Tea Desire

Not sure if this counts as a sip down but I just threw the rest out. Oh no! I’ve had this for nearly FOUR years though so who can blame me, plus I’m not a fan of rooibos. All the tropical flavours died out a long time ago.

Slowly cleaning the place for the not-so-big move at the end of the month means chucking out majorly old, flavourless tea.

When I picked this up fresh, it smelled so wonderfully fruity. In the pouch, I can detect the black currant, pineapple, and a hint of papaya. It changes when you steep it though. In the cup, the scent of rose comes through, the tropical fruits disappear, and the berries dominate. I smell mostly raspberry now, and the black currant is very faint.

Now onto the taste. It’s definitely heavy on the berries. Again, it’s mainly raspberry, however, I can also detect the rose. It’s enjoyable for a rooibos but it’ll take me a while to use up my pouch since I always need to be in the mood for all rooibos in general.

Dry, this really does smell like strawberry candy. It’s the only palpable fruity note in the tea.

Steeped, I find that the aroma stays the same, and the main note I can taste is the strawberry. The raspberry is barely there. It’s a bright blend that evokes an image of bright red. I haven’t tried this iced, although I’d imagine it would taste pretty good. Hot, it’s great if you’d like a green tea with a hint of tangy berries.

Overall, I can see why this is a popular green tea blend at Tea Desire, but I just don’t find it enticing enough to reach for my pouch and brew this on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Sip down over here. I’m enjoying the last of it iced. Didn’t think it would work that well as an iced tea but it has proved me wrong. It’s like a creamy sweet, mildly chocolatey iced black without any actual cream. Totally get why I’ve gone through 150g of this.

This was one of the first teas that piqued my interest when I discovered Tea Desire. In the store, it sucked me right in with its creamy, rich aroma, and I liked the idea of the chocolate chips. I figured it would add a hint of sweetness to this.

Despite the fact that this is a black tea, I find that I really need to watch how long I allow this to steep, lest I end up with bitter Irish Cream. I usually aim for three minutes, which seems to do the trick.

Once it has steeped, it loses a bit of the creamy aroma that it has dry. As one of my friends described it when she first tried it, it kind of goes a bit “savoury” on the taste buds. Honestly, it doesn’t resemble Irish cream at all. Sure, it’s mildly creamy, but doesn’t have that bite that Irish cream has. The chocolate chips, while adding a touch of sweetness, are otherwise not noticeable, taste-wise.

It’s still delicious and keeps drawing me back in with its gentle, creamy, comforting aroma and taste. I love drinking this in the autumn and winter when I’m feeling cold and need something comforting, yet not overly sweet. Even though I wouldn’t call this a super über fantastical blend, I’ve gone through over 150g of this stuff, which in itself says something.

This tea sounds soooo fancy! I kept mixing up which one this was, as it just smells like chocolatey tea to me!

Praline De Champagne as dried tea leaves looks impressive and Valentinesy. Sexy black leaves, heart shaped chocolate, chunks of strawberry – YUM! And pralines in it? Oh man – I can pig out on this tea without the calories.
Interestingly the sales guy mentioned that this tea has more calories as well as the act of drinking tea burns more calories (concept I know of called negative calories).

There is a rooibos version, which they had a sample at the store – but I found it too rooibosy overpowering, thus I went with the black tea one. That and I like my caffeine… and black tea.

So, I’m home making a cup of this tea. I try to get a nice scoop to get a bit of everything – this proves difficult as the strawberries are HUGE slices so I can see additional cups I make might lack the strawberry flavour. There is a fair amount of chocolate bits and pralines, but alas, I could see at the end I’ll just be drinking black tea. I think it would be nicer to have smaller chocolates and strawberries for flavour spread, but visually what they did here is nice.

Leaves steeped – very strawberry smell, hint of chocolate and a sweet sting of candy sweet like praline. 65% of the chocolates has melted down. Hot damn I’m ready to chug this beast (hopefully not burn my face off)

Taste wise – smooth caramelly, tart strawberries – not too sweet. Nice aftertaste of black tea and tart strawberry. Not so much chocolate taste, it’s more in the smell. Pretty simple yet effective.

