DAVIDsTEA

I don’t really feel like writing much. Meh. Next cup is a sipdown. This one was rather flavourless, though maybe a little buttery.

I also burnt my finger and typing hurts. Boo.

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample of this. I was happy to receive something I could compare with Tea Desire’s Milk Oolong.

After a round of bitter tea, I was really careful to watch the steeping parameters for the oolongs I brewed up. I wanted to make sure I did them correctly since they were both teas I haven’t tried. My Milk Oolong experience so far has been pretty limited, and Tea Desire’s version has been hit or miss with me. When it’s good, it’s really good with creamy caramel and butter notes. When it’s bad, it’s more that it just tastes like… nothing.

This one I found to be kind of right in between. It was sorta milky in an odd way, and had buttery notes to it. In the end, I just sort of felt indifferent about it. Maybe that’s just it – the taste of milk oolong could be something I’m totally neutral and indifferent towards. I think, what I’m finding, is that it’s just sort of not enough of a flavour for me.

Oh well, at least it didn’t taste bad. And I’m really thankful for the sample since this is an expensive blend that I wouldn’t have wanted to spend money on and then dislike.

Had this yesterday during a marathon game of Dominion with the boy. It was good, not phenomenal like the first time though. I think I might have oversteeped it a little and not tossed in enough sugar maybe?

Whatever happened, it was still nice and heavy on the berries, but there was an almost burnt astringency on the end note that I was not a fan of. Funnily enough, the same thing happens to me with Fantasy Island when I am not watching it closely, I think the base tea might be a little fickle in these teas.

I will have to try it again soon and really keep an eye on it.

This was a pleasant surprise! I liked the smell, but was a little concerned about the taste brewed up. I tossed in a pinch of sugar and, like magic, I had an amazing cup of tea! The berries all play nicely together and the black base works to anchor them together without the least bit of astringency. After a long (long) day at school, this was the perfect cup to unwind with. I am super impressed and look forward to trying this more often!

I am surprised how much I like these fruit and berry based blacks. I also thought that black tea was more the home of toffee, spices, and chocolate, but it is such a versatile base tea. The fruits bring out its sweeter nature and I find it has just enough strength to anchor them together in an overall blend of flavours. I have learned to be open minded with teas. Just because it doesn’t immediately strike me as a great idea, it might still work really well!

Thank you Cavocorax for sharing this tea. I find I am always drawn to DAVIDs Teas of the month even when it might not be something I truly enjoy. For instance, I am not a chai fan but was still interested in tasting this and thus I am happy I was given the oppurtunity to try it without having to commit to a lot of it.

I actually am not minding the combination of spices in this cup. They are nicely balanced between each other and the fruit in the blend. There is no one spice jumping out and taking over the cup. However, at the end of the day, I think this is still a bit too heavy on the spices for my tastes (which tend to lean toward the sweet and fruity) and consequently I won’t be getting more when my sample runs out.

Additional notes: I’m real real glad I didn’t use all four of these from the teabox…. with two pearls it was very astringent. There is a crazy amount of leaves that expands out of two pearls. The jasmine tea just isn’t quite what I want it to be though. I do love the idea of jasmine black dragon pearls though. It looks like from my past steep, I used FIVE pearls. I have no idea how that didn’t kill me. Yikes.

There is a Lupicia group order that is trying to be set up in the forums for people in the US. This is ideal if you don’t want to spend $60 to get to the free shipping limit, but you want to stock up on a little of your favorites OR try some of them because it looks like Lupicia is closing its US website and stores. More info over in the forums.

Also, if anyone has Lupicia’s Cinnamon Cookie Puerh they’d like to sell me, let me know. :D

This one is a big thanks to Terri Harplady that included in the HH teabox a while back! Enough for one cup (five pearls) so this is also a sipdown! Jasmine pearls! Unique! I don’t think I’ve had many jasmine black teas before. Both steeps and both were pretty equal: delicious. Though I must say that I like when the pearls aren’t jasmine flavored so I can taste and appreciate the chocolate malt that these pearls usually have. It was kind of tough to find those notes here… maybe the jasmine was too distracting. The sweet tasting jasmine was the perfect amount. This was a nice change, but I think I like my plain ol’ chocolatey pearls.

Also, this was so impossible to find in the new search that I just searched for these through my cupboard. It seems anything from David’s is impossible to find right now. It seems I have to search for exactly ‘DAVIDsTEA’ now and not just ‘David’ like I used to. I miss the old search!

Smooth mouth-feel. Pleasant astringency. Sweet hay notes near the end of the sip.

Dreadfully cold outside..
Time for a review.

Smell wise: Ayurvedic, Strong and robust cinnamon, ginger there and a whisper of coconut. Am worried it won’t be a true Chai but the smell is nice and white Chai teas are rare.

Once brewed in my perfect Breville: Smells become so beautifully balanced ..everything fits.

As for taste: Surprisingly delicate, Cinnamon kisses,warming ginger,. Still not a Chai…

If you want a true Chai …this is not it. Lovely way to start the day though. Or end a very very cold day. Do wish it was a little less delicate.

Perfect for the cinnamon shy and people coming into or going out in the winter cold .

