New Tasting Notes
Nice orange blossom scent, very floral on the first few steeps. Sweet, milky, and refreshing taste. I like adding ~1/4 of a dried orange slice while brewing for additional fruity sweetness.
Flavors: Floral, Milky, Orange Blossom, Sweet
Preparation
Steepster TTB 2025
This tastes like a generic black tea in flavour. I smell maple on the looseleaf, but I’m not getting any banana, maple, or pecan from the brew itself. I tried it twice (first steep 5 minutes with boiling water and a dash of soy milk – second steep 8 minutes almost boiling water with a dash of soy milk). There’s a tiny bit of nutty flavour and some tannins, the black itself is slightly malty but not enough for my liking. I do get a honey flavour like from the tea itself, but not as strongly as with Laoshan blacks.
This isn’t bad for a straight tea, but it does not deliver on the French toast flavour or banana at all.
Flavors: Honey, Tannin
Steepster TTB 2025
I pulled out some teabags to enjoy at work this week and I was excited to try this one. It’s been on my wish list for a while. I don’t want to commit to an entire box of 15 or 16 teabags because of how many other caffeinated teas I have right now.
There is a nice dark cocoa note with cinnamon and something spiced (nutmeg?). I can’t taste the orange, but the brew is a bit acidic. The aftertaste is spicy but warming with a light sweetness from the cinnamon. For once, I think a tea has mastered balancing cinnamon with other ingredients without completely overpowering every else in the blend. There is a dark bittersweet flavour that is probably the puerh and cocoa combined.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Wood, Spicy
Preparation
Sipdown! (3 | 79)
Cold steep. Really enjoy this one for a hibiscus-heavy, refreshing fruity blend. It’s quite tangy from the orange and passion fruit as well, so I do add a bit of sugar to the pitcher to balance it a bit. Perfect summer infusion, and one that I will probably reorder in the future. Though I think once I get through most of my current cold steep stash, I might try S&V’s fruit blends next…
Flavors: Bright, Citrus, Fruity, Hibiscus, Juicy, Orange, Passion Fruit, Sweet, Tangy, Tart, Tropical
Preparation
Steepster TTB 2025
I was really excited to enjoy this as a latte this morning as I start to break into the caffinated teas. This one is mostly a tannic strong black tea with an aftertaste of blueberry. I steeped it a bit longer than instructed but added unsweetened soy milk. I can’t really make out anything almondly or like marzipan or any buttery pastry notes at all. I think this might be best with a touch of sweetener. I would have liked more dessert essence to give it that streusel pastry taste. If it labelled itself as a strong black tea with blueberry I would not have minded it one bit.
Flavors: Astringent, Blueberry, Fruity, Jam, Tannic
Preparation
Iced Latte!
All weekend I had such a strong craving for this tea specifically as an iced latte, and I was driving myself insane because I couldn’t find my bag of this tea no matter how many times I checked my black tea sample drawers. Then I remembered Monday morning as I was getting ready for work that this wasn’t in a bag but in a tin (which are stored elsewhere). Wow, I was kicking myself for that.
For the most part this was exactly what I was looking for out of my iced latte I’d been craving. Super, super creamy tasting with a silky sort of butteriness and vanilla flavour on top of the actual creaminess of the milk. Very nutty too, but more equal parts almond cream and pistachio cream rather than a straight pistachio flavour. Honestly, I appreciated the nutty flavour a lot but I could have used a little more pistachio and a little more overall sweetness too. Maybe I’m a little spoiled now by the Pistachio Matcha, which so perfectly nails that pistachio pudding mix flavour I love and find so nostalgic.
But at least I got my latte in the end!
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.
Iced!
Whisked this up and then iced it and added a very generous splash of a sweet lemonade type syrup. I think I probably could have used a little less of the lemonade syrup because this was a little sweeter/more punchy than what I was actually looking for in the moment, but overall I thought this was really good. The ripe mango note obviously went very well with the citrus, and the sugar definitely did its job as a flavour carrier and made both the mango note really pop and come off as so juicy/tropical but also brought some of the grassier, more mellow and floral notes of the matcha come to life too. It was so immensely summery tasting and refreshing.
Cold Brew!
It’s probably because I’m so tired right now, but my silly monkey brain kind of just wants to call this brew “Japanese apple juice” and be done with it. It really is so fresh and juicy though, with an almost succulent or dewy white apple flavour balanced by a smooth, almost fatty sencha flavour that introduces just a hint of grassiness, umami, and pleasant tannin to offset that sweet fruit flavour. I always am so impressed whenever I drink this tea. It’s one of the few sencha-y tasting senchas that I tolerate.
