DAVIDsTEA

My trip last week into the city included a stop at Davids Tea. It was the stores birthday, and if I spent $20 I got to pick out a sample pack of teas in celebration. Well, needless to say I easily spent the requisit dough, so I could pick one. I picked the “Happy” pack, as it had teas that I hadnt tried, and that sounded interesting.
This is one from that box. Boy, this smells like that cheap bakery sheet cake, with the icing an inch thick. This is not a criticism, as I love some of that stuff. Its like a funfetti tea.
The taste isnt as intensly sugar and vanilla as it smells, but its pretty nice, actually.
The sample of this was very generous, so I have some cups of this in my future. Dont mind a bit. Maybe a restock in the future, too.

Sipdown (125)!

Sneaking in some tasting notes before I get ready for work. Don’t want to jinx myself here; but so far I’m feeling really good today. I think I may finally be on the road to recovery! If I can survive work today, I’ll have all of tomorrow (I have the day off) to fully feel better. This seems doable guys! Wish me luck.

Made a timolino of this, but as it was steeping I really stopped to smell/inspect my bag of it, and it was obvious to me that the coconut had definitely turned. It just had a very nasty smell to it. So, I tossed out the last of the bag – probably about 40g of tea. I felt a little bad, but there’s no way I’d pass it on to someone else, and at least this isn’t a tea that I ever paid for myself – it was gifted to me.

But despite a sour taste from the bad coconut this wasn’t awful yes, I actually drank it ‘cause that’s what you do when you’re an addict. The lavender was soothing and sweet tasting without dipping into that nasty “perfume” zone, and there was a “graham” kind of flavour, probably from the rooibos. It was nice though.

Not the best way to send off this tea; but not the worst either. I probably wont restock; I’m pretty over this one, though I once found it to be really good. There are better floral teas out there though, and I think I’ve proven that keeping some on hand isn’t worthwhile because it takes me ages to go through it.

Cold Brew!

this was mostly lavender/rooibos base with just a bit of light coconut (4261) which kept it from getting too floral or perfume-y.

This is another note where I had written in to write in more detail about shitty Dollarama things going on, but that feels a touch “out of date” at this point. Oh well; I’ll just summarize? Basically, both Bobbi and I were, the day after I submitted an official report against Carole, the manager, accused on Theft and stealing merchandise from the store. It was definitely a wrongful accusation, and personally I believe that the timing was not a coincidence: the company knew I was done with their bullshit, and was just looking for a way to “get me out”.

This was also the day that Bobbi skipped work to go to a job fair for the new Sobeys location opening up: and she was hired on the spot as a cashier, making only twenty cents less than we did at Dollarama as part of management. She told me about the job fair, and I applied online the same day (because I had missed the fair).

… As is obvious at this point, I had an interview there and was hired on the spot just like Bobbi was – for the same position at the same rate as her. I quit at Dollarama the next day. Ain’t no one got time for that bullshit. They wanted me gone? I was leaving – with no fucking notice. Screw the respectable thing to do. Bobbi is still there, unfortunately – but now I’m at Calendar Club and Sobeys, and I still get to work with Bobbi who is, pretty well, my best friend. I couldn’t be happier.

A tad lotiony from the coconut/lavender combo but overall was an enjoyable cup and it helped me wind down for the night and go to sleep when I really desperately had to in order to not be overtired for my early morning shift at work. I don’t crave this often and it’s hit or miss when I have it; tonight was one of the rare cups that was neither awesome or awful.

I hate early morning shifts. Not a morning person, and not my usual shift. Ugh.

Had a craving for this one, which is odd because it’s one I’ve kinda lost interest in overtime (kinda just like VariaTEA has, I guess) but overall probably a good thing I was craving it given how much I still have left to get through.

I prepared it in my timolino and added milk to it, and thankfully it tied everything together really nicely – this one has a bit of a tendency to venture into “hand lotion” territory because of the coconut/lavendar combination, but instead this was really, really calming silky coconut with lavendar as a nice accent with honey notes.

Smooth and relaxing. Remind me to finish this one off with milk! Not so bad at all!

Cold brewed around 12 hours and brought to work. I drank it over my lunch break…

The idea of cold brewing this one comes from wanting to find a cold brewed coconut replacement for Coconut Grove, which I just ran out of. This is the first of several teas I plan to field test as a replacement.

All in all, this was pretty good cold brewed; the coconut was strong and concentrated and the lavender/rooibos were both there, but not too overpowering. It definitely didn’t reach perfume levels which is good because hot this can sometimes get close to that line.

However, it still didn’t come close to meeting what Coconut Grove was capable of delivering so I guess I’m going to have to keep trying blends out.

At this point I was back to wanting to sleep, so I switched back to caffeine free teas and picked this one out because it’s floral and relaxing and I thought maybe it’d do the trick. And while it was super tasty and very comforting (I swear, this may be the only tea where I really enjoy the lavender in it) it didn’t really help all too much with making me sleepy.

