Della Terra Teas

Drinking this in my new DAVIDsTEA mug (“Eggnog Snowfall”), thought these two would go well with each other.

Winter Nog is very tasty and very fun to drink. I do love sprinkles in my teas :). Since I had a sip of eggnog this morning I think I actually do detect some noggy-ness in this. In any case, it’s sweet and creamy and perfect to snuggle up on the couch with.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday. :)

On the 12th Day of Christmas, Della Terra Teas sent this tea to me!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/12/25/on-the-twelfth-day-of-christmas-della-terra-teas-sent-to-me/

This is really yummy, and I was super excited by this blend, because I love sugar plums. As I mentioned in my full-length review, I haven’t ever had the traditional sugar plums but, I’ve had the jelly belly version of sugar plums, and those I love. I suspect that this tea is a bit more like the traditional sugar plum with the spices and everything, but, I loved it. YUM!

I used 1 tablespoon of dry leaf for 375 ml of water.

Good black tea base that compliments the other flavours. Raspberry tastes artifical. Chocolate flavour is only very faint. Immediate aftertaste has a good balance of black tea and raspberry taste with a chocolate hint.

As the cup cools, the tea tastes more just like slightly flavoured hot water.

Thank you to Indigobloom and Sil for sharing some with me!

I’ve been having a few cups of this over the last week, going through my sample from Azzrian. Its so warming and tasty, lovely to sip at work in this cool weather.

Another one from my swap with azzrian. Having this one as my post-Christmas lunch tea. Lovely and sweet, very delicate black base too, not at all bitter. Very smooth. A nice dessertish tea to ease into my Christmas Day belly with no discomfort. And now, for doctor who proms!

I enjoyed this, but it certainly wasn’t as good as it was when it was fresh. I really need to get better at drinking these up a lot quicker, especially the flavoured ones because the flavour fades faster than a lot of the other ingredients. This still wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t as great as it was a year ago even.

Enjoying the Steepster chat today. We discussed many things, from the ridiculous to the grossout horrible. And tea of course.

Oh yeah, and this was a sipdown.

Almost the last of this. Next time I have it will be a sipdown.

This is nice and comforting on a day when I haven’t gotten as much done as I would like. I can still taste the chocolate and the cherry, though not as well as before, probably due to age. It also has the slight waxy taste to it that I don’t remember from before. Oh well. Approximately 26 oz of this to drink in the next 2 hours and then hope I don’t have to pee on the way home (1 hour drive).

Backlogging from last Friday, because I totally forgot. This was sweet and simple to make and nice. I enjoyed it from what I remember. Trying to empty some bags on my desk.

Pretty good. I taste the chocolate and the cherry about equally. A bit too much sweetener but that’s not the end of the world.

Felt like a sweet tea this afternoon for lunch so I put on a pot of some of this. It’s still cooling to tasting temperature, as opposed to burning temperature, but I still can’t resist taking little sips of this until it’s cool enough to drink. I like this one warm and also after it’s sat out and let itself cool down completely, they taste differently both ways but I like them both. I usually get a little bit of both out of each cup of tea because I really don’t drink tea very fast unless I’m really concentrating on it.

So yes, chocolate, cherry, deliciousness.

Oh my, this is my new favourite dessert tea. I can definitely taste both the chocolate and the cherry in this and the tea base is subtle but there and I wish it could be a bit stronger but it’s okay. The chocolate taste is the strongest I’ve tried so far and I’m still not finished my search for the perfect (for me) dessert tea but this is the best I’ve tried so far. I bought a bit of all of Della Terra chocolate teas and this is a great start.

On the tenth day of Christmas, Della Terra Teas sent me this tea!

As I mentioned in my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/12/23/tenth-day-christmas-della-terra-teas-sent-tea/ I was a wee bit disappointed by this tea’s appearance in this year’s box since it was in last year’s box and I was told that there would only be one repeat (Eight Candles) and while it would seem that D’Terra Teas took some creative license with that claim by changing only slightly some of the teas that were offered last year, I didn’t really mind some of those subtle changes. But, I wasn’t too thrilled by this one being in the box because while I don’t hate this tisane, I am not a huge fan of rooibos as a general rule, and I think I would have been happier with a different tea or even another rooibos that I hadn’t yet tried. But … oh well. I still drank the tea and I liked it OK.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, Della Terra Teas sent me this tea!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/12/24/on-the-eleventh-day-of-christmas-della-terra-teas-sent-to-me/

I liked this more than I expected to. My biggest hang up with it – before tasting it – was that I was sure it wouldn’t have a creamy texture that I felt an egg nog would need. Rooibos tends to feel rather thin on the palate, and it’s hard to get that creamy feel with rooibos. And while this IS a little lighter in the texture department when compared to some of the other eggnog inspired teas that I’ve tried this holiday season, for a rooibos this is surprisingly creamy. The creaminess is primarily in the flavor but some of it translates into the mouthfeel as well.

