DAVIDsTEA

The pu’erh is what drew me to this tea because I don’t have any pu’erhs in my collection and I’ve never had it before. The description also sounded amazing.

Dry leaf: dark chocolate brown. You can see the chocolate chips, curls, cacao nibs, etc in the mix.
Liquor: dark chocolately brown.
This is basically a hot chocolate in tea form. It’s pretty sweet on it’s own, but it’s been pre-sweetened. I taste a bunch of chocolate and I also taste a slight amount of earthiness which is probably from the pu’erh. Overall I’m pretty impressed with this tea, it is pretty tasty! I didn’t really get much “milkiness” from this tea but maybe I didn’t use enough tea for my first steeping.

I’m confused about the caffeine content, though. Here it says medium but on my package it says it’s a stimulant (high amount of caffeine).

Edit to add: this tea definitely has a high amount of caffeine. It pumped me up enough to send my butt to the gym!

This is a queued tasting note.

Stole a cup of this from my mom’s stash over Thanksgiving because I wanted to revisit it. I drank it hot, which may not have been the best choice. It wasn’t bad – definitely delivered the grenadine notes that I feel are absolutely critical in a Shirley Temple and it had nice orange undertones. The hibby was also quite tart though and even the syrupy sweetness of the grenadine couldn’t totally save this one.

I had an awesome evening yesterday!

Since moving back to Regina I’ve reconnected with a couple friends I’d drifted apart from when I moved and for the first time since getting back we all had the day off work so we went out for supper and then hung out afterwards! I also got to know my friend Kandyce’s boyfriend who I’d heard a lot about and met briefly right when I first moved back (he’s the receptionist at the place I got my nose pierced). He was really fun and very easy to quickly get along with.

We started off going out for supper at these neat place that specializes in gourment poutine. Because Taylor is way too generous she paid for my meal. It was really fun, and we ended up being those asshole customers that stayed until the place closed. Probably a pain for the employees but just a great chance to catch up with everyone else.

Afterwards we stopped at my house; Kandyce works at DAVIDsTEA and is very into tea so I let her raid through my tea stash and grab samples of anything she was interested in trying. Mostly, she’s only ever drank Teavana/DAVIDsTEA so I tried to give her samples of good stuff from places like Lupicia, Butiki, Dammann Freres, RLT, What-Cha, and Camellia Sinensis. Her boyfriend Seth was more than happy to just go along with whatever she wanted, but the one thing he picked out for himself was Lapsang Souchong! I’m hoping he likes it; they only live three blocks away from me so it’d be cool to do a Gong Fu ceremony some time with them using my yixing dedicated to LS because no one in my family will drink it with me.

Afterwards we headed to Kandyce/Seth’s house and watched some Bo Burnham and laughed our asses off. Of course, since she works at DT, Kandyce has a LARGE stash of DT blends. She wanted to save the fancier teas for special occasions so we each picked out a DT blend. I wanted to drink something I couldn’t have at home which led me to picking this blend! I was sure I’d had it before, but apparently I’m confusing it with something else because I’ve never logged it here on Steepster and if I had tried it I definitely would’ve done so.

It was pretty tasty; I’d never buy as much as Kandyce has of it (like 200g) if it ever made a reappearance in stores but I’d probably buy at least some. My cup was hot, and this is obviously a tea intended for cold methods of prep. It had a very watered down grenadine flavour though. A mix of cherry and pomegranate actually which is hilarious because traditional, authentic grenadine was made with pomegranates and more “modern” grenadine uses in cocktails is now often cherry. It was also citrusy (orange) but that wasn’t the focal point.

But seriously though: just what a great night.

Hot cuppa from, I think, last weekend?

Steeped this up and kind of just spent ten or so minutes breathing in the warm cardamom infused steam coming off the mug while I cradled it. Very cozy, warming and comforting. Once I did start slowly sipping, I loved the notes of cardamom and cinnamon with the rich and egg-y brioche notes; perfect for French Toast! What I like most about this tea is just how drastically different the spice profile is compared to almost any other decadent chai or spiced blend that DT carries.

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.

It’s been a hot moment since I last had this tea and I think spacing out my last tasting of it is making me appreciate it more. I am surprised, though, to see my aggggeeessss old rating from like six years ago was so low. I mean, it’s not a bad rating but just surprising…

Anyway, this was a nice cup with a full bodied mouthfeel but mostly just a gentle combination of eggy custard and spices – cardamom being the most prominent and aromatic, but a warm baking-type cinnamon and a little allspice too. It does remind me of French toast, but less sweet/cloying – and I have to acknowledge that it is appreciated that the sweetness level is kept in check despite the inclusion of two different kinds of sugar in the blend. That’s a tricky balance to achieve.

