DAVIDsTEA

Yay we got to go to Dartmouth today, aka try not to die on the bridge and make paying the toll worth it by going to Lush and DavidsTea. :)

I brought my ice tea cup thing (yay I remembered!) and got this tea to go.
The mango flavour is spot on! sweet, fresh, juicy mango – full of flavour. The spice – wow. The kick hits you at the end of the sip – for me it’s even a bit too strong – but spice lovers would looove it. This is the kind of spice I wish was in the Chocolate Chili – I think it would go perfectly with something rich and deep like chocolate.

I can taste the green base – it gives the tea a certain texture that I think works perfectly. If it wasn’t for acid reflux plus killing my throat with coughs last time I got sick for over a month, I don’t think the tea would burn as much as it is haha. I’m getting the spice pretty strong at the back of my throat, a wee bit too much for comfort, so I don’t think I’ll buy any – but I will enjoy this cup!

Very unique – nice kick and a great treat. I think it would be great with tequila and some mexican food.

I haven’t had a cuppa in so long, this was a wonderful one to break my tealess streak. Popped into David’s for the new spring line and saw this on the shelf so decided to give it a taste despite the hibiscus. I was well-rewarded!

The green-white blend is a very light and mellow, relaxing base for the sweet fruitiness of the hibiscus, which doesn’t succumb to tartness. There is a kind of peachy flavour to the tea from the hibiscus, and the jasmine sneaks in on an aftertaste, which is the only down note, a bit too perfumed. Still, it’s a beautiful tea, and I only wish it was more affordable!

No.

Oh no.

This was supposed to be a treat for trying the lapsang, but it was a punishment. I don’t know if it’s gotten funky or if I screwed it up, but it was bitter and harsh and the flavor did nothing for me. Into the tea sale pile it goes!!

Not adjusting the rating, as it could have been user error.

Finally cold brewed this and it is not as amazing as I had hoped, sadly. I think hot is the way I’ll enjoy this tea the most. It’s more shortcake with strawberry.

Amazing. Utterly amazing. Took a mug of this iced to see The Avengers yesterday and I was distracted from the movie several times by the tastiness of it. So good, so creamy, so perfect. I look forward to trying this at home with my own steeping parameters, I still don’t like the “make double strong and then ice” method, but I understand that’s how they have to do it to be able to make iced tea on demand.

Sipdown! 180/365!

Ugh. Licorice, anise, stevia? This tea is like a gross version of Read My Lips. I’m surprised I’d rated it as highly as I had (64), because it’s really not good. I mean, there’s some nice chocolate, maybe even a bit of strawberry, but it’s all absolutely ruined with the other ingredients. Perhaps it’s called an elixir because it’s meant to be used “medicinally” moreso than enjoyed? Either way, I’m not a fan, and am glad it’s gone. Dropping rating to 45.

Steeped, the smell is definitely somewhat like dark chocolate, with undertones of a wealth of other aromas.

The taste is chocolatey and… rather tasty! Hmmm… I am tasting the lingering sweetness that indicates licorice. Blah. That means I won’t pick this one up again, as I’d always struggle to drink it.

I’m to lazy to really analyze this one tonight, but on top of the dark chocolate there are light fruity flavours and the licorice. That’s about all I can taste (and the licorice is really only an aftertaste thing). Glad to have tried it; another sample I’ll be looking to offload though.

Sipdown! 202/365!

Had a really small amount of a really old package of this. It tasted okay, but I’m alright saying goodbye to this, given that I have a bazillion other watermelon/melon teas hanging around.

Sipdown! 791.

Finally got through the last of what had been cold-brewing in the fridge for a few days. Yum. Definitely would consider picking this up again for cold brews, although I think I may use so much tea for my cold-brewing to make it rather expensive. Oh well!

Another cold-brew of this one, yum. It was feeling ok on the sore throat until I hit the bottom, where there were some particles that came through the bombilla, and now I keep trying to clear them out of my throat…. bleh.

I hate that I can’t even really do any sipdowns today because I suspect I’m not 100% in the tasting dep’t at the moment, and so it would just be a waste….

I’m making fabulous progress on cold-brewing teas! I think my previous problem used to be the hassle of filtering everything, and then it would no longer be cold but lukewarm, etc. etc. And now with my bombilla, I get to drink icy cold deliciousness straight from the fridge whenever I want it! I’m actually just leaving my bombilla in a cup in there so I can have a sip whenever I want. Such a great purchase.

Anyways! Cold-brewed this one strong a couple nights ago, drank it last night/this morning. Quite tasty. A bit sweet, a bit tart, and kind of melony. I’d consider restocking it for iced tea in the future, although of course I have way too many other cold-brewing options to really pick up more.

