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Nabbed this one as a latte the other day.

I generally have a rule where I wont drink this one at work/outside of my house because it’s my favourite DT blend (that is still sold) so I try to just enjoy it at home, where I already have tons of tea leaf of it. I just really wanted a latte though, and I couldn’t decide on anything else so I caved and got this one…

It was VERY good/rich with intense blueberry notes as usual. However, the milk for the latte definitely got burned/scalded while the tea guide was frothing it so that did change the flavour of the brew overall. It just had a kind of burnt sugar sort of flavour element to it that made me think of creme brulee! A blueberry creme brulee! It was different, but a pretty tasty take/change up for my favourite DT blend.

We’ll call it a happy accident.

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.

Finally getting around to trying this one! I was super curious about it when it was announced; passion fruit teas have really been a favourite of mine this summer and this one in particular sounds pretty unique/interesting!

I tried it hot and straight for my first tasting and here were my thoughts:

- Like 90% of me really liked this one
- It’s medium bodied and smooth
- With a vanilla note that’s like a cross between pudding and custard
- And a sweet, candied passionfruit flavour
- The other 10% is bothered by this weird medicinal quality
- And I can’t for the life of me figure out where it’s coming from

Very interesting, I just wish I could place what in particular is giving me that medicinal sort of flavour/vibe. It’ll be something to keep an eye out for next time I have this one, and if it continues to be present I’ll have to see if tweaking the prep style does anything to improve/fix it or if it’s just a permanent aspect of the tea…

Gong Fu!

Over the last year, I’ve really developed a love for Dian Hong teas and their natural, rich chocolate profiles so when teabento gave me the opportunity to try eight of their teas I loaded up on as many Dian Hongs as they carried. Ideally, what I’m hoping for is to find one or two that I just adore, and to add them to my increasingly large amount of Dian Hong cupboard staples. I mean, they’re just perfect – both for Western AND Gong Fu brewing.

I’m gonna try to stick at close to teabento’s Gong Fu brewing guide for this session and just explore my thoughts on the tea in the moment, following those steeping parameters. As such, I’ve measured out exactly four grams of the tea leaf, and I’m using the closest thing to a 120ml gaiwan that I own – a 115ml one. I also started with a rinse and a rest before drinking, as they recommended. Honestly, I don’t often do a rinse with my black teas unless they’re compressed. I generally just don’t find it super necessary. So, it was a weird step for me…

Steep One/30 Seconds
- The aroma is incredible; already I’m finding myself strongly reminded of rich cocoa
- The Gong Fu set I’m using today is mostly blue teaware, so it is hard to see the liquor
- At least the “true” colour of the liquor
- Top note is definitely cocoa; reminds me of straight, unsweetened cocoa powder
- The body is more malty and just a touch astringent; pleasantly so
- Very thick mouthfeel
- The finish is a LITTLE BIT fruity, but not overly; reminds me of red fruits
- But in a generic sense

Steep Two/15 Seconds
- Aroma of steeped leaf is more a mix of honey/graham/cocoa
- Still very intense/rich cocoa notes but sweeter
- Body is still very malty, but has honey notes to it to
- And a sweet, bread like quality loosely like a French bread fresh from the oven
- Finish goes back to being chocolate like with fruity companion notes
- Red fruits/raisins; very jammy and sweet
- Thick, smooth mouthfeel and round/balanced flavour

Steep Three/1 Minute
- Super rich chocolate notes; almost a milk chocolate flavour now
- Combine that w. the malty body & baked bread notes and it kind of tastes like Maltesers
- With a fruity/jammy finish
- This infusion does have a VERY lingering aftertaste as well; kind of like a scorched cocoa
- Mouthfeel feels a little thinner?

Steep Four/2 Minutes
- Definitely the least nuanced infusion yet
- Mostly a mix of malt and chocolate notes
- With honey and raisin finishing notes
- Sadly, it’s losing its richness a little bit but it’s not too far gone yet

Steep Five/4 Minutes
- Personally, I think four minutes is WAY too long to Gong Fu something
- And if I weren’t following teabento’s steeping guide I wouldn’t be doing it…
- The flavour was fading in the last infusion, but I do think the long steep gave it a bump
- Still remains very chocolate-y, however the malt is pretty well gone
- It’s a little ‘one note’ now?
- It’s a good one note, though!

I don’t know that I’m gonna continue with the session, though I don’t think the leaf is totally spent yet either. I’m just honestly not super sure where to go from a four minute infusion. I definitely think you could keep going if you were so inclined, though!

Overall? I thought this was a REALLY nice Dian Hong, and I greatly enjoyed the session. That said, I don’t know that this particular Golden Needle style Dian Hong is any better than the other ones I currently have on hands so I wouldn’t deliberately stock this one over the other – however, if I was already low and just wanted to restock one in general and I was already ordering from teabento there would be nothing stopping me from choosing this one over another company’s. Does that make sense? Hopefully.

I’m not sure where I’ve landed on teabento’s Gong Fu steeping parameters; the timing is definitely different than I’ve seen from so many other companies; it just jumps up so quickly in time and I don’t know that I’ve ever steeped anything Gong Fu for four minutes – and on the fifth infusion, no less. To me, that’s just Western brewing in a fancier vessel? That said, it’s not like any of the infusions tasted bad! It’s something I think I’ll definitely experiment with on some of the other teas I received from them.