In hindsight, maybe my rating was lower because of the sugar inclusion? I definitely need to go back and reread those old tasting notes…

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 definitely feel like I didn’t appreciate this tea enough when I worked in store. Hell, I’m still not sure I appreciate it fully – it’s never one of those tea blends that jumps top of mind for me but I always love it so much when I have it. The cardamom note is simply unparalleled in how warming and cozy and aromatic it is while being matched by notes of maple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and custard. It’s a full package, well balanced tea that perfectly rides the line of “sugar and spice”, Why does it never stick in my head!?

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 was craving chocolate so deeply this morning, it’s not even funny. Thankfully, on my walk to work I pass by several convenience stores so I was able to pick up a chocolate bar to add to my lunch & some chocolate milk – the milk wound up used to make a hella tasty chocolate milk latte!

I was looking through teas in the office, and when I saw this one I just knew it was exactly what I needed. The flavour is strong/rich enough to stand up the intensity and sweetness of the chocolate milk, and I thought would also both pop and compliment the chocolate milk. What it wound up being like was hot, creamy chocolate goodness with a rich cardamom flavour and hints of coconut sugar. Divine! What a great way to start my morning, too!

I certainly have a soft spot for this tea in latte form… Be that regular milk, eggnog, or chocolate milk.

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.

Made a pot of this like a week and a bit ago, and only just now realizing that in my exhaustion that evening I forgot to log this one – and I definitely wanted to since it’s been a long time since I last brewed this one up. I feel like I have a somewhat love hate relationship with this tea? I usually like it a lot with milk or eggnog but on its own I can often find it very drying and intense, without a lot of natural sweetness or balance to the spices. I really, really wanted to have it on record though that I did drink this pot without adding anything to it, and I found it fucking DELIGHTFUL this time around. Still a really full bodied profile with a ton of spices, but they didn’t feel like they were competing this time around. It was largely some delicious, appropriately festive cardamom notes with hints of cinnamon and a lovely custardy/coconut note that sold me on the “French Toast” aspect of the blend all over again. I was very pleasantly surprised, since I had expected to need to add milk to make this tasty…

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.

So, this was a unique experience for me!

We have a regular(ish) customer who comes in about once a month and buy a kilogram of Cardamom French Toast and a kilogram of Cream of Earl Grey. Basically, he makes his own beer – and two of the ones he makes are tea infused. One is a “London Fog” beer, and the other is a Cinnamon Toast Crunch beer (yes, like the cereal) that also has our Cardamom French Toast tea infused into it along with the cereal.

Well, last time he came in we ended up talking for a long time about his different concoctions and he invited me and a few of the other tea guides, of legal drinking age, to stop by his brewery some time to try one of the tea infused beers on him. I mean, how could I resist that!? So of course I stopped by a few days later and I got the chance to try the Cardamom French Toast beer – it’s ‘official’ name is “Surreal” which I guess is kind of a pun/play on words? I thought it was funny, though.

The beer is pretty good; I’ll be honest I’m not a huge beer person. For me, I mostly stick to a good Guinness and that’s about it – maybe an oatmeal stout from the German club every now and then? Something dark though. This definitely isn’t as dark of a beer as I’m used to drinking – I think it’s an India Pale Ale? Or maybe just a regular Pale Ale. To be honest, I wasn’t retaining a lot of the beer terminology he was throwing around. But I definitely feel like the cinnamon/spices come through in the flavour and I can definitely see how this is meant to be like a Cinnamon Toast Crunch type of flavour. It doesn’t remind me A LOT of the tea; like I certainly wouldn’t be able to identify which tea was in it without knowing beforehand – but cardamom/cinnamon and sweetness? All totally there.

Really unique experience; and now I want to go back and try the London Fog beer…

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.

Slightly dreading going into work this morning…

Not for any particular reason; it’s just one of those mornings where the warmth of your covers seem way more inviting than anything else possibly ever could. I’m allowing myself an hour more wrapped up all cozy before I start getting ready for work/doing all my morning tasks like feeding the pets, running the garbage out, etc.

I’m milking that hour, though! I’ve got a warm mug of this tea with a splash of Irish Cream flavoured creamer, and music playing in the background. It’s very relaxing/peaceful. The tea is smooth, and sweet with creamy, sweet syrup like notes, a touch of lemon, and warming cardamom/cinnamon – all with a custard/eggy kind of undertone that really brings in the french toast element. Apart from actually eating some piping hot French Toast in bed, I think this is probably as good as I’m gonna get this morning.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/51PsDVIjaRE

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.

