Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

This tea has quickly become one of my favorite breakfast teas. I love the way it smells while steeping. It reminds me of a morning campfire with its smokey notes but there’s also something a little bright and clean about the fragrance. The taste is chocolate, smoke, sweet with a hit of citrus right at the end. It’s a grand way to start the morning, and as fall weather starts peeking in I’m finding myself enjoying this tea even more.

I so love this tea. It’s just comforting and delicious. Creamy and nutty.

I have a touch of a headache this morning. I guess since I spent several hours drinking last night, and all I have is a touch of a headache, it’s not too bad.

It’s our anniversary today. 12 years. It seems like just yesterday we were married, and yet, it feels like we’ve always been together. We’re trying to figure out what to do to celebrate.

I am pushing myself to drink more green and white teas: teas that are usually not the first ones I reach for.

Honestly, I haven’t made up my mind about fruit-flavoured green teas. It seems hard to get the balance of tea and flavour right.

That said, this one, a blend of organic Chun Mee and Gunpowder, is good. The blackberry overlay is mellow. The butter crust is gently there. Nice.

The flavouring disappears by the second steeping and the lovely green remains.

I have been to the dentist today, preparation for a crown. So next visit will be costly.

That said, my tasting buds may be off. And I am so numb all day. Slight headache for second day. Uhh, I want a cup of tea.

So here it is.
Single steep.

Decent tea, with nice strawberry note, although not fresh and juicy berry flavour. It wasn’t a flaw though, as I think I wouldn’t enjoy it. The base wasn’t much strong with this tea. But it complements the flavour profile. Weirdly, instead of basil, I noticed rather rose. I expected more basil rough taste, but nada. It was fine though and all together working fine. Maybe my smell isn’t great with a bit stuffy nose. Overall, nice and light tea… hopefully with more fruitiness next time.

TBH I kinda wish there was actually raspberry leaf in this tea.

Today I made it in a travel mug and I’ve brought it to work. It tastes a bit more like dirt, probably because of the echinacea root. And it’s sourer. More sour. Whatever. Probably due to the increased heat preservation of the travel mug VS a regular mug.

I still kinda like it. And I really hope I don’t get sick.

This blend was gifted to me by Plum Deluxe who sent a large “sample” for me to try. So incredibly generous! I’m very glad to have the opportunity to try some of their blends and am starting first with this limited edition dessert tea.

I need to say, first thing, that this tea steeps up so beautifully. For those who take milk in their tea, this one is perfect for such an addition. I do, and I did, and it’s just lovely. The most prominent flavor, as I think it should be, is the raspberry with a solid base of chocolaty tea underneath. Maybe it’s the mix of pu’erh and black teas or the cocoa nibs or all of these together – whatever it is, it works. This is so well-rounded. I can smell the orange in the dry blend and though the flavor doesn’t necessarily come through in the cup I think the orange is somehow meant to boost the raspberry. It just complements the berry and cocoa in such a way that without the orange I don’t think the other flavors would have popped quite so much. This is to me such a well-thought-out and well-executed tea blend. The package says that Love is an ingredient and I believe it.

Thanks so much to Plum Deluxe for sending this and a few other teas to try. I’m looking forward to tasting the others soon.

First tea of the morning as I continue to experiment oomphing up my pumpkin spice teas with pumpkin seed oil. Not bad. Even better with dark chocolate. But that hardly counts as a tea review.

It’s all been more or less said about this tea, so I don’t really have more to add. It is probably far better as a sweetened latte, or at least with milk or cream.

Further, I find that I am moving more towards removing the bulk of imitation flavours and colours from my world—not completely, mind, but slowly, slowly. Health continues to challenge me, so I do what I can to simplify and purify. With the occasional binge, of course. But only when it is well worth it.

And ouf! How their prices have escalated! Quite a number of their products are now sold prepackaged and they seem to be putting even more effort on packaging and presentation, if that is even possible.

All in all, clearly, someone like me is not in the demographic their marketing team is aiming for.

And I still have mountains of their teas from before they decided to imitation and stevia everything to death and boost up their marketing frenzy. So, for the time being, I will content myself with those before I maybe maybe maybe make another purchase with them again. If absolutely necessary.

The other new one from the Valentine’s Collection!

