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I have a confession to make… I went a little bit bonkers in my DAVIDsTEA today and bought the Steeper, leak-proof kids cup (for my accident-prone self), and four of the new teas. FOUR! It’s a problem.

This tea was first on my list to try ever since learning that my beloved Strawberry White was no longer going to be carried in-stores. I know, I know, why not just order some online? Well, I’d have to use my man’s credit card since mine is expired and that means he’d get to dictate what I’d spend. Psh… no thanks! I’ll just go into the store and buy a little bit here and there. >_<

On to the tea! When I asked the sales-girl if this was the reblended Strawberry White she told me it was indeed because they wanted a stronger strawberry flavour. It looks nothing like it’s precursor and yet smells basically the same, maybe the tiniest bit more strawberry-ish. I erred on the side of caution when brewing this, ever since discovering that white teas taste so much better when brewed short + not-boiling. Taste-wise, it tastes slightly sweeter than Strawberry White, probably due to the stevia, but I’m also noticing that I now feel dizzy and I’m only a couple sips into the cup. Great. Is stevia the culprit in my not tolerating certain teas (Love Elixir for Her I’m lookin’ at you!)?

Other than that… to me it tastes the same, but I’ll hold off rating until I know for sure whether it’s the stevia making my head spin…

Used the rest of my package to make a pitcher of iced tea…

Have I mentioned that this makes the best iced tea I have ever tasted? No? Well, there you have it; my expert iced tea opinion.

Add 4 tsp to Steeper, brew for 5ish minutes, strain into glass jar with an oz of lemon juice + oz of sugar (adjust this to your taste). Then I re-steep the leaves with half the water, brew 5ish minutes, and strain into the rest of the mixture. Let rest in refrigerator for an hour or so, pour over ice and voila! Summer in a glass.

Seriously. Summer. In a glass.

I’ve been re-watching all the episodes of LOST, now that all 6 seasons are on netflix and needed a tea to accompany me. This one seemed to fit since a) they’re eating tropical fruit all the time and it got me craving some, and b) the colour is reminiscent of the smoke-monster, so why not?

I’m not going to rate this just yet, since I think I could’ve brewed it MUCH longer to draw out more flavour. It’s alright, but I’m prefering Jolly Jellybean until I’ve brewed this right.

EDIT: So, I’ve since made this again, making sure to steep super, extra long and it still came out fairly flavourless. Sigh, I suppose this will be what I brew for my 17-month-old instead of juice. As for me I’ll take a pass.

Bought this on-sale at the Old Fashioned Foods, not sure how “old fashioned” chai latte mix is, really.

It’s not bad in a pinch, when you’re craving a chai latte, but don’t want to go through the trouble of boiling up tea, spices, + milk on the stove for 10 minutes. I agree with others that it’s rather sweet, so much so that I added extra milk just to mellow it out a bit. Not getting any of that strange aftertaste that people keep mentioning…

I’m not a huge fan of pears, so we’ll see how this goes…

And, I take it all back! This tea is surprising in every way. I was expecting something akin to Cranberry Pear—which tastes alright, but lately I’m not really feeling the fruity + black/green teas—which it isn’t at all! Upon brewing my husband remarked that it smelled like, and I quote, “South African cream soda, you know, the green kind!” and I suppose he’s right. The taste though is beyond delicious!

I thought that I would never find anything remotely on par with Luscious Watermelon in terms of pure, unadulterated fruitiness, but I was wrong. So wrong, in fact, that I brewed all 20g of this tea then promptly returned to my local store to acquire more! Lately I’ve been brewing it double-strength + mixing in a dash of raw sugar + putting it in the fridge to cool. Once it’s lukewarm I pour it over ice, then take my tastebuds on a journey to paradise.

Trying this iced as an Arnold Palmer (½ iced tea and ½ lemonade) today… I’ll definitely have to do this more often! It perfectly balances the acidity of lemonade with it’s malty sweetness and honey notes.

I envision me brewing endless pitchers of this. All. Summer. Long.

Today is my second Mother’s Day and definitely better than the last: breakfast in bed, lunch at Earl’s with my Mom + brothers (although being gluten-intolerant means I can’t eat anything other than salad, but hey, it’s the quality time that counts right?), and free tea from DAVIDsTEA!

I went with iced Mamma Mia, since a) I’ve never tried it before and b) it was too warm out to merit getting a hot tea. I thought about adding sweetener, but I guess the stores brewed it extra strong because even over ice it was sweet and delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I mistakenly gave my 16-month-old a sip and she proceeded to slurp as much as possible before I took it away… thus I poured half of my Mother’s Day treat into her sippy cup.

Flavour wise it reminds me strongly of Kanpe, but with a few more flavours going on, probably due to the abundance of ingredients. Makes a deliciously juicy iced tea, sweet enough that it’s almost like juice! Still, I slightly prefer Kanpe, but that also might be the fact that whenever I drink Kanpe I feel good about all the proceeds going to Haiti…

What a name, but does it live up to the hype?

I brewed it on the low side, just to be safe, but the problem with pairing a green tea + fruity pieces is the fruit really needs a hot + long steep to really bring out their flavours, while the delicate green tea requires a short + 80°C steep. This poses a problem, either you get flavourful fruity bitter tea or weak fruity green tea. The latter is what I ended up with… not horrible, not astounding, just kind of alright.

Which is disappointing because I was really excited there was finally a kiwi tea in the DAVIDsTEA roster.