170 Tasting Notes

90
drank Read My Lips by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

Unlike most people, I am not a big fan of chocolate, so it only makes sense that I don’t find this tea as wonderful as most do. In the “chocolate teas” category, I find I preferred the Chocolate Chili Chai they had last winter, which in my sense was fairly similar to this one, except for the added chili (which I loved!).

However, of all chocolate teas I’ve tried so far, this is definitely the most chocolatey, so I can see how it is so popular. The black tea is hard to separate from the rest and evaluate, but for sure it adds a very welcome richness to the blend. As for the mint, it is definitely there, but not as much as I’d like. For me, the best chocolate-mint combination had been achieved in the Mint Chocolate Maté DT discontinued a few months ago, and which was like drinking After Eights (sorry, I’m getting nostalgic now!).

I added about 10 points on the rating scale just for the aftertaste, which I find wonderful – the vanilla really comes through at that point. It remains in your mouth for a really long time and makes you want to get more and more.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec

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94

I was very hesitant when I brewed this for the first time, this morning. In the bag, the smoky smell is so intense, I felt like I might find some ashes at the bottom of the bag. It did remind me of the old woodstove we had when I was young, but somehow, the idea of drinking something that reminds me of a woodstove wasn’t that appealing.

Brewed, the smell of the liquor is almost as strong as the dry leaves, and I was still suspecting the leaves might have been coated with ash (hey, you never know!). But drinking it is a totally different experience. The smokiness is definitely there, but it is not overwhelming at all (as it was when smelling). The balance between the taste of the black tea and the taste of smoke is perfect for my taste, just like good smoked salmon has a smoked taste without masking any of the salmon (it actually compliments it in a great way). It remains quite an unusual tea flavour and is definitely hard to compare with other kinds – flavour-wise, it just stands on its own.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec

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83
politicalmachine

any thoughts about this? was thinking of picking some up

Eisenherz

it was my first charcoal tea ever so I have no comparison point… but make sure you like the idea of a charcoal/smoky taste, because it’s pretty intense – more so than the dry smell suggests! however, after my first 2 cups, I started enjoying it more and noticing the subtleties of the oolong behind the charcoal taste. interestingly, probably because of the charcoal coating, the leaves barely open in the infuser. I found it got better as I re-steeped it; I liked the 3rd steep best, but I’m not sure if it’s because I got to enjoy the charcoal taste more with time, or if it’s because it got less overwhelming with ever steep. not sure if that helps you deciding, it probably also depends on how familiar you are with charcoal teas. if you haven’t had any, going for this is a bit daring (I got mine as a present for my birthday) but you might end up liking it. if you’re familiar with them and like them, I assume this is a good one, but I can’t help much comparing!

politicalmachine

great, thanks! I was just interested in an aged oolong to try out and this one seemed to be the oldest (and cheapest) that CS offers. I’d imagine though that the first few steeps should be very short given the nature of the tea, it would make sense to treat it more as a pu-erh in my opinion. Aged oolongs are usually reroasted every year to keep them dry so this one would have underwent many roastings. I think my curiosity would lead me to eventually getting this or something similar to it just to try it out.

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97
drank Korean Sejak by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

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97
drank Jungle Ju Ju by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

Upping the rating; had it iced a few times in the last (very hot) days, and it is certainly one of my favourite iced teas ever. I thought I might have gotten overexcited over the nice flavour on the first try (I tend to love my teas more when I try them first, because I’m always so excited to try something new), but this one really resisted the test of time (both hot and cold). Surely, I will buy more of it: it is officially becoming part of my own permanent collection!

Preparation
Iced 7 min, 0 sec
Uniquity

I also like teas more the first time I try them…Now I have to try to give each of them a couple tries before I do something drastic like buy a pound of it, lol!

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97
drank Jungle Ju Ju by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

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97
drank Jungle Ju Ju by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

Wow. Take this “highly caffeinated” warning seriously! Tea (even black) never really seemed to give me any boost, neither did coffee. I was pretty amazed when I found maté and noticed it did give me a bit of energy, though I need to drink a lot to get that. After only 2 cups of Jungle Ju Ju, I feel like I should go run a marathon right now! I’ll have to remind myself never to drink more than this (as I usually drink at least 3 cups)… it could probably get quite unpleasant.

