284 Tasting Notes
I’m all out of this as of last night. Of course it meant I had to immediately place a DAVIDs order for this and a couple of other favourites. (I’m not even gonna bother removing it from cupboard since it will be back in by mid next week)
This is such a good peppermint chocolate tea. This and butiki’s Peppermint Patty are head to head for me in the peppermint category. You have to have them both if for no other reason that one is herbal and one is black.
It smells heavenly of mint, both brewed and dry leaf, it is very forgiving with steeping screw ups, it is not astringent, has a nice mild base and takes sugar oh so well. It’s just delicious. A staple for me.
Preparation
I think I now understand what people on here say about some (most) Della Terra tasting the same? To me, the smores and the eight candles are quite similar probably because of both having marshmallows.
Well, this one and pineapple upside down cake are quite similar also.
If I close my eyes and smell I can’t quite tell the difference. Ditto for the aroma of the brewed tea. This is not really a criticism it’s just… why would I buy different ones if they’re all the same? Just buy a big bag of the one and Bob’s your uncle.
Smells cakey. Brewed, it doesn’t deliver what your nose picked up. It actually gets better as it cools. A lot better. Ah, maybe I just miss my vanilla creamer to add the creaminess and mouthfeel. All I added was a bit of sugar. Not making this one a staple either. (I am, however, making a staple of the almond biscotti from Della Terra. Wowza!)
Preparation
Lol at Bob’s your uncle. Being French Canadian and having lived my whole life in french speaking communities, there’s a lot of English expressions I’m unfamiliar with. i’m guessing this one means and you’re all set or something like that?
Yep ;)
…And Bob’s your uncle is an expression of unknown origin, commonly used in Britain and Commonwealth nations. Typically, someone says it to conclude a set of simple instructions, similar to the French expression “et voilà!” or the American slang expressions “…and that’s that,” or “…and there you go!” (Source: Wikipedia)
Cute, thanks for the info, I like it! I’m gonna add it to my répertoire, but can’t use it much around here, people are likely to let my know that Bob is NOT their uncle, lol!
Will keep it for Steepster, haha!
I am out of Florence but had an unopened 2 oz bag of this tea. I was oh so hopeful. I mean, double chocolate, right? I cringe at the name as they write it, by the way.
The dry leaf smells like chocolate and it looks a tad moist. Eagerly dumped 2 DAVID’s perfect measure into the 16 oz steeper I have from there, pour boiling water over it and tick-tock, tick-tock, waited the recommended 3 minutes. Added 1 tsp of raw cane sugar and took the tentative sip. Umm.. it’s bitter. Like dark chocolate bitter. It’s not a bad thing, just not what I expected.
I know all about how dark chocolate, couveture and the likes should be superior to milk chocolate (especially since I’m a chef with a short stint as a pastry chef) but the mouth likes what it likes, right?!?
I don’t like the taste of milk so I knew adding some would be a mistake but did it anyway. I added a splash. Probably a teaspoon worth of milk. It’s a good tea, folks. My partner had a sip of mine and promptly asked for a large cup of her own. So between the two of us we drank quite a bit, with resteeps. BUT be prepared for dark chocolate taste. I so wish that tea companies specify when they say chocolate. Because I think most of them use milk chocolate as opposed to dark and therefore that’s what a drinker would expect. Something about managing customer expectation comes to mind.
Florence continues to dominate the chocolate tea podium for me.
Preparation
Ha! Bad timing…too bad, I just got rid of the 50g I had of this for my x-mas surprise gift box contest! I could have sent the whole thing to you!
@TheTeaFairy with your cupboard, I have a feeling that even with this one gone you still will be fine when it comes to variety.
It’s ok, this tea. I can taste the caramel, oh how could one not for it is loaded, and it really is a pleasant tea. Not sweet enough for me so I would normally add sugar except I am really trying to eliminate sugar especially now that we are trying to lose the weight gained overseas. I know a sugar free diet is not sustainable for me but if I can get used to less, I would love it.
The dry leaf smells great. It is quite dark, has bits of caramel throughout but it also has those darned yellow petals I could do without.