I tried this one iced for my first tasting because I wasn’t really in the mood for taking the risk of chocolate goop/oily mouthfeel from the white chocolate in the blend. I fully expected creamy white chocolate black with rose undertones from this, and I got the opposite: aromatic, fragrant rose black with creamy chocolate undertones. I enjoyed it, though I don’t know if I’d say strongly. It’s probably a little more intended for hot consumption, honestly. The rose notes are GREAT though, if you like floral. Most of you know I’ve been on a BIG floral kick right now, so right up my current alley.

If you don’t like floral? I’d probably recommend skipping over this one; it’s not light on the rose notes. Also, kudos to DT for another relatively simple blend without a ton of weird ingredients: this one is simple but effective.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I made this by mixing it in warm milk and I feel like I should love it but I don’t. It’s got a custardy taste and mouthfeel and has a burnt sugar vibe to it but I’m just not loving it as much as I hoped. Not sure why but that’s where I’m at with this.

Well, thank you very much, you influencers, you … I mentioned it casually to my husband, and he kindly picked up a box. I ripped into it this morning because I am definitely in need of a little thunder. (In our part of the world school will be opening, so it’s been Katy-bar-the-door at work.)

The way I steeped it (sloppily, maybe 6 minutes), the mate reminds me a little of burnt campfire marshmallow crust. That’s not a bad thing to wake up to.

Noms. I made a small order the other day from tea-historic as i like to try and support the folks within the community who are trying things out. Plus, given our swapping history, i was fairly sure that i’d enjoy at least some of the selections from her store, as she wouldn’t be selling them if she didn’t like them :)

This one is tasty! I have often dropped cacao shells in to my LB, but i can’t say that i’ve tried it with an assam. As expected, this one works. It’s very much a delicious chocolatey tea that isn’t overly sweet. I supposed you could add a little sugar to it (or milk and sugar!) to really turn it in to a decadent beverage but i won’t need all that. Even cold, this is yummy!

Whee, 100 tasting notes. I sort of felt like I ought to have a really rarified tea for my 100th, but then I had one of those mornings where everything that happens seems custom-designed to frustrate and annoy. I couldn’t help but to reach for something sweet.

I’ve been awfully lazy about tasting notes lately. In point of fact, I have none for this tea, but my pouch of it is very nearly empty now, which saddens me. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I have.

There’s not too much that I can add here that other people haven’t already. The shavings of coconut are large; the vanilla is very subtle. The black tea holds up well to both. While it’s a decent tea without any additives, making it like a chai on the stovetop — sans sweeteners, but with a very generous spoonfull or two of sweetened condensed milk added along with regular milk — makes for a completely decadent treat.

I wouldn’t say that it’s a substitute for pie, of course…or even that it tastes exactly like coconut cream pie, when consumed hot…but the results are so delicious that this hardly matters, in my opinion. Thinking about it, I wonder if the viscosity and sweetness when served iced would make the difference?

Regardless…this was just the cup of tea that I needed for drowning a very cranky start to the day. It’s not an ‘every day’ tea for me…but it’s quite nice to have it on hand, and I think I can probably find a regular spot for it in my cabinet.

[Spring 2019 Harvest] This is a Yunnan Red from old wild trees that Whispering Pines started offering recently. The tea is complex and reminded me of drinking a good red wine. There are so many different flavors that I will not even try to describe all of them. It’s easier to note what is NOT there: I did not find any fruitiness or mineral notes.

I had it Western but I think it would be good gong fu as well. Herbs, malt, honey, bitterness… Very well balanced, so nothing dominates. Vibrant. It tasted and smelled much like a good Zhen Shang Xiao Zhong (my favorite kind of tea) but with a distinctly dianhong-ish sweet note at the end. This tea has a pleasant aftertaste and re-steeps well, although losing most of its original complexity.

I liked it.

Additional notes: I’m going to try to write newer tasting notes for my 2018 Teavivre samples, because at this point, I haven’t written notes for years about most of them, even if I’ve been enjoying most of them without writing notes. I’ve been trying to drink the varieties of Yun Nan closer together (and then I’ll work on the Keemuns, etc) and it really is amazing that most of these Yun Nans have such different flavor profiles. I originally stocked up on this one because it was similar to the glorious Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong Ancient Wild Tree that I love so much: tangy/plumy notes in the harvest I stocked up on a couple years ago. Though the tangy/plumy notes were definitely less noticeable in this tea than the Nonpareil. This harvest, it’s even less noticeable than before. The 2018 tastes like a lighter Assam tea, with that malty flavor with hints of fruitiness. The flavors aren’t as distinct as I wish they were. It looks like my steeping parameters were close to the other tasting note. I’m going to drink my older harvest soon to compare. So this tea might have lost some of its special qualities that I was noticing before. Instead of stocking up on this one, I’d rather choose to steep up the Nonpareil for special occasions or just go with the more affordable Yun Nan. Even the cheapest Yun Nan is delicious to me. The rating now might be an 86 for losing the tangy plum.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 3 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Harvest: 2018

