15695 Tasting Notes
Adventaggedon Day Nineteen – 1/6
I know this is a very popular Chai that we carry, but it’s definitely not a favourite of mine. Initially I had so many ideas of how I might steep this to change it up and make it a little more my style, but I just got quite busy with work and I never really ended up having time to do anything other than just make a plain hot cuppa.
It’s cinnamon forward and relatively sweet but not nearly so much as DT’s other infamous chai: Cinnamon Rooibos Chai. I think I’d like this more if I was just getting that more natural, sweet but slightly woody cinnamon note – but there’s also peppercorn, cardamom, clove, and ginger and I find it too much. Add on top of that the slight astringency in the finish and it’s just… not my cuppa.
I would recommend this in a heart beat though to someone looking for something more traditional in spice composition or that isn’t nearly as sweet and “punchy” as CRC.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmXZOHku6m1/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bAY_uu3BbA
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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Adventaggedon Day Eighteen – 6/6
Definitely had mixed feelings seeing this tea. Part of me wanted to celebrate Adagio including a blend that was more overtly festive (something I’ve felt a little lacking) and another part of me was rolling my eyes hard at getting another sweet and nutty blend.
It tastes fine – present rooibos but not super medicinal/mineral and not too sweet either. But it does really just feel like another rehash of the same almond and hazelnut flavour that we’ve now tasted multiple times in the advent. With the amount of use those flavours have gotten, it’s safe to say that it’s something that clearly works well for Adagio’s customers and if I hadn’t tasted so many other variations of this tea so recently I think I likely would have enjoyed it a lot more.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmU0moLO1Ug/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpQ5Vq791y4
Adventaggedon Day Eighteen – 5/6
I went into this tea skeptical. The flavour description and ingredients list looked fine, if not maybe a little bit basic. Captain America isn’t my favourite hero, so there wasn’t necessarily any extra “pull” to this tea because of the fandom either. Though, I did appreciate that this wasn’t just another red/white/blue play – I’ve seen what feels like a million fandom blends for Captain America that have either sprinkles in that colour scheme or a trio of fruit flavours meant to fit the colour scheme. You know what I really want to see!? Where’s the peach flavoured “America’s Ass” blend!? Someone make it happen.
Anyway – this tea was good! There’s been a couple blends from Thesaurus that have just immediately dug their hooks in me, but this one felt a little more like a slow burn where the flavours were soft at first then grew to a point were they were just strong enough with a pleasant medium bodied and not too much sweetness. I get the maple (though that’s a little more “Captain Canuck” to me) and definitely red fruit as well. I know it’s supposed to be cranberry, but it reaaallllyyyyy read as cherry to my palate and I was definitely NOT mad at that.
I get the impression that if I were to buy this tea and drink it a little more regularly that it’s the kind of blend that would continue it’s pleasant slow burn to the point where it might become a more routine/habitual favourite. I’ve definitely been keeping a shortlist of blends I might want to order, and I’m adding this one to that list!
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmU0moLO1Ug/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MVay-7tkz4
Adventaggedon Day Eighteen – 4/6
I love straight wintergreen (especially brewed long and strong) so I was happy to see this tisane included! It does have the same sort of “problem” that peppermint tea has where, when you find a solid quality one, it doesn’t really vary from company to company/source to source. So, this was delicious with the perfect sweetness and slight coating flavour, but also not too terribly different from the wintergreen I already own from Camellia Sinensis. Definitely no need to own both.
But, if you’re looking for a straight wintergreen source, I thought this was delightful.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmU0moLO1Ug/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lHLZ4RCkQI
Adventaggedon Day Eighteen – 3/6
We’ve been getting a lot of Chinese/Japanese teas in this advent, so it was a nice surprise to see an Indian black tea this morning. It was an even nicer surprise to see how long, spindly and beautiful the well twisted leaves were – definitely a very nice grade of tea to be coming out of Assam. Not common at all.
It was probably my favourite tea of the day – and there were a lot of good ones today. As I said in a different tasting note yesterday, I’ve been craving black teas a lot lately – so that probably helped. It was deliciously smooth even though it had a lot of body and the taste was so rich. Very golden with a lot of starchy sweet notes: fresh bread with a thick golden crust on it, baked yams, caramelized sugars. Also bits of molasses and dark honey, and a little golden raisin.
I wish I would have made myself a larger amount of this during the day, but I was worried I wouldn’t get all my advents in before five – I had a bit of a mid afternoon pause from advents while Marika and I did some recording. That just means I have lots of the sample left though, so I’ll enjoy this lovely tea again on a later date!
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmU0moLO1Ug/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn_0AfLiyg4
I think this is the third song I’ve shared from this album in the last couple months. It’s a really good and comforting album – would totally recommend if you just need chill Sunday afternoon music vibes.