Steeped for 3 minutes and added nothing to it. It is pleasant indeed. It could be oh so good for me with some sugar. It brews dark. Not caramel dark but black tea dark.
I am getting no citrus whatsoever but I am ok with that since I am not into citrus all that much.
Should you buy it? You can get a small pack, it won’t disappoint. You might get bored with more.
Preparation
After a traveling ordeal which ended 60 hours later with us getting home (at least I am thankful for that), we are without luggage. ALL that’s important to us is in those suitcases. power cords, medications, three weeks forth of clothing…
anyway, I am home and I am alive, for which I am thankful. But I am cold, starving and exhausted. Can’t go anywhere until we chip away three weeks worth of snow that’s now frozen. Somehow have to make it to work tomorrow on whatever fumes I have left in me. Not in my car, in ME!.
So I made a pot of this. It’s gotta be good if you reach for it after weeks of deprivation, right? :) I sweetened it. Got nothing else I can put inside (unless curdled cream is your fancy) but it is so good. It raises my blood sugar enough that I don’t feel I’m going to pass out from exhaustion anymore.
Now I have to deal with more pressing problems. Happy 2014 everyone!
EDIT: I am not sure this is going to work but this is a shot of pearson this morning. There are THOUSANDS of unclaimed luggage. all the cancelled flights’ luggage being sent back, plus all the passengers who made it somehow, their luggage. there is not enough staff to deal with it all and some aircraft is frozen so the bags cannot be obtained. anyway, for your entertainment… hope it works.
eep! i hope you get everything sorted out!
My gosh, what an ordeal! I do hope you get your luggage, because that’s such a stressful experience, and you get hit with a fresh wave of panic every time you remember yet another thing that you don’t have until you find it. Yikes. I’m so glad you like this tea, though. I should try mine very soon.
How awful! I, too, hope that your luggage soon returns to you.
Luggages are a problem obviously, but I am so happy you are home finally. If I was closer, I’d give you a hand (though a small one!) with the shovelling part :-)
thanks for the kind words you guys! or gals, more like it.
there are a couple of pics from the ttc as well. so glad i stayed home today
oh no! hope it all sorts out!!
Ooh, sounds rough :/
hah. Trudeau’s twitpic could have been mine. And he wasn’t even there. Bah.
Sympathies, travelling and the weather… Memories. It once took us 4 hours to push off the gate in Montreal. First the gate was frozen, then not one but two AC got stuck behind us then we had to deice twice!. Nothing you can really do about it, just pray that everyone is a patient lot. The worst is when your stuck on the tarmac waiting for your gate to clear which could be minutes could be hours, with no way to get fresh catering and trying to keep passengers in the seats so you can move when your given permission. If it gets too cold nothing works, the baggage equipment freezes, the waterlines freeze etc. Altogether not fun. Glad you got home safely. My friends house has once again lost power after being out for more than 72 hours the last time! Hope you had a blast in Romania though.
Please don’t turn into an icicle. <3
(Or would it be a tea-sicle?)
(Oh NO, that looks so much like another word. I’m just going to be quiet now.)
LOL.
@yyz Yes, we were on the tarmac for over an hour after finally being able to land. All the troubles you mentioned, we experienced. Thankfully our house was ok and we were able to get warm and sleep a bit. ANyway, that’s enough of this saga. Thanks again everyone!
Maybe I like this a lot more than the average guy (this is only rated an average 67 on here) because it’s my first tea in 9 days. I’m in Romania and a) I only brought this with me b) I drink a lot less tea when I have a lot of other beverage choices.
Usually at home I drink tea when I’m trying to avoid alcohol or curl up with a book or a movie, neither of which I’ve done here. I’ve been drinking like a fish because I’m on vacation and because it’s cheap and because my family is so high strung you couldn’t possibly relax here. So we drink. Like any good Eastern European.
