Tina S.

Since today I had the time and patience, I finally decided to play with the gaiwan I got a few weeks ago. I’ve never tried one before so rather than attempt with a green or oolong I went with a black, knowing it’d be harder to mess it up.

This tea was a great way to introduce myself into using the gaiwan. I used one of the sealed packages that Teavivre so generously sent me many of, and then added my boiling spring water and let it steep!

First steep was 2.5 minutes. The tea was very strong and dark, and as it cooled changed between multiple flavours. First sips were definitely almost too strong for me and I barely resisted adding sugar. I’m glad I did though because soon a really nice malt flavour came in, one that I really enjoyed. The last few sips were almost sweet, which really made me curious what my second steeps would bring me.

Second steep was again boiling, this time for 3 minutes. The tea was much lighter this time, and I really really enjoyed this steep. The malt and sweet blended for me to be delightful and I can see why so many of you love this tea!

Third steep was again boiling for another 3 minutes. This was like a slightly lighter version of steep two. I again loved it. I didn’t try a fourth steep though because I was pretty sure the leaves weren’t going to love me through another shot.

Overall a lovely strong sweet tea that I look forward to trying again, next time in western style!

I’m not sure if I like this one or not. I can see why some see it fake tasting but at the same time, I’m not sure if it isn’t just how I’ve brewed it. Going to have to try it again before I rate or give it a proper tasting note.

Definitely not a fan of this one, there was way too much hibiscus for me. It looked like fruit punch in my mug and tasted like hibiscus with a hint of fruit. Sorry David, but I’m passing on this one.

Went to the store today and made sure they gave me at least one jellybean in my 10grams. Being a good customer must have paid off because I got three!

The jellybeans are awesome since they are Jelly Belly. But the tea itself is a novelty tea to me. There’s a slight peachish fruit flavour to it, but the vanilla base overpowers. Not a bad tea, but nothing memorable either.

I am intrigued and yet disappointed all at the same time with this one. I feel like they tried to improve on Blazing Strawberries but just . . . missed. The strawberry smell is lovely but for me when I drink this each sip is either water with a backhint of fruit, or . . . strawberry plant. I felt like I was drinking my perfume I have from Fresh called Strawberry Fields. I don’t think I’ll be stocking up on this one. Which means I’ll be stocking up on the Blazing Strawberries still on my David’s tea wall instead I guess!

Okay, call me crazy but I was craving koolaid and tea at the same time. So I decided to kill both cravings with one cup, and it worked! I brewed this one up normally (80C for 2.5 min) and made up my lime koolaid at full sweetness. Then I mixed both 50/50 in my cup. And wow is it delightful!

The base taste is the koolaid, but there is a tea note to it, and the afternote is pure sparkle. Yes reader, the sparkle remains! Definitely going to be enjoying the rest of this “pot” I made!

Last year when this came out I loved it. I drank so much of it in the late summer early fall as I clung to those last warm days. I revisited it today by brewing up what was left in my cupboard as a cold brew iced over night.

Disappointment is the best way to describe what I’m feeling with it. Something tastes off. I’m not getting the peach I remember as intensely and the vanilla seems . . . old? Maybe it was just some old tea and that was why so I’m not going to rank it, but still. Sadness.

I’m beginning to think my tastebuds are off because I really didn’t like this one. The cinnamon had that fake cinnamon flavour . . . you know, that cinnamon toast crunch artificial flavour? I can’t stand that version of the spice and that was all I got from the cup beyond a faint caramelish undernote that I assume was the honeybush with something to simulate the icing. After my first experience with this one, and now this . . . I think I’ll be bidding this one adieu.

I adore how this tea smells dry. It’s so light and fruity and just utterly makes me long for spring. Once brewed there were definite scent notes of strawberries and fruit as I pulled out the infuser, but when I sniffed the leaves and the pot, I couldn’t figure out exactly where they were coming from since neither seemed to hold them.

The tea itself is a beautiful light yellow-green when brewed, and is a delicate flavour on first sips. As I continued through the cup I started to get the feeling in my mouth that I sometimes get with extremely perfumed teas, or ones with a lot of artificial flavourings. Overall a nice tea, but I’m not sure if I’ll restock.

I am beginning to wonder if my internal cheesecake flavourings are different to Frank’s, because I haven’t gotten cheesecake from any of them I have tried. That being said, this is a lovely tea for coconut lovers. It is sweet and creamy and I do wonder if I should try it with milk next time I drink it.

Iced tea is such a great way to use up little tea scraps or do sipdowns for me, and that’s again what I did last night. I put the end of my Happy Kombucha from DT in with some Raspberry Rush from T2 and cold steeped it. It ended up surprisingly fruity with more of an oolong tea base flavour. I’m enjoying the litre I brought to work with me greatly!

Second cup of this one for me, and I really really enjoyed it. I may end up restocking it I like it that much! The fruit was more pronounced this time, perhaps because I added more sugar than last time.