This is a sipdown, but apparently it’s a tea that I didn’t have entered into my cupboard so it doesn’t really count as a sipdown numerically speaking…

I’m drink it right now as a hot tea with some milk in it. We’re all out of this one at my store, so this could very well be my last cup of it. I kind of regret not drinking it more often when it was readily available to me on shift because honestly there are some really nice aspects to it. For starters, it’s very creamy/buttery both from the yogurt pieces in it but also from the green tea itself and that’s an element of green tea I actually DO like. Plus, the strawberry is nice for what it is. I mean, it’s very light/mild and pretty artificial tasting but it’s not bad. Combined with the creamy elements, it is pretty Strawberry Milkshake like.

I can see why people liked it; it was accurate to the name without being too sweet/sugary and it’s pretty calming/soothing. Plus, you get a fruity tea that’s not a FRUITY tea. I also see why people didn’t like it; it’s not really as rich as a milkshake generally is so if you wanted richness this would be disappointing. The flavours are also softer, so if you don’t have a palate that can really pick up on delicate qualities or you just don’t appreciate them then this would be disappointing.

I don’t know, I guess what I’m saying is that I probably fall somewhere in the middle on this one? I don’t really know…

This cup is doing it for me for the moment though; to me, this has been a lazy Friday morning and I’m not 100% awake yet, so it’s one of those softer “ease into your day” kind of drinks right now.

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.

Sipdown (341)!

Made this one as an iced tea yesterday, at work.

I don’t know why but the entire time I was drinking this one I was filled with a sense of flavour Deja Vu – but I still can’t place exactly what tea it was reminding me of which is , the frustrating part. Honestly though? I thought this was pretty average. It was smooth enough but the two strongest flavours were the rooibos base itself which was very woody and a kind of sub par coconut note. The coconut did taste decently fresh though, but it also reminded me a little bit of my coconut body scrub which is… eh?

The pear/berry/other fruit notes were just so muddled and mild though comparatively! I really, really wish the pear had been more pronounced because I think a pear and coconut combination could have been really lovely but more than anything else I thought this was kind of apple-y tasting, with hints of the kiwi and a very generic/muddled tropical fruit flavour. Nothing even remotely pear like, and that was all kinds of disappointing. If you promise me pear, I fucking want pear.

But yeah – overall it was just mediocre. Drinkable, but nothing exciting at all. I think it falls prey to their just being too many ingredients for it to create any kind of clear, concise flavour profile.

Honestly, I’m a little surprised that I haven’t finished this one off yet! I guess that’s because I largely save it for when I really, really need something delicious and creamy to comfort me or cheer me up or as a bit of a reward!

I suppose this last cup kind of broke that ‘rule’ though, because I enjoyed a huge mug of this creamy vanilla goodness while binging the new season of Bojack Horseman. To be fair though, episode two of the new season is pretty soul crushing so maybe it DOES count as a “cheer up” cup after all? I just know that this is arguably the richest, creamiest and most authentic vanilla tasting tea I’ve ever had and it has a very special place in my heart because of that. When I want vanilla, I 100% know which tea to turn to.

So, I pulled this one from the shelf because I was originally going to try it with the pumpkin agave I recently purchased but honestly? I’ve kind of pumpkin agave-d myself out and now I’m just a little sick of it. I just went too hard too quickly.

Maybe, when I’m less sick of it I will eventually revisit this one with in included because I do think it’d work with the overall flavour…

Instead I just enjoyed a plain, hot cup of this one and that was pretty delicious anyway! Very smooth, and rich but not overly sweet. I love the dynamic of the chocolate and the prune, with the softer orange undertones and just overall kind of alcoholic feel? It’s like fancy booze though; the stuff mixologists like for their exorbitantly priced cocktails.

Just… mmm! I feel at peace when I drink this one.

Echoing my thoughts from last time I tried this one… It’s very nutty.

Like, my first half of the sip went pretty normally/like expected for Dragonwell: “Hmm, this is pretty smooth with a mix of mild grassy and vegetal notes”. It was in the transition from body sip flavour to the finish that I was surprised. It’s just so nutty, and toasty as well? Not in an unpleasant way, and I know Dragonwell often is a nuttier green tea anyway. It’s just that this is REALLY nutty. I don’t even know how to convey just how nutty it was because I feel like that could still just be interpreted as the normal amount of nutty flavour generally associated with Dragonwell.

I don’t know, one more time for the people in the back and just in case you didn’t pick up on it the first billion times I said it… This was REALLY nutty.

Drank this one yesterday, in sachet format.

Usually I find that the leaf in the sachets are pretty well measured out, but this one looked a little scarce to me and that definitely played into the flavour because while it was delicious and creamy with those sweet, bright candied raspberry notes it also just felt watered down/weak even though I let the teabag steep in the cup the entire time I was drinking it. I really wanted to coax out those flavours but they just never got to a strength I was 100% happy with.

I have one more sachet of this one, so I’m curious to see if this was just a one off experience or if I’ll feel the same way about the next sachet.

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.

So, I tried this one with the pumpkin agave too a few nights ago.

I had the idea that a while tea might be a nice compliment to the agave because it would be light enough to showcase the pumpkin notes in a prominent way and what straw/hay notes were present would only sort of add to that overall autumnal feel. I chose this white tea specifically purely because I just have so much of it on hand.

It didn’t really work though, and it came out very muddled and borderline cloying tasting. It’s almost like the taste of the agave was too present and it just ruined the base tea completely. I also forgot that this white tea has some pretty strong stonefruit notes and to be honest they just tasted weird with pumpkin. Pumpkin and peach? Not a strong match up…

It was drinkable, so I finished the cup but it’s not something I’ll be revisiting.