Cold-steeped overnight, the perfect thirst-quencher. I probably used too much tea to make this worthwhile, but it’s tasty, and I’ve already spent the money, so I’m going to enjoy it, darnit!

I am seriously suffering from the “too-hot-to-drink-hot-tea” thing right now, and it’s not even that bad here. Also, I haven’t had much time to be making tea lately, because perfect boy (still no hope, sigh.) and I have been exchanging really long emails that take me forever to write. Oh, I’m silly…

10g of this one cold-steeped in about 2 cups worth of water worked well; I was pleased. Same cost as Tropicalia, so rather expensive, but I don’t think that will change my mind about picking more up to tide me through the off-season.

Cold-steeped this one last night as well. It’s pretty tasty and refreshing as well; honeydew and watermelon with a side of cucumber, perhaps. I think it could be better, but it will be good for cold-steeping this summer, so I think I’ll end up with a tin of it :)

Not quite what I expected, but should be good iced. Definitely melony (but I want more!!!) Full review later.

This was another generous sample from Krystaleyn. Thanks a bunch! I was so excited to try this tea. I should add she is a good swap buddy. She even put up with my swap noobness, which amounted to a bazillion questions.

OH EM GEE! I love this glitter stuff in my cup! This a one beautiful cup of vanilla, cinnamon and clove goodness. It’s also the only tea I’ve had so far to give me sticky lips. I’m not sure what that is about but its pleasant. Ohh maybe if I drink it during the day and stand out side my lips will glitter… Amusing thought there. I may just have to try it. I’m totally missing the orange here. I see the huge orange peel in the infuser so I know I should have tasted it. I’m totally okay with missing the orange, since every thing else is so awesome.

Thanks again Kyrstaleyn! I love this one. I’m gonna try talking Dylan into a pound of it. ;)

Another sample from Krystaleyn, thank you!

We really, really, really, really wanted to try this tea. I thought it was going to be a lot like MarketSpice, only tarted up a bit.

So let’s get to the important part. IT LOOKS LIKE AN AWESOME SWIRLING GALAXY IN MY TUMBLER. CALL CARL SAGAN!

What’s interesting is that the glitter… it’s like some sort of anti glitter. Shine a light on it, and it sort of fades into the tea (just making it look like your tea is dirty). But, without direct light on it, it totally sparkles. It’s awesome.

The scent just makes me think of a Christmas candle. It has this sweet clove candy smell that is just fantastic.

The flavor is… well, exactly how it smells. It’s a very clove, candy, vanilla taste to it. Sweet, but with an almost artificial flavor to it… like… Christmas lip gloss. It doesn’t really ruin the tea, it’s just a worthwhile point to mention.

I am a little saddened that I’m missing both the orange and the cinnamon in this blend. The cinnamon starts peeking through a little bit as it cools, and the glitter begins forming this patina over the bottom of my cup. So every time I take a drink, it forms this like… gold line.

This isn’t so much a tea as it is an experience. The flavors lend themselves to Christmas very well, and the presentation does too. I’m totally going to have a gallon of this unloaded on the pile of unsuspecting guests at my house this year. It will be awesome.

Our first sample from the wonderful Krystaleyn. Thank you!

First off, I just have to point out that in our sample there was a big, fat half-walnut. I’m not sure if Krystaleyn did that intentionally, or there are just that many walnut pieces, but it was kind of awesome. Just sitting there, all non-chalant, giant walnut smothering some tea leaves, nothing to see here. It amused me.

This tea has a light fruit smell to it, but not overpoweringly fruity like many other flavored teas. It’s actually very pleasant.

(side note: Missy and I are passing this back and forth like a peace pipe as we discuss our reviews. It’s hilarious)

The most noticeable flavor to me is the pineapple, though it took most of the cup for it to start tasting like ‘pineapple’ and not ‘nondescript fruit essence’. The walnut pulls up in the flavoring after that and leaves a lasting, dark roasty, almost buttery flavor to the sip, eventually tapering off to a very, very light vegetal green tea flavor.

I’m thinking of this tea in my head as like a starter gen mai cha. A little more interesting, not as upfront with either the toastyness, and lacking the seaweed-y flavor of Japanese greens. Plus a little fruitiness to tie it all together.

Overall, a very pleasant tea. At the moment, I don’t think it’s a tea I want to stock up on… but we’ll see. I think if i put in an order when it starts getting cold again, I may have to think about picking some of this up. Maybe ;)

Thanks again Krystaleyn!

This is a sample from Krystaleyn. Thanks for the generous samples!!! So on to the tea. We are sitting here talking about the tea and Dylan said, " It’s almost like a starter gen mai cha." Which was amusing to me because that’s the association I made with my first sip. Before you know it we will be finishing each other’s sentences all day long. ;)

This is a very interesting green tea. I was a bit surprised by the ingredients. I do think it was done really well though. I like the roasty walnut taste. I think I’m missing out on the almond in here. I just get walnut all the way. It’s a buttery, creamy tea so that may be what the almond contributes. I pick up on the pineapple and coconut together, an excellent pairing. The green tea pops out in the end. This feels like a tea I should drink after snowboarding for some reason. I haven’t done that in years. I’d probably break my neck if I tried to do it now.

I decided it was time to clean up my DavidsTea stash. Drink up the second cup of samples I don’t like (to give them a second chance), and categorize things a little. So here’s the first attempt!

I didn’t like Mango Diablo the first time I tried it, mostly due to the sweet pepper taste which I loathe, although I did feel it met the mark in terms of a mangoey, spicy green. I brewed up only a half cup (so I don’t have to suffer through it too much if it’s as I remember), and so I can send the final cup’s worth off to Amanda (so this is pretty much a sipdown). I wish I could refer to my previous note while writing this one, but apparently Steepster is down right now, so I’m stuck writing this in Word. Sigh.

The aroma is sweet from the mangoes and spicy from the chili pepper threads. There must be a hint of a bell pepper-ish aroma coming out too, because I don’t enjoy this smell. Upon sipping, there’s first a bit of a sweet taste before BAM! the chili spice hits you. I actually quite enjoy this spice level, but would greatly prefer it mixed with chocolate. Really, in my opinion, it’s not all that spicy, but I can see some people objecting (even though it’s explicitly stated that this blend is spicy!) The mango does blend in nicely, and the green tea lurks in the background, clearly offering a base for what would otherwise be a watery tea, but not really coming out in the flavour.

Like I thought earlier, I personally think this blend is a success. I just hate bell peppers and feel like I can taste them in here, which makes me dislike the tea.

[Hey, on the plus side, since I’m writing this in Word, nobody has to sit through my repeated ‘ETA’s as I re-steep teas, because I’m just tacking them on in here! Always a positive side to everything…]

Second infusion, 82C/5 min almost smells a touchy perfumey, like roses. Which makes me gag a bit, because my stomach is already a bit irritated with me for whatever reason, and I have been poking around samples all evening to figure out what all I have, and of course I’ve opened multiple rose-scented packets… ick. Anyhow, the spice is here at about the same degree as previously, although the mango flavour is a little lighter, and there’s perhaps more icky bell pepper flavour. Decent re-steep, in my opinion. But I don’t want to drink any more of this, so that’s it for me!

The dry tea smells quite interesting for this one. Like mango juice, but with a chili pepper overtone which borders a touch too closely on sweet pepper for me.

Steeped, I mostly smell mango with a small, almost imperceptible, hit of chili.

Ooh! Different! Mango with a definite chili kick. Not overpowering to me personally, but quite balanced, actually. Like Indigobloom however, I can’t really taste the green tea. I have to assume it’s there, because I put quite a bit of it in, and maybe I’m tasting a bit of lingering green tea flavour, but this does come off as a bit more of a tisane, for sure.

Unfortunately, the chili flavour is edging a bit too much towards sweet peppers (as I previously mentioned), and given my intense dislike of sweet peppers, that pretty much means I won’t be buying this one again. I may in fact try to hand off the rest of my packet. I definitely appreciate this tea for what it is though!

The last iced tea for today that finishes off a package.

Although pear-y, this one was too tart and strange hot. Not a big fan. Unfortunately, it still misses the mark iced. I did use an appropriate amount of tea:water, so the flavour’s strong, I’m just finding something a touch off with the flavour. The aftertaste is creamy, vanilla-y, pear-y and lovely, and I can even handle the tartness (although it throws me a bit), but they just don’t combine well for me. That said, it’s way better iced, and is growing on me as I get through the cup, but I won’t be purchasing anymore of this one. If the tartness could only be reduced somewhat, I think it would be lovely as the aftertaste is just perfect…

Still on the quest for a great pear tea. This one has possibility, although hard to know if it qualifies since it’s a tisane…

Anyways!

Steeped, the smell is quite sweet and candy-like. Familiar, maybe like a sweet ripe pear. A bit different from what I was expecting.

Oh wow. This is tart. Definitely wasn’t prepared for that. Is there hibiscus?? Hmm. It doesn’t taste (or look) like hibiscus. There’s also a perfumey sweet pear flavour alongside the tartness, which altogether fade into a very pear-like lingering aftertaste (it’s really too bad the tea itself didn’t have this flavour, as it’s actually pretty good).

Not bad, but this won’t be my perfect pear tea. I’m glad I only bought 10g, so I can get on with enjoying other teas. I will probably cold brew the rest of my sample and see how it fares that way!