DAVIDsTEA

52teas’ rainbow sherbert is one of my favorite gimmicky dessert teas, so I was really excited to try this one out!

The leaf looks and smells a bit odd. The scent isn’t bad, but it’s not much like ice cream, and the appearance is kind of… messy, presumably due to the fact that sprinkles and freeze dried ice cream are not designed to keep their shape when mixed with tea leaves. But hey, I didn’t get this to stare at it, so let’s move on.

The flavor with no additions is similarly hard to describe. If I didn’t know what it was, I might guess some kind of strawberries and cream, and knowing what to look for I can definitely tell that there’s freeze-dried ice cream in there. It’s also got a notable sweetness that will probably turn a lot of people off, but I don’t mind.

I also tried this with milk because it seemed like the proper thing to do, but it was a poor choice and just diluted the flavor.

This is a tough tea to rate! It’s definitely got an intriguing and unique taste and I’m glad I tried it, but I’m not sure I’d say that I like it. I’d rather drink an okay unique tea than an okay boring tea, so points for that, but unless you’re as curious as I was I would say to skip it.

Story Time:Well it’s hurricane party weather, but since I don’t really drink, I am going to try to get threw by tea samples I have been meaning to finish.

Tea Time: This one was given to me by Awkward Soul. Thanks for the sample!

The dry leaf smells lightly like red hots…. ME GUSTA! The liquor is a nice royal golden yellow and smells still like red hots, but slightly savory.

No sweetner: pleasantly grassy and with some mild spice warm flavor and a hint of bitter.

Little sweetener: Kinda the same but less bitter.

More sweetener: should havn’t added as much as I did. It does taste a little more like red hots with a pinch of savory.

The thing I like about this tea is that the spice level isn’t exaggerated. It won’t give you hot lips, but it has a nice savoy warm hue and tongue tingle that makes me love spicy food. It fits well with the green tea base. I would have to give this tea nickname, I would call it mexican; if only I had a burrito to compliment it right now.

Overall a nice cupa tea. Very warming and savory. I only wish I brewed it hotter.

I would recommend this to mild spice people or spicy flavor lovers.

P.S. What is currently playing on my YouTube playlist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmDhG0YhgI&feature=autoplay&list=PL0F4F1D0F36A715C1&playnext=2

Not impressed with this tea after trying two milk oolongs from TeaVivre. The milk taste is alright, but maybe the oolong quality is waning in this bag. At least 25 grams goes quick.

LATTE MODE!

Thought maybe a Stormy night latte would do the trick. Brewed double strength, poured over hot soy milk and honey.

Latte tastes good, lattes always taste good, buuuut still weak tea flavor. There is a bit of spice with the cinnamon and a peek of chocolate, but that’s it. BOOOO Stormy Night, you are a weak storm!

I’m off – I need to hit the mall, then start hammering away at NaNoWriMo, which I started yesterday, eeeep!

Another tea sample my family brought me from Canada! I can’t wait to try this one as this looks up my alley.

DRY: Strong cinnamon scent. Huge chunks of chocolate, very rustic looking tea. The chocolate tasted good too.

STEEPED: Cinnamony and chocolate smell, weird film on the top of the light brown tea. Little murky and debris floating in this tea that my Steeper didn’t catch.

TASTE: Warm cinnamony, deep earthy black tea, slight creamyness from coconut or vanilla. The main flavor of this tea is cinnamon though.
Sweetened, I think the chocolate flavor comes out a bit more.

Oddly, my last cup from my tea pot was REALLY weak! Huh? I’m thinking all the weird floating debris carried the flavors.

COMMENTS: I disliked Dr. Chocolate/Spiced Carob – SN is very similar but lacks the stuff I disliked about Dr. SC – cardamon /waves fist! However, yeah, kinda weak flavor. Kinda close to Cocoa Canela, but not as spicy! I’d say this tea is the least spicy of the 3.