Maybe it’s a little sad or needy of me, but I was wondering why no one had liked or commented on my tasting note of Jessie’s Day from earlier today – sure it wasn’t witty or anything, but not one like? So I went through my tasting notes and low and behold – Steepster ate it! Makes sense…

Anyway, I woke up last night/this morning (like 4 AM) with this ridiculous craving for lavender so I made a large mug of this, gulped it down and promptly went back to sleep. I must have been really out of it because when I got up today and went to the kitchen there was rooibos all over the counter! Like, enough for a mug or two (thankfully I have tons of this since I received it as a Christmas gift from two people). I think I must have missed the tea ball a couple times…

Final tea before I leave to A) Mail off swap packages and B) Start work! I’m just dying of excitement and nervousness and my tummy is doing flips so mostly this morning I just made caffeine free teas that were kind of gentle to ease me into the day.

Parameters were 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for five minutes. This is good, like always. I’m really getting the lavender in this mug.

I admit, a small part of why I picked this one out and did it last was so that I’d be tieing VariaTEA on the number of tasting notes we have using one of her favourite teas. I know she’ll get me back for that, but at the moment it just feels so good ;P

Well, Christmas is over now and I feel fat, bloated, and just generally stuffed. Excellent! That’s exactly how Christmas should be. For the most part everything went well, although my mom and brother were in the middle of a big fight and that was brought up a couple times.

Ultimately, my tea haul was the following:

- Pack of 20 DAVIDsTEA Filters
- A large, fine mesh tea ball (perfect for my teapot or for oolongs which require lots of room to expand)
- 50g of Jessie’s Tea
- 50g of Guava Cadabra
- 30g of Oh Canada!
- 30g of Mango Lassi

And, for other things I wound up with:

- A shiny ditto, non cheated (on Pokemon Y)
- $100 grocery card
- About 15 little packets of grape jelly and marmalade
- ‘The Game of Things’
- A “spa” basket
- Breakfast out at the Broadway Cafe (it’s a relatively expensive specialty cafe)

In regard to the jelly/marmalade packets, my brother felt bad that he hadn’t been able to afford a proper gift for me so when we went out for breakfast he stole a whole bunch for me – since I love grape jelly on toast and marmalade in my hashbrowns. It was kind of thoughtful, I guess – and just like my brother.

Since I now have 50g of this, I didn’t feel like I needed to hoard the sample I received a while ago from VariaTEA . So, this morning the rest of the sample from her was dumped into the brew basket of my timolino and prepared that way (not sure how much leaf there was – probably at least 1 1/2 tsp) in boiling water, for five minutes. This tea travelled with me for all of our morning shopping.

I got lots of coconut taste, but found the lavender was a little lackluster, although I could tell it was there and would much prefer something a but underwhelming to something over the top and perfumey. It’s also a possibility that the lavender just didn’t carry well in the timolino – I’ve noticed a fair amount of floral flavours are not at their strongest when in it.

Overall, it was a very nice and gentle start to the day (much appreciated – today was the kind of day I had to ease into) although I do think I slightly regretted not having picked something with caffeine in it. Come to think of it, I didn’t get any teas with caffeine…

From my swap with VariaTEA! It had been on my Christmas/sample list, so she threw some in for me. Today at work while I was, covertly, on Steepster I realized I’d been bulking up on the fruity teas – so this seemed like a nice switch up, plus an excellent relaxation tea too.

I tried my best to follow the steeping instructions left to me by VariaTEA, but in my quest to find something (ANYTHING) to eat as a MEAL in this household (not just spoonfuls of peanut butter like I’ve been doing for breakfast) that didn’t require saucepans/frying pans for cooking, bowls, forks, spoons, a strainer, grated anything, and a few other things (basically none of my dishes are done) I WAY lost track of time and frankly have no idea how long this steeped (at least 7 or 8 minutes). Otherwise everything else was followed (1 1/2 tsp. for 8 oz. steeped in boiling water). As for supper, I went with crackers with melted on cheese. Not exactly gourmet but better than the mall food I’ve been living on (in the last three days the only things I’ve eaten are A&W hashbrowns, chocolate milk, baby carrots, spoonfuls of peanut butter, cookie dough morsels, boba balls, and tea).

Dry leaf for this smells heavenly. I’m lost in the creamy and strong smell of the coconut with the soothing lavender. I’m pleased that these smells carry through into the steeped smell, albeit a tad bit milder. In eating my not so fancy supper, I let this sit a few minutes – so now that I’m about to drink it it’s a little cooler.

First taste, and I’m getting a wave of coconut followed by soft gentle lavender. The coconut is reminding me of when I was like seven and I used to sneak into my mom’s baking cabinet. I’d steal greedy little handfuls of things like chocolate chips or coconut shavings. Right now, I’m reminded of the coconut shavings. The lavender is nice and gentle, but I’m finding that in the aftertaste it’s sitting in a slightly less pleasant way, practically right on that line between yummy natural lavender done in all the right ways and perfumey kind of lavender. The coconut also present in the aftertaste saves it though, and keep the lavender from tasting bad.

