PatchworkSheep

Had a nice visit with an old friend this afternoon, and after she left I felt like spending my last afternoon of holidays browsing Steepster and drinking tea. I brewed up a big mug of Chocolate Cake and went pretty hard on the agave.
This tea is more greasy than I remember it being. Don’t get me wrong, the grease is delicious (lets face it, most grease is) but its a little weird and acts as a marker for how much tea you drink every time you pick up the mug.
Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed that mug and still had a hankering for more tea. Someone here had mentioned mixing Salted Caramel with Chocolate Cake.
Don’t mind if I do!
Made a big mug of that (half and half of each type of tea) and used a big ol’ spoonful of agave. The first sip was just….angels singing. Chocolate came through first, then as you swallowed the caramel came out. It was amazing.
Throughout the rest of the glass, some sips tasted more like chocolate cake and other tasted more like caramel. The sips where you got equal amounts of each flavour were the BEST. I’m definitely going to be mixing these two again.

This was my first oolong, and I’m not sure what to think. I like that it was light and smooth, and I liked the vanilla flavor. However, there was a distinct milkiness to it, and I’m not sure whether it was the excessive vanilla flavour that many people mention this tea has or whether it was the oolong itself. As it cooled, the milkiness came out more and more and this became sweeter. It got sickening as it cooled and I couldn’t finish the last 1/4 of the mug because it was just too much. I really hate milk/cream and this started to taste like warm, super sweet milk.
It’s clear the leaf is high quality; it was nice to see such whole pretty leaves. I will definitely resteep this to see if that milkiness goes away because if it does, I’ve got a feeling I really like the oolong underneath that. I’ll definitely be trying another oolong without a vanilla note (will probably steer clear of DT’s Milk Ooolong as well)

EDIT: The second steep on this was less sweet, but possibly even more milky than the first steep. I couldn’t choke down more than a few mouthfuls. I really don’t like this tea and will have to start a swap pile with it, since others seem to rate it highly. Just not my cup.

This isn’t a new tea for me, but I’ve been drinking tea like its going out of style for the past couple of days. It’s finally cool enough outside to drink hot tea (okay, by “cool” I still mean 25 degrees, but its a lot better than the 30-40 degrees it’s been for the past 5-6 weeks).
This one definitely does best with a shorter steep time because it has a nasty tendency to become bitter really easily. I did 4 minutes, but 3 minutes might have even done nicely. It might also help to use cooler than boiling water.
I let this one sit for 10-15 minutes before drinking it because it is best cooled down a little; the strawberry flavour comes out a lot more that way. It’s very strawberrish and has a lot of sweet, tart flavour. I really like to drink this tea in the morning.
Just enough left in my bag for one more cup, maybe not even (which means I’ll get to make another franken-tea!). I’ve really enjoyed this, but I’m not too disappointed that I can’t repurchase it, it really does have a summery feel to it. I’m ready to move onto my spicy, deeper fall teas.

In my bag from last fall I didn’t quite have enough left for an entire mug of this so I cut it with some Caramel Spice from last fall’s collection. The resulting franken-tea was Caramel Pumpkin Chai. Oh heck yes.
It was mostly the Pumpkin Chai that I know and love, with a tiny bit of that caramelly, orangey, spicy warmth from Caramel Spice. It was seriously fantastic.
I seem to have timed it right to use up my Pumpkin Chai bag, because I see it’s now re-released! I’ll have to place an order for that and a bag of Toasted Marshmallow.

Got a tiny bag of this (16g) just because I’d never tried a puerh and this one smelled the best to me (plus I like mates, which are coffeeish at times so this seemed like a good bet). It certainly has a distinct scent from other teas. “Earthy” and “roasty” come to mind and it kind of reminds me of the maltiness of like….rich soil. Not that it smells/tastes like soil. But it has the same rich, malty qualities. Oh lord, this is what happens when I try to explain things…
So I brewed it for 4 minutes with near boiling water and it was VERY dark. Coffee dark, which was nice. It did taste coffeeish, but reminded me very distinctly of the kitchen of my late grandmother who was a heavy smoker. Sort of like…stale coffee and old cigarette smoke. There was definitely a stale, ashy stagnance to it.
Needless to say that while I appreciated the trip down memory lane, I am not a fan of puerh, which is why I didn’t give this an awful rating. I think its hard to accurately rate a tea when I just don’t like the tea type.
It does have a lot of flavour and is quite robust, so I imagine that it would be quite good if you do like puerh.
Glad I got to try it in a small quantity, because now I know and I’m not out a chunk of money with a 25g bag kicking around.

