noordelijk

I’ve been looking for a blueberry tea lately. They’re not my favourite teas in the world, but I thought I should have at least one in the cupboard if I’m ever in the mood.

This one was pretty good! It is quite sweet, but I find it has a better sweetness balance than the blueberry tea I had from teavana (blueberry bliss, a rooibos, whereas this one is a black tea). Blueberry bliss was a bit more tart and sweet while this tea is a bit more smooth. It kind of tastes like pie or waffles. Nom.

Final Verdict: Great blueberry tea! If you like blueberry tea. :)

Here’s a pic of the new addition to my stash today:

http://instagr.am/p/PkeNcLORzC/

I seem to back on a DavidsTea kick again, probably because it’s fall and they keep coming out with fall-related teas I can’t resist! I was pretty excited to try this one.

The smell is heavenly. It smells sweet and cakey, but maybe a bit more white chocolately than cakey. It’s one of those teas I can just sit and smell, kind of like those sweet vanilla cupcake candles.
The taste isn’t as cakey as the smell, which is common to davidstea teas, but with this one it works well. You can actually taste the ‘black tea’ (which is rare in these super flavoured ones of theirs I find) and still pick up a bit on the cakey flavour and absolutely very sweet. I’m glad I got this because it is a bit different than anything else I have in my cupboard right now.

Confession time: I ate all of the white chocolate chips before I even got a chance to steep it. So I have no idea if the white chocolate chips even change the flavour at all but I’m guessing not.

Here’s a picture, since it seems I’ve been doing that a lot lately:

http://instagram.com/p/PaK6i_ORx3/

A much different cup of tea than what I normally like but I can’t stop drinking this! I started off with 100g and was already getting low so I’ve went out and stocked up on another 150.

It pretty much tastes the way it is supposed to, very toasty, a tad woodsy, a hint of marshmallow, and a sweetness at the end. Honestly, my only critique may be that it’s too sweet for my liking. Other than that, David has a lot of genius.

The whole fall davidstea collection has really got me excited (after all, it is the best season!) so here’s a picture of my brand new mug that I am enjoying some fall davidstea in. http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9p7h5WC601rpx5rco1_400.jpg

I’ve tried this tea iced before and I really liked it, but yesterday I decided to go for a hot cup (I was really in the mood for white tea, which is odd since i don’t normally drink white tea).

It started off as pretty good, a nice, sweet strawberry taste, but as I got further into the cup and it started to cool it wasn’t as great. It started to taste a bit strong (the fruity flavours I mean) and too sweet (probably from the beet root, I didn’t add any sweetener). So, it wasn’t awful. If I really wanted a strawberry tea I would consider drinking this again, but I don’t think I would ever buy a bunch to take home.

I picked up this tea along with another flavoured black at the urban tea merchant in Vancouver, which is all TWG teas.

I don’t have a lot of black teas at home so I’m really glad I got this one. It’s not too strong of a black tea and it has a nice caramelly sweetness to it, kind of like a dessert tea. It has really caramel pieces in it too which, unfortunately, means it does contain milk but it also helps with the flavour. The aroma of the tea is stronger than the actual taste of the brew, but it doesn’t really let down the tea too much.

This tea was a bit pricey considering I could probably find something similar for cheaper at another tea shop, but it does come in a very beautiful tin. So, overall, I’m happy with this tea. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to refill this when I’m out. :(

Somewhat unrelated, I took a picture of my tea collection today. It’s small but still beautiful. I wish I had more room in my cupboard or I’d probably have more. :P
- http://instagr.am/p/Ohw1ScuR-l/

I love this matcha! I find it holds up very well drinking it straight or mixed in to other things. I just had it now in a very delicious smoothie.

You should try making it! I used:
- 1 ripe banana
- about a cup of frozen peach slices
- about a cup of almond milk
- 1.5 tsp of matcha
blended together and served in a tall glass. A perfect way to enjoy this matcha.

