DAVIDsTEA

Wow…what a unique flavor! It DEFINITELY reminds me of the mountains. The smell of the dry stuff is very off putting…I was wondering what I got myself into.

After steeping it (at a much lower temperature then an herbal needs-I only have a coffee pot, don’t judge! LOL) I get an overwhelming taste of minty-ness…with an accompaniment of berry. I’ve never had juniper berries before or raspberry leaves. I can barely tell there’s any apple at all…if it’s there it’s VERY subtle. I feel like it cleans my palate…refreshing like. I wouldn’t mind drinking this again…I wouldn’t say it’s a favorite of mine…but maybe once I re-steep it or try more varieties of teas I’ll be able to come back to this one and say I like it better then all those others.

So I thought packing and moving wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it’s tricky when I’m home with the baby and there’s no one else around, and she tries to unpack everything I’m doing as soon as I turn my back, or she decides to climb on the couch, and falls onto something hard, or she just won’t nap and throws things around the house and smacks me with her bottle.

That’s how my days have been.

And I’ve been needing tea. Lots of tea. I don’t think I’m getting enough and that’s part of why I feel so tense all the time. And when I do get tea it’s very hit or miss, but I’ve been drinking up the not-so-great’s and this tea would be classified there. It was only $2.50 though, and it’d probably be better as a latte.

I should probably make a latte. 4L of milk goes A LONG way with just me drinking it. Before, it could be gone in 2 days. :P

I think I put too much pressure on myself. All of this will work itself out. :P

This one wasn’t a sipdown, but I’m down to 104, and Sil is graciously holding onto about 11 new ones for me. Maybe I’ll still end up under 100 by the time I get those from her. :P I still have about 115 oz though. SO MUCH.

I totally meant to go to DavidsTea for Pom Power but before I made it out, I’d spent $20 and walked out with 7 other teas. I am so bad when it comes to deals.

The moral of this: GUYS! IF YOU WANT DT’s WINTER TEAS GET THEM NOW: 2- 25g bags for $5!

Really this was a terrible idea. I can’t even remember how excited I was about banana dream pie, and I bought two pouches. And do I really need more Cookie Dough?

When my bf saw my large blue bag he just asked, “So, how many teas are you at now?” Bahaha. He rocks.

We went into DavidsTea today to check out the new advent calendars and other goodies; it was crazy! Guess everyone else had the same idea. They ended up giving us a free cup to-go for being so patient, which was great because I was excited anyways and the staff was already extra courteous. I figured I’d go for the Chocolate Chili Chai.

If my bf wasn’t sitting there waiting patiently I would have been tempted to buy more than I did. :O Those perfect tea mugs look great – I know I’m late to the game, but I really like the large fall one they put out with all the trees on it (http://www.davidstea.com/giant-perfect-tea-mug-forest?&TF=69F219E5A1A1&DEID=). I LOVE the giant sized cups, and have been a bit out of sorts ever since I dropped my favourite mug on the floor 7 months ago. The Christmas ones are lovely, but are too specific to the season for me to want to use them all year round… I’m hoping I can suggest it as a Christmas gift! :P But then if the bf is paying attention at all he can just get me a gift card for DavidsTea and let me snag all the goodies myself – that’s part of the fun after all! #spoiledROTTEN

(Oooh – does anyone know if DT does anything for Boxing Week? :P)

Anyways… on to the tea!

The first few sips were really good. The chocolate was smooth and it didn’t taste weak. The chili was a nice balance too. I love the smell too – I walked into the living room and the whole room smelled delightful!

Unfortunately, I had to let it sit for an hour or so and there must have been a few loose leaves in it or something because it tastes a little murky now. Or maybe that’s just what happens when it cools. I had originally originally planned on rating it in the 80’s or so. Now I’m not sure where to put it. Guess I’ll have to try it again. :)

OK I love coffee teas, I love chai. This should be perfect for me, sadly it’s not. Wow cinnamon is all I can say. All I can taste is cinnamon. It’s not so much that this tea tastes bad, it’s just not named properly. This should be called cinnamon black.

