Brazillionaire

Had a group interview for LUSH today – I have been looking forward to it all week. Frick. This job I have now.. well.. it is NOT what I thought it would be. It’s just that I thought it would be different. Also, I was training to use the computer. And I found out on Friday that I won’t be given computer access. Um, what? So that’s interesting! So I went to this LUSH interview and unfortunately got lost in the crowd. Ah group interviews. But man I want to get out of this job!

SO – I speedwalked to DT to get some crack. Happy crack tea! HAD to try this one after smelling it – a nice frothy hot latte. Thank you DT for some happiness haha.

It tastes a lot like toasted walnut/secret weapon. Reminds me a lot of those anyways! But the ingredients in this one are unique – there is a sweetness from the raisins that is so pleasant, but doesn’t necessarily give it a “raisin” taste.

Anyways! Sorry to make Steepster my blog again… don’t I have a blog for that kind of thing? ;)
J’adore my Steepster friends!

While the weather has been getting steadily colder, I haven’t been drinking a whole lot of hot tea. Probably because my apartment is a hotbox: I’m on the top floor, and all the heat from the other apartments seems to drift up here. Even when it’s quite chilly out I barely have to turn on my radiators! And it’s still quite nice and brisk out (perfect for walks around the neighborhood!), so I end up with the fan on at night and the windows open all day. So yeah, I’ve been drinking mainly iced tea!

But thankfully it’s a bit cooler today, and there’s a nice breeze coming in. I was in the mood for something warm and toasty, so I pulled out this which I got in a swap with tattooed_tea! There are a lot of DavidsTea flavors I want to try but I’m too cheap to go buy samples of 10+ different blends, so swaps have really been my friend. Soon I think I’ll have decided on my “must have” blends from them and just place an online order to cash in on the free shipping (plus, you know, lack of sales tax!).

This is definitely a contender for the must have pile! I love nutty teas, and this one imparts a very unique flavor. It’s definitely Brazil Nut, though it’s also reminiscent of hazelnut. It kind of feels like a latte with just a splash of milk, it’s a pretty rich blend. The raisins impart a really nice natural sweetness and while I don’t taste a whole lot of coconut I think it adds some creamy, full qualities. Delicious!

Dry, the scent is sweet and nutty, a little creamy. Why haven’t I tried this sooner?

Totally forgot this one had coconut in it. Great pairing with everything else in here. As this was steeping, the aroma was warm and golden. It reminded me of Banana Nut Bread minus the banana, which works for me.

Taste-wise, the flavour combination is a success. It’s not trail mix-y at all, but you get the warm toastiness of the coconut and Brazil nuts, and a hint of natural sweetness from the golden raisins. The base ties everything together perfectly too.

Most definitely not a “I need five thousand pounds of this, stat” kind of tea, but it hits the spot if you’re looking for a nutty, not overwhelmingly sweet black tea.

While my family came to visit from Canada, they all brought DAVIDsTea goodies (in 20g sizes) for me to sample, after hearing too much of my rantings of missing having a DT store. Interestingly, I got all blacks and herbals. Weird. This one came from my sis in Victoria!

DRY: smells sweet and nutty. Good combo! Annoyingly, my first scoop of tea gave me 70% raisins. I counted 6 squashed raisins. I unstuck them and got a better mix for this steeping.

STEEPED: Amber brown tea, bit of clear residue on the top. Smells very smooth nutty.

TASTE: Nutty, rich brazil nut flavor, rounded out by smooth coconut. Slightly sweet. The black tea hums along with the flavors, no astringency or bitterness.
Sweetened, the raisin and coconut taste pops out more with a nutty aftertaste.

COMMENTS: I can see why back around Father’s Day they marketed this as a gift, unsweetened I can see this tea as “manly” with the rich nutty taste. Sweetened however, it’s a desserty flavor.
I see others comment this tastes like “Toasted Walnut”, I find this tea is a more nutty, rich alternative for “Checkmate”. Either way, all those teas are nutty.

Overall, pretty good. I love the brazil nut flavor – I think there should be more teas out there using brazil nuts. I may buy more of this, but I have other DT blacks I like more.

EDIT, pics with this review at my blog http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/brazillionaire-from-davidstea-tea-review/

I love nutty teas, so I was looking forward to this one. It is yummy, slightly sweet, I certainly get a strong brazil nut flavour with a little bit of coconut. There is a little bit of bitterness, but I still think this is a great tea!
I cut up the brazil nuts into smaller pieces to distribute them better throughout the tea evenly.