Sadly, I’m almost out. There are more expensive matchas out there and I’m tempted to try them, just to see if I can tell the difference between them and this matcha.

I love bananas and I love oolong so when I saw this I had to try it. It smells really sweet, but I think that is from the stevia more than from the dried banana.

Banana is a weird thing. I think it’s kind of difficult to get that real authentic banana flavour in a tea, but either way, this is still delicious! It’s very light, slightly sweet (not overly sweet or sour like some fruity teas can be) and refreshing.
It has the same ‘banana’ aftertaste as another tea I had from DavidsTea that had bananas in it, but that was a black tea (organic snowbunny), and I think this banana-y taste works much better with the lighter, floral flavours of oolong, and without the nuts.

We’ll have to see how this one lives up to my other favourite teas at home, but this just might be one I’ll have to get a good stock of when my sample runs out. Plus, this being all organic is an added bonus. Nom!

I used to really not like this tea. I think it was because I normally drank it very oversteeped, as my boyfriend likes to leave his leaves in the steeper/teabag while he drinks teas.

Anyways, I wanted to give this tea a second chance, but this time brewed it up my way.

YUM! Nutty and sweet with a light creamy flavour and a subtle vegetal taste reminiscent of a green tea. I think I am going to get very into this tea – kind of wishing I bought more than 50g! I might try mixing this with my favourite green tea too to get some interesting soft flavour combinations and even more tasty health benefits!

This is my first time trying a pu-erh. I know the experience of a DavidsTea pu-erh will be greatly different from that of a high quality pu-erh, but I had to get my foot in the door just a little bit.

Yup! There’s that fishy smell everyone was talking about! I decided to try to not let it get to me, since I read the smell isn’t really in the flavour of the tea. I’d have to say I disagree. Although it’s a lot less strong, there is fishy flavour to this tea, but it’s balanced out by the smoky/earthyness of the rest of the flavours.

I really like the smoky/earthyness but the fishy flavour kind of gets to me. I don’t know if I’ll ever restock this tea but I’ll still drink it, and maybe blend it with some of my favourite teas to see how that is. I’ve also read it gets better after more steeps so I will try that out in the future as well.

Update: _{I didn’t keep this, I ended up returning it. As I finished the pot I just couldn’t get over the fish taste. Being a vegetarian too it was really weird drinking something that tasted like fish. I know there’s not actually fish/fish oil in it but still…}

_{Maybe I just got a bad batch because other people didn’t pick up on fish flavour as much as I did, but still, I’m gonna change my rating and hope that I can find a yummy not-fishy pu-erh from somewhere in the future.}

I was really excited to try this tea, as I’ve been getting to like Oolongs a lot, and had yet to try a milk oolong.

Wow! It really tastes like… milk! Mind you, I haven’t drank a glass of milk in years, so I don’t exactly remember what it tastes like, but it was definitely very reminiscent. Unfortunately, I really don’t like milk, so in turn I really didn’t like this tea.

What I expected was more of an oolong with a light creamy taste over the floral tones, but I got no floral tones and kind of an overhaul of this weird milky flavour. Other users have noted it tasted/smelled like butter, which I can agree with too.

This is the first Oolong I’ve hated, but I guess I’ve learned to stay away from milk Oolongs and stick to more floral ones. I’m returning the 50g I bought of this and I’ll get something new.

I’m kind of disappointed because if I DID like it I was going to mix it with my vanilla oolong from DavidsTea, which I thought would have been pretty tasty. For those of you who do like milk oolongs maybe you could try this combo for me ;) haha

No notes yet.

I think my favourite way to drink this is whisked into a hot cup of almond milk. The sweetness of the almond milk pretty much makes it so I can make it as strong as I want and it won’t taste bitter.

My only problem is not drinking it fast enough so it all settles down to the bottom. I really need to invest in a matcha whisk/bowl.

I don’t really know how to compare this to other matchas since this is the only one I’ve bought (ceremonial matcha is just a bit too pricey for me) but it’s great for using in lattes and smoothies and stuff, and doesn’t have any added powders or sugars like matchas you might get in a matcha latte from a cafe.