I thought I had reviewed this before! I guess not. I think the time I was going to review it, I decided not to because I was so underwhelmed by it.
Okay, so the thing with this one is that the aroma is SO GOOD. Just fall-ish, spicy, orangey goodness. So delicious smelling!
Plus, it’s SO beautiful! The swirling gold is mesmerizing and just beautiful. It definitely got bonus points on the scale for that.
That said, the tea itself is some of the weakest I’ve tried. To get even a reasonable amount of tea or ANY sort of flavour from this you have to use double the amount of leaf. If you use double the amount of leaf like I’ve been doing lately, it will taste pleasantly like black tea with a hint of that orangey spice flavour. If weaker or less “kick you in the face” teas are your thing, then give this a shot!
I think the tea itself is tasty enough (again, if you use enough leaf) but the aroma compared to the flavour is disappointing.
Overall, not sorry I got it because I’ll enjoy the rest of it, but I probably wouldn’t repurchase unless I’m feeling particularly whimsical and want the glittery tea again.

Second cup of the day on this busy day. I would’ve liked to have saved this one for an at-home movie night, but it smells too good to wait for that. And I think I will have just enough left to have another cup. :) The dry leaves smell exactly like caramel popcorn, yummy! I was a little surprised to find out that there are apples in this one, and there sure are a lot of them. This tea actually tastes mostly like the apples to me when it’s hot. There is a sweet maple finish, and a really quick aftertaste of popcorn. As it cools the buttery popcorn flavor comes out more. In fact, I like this tea much better after it has cooled. It does taste like caramel popcorn! Thank you whatshesaid for this sample! :)

-Dry blend has pieces of dried apple, popcorn and long thin green tea leaves.
-Dry blend smells like caramel popcorn. Tea liquor aroma is of apples with a caramel maple scent.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark yellow color.
-Tart apple flavor with a sweet maple finish. Short buttery popcorn aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Flavor is reminiscent of caramel popcorn when cooled.

I love cinnamon. And good cinnamon teas. This tea has a strange cinnamon smell. Doesn’t do it for me, in fact, really turns me off. I tried to drink a few sips, but it wasn’t worth it with all the other yummy teas I have to choose from. I didn’t dump it though. My mom was coming over to watch the kids so I can get some stuff done and I saved it for her. Her first comment, “This smells great.” So as always, to each their own!

Ok, so there are a lot of things I really liked about this tea. There is apple, sencha, popcorn(smels like caramel corn), maple….Needless to say I love the ingredients, the way it smells dry, even the way it smells when steeped. The only thing I dont really love about this tea is………the taste, or lack there of.

I was so excited to try this tea. Flavored teas rarely excite me, but everything about this got me excited. I have tried steeping it for longer, shorter, different temps. Tried adding more tea than recommended, but alas I don’t find that this tea has much memorable flavor. Kind of a weak garbled mess of flavors. I wanted so bad to like it. Based on smell I would give it a rating in the mid 90’s. It actually saddens me that I don’t like it more. However I have noticed some other low ratings for similar reasons. However it does make me want to try more flavored teas. So I guess some good came out of this purchase.

Sipdown! Trying to clear some space on my tea shelf for an incoming order.

This tea is still “just ok.” Tried it with some almond milk for this last cup, and was admittedly less than impressed. Still have a hard time getting over that overly-perfumed, artificial smell.

It’s taken me a while to review this tea, because I have such mixed feelings about it.

First of all, I hate the smell of this tea. I don’t really get the “paint” smell that others have noted, but I find it overly perfume-y, as if it was actually fragranced more than flavored.

The first couple of times I tried this tea, I had it as I drink all my teas – black, without any sweeteners or milk. I found it tasted much like it smelled: very artificial and almost kind of flowery. Didn’t really pick up anything that tasted carrot-cakey.

Then I decided to try it with a little bit of the half-and-half we have in the office. Suddenly, it’s an entirely different tea. Still has that awful smell, but the taste now resembles a very mild spice cake. Something about the cream brings out the “cakeiness” of the tea. I wouldn’t quite call it carrot cake, but there’s a sort of nutty, cake batter taste to it with the cream.

