DAVIDsTEA

My second cold brew! And I have to tell you I was a little nervous after the way Kokomo green turned out. I really didn’t like this tea hot, but as a cold brew, it’s not bad. Probably because it’s an herbal, so no threat of bitterness from the tea leaves. It smells delicious. The taste is pretty much A WHOLE LOT of banana! So, if you like banana-flavored drinks, this is for you! Personally, I’m not sure what I think. I also got some nuttiness, maybe from the almonds or coconut, or maybe even the banana chips. I also decided it was best with a little sweetener. Couldn’t really tell if I could taste the other ingredients. Not bad, but I don’t know how often I’ll be in the mood for it. It makes me feel better about cold brews, though! Will have to try some other teas this way!

Btw, HAPPY FRIDAY!

I like this one. I find though that its different every time I have it. The first cup I had iced at davids was really sweet, and minty.. the second cup was more creamy and coconutty.. I like it.. but I am curious as to which is actually the way the blend is supposed to come out.

This is the new love of my life. I went through two iced tea packs of it, and part of a tin already, only making single serve ones. I’m trying to be careful so I don’t make myself super sick of it.. but its hard because its so freakin tasty! :) I really like the lightness of this.. it reminds me of pink flamingo but it doesn’t have the tartness (which I think is partially because of the eucalyptus in that blend).. this one, the passionfruit is the main flavour…. which is nice because its not often that a passionfruit is dominant amongst several ingredients. I have only tried this one iced and cold steeped… good both ways :)

Oh, wow. I steeped at about 98C for 3 minutes like I usually do with black teas. The colour is a gorgeous red-brown, and looks like it would be a perfect base for a spiced Thai iced tea recipe.

The tea? Oh geez. Bitter AND astringent. Behind the blech are some lovely malty and floral notes.

I ended up adding a bunch of milk and more honey than I usually do, but I think I’m going to dump this and try brewing with much cooler water for 2 minutes.

Edit: And as I sat here applying for work and eating my stew, the tea is gone. Maybe I don’t dislike it as much as I thought it did? Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention and would have drank pretty much anything.

I had this in the morning on the go from the store. It was smooth and creamy, which is something I’m starting to associate with guayasas. The Papaya was nice and the peach added to the papaya while maintaining it’s own identity. As this cooled it oddly started tasting strongly of oregano.

This morning I stared at my tea cupboard for like 10 minutes not know what to have. It made me curious about that tea randomizer I saw on the discussion board but as I don’t keep my cupboard up to date it wouldn’t work so well for me. So I scoffed off all responsibilities today and catalogued every single tea I have in a spreadsheet (except for the crappy bagged teas). I included samples and swaps as well. Drumroll… I have 332 teas. Wow. I honestly didn’t think I had that many. Anyway, before my days as a stay at home mom I was an application developer in Excel VBA and could create pretty amazing spreadsheets and programs that draw off of Excel spreadsheets. It was time to dust off some of those skills! I got all my teas added noting tea type, flavor, amount, if it’s eligible for swapping (i.e. do i have enough/willing to share), if it’s something I like, and if it’s a swap, who it’s from. Then I worked up some magic and now I have an application where I choose from a drop down what type (black, green, etc..), if I want a flavored, and if I want a sipdown. It immediately spits out a random tea that matches all the criteria. Which finally brings me to the this tea. My tea chooser chose this one for me tonight. I wanted a flavored green that is sipdown. Out popped Bubbly!

And you know, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be! Kind of good actually. Or maybe I’m just still high on my excel buzz. I mean, it’s not great and I wouldn’t purchase it. I don’t really like floral teas or pineapple and they are both present in this, but it does have a good champagne flavor and aroma. Had it not been for my tea chooser this would have sat in the drawer a lot longer.

I can see geeking out on this thing a lot more. Adding a lot more functionality. Good to know I still have skills! And shmiracles thanks again for the insane amount of tea you sent including this one.

Aaaand steepster hiccuped and I don’t want to retype.

This is nice. I like it. Good as an afternoon tea. Yes.

