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Adventaggedon Day Twelve – 1/5

Y’know, it’s honestly been a while since I last had DT’s straight Earl Grey. I’m not really a fan of bergamot, and if it comes down to it I’m always going to pick Cream of Earl Grey over straight Earl Grey. It’s a classic for a reason, though!

Revisiting was interesting. I found the tea less overtly floral than the memory I’ve had in my head, and though the bergamot was strong for my tastes it was also pretty smooth with a robust black base. I wish I would have had something like a bit of vanilla agave at the office today; I think that would have really softened it up for me in a more tolerable way. Though, now writing that thought down, I do feel like that’s basically just me saying that I wanted to make it more like Cream of Earl Grey. So…

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmFXjHXOWrV/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0tuBdZ2b-g

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 Eleven – 5/5

I feel like maybe I like the idea of this tea more than the tea itself, but it’s also not an unpleasant tea. It’s inspired by the Mario games – specifically the character of Princess Peach. This is not the first tea I’ve come across inspired by this character, and of course all of them have the obvious common denominator of being peach flavoured.

Aside from the peach, this is also apparently lychee flavoured!? I have to say that I both smell and taste the peach, but not so much the lychee. Speaking of smell, there’s something about the dry leaf and steeped tea aroma of this blend that doesn’t agree with my stomach and I cannot place why. Thankfully, it doesn’t translate into the taste which is more of a bright and juicy peach candy flavour with a bit of a floral undertone. I suppose the lychee could be adding to both the overall juiciness and the floral characters. There’s also something, as the tea cools, that’s a bit like bubblegum. Honestly, I’m not mad at it – peach bubblegum almost feels more spot on as inspiration than peach and lychee. I’m not crazy about the split black and white tea base. It’s not bad but it’s slightly muddied, and I think this blend would be stronger if it was only black tea or white tea. Probably white.

Overall, I feel like I would need to try this again before really making my mind up. There’s promise, but I need a better feel for consistency of flavour and how things like icing or cold brewing it would affect the taste.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCyvUVuvAB/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49z3i-eNC9o

Adventaggedon Day Eleven – 4/5

Made this one as a little tea for one pot this afternoon. The only tea for one pots I own both have holiday designs, so I try to use them more frequently during advent season.

I really didn’t think I was going to like this blend, but it won me over really quickly. The dry leaf is very beautiful with large “slab looking” ginger shavings, ringlets of lemongrass, and gorgeous thyme flowers standing out among the mix of different herbs. It’s super strong smelling with the kind of ginger that immediately floods your nose and makes you want to sneeze.

I think it’s the complexity that ultimately caught my attention. Though ginger is the first flavour and is so fresh and punchy, a simple lemon ginger tea this is not. I get a lot of complexity as the ginger, zesty lemongrass, cooling mint, herbaceous and savory thyme, sweet fennel, and camphorous and naturally lemon-y cardamom all feel like they dance across my palate with each sip. I taste all of the ingredients. Everything feels like it has real intent in its usage. On top of being super flavourful there’s also a really pleasant light tingly mouthfeel and, combined with the fact the ginger so instantly cleared my sinuses, it’s quite distinct.

Lemon Ginger blends are usually more of a “sick tea” for me but I could see myself just drinking this blend year round. It was possibly the most surprised I’ve been by any EDC tisane thus far…

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCyvUVuvAB/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sqZlpGK1fM

Adventaggedon Day Eleven – 3/5

This is another tea that, when I saw it this morning, I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I wanted to set it up for success though, so I had it when a little bit of a breakfast composed of small nibbley things – orange slices, cheese cubes, and dried cranberries. The cheese was maybe a little weird with the orange, but the rest worked really well.

I think in my head I was anticipating something more intense, like DT’s Orange Spice or Bigelow’s Constant Comment. This is still similar – it is an orange spice blend after all – but it’s more of a light body and flavour with some more complexity to the spice balance than just an assault of cinnamon and clove. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s not clove in this at all – ginger instead, with hints of cardamom. It’s still not entirely my vibe but it was much better than expected.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCyvUVuvAB/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNgAZj9hQiQ

Adventaggedon Day Eleven – 2/5

This is my third day getting another straight green tea. I just didn’t have it in my heart today to make it as anything more than just a teacup with some leaves sprinkled straight into the cup. It’s not that it’s a bad tea, and I’m certain that I’ll want to revisit it sometime in the future since Indian green teas are something I’m a little less exposed to. However, today was not the day for that.