Went on a short end-of-summer holiday (we realized we’d done nothing all summer and decided something needed to be done about that) and got to go to an actual DavidsTea store for the first time!!! I think I sniffed at least 40% of the teas from the shelf, but the sales associate was so enthusiastic and bubbly and didn’t make me feel like a pain in the butt. I loved it, there was no upselling or pressure, just enthusiasm for tea. Great experience, I REALLY hope we get a DavidsTea in my city. Even the SA commented that she was surprised that there wasn’t one.
Anyways, ended up with a bag of this (and got one iced for the drive home). Iced I found it a tad bitter, but I suspect it was just because of the way they make iced tea there- concentrated over ice. I usually like to cold brew my iced teas, but for obvious reasons they can’t do that in store.
Tonight I tried it hot with a tsp of agave and it was delicious! Very berryish without being artificial tasting. I’m not even a huge blueberry lover and this was delicious. Nice balance of tea and berry. I was afraid that since summer is drawing to an end that a berry tea would be too summery, but I think this will do nicely in fall as well; the berry isn’t the tart artificial overpowering kind but more the juicy, deep, real kind that doesn’t take over too much. I really enjoyed this and am glad I got a full bag of it. I’ll have to try cold brewing it, although who wants to with fall right around the corner and it being so yummy hot.

Mate and I are friends, and chocolate and I are best friends, and I can’t say I have any complaints about raspberries either. This was destined to be good.
Even though its 30 degrees out, I made some of this and enjoyed every sip. Tastes exactly like you’d expect- chocolate raspberry. Chocolate is the initial flavour, with raspberry following towards the end of the sip. Mate adds some roastiness.
This tea screams to be drank in the afternoon. It’s tasty and fruity and will get you through that point in the afternoon where you seem to lose steam.

So the first time I drank this, I made steeped it in hot water, double strong, and then poured over ice. It was not good at all, very floral. It actually reminded me of the way one of my Lush bathbombs smells.
Since it had such good reviews here, I tried again. This time I cold brewed it in the fridge for 12 hours or so and added a little agave. Took it to work and drank it all day, and it was delicious! No floral notes really, just fruity apple and tart berry refreshingness. It was sweet, light, and tasty and I’m so glad I tried it again. I will never drink this one hot or brew it hot again because this one seems to love cold brewing!

I’ve been hankering for iced tea, so I made a big glass of this using 2 sample packs from DT. I like strawberry and ginger, so this sounded good. I cold brewed it for 9 hours.
Dry: Smells fruity and delicious. Yum, can’t wait!
Brewed: Deep reddish colour, from hibiscus probably. Very pretty. Upon it actually hitting your palette though, there’s this initial bitter/tart/burning sort of taste. I think it’s a combination between ginger and rose. Rose is a very predominant flavour in here for me, although reading the reviews no one else seems to think so. The noise that escaped my mouth after the first sip was something like “WLAUUUGHHH”.
Later on I asked the mister to try it. He immediately said “Tastes like grass…and…ROSES?! Ew!” He couldn’t detect any strawberry, although for me there was a nice flavour of sweet strawberry in the aftertaste.
I also had better luck getting this down when I only let it hit the back of my tongue; the initial bitterness was less pronounced that way. Keep in mind that this was also sweetened with a tsp of agave (which helped a bit, but oh man).
Ultimately though, between this being so hard to drink and being a free sample, I’m going to dump the rest and try again.

I love dessert teas and I love black tea. This one sounded promising and it delivered.
Lots of nice dried berries and bits of toffee in the leaf. The first time I brewed this it was a tad bitter, but I realized it was from using too much leaf and oversteeping. The second time I made it, it was perfection. This one really develops as it cools a little. The strawberry flavor comes out and the sweetness from the toffee is present. I added agave nectar because you can’t very well drink a dessert tea unsweetened (well I mean lots of people probably can, but I can’t). I really enjoy this one and am glad I have a bag, even if its only 25g.