This was my morning cup today, and my first sips were definitely of strawberry notes. I found though that I had to add sugar to make it more to my tastes. The black tea dominates here, and is one that is less to my taste than most. I don’t dislike the tea, but wish that the base had been different or less noticeable.

Despite my box from Teavivre arriving over a week ago, it has taken me this long to try them! My apologies to Angel Chen and the lovely people at the company who provided these amazing samples to me, but in my defence the delay was to be able to give them my best attention. I normally use unfiltered tap water for my tea but felt that since these were quality teas from a quality company and a gift, they deserved better. So I finally got some spring water to put in my kettle and some time to sit and appreciate. Sadly, that time today was after midnight so I am starting with the only herbal in the bunch!

Since hibiscus and tart flavours aren’t my favourite, I disregarded the recommended brewing instructions and instead did what I normally do for my herbals, a heaping teaspoon in boiling water for five minutes.

First impressions are that the tea is lovely brewed, a pinkish red that makes me think of summer and sangria and happy times. The scent is hard for me to define, but definitely fruity in nature . . . maybe a blended strawberry scent? The first sips are lovely, with a tart undertone to a nice fruit punch flavour.

Part way through the cup I added some sweetener, curious how this would change the flavours. I found that it added to the fruit punch aspects, highlighting the slight tartness but also the richness that was in the flavour.

I definitely am enjoying the cup and am curious now how it will taste iced. I don’t think I’d like it cold brewed since the roselle would dominate, but brewed hot over ice would be very interesting.

Thank you so much to SimplyJenW for the chance to try this one! I’m a sucker for a good flavoured tea, and was super happy to have the chance to try this one. I’m not normally a ban of banana teas, but I knew that if this one caught that baked banana flavour I’d be sold.

And wow, it does taste like banana bread to me. Or at least banana muffins which is close enough for me! This is a flavoured tea where the flavouring dominates over the tea itself, but that is rarely a bad thing for me. I am glad I had this one after dinner because it screams dessert tea in all the best ways.

Been drinking a lot of this one this weekend, finishing it up so I can buy a fresh bag when I get my next order. I normally drink it iced but I am doing it hot and am just as in love with it. This is the flavour I expected from all the Earls I’ve tried, and didn’t get. Lemon-y without overpowerment. Definitely a keeper in the cupboard.

Nope, not a fan of this one. It has an off taste and is twisting something up in my stomach. Going to pass on this Sweetheart.

This tea is still finicky with me. When you get it right, it is awesome but when you get it wrong, you are left with . . . something resembling tea. I took a bit off a friend’s hands who had given up on it and am drinking it up tonight. It is too finicky for me to buy again, though.

I am celebrating finishing up this one today. I bought it for the mini-tin and now I can actually put a tea in there that I prefer. No matter how many times I have Pom Power it just doesn’t completely win me over. Farewell tea, I do not think I will miss you.

Yum! This tea never fails to bring a smile to my face, and with the wind whipping outside and laundry staring at me, I wanted a smile. Well, two actually since my first cup was followed my another of this one made as a latte with vanilla flavoured soy. Both were delightful but oh man, the latte that I’m sipping now is just delightfully amazing. I am extremely glad that I just restocked this one because I don’t think I want to have my cupboard ever be without it. Upping the rating because I really do love it that much.

Got this one as a sample while attending a tea tasting by the Tea Guild of Canada. We’d had a chance to taste it that day and I wasn’t overly impressed so it has taken me a while to revisit it.

Today though, I definitely liked it more than I did that day. It was a pretty hearty black, which I normally don’t enjoy very much, but I needed a jolt this morning and chose to get it through this tea. There were definitely astringent notes, and a healthy dose of malt. I added a bit of sugar and it held up to it well. I’m pretty sure it’d do well with some milk as well, but I was too lazy to go to the fridge and get some.

AHA! I knew this one dry reminded me of something and now that I’ve brewed it I know what! This is a very close dupe for Lime Fizz by the Tea Haus, which is one of my all time favourites. The ginger makes the tea have a fizzy sensation here in this one too, and the citrus notes are lovely. Big thanks to De for pointing me to a local version of this very big fav of mine!

This tea makes Tina a sad panda. At first I was all excited for an Oatmeal Raisin tea. I adore David Tea’s the Glow because it tastes close to one, so one that added raisins too? Awesome! And then the reviews started coming in and said it was grape. Okay, no skin off my nose since I DO love the Glow AND I love grape teas.

But while it does smell like grape koolaid iced tea, I don’t get that flavour. I get a tea that has undertones of grape but isn’t quite successful at being a grape flavoured tea. The tea base isn’t bad, but the full flavour isn’t either of the flavours it could and should have been to keep me excited and falling in love. Sadly this one is a meh for me.

Sipping this one hot tonight, trying to decide if I want to stock up before it joins the list of twenty or so which are going online-only status. I love this one so much iced, but hot it really is simply mediocre. Decisions are hard, guys!