Adventaggedon Day Eighteen – 2/6
A banana blend! I’m always so curious to see which of Anne’s many banana teas make the final cut for advent each year, and this was exciting because I don’t think I’ve had this blend in years. I’d have to double check, but it may have even been the Frank version the last time I had it.
There was a slight smokiness to the dry leaf aroma that made me raise my eye a bit. I couldn’t figure out it if it was intentional or not. Steeped up it started to make more sense – there’s definitely a very boozy note of rum that’s almost as strong as the banana flavour itself, and that’s saying something because 52Teas’ banana teas are always really banana forward. I wanted to like it so badly but that rum note just read as so harsh and chemical to me. I think I’m going to have to tweak my leaf ratio or steep time to see if I can pull forward more sweetness and less booze. Possibly some sweetener. It’s still drinkable but lacks the same instant magic in a cup that I’m used to getting with 52Teas’ banana blends…
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmU0moLO1Ug/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6ZROIDK-hs
Adventaggedon Day Eighteen – 1/6
I foresee this being a challenging day in the advent line up for some people – rooibos is so polarizing, and I’m sure at least one person was dreading this day the same way I was Sencha. I, however, was like a kid on Christmas morning.
I enjoy the taste of straight rooibos, but I adore this one in particular. It’s so naturally nutty with a lovely honey-like sweetness. I’ve just never tasted another pure rooibos with such distinct hazelnut flavours like this one has.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmU0moLO1Ug/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCQaSnu3Erc
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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Adventaggedon Day Seventeen – 6/6
Not gonna lie, this tea was a bit of a struggle for me today. I have a love/hate relationship with lemongrass on the best of days, and y’all know where I stand on green tea. That’s, like, all this blend is…
I will say, this is some of the freshest tasting lemongrass I’ve encountered in a blend. It’s nice and zesty and the aromatics of the citrus oils are pretty dynamic. Where I’m caught up is that it reminds me soooo much of the citronella candles that my mom and grandmother used to bombard our backyard with in the summer to keep mosquito away. They smell nice at first but that flavour builds and builds in your nostrils until it’s all you can smell. It’s just too much. This is similar, where the taste of lemongrass on my palate is quite intense by the end of the cup.
The green tea is a complimentary base for it, and I think that grassier note with the hint of edamame and chestnut really drives home the freshness factor of the blend and how light and refreshing it would be… if these weren’t flavours I was already predisposed to not enjoying as much.
Todays’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmSPlmfOy2m/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orvR5V27n_o
Adventaggedon Day Seventeen – 5/6
I cannot express enough how excited I was this morning to see a A:TLA fandom blend this morning. I recently rewatched the entire series, and it caused me to rekindle my appreciate for it considerably. I know that Thesaurus has several Avatar inspired blends and I’ve been curious about them for a while – when I was last at the tea house they were out of stock so I didn’t get a chance to check them out.
I decided to brew this up in an antique Japanese cup/bowl that has the image of a little man doing various dances and tasks – it reminds me a little bit of Aang. I also used it as an excuse to rewatch some of my favourite episodes. I probably should have picked some of the episodes that are more directly centered around Kiyoshi but this was more fun.
The tea was okay. It’s fairly ginseng forward, so there’s a pleasantly woody sweetness that coats the palate, and this was complimented by more floral notes of chrystanthemum. It’s maybe a little bit dull?? I think, probably, removing the gynostemna would help a lot. I know that there’s very deliberate things each ingredient is supposed to represent in this blend, but this herb has such a pungent bitterness to it that I think it’s actually dragging down the sweetness and life of some of the other ingredients.
That aside, I just love the direction for this blend. There are so many references to tea in A:TLA thanks to Uncle Iroh – and ginseng tea is actually one of the first mentioned by name as well. I can absolutely see this blend of ingredients fitting into the world of Avatar perfectly. I think it would feel much more out of place if this was something wildly flavoured, so I’m happy with the direction that was taken instead.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmSPlmfOy2m/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8uUnEGCtGU
Adventaggedon Day Seventeen – 4/5
I love 52Teas’ Crisp Cranberry Soda so I was thrilled to see a twist on that profile included today! Cracking the bag open, it also smelled so good. Steeped up I thought it was just a great level of sweetness but also still kind of delicate and refreshing. I think I expected a bit more pomegranate than what I got, and the lemon-y citrus notes that contribute to the Sprite-like soda effect of the blend were stronger than how they usually taste to me in Crisp Cranberry Soda.
Even though the ratio of flavours was flipped from what I’d anticipated, it was a very good tea and I think the next time I drink it I’ll enjoy it even more now that I have set baseline expectations for the flavour. The Crisp Cranberry Soda rules supreme though, sorry to say.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmSPlmfOy2m/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMuEGGokGTs
