DAVIDsTEA

Ok, first things first. I really like when persian kings and tea come together (remember my excitement over ‘Iskandar’ by Mariage Frères?) so this one made me smile. But wait, there’s no peach in it? Nope, no peach. They’re referring to apples infused in rose water this time. Just as Alexander requested. Once again, I smile.

One sip, and my eyes glisten. I automatically fall in love.

Just like biting into a ripe red delicious laced with rose water.
Add the creaminess of pistachios and a beautiful green tea base.
I am blown away! I could drink this forever!

Coco Chai used to be a regular in my cupboard, but when I drifted away from David’s Tea a few years ago I stopped restocking. While picking up the traditional amount of Pumpkin Chai online, the store offered this as a free sample. I thought, “why not relive my pioneer tea days?”

Turns out I still like it a lot. Maybe I never refined my chai palate, or maybe it’s actually a decent chai rooibos blend; I don’t have the drive to find out for sure. I’ll probably restock when the cupboard gets less chaotic, if only for my mother. She loves this stuff even more than I do!

Mixed with frothy steamed milk.

This is one of my favourite rooibos blends, one of my first DT purchases, and a staple part of my collection.

For the longest time I was drinking this chai cold, over-steeped, and with no milk- Don’t ask me why. As a testament to its quality and in spite of my abuse I can still say it tasted “decent”- albeit as a cold, heavily spiced water mixture.

Somewhere along the line I decided to infuse it with steamed milk – and what a revelation that was! Now I look back on my old ways and shudder with embarrassment. I do some cringing too.

With the addition of milk the spiciness and creaminess come to a delicious balance – where neither of which is too weak. All of the spices are prevalent but the peppercorn, coconut, and cloves are the ones that draw me in.

Typically, I’m not a fan of rooibos blends but this one reminds me not to be close-minded. There are some good things out there and sometimes they need milk.

While this smells delightful, it’s a bit on the heavy side, thus really pricy.
It does taste like banana nut bread*, but I suggest steeping it for atleast twice the amount of time suggested. Also, sweeteners make this undrinkable.

Home after a long work trip. It’s so nice to relax with a cup of tea. I think 5 minutes is too long for this one. It’s way more astringent that I remember it being. But, the coconut makes it nice and creamy, and the raspberry give just a hint of fruity flavour. I added some milk and sugar to counteract the astringency, and that made a big difference.

Trying out one of my new teas this morning while I get my butt in gear to go to the Farmer’s Market.

I really like this. Dry, it smells heavenly. All raspberry and coconutty. I decided to try it with just a tiny bit of some rock cane sugar I suckered myself into buying, and no milk even though I always put milk in my black teas. It’s quite yummy. I get way more coconut that raspberry though. Maybe if I did put a smidgen of milk the raspberry would come out. I like whatever the tea base is. At 4 minutes, I don’t get any of the bitterness that I worry about when I drink black tea.

I suspect I would drink this a lot if I didn’t limit my black teas to the morning. Well that, and the fact I have a lot of black teas to get through :)

Edit: I did a second steeping after I got home from the market. (By the way, it’s not supposed to be this chilly when it’s only September 1st. Just saying.) Steeped 5 minutes, little bit of the rock cane sugar, no milk: it tastes just as yummy as the first steeping.

I couldn’t place the scent of the brewed tea earlier. I took more time to think about it this time. It reminds me of the early morning in a tropical country (for me, that would be the Philippines or Vietnam). The scent of the tea is like the woody scent of the trees in that hot, muggy morning mist.

Continuing my trend of reviewing my backlog at 4am when I have insomnia! I finally dived into my sample of this one today after losing it at the back of the basket for a little while. Pineapple is not a favourite fruit of mine, be it in spears, cubes, or on pizza (SHUDDER!). But sometimes teas change things into marvelousness, and so the oolong had to be tried.

And I am really glad I did. This was a lovely mellow tea with pineapple notes but they didn’t override the tea. The first cup was much more pineappley but second steep was perfect for a non-lover like me. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this one will blend with some of my other oolongs, especially other fruit flavours. I think it’ll be a great tea to highlight others!

