The Devotea

Perfect accompaniment to crochet, chocolate & a particularly baroque episode of Midsomer Murders on iView.

Delicious delicious delicious. This is an exquisitely balanced chai blend, perfect brewed up strong with milk as recommended. I love it!

I am more of an Irish Breakfast type, but I do enjoy a good English Breakfast on occasion. And this IS a good English Breakfast. The brewed leaves are an attractive mix of greens and coppers, with a pleasant fruity scent. The liquor is a robust amber shade with excellent clarity; it tastes bright, smooth and a touch rich/fruity. Even brewing for five full minutes doesn’t make it rough or unpleasant. I haven’t tried adding milk or sugar to it – there is really no need – but I can definitely recommend drinking it alongside a piece of toast with honey, for one of the best breakfasts around.

Another sample, and one that I’m very sorry to be done with. Excellent cup of tea. Like Earl Grey, but fruitier. Excellent summer cup.

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!

noms. I really like this one, though i couldn’t explain why. There’s just something about how smooth it is while still packing enough of a taste to make this a great morning cup for me. I’m super glad i got to revisit this one via terri after the amoda box. :) A reorder for sure down the line.

this was my other tea from this morning and man, it was delicious! I have a bunch of devotea teas to finish up from when my tea sister Terri was kind enough to send some my way. Some of them with larger amounts, so i’m hoping that Cavo won’t have tried SOME of them lol This one though, is all mine. I first tried it through the aomda box and loved it, and i still really enjoy it. :)

Final Count: 139

funnily enough, I didn’t realise that i’d had this tea before via someone’s amoda box :) So colour me surprised when i saw a rating there…which i’ve since upped! This was a fabulously strong yummy cup of tea today. So i was either really in the mood for it or my tastes have changed slightly. It looks like straight blacks are my thing with the devotea, rather than the flavoured :)

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!

Second note on this one…. Because I had it twice! I’ve been lazy recently, and have just been drinking the teas that I’ve already rooted out from my cupboard.. Perhaps good for sipdowns?

Strong and black? Yes, very much so, yet not astringent, so really quite tasty plain. Not for the faint of heart (or palate), that’s for sure!

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!

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

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.

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.

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!!

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. :)

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.