over how murky the liquor is… completely understandable given the powder and the chocolate chips but it surprises me every time. Flavor wise, I still find the chocolate a bit subtle for my tastes but I’m getting a bit more of the roasted mate flavor this steeping and I enjoy how it breaks up the chocolate notes. The cinnamon is a nice touch too.

I’ve been wanting to try this tea for quite some time, but when I noticed that it was on DT’s “Last Chance” sale I just had to jump in with both feet and I wasn’t disappointed.

The dry tea is quite different from any other that I’ve dealt with up to now as the cocoa powder (though a great addition to this tea) can get everywhere if you’re not careful. Overall it has a very strong chocolatey scent with a definite yerba mate twist to it.

Brewed this tea shows off a very rich but murky brown, the chocolate aroma carries over well and you can start to smell the cinnamon mixed in with it. Given all of this I was expecting a very rich and heavy mouth-feel, but my first sip surprised me by how light it was. Though the chocolate flavor is a bit subtle for me (I’m a closet chocoholic) the taste was well balanced and with just a little bit of cinnamon lingering at the end. It also stands up well with additional sweetening, if that’s what you’re in the mood for. But if your sweet-tooth is taking a break then the carob and chocolate chips are just enough to keep things interesting. :)

This is definitely a great tea to have on hand for those times that you’re looking for that hot chocolate taste but without the heaviness that hot chocolate will often bring.

The last pot of this was a little under-leafed, and so a little watery.
Salted Caramel, you have frustrated me to the very end. I am not sorry that this is a sipdown!
So close to black Friday goal, so close.

I’ve been drinking this a lot lately, but its starting to feel a little desperate. I am not overtly impressed with Salted Caramel, unfortunatly. I keep thinking that, with the right combo of time, water temprature, teapot, atmosphiric pressure, planet alignment, ancient chanting, and blind luck, and this will turn into the salted caramel candy in a cup I had been so hoping for.
Nope, not this time either.
Excuse me, I need to go find the sacred tea pot of K’a Ixspuchel, which is said to brew the perfect cup of tea every time (except on every second Wednesday), and try again….

The scene- my kitchen.
The players- Me, and DAVIDs Salted Caramel tea.
(a kettle whistles, ROSEHIPS picks it off the burner, scalds a yellow tea pot, and then steeps a basket of Salted Caramel tea)
Me: Alright, set the timer.
(she sets a timer, and wanders around aimlessly until it dings. She removes the steeper basket, managing not to burn her fingertips. Much. Sits down with the yellow tea pot, and a polka dot cup)
Me: Alright tea, lets do this.
(She sips. She frowns, and takes another sip. Puzzlement.
Me: Why is this never quite what I expected it to be? Wherefor art thou, salt? At least thou art devoid of coffee flavor today.
(The tea says nothing, only sits and lets off steam. Rosehips picks up her cup again)
Me: Well, try try again.
(end scene)