Just catching up on some ratings, I’m so bad about doing them on the days I actually drank the tea.
I was certain that I’d like this one because its fruity and has jellybeans. I’ve only made this one once, and I think maybe I used too much leaf (okay fine, I was digging around for jellybeans and used extra leaf in the process). I also may have oversteeped it just slightly because I wanted the whole jellybean to melt. It didn’t.
Bearing these brewing errors in mind, it was not bad. The flavouring was nice, but didn’t seem to mesh well with the earthiness of the rooibos. The rooibos was very strong in this one (likely because of overbrewing/too much tea), and it almost had a sort of sour note to it. Not fruity-sour, more like…earthy-sour. Fermented. Not my favorite, but I do plan to re-try this one brewed properly. I suspect that maybe I just don’t like the taste of red rooibos, because Birthday Cake has the same earthy-sour/fermented note and has a red rooibos base.
At any rate, I’m not going to give up on this one yet because I didn’t make it correctly.

I cold brewed this for about 7 hours, and once it was finished I added a couple spoonfuls of agave to the pitcher.
Also, I picked out the little hearts before brewing because of the “real carmine”, which didn’t sound appetizing. They were kind of whimsical though, I would have liked them had they not had crushed beetles in them.
This definitely does smell like pina colada. It was a little jarring because its BRIGHT yellow when poured into a glass. It’s refreshing and coconutty. Maybe a little pineappley. There was something though, and I can’t put my finger on what, that I just didn’t like about it. Like, it’s not something I would ever crave and it’s not something I could just sit down and drink a big glass of. I finished what I had made, but was glad when I was finished with it.
This one seems like it might be a strange one to brew hot because its so fruity, so I didn’t try it that way. Maybe I should have.
For me the issue may have been the coconut. I haven’t met a coconut tea that I’ve liked, so I think coconut just isn’t for me. This came in my summer tea set though, and I wanted to give it a shot.

TL;DR version: Just okay. Not bad at all, but also not good.

I had the worst day at work yesterday and I was feeling generally bummed about the fact that I have a degree and make minimum wage. It was just one of those days where you feel like the world is trying to screw you over. After downing a pint of Ben and Jerry’s (yes, seriously) I decided that tea would be perfect. I decided on a warm comforting one, and reached for pumpkin chai. Sweetened it with a little agave, and I’ll be darned if it wasn’t the best cup of tea I’ve had in months. It was SOS perfect

I decided to try this tea one evening, and asked the mister if he wanted a cup as well (he’s not a tea lover, but he’ll have the occasional cup) and he declined. I went ahead and brewed myself some and as it was steeping I hear “my god that smells good. Like cake!” Good sign, since that’s exactly what it is haha.
It was really quite delicious, the rooibos worked well in this and it was very mapley, which I wasn’t expecting as much, but it worked and was delicious.
I think the mister regretted not having a cup of his own, as he kept looking longingly at mine until I let him have some. He liked it also.
I don’t know that this would be great iced, I definitely see it better as a hot tea. It’s really quite tasty, but I probably don’t need another bag. And since it is so mapley, I suspect that the maple tea from DavidsTea would be a great substitute.

I don’t know, I can’t decide what to think of this one. Maybe I didn’t use enough tea, although I used a tiny bit more than recommended, but this just didn’t taste very tea-like. It had a bit of an artificial strawberry/chocolate/creamy flavor, which was nice, but it just wasn’t that strong. Next time I’ll double the amount of tea. I also found that despite the reviews saying this is pretty sweet, I needed to sweeten it a tad. Granted, I sweeten pretty much everything a little bit, so this isn’t out of the norm for me. I found it sort of weird that the ice cream balls (?) didn’t dissolve completely, I had expected them to be made of mostly sugar, so it was weird when they stayed intact through steeping.
This was alright, and I do want to try it iced. I’ll certainly enjoy what I have left, but wouldn’t repurchase.

