New Tasting Notes

Definitely better than the aracha! This one is very nice and uses a unique method of preparing the soil in Japan called chagusaba, wherein ground up sugarcane is among some additives used to fertilize the soil.

Medium sweetness, with nonexistent bitterness or astringency. Chalky aftertaste lasts awhile and is a bit of an unpleasant note honestly. I think this tea, like many fukamushicha, does better with shorter steeps and lower temps.

The first infusion is a bit fruity. Much less grassy overall compared to other senchas/greens in general. Not going to get more of this, but I did enjoy it!

Cultivar: Yabukita

So given how much I liked Nozomi, I ordered a sampling of other teas from JGT Co., even though this is not a company I probably would have otherwise purchased from. This is my first aracha, so nothing to compare it to. However, it is fairly bland overall. Has almost no smell on the dry or wet leaves, and the flavor is not bad, but nothing to write home about.

Took a chance and brewed this up with milk for some friends who stopped by for brunch. Smelled strongly of pepper and turmeric, and with the milk it was a beautiful creamy, buttery yellow color. Very spring-appropriate! The spices had more scent than taste, so it was very mild. I sweetened it very slightly, which I’m not sure was an improvement – it may not need any sweetness at all. That being said, I felt that it was more of a health drink (and I don’t drink tea for health reasons at all – just for flavor) than a delicious beverage. It was okay, not amazing. But I think that’s just a personal taste thing, not the fault of the tea. I think for people who love caffeine-free turmeric-based drinks, it would be a winner – it just wasn’t my thing.

Picked this up at Home Goods quite a while ago and I’ve been using it to concoct my own masala chai. I’m definitely homing in on what I think is a really good blend of spices with this as my tea base. It’s a nice, malty assam that stands up to the spices but doesn’t overpower them. I can boil it with the spices in my chai pot and it doesn’t get bitter at all. Very nice tea and it’s been so much fun to experiment with!

2025 sipdown no. 11

I adored the Iceberg tea from Dark Tickle, and was thrilled to find two sachet options from this company handy to me. Sadly, this one was not a winner (I had my suspicions with the sachet). The Ceylon base, in my opinion, wasn’t the best choice here due to the metallic bitterness it imparts, overtaking any berry flavour. Ah well, onto the next!

Feels like I have had this tea a million times. I keep getting free samples of it. Harney loves giving little samples of their green tea. And I definitely appreciate it, but I do wish they would provide more variety in the samples. I’ve had it a couple times and I’m to a fan…maybe it’s the combo of coconut and ginger. It’s better cold but I still don’t really like it. Not for me.

Sharedown

I am teaching three children who are siblings and there was one didn’t used to like tea, but since I have been sharing some teas with her mother she has found a few that she likes. She mentioned today that she prefers vanilla and simpke flavored teas to ones that have lots of fruit flavors mixed in, so I sent her home with the remainder of this tin. It will definitely be a repurchase unless someone shares an even better decaf vanilla tea, which I simply can’t imagine.

The loose leaf has always seemed superior to the sachets and I don’t why, considering that it should be the very same tea. I gave forewarning to the family that while the sachets are available locally at Target, it is best to get the loose!

TTB tea! This tastes strongly of jasmine with undercurrents of honey, which is what it’s supposed to taste like, so they did a good job! I like having jasmine tea maybe twice a year, and this one seems like a good option to fulfill that craving. It tastes high quality, and I enjoy that there are other ingredients in there to keep it interesting. It was refreshing cold!

Dry, dusty looking leaf. Curled and twisting.
Most of this will be used for a nitro infusion later this morning after I get the kids up for school.
This is the end of the bag. Lots of chopped leaf and bits that look more like a ctc tea. I’d really have to dive more into Nepal greens to get a better feel for them. But it’s difficult to do when you feel like you have a good grasp on teas feom another country. Maybe it’s just because it’s the end of the bag? The flavor is top dusty and dry for me. Hay, grass that was cut weeks ago and left to compost in a pile.
Nitro: on its own it’s nothing special. No foam and thus no cascade. The taste is fresh and would be nice for a hit summer day.

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that taught you something

I have returned to this, now 34 yr old, shôu pu’erh as snow is in the forecast, and a metaphorical chill has broadly fallen upon many of us. As was written by AJRimmer here about a different brew, “I liked it but didn’t love it.” So I added (dairy) milk and sweetener (which I never do for tea), partly in sarcastic humor. “And it was quite tasty!” A creamy aroma with a potent vanilla flavor and unidentifiable nuttiness arose, which was totally unexpected! I may try these additives to other pu’erhs with enthusiasm rather than wit. I learned, thanks to reading the notes here!

I got a fantastic birthday package in the mail today from Martin! Tea and chocolate! Many thanks, Martin!

I didn’t look up the instructions for this one before making it and just assumed that you were supposed to steep it in the fridge for six to twelve hours like most cold brew teas I have done. After about two hours I saw that there was already lots of color and decided to have it with supper since it was caffeine free and wouldn’t keep me up tonight.

I have now read Martin’s review of it, and I definitely enjoyed it more than Martin did. The stevia didn’t bother me, which is really unusual because usually that is a big blech from me. The fruitiness was nice and I felt like the citrus tingle was maybe more lemon than lime and gave it some sparkle. It was so convenient, too! I will definitely be making more for lunch tomorrow!

A cuppa from this morning! I definitely remembered this as a little more sweet and juicy tasting, but regardless I found the grape flavour incredibly smooth and pleasant with a bold, brisk black tea base. It was one of those cups that you start drinking and by the end you’ve sort of just fully relaxed and melted into. In fact, I almost feel like if it had been juicier it might have felt a little out of place for the morning that I ended up having. This was just better.

