Fantasy Island

Thanks to Wifey_Woman for sending my way… This is the first David’s Tea product I’ve tried and I’m very impressed! Tastes as tropical as it smells when brewing. The coconut is a nice touch, making it sweet without needing to add more sweetener. I gulped this right down (once it cooled, so I didn’t choke on burning water!). I’d love to try this iced… guess I’ll have to try more teas from David’s Tea!

I steeped this for 5 minutes and I think it’s too long because it’s got a bitter taste at the end. And it’s kind of not good. It makes it taste like a burnt macaroon, which is even weirder because I made it into iced tea. I’ll try it for far less time next time.

Other than that, I do like the flavor of this. I’d been wanting to try it for awhile so thanks for sending me this in a swap, brandy3392!

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much.

Coconut, raspberry black. Meh. I can imagine.

But wow. The dry smell is POW, a punch, right in the kisser! The tea itself smells just as strong, like this awesome raspberry coconut confection… decadent and .. wow. Took my breath away haha.

Love! Can’t wait to try it iced!

I unearthed this ancient sample from my stash – I have no idea why I didn’t try drinking it before now. I believe this was one of their spring teas and it also looks to have been discontinued but maybe they’ll bring it back.

This isn’t quite as terrible as I was fearing it would be. I actually like the raspberry here in this blend but I don’t think the coconut goes so well with it. Kind of sickly sweet somehow & might be better iced. I guess I haven’t been missing much. :-/

1 tbsp for 375 ml

Slight creaminess. Black tea astringency. Artificial-tasting raspberry flavour. Coconut taste slightly overwhelms the blend.

So I bought this in Aug as one of my birthday gifts and I just got around to opening and trying it! man I wish I had not waited!!!! This one is SOOO good I defiantly can taste the coconut and the scent of raspberry is there oh soo sweet and delicious I finished the cup in bed while Amber my BFF chatted away about her day with her children lol. Just a wonderful Cup to whisk you away!

This one is raspberry and coconut with a darkish black base. It resteeps well, and really makes a great dessert tea. I am not sure it is one I could drink frequently, but it is definitely a treat! Thank you to ladykittykat for an awesome swap!

I am onto my third? sample of David’s Tea. All I have to say is that I am jealous of my Canadian tea drinker friends. I think David’s has great quality from all that I have had a chance to try thus far. And for some of you, you can visit the shop! I am still trying to get to a shop that does not start with ‘T’. I have a feeling, that if I were able to shop for tea in person, I would be drowning in tea, rather than just swimming in it!

I’ve kinda chosen to make this my spring black this year because 1) Pom Power isn’t really better with milk, and I love my morning latte 2) Most of Davids spring collection seems to be geared towards icing. But I really like this one! It goes with the coconut heavy-ness of the collection. SO I am enjoying a cup of it this morning and will probably get a tin soon :)

Holy Hannah banana this smells amazing. It’s making my stomach grumble and want food just smelling it. This is a dangerous tea =\
Dry: Chocolate covered raspberries…with a hint of cream. Mmm so yummy smelling. Nice pieces of coconut and raspberries. Eee! =)
Liquor: Strong black tea. Awh maybe 4 minutes was too much. Slightly bitter, but I can taste the raspberry and coconut. It’s nice, but I still think I messed up the steeping time. Boo =(

Well today I made a quick trip to DavidsTea (even though I told myself I had to study and couldn’t go until I was finished writing exams). They didn’t have a lot of what I was looking for today but they had me smell Fantasy Island, which I could’ve swore I already had in my cupboard. Regardless I picked up a small package of it. Of course I just went to brew some up – low and behold, there is another package in my cupboard!

It’s just steeping away now. Hmm, halfway through this mug I’m not completely sold. It smells so great dry (my other half said the scent reminded him of Dominican) and pretty darn good steeped but…the taste doesn’t match the smell. Every time I take a sip the smell hits my nose first and I feel like I’m on a tropical island, but once it hits my mouth – not so much. It seems a little lacking in flavour. I will have to try some cold before I give this one a rating.

Update: Yesterday I tried Fantasy Island and wasn’t over the moon about it. I’m just boiling the kettle now, and I’ll steep it a little longer (I tried 4 minutes yesterday) to try it as an iced tea. I’ll put an update once it’s nice and cold!

Update: Well I much prefer it as a cold/iced tea. Still more to the smell than the taste but a definite improvement over yesterday’s hot version!

Trying out one of my new teas this morning while I get my butt in gear to go to the Farmer’s Market.

I really like this. Dry, it smells heavenly. All raspberry and coconutty. I decided to try it with just a tiny bit of some rock cane sugar I suckered myself into buying, and no milk even though I always put milk in my black teas. It’s quite yummy. I get way more coconut that raspberry though. Maybe if I did put a smidgen of milk the raspberry would come out. I like whatever the tea base is. At 4 minutes, I don’t get any of the bitterness that I worry about when I drink black tea.

I suspect I would drink this a lot if I didn’t limit my black teas to the morning. Well that, and the fact I have a lot of black teas to get through :)

Edit: I did a second steeping after I got home from the market. (By the way, it’s not supposed to be this chilly when it’s only September 1st. Just saying.) Steeped 5 minutes, little bit of the rock cane sugar, no milk: it tastes just as yummy as the first steeping.

I couldn’t place the scent of the brewed tea earlier. I took more time to think about it this time. It reminds me of the early morning in a tropical country (for me, that would be the Philippines or Vietnam). The scent of the tea is like the woody scent of the trees in that hot, muggy morning mist.

TEAGASM..
Speechless..

sexy,sweet,dark,fruity,sensual and even a little dusky it tastes so expensive like good cashmere or gold flaked vodka.

I remember to only put in a shallow tea spoon and steeped the shortest recommended time..it is perfect!This tea can get really bitter if even the slightest change happens in your preparation routine.

rule of thumb (I’M SOOOO TIRED OF REPEATING THIS)with DT’s Black teas with the exception of Buttered Rum and a Glitter and Gold…ALWAYS put in half the recommended amount and steep for the shortest time recommended.THEN experiment but don’t base the rating on this tea for your first bitter taste GET IN YOUR CUPBOARD AND DO IT RIGHT…and I promise you it will be the fantasy and escape it was meant to be.

Verdict (very biased)

Reminds me of : silk and lace,a perfectly velvety starless night,slow kisses after eating coconut cake and abandoned beaches where we go skinny-dipping.

Perfect for : Sophisticated gatherings,porcelain tea cups,Icing,when you are in lingerie after a tryst, comfy beds with canopies and pretty much in any castle.It is THAT fancy! Ideal for people who are aristocratic and people who like to get spoiled,gold-diggers and women of means..(you know it’s a good tea when you get full of crazy notions)Also perfect for writers looking for inspiration…a muse if you will.

Last thoughts: It is perfect when you make it perfectly and I so do love it but it is a bit of a pain in the ass.You never know when the bitterness will appear and so it’s a bit of a crap shoot..when made right and the stars are aligned this is one of DT’s BEST teas but when it’s not it tastes like expensive mud.I would love to give this a 100 but I can’t justify it since making it is so finnicky that it is more usual for me to pick something else then my 100 grams of it.I’ll go as high as ethically possible.

On smell, I would easily give it a 90, but on taste I can’t. It could be because I don’t really care for black tea or I did something wrong, but I found the overwhelming taste to be bitter. I didn’t really taste the coconut or the raspberry. Will have to try again to give a fair assessment, but after first try, I really do not care for this tea…

Lovely! this is a lovely tea. but for some reason I’m not all over it. Why?!?
It has all the criteria for me to go gaga but I’m just not? Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood. Hmmm.
I love coconut, I looooove it! and sometimes it bothers me in a tea, especially when there are whole pieces. (I am fine with the oil, I think)
It didn’t set anything off for me though, thankfully, which I was worried about.
The black base is light, almost airy, and it mixes really well with the coconut. I didn’t add anything at all and it was very sweet on it’s own.
For my second steep, I added some milk. A little too much I think. My arm was nudged by a coworker passing by and I tipped in more than intended. Oh well. It was very tasty both with and without the “lait”.
You know what… it reminds me of my Coconut Oolong that I heart so very much, only it has less depth. The second steep was also rather weak, I kept that bag in until the cup was gone.
In another way, it reminds me of Love tea #7 (I think that’s what it’s called? I can’t remember now). It’s one of my faves…
So of course, if I had to choose between the two, I’d def go with the love tea. Yes that must be why I’m having trouble identifying! between those two other teas, this one just falls short.
That said, if you like coconuts and hate oolongs, this will be the tea for you :)

I ventured out into the Boxing Week fray with my 2-year-old, to check out the deals and see if my local DAVIDsTEA still had anything left of their 50% off sale. My store was pretty scant, with all the good stuff like the Christmas crackers and ornaments gone, so I picked up a washi paper covered tin, some of those $1 tea samples (now 50 cents!) and 10g of Fantasy Island, just because.