I’ll be honest, I had to go back and reread the ingredients: I keep randomly getting little tiny inklings of licorice in the blend – nothing strong, just very brief notes in the very forefront of the sip as the liquor just hits your tongue. And then ‘poof’, gone. Hmmm. Not bad at all, just interesting. As for the rooibos base, it’s still present (I don’t mind rooibos though, so that’s not a bad thing) in an average/mild way in the body of the sip. It’s not buried under the coconut or cornflower or lavender or which ever, but it’s also not nearly as noticeable. I think the flavour notes of the rooibos and the other ingredients are ‘playing nicely’ together.

If there’s one thing I want from this tea that I’m not getting, it would be just a touch more creaminess. I’m sure a splash of milk or cream would fix that pretty quickly, but I don’t like to have to add things to tea: I want to enjoy my tea straight and then have the option to add things to play around with it and makes things interesting: it shouldn’t be a requirement to have things added for a cup to be bearable (not that I’m saying this is unbearable – it’s actually rather delicious).

Damn! Now I want to pick more of this up but as it’s on my Christmas list I can’t do that since I might receive some from family… Thanks for the sample though, VariaTEA! This was awesome. I’m glad I have enough left for another cup, although I’ll have to wait for the perfect time to use it up since I wont be getting any of this until after Christmas (either as a gift or if not, I’m going out and buying myself some).

Day 5 of the 24 Days of Tea

Well no surprise here, I’ve had this one before and have another 225g of it left I’m sure. I’m surprised they put this in the calendar when it’s been discontinued. I do like this tea. It’s not my favourite, but it’s still delicious. I have totally gone to this tea when I’ve needed a chocolate fix and there’s nothing in the cupboard… sometimes a couple pieces is all you need to curb the craving.

I like that it’s organic (yay!)

I ordered this blindly because it was heavily discounted Davids Tea. I received 250g for under $20.00.

Smell when dry: It smells very much like cinnamon, and overpowers any coconut that is in it. Then you get the smell of dark chocolate. It smells almost burnt, but that might be the chocolate.
Taste when steeped: It has a strange after taste, like I said about the smell of it dry, it tastes almost burnt. I really like it with a little milk and some brown sugar. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite tea of all time, but I definitely like it when I am looking for something spicy.

I have thought about brewing it for less, but as I have mentioned in previous reviews on any Davids Tea black tea, I do find that it brews somewhat weak and so I have to extend the brew time to get a nice copper colour. Either that or put more in the basket to steep. To me though, I don’t think I should have to put in more to get the same level of steep.

This was the first tea I ever tasted from Davids Tea and I ordered it as a latte. I love red velvet cake. It’s a great blend of vanilla and chocolate. I am one of those people that likes both sides (if a twisted cone is offered, I will take it over having to choose a flavour.)

Anyway, I like this tea a lot, just don’t like that I can tell it smells a bit “artificial.” Some of Davids stuff smells like this and I am not as big a fan. I wish they would leave out the sprinkles and such and let the tea speak for itself. That being said, this is great in a nice big latte cup with some milk and sugar. Good to keep me cozy and tame my sweet tooth when I don’t want to binge on a cupcake.

I have to brew it longer than normal black teas because I find it to be quite weak otherwise. I like a strong black and I find most black teas by DT are weaker because there tends to be less tea than “Stuff.”

This tea smells delicious on its own. I love Nutella, hedgehogs, you name it. BUT…

The aftertaste of licorice was awful. I brewed a pot of this and tossed the whole thing down the sink. I received two samples of it from Davids Tea and I will pawn this sample off on someone who likes those flavours. NOT A FAN! The ingredients don’t mention that it contains licorice, just the allergens, but it should.

I was sent this tea as a sample in one of my online orders. I really really wanted to like it, but the 5g they send you isn’t enough to do much of anything with. I steeped it 3 times for 10 mins each time and the flavour was still weak. I think this tea has potential, but I don’t like that you have to use 10g to have a decent cup of tea. I think I’ll pass.

I got this as a free sample in my most recent order. This is not your typical spicey chai. It is however a very relaxing calming and soothing chai. Spices you find in apple pie and pumpkin pie. I loved it! You definitely have to appreciate and love cinnamon to enjoy this one because there is PLENTY of it in here. It was a great choice to wind down my night 2 nights ago. Yumm:)

Again, another lemon tea for me to try… I’m not sure if I liked this or Main Squeeze better. The lemon taste is very strong and it definitely perked me up!

Finally finished this one. I’ve been having it as a morning tea with sweet cream coffee creamer to kill the bitterness. It’s surprisingly smooth with the creamer, and I find myself really enjoying it as a tea I don’t have to think much about while I’m waking up.

Unfortunately, I got a taste of the creamer without the tea this morning. It’s syrupy sugary, which is barely noticeable in the tea.

I’m glad this one is finished up.