Usually I can’t do this one on its own; it’s just a bit too harsh and astringent for me, and the spice notes are REALLY prominent/drying. However, I think I may have stumbled upon a way to make that a lot less of a problem.

It really was a happy accident too; my mom was making herself a cup of tea and I asked her to make me one too. She was skeptical because she didn’t want to mess it up and not have it live to my ‘high standards’. I walked her through it though: 2 tsp of leaf, 85 degree Celcius water, for four minutes. She brought the cup of tea over to me, and I took a big, confused sip and went…

“This is really nice, but it tastes nothing like Jasmine Creme Brulee!?”

I had been picking a tea from her tea shelf, and I pointed to the tin of Jasmine Creme Brulee only she saw me point to the tin of Cardamom French Toast directly beside it. Easy enough mistake; I just wouldn’t have generally speaking used such a low temperature for this blend, which is a black tea. Had I know this is what she was making I would have said 95 degrees, or just under a boil.

I guess a lower temperature is EXACTLY what the tea needs to not come off as astringent to me though because this was blissfully smooth and sweet with brown sugar, custard, cream, cardamom, sweet lemon, cinnamon, and nutmeg notes! It actually really did remind me of French Toast once I wasn’t trying to mentally figure out why my Creme Brulee was so spiced/full bodied and weird.

Definitely, 100% noted – if I’m not adding milk I need to steep this at a lower temp for it to work out for me! Gotcha!

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.

More latte practice for the new tea guides at work.

They’re totally nailing it, by the way – every latte they’ve made me has tasted delicious and perfectly made. It’s just that I think they lack the self confidence a little bit. Making lattes can be hard to perfect! So please, Steepster friends, next time you get a latte at DT and really enjoy it let your Tea Guide know! It could totally make their day.

Anyway; I have some of this at home but honestly I’ve been struggling to drink it because up until now I’ve really only enjoyed it when prepared as an eggnog latte. The cardamom in the tea is just so complementary to that eggy/custardy flavour and light nutmeg! Sadly, you can’t really get eggnog year round so it’s just been sitting in my tea cupboard…

However; this latte is a game changer! I know that personally I find this one really astringent with a tendancy to feel heavy on the spice really quickly, so I asked my tea guide/coworker to steep it for three minutes instead of the normal time and paired with regular milk that totally works. It was sweet, and creamy and had some really stellar spice notes but I definitely didn’t find it too over the top or astringent, and the creaminess that I love when I do this up as an eggnog latte. Delicious!

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 one with some coconut milk last night.

I was really craving this one, but I find it far to astringent and heavy on the spice on its own so I added a lot of coconut milk. It kind of satisfied the craving? Like, it satisfied the “sweetness” part of it/the part of me that really wanted dessert tea BUT even with all that coconut milk the cardamom was so dang strong! Just enough so that it was distracting to me…

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.

I’m continuing to enjoy this one with eggnog for the time being; I still think that’s the way to drink and enjoy this tea. In fact; it’s grown on me so much that I’ve cleared out tin space for it to add it to my stock of DT blends for every day drinking…

It’s funny; I’ve never really thought of myself as a fan of cardamom but this is certainly challenging my view on that spice. I blame Sil.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQC3dBWS_FE&list=WL&index=5

So adding a splash or two of eggnog to this one when it’s hot basically completely fixes all of my criticisms of this blend from my first tasting. Very good to know; less good for my wallet because I already go through eggnog quickly enough around the fall/winter seasons…

This is a queued tasting note.

So, when this tea came out as part of the seasonal collection last(?) year I didn’t actually try it in loose form – just as the chocolate bar. I was very skeptical of it because I’m not a huge cardamom fan in general and I really disliked that it was presweetened. I very much tend to stay away from adding sweetener to my teas. But it was CRAZY popular and now it’s back as a permanent part of the collection so I figured I’d bite the bullet and try it. I actually redeemed one of my freebie teas for 50g because I figured if I didn’t like it I DEFINITELY would know people who would want it. Cough*SIL*Cough.

First impression…

Well, I didn’t hate it. I definitely think the spice notes and ratio were spot on. I was so worried this would be a terrifying amount of cardamom but I thought it was both clear and tasteful in its proportions. And then it was nicely softened by warming cinnamon notes as well. The sweetness was actually quite reasonable as well. The biggest issues I had overall were that I wanted a stronger, more custard-y/eggy “French Toast” note to strengthen that part of the flavour. I got some of what I was looking for, but not nearly as much as I was craving. And then I also found this had quite a long lasting astringent finish. NOT bitter, mind you – but just super drying.

However overall I actually did like it – and it’s a blend I’m more than willing to put in the effort with to find a prep method that really works for me.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE-3BFx2OE0&index=156&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

This review is for the Cardamom French Toast infused milk chocolate bar currently carried by DAVIDsTEA for the winter season:

https://www.davidstea.com/ca_en/chocolate-bar-8

It’s worth noting I haven’t tried the straight up tea yet (and probably wont) but I aim to try all of the tea infused chocolate that DT puts out so I grabbed this anyway. Mostly, I think it just tastes like chocolate but with a noticeable cardamom test. I really don’t get a lot of “French Toast” although I do recall having one bite that tasted exactly like eggnog. I must have hit a pocket of flavour or something. I don’t know; this is enjoyable but not awesome. I’m so picky about sweets I think it takes a lot for chocolate to impress me.

However, this is now the second newer DT chocolate bar I’ve had where the tea leaf was more finely broken up/ground up and infused so I’m hoping I can interpret that to mean DT is listening to customer complaints about such large “bits” in the tea and them being unpleasant to bite into. We’ll see if this trend holds up…

Tried this iced. Interesting. Very fruity, but with a strong malt aftertaste. Sort of an almost alcoholic aftertaste.

Ooof. A little too potent. Need to tone it down next time. Really good flavor, though. Just too much tangy aftertaste.

Cold Brew!

This is the last of the Santa’s Secret from this past year’s advent calendar, and I really thought this was a sipdown too until I remembered I have a bunch of sachets shoved in a drawer somewhere…

Anyway, it was still a good tea even though if it wasn’t the cupboard reduction I was looking for. Quite smooth and refreshing with a lightly cooling feeling from the mint inclusion and a hint of soft vanilla. I find when I drink this tea cool I get less of the “fondant note” I dislike so much, so now I need to decide whether it’s worth using the sachets for iced tea. That always feels so awkward/clunky to brew, but I think is a better flavour option for me personally…

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.

Adventageddon Day 21

Is it even the 24 Days of Tea if it doesn’t include Santa’s Secret!? I think this is probably DT’s most iconic Christmas/Winter tea, so I knew it was going to pop up eventually. Honestly, I’m surprised it wasn’t the tea for the 24th though!

In the great “battle” between this tea and Candy Cane Crush I’m really much more of a Candy Cane Crush person, but I have to admit in the last year or so I’m starting to kind of level out between the two and I think my preference today would honestly be something somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, I saved this one for last today – not because of any negative reason but more because I knew I was going to be spending my afternoon at a Christmas/holiday art market called Puces Pop and I wanted to bring tea in a travel mug/thermos and this was my most festive adventageddon tea by a long shot. The market was really cool (and crowded!) and, of course, I didn’t leave home empty handed. I’m proud of myself for not picking up a ton of jewelry I won’t wear despite how freaking cool it was, buuuuut I did get a bunch of ceramics/pottery. Mostly teacups, but one mug too.

My biggest gripe with this tea has always been that the vanilla note tastes more like fondant than creamy vanilla, but actually sipping on this in the cold from my travel mug kind of took the edge off the vanilla and let me just warm up and melt into the smooth, silky black tea base and that hint of cooling peppermint. It really more like a gentle candy cane profile than thick frosting/sugar dough and I appreciated that a lot! Kind of crazy how drinking a tea in a travel thermos versus a mug versus a teapot can impact the flavour of a tea so noticeably – but not in a bad way. Those little inconsistencies add to the magic of tea for me.

Today’s Advent Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1

Not pictured – me opening this door absentmindedly and almost immediately falling down ten feet of stairs because the STEEP staircase to the market floor was less than a foot in front of this doorway. Thankfully I noticed at the very last second.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gDUUp5iKns&ab_channel=CigarettesAfterSex

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.

Sipdown (931)!

Finally finished off my advent calendar sample – really happy to get that sipdown in. Not a bad cup; soft vanilla/cream and peppermint. Very inline with how it usually tastes; it’s just a tea that doesn’t spark joy.

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.

Currently sipping on a mug of this with some oat milk…

I decided to make a late night cuppa, but I didn’t know what I wanted. All my black tea samples are in one drawer, so I decided I’d just randomly pull something from the drawer and commit to brewing whatever I blindly grabbed – and here we are!

It’s not bad – the mint is actually pleasantly soft and cooling, and I feel really overheated tonight so that element was a surprisingly nice quality that I didn’t realize I wanted. The oat milk also was a smart addition; I find this tea often tastes unpleasantly like fondant to me (the cream/vanilla flavour) and this is completely masking that note. Sure, it tastes distinctly like oats now, but I’m happy with that trade off.

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.