I was gonna say “wow I think this is my favourite Oolong yet!” and then I read about it a little more on the teavana website and realized there’s actually raspberry flavouring in it.. soo, not actually a straight Oolong.

Either way, I really like this tea. Yeah, you can taste the raspberry, but before I knew it had it in it I didn’t even really notice it. I noticed the sweetness, and that kind of berry/floral taste, but not anything that jumped out like crazy artificial flavouring.

My favourite thing about this tea is the kind of woodsy taste it has to it. It has the same floral notes as the last Oolong I tried (Thai Mountain from Teavana) but not as strong and more subdued by the woodsy flavour and the added sweetness from the berry falvour.

Overall, a good cup of tea! But disappointed it wasn’t actually straight like I thought it was when I ordered it.

Note: I should add that there are different versions of this tea. The one I had has no berries in it.

Took a big cup of this home with me to enjoy while I relax. (I wore new shoes today and my feet are KILLING ME…. on a side note haha).

Anyways, I’m usually a drinker of green teas, but I’m trying to get into Oolongs. This is one of my first, and I think the very first I’ve actually logged on here, so I don’t have too much to compare it to, but I really like it!

Floral is a great word to use to describe it, but also kind of sweet. It’s very smooth, not at all bitter, and not too soft either (I like my teas to be a bit strong in flavour rather than light). There’s a flavour in it that is really nostalgic to me right now but I can’t figure out what it is.

Anyways, if you want to try a straight oolong with a nice body to it, try this one! I think I still prefer green tea but this cup is definitely getting me to fall a little bit in love with oolong too.

And just another quick note – I love how straight oolongs look, especially after they’ve unfurled in the water. This one is all bundled up as dried but when steeped really opens up to a nice full leaf.

So I tried this today because I really wanted a green tea, and I have a whole tin of green tea at home so I thought it’d be best to try a flavoured green for something different.

This one interested me because it wasn’t super berry-y. The citrus was compelling and the leaves smelled really nice.

Oops! Didn’t actually read the ingredients. Not expected ginger!

Conclusion: I’m really not a fan of ginger in my tea. It really overpowered everything else in this one too. Two sips and I tossed it.

Despite the fact the pu-erh is so unnoticable I’m not even sure this could be classified as even a black tea, I actually kind of liked this!

While it was still pretty hot I found the mint came out too much, and I’m not a huge fan of mint. But when it was cooled off and I could pick up on the other flavours, like the strawberry especially, the mint was more just lingering in the background as a refreshing little treat.

It’s not something I could drink every day, but I did enjoy it. I would probably be better off just finding a strawberryish herbal tea though, since the oolong and pu-erh are taken over by all of the herbal ingredients anyways.

I finished off my sample of this tonight, so time for a review!

The loose leaves smell so heavenly, and the idea of the little strawberries is tantalizing, but the actual cup is kind of a disappointment. It really does taste like strawberry shortcake, and you can taste the strawberries… but the black tea falls short.

It’s good when it’s pretty hot, but as soon as it cools it’s pretty much undrinkable.

Kind of fun to try and have a sample for a bit, but not something I could see myself drinking more than a few times in my life. Maybe I just can’t get into the idea of a cup of tea tasting like cake. We had our little affair, and now it is done.

This is my last time drinking Yun Cui from my tea stash at home, so I thought it deserved a little farewell review.

I started drinking this tea awhile ago but have since taken a break to venture into new kinds of green teas. I can say I like it less than I did before, now that I’m starting to learn what I like in a cup of green tea.

The aroma of this tea is okay. You can pick up a lot on the nuttiness, slightly sweet. The taste is very similar to the aroma, and the nuttiness really comes out. There is a very slight vegetal taste kind of hiding in the background that compliments the nuttiness in an… interesting way. It’s not at all bitter, actually more kind of sweet.

I’ve mentioned before in green teas that the flavours are too soft/weak, so I do have to give it to this tea that the flavours have quite a nice round body. I also appreciate that the nutty flavour kind of remains on your tongue afterwards. I also appreciate that it is organic.

Overall, I’m not nuts over nutty when it comes to greens, so this tea is gonna have to fall back a little on my ranks. I probably will not purchase any more of this tea in the future.

Farewell Yun Cui!

_{edit: just wanted to add that this tea actually tastes a lot like the Gyokuro Genmaicha I had from teavana a few days ago, with all of the nutty flavour and what not.}

Currently enjoying a cup of this right now.

First of all, I find the loose leaves beautiful. The aroma of the leaf itself, and the steeped water is also wonderful. So smooth and with an earthy, humid, sweet smell. I imagine its exactly what it would smell like high up on the misty mountains where it was grown.

The flavour is similar to the smell, smooth and sweet, not at all bitter. The only downfall is how dainty the taste it. I really have to savour it to find that wonderful taste. Next time I have this tea I will use more tea leaves and hopefully the aromas will come out a bit better.

Overall, despite how weak the taste is, I am pretty happy with this tea. I am normally a fan of Japanese greens, not Chinese, so it’s nice that I’ve found a chinese tea to change things up a bit if I feel like something other than Gyokuro.

The smell of this tea was so intoxicating I had to go for a cup of this today.

Normally if I’m bagged at work I’ll get a cup of iced coffee, but I think this might be my replacement. I tend to be a fan of flavoured coffees (like vanilla especially) so this tea is a perfect “coffee” replacement for me.

I especially love that there is black tea blended in with this to give it a fuller body. Mate alone probably wouldn’t lend itself enough flavour.

I normally don’t like chocolate in tea, but balanced with the vanilla and caramely notes it works well.

Definetly my new go-to cup when I really need a blast of caffeine. Yum!

Just a note: I drank this with just a slight touch of sweetener.

I’m a sucker for flavoured blacks, and I’ve never had one I didn’t like, but this one is beyond DELISH!

It’s definitely a dessert tea. It’s not lying about the rose either. You can really taste it but it doesn’t overpower the other flavours. It’s slightly nutty, but not so nutty that is the main flavour. All of the flavours balance out very evenly, which is lovely. (That’s kind of my biggest peeve with flavoured teas, is when one flavour is kinda sticking out too much to enjoy the others).

If you want something that’s really black tea-y then I wouldn’t suggest it. It’s really floating around in there with all the other stuff so more difficult to pick up on.

It is full bodied, very tasty hot, and if you accidently let it sit for a bit and it cools off too much it is not at all bitter.

Probably my new favourite dessert tea (but nothing will surpass a perfect creamy earl gray).

This is one of my first cups of Teavana tea, and as I’ve never tried a Genmaicha before and was really curious what it would be like, I thought i’d go for it.

Bottom line: I prefer straight green tea, but the toasted rice is definietly a nice touch for a different kind of treat.

The nutty flavour brings out the sweetness of the tea, making it something I could see myself drinking after dinner or perfectly paired with dessert.

And you know those rice crackers? If you absolutely hate those then I wouldn’t suggest this tea. It’s like a wonderful green tea with that sort of rice cracker, nutty flavour with it.

Overall, very smooth, wonderful, and free of extra crud and flavourings, which I love.

I really do love the flavour of this tea, but I find it a little too soft for my liking. Still trying different combinations of steeping times, temperatures, and leaf amounts for that perfect cup.

Its been awhile since I tried a new tea. I’ve really been trying to get through the supplies I have lately.

ANYWAYS, finally dove in to by a traditional green tea from Davids tea (and there was a lovely bonus for buying a chinese tea right now for chinese new years).
I’m not the best at distinguishing differences between green teas, but I do love this one. I agree with posts before that it isn’t fruity or anything, but I disagree in that I cannot taste any of this nuttiness. To me its a really soft green tea and the strongest taste I find is the aftertaste.