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Yummy limey goodness.

I feel guilty – I’ve given away more of this than I’ve gotten to drink. I’m down to enough leaf for one big cup, so the next time I make this, it will be a sipdown. It’s still a favorite and it’s still sweet, delicious lime — I’m not getting much cream from this particular cup. And … as much as it shocks me to say this … I’m actually okay with this being an impending sipdown. I love this tea, but have a bad habit of hoarding it instead of enjoying it. So, I’m doing an experiment. I’ll enjoy what I have left, open so new tea and (hopefully) enjoy that, and when I next place a Davids order I’ll pick up some more. My hypothesis is that I’ll get more out of enjoying this tea and going without it for a while than I will hoarding it and never having any myself.

I think I’m going to be proven right. Wouldn’t that be delightful?

So tea drinking hasn’t really been happening for me lately. I all but stopped last week and have been pushing myself this week to drink more tea because I miss the nightly ritual.

Anyway. This was last night’s tea. I was undecided on what to have and only had enough of this one left for one cup, so why not take the easy sipdown? The first steep went about ten minutes and I finally got banana! Delicious, sweet, realistic banana that got a little bit of a sour edge toward the end of the sip. Fantastic, though – I didn’t think I’d get anything close to that solid of a flavor out of this one! My second steep was very nutty and sweet and sadly lacking in banana.

I enjoyed this one, but I don’t think it’s something I’ll be sad to go without. Nice to try one of DavidsTea’s better loved blends that I missed out on the first time.

I had some of this in-store yesterday (and again when I got home). It’s so thick and fruity! I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to the different flavors while drinking it, but I really like this one. Too bad it’s completely over-priced; if it were cheaper, I get the feeling it’d be one of those teas that I need to have in my stash. My only other complaint is that it resteeps a little weak – not as much fruity goodness.

Backlog from a few days ago.

I’ve tried this twice now — the first time using a filter bag and the steeping instructions given on the pouch, the second time using an infuser and steeping for ten minutes. This definitely needs a long steep time for it to taste like something other than lightly flavored water. Overleafed (3tsp/16oz instead of 2.5tsp/16oz) and oversteeped (10 minutes instead of 4), this tastes nutty and sweet. I didn’t get a lot of banana flavor, despite the hunk of banana in my infuser, but it was pretty good regardless. My only complaint is that the fruit pieces turn to mush in the infuser and it’s a little gross to clean out.

Happy I tried this one.

I made some of this last night because I had a raging, no-caffeine-in-hours headache. This tea is usually a miracle worker for these otherwise incurable headaches. Not so last night. It was also strangely harsh, even after the addition of creamer, which usually turns this one into decadent cheesecake, especially if I make it at home.

Oddly enough, once it had gone cold, it was back to it’s usual creamy self.

Backlog from this weekend.

This one smells fruity and tropical in the tin – it’s not overpowering, but it’s definitely there. I steeped this one and, unfortunately, got so sidetracked that I didn’t end up drinking it after it had cooled down to room temperature. This one is bland at room temperature, I got absolutely no fruit flavor. Actually, I didn’t get much of any flavor.

After I bought this, I thought I’d be disappointed because there’d be too much papaya flavor, and I’m not a huge fan of papaya. I didn’t expect this to have no flavor at all.

Reserving my rating until I can have another cup of this, preferably while it’s still hot.

Not bad!

I’ve had a sample of this for a while now and never felt brave enough to try it. I found it while going through my tea cupboard and decided to try it out. This smells like floral and honey and tastes similar but with heavy marshmallow notes (or something like that … this tea tastes very fluffy to me). Not sure if it’s something I’d want in any appreciable quantity, but it’s good and I definitely regret not trying it sooner.

Sipdown!

I used up the last of this tonight and my infuser was overflowing with pieces of popcorn. I guess these sunk to the bottom of the container? As a result. I got a cup that smelled and tasted like delicious, lightly sweet popcorn. SOOOO GOOD! But now I want actual popcorn…

I had this last night thinking it would be a sipdown, but I still have enough leaf (fruit bits?) left for another 16oz cup. Boo. If I had to have an unexpected cup of leaf remaining, I would have preferred it to be of Snickerdoodle.

Anyway. I had this hot and reduced the steep time hoping it would be less tart (similar to Yes We Cran), and it worked out for the first steep. Much more apple and no noticeable tart. The second steep wasn’t so lucky, however, and was all tart apple.

Overall, I feel pretty neutral about this tea. It’s decent and lives up to the apple flavor. It just doesn’t capture apple cider all that well.

I’m looking forward to the sipdown. As an added bonus, my fiance has said that if I sipdown two more teas, I’m free to place a DavidsTea order. Hooray, back-from-the-dead blends! And a continuation of my recent tea buying spree (thus the reason for the sipdown stipulation). This and Movie Night will be my super easy sipdowns because he didn’t specify that the sipdowns had to be on unopened or recently opened tea. Hooray loopholes and hooray for more tea!

Sad sipdown.

Made the last of this in travel mugs this morning. I wanted to have a least one more cup of this without Sweet Apple Cider mixed in to see if I like it enough to purchase more.

The first few sips were very spicy and thick, reminding me a lot of ginger snap cookies. Yum! As I continued drinking, however, this got very appley (reminding me a lot of Sweet Apple Cider without the tart) and thin. I can’t tell if it was the cooler temperature of the tea or me not washing the tops of my Contigos well enough. In either case, I think I’ll be all right not getting more of this one. It was tasty, but I don’t have to have it.