Marika saw this tea sachet at a hotel she was staying at a few months ago and kindly brought it back for me to try because she (correctly) instinctively knew I would be curious. I brewed it up last night and it was very enjoyable but also very familiar tasting and I really had a hard time figuring out what it was reminding me of. The combo of cranberry and orange was quite sweet, though not cloying, and there was a lot of natural brightness and juiciness to it too. In the end I sort of feeling like it was making me think of a candy of some kind? The closest I can think of is Sweet Tarts but also kind of the specific orange flavour of an orange Starburst?? For random hotel tea, it was really good though!

Iced Latte!

I’ve been on a really, really big matcha/powdered tea kick lately. Particularly as my first tea (and in some cases teas) of the day at work. However, this past weekend I kind of surprised myself when I found myself unable to really start my day properly until I’d whisked up some type of iced latte as an early morning drink. It’s just, like… become a bigger routine for me than expected!?

So this was an iced cashew milk hojicha powder latte, and it was damn good. I think in general cashew milk is highly underrated, but there’s something to be said for how much that nuttier flavour REALLY works with the toasty, nutty notes of hojicha. That was just so rich and robust tasting. Very, very much hit the spot with no additional flavourings or sweeteners or anything like that.

Cold Brew!

I don’t like the dry leaf aroma of this tea. It’s makes me think of playdoh, which sometimes happens with teas that contain nuts. However, once brewed it’s totally fine. Definitely a very baked apple flavour, but with a sort of pastry-like element that combined with the roast of the oolong and that nuttiness makes me think of slightly singed/burned pie crust? Not in a bad way at all though – that extra nuance to the flavour actually paints a much more realistic, vivid profile to me. I enjoyed this cold brew faaaaarrr more than I’d expected to!

Iced Latte!

This matcha is cut with corn silk/dietary fiber – supposedly to make it easier to whisk. I didn’t really know what to expect from it, but to be fair it was quite easy and fast to whisk up so I guess it does work. I did feel like the taste was a touch thin though, and I can’t help but wonder if the milder flavour was because of that inclusion. Still, it was fresh and a little floral tasting and made for a pretty enjoyable iced matcha latte regardless.

Though, I can’t help but ponder if I would have even noticed a difference if I hadn’t read the ingredients list first and if doing so subconsciously biased me/made me more critical while drinking this. Impossible to know now, but I wonder…

I LOVE Nannuo sheng pu’er and this was my introduction to that flavor profile. So jungly green and with just a hint of a vague tropical fruitiness. The thing I love most about Nannuo is its deep mineral character (which I call River Stone Essence.) It gets you in the later steeps, and tastes like the pure nectar-like essence of the Earth in all its glory. It pulls at the sides of the tongue with a slight drying sensation…so satisfying! The crazy thing about this tea was when I was drinking it in 2019 the qi was so powerful: it felt like a rising energy into my chest that built into a vibrating sensation. Sort of an intense sensation, but after 5 years that has mellowed out a bit.

Iced Latte!

This was part of my Toronto Tea Festival haul – I picked it up because it was the first time I’d seen microground/powdered tea from this company and I was curious. It’s a pretty smooth grind for a black tea powder, and it whisked up pretty easily with a nice amount of froth. Definitely very bergamot forward, but I liked how fresh and aromatic the bergamot was. Floral undertones, in a headier way. The only thing I felt like was missing was a note of cream/vanilla to really complete the “London Fog” element of the name. Without that flavour it’s really just an Earl Grey made into a latte, which isn’t totally the same thing…

I have almost finished this cake, it is so good! To me this tastes very “medicinal herbs” with that strong bitterness and almost a smoked sausages quality to it. Also a slight touch of an incense thing going on that makes it intriguing and intoxicating. The cha qi is potent with this one!

Iced Sipdown (2780)!

This is one of those teas that launched during the pandemic that I feel like just got drastically overshadowed by everything happening in the world at that time. It’s such a refreshing blend of citrus and tropical flavours though, and I’ve really enjoyed that bit of bright, fresh escapism every time I’ve brewed it up.

This iced cup was predominantly sweet, juicy orange with a touch of tangy pink grapefruit and hibiscus and then a tropical and super subtly creamy bit of coconut to round out the sip. It was kind of a perfect send off for a tea I think so few people actually remember…

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.

The first few infusions carry a steamed pumpkin, marshmallow and caramel aroma & flavor, transforming into melon in later steeps. I am drinking this tea alarmingly fast! I may have to pick up another cake.

I think I’ve subconsciously been in a very vanilla mood this past week because I’m just realizing now, as I write tasting notes, just how many vanilla blends I brewed up. This is a favourite, though. I just feel like it fits practically any mood you could possibly be in. So smooth and delicious, and a really nice foundation of rich floral black tea too.

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.

I absolutely loved this tea. It was the first cake of pu’erh I ever finished. Beautiful medium compression so the leaves I broke off were always intact…lovely leather/woody/floral flavor with straight honey smell in the cup. Very mellow qi – great for chilling on a Sunday afternoon. I am on the hunt for a similar tea to this one. Yiwu has become my favorite terroir in Yunnan <3

Feeling something fresh, floral, and a little fruity and this tea checks off all of those boxes so I made myself an afternoon mug of it today at work. I haven’t had this tea in so long now, and I’d completely forgotten just how much I enjoy it. It’s so well balanced, with a great natural sweetness and brightness to the flavour without the need for more tart hibiscus. Don’t get me wrong, I love a hibiscus and cherry combo – but it’s just a very different vibe than this more Spring-like profile. Well timed too, because it’s really feeling like Spring in Montreal now!

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.