This one was pretty good today in my mug. I ended up being 30 minutes early for my bus transfer though, so the tea was eclipsed by a latte. Hmm. I’m definitely caffeinated today. Matcha smoothie, latte, black tea… Bzzzzzzzz…

I, uhh, “accidentally” got some of this tea today. My goal is to branch out and try more non-flavoured teas.

This doesn’t steep up dark at all. When they say clear, they really mean clear.

I steeped 4 minutes, and IDK that I’m getting a lot of astringency out of it, even though it’s been sitting on my desk for about 3 hours at this point, and is cold. It’s very light and floral, with that darjeeling backbone. If that makes sense.

I do like this tea, and am happy to drink it completely plain (oh yeah. I didn’t add ANYTHING to this mug!). I wouldn’t drink it much in the morning, it feels more like an afternoon tea.

Ooo 1600 ooo… :D

I had this as an eggnog latte. It was pretty good! I liked the extra cinnamon, and I like that this tea isn’t the sickly sweet candy cinnamon flavour.

I don’t think I’ll be repurchasing this tea, but it was tasty while I had it!

I am so glad this is almost gone. Well. There’s 1 tsp left but I don’t want it so it’s going into the compost when I get home.

It’s cinnamon. It’s cocoa powder. It’s mate. Better with milk but not a favourite. Everything feels separate and overwhelming, and mate isn’t a flavour I love.

Today is definitely a caffeine day.

I had some of that Happy Planet smoothie that has Yerba Mate, and now this. After this, probably some breakfast tea. Mmm.

Mostly my asthma is terrible. Allergies are also making things annoying. That means my sleeps aren’t restful and I’m waking up feeling like I’m hungover. I should remember to take some Reactine today! (Ok, did that.)

I do like this one in 50/50 milk/water, to give it that hot chocolate/ovaltine taste. I’ve tossed in a few pieces of Chicory Dickory Dock today, as I’ve found love in After Dark by Steam, which is chicory and chocolate. I won’t go out of my way to get a tonne of this tea, but I do like it and am enjoying what I have, for what it is. Which is a tea that doesn’t work in plain water. :)

Om nom nom.

Yet another tea I picked up yesterday. Yeesh.

ShayneBear was right. This is way better cooked in some milk. I did 50/50 soy milk and water, and left it on the stove for about 15 minutes. It’s cinnamon and chocolate – mostly cinnamon, though. I don’t need to add anything else to it because it’s sweet and flavourful enough.

I couldn’t imagine drinking this just steeped in water. So I won’t. I also probably won’t buy any more, because it’s more of a novelty tea for me!

I was trying to drink through my stash before buying more tea, but I couldn’t help but stop by DavidsTea during my lunch break yesterday. I was really going there to look for an iced tea maker, since the one I ordered on amazon arrived broken. Unfortunately, DavidsTea was already sold out of their first shipment of them! Really?!! Didn’t they just come in? Geez! I think the world just doesn’t want me to have an iced tea maker! So fine! I’ll make it with the steeping equipment I already own! There!

So, I picked up some of this tea to try, and also a new 36oz. Steeper. I decided it was time to upgrade my little 16oz. steeper from Teavana, which I may have bought before these things were BPA-free (yikes!).

Anyway, I decided to try my hand at cold brewing. My first time! I cold brewed this tea for 10 hours, and well, I think that may have oversteeped it, because there is a bitterness that is pretty yucky….kinda ruins the whole tea. Anyone have tips for cold brewing a green tea? I think I am going to have to try this tea the old fashioned way (hot) for comparison. It smells really sweet and tropical, but the taste is very light on the tropical fruit, and much more astringency than I would expect. I think it’s kinda grassy too. Oh well, I guess I’ll try cold brewing a non-green tea and see how that turns out.

UPDATE: YUCK! Just made it hot, and it still has that bitterness I found in the cold brew. I even disregarded the recommended steeping parameters on the package, which said 5-7 minutes at 200 degrees. Who steeps green tea like that?!! I steeped it at 176 degrees for 3 minutes. Blech. Bummer that I spent money on this tea. At least it was only 1 oz.

