Jasmine Black Pearls (Organic)

I brewed a trio of these pearls in my mug at work this morning. I’m not sure of the exact temperature as I used the hot water spout on our water cooler. Initially I received this tea for free as frequent steepers tea from Davids. I’ve been waiting to open it because I have so many other teas to drink. It was definitely worth the wait. I’m not usually someone who enjoys floral flavours in my tea but I found that the jasmine in this was not overwhelming. I steeped it for a second time for about 10 minutes. The second go was a bit milder but it still was as soothing as the first steep. This tea is a bit pricey but as an occasional indulgence I would definitely consider purchasing it again.

Woke up early this morning and though I had a few things to do later in the day I felt awake enough to just make myself a small cup of tea and watch the sun come up in a moment of near perfect calm and quiet. It was very relaxing and, honestly, almost meditative.

I need to make this tea more often too – it’s such a brilliantly beautiful but simple tea and I think there’s almost nothing else like it. The black tea is rich and so malty and cocoa tasting with woody undertones and it really shouldn’t work so well with the fragrant fresh and sweet jasmine but those intense notes meet this beautiful floral quality and somehow manage to stay soft and peaceful despite being so flavourful and nuanced.

So, so beautiful.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CT-P866rJDV/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ymTg1V40A&ab_channel=SufjanStevens

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

These are pretty good. The jasmine flavor is noticeable but not too strong. The black tea base is very smooth, not malty or astringent. I bought the 2 oz sample size from David’s Tea which will last me a long while at the rate I drink non puerh teas, mostly first thing in the morning.

I brewed this once with about 3 tsp leaf or 8 pearls and boiling water in a 16 oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper for 4 minutes.

Mmmmmmm. These pearls are amazing. Really gorgeous flavor.

I used 5 pearls for 16oz.
These pearls are huge and they smell wonderful, malty chocolate with sweet Jasmine.
Unfortunately, the smell does not translate into the taste as much as I was anticipating. There are slight notes of malt and chocolate, the Jasmine is definitely in the background. It isn’t as sweet and floral as I was expecting it to be. I am enjoying this tea, but there is a touch of astringency. Maybe I am just getting more sensitive to astringency that I focus on it too much. Or I need to steep for less time.

Resteep 5 minutes.

I certainly won’t have any trouble finishing my sample, but at that price point, I certainly won’t be getting more.

Black Friday gift to myself…

So, I remember reading about someone stocking up on these during every Davids Tea sale because they thought they were amazing. After trying them I am going to say that jasmine doesn’t go well with malt. I view jasmine as the gentle handshake and malt as a firmer one (coffee being the body builder squeeze). That being said, these things smell great and look wonderful but the taste seems to be a battle in my mouth between a calming drink and a semi brisk black tea.

I’ve drank darker oolong with jasmine and have the same conclusion; while lighter oolong can fair with jasmine. This is also true with the jasmine shou and sheng, as sheng is the only one I’ll drink again with jasmine.

I’ll be trying this two more times and if it doesn’t grow on me I’m sure others will enjoy it as part of a swap :)

I really like jasmine teas and when I saw Davidstea had a black jasmine tea, I purshased it immediately. I tastes really great, the black tea base is good and astringent and mixes well with the flowery taste of jasmine. I like that it comes in the shape of big pearls.

I picked up this tea using my Frequent Steeper rewards. I had wanted to try it for many months, but waited for the rewards points to come though, since it is a more expensive tea. I tried it last night and it was pretty good! I had it as a hot latte and enjoyed the jasmine infusion. It is not a new favourite, but it was a solid tea that I look forward to drinking again. For me, the black base and the jasmine flavour worked well together. As it is quite pricey and I do not LOVE it, I think I would only pick it up again with my frequent steeper rewards. It is a very nice tea to have once in a while, but I would not want to have it every day. But I am sure glad I tried it!

This is not a tea I would typically go for. It’s a straight black tea, which rarely appeals to me, as well as rather pricy. However my boyfriend LOVES green jasmine pearls and given I had several free 50g teas from DAVID’s I figured it might be fun to try something different.

For what it is, I really do like this one. It’s a little astringent, but for now I’ll attribute that to steeping it a little longer than I should have. The strongest notes in this are the jasmine and creamy dark caramel. In the middle of the sip, there’s a fairly strong earthy note, while towards to end there’s a slight smokiness. Occasionally there’s a hint of chocolate to, which mixes well with the caramel. This won’t be something I go for everyday, but it’s very different from anything else I have in my cupboard and I don’t regret my selection.

I prefer jasmine in green teas. This one is not bad, but I think the robustness of the black leaves overpowers too much the nice flowery flavour of jasmine. So nice though to see those little grey balls open up like flowers. DT is definitely overpricing this item so I won’t buy again.