And I liked the way the nutty notes of the rooibos tasted with the sweet nog flavors. It was really quite enjoyable.

I’m a day late on posting the Tenth Day of Christmas tea … but oh well! Yesterday was a very busy day for me, and I wasn’t on the computer very much (we celebrated our holiday yesterday since my oldest daughter wasn’t able to visit either today or tomorrow).

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, Della Terra Teas sent me this tea!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/12/23/on-the-tenth-day-of-christmas-della-terra-teas-sent-to-me/

I really REALLY like this interpretation of the candy cane … I love the chocolate addition … it adds such a delicious dimension to the cup. Oh, ok, sure, it does interfere with the peppermint just a wee bit, and makes it taste maybe just a little less like a candy cane in the traditional sense, but, as for this chocoholic, I’ll take a chocolate dipped candy cane over the tradional candy cane any day!

YUM!

Sipdown! 979.

Shared this with my boyfriend’s mom yesterday while celebrating the first Sunday of Advent. Since she likes this sort of tea (hibiscus blends, Christmas-themed blends), it was a hit :) It was pretty neutral for me – I tasted sour hibiscus and cloves, and while it certainly tasted Christmassy, I’m not too sad it’s gone! We didn’t bother resteeping, as it was in a teapot and I think it would have been pretty weak. Good Christmas-themed blend, though.

So guess who got their parcel from Della Terra on…. SUNDAY?! Since when does Canada Post deliver parcels on Sunday?! And not only that, but my two Try Me packs were put inside lovely little tins, and I swear that there was more than just 0.5 ounces of tea in some of the packs. Ah, so awesome!

So this tea was my free gift for placing an order on the day I did, and just as I was lamenting that I hadn’t brought any strongly-flavoured herbal teas along with me to drink (since I’m sick and Verdant’s Mrs. Li’s Shi Feng Dragonwell would be totally wasted on me right now), I remembered all these new teas I received, and found this one and another that may just have enough spicing to cut through my lack of smell-ability.

So clearly I have retained at least a bit of my ability to smell, because this tea smells just like Christmas! Like… clovey, cinnamony, orangey apple cider. Delicious. Sadly, this also brewed up a deep shade of hibiscus, and unfortunately, that is all I can taste :‘( I’ll try again later with a shorter infusion (3 instead of 4 minutes), but I’m so disappointed since this smelled like it had such potential, but appears to be another tea ruined by the dreaded hibby. Come, tears.

(I’m going to sweeten this and see if that improves it… even the aftertaste is delicious! So maybe sugar will help? Or maybe I just need to pick the hibiscus out next time before brewing???)

ETA: Success! Sweetened (yeah, maybe a bit oversweetened… I’m sick, ok!) it tastes much better. So that will be my fall-back plan if this one gets a bit too sour again. Yum, haha.

This tea has received so many great reviews & I just had to try it. The idea of a marshmallow tea sounds delicious! Teas that have a ton of rave reviews sometimes make me a little bit nervous. I worry that they might not live up to all of the hype and in the end, I just get disappointed.

I love the mini marshmallows and the glittery sprinkles. The scent of the dry leaf is very much like store-bought vanilla frosting. After water has been added, it still retains that sweet scent, but now has the mild black tea base.

Sipping… Hmm.. this tea is very sweet and does taste like marshmallows! It’s a bit like Lucky Charms marshmallows, but that’s okay with me. The more I sip this tea, the more it tastes a little watered down. I used plenty of leaf for the cup, but maybe that’s just the nature of this blend. I can’t taste the black tea base at all, but I think a stronger base would overshadow the marshmallow. As I near the bottom of my cup, I realize that I don’t really like this & it gets more funky the more I drink. Something just doesn’t sit right with me and my tastebuds. It’s got a sugary metallic flavor that lingers in my mouth. Happy to have tried this blend, but it’s just not for me.