Ya know, as I am sipping, I think the bitterness has to do with the enormous amount of sediment, which now has settled to the bottom of the cup and it tastes a little better. Hmmm. Still not a winner.

Btw, this is my 200th tasting note! :D

Yeah, another tea I picked up today. The 2/$5 really sucked me in.

Anyways. I really dislike honeydew. I will eat around it in fruit salad, and leave the sad green blocks on my plate or in my bowl. So why did I pick this up? Because apparently when it’s hot I get sucked into all things melon. I even had a slice of watermelon today, when usually I pass. Weird.

The smell is definitely floral, ripe, honeydew melon. Dry it has more scent than when steeped. Tasting it, it’s floral, ripe melon. It’s rather sweet, and reminds me of those melon milk candies I find at the Asian market.

It’s, uhh, not my favourite. Mostly because I don’t like what it’s flavoured as. If it was cantaloupe, I’d be all over it. The background flavours work really well together with the melon. That being said, I will happily drink this one up. It’s another tea that will be excellent at work, as all it requires is hot water. I’ve already transferred most of the tea into iron-shut tea bags, ready to bring with me tomorrow. I won’t buy more, though. Why did it have to be honeydew?

:( Sipdown.

I really really liked this tea. So sad it’s (almost) gone.

Cold brewed overnight. It’s delicious and easy and not plain water.

I finished the Nana’s Fruit Garden today, and decided to make this!

So tasty. I hot brewed, then “flash” chilled with not enough ice cubes. It’s cool instead of warm, at least. :) I actually steeped in a 1L canning jar, then poured it into the “2 quart” Takeya jug. HA! It only filled it 1/3 of the way. 2 quarts = baloney.

This tea is almost done, too. One more jug of it and then I can refill the tin with Redberry Tonic! Whee!

I’ve been drinking this one cold steeped a lot recently, and I’m nearing the end of my tin! Just 2-3 more servings left…

I really like this one cold steeped, and even without any sugar. It’s tart, flavourful, and yummy. :)

Over ice. On a warm evening. So delicious.

1 cup strong iced tea (cold brewed or hot-brewed-and-chilled. Do not dilute over ice) plus 1 tbsp sugar (2 tbsp simple syrup) releases from a Zoku pop maker.

Yummers.

I was sniffing the new teas today, and caved and decided to get some of this one. It smells of delicious tropical fruits. Cherries, berries, the blackberry leaves, and yes some passionfruit. It reminds me of Black Cherry Berry from Celestial Seasonings, just more tropical.

The brew is fairly light, but is very fragrant. It tastes pretty much how it smells, and is quite sweet. I won’t be adding sugar to this one unless the hibiscus makes it super tart as it cools.

I can definitely pick out the blackberry leaves, possibly due to how many herbal teas I’ve had in my life. The flavour they lend is amazing, so I don’t mind.

Yeah, as it cools it’s definitely the fruity herbal tea of my childhood taste that’s coming out. I might end up getting more of this, just for nostalgia sake.

ETA: 2nd steep of 7 minutes works too! Yay!

Mmm… Extremely sugary mulberry tea with a bit of coconut and a hint of white tea. :) This is more like it.

I think the sugaryness is one of the reasons I like this tea so much. I even bought plain dried mulberries, and yes they are indeed as sweet as they make this tea. They’re incredible, but most of the flavour is sweetness. Sadly the coconut does leave a bit of oil on the top of the cup. And it’s extremely expensive for what it is, since it contains so many heavy berries and so little light white tea.

Oh well. I’ll still get some every once in a while.

(I didn’t pay any attention to steeping. I dumped some tea into the strainer, added boiled water, let it sit while I made a mango smoothie… this tea is a good one for less than ideal brewing situations, although it’s not exactly high in caffeine, which makes it less ideal for work.)

Caramel? Is that something people taste, or the flavour that’s actually in this?

I get sweet sweet berries and coconut. Not much white tea at all. It’s really expensive, but if there’s a sale, snap it up quick! I got 100g for $10 in the 2/$5 packets that they no longer seem to be carrying in stores. What’s up with that, DavidsTea?

I just leave the tea bag in and refill with water whenever my cup hits half full. Yum.