What’s left of my packet had woogled down to the bottom of the odds and ends basket (you have one of those, don’t you?) so I didn’t expect too much in the way of flavor and freshness when I steeped a tumbler this morning. Not so—it was still pastry-like and tasty, even more so when I iced it. Makes me think of a cream puff that’s been in the fridge. Oh…now I AM thinking about cream puffs…and frosting…and cookie dough…and…

i’ve been drinking this a bunch since omgsrsly was kind enough to restock me. I’m down to the last of it, as i’ve been having this frequently over the past few days since it has ginger in it. this is still nothing like the first version – now it’s got more of a sweetness to it that i don’t like as much. I miss the spiciness of the first version. Still though….was nice to visit with an old friend. :)

Hurray for meeting tea friends! :)
Dexter and I met up for a wee walk around town and a cup of genmaicha and Thai tea ice cream. All kinds of deliciousness.

This is one of the teas that I had packed in my bag for the day.

I like this one a lot. Generally, I am not a fan of mint. I might even go so far as to say that mint scares me, so it took me months to get around to opening this. Pleasant surprise. The marshmallow and delicate chocolate soften up the mint. I will have no difficulty at all making my way through the small quantity that I have. I wish I had more of this on hand. It’s a lovely lift both at home and in my travel mug on the go.

Forgot to jump over here and post this one after adding it to the blog. This is a caffeine free herbal. If you are like me that generally means – scroll on to the next review. I will say up front this is different.

Totem Tea says what makes this different from other mulberry leaf teas is this is steam processed like Japanese sencha.

If one of you tea drinkers handed this to me and said, “Here try this green tea.” I would look at it and just except it was a sencha. Flat blades that look very similar. The dry sent is grassy with what reminds me of chaff left over when shucking field corn.

I brewed this per directions at 200 F for 45 seconds. The liquor is green with yellow highlights in the light and an eerie deep green in the shadows. The steeped leaf turns really dark green and crinkly like ruffled parsley.

Here is a quote straight from my blog, “The taste is unique. There is zero bitterness or astringency. It is smooth with almost no bite. The grassy connection to sencha is very present. There is also an ocean seaweed note, and what to me is best described as a hazelnut element. I think the seaweed/hazelnut combination is what Totem is noting as buttery umami.”

Possibly one of the most complex and interesting single ingredient herbals I have tried.

Yesterday’s Cold Brew! It was very smooth and creamy with the predominate flavour being the custardy vanilla notes and then a very soft, floral/orchid undertone. Just a hint of the grassyness from the base, as well.

Honestly, I didn’t drink a lot of tea yesterday – I was kind of mentally recuperating from a very exhausting weekend. Trey’s birthday was on Friday night and that should have made for a fun, albeit crazy, night of drinking and celebrating but instead it wound up being very tense and dramatic. Both he and our close friend James have been pretty depressed lately and they ended up getting really drunk and feeding off each other’s depression. We also found out that night that James, a drug addict who has been clean for two years now, recently relapsed and started using again. On top of that he basically ruined his relationship over text, and the evening sort of culminated in a physical fight between Trey and James (over the depression and the drug use) that left our bathroom a fucking disaster.

Thankfully, we have a friend named Keegan who works as a teacher for troubled children and who has training in conflict resolution and deescalation because of his job. He was honestly such a God send throughout the evening and he broke up the fight and talked both of them down from the very precarious edge they were teetering on. Had he not been there, I know the night would have built up the same way – we just wouldn’t have had anyone there to diffuse the situation.

So a day towards my mental health was required.

On the flip side though, apart from that disaster of a birthday, I had a really, really great week otherwise. With how tense the situation has been in the condo lately, and with Trey’s increasing depression I’ve been hesitant to share any of this with my roommates/close friends – but Steepster has always been a safe place for me to speak about non tea related stuff too, so I’m gonna share my happiness with you guys too!