A sweet, almost syrupy blend with a flavour that’s just a little challenging to put into words because of how complex and layered it is. The mix of bright, almost tangy fruit notes with such creamy “sweet brown” flavours of caramel and fig jam do give off a very golden sort of energy/profile. Mix that with the fresh, aromatic and almost lush top notes of garden jasmine and the slightly cooling, camphor heavy cardamom and whisky smoke notes and you sort of create this ribbon or wave of golden flavour experiencing a constant push/pull sensation where these fruity and floral notes lift it up but dense, dark toffee and spice try to keep it rooted in place…
It’s wild, but in the best sort of way!
A little bit more of a simple and straight forward blend, but I felt a bit like I was having a caffeine crash out over the weekend on Sunday and I really just needed to steep up something caffeine free with a more grounding, direct sort of taste to “offset” the buzz I was feeling. The woody, minerality of the rooibos combined with a low intensity, well rounded red fruit note was exactly what I needed to feel a little more anchored again.
This is basically just peppermint tea with vanilla flavouring, so I wasn’t totally sure how significant the impact of the flavouring addition would be. I wanted to try it anyway because I’ve had some other good experiences with buttermint flavoured snacks and tea blends from London (looking at you Bird & Blend’s Buttermint Matcha).
Well, it turns out the flavouring does make a big difference because this was a REALLY stand out cup of peppermint tea. Very, very smooth with a lightly cooling finish. The crispness you sometimes get from a peppermint tea was replaced with a silky flavour that was sort of equal parts butter, sweet cream, and French vanilla. It reminded me loosely of these Scottish Caramint candies I used to buy from a tearoom I used to frequent when I was still living in Regina. Much more peppermint forward in the tea, but similar vibes.
Like, at the end of the day it was just a fancy peppermint tea and there is for sure a ceiling of quality when it comes to something like peppermint. Didn’t make me like it any less in the moment, though!
We don’t really have Dunkin’ Donuts in Canada, so when I saw this RTD at one of my favourite local “exotic snack import” shops I decided I had to try it…
For a zero sugar iced tea, I found this quite sweet and in a really mouth-coating and lingering way. I’m kicking myself for not actually checking what sugar substitute they were using, but with the aftertaste and the sort of film-y feeling it left on the palate I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an artificial sweetener like erythritol.
Peach is one of those flavours that really bugs me when it’s super fake-y and artificial tasting. Especially when it’s white peach like this one, because then it usually has a floral undertone to it that doesn’t do so well with the intensity/sweetness that often follows that strong peach taste. It just builds and builds on the palate. For me, that was the case here and I just couldn’t get into this…
PS. I wasn’t totally sure whether to make the company for this “Dunkin’ Donuts” or “Dunkin.” But I went with Dunkin’ in the end because that’s how it’s stylized on the bottle of the RTD and when I went back and looked at the online listing for the snack shop they had the company/vendor listed as Dunkin’ as well.
As I revisit these Mateina RTDs I’ve basically been drinking one each morning during my commute to work. They’re very convenient grab and go drinks, and I like the idea of starting my morning with something a little more mentally stimulating as I head in to work.
This has been my favourite of my retaste, and I’m honestly not sure if it’s because it’s sparkling and the other two flavours I’ve had more recently were non-carbonated of if it’s just that the juicy, fresh raspberry flavour is so much stronger/more enjoyable. Maybe it’s a not so secret third factor, which is that the carbination and intensity of the citrusy berry flavour both mask the more metallic notes of the mate I’ve tasted in the other drinks while not totally covering up the rest of the grassier and more rainforest-y flavour…
Sipdown (2925)!
I liked this a lot. The lemon flavour is really, really bright and lively with such a pleasant mix of sweetness and light acidity/sourness. It’s not too artificial and certainly not cloying, but it did make me think a bit of lemon gummy candies or something like a lemon lollipop. Just really juicy and lemonade-like in a way that immediately made me wish I had more of this in loose leaf format (this was a tea bag) so I could make it iced or cold brewed. Delish!
Sipdown (2926)!
I was hoping that this would be a little bit of a stronger orange flavour, either in a more creamy and dessert like sense or just juicier and more bright. Instead it’s, well, just a kiss of orange in an otherwise incredibly chamomile forward cup of tea. Not unpleasant tasting, and I think the soft note of orange does compliment the almost honeyed florals of the chamomile blossoms. I just don’t reaaalllyyyy like chamomile a whole lot, so it didn’t make a super strong impression on me personally and isn’t something I’d really feel compelled to revisit…
Gongfu!
This fragrant, full-bodied black tea is an explosion of sweet, juicy fruity and floral flavours. The osmanthus contributes such a fresh ripened apricot or peach-like flavour with undertones of persimmon and golden honey. The finish is slightly nut, but still retains much of the sweetness present throughout the rest of the sip. It makes me think a little bit of almond extract or amaretto. Overall a wonderfully summery feeling and well balanced tea!!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJhAoSbtg31/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSswmFErgxc&ab_channel=daisyveacock-Topic