Overall, I’ll finish off what I have left of it, but I won’t be buying it again.

I have had this tea a few times but have yet to write about it. First few times it was okay…. not bad but not memorable. Today however, I am really liking it. I don’t really know if I steeped it differently, the only thing I know I did this time was add a tsp of rock sugar. Maybe the rock sugar brought out the sweet flavor of the caramel.
A nice smooth and sweet tea.

I am so happy to sit quietly this morning and enjoy this sample from whatshesaid. A normal appointment for backing up my laptop at the Apple store on Monday led to a big problem being discovered, and me spending pretty much all day yesterday at the Apple store trying to have it fixed. It was something to do with my iPhoto, and I really really love my pictures. Luckily all seems to have been saved, but I was up until the late hours trying to reorganize everything when I got home. Whew!

I LOVE rose teas. Like could drink them all day, every day love them! This one sounded so promising with the addition of white chocolate that I have been wanting to try it for awhile. The dry leaves have that perfumey rose smell mixed in with sweet white chocolate. I noticed a really lovely rose scent filling the air while the tea was steeping. The flavor is sweet and malty with a nice rose finish. And a wonderful perfumey aftertaste. The tea was just a little bitter, so I would probably drop my original brewing time down to 4 minutes from the 4.5 I originally tried. I added a little milk and sweetener and this tea is just perfect! Thank you, whatshesaid!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves, rose buds and pieces of white chocolate.
-Dry leaves smell like perfumey rose and white chocolate. Tea liquor aroma is of toasty rose.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark brown color.
-Sweet and malty black tea flavor with a rose finish. Lingering perfumey aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Sweet creamy rose flavor.

Not too sweet, very subtle and smooth.

This tea is really good for when you have a stomach ache, and is very relaxing and healthy!

Although black tea is not my favourite tea, glitter & gold is pretty good!

Gaadd, I love this tea! First of all, my favorite kind of tea is oolong simply because it offers the best of both worlds: the leafy-ness and herbal taste of green tea and the pungent strong flavor from black tea. But this oolong in particular: very smooth and soothing with wonderfully leafy/grassy tones!

First time I had dragonwell and don’t think I’m a huge fan. I’m fine with the overly vegetal but I also had tastes of peppery meatyness and I felt like I was eating a meal more than drinking a tea. Not a fan so much but thanks for the sample Alysha

The best thing about this tea was the green rooibos. The creme brulee wasn’t there so much but it was still quite yummy. Sample from Alysha

Amazing bedtime tea. I’m quickly changing to unflavored blacks and flavored rooibos as tastes change so this is an amazing replacement for mint chocolate black tea which I love. Sample from alysha
Oh, did I mention how amazing it smells? Wow.

I got this tea for my 8 year old who really wanted to try it iced. I made my cup hot as a night time treat. The smell scares me, I am certain I will not like this tea. It smells odd. Taste: yup, don’t like it. It tastes a bit like soap or aftershave. I can’t place it but I really hate it. Darn. Hope it is better iced.

What I expected: the sweet nutty taste that was described. What I got – a light, toasted rice-y flavour, not sweet, not bitter. I wasn’t sure about it at first, then I brewed it with cooler water (still warmer than room temp) a second time and it was great. The taste between the first and second infusion is definitely different imo, the second one being much lighter and less of a toasted rice-y after taste. I think it is something that will grow on me.

If you look up this tea and think, “yeah, but I doubt it really tastes like a creamy chocolate orange” YOU ARE WRONG. The smell is EXACTLY what I hoped for. Tasted amazing, especially with a bit of vanilla almond milk. MMMMM.

This tea is a beautiful little treat. The jasmine gives it a naturally sweeter taste and it’s one of the only black teas I don’t add milk to. I bought 50g it on a whim back when DavidsTea was promoting their straight teas and have had it sparingly since as it’s pretty pricey and stock they ran out shortly afterwards. Either way, now that it’s back I’ll definitely be grabbing a tin to stock up.