Bear Trap

I want to like this one (and in fairness it’s not terrible — the aftertaste is really lovely with strong strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry notes) but I cannot get over the tartness of this. It’s not even that I’m a huge hater of tart teas, but there’s something about the acidity of this that just reminds me of vomit and (unsurprisingly) that’s kind of off-putting. It also kind of reminds me of haskap berries, which in turn reminds me of tomato, which I hate. All around, not a winner, but I will give credit to the aftertaste.

Day 12 of the 2016 advent calendar! Already halfway and a bit of a trip down memory lane with this one, since it was my first ever tea I tried from David’s! My boyfriend took me out to the local David’s in uptown Waterloo and at that time I wasn’t particularly interested in tea, but he bought a bag of this and I tried some one morning when he was out writing a final. ANYWAYS, this tea smells super fruity and I’m very excited to try it.

For some reason there was… grease in my sampler tin, weird. Regardless, when its steeped it turns this pretty magenta-ish color and smells a bit like a berry punch. In fact, it also tastes a lot like a berry punch. It’s pretty excellent over ice, too.

Overall, I think that this tea is good hot or iced, but I prefer it cold with a bit of sweetener added. I’m surprised that I just skipped over this one for so long, I’ll have to get some with my next order!

I got a free 50 g bag of this tea several months ago when I redeemed my frequent steeper points. I first tried it hot and thought it was okay. No matter how long or short of a time I steep it, I get a distinctly strong and tart berry flavour. Then, I tried it iced. The tart flavour is much stronger when this tea is iced. I don’t crave it or love it. DavidsTea has much better iced teas that I like a lot more so I will not be repurchasing this but did easily use it up.

Bought this to cold brew as an iced tea. Drinking it hot today. It is fairly tasty with a mix of fruit flavors. I’m not really sure what I’m tasting and it comes off a bit artificial. I think it will be much better as an iced tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 minutes.

This tea reminds me a lot of Yogi Berry from DT but without the terrible aftertaste.

Though this is a herbal instead of an oolong it smells nearly Identical and has a lot of the same flavors that go along with the Yogi Berry. I couldn’t stand the Yogi, but this Bear Trap is actually quite nice. I expect it will be very good once it gets cold and I need something to sweeten up my day after a long icy walk home.

Cold Brew Sipdown (250)

L is not for…Bear Trap

I have been having two cold brews daily and for the most part I have tried to keep it to the applicable letter for that day. With that said, I also prefer my cold brews to be caffeine free teas and since I already had two of Lemon Mango Sherbet, I went off letter. Bear Trap has been my off letter cold brew as late and now I have finished off the package.

In general, its just a solid berry tea option. Not too tart. Not too sweet. A nice balance with a juicy berry flavor. Today there was a lot of blackberry leaf settled on the bottom of the package so it’s sweeter than I usually like. Nevertheless, its nice and I might grab more of this in the future but until then I will work through some other teas as cold brews.

I was not a fan of this tea hot but it’s not too shabby iced.

This is the first tea I ever tried from DavidsTea.
It has a very strong berry taste, great with a dash of sugar.

This smells like fruity bubble gum, I was lured in and trapped by the scent. I over steeped it the first brew into an almost straight hibiscus tea. 4-5mins worked better than the bajillion I did the first time. Berry flavour hits the front of the tongue first, then a tartness hits the centre, finally the bubble gum flavour hits the back of the tongue. The flavour is reminiscent of Juicy Fruit (as far as I can recall, it’s been a good 15 years since I actually chewed it).If you swish or hold the tea in your mouth it actually starts to taste like over-chewed gum, weird.

On the 7th day of sipdowns…

I had enough for two cups of this today but it was mostly just the little non-berry bits so it was a bit weak on the fruity flavor but eh. This time it still tastes like berries, blackberries, lingonberries or cranberries possibly, and a faint flavor of…currants? I like it but it’s been sitting in my collection for a bit too long and it was time for it to finally go!