New Tasting Notes

Casting Whimsy Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 15
Tae Kwon Dodo

Okay, I laughed out loud at this tea’s name, and when I saw that it’s a watermelon-flavored tea, I laughed even harder. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Ice Age fandom blend before, but I’m here for it.

As far as the tea itself, it’s pleasant enough. Nice, refreshing watermelon flavor that’s a bit more tangy than sweet, and just a little bit of mint. I don’t really taste the black tea, but something is adding a musty note. There were also a few cardamom pods mixed in, but I don’t taste them at all.

Rating: 68

So someone in the office brought in a cinnamon coffee creamer that is lacking weird ingredients and is sweetened by stevia. And since I thought Gingerbread Festival needed both sweetness and cinnamon, I thought what the heck and added a splash. I don’t usually like to drink calories but this is an experiment.

I added the creamer to the pot before I put in the water as I didn’t want to cool it down nor water down the flavor of the tea.

Result: wow, that’s sweet. I should have used half the amount I went with. It does, however, add what I felt was missing before. Would I call this gingerbread? No. Is it still enjoyable? Absolutely.

Second steep and I did not add any more creamer, just went with whatever residue was left in the pot. Much less sweet, which I prefer. Not much cinnamon which I miss but I can live with.

Note to self: see if I can pickup some cinnamon stevia drops as I’ll be able to control the sweetness better and I can happily live without the cream. Not an every day thing, but maybe a nice once in a while.

DIY Lupicia Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 15

This was quite good – a flavorful yet smooth Assam-like base with a nice amount of cardamom. I don’t think I noticed the pepper, but I didn’t miss it. It was a simple yet tasty tea, especially for the winter time. I’m not sure I would order it, since I have other similar options, but would happily drink it were it in my collection!

Casting Whimsy Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 14

I honestly didn’t get much flavor from this one, and definitely not apple. There was a bit of a caramel-like sweetness, but it was pretty nondescript. Meh!

I don’t know why I bought this. I try to avoid fruit in my tea and I just outright don’t like most stone fruits. So its a bit of a mystery why I ordered a tea with apricot in it. I either didn’t read the ingredients list very well (very possible) or I confused it with and another tea and screwed up when ordering. But if that is the case, I have no idea what that would have been. But its here so I may as well give it a try.

First off, yes, I very much smell apricot in both the dry leaf and the steeped tea. I’m also sadly not tasting much else. No chocolate (chocolate flavoring never tastes like chocolate to me), vanilla, almonds, etc. And sadly, I can’t really taste the base tea either.

As it cools it seems to get quite drying in the mouth. As it cools some more it gets an almost bitter flavor/feeling.

I really don’t have much else to say. Its an apricot tea and that apricot stands out quite a lot. If I enjoyed that flavor, this might be a nice tea. But as is, its just not my thing.

A sipdown! (M: 3 Y: 3)
Steepster website was funky day before yesterday; so I am writing a note for this sipdown just today.

It is a lovely black tea with fruity notes of rosehips as well as straweberries; well blended together making a tasty drink. There are also notes of floral notes, which were pleasant.

The only con I find is that tea bag != loose leaf, and this contains no wild berries itself but strawberries and loose leaf version contains also black currants, elderberries and hawthorn berries. That sound better than “natural berry flavour”. That’s why I also added that this entry is about tea bags.

This is a little bubble gum-ish for me. I love a green rooibos, but this is probably my least favorite one from Market Spice since the flavors are a little fake. I still finished my ounce quickly!

Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown 2025 – Day 22

Overall, a relatively light black tea that’s an easy drinker. It’s malty but not heavy, with a bit of astringency at the end of the sip. One of those “glad I tried it, would readily drink it again, but probably not going to actively seek it out” teas.

Sipdown

January Sipdown Challenge Prompt – select two teas, flip a coin, drink heads on 19th, other on 20th

A decent but unremarkable Sri Lankan tea, especially now that I have had Rare Tea Company’s Sri Lankan Hand Rolled.

Dry leaf of this is very unappealing to me, with way too strong of a chamomile note and a general floral note that’s musty and earthy. However, steeped the cup isn’t bad at all. Smoother with a silky feeling mouthfeel and more of a pleasantly balanced feeling aromatic lavender note with sweeter vanilla notes and a touch of honey from the rooibos. Barely any chamomile. So, there was that initial disconnect to get past but then it was totally fine.

I have about a kilo of this tea at home, and another bag maybe a third of that size at one of the two offices I work out of. However, this week I decided to fill a tin out of my home stash and bring it to the other office so that I have some at all three spots.

I made a mug this afternoon and it was just so comforting and nostalgic. Bright, fruity cranberry top notes with that super creamy pear finish that I just adore so much. So glad to have spread out my stash a bit more so I can enjoy it more regularly in all of those locations.

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.