It wasn’t unpleasant; very bean-y in flavour with just a bit of an earthiness to it. Kind of had some sweet petrichor/rain water notes which I would normally be all over. I think when I retaste this I’ll enjoy it; but I wasn’t in the headspace for it today.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCyvUVuvAB/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9OHYJWDeNc

Adventaggedon Day Eleven – 1/5

I was excited to see this tea today. Even though there are other fruity herbal blends from DT I prefer more than this one, most of the teas in my advents today seemed like things i wouldn’t enjoy very much – so this was the most promising.

It was super juicy, vibrant and bright – in more ways that one, what with the lovely pink-y purple colour it brews up. The top notes were tangy and sweet like fresh squeezed orange juice but with more of a tropical vibe to the rest of the sip. I always forget it has a thicker than expected mouthfeel (because of the purple potato) as well, and today I found that almost coating starchy quality really made the fruit elements seem more rich and flavourful.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCyvUVuvAB/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4CJfV7dho4

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 Ten – 5/5

This tea is apparently supposed to be inspired by one of the characters from She-Ra and The Princesses of Power but I couldn’t actually figure out who it’s supposed to be a reference it. None of the “evil” princesses are really magic users, and also all of them seem to be covered by other blends in this collection. So, I spent a lot of this mug trying to work on who this was supposed to be for – and I just didn’t get there.

That said, I thought the blend was okay. It’s supposed to be a spiced rum flavour, and I think that’s a stretch – though it DEFINITELY tastes spiced. Well, really one spice. Star anise. This blend is pretty much defined by that sweet, coating black licorice flavour. I love star anise so it was hard to not like this tea even though it seems to be failing at doing what it wants to be. Aside from that sweet and pungent flavour, the rest of this tea seems confused. It’s a little bit fruity in a very loose citrus way, and also perhaps a touch bit rootbeer-y from the sarsparilla but those flavours are more of a muddled backdrop that don’t seem to properly connect to anything else happening in my mouth.

It’s definitely not the weirdest tea we’ve tried from Thesaurus – but it’s not the strongest either, and I think I finished the cup with more questions than answers.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmAN8XEuu6t/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9oX8lPNP0M

Adventaggedon Day Ten – 4/5

Gongfu!

Oh, wouldn’t you know – another tea that I already own! Maybe the problem here is me, and I just own too many teas. Maybe. …nah, that couldn’t possibly be it. Jokes aside, though, I love this unsmoked black tea, and I just knew it was going to be an awesome session.

Initial steeps had such beautifully sweet and syrupy top notes of jammy red fruits, fresh berries, and red wine – but with really grounding and slightly more umami and spiced notes of caraway bread in the undertones and finish to pull the tea back from even daring to come close to cloying. Later steeps almost seemed to reverse, with more savory elements softened up by the same fruitier elements and notes of honey. Really hard to go wrong here!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmAN8XEuu6t/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOx7jVwV-2E

Adventaggedon Day Ten – 3/5

Oh look, another advent tea that I already own!

I didn’t mind that though, to be honest. In general I like pear teas and on top of that I do have a soft spot for Adagio’s “mono flavoured” white blends – there aren’t very few I dislike. This was a predictable mug in the best way, with a lovely pear note. Sweet and just a little bit juicy – but not as much as the typical Bartlett. Bosc was actually the varietal that first came to mind, but in reflection I’m not totally sure that’s quite right either. It was like there was a champagne-esque sweet top note but the body was a little more soothing and comforting…

Regardless, I enjoyed it. I think it was my favourite of the day.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmAN8XEuu6t/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VZnLlOnrgE

Adventaggedon Day Ten – 2/5

I seem to be hitting a bit of a patch of teas that I already own – not just in this advent, but in general. In some way it’s kind of nice because the predictability of knowing what I’m brewing allows me to really tailor my steeping and I don’t feel like I need to dedicate as much mental capacity to each cup.

Marika said something in that vein on the Carnage episode of Geek Steep. Basically, even though we’re always excited to try new teas, each of them is usually double or triple as mentally taxing because our R&D/tea nerd brains can’t help but dissect every angle of the tea. From ingredient balance, the intentions of the blender, how it compares and contrast to other blends of a similar style, etc… And on top of all of that, we’re trying to commit the flavour to memory as well, to add to that flavour library that will be used with each new tea after this one…

All that to say that I was actually a little relieved to see this tea today, even though it’s not my favourite blend from EDC. I knew what I was going to get from the mug. Well, at least I thought I did. My cup actually surprised me greatly because it had such a strong note of allspice – stronger than anything else I’ve ever gotten when brewing this blend. Sure, there were heady floral top notes and some ginger as well. Just… a lot of allspice.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmAN8XEuu6t/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8L_yK3r44

There was some unintentional irony between this song name and my experience with today’s cup…