This week, my boyfriend Kyle and I finally said those three big words to each other after kind of dancing around it for the last month – and my heart kind of just melted inside. To be honest though, I felt ok saying it first to him (I’ve been hesitant saying it for like a month now because in the back of my mind I was terrified he didn’t feel the same) because I knew definitively he already fet it ‘cause my friends are such fucking gossips. In this case, I kind of adore Paige for telling me though. Kyle was hanging out with Paige & Keegan (our friends who’ve been together three years and are the perfect example of a healthy, happy relationship imo) and at some point Paige jokingly said ’isn’t it funny how everything you love leaves you?’ and his rebuttal to her insult was ‘no, I still have Kelly’. And isn’t that just the fucking cutest!?

We’re just in such a good and happy place right now; and despite everything happening this week between James/Trey I just feel so content right now. I’ve been in relationships in the last three years, and I’ve been happy in most of them – but this is the first relationship I’ve been in where I’ve felt my asexuality was accepted and respected and where I feel safe to be vulnerable and open with the person I’m dating.

And that’s my long winded ‘tasting note’ for the day…

My Swiss friend sent me a Christmas gift, an Around the World in 8 Teas Selection Box by Curious Tea, a company I wanted to try for long time (but I never told her). And as it is a box with diverse teas, it is perfect to try some less known regions, and get some interesting teas.

Honestly, this one sounded the most unique and as I have been in mood of oolong today; and I wanted to try something completely new to me — flavoured one, I just took it out and used half of 10 grams I have received for gongfu brewing. It is Spring 2021 harvest, which is a little sad — but I hope they store their teas well.

After opening the pouch, I was hit by rice aroma, but also with some florals and… sadly a cardboard. But it seems it was the pouch itself as nothing from that when I added measured amount to the preheated gaiwan. I also added a water to it later on, not as a rinse, but to “wake up” the leaves a bit.

This is indeed very fragrant tea. I got, after first, 15 seconds steep, very rice aroma, somehow with vanilla (how?) and creamy notes. Tastewise, it’s sticky, it’s rice, it’s creamy. Vanilla isn’t that present. I read a few tasting notes for What-cha’s offer of very same tea and some said it is like drinking water after boiling rice. I never tasted that, but it’s very probably similar. The aftertaste lingers long and with creamy note on the top.

2nd steep was 30 seconds long, I got certainly more oolong-y aroma, high in florals with vanilla, now I got custard in taste, followed with sweet vanilla notes, rice in the background, again with lovely creamy aftertaste.

3rd, again an increment of 15 seconds (maybe I do too big steps…), I get again more oolong-y taste, that “green” vegetal notes, green beans a bit. Those notes overpower the creamy ones, vanilla is gone, and rice will be gone soon as well I think. Afterall, they recommend 3 steeps :)

I had been avoiding this tea for months, thinking I was going to hate it. I finally drank it last week and was very pleasantly surprised by its depth of flavour and the fact that it was much more than just licorice/anise. No specific notes on flavour; I’ve had a rough go of things lately and about all I can really remember are impressions – and this tea gave a good one!

Cola tea! I wish I got more of this because of the 25g I got with the group order, I’m already almost done from cold brewing. It smells exactly like cola bottle candies. I freaking love that. Chewy candy exploding with cola flavour.

It’s nice that this is decaffeinated too. It allows for the flavour to shine through more. The first time I had this, I enjoyed it hot, and the cola flavour was even spicier. It reminded me of why some spicy blends end up tasting like cola to me, and prompted me to do a little research on what exactly makes cola a flavour in itself anyway. Of course, cinnamon, vanilla, and citrus are the main flavours and I can totally taste these notes hot.

It doesn’t appear to be on their site anymore. Whaaaat? I hope this only means that it’s seasonal. I just may have to email them with my terrible, basically non-existent French and ask.

Summer. Ugh.
My significant other and myself have a merry little argument about which is worse, excessive heat or excessive cold. He maintains that winter is the worst, and that he hates to be cold more than anything. But his level of whining when its hot gives lie to that.
I maintain that summer is the worst, especially around here. The sky is painful, and there is nothing you can do, when you are outside, to make things cooler for yourself. Its all suffering all the time. In the winter there are sweaters, and scarves, and tea. Warming up is easier than cooling down.
This is my round about way of saying its going to be 105 today, and so I’m drinking this fruity cup of tea, and then resigning myself to a fate of no tea for most of the rest of the day.
Bleh.