This tea is better than the salted caramel from DAVIDs. It smells more or less the same — sweet and caramel — but this one delivers on flavour. You don’t have to try and figure out different steeping parameters that might bring out the caramel or the salt or the chocolate. If anything, I’d say it’s a bit weak but I’m not sure I did everything as I should given that I’m not in my normal environment. My mom threw out my leaves before I could resteep so I can’t comment on how good a second steep might be either. In any case, with creamer and sugar this is pretty spot on for me. I taste the a caramel, it is sweet, and it’s a delicious dessert tea. I might even say I’d replace it when it’s gone.
Tonight I’m going to try it with whipped cream and baileys for a super nice treat.
Happy holidays folks!
Preparation
Happy holidays to you too! I’ve also been meaning to add some Bailey’s to various blends. It’s Bailey’s season. :)
Awww! Nice to know you’re having a good time in Romania with your family!
(And talk about pimping your tea, you go girl!!!)
(I’m right across the street from the Romanian Academy, and boy, do they throw the best parties…)
Wow, Anna, I had no idea :)
Dang it, this tea is not doing it for me. I’m rarely the odd man out so I’m wondering why it is so with this tea.
Dry, the leaf smells great. It also looks moist. Like chocolate cake crumbs or something. I see the marshmallows in the dry leaf and I also see them floating in my steeper as I wait for it to steep but the base is quite strong and it’s not coming close to s’mores in flavour for me. I get marshmallow aftertaste and as the cup is sitting next to me I get the nice aroma wafting up at me but the taste is lacking.
I have 2 oz so I’ll play around, maybe I overstepped, maybe I overleafed (although other notes say it is too weak if you just use the 1tsp for 6 oz) at one perfect scoop for 8 oz. I added sugar only so aside from sweetening there is nothing to take away from the tea’s flavour.
Everyone is raving about this tea and it sounded so so good. Gonna rate next time around, see if I can make it work.
Preparation
Can’t STAND that one, the smell makes my stomach turn. Same with 8 candles, but I know that’s also a very popular one, so it’s probably me!
I was not a huge fan at first but I ended up mixing it with DAVIDs Toasted Marshmallow and that helped
I used to absolutely love this one but after 50g or so, I got really sick of it, and it was a huge chore to finish the other 50g I purchased during my S’mores craze. So looks like you’re not alone!
I kind of feel like with S’Mores in general… you go camping, you bring your chocolate, marshmellows and graham and you go nuts for your 3-4 day camping trip. Then you go home never wanting to see another marshmellow again, until the next time you go camping or are by a fire.
Pumpkin spice I got. Pumpkin, I’m not too sure. And I’d like to say I am not getting chocolate except distant in the aftertaste. But after being spoiled by the mother of all chocolate teas, Florence, I’m not surprised. These are not complaints, however. It is a good tea. I’ve added only sugar. I’m out of creamer and I’m not buying any seeing how we are working on eating the contents of our fridge before we leave for the long, and long awaited holidays. This could be wonderful with a splash of my vanilla creamer.
As it stands it is still a nice cup. Pleasant base, brews quite dark, not astringent at all at 3 minutes with boiling water. It doesn’t blow me away so I won’t repurchase. I’m trying to narrow it down to a few must have teas and stop this madness of constantly buying and trying teas. If I can get down to say 5 of each straight and flavoured black, green, oolong, herbal and white I think I could settle. That would make about 50 go-to teas. That’s my goal folks!
ETA: gives a decent second steep. I think I actually prefer the second steep, the spices are more mellow.
Today I had two green teas from Della Terra. This and Almond Biscotti. I like the other better. I brewed this at 167F because I was impatient to wait to 160. Could 7 F make such a difference? It is just a touch bitter. The strawberries are a good presence but it feels a little too green also. Like if you’re eating the entire strawberry, leaves and all.
Am not getting the " cream" part of “strawberries and cream” yet. Not in the possibly too hot first steep. Good tea for sure but not after Almond Biscotti sets the bar for flavoured green tea everywhere. :)
167 F, 2 perfect scoops for 16 oz water. No additives (yeah!). Good flavour, definitely not timid. Nice fragrance, you can smell it a few feet away. I don’t love it though. Can’t put my finger on why. Will try a pinch of sugar and lower temp for second time around.
