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Dry and steeping, this tea smells like juicy lychee fruit! The first few sips were disappointingly flat and tasteless, but things changed a few sips in. I start getting that lychee taste. After taking a bite of some food, the taste of my tea goes flat again. What is with my taste buds?! Can I blame it on stress? I’m taking a tea break in the middle of a decision that will shake up and complicate my weekday routine and working out the logistics is not fun. I’d rather be visiting the Hawaii Lupicia location where this tea can be bought! Sipping a little more and a floral dry rose flavor comes out. This tea is interesting and not bad, but not something I see myself craving either. I should try this cold steeped before I’m out if I haven’t tried it that way before.

And later in the cup… added sugar and it did not improve the fruit flavor at all. Added some cream which made it more interesting.

It feels like I’ll never get through my stash of this! I’ve had it for years and go through periods of ignoring and rediscovering. The flavors seem a little lighter at this point, not quite as rich as I recall even tho I over leafed in an effort to work through the tin. I’m under the impression that it is light on caffeine as well, which is why I sometimes ignore it. It looks like it is a mix of black tea, mate and rooibos, but the rooibos doesn’t overpower.
Someone pointed out to me that the flavors were similar to Tevana’s Tiramisu Treviso, a rooibos blend that I loved, which is likely why I have kept it around for so long. It still has a deep feel of chocolate with a touch of coffee in it, a nuttiness too. It’s very nice with a bit of cream. It was never one of my top favorites from Tevana, but it has been consistently good with flavors that don’t seem like an over the top cluster like many of their other blends. I’ve enjoyed it a lot over the years, but am ready to move past it.

Woooooo sipdown! This stuff is old and it’s age is showing. It has lost some of it’s zing and is a little flat now. It still has a bit of almond, but it’s like almond soaked cardboard. I’m actually going to dump this cup. It was a nice cup when it was new and fresh.

This tea has held up surprisingly well over the years. I have a few cups worth left. As nice as it has been, I’m excited to move beyond it while I enjoy these last cups. It’s very smooth and mellow at this point. It lacks a pepper spiciness that I like and find warming in chais and has more of a baked goods flavor. I’m picking out the ginger above all right now and getting hints of pumpkin spice, which always makes me want pie. Every year around Thanksgiving I tell myself I’m going to do a pumpkin pie cleanse, where I eat nothing but pumpkin pie and every year I fail to stick to my cleanse. To be fair, I do get a few pies in before I abandon my mission. I’ll have to better prepare for next year! Until then, I can dream of pie while sipping this tea!

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but I went a little overboard on the hoarding train when I realized this tea was no longer stocked. I still have one, maybe two sealed bags of it! I forget about it for a time and then come back to it again. I still really like this tea. Part may be nostalgia since the original version was part of my introduction to loose leaf, but part is that I really love almond. I added a little cream to my cup this morning, a little out of habit, but I think I could drink this cup straight. I get a strong baked almond taste with a gentle spice at the end of the sip, well rounded and smooth. I’m surprised at how well this has held up given it’s age! It looses a little of it’s magic as it cools, but is still enjoyable. I feel like the longer I have this, the more impressed I am with it!

I’m nearing the bottom of this tin and I have been enjoying the hell out of this tea! The cup smells like spiced cider, but the taste is much different. Really well balanced with a good hearty base, the spices take turns merging and peeking from the others with the anise dominating just slightly, cardamon in the aftertaste. It’s very warming. I like that it has a sweetness of it’s own. Usually chai involves honey and milk, but this one is really good just straight. This and Zhi’s Masala Chai are probably my two favorite chais and might be different enough to justify having both as permanent teas in my cupboard.

This tea is quite subtle and a little elusive. Being a fan of black tea, this is a little on the light side for me. I do get the creamy eggnog in the sip and a little nutmeg on the end. The aftertaste is nice. My cup has cooled and it is tasting flatter than when it was hot. I’m not crazy about it at the moment, but I’d love to try it cold steeped. Adding creamer brightens it up a bit for me and really cranks up the creaminess. I’ll have to play around with this tea a bit more and see what it can do.

I have had this tea for years after it went on sale. I’m pleasantly surprised to say it has held up well with age! The flavors are still bright and crisp. I can imagine that they have faded just slightly if I think really hard about it, but it seems insignificant. It’s cold and rainy out today and this tea makes me long for warmer weather with iced tea. Someday…

Mixed feelings on this travel mug so far. I haven’t had it for long, so my feelings may change come summertime when I’m drinking more iced teas. This is the same design as the David’s Iced Tea Press, but it has a steel exterior chamber instead of plastic. The inner chamber is plastic on both models. This version is advertised more for hot tea enjoyment from what I’m gathering. I like the idea that I can steep and ice in the same thermos. If you aren’t familiar, put your hot water and tea in the outer chamber and let it steep while you fill the inner chamber with ice, submerging once the tea has properly steeped. With hot tea you are pressing the tea to the bottom of the outer chamber, but it doesn’t seem like it’s enough to compress the tea and stop it from over steeping, so I’m kind of meh on it for hot tea.

The biggest thing I don’t like about it is the lid. This is a HUGE flaw in my book and one that I’ve seen David’s get wrong on several different designs. On this one, the lid does flip back enough for you to comfortably get your mouth on the thing (unlike other designs) and it has a big enough opening that the tea has room to come out in proper sips not trickles (again, unlike other designs), but the lid is SO easy to flip up and open that I can’t fathom how this could be a travel anything. I wouldn’t dare put this in a bag or anywhere it is going to get bumped for fear of bathing all my belongings in tea that has instantly transformed into sadness. I can safely carry it in my hand and that is it. Another thing I find irritating about David’s travel mugs in general is that the lids aren’t interchangeable. I can’t take the lid off any other David’s travel mug and put it on this one to fix the issue. It would be AMAZING if they were interchangeable and you could mix and match lids and bases to get your perfect tea traveling companion. They need a frankenmug line!