84
drank Tropicalia by DAVIDsTEA
6105 tasting notes

Couldn’t resist picking up the new teas tonight, so swung by DavidsTea 20 minutes before close and picked up 8 new teas, 1 old tea, and one of their adorable little glass “gung fu” teapots that I’ve been eyeing up for a while now.

This one smells. Like. Pina Colada. Exactly like it! Reminds me of the Fusion Tea Room version, which also smelled right, although didn’t taste close enough for me.

I guess Tropicalia was being sampled as the tea of the day, so I got to try a cup of it iced as my samples were being packaged up, and although it was a bit weak for me, it actually tasted like pina colada! Did someone actually finally get it right?! I was told that making it into a latte was a fabulous idea…

I’m having it hot now (only because I’m too lazy to wait for it to cool)… the smell of the steeped liquor is delicious. Creamy and like a pina colada. Heavier on the pineapple than coconut, which is perfectly fine.

The taste is pretty friggin’ good. Pineappley with a lingering coconutty creaminess. Actually, the more I drink, the more I’m falling in love. This could possibly replace pina coladas for me!

Seriously, if you love pina coladas, try this tea! None of the other three I’ve tried have come close enough for me to consider them as a replacement. There is a bit of apple flavour showing up in this one, but it’s not taking over and just is adding a bit of sweetness/tartness/body.

I’m going to cold-steep some of this tonight and see how it fares. I have high hopes for it and Luscious Watermelon!

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
Missy

yay! you found your pina coloda tea!

Daisy Chubb

mmm can’t freaking wait to try this. Hard to justify it when I look at my bank account though ._.

Dylan Oxford

Strangely non-vegan tea. This amuses me.

Kittenna

@Dylan – Non-vegan??? I wonder if that’s because of the little candies in it. Where did you read that?

@DaisyChubb – Bank account hates me. I really don’t care right now though. I’m letting myself indulge in whatever I’d like because 2012 has been awfully crappy. I’m just waiting on the next awful occurrence. Don’t think there have been three yet.

Missy

Awwwww. Hugs and stuff.

Dylan Oxford

Yeah, it’s the candies. I was looking at the ingredients list, and one of the sub-ingredients for the candies is ‘real carmine’. Its in like everything though, so its hard to get too worried about it ;)

Scott B

Yeah, Real carmine is made from the skins of boiled beetles. Real funny.

Kittenna

I didn’t look at the actual ingredient list beyond what’s on Steepster. Interesting to know. Luckily I’m not vegan (or vegetarian) :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Comments

Missy

yay! you found your pina coloda tea!

Daisy Chubb

mmm can’t freaking wait to try this. Hard to justify it when I look at my bank account though ._.

Dylan Oxford

Strangely non-vegan tea. This amuses me.

Kittenna

@Dylan – Non-vegan??? I wonder if that’s because of the little candies in it. Where did you read that?

@DaisyChubb – Bank account hates me. I really don’t care right now though. I’m letting myself indulge in whatever I’d like because 2012 has been awfully crappy. I’m just waiting on the next awful occurrence. Don’t think there have been three yet.

Missy

Awwwww. Hugs and stuff.

Dylan Oxford

Yeah, it’s the candies. I was looking at the ingredients list, and one of the sub-ingredients for the candies is ‘real carmine’. Its in like everything though, so its hard to get too worried about it ;)

Scott B

Yeah, Real carmine is made from the skins of boiled beetles. Real funny.

Kittenna

I didn’t look at the actual ingredient list beyond what’s on Steepster. Interesting to know. Luckily I’m not vegan (or vegetarian) :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer