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Mint and Chocolate are two of my favorite ingredients for a tea, as anyone can tell from looking at my Read My Lips tin, it is almost always empty its a very vicious cycle of purchasing it and consuming it…Enter Mint Chocolate Rooibos!

My sister loves this tea, funny she tried it after I introduced her to Read My Lips. I was complaining that I didn’t have any (read my lips) so immediately she said I had to try this tea, as I was heading out of her house she handed me a DT sample pack that had come with one of her online orders. I went home and brewed it up and immediately fell in love.

I find the flavor profile quite similar to read my lips; however the touch of vanilla in mint chocolate takes it to another level. It’s not like drinking the same tea as read my lips so it is a change up, but a slight one at that. I guess it would be great for those concerned about caffeine as well; however that is not one of my larger concerns.

Definitely a keeper for those who like mint and chocolate!

All I can really say about this tea is it is certainly intriguing for what it is. It may not be the same as a real root beer float; however it’s pretty much as close as your going to get with tea and without adding ice cream.

The minute I opened this tea I could confirm without a doubt it smelled like a root beer float, the vanilla really imparts the float aspect to me. I would have been nicer to have a smidgen more vanilla come through in the steeped beverage as it probably would have solidified the float aspect of this tea even more; however it is still a winner in my books.

This is one I will probably keep on hand, not only just to be able to smell it, but I am sure once people see a root beer float tea they will be wanting to try it, I mean I have that issue with a large portion of my dessert teas as it is!

I think I might have a think for teas with Strawberry in them, I have Sweet Strawberry, Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble, Earls Garden and now Strawberry Shortcake. Worse is the dessert collection is even larger then this now!

Dry this tea has a very present strawberry smell with a slight hint of creaminess, it has an aroma very similar to candy, but I really wouldn’t recommend eating the tea leaves. Steeping the tea draws out more of that strawberry aroma into the air, certainly an aroma anyone in the room can enjoy.

The flavor really doesn’t strike me too much as strawberry shortcake, I certainly get the strawberry; however the shortcake would appear to be absent. There is a long lingering creamy aftertaste that could be compared to the taste of packaged whipped cream, not horrible but if you grew up on homemade whip cream it’s just not the same.

Certainly a good tasting tea, nice and sweet with a bunch of flavor, not exactly what I was expecting. I think my expectation of strawberry shortcake flavoring outside of the real deal is just too high.

So as I continue my venture of consuming all the “dessert” tea’s that DAVIDsTEA has to offer I have finally stumbled along to Carrot Cake Oolong. Which just sounds great to me, I like Carrot Cake and Oolong so this should be a great match…right?

As I write this I have a big cup of it steeping on my desk at work to write this review (it’s a slow day, don’t judge me!) and I must confess I received the tea last night and hesitated drinking it because of the dry smell. As others have mentioned here it does have a very powerful and slightly displeasing smell on the nose as dry leaves. I do not know if it is a combination of all the freeze dried goods or the coconut but it does have a slightly chemical smell to it. Steeped however it loses all of that harsh smell and transforms into more of a carrot cake aroma. This is what leads me to believe its a combo of the dry ingredients that gave it the bad smell.

Thankfully the taste is completely different, it’s surprisingly good nice and sweet, initially I can really taste the carrot and it quickly disappears and I am left with a lingering creamy sweetness. Not exactly how I remember my grandma and mom’s carrot cake as a kid but not too shabby for a tea. I think this one would probably make an awesome latte.

A little slice of delicious in a cup.

So this tea was given to me as a gift with the knowledge of my enjoyment of dessert teas. And it certainly ranks up there with some of my tasty tea’s; however it takes a hit as I prefer this tea as a latte more then a straight tea as it ends up really tasting like cake.

Dry this tea has a wonderful chocolate and carob aroma to it, and it certainly looks like the beginnings of cake batter with all the sprinkles and chocolate pieces.

Steeped the tea takes on a more pronounced carob aroma but is still quite pleasing. It becomes a very dirty and murky tea, I suspect this is the sprinkles as Red Velvet Cake does the exact same thing. Takes pretty good by itself, but it really comes to life with some milk or done as a latte.

I still think they need to change the name to Life Long Oolong, but eh that’s just me! This however is by far my current favorite Oolong to drink it just tastes great, will certainly keep tons on hand.

Dry this tea has a pleasant peach and apricot smell that is honestly fantastic, it is also a tin full of colors with all the fruit pieces, the tea leaves and safflower pieces, all topped off with pieces of white almonds. Steeping the tea will release a pleasant peach aroma throughout the room.

The final brew is golden yellow in color and peachy in aroma. It has a smooth creamy taste accompanied by a nice peach flavor, followed up with a sweet after taste. Only downside is this tea is only good for one infusion, I tried a second infusion on a cup last night and it was certainly not as nice to drink.

I hate rating a tea so low as many people will know its not a bad tea; however it is certainly not one I found palatable either. I got a bunch of the straight green tea’s for my Grandma this Christmas as she is a huge fan of green tea and has never had any of DT’s blends it was a must. I grabbed Dragonwell, Korean Sejak and Sencha Ashikubo. Anyone who has bought Sencha Ashikubo knows its freaking expensive! So I had to sneak a small cup to try out to see if it was worth it. I even brewed it the gung fu method as recommended, but no matter what I did to me it tasted like seaweed or something. Not for me, but I can only imagine for straight Green Tea’s it must be pretty high up on the list.

Liked this one Iced, didn’t like it hot.

I only grabbed a small sample of this one after trying as an iced tea in the past, decided I had to give it a go as a warm cup this time around, and I just didn’t like it at all warm. I don’t know which ingredient it was that didn’t agree with my tongue when it was brewed warm so it’s hard for me to give a review that justifies this tea. Certainly one you have to try before making a choice, I would certainly drink it again iced but don’t think I would keep much on hand.

Fruitacular!

So this was one of the tea’s I treated myself to for Christmas this year, and is also another one scratched off my list of online only tea’s for me. I made a pot of this first thing Christmas morning and practically everyone who tried it liked it with the exception of my sister who has never been big on anything related to fruit!

I don’t know if people brewing this one by the cup are having issues with the hibiscus or they just plain hate it but I haven’t noticed it to be overpowering in this blend at all. Dry it smells like candied mango to me and a bunch of other fruits but the mango stands out the most. The final brew is a dark red color and has a fruity and floral aroma to it that does in fact smell like paradise, but you wont be getting lost in it!

These literally are the best little mug you can buy, though not really the most price friendly ones; however occasionally DAVIDsTEA will have a 2 for 1 sale on these mugs and of course at the end of the year for boxing week they are on sale. So far I have purchased three of them, two noble fire red ones and one blue flock of birds, the flock of birds one is my work mug and the birds remind me of the inlays on a PRS guitar (one of my other horrible addictions/hobbies) I have one of the noble ones at home and gave another to my Mom who is just getting into DAVIDsTEA. Now it wouldn’t be fair to say it is the best mug without explaining myself, so here it goes.

- It’s got a lid! Not only a must have for infusing but great if you have a mug at work like me and you want to keep more heat in and other crap out. I know you could use a travel mug but its not as relaxing as sitting at your desk with a favorite mug!

- LARGE fine mesh infuser that slides into the cup perfectly. Up until getting a mug for work I was using my noble travel mug to brew my tea at work and the infuser is small and frequently tea leaves would come out of the larger holes at the top.

- Stylish looks, ok this one is not that important but hey its worth a mention. Up until getting my perfect mugs I had been favoring a mug from Starbucks, their Sumatra Tiger mug to be exact (Tiger is my Chinese Zodiac symbol), which is nice but the excessive thickness of the mug (to retain heat) makes it like holding a brick which if you have big mitten like hands similar to mine the small tight handle on this mug will actually cause a pressure point on your fingers and hurt, not really their fault as it’s mostly due to my mitten like hands!

I have grabbed all of my perfect mugs on sale, so its been win win hands down as on sale they were cheaper then my Starbucks mug and well have more “goodies” that go along with the cup…Now if I could just get another blue flock of birds one!

Is that a Chocolate Rocket in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?!

This was one of the first tea’s my sister came home from DT with, and she brought it out upon my next visit. Which had me thinking two things, first was why did I stop getting Mate’s from DT and secondly why in the heck have I kept skipping over Chocolate Rocket!

Dry this Mate has an amazing smell of chocolate and chicory that would make Martha Stewart envious! I literally enjoy opening this one and just huffing back the smell it is so great. Steeping will fill the room with the same chocolate and chicory smell that will have you salivating. The final brew is a nice dark brown color and retains it’s amazing aroma, it taste’s pretty much how it smells and makes a deadly late.

This is a must have on hand for sure!

The Schnozberries taste like Schnozberries!

So lately I have been on a kick of trying all of DAVIDsTEA variants on the Earl Grey blend and for the most part I have been enjoying them; however when I hit Earl Grey Oolong my winning streak was broken. I don’t know exactly what it is about this tea but my tongue hates it. Personally I think its the overwhelming taste experience of the Schizandra berries, luckily I only picked up a 25g sampler as I was unsure of the tea by the smell as well. It is a great blend that I am sure other people will easily like; however I think the Schizandra berry is just not for me.

Not quite like Mom’s but still delicious!

Growing up my mom used to make crumbles all the time, it is one of my favorite desserts to enjoy, so inherently this tea was a must. After trying it I will say it is certainly great, but it hasn’t made an overly amazing impression on me.

Dry it has a pleasing baked goods aroma, you can smell from the dry leaves that it is a slightly tart tea, and it certainly is. The final brew takes on a red hue from the strawberries and hibiscus, and as other posters have mentioned it is tart. First cup I has without any sweeteners in it to see how it tasted, and it was a little to tart for my liking, but there is a cure.

I was messing around with Mom’s Apple Pie and decided that it would be interesting to try it with brown sugar instead of raw sugar, as brown sugar is more caramelized it obviously has a sweeter taste and is more powerful, but is commonly used when baking such desserts. To my amazement it added just the right flavor to Mom’s Apple Pie to make me almost hoover up my entire tin so I tried it on my second cup of Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble and almost drank the entire cup in one gulp.

Yaaaar there be goodness in ye cup!

So I grabbed this tea last night when I went into DT to get a selection of Green tea’s for my grandparents, unfortunately they did not have the Green Collection packages in stock so I just had to select a few from the wall. Then I realized with my left over change I had enough to grab 50 grams of Buttered Rum, so I did! I have tried a lot of the whisky themed tea’s and they all left me desiring something, not so much the case with buttered rum.

Dry it has a pungent and slightly overpowering alcoholic smell to it, this hits you in the face immediately but is followed by a buttery slightly sweet smell that may catch you off guard. I purchased this tea solely on the name and what I read here on Steepster. I didn’t even smell it till I got home, and when I did I was concerned I wouldn’t like it…WRONG!

The final brew is dark and has an awesome aroma that will remind you of days gone by that you enjoyed drinking hot toddy’s or hot ciders; however one sip and you will realize this tea isn’t as innocent as the others, it will certainly unleash your inner pirate. I enjoyed it so much I brewed a second cup and tossed in a splash of rum, all I can say is it could cause some problems for me at work!

La la la LEMON!

So I have been on a mission the last week to try all of DT’s Earl Grey themed blends and at this point I have almost crossed them all off my list most recently adding The Earl of Lemon to the list, it was hard to select between this and Countess of Seville, next time Countess, next time.

Dry this tea has a lovely aroma that just makes me feel great, it almost reminds me of a lemon meringue pie just not as powerful, this was pretty much the selling feature for me on this tea. The steeped aroma is even lighter with a hint of your typical Earl Grey aroma combined with a lemon twist.

The final brew is very light in color and has a softer taste then I was expecting, that said it was absolutely great its hard to say but this may have trumped Cream of Earl Grey as my favorite Earl Grey blend from David’s it’s certainly a different twist on a classic, but man oh man it is just so good to drink. Will certainly be keeping this on hand for myself and friends that want to branch out from the traditional Earl Grey. Probably would have scored 100 points but the soft flavor ruined it for me a bit if it was 10-15% more flavorful this would be a deadly tea.

Yet another one of the tea’s I received for myself from my online order, this was the tea that gave me knowledge of DAVIDsTEA having online only blends and was what prompted me to place an order. I mean who isn’t a sucker from some apple pie?!

Dry this tea has a green apple and cinnamon aroma to it that is quite pungent but not overpowering, very simple familiar smell that almost anyone will be able to recognize immediately. Steeping the tea will accentuate the apple aroma and kill off a bit of the cinnamon aroma.

The final brew is slightly green and retains its green apple taste, there is a cinnamon touch mixed in with it. After that it starts loosing its similarities with apple pie, certainly gets the job done for a tea though. I want to try it again with brown sugar in it to see if that adds to the pie feeling a bit more.

This was one of the first two teas I have received from my initial online order from DT. As I mentioned with Lapsang Souchong Star I am a huge fan of Whisky so this was a must try for me and well honestly I cant say it tastes like any Whisky I have ever had.

Dry this tea has a sweet peach aroma to it with a light nut undertone from the macadamia nuts, and is loaded with colorful bits of fruits and other goodies, nothing here gave me the distinct reminder of whiskey; however it also doesn’t smell bad. Steeping brings out the peach aroma a bit more but otherwise it was fairly unchanged.

The final brew is golden in color and retains it peach aroma, it has a sweet taste on the tongue that as I mentioned does not remind me of any type of whisky I have ever had. Almost reminds me of Life Long Oolong, so while it doesn’t really live up to it’s name it is a decent blend.

A wishful blend of intrigue and taste.

I really don’t know what to say about this blend, it smell great but when you steep it, it has a different aroma and then when you finally drink it the taste is totally different then what you may expect, well at least that is how it went for me.

Dry this tea has tons of color being a mix of green and black tea’s and then there is jasmine and rose hips it will remind you of the jars of potpourri your parents had. It has a very similar aroma of Buddha’s Blend but with a floral addition, from the rose hips. Steeped it mostly has a rose aroma to it.

The final brew is a bit darker then a green tea but lighter then a black tea, it has a peachy rose taste to it. I found it to be a bit tart without sweetener; however with some raw sugar added it took on a nice flavor. As suggested by the packaging I will have to try this one iced as well. Overall I certainly would drink it again but I don’t know yet if it is a tea I would keep a bunch of on hand.

The flowers are in full bloom in the Earl’s Garden.

Everyone should have a Earl Grey tea in their stash as it is probably one of the most commonly asked for tea’s, probably something to due with being a great blend. I am going on a streak of trying out DT’s Earl Grey blends as it is one of my favorite blends of tea and they seem to have some unique takes on it, this being one of them.

Dry you have your typical black tea leaves, in amongst them there are pieces of freeze dried strawberry giving it a bit of a contrast in color. It has a heavy bergamot aroma with a light berry undertone, this is certainly an Earl Grey tea no mistakes about that! Steeping reduce’s the bergamot aroma a little and enhances the berry aroma as well creating a perfect balance of the two.

The final brew certainly tastes like an Earl Grey, but with a hint of berries. I felt the amount of bergamot might have been a little high but I also did steep it at a slightly hotter then recommended temperature because I wasn’t paying attention. Even with my mistake it was still a great cup of tea, I am certainly going to keep this one on hand. Especially since it mixes with Cream of Earl Grey really well.

The strawberries taste like strawberries!

This was the other white tea that I picked up from DT the other day (the other being Gold Rush) and I must say, I have had this tea before I purchased some so I already knew what I was getting into but I really enjoyed it so I knew it had to be added to my stash and I certainly wasn’t wrong.

Dry this is a very white tea with little pieces of freeze dried strawberries and the odd piece of hibiscus providing contrasting colors. It has a very sweet strawberry aroma to it that will make you mouth water immediately. Steeping the tea produces the same lovely strawberry aroma and will have you watching your tea timer waiting for it to hit zero.

The final brew color really depends on the amount of hibiscus and strawberry you get when you make your cup. I made one yesterday night when I got home that was quite golden due to the lack of strawberries and hibiscus but another cup today was nice and pink because I made sure to get extra pieces. This brew has stevia in it so sweetening really isn’t required but it wont hurt it if you want some, when I had it iced it would have been a little sweeter. This tea took cookie dough and slapped it into next year taking my top spot for white tea’s from DT.

Around and round the mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel…

So I picked this tea up the other day as a spur of the moment kind of thing, I originally had gone to DT to purchase some refills of my favorite blends and when I walked in the door the daunting tea wall took hold of me as usual and I some how came to the conclusion I did not have enough white tea’s in my collection, so naturally I added some more.

Dry this tea has a very sweet smell to it, I am assuming that is because it is just loaded with mulberries. Someone commented here on the cost of the tea compared to how much white tea it has in it, while it is true there is smaller amount of tea leaves in this blend the price is probably a factor of mulberries being a precious fruit, they command a pretty good price for what they are.

The brew is a light golden yellow color that has a sweet but soft caramel aroma to it, the aroma lets you know you are in for a good cup of tea with this one. It has a sweet creamy taste to it that does have a hint of caramel to it, but there is something more as well, not sure if it is from the coconut, the tea leaves or the mulberries.

I would certainly drink this tea again and I will, but I don’t see it becoming a regularly consumed tea for me, it’s a little too sweet and is more suited to certain time’s.

Lime Gelato Amore!

So on my recent trip to DT the girl was adament on finding me a green tea I liked seeing as I already had so many blacks, oolongs and other types but hardly any green teas. After going through a bunch if not all of the green teas it hadn’t really found anything that struck a chord with me. Then she brought over Lime Gelato one smell almost had me sold, a free cup to try really sealed the deal.

Dry like most of the flavored green teas it looks like potpourri or something, there is a little bit of everything in this tea, but that’s not a bad thing at all. The aroma is a distinct creamy Lime Gelato smell, I have had real Italian Lime Gelato and this is pretty authentic for being tea. Steeping the tea will produce a lovely lime aroma.

The final brew is a greenish golden color, its a fairly cloudy tea, presumably from all the flavoring in the tea. The upside is this tea tastes like Lime Gelato and it doesn’t even require sweetening to do it and I usually put in 1tsp of sugar per 8oz of tea regardless. I have since tried it again with sweetener and it does taste a bit better but not by much.

I highly suggest everyone tries this tea unless allergies or a personal hate for Lime Gelato exist in your personal history, otherwise its one of the few flavored teas I have had that taste EXACTLY like what they claim to be.

Still hurts my brain thinking about it…

I am a huge fan of Single Malt Whiskeys to the fact its what I drink when I am not drinking tea. So immediately after smelling this tea I knew I had to try it and to be honest I do not know where I sit with it. This is a very basic tea as it is not really ‘flavored’ even though it has the smokey taste to it, as everyone knows this is a byproduct of the drying method for Lapsang Souchong.

Dry the leaves are your typical black Chinese tea leaves, nothing out of the ordinary. One whiff of the tea and you will have flashbacks to times you have gone camping or childhood memories if you grew up in a house heated by a wood stove. This tea has a complex peaty smoke aroma to it that is just awesome, I honestly walked around the DT store smelling this tea while browsing stuff, yes I am aware I need help!

The moment you steep the tea it really cuts back on the smokey aroma but it is still present. The brew is a very dark tea, almost black from what I could tell, sadly I was too lazy to wash my clear mug when I brewed this one. It has a similar complex peaty taste as one would expect from whiskey but seeing as it is a water based drink of a alcohol based drink it is missing all the other components of whiskey that a true connoisseur would be looking for. It was a good tea, but I am highly undecided on it, simply because as a whiskey drinker my taste buds go “Hey it’s whiskey” then my brain goes “Shut up stupids is just Lapsang Souchong” Before I totally dismiss this tea I will try it mixed with some of my Oh Canada, as it apparently makes a maple bacon flavored tea.

What is this? This is not a review of a DAVIDsTEA blend!

So for no peculiar reason I had the opportunity to try some of this blend via Starbucks, this is the first loose leaf tea I have tried from Teavana as I usually do not stray far from my favorite DT blends.

Dry the tea has a very floral and fruity aroma that is actually quite soft in comparison to other similar tea blends I have had. The leaves are sparse between all the bits and pieces of fruit but the thing that does stand out is the rolled jasmine balls that give this tea a sophisticated look.

The final brew again retains the same floral smell, it gains a nice pinkish hue from the strawberries I am guessing. It has a light but sweet taste, mine has sat for a while so it has gotten pretty cold (darn paperwork!) it still tastes great leading me to believe this tea would be very tasty as an iced tea.

Going by their directions the tea came out tasting fine, I think 2tsp of leaves for 16oz of tea is too little, for me it came out a little soft tasting (possibly the blend itself?) and it has an amazing amount of crap that will come through your infuser, my mug is full of stuff at the bottom that is a little unappealing, but that is just cosmetics.

I don’t feel it would be a tea that I would go out and purchase for my stash but it has certainly opened up the doors for Teavana to get a blend or two in my stash.