Finally getting around to trying this one. I guess it didn’t really interest me, as I’ve had a sample of it for quite a while.

The aroma is primarily kind of sweet and nutty; the flavour is much the same. I was initially just going to say that this is sort of a “dry nut” sort of flavour, but it occurred to me that what I’m tasting reminds me of hazelnut coffee! Which gives me a strong desire to sweeten it and add some milk, but I’m too tired for that sort of effort tonight (and have enough left for one more cup, so can try that another day). Although it’s certainly palatable unsweetened (and there’s only a touch of astringency), the thought of making a hazelnutty tea latte far outweighs my desire to drink this straight (and the nuttiness/astringency makes it a bit more drying in the mouth than I’d really like). Better than I expected!

ETA: So I let this one sit overnight, and in the morning when I drank some to help a tickly throat, it tastes remarkably chocolatey! Or at least, I think it was this one, and couldn’t come up with any other teas I’d brewed up that would have been chocolatey. Interesting. Second infusion (5min, close to boiling), I’m primarily getting a kind of chocolatey flavour as well. Nutty chocolate, a bit akin to… Florence?? From H&S? I can’t recall, whichever one is chocolatey and nutty. Definitely better than expected. Enough to bump the rating some. I assume the chocolatey notes aren’t an artifact of my stuffed up nose, as I could taste better earlier today when I had the cold tea.

This came in the Father’s Day special “The Gentleman’s Collection” which I purchased… for myself. :)

Overall, I’m not crazy about Brazil nuts, but I do enjoy overall nuttiness. It was the combination of the nuts with the raisins and coconut that intrigued me – that, and it was a sample size (small tin included! yay!). The dry mix smelled very toasty and nutty, similar to peanut butter, but saltier. And the nuts in this mix of tea are T-H-I-S BIG! The coconut shavings are quite sizable too.

Initially I used only 3 grams of tea, but the brew was weak for 8 ounces. The color of the tea liquor was also lighter than I thought it would be. It was more of a darker yellowish color, slightly leaning toward brown and a very watery version of what the second cup produced.

On the suggestion of another Steepsterite, I cut up the giant nut pieces so it would be more evenly distributed throughout the dry tea mix.

Trying once more, I used 6 grams of tea (there’s nuts AND raisins in the blend, making it a heavier blend) for the 8 ounces of water. 5 minutes later I added a little Sugar in the Raw. This was so much better than the first cup. The tea liquor this time around is murky and light reddish-brown in color. The top of the liquid glistens with nut and flavor oils. Not the best tea to be drinking out of a clear glass cup, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time.

The taste is very Brazil-nutty. I’d assume the raisins were in the mix to offset the saltiness imparted by the nuts. The coconut just rounds out the nuttiness of the tea.

Glad I got this as I have a tin to show for it, but probably not something I’d put on my shopping list.

Hmmm, this is tasty.

I got a sample of this one from Courtney today, who so graciously picked up some teas from DavidsTea that were on my list to try. I got them in the mail today, and I was seriously looking forward to this all afternoon at work.

WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED.

This is so nutty and delicious and just a bit sweet from the raisins. I might have to pick up some more of this one, but black teas aren’t really at the top of my list.

I am officially perplexed. The only nuts I enjoy eating are cashews, with the occasional peanut. So why did I fall in love with this tea? The nut flavours round out with the tea deliciously, and I am really happy that this was my morning tea choice today. Yum!

I received a swap today from akgrowngirl, and this is the first tea that I’m trying. I’ve wanted to try this for awhile now, and it smells deliciously nutty. The flavor is sweet and nutty with a coconut aftertaste that lingers. It’s a nice balance – not too nutty but with a hint of sweetness, from the coconut and raisins, I’m guessing. There’s a warm toastiness to it that makes you want to take another sip. Glad this one lived up to my expectations! Thank you akgrowngirl!

-Dry blend has large black tea leaves with large pieces of coconut and raisins.
-Dry leaves smell heavily of nuts and coconut. Tea liquor aroma is toasty and nutty.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium orange brown color with an oily sheen on top.
-Sweet nutty flavor and finish. Light toasty coconut aftertaste that lingers.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A toasty and nutty cup with a hint of sweetness.

I’m learning that I’m enjoying tea with nuts, which is unusual since I despise nuts. Curious.