I have a feeling that what is supposed to be the main star of this tea is what is going to make me not buy it again. I really enjoyed the spice mix of the chai, cinnamon is always a winner with me (my favourite chai tea is the Cinnamon Rooibos Chai at David’s), but it couldn’t compensate for the other ingredients. At first I thought what bothered me was the stevia, since the tea had that fake sweetness to it that tends to turn my stomach. Imagine my surprise when I tried the straight guayusa and found out that was part of the problem here. Sadly guayusa isn’t for me, so neither is this chai. On the bright side it has made me fall in love with mate after re-visiting them.

I went into this one with trepidation, having so far very bad luck with any of the teas David has done with “brittle pieces”. Dry the scent doesn’t match what I have ever had as a toasted marshmallow, but really, how much of a scent does one have other than burnt sugar?

First sips I was . . . mixed. It didn’t suck, so I sipped on, adding a half teaspoon of sugar. This brought out a few flavours but still it wasn’t my toasted marshmallow. It was more as if the marshmallow’d been cooked in an oven with spices rather than open a fire. It was missing that smokey amazing goodness which was the whole reason I’d roast marshmallows in the first place. I’m the queen of doing them so they’re just ever so lightly brown and are soooo delicious and no burnt taste to be found, just smoke.

I’m still on the search for my summer marshmallow tea. I have the custom adagio mix here still, which has the smoke but not the sweet, so I may try them together to see what that gives me. Maybe my marshmallow dreams still can come true?

This is my favorite tea right now. I like the sweet banana taste it has. To me it smells and tastes just like banana bread. I do have to agree with everyone you don’t get much of this tea in the bag. I tried double steeping it but it just didn’t really have much taste the second time. O well i still think it tastes amazing.

The leaves smell awesome!
I am having the worst most fibro-tacular day moving someone into a new house. Serious energy is in order, so I’m really putting this to the test.
Brewed up this smells really grassy – it’s actually really similar to wheatgrass shots, which I love.
It tastes like… wheatgrass! No, really, it has those deep chlorophyll notes to it. It has no bitter aftertaste, and actually doesn’t have much of a flavor at all, aside from the “green” tastes. I like that about this though – If I’m drinking something for energy, I just want a quick “zing!” rather than something super flavorful or cloying.
It’s actually pretty refreshing.

My Dad and Step-mom came over this morning to make Christmas wreaths. I made this tea and left it brewing while I went downstairs to help organize the ornaments. I accidentally forgot the tea brewing and completely oversteeped it. Despite having a cold, as I walked up the stairs I could smell the blueberries as if I was baking a blueberry pie in the oven. As I sniffed at the air and realized what I did, I sprinted up the stairs as if those last few seconds were crucial and could really make or break the tea. Completely illogical, but I always do stuff like that.

Miraculously there was no bitterness and my Step-mom and Dad kept commenting on the tasty tea. Sadly, that was the last little bit of this one, but hopefully Davids will have more available the next time I go shopping for tea. It seems to be a FAMily favorite.

Happy Thanksgiving for all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving today – I am thankful for all my steepster friends

Ack! I just read the first line of the tea description “We’re jammin’” …cute, but now I’m going to have Bob Marley stuck in my head all night.

My Dad just came over for a visit, and he selected this tea from my stash to try. I had it “as is” and he added a touch of honey to his cup. We both enjoyed the lovely taste of blueberries, and the smell…oh my! Spot on!

… ♪ and I hope you like jammin’, too ♫

Yummy! Even though I generally gravitate towards green and white teas, when I opened up the sniffer at my local Davids Tea, this blueberry jam black tea had a hold of me immediately. I love that even though it is a black tea, David’s classifies it as a “low caffeine” tea. This is quite likely because it is loaded with blueberries and therefore contains much less actual tea. Both the smell and the taste are spot on with the name. It makes a great tea whether hot or cold. The second brew tastes even better in my opinion, the flavors seem a bit more mellow and smooth.