Valentines tea? Check. This be a great tea to buy to impress that special someone that likes tea. Or make a pot in a clear teapot, making sure to show them the leaves first.

Me? I’m still sad over the huge chunks of chocolate and strawberries being gone when I’m at the end of this tea and I’m stuck drinking black tea with praline stumps. With that said, I think this tea would go over great steeped for bigger batches (heh, to share with someone).

Since I drink quite a bit of DAVIDsTeas.. lets compare this to “Love Tea #7” another strawberry choco tea. Praline De Champagne is more smoother with the pralines and stronger strawberry taste (pending, as I made sure I had a chunk of strawberry in this cup) and a stronger after taste of tartness. Love Tea #7 has MUCH more chocolately flavour and a floral punch with the rose reducing tart a bit.
Presentation wise, Praline De Champagne wins… but that I think taste should win.

So – not bad of a tea. Simple, strawberrly, praliney without the crazy sweet. I think this tea is ment to be shared to ensure optimal flavor spread vs for a single person. For me, since my fiance hates tea, sinful teas like this is like curling up with a bucket of ice cream, without the guilt. I don’t think I’ll buy more once my 50 grams is gone.

This tea might make a good latte though… mmmmm

sip down! Goodbye Choco Cinnamon and its cute little chocolate stars. Last cup is so so as I got mostly dredges and not many chocolate stars.

I’ve been sipping down quite a bit lately, I should do a new tea order! haha!

MMmm, almost out of this tea – so tasty with the cinnamon and white chocolate stars! Sadly, not much cinnamon flavor in this pot, but just as creamy chocolately as always!

Really good with my Pistachio matcha pound cake! Oh man, owning a bread maker is going to get me fat again /cry

Tea Desire… I got frightened off after the first tea I got from them sucked. It was beet-juice tea instead of blueberry cream.

They have a Valentines sale going on and I love sales. I pick up this Green Tea Choco Cinnamon tea with the help of the very knowledgeable sales dude.

Smell of dry leaves… kinda mouth watering sweet (white chocolate?) and cinnamon. Very cute white chocolate stars!

Steeped, the white chocolate dissolves easy and turns the tea kinda speckled white. First taste.. I swore it was pudding – creamy, sweet, and mellow. The white chocolate adds cream to the tea as well as sweet with the cinnamon sugar helping out too. The sweetness isn’t overpowering and mild. Very slight taste on the cinnamon as the white chocolate has more pull here. I cannot detect the rose, but it might be mixed with the strong aftertaste of the green tea. I don’t taste the orange (I’ve ranted before that orange peels never really come out) and the cloves.

This tea isn’t bad and raised the bar for Tea Desire for me. I still got another tea to try that I purchased today.

If you like green tea blends, this is fab! This would be a great tea for those types who add sugar to their green tea (I scratch my head on those types) as the sweetness is already there.

Me? I like the creamyness of the tea. I was thinking it needs MORE CHOCOLATE.. but everything needs more chocolate (lol). I had to keep in mind this is white chocolate, which is a little different. I like how the chocolate meltedly steeped into the tea well verses yogurt drops I’ve seen in other teas that add that creamy goodness. The cinnamon and spice could be more pronounced. However at that point it be more chai-like. Not bad, not sure if I’ll buy more. They wouldn’t sell me less than 50 grams, so I got a lot of this tea

Backlog from Friday. Still a great twist on the classic chai! Kind of fruity, and pretty spicy. Hopefully it retains this flavour for another couple years, because I still probably have 175/250g of this one to get through. (Not a purchase I made!) Definitely good for a reinfusion or two as well, although the pepper really starts to make it spicy if infused too long!

A tasty, interesting twist on a regular chai! The tea is slightly sweet and apricot-y and the aftertaste is spicy, with a definite overall spiced chai sort of flavour. Lighter-tasting and sweeter than a typical chai though, which is nice because it means I don’t feel any need to add milk or sweetener. The green tea is not discernible to me, but looking at the dry tea I can’t see much of it either, so am not terribly surprised. Definitely not a bad tea to have been given a 250g bag of for Christmas!