I’ll finish the bag but not sure about it being a staple. My partner likes it though.

I don’t normally have much luck with peach in tea (which is weird, because I really like peaches when I eat them), but this one is doing OK. Nothing special…just a fruity-peachy tea. I might not be the biggest fan of oolong, but I don’t think black would have worked well here.

Better than another peach tea I had…has more to make it interesting. I’ll continue to drink it.

This tastes more cinnamon-y than I remember from before. At first, I liked the tangy part, but now I’m not so sure.

Had a cup this morning, plus a re-steep. I like hibiscus, so this tea is good for me. I like it a lot better hot than cold, though. I followed the instructions, and I think I shouldn’t have…2 tsp was too much. 1 is just fine.

Nice tea…reminds me of the one I like from Teavana (Blueberry Bliss/Kona Pop), perhaps because they both have hibiscus and pineapple? I had 2 steepings of this, and liked both.

I have been forgetting to log my teas lately :(
I drank this awhile ago. I think this base is too earthy for me. I can drink guayusa but it has to be flavoured I think. I don’t think I would buy more of this unless my tastes change..

I’m not sure…

I love lemon tea, I love jasmin tea and I think I love oolong tea, so I thought this tea would be amazing especially since the smell was intoxicating. But I don’t know. It’s not bad, but not nearly as good as I expected. I can taste jasmine and I can taste lemon but I’m not sure they go well together.

I was so happy when I saw this one back online for like 24 hours. I jumped on the occasion and bought 250g which I’ve shared with a friend.

This is the first tea I’ve tried from David’s Tea (and now that I think of it, it might have been my first loose leaf tea experience ever… yep, I really think it was) and I instantly fell in love with it. The smell, the taste, the little pumpkin candy. Amazing. It’s perfect.

I first tried this tea iced. This is odd for me, as I’m almost exclusively a hot tea drinker, but I was at an event and they were having it iced. …I couldn’t stop drinking it. I think I fell in love.

There’s a bag of it in the box I’m going through, and so now I’m trying it hot as well. It’s got a decent strength. It’s got a nice citrusy flavour, which somehow I like better than the traditional earl grey, maybe because it has a bit of a fruity note to it as well? I tried adding a little sugar to, as I had it sweetened originally, and YES. That just made it.

I definitely need to stock some of this. I also really want to try it cold steeped….

This is really good! I was worried it would be too fishy, seaweedy but it isn’t. It’s a smooth, balanced vegetal goodness. If I hadn’t already tried the dragon pearls I would say that this is the best green tea I ever had. But nothing will top those jasmine-scented dragon pearls, those were love at first sip!

The second steep of this was just as good as the first! I did extend the steep time by a minute but no more being afraid it would turn bitter on me. But I’ve yet to be able to savor that last sip at the bottom of the cup on the first brew. I can imagine it would be delicious! You see, my two year old stole it. Yes, I made the mistake of sharing my tea with him early on and now he see’s me drinking and demands a sip. Every. Single. Time. Sometimes he’s content with just a sip and will let me enjoy my tea in peace. Not today. I thought when I gave him his obligatory sip of this he would say “yuck” and walk away..I mean what 2 year old would like a real green tea?? Mine would. And not only did he like it , he made me share sip for sip and then got to savor the last mouthful. Little bugger. Maybe he should be writing these reviews.

So, even without being able to savor that last mouthful of goodness of the first brew this stuff earns high marks. Not as high as my beloved dragon pearls but pretty darn close! I heard you can get tea-drunk. Not sure if that’s true but if it is I would imagine it’s tea like this and those delicious dragon drops that could help someone achieve that state.

This was part of my first-ever DAVIDsTEA order, in large part because of the fabulous reviews of it here on Steepster. As a dessert lover looking to replace sweets with tea, this sounded perfect. Cookie dough? In tea form? Oh yes yes yes.

Dry, this smells exactly like fresh cookies — reminds me a lot of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, actually. Steeped, it’s a fairly plain tea that doesn’t retain much of the nutty, cookie flavor present in the dry leaves. Maybe part of the issue is the large size of the walnuts … I should have tried crushing them up a bit so that I’d get a better ratio of tea to nut bits. Other than that, though, this is smooth and sweet enough to drink plain. I do really enjoy this tea, despite the fact that it’s not the liquid baked good I was expecting.

Chocolatey with jasmine floral-ness. Haven’t found a tea like it. Must have.

I just received this today after waiting a week for my order. I absolutely love the smell of it in the container. Its tart, tangy and tropical smelling. Since I have not brewed this before, I followed the instruction on the label. 2 tsp, 96 degrees, 4-5 minutes. when looking at it 5 minutes in, I actually had to check to make sure the water was hot since it didn’t look like it was doing anything! (I have put cold water in a cup before not realizing it wasn’t hot… being so confused why my tea hadn’t steeped in 4 minutes) 10 minutes later, I have a light pink brew with a sweet/tart/tangy/fruity aroma (exactly like what its like when you open the tin) However, the taste is so light, there are some sips that seem like Im just drinking pink hot water. Im definitely going to try this again, and a couple of different ways, but I don’t know if its something that Im willing to run down the street screaming how lovely it is. It has potential.