The eve of the Saanich Fair brings with it a chance to try this new white tea. The scent is refreshing and sweet. I would describe this as a more natural fruit punch without all the sugar and chemicals of the ones on the market. It tastes nice warm but no doubt it would work just as well on ice. The more I drink it the more delicious the notes are and perks the spirit, all I need is one of those little drink umbrellas and I’m set. Cheers!

This tea smells amazing like green apples and kiwis.
It also smells like it’ll be deliciously light and fruity for a green tea.

Once brewed it’s ridiculously clear and smells the same just cooked!

Damn I am looking forward to this.

First taste and it’s delightfully light and refreshing.I taste the apple and kiwi and it’s lovely.This is a wonderful light tea…perfect for hot days and hard to get up mornings.

This is, as they say in the description, the best chocolate/desert tea.
It tastes just like after eight chocolates. The perfect blend of chocolate and mint- one of my favorite combos! It just- is great!
Its a very dark warm wintery tea. I have only had it hot and am scared to try it iced as it may not taste good. I have just run out!!!! Yikes- like I said in my last note, I do not usually re-purchase, but I will be with this one. Maybe not right away, I will probably buy it during the winter colder season.

I bought this one in stores a little while back and have tried it many times. I was running low and only had enough for one cup left, so I decided to have it last night.
Obviously this is a winter blend – considering the name.
Its a very comforting and warm tea. It does have a very wintery taste to.
I don’t know, this one is difficult to explain. It tastes pretty much how the name and description describe it.
This one I will not be repurchasing. However, that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t usually repurchase teas, mostly because DAVIDs TEA always has new tea coming out, and I , to try the new ones.
I will be doing reviews on the teas from the fall collection soon, so stay tuned!

I went a little crazy at DT today. I couldn’t help it, so much yumminess! This was an impulse buy, I went knowing what I wanted, but I was purchasing some of this for a swap and once I smelled it I had to buy it.
It is the flavour equivalent of a warm blanket and a good book. Cozy, comforting bliss. Cinnamon and allspice come out the most with a tough of sweetness from the marshmallows.
The fall collection can never go away.
On another note I finally bought a new kettle, no more CaveMama.

David’s Tea is quickly becoming my favorite online tea retailer. I’m pretty sure if there was a store nearby I’d visit every day, and drop hundreds, if not thousands, there!

This was a sample in my most recent order. I brewed it up last night, and added honey, as I’m battling a cold (already?!). This flavor is amazing! You can taste the spices and coconut flavor, which is unique and fun. I bet this is beyond delicious iced, but I finished up the sample last night when I brewed a larger pot of it, with the intention of sharing it with my husband…and promptly finishing it myself. Don’t tell. ;)

I will be ordering this one when I place the order for the fall collection.

Bottom line: LOVE IT! :)

This is last cup I’m having of this tea as the rest is going off to a new home with Will Work For Tea. This tea is clearly made for coffee lovers among us – of which I’m not – so I think that colours my opinion of this blend somewhat. Still with a bunch of sugar and milk it’s not half bad and has a nice slightly-burned, malty flavour. Subtle it sure ain’t, though.

The smell of the dry blend is rich and vanilla-y with a nutty undertone. It turned a bit more herbal as the tea steeped and the colour was super dark – like a cup of black dark-roast coffee, I guess.

The first sip was shockingly bitter but after that inital mouthful the flavour improved. I almost never drink coffee (because it makes me hideously ill) but I imagine that it’s meant to taste similar to it – I know that chickory root was used as a coffee substitute when the latter was too expensive or scarse (such as the infamous Ersatz coffee). It’s maybe a bit strong for my tastes, but I’m tempted to try it with milk and/or honey next time. Colour me intrigued. :D

I love the visual mix of ingredients – the little peppercorns are awesome!
Brewed up this smells incredibly of cinnamon. Full disclosure: I am not a cinnamon person.
Flavor-wise this was fairly thin and somewhat cinnamon heavy. I ended up adding milk and sugar which tempered the cinnamon and actually made it taste more interesting.
Not the best chai I’ve ever had (I’m looking at you, Thai Chai!), but still drinkable.