This one is very smooth. It goes down easy. Though I wish I could get a little more sweetness from the raisins. I’ll have to double check that I get more in there next time. Overall, pretty good though I don’t think I’ll keep it regularly. Every once in a while I could see enjoying it. Granted that’s what I said about Mulberry Magic with macadamia nuts, yet lo and behold I bought 50g today.

Sip down day #2/tea #1

The dry notes smell nutty and slightly sweet. Once steeped it smells just like Brazil nuts, I feel like I should be reaching over and popping one of Tue deli opus, crunchy nuts into my mouth.
The tea tastes mainly like a black tea. The Brazil nut flavour lingers at the end of The the sip.
Unfortunately this tea is nothing to write home about. I’ll finish the cup because I need Tue caffeine this morning. I finally fell asleep around 5am and was up at 7:15am to get my girls ready for school. And now I have to work till 8 tonight. Tea is the only thing that will keep me sane.

Saturday Sipdown!

This is another one I got in an old swap, which I think might contribute to its taste (it’s been sitting in with a bunch of other swap baggies).

I can’t pick out a ton of individual flavors, but overall it’s a decent cup. A bit overly sweet, leaving a strong after taste. Can’t taste too much TEA flavors.

Decent. No rating because I probably didn’t take as good of care of the sample as I could have, which could have contributed to the taste.

Very, very, very much like Toasted Walnut, only without the risk of over-brewing the green tea in Toasted Walnut. The nuts are super big too. It smells oh so nutty, and I love that(!).

Brewed, it is still nutty, but not as sweet smelling, though that could be due to my ratio of tea to nuts and raisins.

I did like this, and I might get more since I only got 10g (which with this tea, isn’t very much because of the weight of the huge brazil nut chunks.

Dry Leaf Nose: Roasted Brazil nuts and raisins with a black tea and coconut background.

Liquor: Rich brown clear liquor, aroma of roasted nuts without the saltiness – Brazil nuts paramount.

Flavour: Very rich in flavour with the Brazil nut and black tea flavours being supported by the golden raisins which sweeten the whole. The coconut is apparent but takes a subtle role supporting the nut flavour.

This one’s interesting. I kept getting a nagging voice in my head telling me I was drinking Secret Weapon, based on the scent. It’s indeed similarly nutty, obviously, but quite sweet. I like it. I’m not sure how I feel about the massive Brazil nuts, though I acknowledge that’s kind of the tea’s whole gimmick. But, how much flavour do whole nuts actually impart? All I know is nuts are heavy! Anyway. Aside from that, and the slight bitterness that came out even at 3 minutes at 200 degrees, I enjoyed it.

Tried a cup of this in NYC Bleeker Street location. It smelled liked hazelnut liquor (Frangelica). It was mixed with agave and it was a nice tea to try.

8/13/12 – Funny that I bought a 1 oz but haven’t used it in two months. It sits on the shelf and once and awhile I just open it up and sniff.

8/14/12 – Brought 1oz to work, brewing it now, tasted good! Added 1 sugar packet.

9/6/12 – I used up the package! That’s it. This was my first David’s Tea I bought at the Bleeker Street location. I have picked out the nuts that are in the tea after steeping and ate them. Yum.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this one when I read the description, but it was definitely worth ordering. I don’t know what it reminds me of, but the taste is familiar (in a good way).

I typically like nutty teas (was quite the fan of Forever Nuts at a point), but I find this to be a bit too much for me. To be fair, I am the person who picks around the Brazil nuts in the nut mix and goes straight for the cashews, so it’s no surprise I’m not a big fan of this tea. I find the Brazil nut flavour is too strong, and after having it a few times, that it tasty almost…musty.
Overall, not the worst experience, but not a tea I’d drink again.

ahh, delicious!
Davids really does know how to do a warm, toasty, nutty tea!
i agree with some of the other posts; similar to toasted walnut and secret weapon, but when you’re doing it right, i say keep doing it! the coconut comes out as a nice finish at the end as well. and i don’t really taste the raisins, but that’s not a bad thing ;)
i bought ‘The Gentleman’s Collection’ for my dad for his birthday, and he really liked toasted walnut, which was in the “Tea Aficionado” collection, so i think he will be pleased!
hoorah!
oh, the only downside, i made sure to have a nice 1 1/2 tsp. of tea AND one big whole brazil nut, but then that only left enough for one more cup from my 10g sample. yes, i know, i wasn’t expecting to get a ton out of it, but those nuts are pretty heavy and bulky! it is on the low end of their price range though, so i guess that makes up for it :)