Preparation
Oh my god, you guys, this is amazing. Without anything inside it! Holy crapola, why did I only buy 1 oz? Oh yah, I know, I’ve been hit and miss with green teas. Oooooh, this is so going on the permanent fixture in the cupboard because I have not come across many teas, especially flavoured teas, I can enjoy it without additives and so I need more. I think so far there are exactly three teas in my cupboard that I don’t add anything to when I drink. Three out of almost 100. (No, my virtual cupboard is not a reflection of the actual one, no 1-2 cup samples ever get added to the cupboard).
I was curious and, at the same time, afraid of this tea. I steeped at 160 which I thought was on the low end, I usually do 165 to 170 but went with the steeping instructions from here. I also forgot to set the timer but washed two pots while it steeped which could not have taken longer than 2 minutes.
The almond flavour in here is amazing. Forget biscotti, it’s like some sort of ice cream. There’s a bit of oily film across the top but can be easily dismissed. As it cools it is even more flavourful. The aftertaste lingers for quite a bit as well which gives it additional bonus points from my end. The dry leaf is full of nut crumbs. The leaf itself is not as green as I’ve seen in other green teas but I’m far from a connoisseur so I’m not going to give it much thought, it’ll just remain an observation.
I’m going to make a giant pot of this seeing how I, aided by my lovely ball and chain, already drank the 16 oz I made for our first try.
Preparation
I almost made an order solely due to this tea. It sounds great, but is it really sweet like most of their other teas?
I don’t know, incendiare! I like sugar in my tea but I didn’t add any in here. I don’t think it’s sweet but you can’t take my word for it. I can send you some when I get back from Europe in the new year. I’m leaving in 3 days so can’t do a proper swap now.
This sounds amazing, and I especially feelI can trust your impression because like me, you add things to tea. But I must ask: does this taste “green”? like, grassy? plant-like? Because that’s mostly why I avoid most greens. But now I’m tempted!
Not to me, keychange. I thought of you as I was drinking it, I almost mentioned you in the note itself because I know you also add sugar and dairy. Also, I know what you mean about it tasting green. The strawberries and cream I had from DT tastes green, like I’m eating the leaves of strawberries. The almond biscotti is less green, shall we say, but you will know you are drinking a green tea. I can’t explain. The thing with the almond is that there’s so much of it and it’s so creamy that it just sweeps you off your feet. It’s more almond than green. The strawberries and cream one is more green than strawberry if it makes any sense.
That makes sense! (I think). I’m going to order some and try it! haha I’m flattered that you thought of me: we sugar and dairy folk need representation!
Hmmm, it’s been a while since I’ve tried this. Is the chocolate too chocolatey? how do you feel it compares against the similar offerings from dellaterra (shamrocks, bats in the bellfrey, minty cow, and other names)
Oh Nxtdoor, we really don’t seem to be too tea compatible. I hated this. Although, I agree that Peppermint Patty is delicious. So I guess there is some hope for us to be tea friends :P
keychange, I have not had any mint teas from Della Terra. oh, actually, I lie, I had one small sample of their Candy Cane that was sent to me by Dexter3657. A distant memory, too distant for me to comment on how it compares to this.
VariaTea, Dexter3657 and I are great tea friends. She sends me all the things she hates and I love more than 80% of them. SImilarly, I seem to dislike all those she loves. Best tea friends I tell ya!
I suppose that does make sense. In that case, we too would make great tea friends given I seem to enjoy the teas you don’t like and you seem to like the ones that I am not a fan of. And if we ever meet in person, we could at least share a pot of Peppermint Patty :)
I can’t say I’m a fan of this one either. I preferred Santa’s Secret to this one when I was going through the advent calendar. This one was a bit more sharp and the tastes I found weren’t as balanced. Glad you like it though :)
Tuscanteal, I included Santa’s helper in my order so who knows, maybe it will be my favourite of the two also. I did hear good things about it.
@Tuscanteal – I also preferred Santa’s Secret. I think that one is a more simple tea so it is a nice cup to just relax and enjoy. This one I also found unbalanced.
I think you’ll like Santa’s Secret too, but we’ll have to see if you’ll like it more :)