I’m a chocolate fiend and I knew I needed this in my life. In the bag, it smells like legit chocolate cake. Cocoa, and even a sort of “dense” smell. Like dense, moist cake. Reaching into the bag and eating some of the dry tea actually crossed my mind before I came to my senses and went ahead and brewed it.
It made my kitchen smell divine! Once brewed, the tea smelled different from the dry tea; it was more tea-like and less obviously chocolatey. I sweetened it with sugar, because you can’t have unsweetened chocolate cake, now can you? What fun is that?
I liked that this one had no scum, but it was completely opaque, which was interesting. It didn’t have a ton of flavor from the start, but after it had cooled some the chocolate cake flavor really did start to come out more. I found it unlike the chocolate flavor used in other DavidsTea chocolate teas, it was more real I guess. More like actual cocoa powder, which could be why some people are finding it sort of dusty.
I really enjoy this one. Unfortunately though, it didn’t stop my chocolate craving, it made me want chocolate cake or brownies.

I got this as a sample in one order from DT, and for a few months I was afraid to try it because I’m a wimp and am kind of afraid of spicy things. Chilis steeped in hot water sounded terrifying. Finally I gave it a shot, and it was good. Very very similar to Read My Lips, sans the mint notes. Same chocolate flavour, and perhaps a slightly warmer note from the chilis (although Read My Lips has peppercorns, so even this is very similar). Not spicy at all, but there’s a little more warmth and depth added from the chili I think. I also got no chai spice notes, so that is worth noting.
Overall, very tasty but I would not purchase because it’s similar to Read My Lips which I love (and prefer because of the mint).

I’ve had this hot, and it was nice. Very berry-ish and fruity. Iced though, this REALLY shines. Its got a hint of tartness to it, and the red color from the hibiscus makes it feel like you’re drinking some sort of sugary punch, when in reality this is actually sort of good for you! Extremely refreshing and a great thirst quencher. I double the amount of tea because I prefer a stronger tea. I find I need to do this with most Teavana teas. I would strongly recommend getting this for iced teas, especially in the summer.

The name for this one gets your hopes up that its going to be this decadent, delicious foody tea. Even if you get past the name, this is the most disappointing tea I’ve drank thus far. It’s thin, weak, and flat. I added 2-3 times the recommended amount of tea to the water and still got almost no flavor. It’s weakly flavored coconut water, and nothing more. It doesn’t taste like tea, chocolate, or anything else. Just wishy washy coconut. Very disappointing, but happily I’ve found other fabulous teas to satisfy my chocolate sweet tooth.

Yep, this one gets top score. Chocolatey, but not overwhelmingly so. Minty, but again, not overwhelmingly so. It’s a very smooth tea and the balance of chocolate and mint is perfect. This one just screams late fall/winter to me because it’s so rich, so I try to save it for the cold months (or at least cold days). It’s my absolute favorite tea in the world.
The little chocolate chips in it melt, as do the red lips and it’s just perfect.

I like white tea. I LOVE buttercream. This tea should have been the best thing on earth for me. Unfortunately though, the scent in the bag was sort of a sickly sweet fake fruity scent. I got mango from it. I figured it might improve with brewing. It did not. The weird fake fruit scent remained. The tea tasted not too bad if you could try not to smell it before you got it into your mouth, but it was something I did not enjoy drinking at all. This was not at all gourmand and foody like I thought it would be, it was more like an artificial fruit tea. It just smelled very odd and not at all like frosting, and it certainly didn’t taste like it at all.
Not sure how I’m going to get through the rest of the 25g bag that came in my sampler. Maybe I’ll try it iced since its so fruity. That might actually work.

So I’m not a lover of green tea, but wish I was because I know its good for me. I can just never get past that grassy taste. This one came in my Fall sampler, and I’m glad it did. It’s apple cinnamon goodness! The tea taste is definitely there, but the grassiness is overshadowed by the fruity apple and the warm cinnamon. I really enjoyed this after work in the winter months.
This gets the honor of being the first green tea that I actually like. I still have enough left for a couple of mugs, and I would probably repurchase this if it came back this fall.

So delicious! Hazelnutty, rich yumminess. I drink this with a bit of vanilla bean infused sugar, and it’s like a rich Starbucks drink. It’s thick tasting and rich, robust and reminiscent of coffee without the bitterness. Love the nuttiness and slight hint of chocolate. It’s not chocolatey, but there is something a little bit like chocolate there. One of my absolute favorite teas.

This is my “I’m sick” tea. I rarely reach for it unless I have a sore throat or a cold, but when I do, this is perfect. It’s quite citrusy because of the bergamot, and I get very little cream/vanilla flavor from it (which is a little unfortunate, but oh well). I usually drink this sweetened with sugar because it’s got a bit of a bite on its own.