Not bad, I’m sure there are plenty of peeps who would like this tea, it’s very fall like, warm cinnamon and chocolate. I’m thinking it needs nuts for another layer of flavoring as it’s too close to Dr Spice Chocolate Carob and Cocoa Canela vibe.

This is a great mate. I had been finding a lot of the mate’s coming from david’s as of late had been heavier flavours. I am glad this one is lighter, and is fruity which is perfect for first thing in the morning.

While the weather has been getting steadily colder, I haven’t been drinking a whole lot of hot tea. Probably because my apartment is a hotbox: I’m on the top floor, and all the heat from the other apartments seems to drift up here. Even when it’s quite chilly out I barely have to turn on my radiators! And it’s still quite nice and brisk out (perfect for walks around the neighborhood!), so I end up with the fan on at night and the windows open all day. So yeah, I’ve been drinking mainly iced tea!

But thankfully it’s a bit cooler today, and there’s a nice breeze coming in. I was in the mood for something warm and toasty, so I pulled out this which I got in a swap with tattooed_tea! There are a lot of DavidsTea flavors I want to try but I’m too cheap to go buy samples of 10+ different blends, so swaps have really been my friend. Soon I think I’ll have decided on my “must have” blends from them and just place an online order to cash in on the free shipping (plus, you know, lack of sales tax!).

This is definitely a contender for the must have pile! I love nutty teas, and this one imparts a very unique flavor. It’s definitely Brazil Nut, though it’s also reminiscent of hazelnut. It kind of feels like a latte with just a splash of milk, it’s a pretty rich blend. The raisins impart a really nice natural sweetness and while I don’t taste a whole lot of coconut I think it adds some creamy, full qualities. Delicious!

Thanks again JustJames for sending this to me so long again. I don’t have much left but I really like it. I keep forgetting how good it is, but when i drink it I get coffee and raspberry and nuts and it’s just freaking perfect.

I did drink this after finishing my coffee because I wanted to make sure I was super awake and it did the trick. Maybe too awake. Gotta get off the tumblr now and start doing some actual work.

Hello Wednesday!

I thought I would have a cup of this from the sample JustJames so generously provided a few months ago. I have to say that while I was doing the dishes and waiting for it to cool I was REALLY enjoying the smell of it.

Mmmmmm. Chocolate and raspberry.

It’s a good thing I liked the smell because before I had my first sip I knocked my cup over the stove and spilled most of it down the burners. :O Whoops.

I did enjoy the remaining 3 sips left in the cup, and I have enough for a few more cups. Another day then.

(I wanted this because I ran out of the cocoberry mate and I actually did really enjoy that one! I’m hoping I’ll go to DAVIDsTEA friday to scoop the winter collection, and that they’ll have the fall teas bundled up in $2/5 packs. Maybe I’ll get lucky)

Ok maybe I wasn’t being fair to this tea, or I’m just having second thoughts as I sipdown this cup… It’s pretty good if I’m looking for a strong kick my butt sorta tea, and sometimes that’s what I need. So I’ll bump this up a bit, although I doubt it’ll return to my cupboard anytime soon.

So this isn’t my favourite tea by any means, but it’s not bad. Drinking the last of it won’t be a chore, even though it was hidden for nearly two years! Doesn’t seem to have lost much flavour because it was sealed fairly tightly. I get chocolate notes and raspberry, but for some reason I always associate this tea with coffee. And some days, I’d rather just have the coffee. Most days I’d rather just have an Assam.

It’s my third sipdown today! Good thing too because my Verdant order just shipped! I’m so excited! (Also, I better start earning more points again. I’ll probably want another order for the fall.)

This tea is ok. Not great. Nothing to write about. :P

Sipdown! 116/365!

… This is revolting. Why didn’t I throw it out earlier? What a waste of perfectly good water.

This came out of my “try this already!” box. And since everything else I had set to brew up tonight (aside from re-steeps) was an unflavoured tea, I felt like a bit of flavouring… although this wouldn’t have been my first choice given the negative reviews of it I’ve seen.

