The Devotea

Sipdown!
Thank you, Cavocorax, for sharing your sample of this tasty blend of teas with me! I had breakfast with his lordship, while Tony invited the Earl of Grey.
Petersham is a fine fellow, & I’d be glad to take tea with him anytime!

A colleague of mine brought in some samples from The Devotea to try out, and this was one of them. It’s a great cup of tea! It’s one of those that holds up sweetened or not, and is good at any time of the workday. I’m sad I ran through so quickly, though I suspect I’ll be placing an order for some soon!

Yay! My swap with Cavocorax arrived today! Woo Hoo!

I spent most of the morning trying to reorganize my tea stash, since it’s the last day of the month. I spent most of the afternoon gardening, & if you’d like to see the latest photos, stop by my Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak?ref=tn_tnmn

This is one of the teas I was longing to sample, LOL, & I thank Cavo for being awesome & sharing it with me, along with some other tasty looking treats! I like straight varieties of tea because each one has it’s own character, but I also enjoy a blend that combines the character of several teas, & this one really hits the spot, as far as I’m concerned.

This is also the first tea I’ve tried (I think) from the Devotea, & I’m looking forward to perusing their website (although right now I have no business perusing ANY teasites!). Luckily, Cavo was crazy-generous, so I’ll get to sample this a few more times.
Thanks Cavo!

Sipdown! Thank you kittenna for letting me try this one. My first impression this morning was that this tastes a lot like another tea that i’ve had. I suspect it might be one of the teas from red blossom? if i had to guess…maybe the keemun. This is bold, a little astringent, slightly smoky and over all pretty damn good. I’m happy to got to try it and may even think about purchasing more in the future when i have a manageable cupboard.

This was a sadder sipdown! I really learned to appreciate it, but I resteeped it twice and savored it. Don’t need to replace it but maybe… Someday.

This was in my Amoda box! I finally got around to reviewing it after packing half of it up for TerriHarpLady.

Now I almost wish I wasn’t sharing it!! Bahahahahah. (Not really though – I have some excellent samples coming my way).

I was surprised by this. It’s smooth, yet astringent in a good way, bold, and a touch smoky! I should have had this in the morning, but I’ll resteep it and stay up instead. It’s almost a little creamy too? Wow. I’m happy I gave the Amoda box a try!

400th note!

Oooh, finally a tea that has some good, strong, positive reviews for it!

Anyhow, brewed up a quick mug of this for curiousity’s sake (bad time of the day to drink it probably, I know), and it’s quite enjoyable! I kept the infusion time at 2 minutes so I wouldn’t have to add anything, and that was a good idea. So was using only about 1.5 tsp for a 10 oz. mug. Anyhow, the result is a strong yet smooth and mellow cup of tea. Even if I hadn’t been told that this is a blend, I think I would likely suspect as much, because again, although I’m not super clear about different flavours of tea that belong with different regions, this certainly tastes like a mishmash (in a good way). There’s some light smokiness, a bit of classic “black tea flavour”, some maltiness… I don’t think I’m picking up chocolate, which is about the only profile that my head thinks is missing (I’m probably wrong). [Oh hey – the description mentions smoky! Yay! I always kind of cheer internally when I get a descriptor “right”, even one that obvious.]

Anyhow, given that I’m enjoying this straight, I feel like black tea lovers would really like this one. A definite win for this month, I’ll say!

First tea of the day. Now that the cold weather is here to stay I find I’m drinking way more tea each day. I’ve got a slight headache this morning so I wanted one with a good amount of caffeine. This one fits the bill nicely. I believe the US blend has five different types of tea, while the Australian version has seven!

There are teas from Sri Lanka, China and India in this monster cup! I smell at least two teas while drinking this one, I’m not sure if they are the right two teas…but I’m smelling Ceylon and something malty…Assam maybe? However the taste is def. that of a Darjeeling and perhaps Keemun? There’s just so much going on in this cup and whatever it is certainly works well with one another. I’m glad I noticed I had this in the cabinet. Perfect start to my Sunday.

I enjoyed this tea iced, it was delicious and refreshing!

My Grandma came over this afternoon to see my house and I offered to make us some tea. I set out three including this one and let her pick. This is what she chose. She loved it! She said it reminded her of her typical Orange Pekoe with just a little something else…I’ll learn her one of these days. ;) Considering the US blend has five different teas in it. But we had a nice time enjoying our tea together.

