DAVIDsTEA

Yum :)

(Increased time to 6 minutes.)

Ah – there it is. I need 4 tsp for 16 oz for enough flavor but I do like it this way!

I think I’m still wanting more flavor so I’m going to go up to 4 tsp next time.

The flavor is too faint with only 2 tsp. I know I like this one – I must have made it with 3 tsp last time (and only 6 minutes).

Still have the original blend and it tastes better than I remember it. Now that it’s fall I will get to drinking it! It’s sweet, of course, a little artificial, but its tasty all the same.

Geek Steep S1E9 – The Mandalorian

So, I’m a pretty big Star Wars fan. Now, I am not the kind of next level Star Wars fan where I can list off dozens of canon planets and alien species, know any of the canon Star Wars languages, or give you a perfect history of the timeline – and I haven’t read any of the extended universe books or played the video games. However, I’ve definitely done the deep dives into the colour symbolism of Jedi light sabers &different force powers, as well as a few topics in the Star Wars universe that pique my interest. I’m currently watching Clone Wars/Rebels, and I have a Star Wars tattoo. So… I’m plenty invested.

This didn’t make it into the podcast episode because it just didn’t organically fit into our conversation – but one of the first things I learned about Marika where we started working together was how much of a Star Trek fan she was – and I was immediately hesitant because for many geeks the two “camps” of Star Wars and Star Trek fans do not overlap. One of the things that I genuinely love about Marika though is that, as big of a Star Trek fan she is, she doesn’t look down on Star Wars at all – and in fact she greatly enjoys it as well. It’s one of few “major fandoms” where our interests actually overlap!

This was the tea that I chose for our recording, though I almost did it for the episode rewatch. I was directly inspired by the scene in Episode Four of The Child/Baby Yoda drinking bone broth that went heavily viral last year. Even if you DON’T like Star Wars, if you use the internet it was almost impossible to not see that imagine – it became a meme/reaction gif the same way that Kermit/Lipton did, especially in the tea community.

That always drove me nuts because, as much as I love a good tea meme/gif, I knew that the reality of the character was that it was NOT tea in the cup. So, this was my way of rectifying that moment for myself, and also just leaning into that rant on the podcast episode. I’m a vegetarian, so I wouldn’t drink bone broth – but soup tea?! Well, that I could manage – I had the perfect tea for the situation! So, I sipped on this ultra savory and salty mug of brothy tea infused soup and it was able to give me the satisfaction of accuracy to the TV show but the spirit of the viral image. As Marika points out in the episode, I even had it out as as similar a cup as I could find in my own stash to really perfect the recreation.

Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/

Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website

DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Made myself a caprese salad for lunch during the week, and used some of this as a seasoning salt on top of the salad – quite tasty addition; rosemary is a very nice compliment to the tomato/basil, and let’s face it: practically everything goes well with cheese.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I made maple glazed/baked brussel sprouts earlier in the week using a recipe I got from a coworker. They were very good!

Basically I just tossed a bunch of brussel sprouts in a mix of olive oil and maple agave (in place of maple syrup) then popped them in an oven at 400F for 20 minutes. Pulled them out, and stirred them around again – making sure to ladle the remaining maple agave/oil mixture from the bottom of the baking pan back over them again. Then I sprinkled a few pinches of this tea “soup” on top as a seasoning instead of just sprinkling salt and black pepper over them. Then back in the over for twenty more minutes.

Ultimately a very tasty and easy dish to make! The “tea as a seasoning” definitely added a bit more of a pop of savory flavour, which I think was nice since it’s a fairly sweet profile. The original recipe also had bacon in the mix, but I don’t eat meat so I just removed the bacon. I’m sure it would taste delicious included though – maple and bacon are a pretty solid duo.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Had this tea for supper today… Kinda.

No, I didn’t just make a bowl of soup/broth and call that my supper; instead I made mashed butter potatoes with a tablespoon of this mixed into them to season/add flavour. Add a tiny baby handful of shredded cheese on top and you have supper! I think I chose this one for seasoning as part of the rosemary kick I’ve been on as of late; the flavour was actually significantly more weighted towards the black pepper in the tea/soup mix though so that was basically the bulk of what I experienced. Still really tasty though! I definitely plan on using this one a lot more with cooking.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This was my favourite of the new soup teas – and I actually liked this one enough that I bought one of the large 150g prepacks of it so I’d have some to experiment with at home as both a tea and for soups/cooking and such.

The rosemary in this is REALLY strong; very enjoyable and pleasant! The black pepper though? Actually pretty mild, which for me is a good thing because that was the only aspect of this tea/soup that I was initially not very interested in. Apart from that, I think it also has some pretty strong onion, garlic, and tomato notes and of all three new soup teas this is the one that I think it the most balanced and that passes the most for a “tea” flavour and not just something savory/for culinary use.

So, since I bought it, obviously I plan on drinking this one again – but here are a list of some of the other things I think it would be good for cooking wise too:

- As a rub (for poultry or pork)
- A stock for a heartier soup/stew
- Popcorn seasoning
- Mixed into sour cream or cream cheese for a dip
- Sprinkled on French fries as a seasoning
- Breading/batter for deep fried meats
- Marinades

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Second soup tea!

This was the one that personally I was most hesitant about – I’m not a huge fan of spicy dishes/curries, and that’s where this one gets its inspiration from. That said, when I steeped it up as a tea I didn’t hate it, although it is my least favourite of the three.

I find it’s actually pretty reasonably spicy though – I think it’s a nice middle ground for people who don’t like spice and those who do. Plus, you can always water it down if it’s a touch too intense for you. What it strongly reminded me of was Chicken Noodle Soup/Butter Chicken and for that reason I think that it would be a really nice, natural compliment to poultry dishes. Also, of the three new soup teas I think this is actually the one that tasted the least salty to me.

If I drank this one again, it’d be because it reminds me of Chicken Noodle Soup, so I think it’d make a nice sick tea/soup. I’d totally cook with it though! I think it would work well used in any of these sorts of things:

- As a rub (for poultry)
- As a seasoning to mix into homemade turkey burgers
- A stock for a heartier soup/stew
- Popcorn seasoning
- Mixed into sour cream or cream cheese for a dip
- Either with noodles in it or as a seasoning for noodles (like Ramen)
- Breading/batter for deep fried meats
- Marinades

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

We were sampling soup teas a lot in store last week because it was the Comfort (Cold&Flue, Thanksgiving, and Soup Tea) launch – and one that we especially sampled a lot of was the tomato turmeric since it’s always the biggest hit among customers. Maybe because it feels a little bit like the safest option?

It wasn’t my favourite when it first came out, but it’s not bad either. I just can’t personally get over how much it tastes like celery to me – I really, really just wish it was like three times more tomato tasting.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Soup Teas!

Yes – you heard me right, DAVIDsTEA is dipping its toes into the world of both savory teas and culinary teas! For some that may sound weird, but there are several companies out there that currently carry savory teas or have in the past. For me, Numi is the company that stands out as having done this the most – they had a whole line up of bagged savory teas that were actually pretty good! Plus, tea has a rich and documented history of being prepared both as soup on its own, and used as stock/broth for other tea infused dishes.

So – all three of DT’s new ‘Soup Teas’ can double as either a savory tea if steeped and strained, or as a soup if you leave the mix in the water. They all use a green tea in the mix as well. For all of my tastings, I went with the savory tea approach.

Honestly? I expected and wanted this to be a lot more tomato heavy though – it’s definitely got tomato notes, and a hint of spice from the turmeric. Definitely a savory/umami sort of profile, with a saltiness to it. I was actually really concerned about how strong the salt would be in these teas, but it was actually pretty reasonable overall! Less salty than a Soup To Go cup would have been! Anyway – the flavour that jumped out the most to me wasn’t tomato, turmeric or salt. It was actually the celery! I didn’t expect the celery to be so strong, but it was actually a really pleasant flavour that pushed past everything else.

So would I drink this tea again? I don’t know – but I definitely feel like it’s something I would be interested in using for culinary purposes. Here are just some of the things I think this would be nice for:

- As a rub (for beef/red meats)
- A stock for a heartier soup/stew
- Popcorn seasoning
- Mixed into sour cream or cream cheese for a dip
- As the base for a Ceaser cocktail or to rim a Ceaser
- Breading/batter for deep fried meats
- Marinades

I’m sure there are many more ideas for it, though!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Hmm…. This one is interesting. It reminds me of another one I’ve had, but I can’t immediately recall what the other one is (I want to say Alpine Punch, but I don’t think that’s right). I’d say it’s more fruity than spicy, and I don’t really get any nuttiness from it. I’m enjoying it quite a bit, but it’s also not so delicious I’m inclined to run out and get more immediately.

Surprisingly hadn’t tried this tea till now, so I used a free tea on it. For some reason I always thought it was for mothers, and since I’m not a mother, I never tried it. But apparently its a good night time tea as well. This tea is actually pretty good. Minty, but fruity as well. Its really kind of soothing. I like.