I drink probably 2-4 cups of tea a day, starting with a straight black in the morning and working my way down the caffeine scale as the day wears on (this pregnancy has made me highly sensitive to caffeine, whereas my husband can drink coffee after 9pm and still sleep like a baby, go figure!). Pregnancy brain makes me forget things, though, like if I’ve already brewed a cup of tea or not. On occasion my husband has come home from work to find a half-drank cup on the counter and another on the window seat. I blame baby boy… he’s making me forget more than tea!

I digress. I brewed myself up a cuppa this, then actually sat down and drank most of it! Only to have my little girl descend upon me, decide that Fantasy Island is now her new favourite tea, and DRINK THE REST when I wasn’t looking! Little rascal. She then had the audacity to ask for more! So, I resteeped the leaves and shared that—very flavourful—cup with her too.

Looks like this tea (with the addition of a little milk + sugar) has the toddler stamp of approval, and it doesn’t get much better than that!

This was a fairly enjoyable cuppa tonight.

Today brought sun, rain, hail, snow, and lots of wind. All at random times in like 5-10 minutes spurts. It was pretty blustery when I went to leave my building to meet up with shizukanix for her first time to DAVIDs. I’d tried several times to leave, and finally just toughed it enough to the bus stop without my brolly buckling over from the wind. I’m grateful I pushed on, as it wasn’t so bad downtown (which is only a 5 minute or less bus ride from my neighborhood), and I had really wanted to exchange my Sweet Ginger Heat and Jungle Juju. I’d been smelling Fantasy Island the last few times I’d been in, but I was fairly certain that today was the day to get some. I needed an escape from the blustery cold wind and rain.

It smells really lovely…almost like a mix of Love Tea #7 and Mulberry Magic (or possibly Checkmate). And as I like all of the aforementioned teas, I figured I’d like this one too. I think that to me, I get a little more of the raspberry sweetness in the dry leave, but it fades to the back in the brew, and the coconut dominates. I don’t think this is all that bad, though I do wish there was just a wee bit more of the fruit taste in the mix.

I found the tea to be mild…but in a calm sort of way. I found it kind of like Checkmate in that respect, which is why I listed it with the others, but in parenthesis. It was definitely nice on this horrible March eve.

WOW oh WOW! This is soooooo good! So this is my second Davids Tea and this is so amazing! When you open up the package it smells like a Raspberry Twinkie (the pink one with coconut on it). I brewed it for 5 min. and it was perfect.

The smell was still like a raspberry coconut treat, and I was hoping the taste would be just as good as the smell. Boy was I not disappointed, it was wonderful and it just took me away. I had a spicy lunch and was wanting something sweet and this cured my craving. I am going to have order more of this for sure! This is great if you like dessert teas you will not be disappointed!

Backlogging – I really like this tea. It is very hard to explain though. It’s coconutty and slightly fruity. I am always worried about any raspberry flavors in tea (never works for me), but I go this one because of all of the awesome reviews. It definitely does not disappoint. One thing I have noticed about DavidsTeas (which I like) is that the flavors are more prominent that the tea base. So if you are looking for a tea with some flavors, then DavidsTea flavors are not for you. If you are looking for flavors with some tea, then this is perfect. I’m really digging DavidsTea… can you tell?

I originally bought this tea for my husband, because he takes blended black tea to work. ( He only has access to boiling water) But this tea has really grown on me. I find it funny that this is in their spring collection. It tastes so “heavy” and I don’t associate any flavors with spring in particular.

One thing I noticed is that after about 2 minutes of steeping, it gets a little bitter. I think this actually adds something positive to the drinking experience. Fantasy Island kind of reminds me of eating dark chocolate w/ raspberries. I’m surprised that this doesn’t include chocolate of some sort, because it would totally fit in. However I’m not a big fan of chocolate or candy in my tea, so I’m glad this blend does without it.

Not my favorite blended black tea, but I will probably refill my DAVIDsTEA canister at least once. I’ve enjoyed steeping this twice, my husband still enjoys it on the third one.

This smells amaaazing and it’s pretty good! I love coconut and it’s super tasty with raspberry. It’s a bit snappish, gonna steep it a bit less next time.