ETA: Second steep a day later is very spicy, and with considerably less fruity apricot flavour, although it may just be hidden by the spiciness. Just realized I made a big error though – steeped it in near-boiling water for 5min, not ~80C water. That may have affected things. It’s not bad, just verrrrrry spicy tasting, probably would be delicious with milk and sweetener.

got this out shopping with my mom, it was on sale and she said “Ooooh, BANANA tea!?” so we had to get it.
smells really banana-y, just like a bag of banana chips – that really concentrated sweet banana scent. this would probably be really nice iced in the summer.
after steeping the banana smell has mellowed out with the green tea and ginger and really, it does smell quite unappetizing. somewhat like that weird banana flavoured medicine you sometimes had to take as a kid, but like that has gone bad.
interesting. it tastes pretty good. nice green tea flavour with a background hint of that real banana taste. i don’t get much ginger from it, but maybe once it cools down a bit.
very different!

nice clean, light flavour

strong white tea flavour, very refreshing!

Drinking this iced…

The dry tea smells berry and creamy, however.. yeah… once brewed up it’s pretty tart and not creamy tasting. It’s a very red tea from the beets. I’m not too impressed (I’m not into tarty berry teas) and I probably won’t finish it.

first off, i over steeped :(
i got a sample of this one to see how it compares to The Earl’s Garden from David’s. smells like a nice, strong black tea with some tart overtones.
yep, nothing like The Earl’s Garden. fruity with a slight tartness, but not in a bad way. the black tea flavour is still very prominent. it tastes like something i’ve had before, like a tea my grandma would serve. not in a bad way, either.
not sure if i’ll get any more of this one. i’ll pay attention next time so i don’t over steep, maybe the fruit taste will shine a bit more.

yummm! this tea is lovely AND beautiful!
i definitely got it just because of the precious chocolate stars (i love anything star shaped), but the fact that it was a nice green tea AND had cinnamon, well, i just couldn’t go wrong.

the cinnamon really does come through nicely with the light green tea. the chocolate is very subtle in the background, but very nice.

i would recommend steeping it in a fine tea bag though, like the DAVIDsTEA drawstring ones, because you do get a bit of a hazy film otherwise, with the chocolate and all, if that bothers you. if not then go crazy with a nice loose steep!

i haven’t tried this as a latte yet, but i am dying to!

first oolong i ever tried, and still my favourite. wonderfully sweet, creamy smell/flavour. mixes well with other teas with simple flavours, like Honey Bee from DAVIDsTEA. also nice for multiple steeps!

excellent pick-me-up after work! the citrus and green tea go wonderfully together. love grapefruit :)
on to the second steep!

Woops! Too many leaves for my little 12oz Libre, so the first steep smelled delicious but it tasted like GRASS!!

The second and third steep’s are much better and far more palpable, although the third steep has no raspberry scent and the leaves are taking up almost 2/3’s of the glass – next time LESS LEAVES silly me!

Good.

This is one I might actually enjoy and it might actually encourage me to go back for more, or maybe send my mother. (I’m still reeling from the service in the store, and my dirty decorative tea tins)

First steep was intense raspberry flavour, with a buttery finish that allude to thoughts of raspberry crepes.

Second steep… I think the water may have been too hot, but there was a slight astringency that I did not appriciate and the raspberry bits started to look tired (they were a blanched white, no more pretty red)

I might take the time, when I get home tomorrow to try this one again.

(Back log)

I am not sure how I feel about this Oolong, all I could taste and smell on the first and sadly only steep (One should never make an oolong before bed); all I could taste was the wonderful jasmin.

Eventually I will be able to steep my tea longer and start tasting those lovely goji berries. I can see them, there is an equal amount of oolong to goji in the loose leaf, so… where is that wonderful tart fruit taste? hummmmm

I don’t know why the picture did not work.

This tea is defiantly better as a lemonade. Thank being said I don’t think this is a tea I would purchase again, it is rather acidic if I have had a strong black tea or coffee before this one.

But… the kids at work love it!