Bubbly

I can see why they’d equate this tea with champagne: it’s brisk, and fruity with a carbonated mouthfeel. Peach is what I think when I sip, not grape.

Maybe if I were drinking this for New Years I’d get more out of it, but as it stands I can take it or leave it.

Yowza – low rating alert! :O I feel bad when I see a number that low, but I’m trying to base it on the smiley’s and I’m halfway between happy and ambivalent.

Courtney sent me a sample of this one, and even though I absolutely hate champagne, I really wanted to try it because sweet and fruity pineapple sounds delightful.

It is way too similar to champagne for me.

I do see from several other reviews that this one gets bitter if it is steeped for longer than 1-2 minutes, so I will try that next time to see if it’s any better, because I have enough for a couple more cups.

Backlog…

Happy New Years! I hope everyone on Steepster rang in the new year in a memorable way! This was my official first tea of the year – and it seemed liked the perfect tea to start the year off with!

I received my sample of it from Janelle’s tea sale, and for my preparation I used the entire sample steeped up in about 2 oz. of water at 85 degrees celsius for four minute. Basically, I made one very concentrated cup! I then diluted it with a can of club soda so that I was drinking some actually bubbly ‘Bubbly’!

The smell was rather interesting; mostly pineapple with some champagne to it. A little bit of unpleasant green tea smell. Taste wise, it was almost entirely green tea with a bit of pineapple taste. Hardly any taste of champagne. It’s pretty gross, honestly. Too vegetal and kind of seaweed-like. It didn’t sit too well either, and I don’t think the carbonation did anything to help my sore throat.

Anyway, even though I didn’t enjoy this tea I’m still happy it was my first one for the year because it was just so appropriately festive! Thank you Janelle!

This tea smells great! White grapes, champagne, and floral notes in the dry tea had me very excited to try it. Unfortunately that’s where the love for this tea ends for me. I only got through a few sips, I found it bitter and too floral like for my tastes. I love champagne but I didn’t get that from this tea at all. The first time I followed the steeping instructions exactly, and I tried a few variations but Its still not to my liking.

I don’t think its a “bad tea” it just wasn’t for me.

I’ve always thought that New Years would be better celebrated with a cup of hot cocoa than with champagne. I’ve said before that alcohol just isn’t my thing. I’ll cart around a bottle of beer at a goth club for looks mostly and if I can force the first half down before donating it to my husband then just about anything after will taste alright, but it’s been quite a few years since I’ve had that kind of fun anyway and no other occasion can convince me that a drink is worth choking down. Anyhow, I wasn’t looking forward to this tea for obvious reasons, but I decided no time better than the present.

smells like champagne alright. Pineapple, no thanks. Some kind of blossoms. . .really now? this tea is testing my dislikes for sure. Believe it or not, it was quite palatable. Nothing I’d ever buy again, but not as scary as I dreamed it up to be. I thought it sort of tasted like peaches; even my husband agreed (he likes it a bit more than I).

Thanks again Shmiracles for helping me to expand my tea horizons. :)

This is interesting…Vaguely sweet, vaguely fruity, maybe champagney? I like it but it isn’t going on my shopping list or anything. Glad I got to try it though! Thanks Jessiwrites! :)

Day 32 of my 101 days of tea challenge and, saying as I am not very interested in the taste of alcohol or the mouth-feel of carbonation, what I rang in the new year with.

Unfortunately, I made my first cup far too strong — I wasn’t using my usual set of tools, and I think I may have put far too much tea in, so I’ve given it a second chance this afternoon/evening.

2.5(ish) teaspoons in a teaball for my two-cupper. Steeped 3:15 the first time, around 10 the second time. Let the kettle sit for a while the first time, and put an ice cube in the second, so I have no clue over the exact temperature either time, but it was cool enough not to burn the leaves at least.

When NOT made to be far too strong, the tea isn’t bad at all. It has a very dry taste to it, and the candied pineapple leaves a sweet, fruity aftertaste. There is also a slight sourness from it — not the bitterness of oversteeped tea, but just a slight sour tang. Seems to be better hot than not (I left the tea cool for a while and drank some lukewarm, and found that I preferred it hot). The resteep is nice as well — the flavour is still quite strong if you let it steep for longer (and not bitter at that!). I tried adding sugar the second time, but found this to be unnecessary — it didn’t seem to add much to the taste.

This tea’s scent — quite fruity — is also lovely. I think I might even prefer smelling it to drinking it!

I certainly hope that this is around next year. As someone unlikely to accept a glass of champaigne to ring in the new year, this could be a very fun substitute!

I don’t drink alcohol because I don’t react well with it.

I was surprised with the taste of Bubbly…I didn’t expect DAVIDsTEA to get close enough to a champagne (others will probably disagree). I got that dryish smell like most wines do. I steeped the cup and I found that the taste is exactly like it smells! I got the dry sort of taste with some fruitiness to it. I really enjoyed this one, too bad it’s not a wall tin!

Note, I only used one tsp, it’s a strong tea.

It’s been a year since I first tried this tea and I hadn’t really planned on giving it another chance, but it was free, so I can’t complain.

It’s kind of ridiculous to try and Christmas shop on the second Saturday before the big day, but I needed to pick up a couple of the “mug tails” mugs as Christmas gifts. It’s a good thing I did it today too since the ones I picked up were the last of their “species” in stock, a fox and a bear. I had to wait in line for a bit while they fetched the boxes (the only ones left were the display ones) but my reward was a piping hot cuppa Bubbly.

Now, I’ve never tasted Champagne and due to stomach issues and/or pregnancy I haven’t had any type of wine—sparkling or otherwise—in ages, so my perceptions of how alcohol should taste are wildly off. This, though, I would gladly drink as a safe alternative.

On the day I picked up “Ceylon Star” I found the most delightful bottle of “Bubbly” on the shelf. Its design sold me and I splurged on it for the collectability factor. BUT most for the fact that this tea was my favorite in the wine collection. The grape and pineapple notes along with the sparkly nuances does make it feel like drinking a tall flute of champagne.

It reminds me much of the past Christmas when I first got this tea as a gift. The charm remains all the more pronounced. Some may say a little bit more so due to the packaging design this year. But gosh it is a good fit for all the holiday parties if you want to drink something special and want to share the drink with everyone without any guilt. Cheers!

Update March 3, 2013: Totally in debt to this wonderful tea for helping in my recovery from Bronchitis. The Mullein blossoms were a total life saver. For anyone who has a bad cough this tea soothes coughs really well. Thank you David’s for the rescue with this lovely tea.