Thanks, Nicole, for the sample of this you brought to the NYC meetup at the beginning of August. I brewed this a bit light (2.10 cupweight acc. to Upton tea scale, 14 oz boiling water) for three minutes and got a tea that was light but flavorful. I have rarely enjoyed drinking a strong black tea without milk as much as I’m enjoying this cup. Fragrant, almost Earl Greyish/smoky quality seems to be the Indian side; earthy, minerally depth from the Chinese side. Interesting conversation between the two; somehow it reminds me of the sweetness you can sense in hay and wood.

Still a favorite! I enjoyed this one with Gordon Ramsey’s scrambled eggs (hubs found the recipe online and we haven’t had eggs any other way since). Again I added suger and silk milk to this tea and was delighted by hint of malty flavoring I picked up on while drinking it. Best part as it cooled it didn’t get bitter. I’m going to have to order soon as my sample bag is almost empty!!

No notes yet.

A breakfast tea in the afternoon? You betcha! This is the perfect way to get me through the afternoon at work. Better still my cup has gone cold, but my tea has not gone bitter! Double bonus to this already nice cup of tea. See my other note. :)

Like a lot of the Devotea’s teas I’ve tried, this had the same malty underpinning with a smooth – almost floral – delivery. This, more so, though. Likely to match its namesake. Not quite as robust as the 1910, but a little more refined than Finbarr’s Revenge. This one’s a sneaky mistress.

Full Review: http://lazyliteratus.teatra.de/2012/06/20/the-revenge-of-finbarrs-persian-princess-in-1910/

Wow if the 1910 English Breakfast eases you into your day this tea will roundhouse kick you in the face to get your day going! I mean that is the best way possible too! It’s a very strong blend of teas that is very rich and full bodied. A good strong cup of get up and go! So go get up and get some.

I started my first real day of my vacation this morning with this tea. I’ve had English Breakfast many times before but this was good, really good! A nice blend of three different teas. I have to tell you I did add a touch of soy milk and a cube of suger to this cup and it did play well with the tea. It was a nice gentle ease into my day at the beach.

I can sum up this Irish Breakfast variant in on sentence: This stuff actually gives you the courtesy of a reach-around before punching you in the junk.

I had this whilst out at a cafe: Cafe Meso at Simply Organoleptic, McLaren Vale, SA. Beautifully brewed and presented in a "pot on cup " device.
To review the whole experience, it was near perfect. Unless they want to wear frilly aprons and serve form silver teapots, it couldn’t get more authentic.

It’s been awhile since I’ve imbibed a good English Breakfast, and this certainly qualifies. The dry leaves smelled like both Assam and Keemun, but I’m not sure Keemun was used due to how light the liquor brewed. On taste, it was smoky, malty, smooth, and somewhat forest-like on the finish. Not quite Petersham excellence, but still up there.

Kicking my day off with this tea as it says it is a strong blend. Let me tell you I NEED that this morning. We had to leave the house much earlier than usual…twenty minutes to be exact. Twenty precious minutes where I could have been sleeping. ;) So this tea is needed this morning! It smells bold and rich. First sip offered a nice kick to the system and my taste buds. This certainly is a hearty tea even if Princess is in the name. I like it.

Enjoying this one again this evening. Interesting note tonight I noticed a hint of chocolate in the dry leaf…yum! See my other note on this one.

I was thrilled to find my order from The Devotea’s US distribution office had been delivered when I arrived home. I did not have one of my better days at work today. Long story short I knew what person x was trying to say even though he thought I didn’t. So the arrival of this tea was amazing timing. Right now to the tea…

I used my tea for one set that I painted at one of those paint your own pottery places a few months back and I swore then I would only use it for these teas…well I kept my word! The dry leaf smelled of Golden Yunnan (a favorite) and of something else perhaps Keemun? I’m not sure after all there are 7 different types of tea in this blend..YES SEVEN! What I can tell you is that they are amazing together.

My husband said it was bitter, but he thinks all tea is either bitter or flavored water. While I on the other hand noted malty and robust goodness in each and ever sip. On the pouch there is a note that this tea is perfect for high tea and late afternoon tea…this could easily be an anytime tea! I am very happy I purchased this blend.

I could see what looked like flecks of Darjeeling second flush and plump, tippy leaves of Golden Yunnan. The smell was earthy and floral. On introduction, there was a bit of a citrus snap, followed by a slight tannic bite in the middle, then it snapped at the top note with a presence of peppers, allspice, honey and Keemun sweetness.

Full Review (If you can call it that) Here: http://lazyliteratus.teatra.de/2012/05/02/guan-yins-tigers-and-lords-oh-my/