Thanks Sil for this sample! and my apologies everyone, I know I’m filling up your dashboards. Just one more after this I swear :)
Bog town! Green swampy water, yup this is a very Halloweeny blend.
Is this green rooibos? I’m not sure, but it certainly reminds me of it. There is that particular sour note, but then that could be from the pineapple. The overall fruit flavour seems to be dominated by pineapple, with barely an edge of mango peeking out.
Overall, my cup was pleasant enough to drink down, but I won’t be buying any for myself. It just doesn’t strike me as anything overly special.
I had fun with it, so perhaps it’d be good to have around for kids during the dress up season!

Additional notes: Had a hankering for this one yesterday. Thanks so much to Star Fevre for sending me some a while back! All the variations of this tea I’ve tried have always been so light, mostly in the black tea base, but whatever chocolate and strawberry is present is accurate to the name, just on the lighter side. It’s a little strawberry and a little chocolate, so I’m happy with it. I think it tasted like this when I had my fresh sample back in the day.

The strawberry & chocolate flavor here is spot on, there just isn’t enough of it. The scent of the leaves is especially scrumptious. I think there may be a milder black tea used for this one, as there is hardly any flavor to the black tea itself. Also, my sample pouch definitely didn’t look like the picture. Look at all those bright strawberries! But in my sample, the strawberries were harder to see (also probably because the leaves were coating the strawberry pieces for some reason… this blend was almost like “black tea covered strawberry” rather than “chocolate covered strawberry”!! The steep color was very light. So this tea was delicious, but there just wasn’t too much flavor. But what flavor is there is very natural. I don’t know why I’m complaining, since any other tea company’s blend like this would be way worse, have even less flavor. But I guess I have a higher level of expectation with Della Terra since their blends are usually so good!

On the ninth day of Christmas, D’Terra Teas sent me this tea!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/12/22/on-the-ninth-day-of-christmas-della-terra-teas-sent-to-me/

I liked this one a lot! Although that seems to be becoming a theme with me when it comes to D’Terra teas.

This one is sweet, creamy and light. A great tea with which to relax. I love the combination of pineapple and vanilla! YUM!

I think my tastebuds are out of wack with everyone else. This is NOT a tea i enjoy, but I’ll be happy to pass on to someone to try out as clearly others enjoy this :) The chocolate is less artificial than most of Della Terra’s chocolate teas for me but it’s just note a tasty cup.

Sipping on the last of my last of this. Another sipdown, and one I’m sad to do! This is a lovely tea, definitely goes in the dessert category but that hasn’t stopped me having a cup or two for breakfast. Also been good for those days where you just need some chocolate, of which this is on. If I ever do a DTT order this will be on my list! Thanks for the sample Azz!

So this is the first ever tea from my first ever tea swap! International and everything. Thanks Azzrian for this one ( and the others, they look delightful). This is my first array into American tea companies (the only teas I had while there visiting about 5 years ago are not worth mentioning).

The smell of this dry is so good! To me, it smells like chocolate covered strawberries you get from the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm in my state’s north. They do both freeze dried and fresh covered strawberries. The smell in my house right now is of the fresh covered berries, all warm and melty. I can’t do that smell justice in words, maybe you have a place nearby that does something like that and know it? My other half just bounded (literally!) over from his cup to sniff at mine. I can tell I’m going to have to hide this from him, based on smell alone!

First sip – it’s still pretty hot, but the smell is getting to me, must try! Oh my! How tasty! I got a huge hit of chocolate in my mouth, with a hint of the strawberry at the end. More sips – definitely very chocolatey, with just a hint of strawberry. The black tea base is very soft, not at all bitter, and compliments the flavours well.

An FYI – when trying a new tea, I always have my first cup without additions, unless there is unanimous suggestions to do so on here. For this tea, I’d very happily drink it straight, but if you have a sweet tooth, adding some sweetener would go well, and would probably bring out the strawberry. Milk would also be nice, but I’ll probably have it black.

I’ve just had a few nibbles of a muesli slice for breakfast (I know, it’s a dessert tea, but I’m rebelling) which is sweet, and I can taste the strawberry more. Yes, this one will have a bit of sweetness in the next cup I think. The strawberry is lovely! With the sweetness in my mouth, the chocolate and strawberry are very well balanced and work very well together. The black base is just sitting there, underneath, providing a nice home for the strawberry and chocolate. Not competing, supplementing.

Yes, I really like this! The only other berry/chocolate tea I’ve had is DavidsTea’s love tea #7, which is nice, but this is better.

Just delightful! Thankyou Azzrian!

(I steeped it for about 4mins, iPad functionality does allow for precise time selection. Was boiling point water).