As for the taste, I’m having a hard time evaluating the guayusa taste… not that the fruit taste is too strong (it is just perfect, in my opinion, fruity and only slightly sweet), but I’m having difficulty to draw the line between what taste comes from the fruit, and what comes from the guayusa. In any case, I enjoy the whole thing, and guayusa seems to have a distinctive taste, different from maté or tea. Nice!

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec
nomadinjeopardy

Wow! I never experience a caffeine boost (though I try) except when I choke down a strong latte in desperation so I’ll have to give this a try.

Uniquity

I have 52Teas Lemolicious Guayusa and have yet to notice an energy boost…but I’ve never noticed an energy boost from any caffeine, so it didn’t surprise me. Haven’t tried the jungle ju ju yet though.

Eisenherz

Interesting, I’ll be curious to see if that tea will have a different effect for you! A friend of mine tried it and thought it gave her too much of a boost, though she reacts more “normally” to caffeine than me.

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57

First, I should probably mention I had this one hot. Maybe I’d like it better iced…
The tea looks pretty awesome in the bag, thanks to all these bamboo leaves! I was pretty excited to taste bamboo leaves and see what they taste like (then maybe I’d feel like a koala!). My excitement, however, stopped on my first sip. It wasn’t totally bad, but definitely not what I had expected. The strawberry taste takes the whole place, and this strawberry taste is precisely what I didn’t like… don’t get me wrong, I love strawberries, but to me, this doesn’t actually taste of strawberries. Strawberry candies? Yes, very much so. If what they were going for was the taste of Swedish berries (strawberry-flavoured chewy candy), then it’s spot on, and the flavour is even more intense than in candies. But to me, this sort of strawberry flavour tastes so artificial and chemical, I can’t find much of the joy of eating a fresh strawberry in there. It’s the kind of strawberry taste I would expect from a strawberry “juice” (read: cocktail) tin I’d buy for 25 cents at a corner store. As for the peppercorn, I couldn’t taste it at all – definitely no tingle on my tongue. However, I did improve my experience of this tea by adding some lemon juice to it, which added something I felt was missing to the taste and made it more enjoyable.

But I am still left wondering what bamboo leaves taste like…

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 30 sec

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89
drank Movie Night by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

Seeing this tea name and description, I was a bit suspicious… steeping popcorn, really? Popcorn flavour in a tea, do I really want that?

Then I smelled it in store, and loved the smell. Though I couldn’t recognize it right away, I did when smelling it again after getting back home: it smells like Cracker Jacks! Which I guess makes sense. However, I was still unsure about steeping popcorn…

Drinking it now, all doubts have gone! It is really quite delicious, a bit of a treat (like Cracker Jacks, really, caramel included). It does taste as it smells, as another reviewer said, which is sort of sweet – don’t worry, no salt. The popcorn taste is also there, and surprisingly (to me, anyway), it does work! As the aforementioned reviewer also said, the green tea taste gets lost, which is not surprising, since I could barely find any tea leaves in all I put to infuse (maybe 4-5 in total for 4 cups). As for the apples, they do add a nice touch. Overall, the mix of ingredients blends well together and it makes for a nice “dessert” tea, which I’ll be happy to have once in a while.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 30 sec

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97
drank Caramel Pear by DAVIDsTEA
170 tasting notes

“For pear lovers” sounds about right! This is like… drinking a pear! Some reviews mention the pear flavour not tasting real, but I disagree… to me, it tastes exactly like this awesome pear nectar I used to buy. It war more like a liquid puree, 100% pears, and it was just too tasty to be true. Yes, the pear taste is really, really strong. In fact, I can’t taste any of the rooibos or caramel flavours – honestly, I don’t really mind, cause it’s so yummy. One does get the impression of it being sort of sweet, but at the same time, I think it’s only a result of such strong pear taste, it doesn’t actually taste sweet as if one had put sugar or stevia in it. The sweetness is a pear-sweetness, really. If you’re not into pears that much, skip this one!

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec

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