To start with, the aroma from the dry tea is a bit offputting. I would agree that the aroma is reminiscent of cola in a… chemically sort of way. But, I don’t like cola (and especially not cherry cola) to begin with, so who knows, maybe it smells normal to all those pop lovers! Brewed up it smells pretty similar, though not as bad as I was expecting.

The flavour, though, is where it massively crashes and burns. There is just something WRONG with the initial taste. It’s quite strong, and chemically, and truly terrible. Bleeeech. I’ve had seriously oversteeped greens that are more palatable than this!! I’m finding that the aftertaste isn’t completely terrible; it does remind me of coke, but unfortunately, I’m not willing to drink another terrible sip in order to achieve the aftertaste. I was contemplating trying this one with sweetener, but I think that would be a waste of sugar.

My advice? Avoid this tea at all costs unless you have an affinity for drinking chemicals. I’ve complained about flavouring oils and chemical flavours before, but no tea I’ve tried has been quite this bad (ok, other than the vomit-flavoured Pina Colada from Adagio. I would drink this over that.)

Down the drain this goes! Perhaps I’ll run up and grab a Persimmon Tree or Whispering Pines sample that I have yet to try, since I’m still craving something flavoured.

I let the water cool before adding my tea, so chances are that the water was a bit cooler than instructed- but when it comes to white I much rather under do than over! I was very satisfied with the flavor of both the first and second steeping. first time I was a bit surprised that it had more flavor than I expected! if seemed sweet and flowery on its own. first seeping also had another flavor that I’m not eloquent enough to describe in few words, so I’ll just say this- it tasted like the smell of butterflies. that’s not just some fluffy simile either! lovely like a slightly buggy pollen. it was very nice! but its pretty pricey, as expected from a straight white tea. I will certainly enjoy it on special occasion or when I need soft nudge on a bad day.

Thank you Queenoftarts for this one. Smells fruity like strawberry Big League Chew. The liquor….swampwater! The flavor is tasty. You can’t really tell it’s a rooibos tea. Another good one from DAVIDsTEA

I thought this was going to be berry flavoured, but I was wrong. It tastes just like a macadamia nut cookie to me. Just like a mellow, buttery, delicious white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie…… oohhhh yes, yes, yes. However, the only reason I brought this tea home was because I got a free to-go mug from one of the staff. The smell of the dry leaves really didn’t appeal to me at the time. They smell kind of like vanilla rum. So I just paid for my pumpkin chai, forever nuts, and the skinny and got out of there. However, I had only walked a few hundred metres before I took a few sips, and turned right around and bought some to take home. It tastes nothing like it smells.

I love my Steeper – I use this thing ALL the time! Little mess pouring the tea, the leaves are kept nicely for when I want to resteep and pretty well balanced so it doesn’t fall over or anything.

I love it so much, I crocheted 2 cozies for it and posted the pattern on my blog to share with others – ZOMG CROCHET STEEPER TEA COZY http://awkwardsoul.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/davidstea-steeper-cozy-crochet-free-pattern/

My only complaint is taking this thing apart. Maybe I’m scared I’m gonna break it and I’m screwed for having good tea until a new one comes in the mail. Putting the filter back in can be a pain. What I found works really well for cleaning is rubbing baking soda in to remove all the tea stains.

I have the 18oz and totally want the 36oz. One day.

This reminds me of butter cream frosting!

Too weak for me to really like it. It’s a pretty decent black with a bit of cinnamon, but as a chai it fails to really impress. Doesn’t seem to hold up well to milk. There are other chais that I much prefer.

I like it. I drink this one straight with a bit of agave, or with agave and a bit of milk. Not bad at all. I’d like if the caramel was a little more pervasive in the flavour of the steeped tea, but overall it’s a good cup.

Had this iced with nothing added. I wouldn’t automatically nail the main flavour as kiwi, but it works I suppose. I’m fairly ambivalent about this one – I really wanted to like it, but it seemed a little to mild for me. I don’t think I’ll be making a reapeat of this one.

Tried this as an in-store sample. Can’t do it. All I tasted was the chile as it kicked me in the face. Won’t revisit.