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Our new Mother’s Day blend!

Ok; so I feel like there’s a lot to unpack with this blend. I mean, it’s got a ton of ingredients that have very strong flavours: lemon balm, ginger, rosemary, sea buckthorn, cranberry, licorice root, chamomile, and… sandy everlasting flower!?

I’ll admit that last one was new to me so I had to look it up; I guess it’s supposed to have a somewhat honey like/sweet and generically floral flavour. Sure, why not!? Let’s add that to the party too!

The dry aroma is a bit of a mess, in my opinion. It’s just very intense while not really having much in it that’s distinct. Like, it’s sort of fruity, sort of floral, sort of herby, sort of spicy!? That’s a TON going on! Thankfully, the brewed up cup is a lot smoother and cohesive tasting. I’d call it medium bodied and predominantly fruity – though there are definitely other contributing elements.

Lets start by unpacking the fruity side of it though; I’d say the general body flavour is cranberry – a nice cranberry too, with sweet and tart sides. More of the tartness in the top note, though. It actually kind of takes me back to my beloved Cranberry Pear. Though I think the cranberry in this blend is a lot lighter in terms of flavour overall. Next to that distinct taste is this weird sea buckthorn and lemon balm mix that just tastes mildly citrusy. I know sea buckthorn is techinically a berry, but it’s also just reminded me a lot of lemon, and coupled with the lemon balm that’s definitely what I’m reading as a whole.

From there I think the second strongest element is all the floral things going on. Chamomile is the strongest to me; I distinctly taste it in the finish and aftertaste post swallow. I don’t hate it, but I have to wonder if I don’t hate it because the licorice root sweetens it and the ‘sandy everlasting flower’ also, apparently, has a sweet taste that could be masking some of the chamomile ick. It’s hard to know exactly what the sandy everlasting flower tastes like though because I’ve not tasted it on its own. There’s definitely floral sweetness here though that’s not typical of what I’ve experienced with chamomile.

Finally, the ginger and the rosemary. For starters, I love a good savory herb and fruit pairing so I was LIVING for the rosemary in this blend. I can sort of smell it in the dry leaf, but in the taste? I’m totally losing it under all the fruit. That’s disappointing to me; I could see it being such a nice compliment to both the lemon-ish notes and the cranberry. The ginger, on the other hand, I think is VERY lightly present. Totally ties into the lemon/ginger sort of tea category and I suppose does make for a calming and relaxing type of profile.

On the whole? I like the blend. I don’t think it’s mind blowing by any means and I’d have loved to see how tightly put together it could have been if the ingredients list was a little more edited down. but the flavours that are here and present do play well off one another and I greatly appreciate that it’s a blend that is designed to have these thought out layers of flavour rather than being a ‘one night’ tea or something meant to recreate a very specific drink/food/dessert. There’s a creativity to the creation of this one that is commendable, in my opinion.

More cranberry and rosemary though, less chamomile. That’s what I want.

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

So, we were supposed to get this tea AGES ago – back when Green Spiral, Jasmine Peony, and Sun Moon Black all came out. Due to a bit of a kerfuffle, many stores are only just not receiving it though, mine included.

I feel kind of ‘meh’ about this one; it actually smells quite nice and very intensely vanilla bean heavy. Like, good vanilla too – the Madagascar or Tahitian shit. However, I don’t really love green tea, and typically Sencha is my least favourite of ALL the green teas. Also, it bugs me a little bit that this is a flavoured tea BUT it’s getting classed on the tea wall as a ‘straight tea’. In general, scented teas that are classed as straight teas is already a little on the fence for me because (while they are ONLY tea leaf) they’ve still been altered in some way. We also don’t class our Milk Oolong as a straight tea because it’s flavoured, and we didn’t class Butter Sencha as a straight tea when we had that one – so what makes this one special/different!? I don’t know the answer – it’s just a question I have…

Eventually I will try this one straight though; in fact that was my plan for it today. However conversation on UNYtea’s live Instagram session kind of changed my plans for this tea in the moment. We ended up talking about tea flavoured or infused ice cream as well as tea and ice cream pairings. Of course, that made me remember that I had a container of matcha flavoured ice cream in the freezer. So, spur of the moment I made myself a creamy, rich ‘green tea float’ using this tea as my liquid base and the ice cream as the, well, ice cream.

Photo/Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh97uS8H2GY/?taken-by=ros_strange

Man, it was so good. I mean, really the whole drink had two flavours: sweet, rich and authentic tasting vanilla and smooth, full bodied green tea/matcha. I didn’t even mind that this was a Sencha green tea; the whole thing was just elevated to this level of decadence that was really indulgent, and the mouthfeel was thick, and frothy. Plus, the vanilla was strong and really saved the drink/brought it all together.

I’ll be honest, it actually made me excited to try this tea straight and see what I think.

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Cold Brew!

Man, it actually felt really hot today so I went through a lot of cold brewed tea/iced teas. I’ve had this iced now what feels like a million times, and I wanted to do something sort of different with it so I decided to give it a go as a cold brew; sometimes cold brews come out tasting very different from their iced tea counterparts so it was interesting to me to see what would happen with this one.

I think, largely, it tasted the same as it does iced – which is to say that it tasted delicious! I 100% still get that smooth, cream soda like flavour that’s the core reason for why I fell in love with this blend. If anything, it was a reminder that I need to actually try a carbonated version of this blend while also being a confirmation that buying 400g of it was a good choice. The one thing I thought was different was the degree of tart fruit notes; personally I think this one leans much more heavily towards the cream soda elements than anything else but with this cold brew I did get the sweetness and tropical undertones of the pineapple/mango and the fleeting moments of tart rhubarb in the top of the sip. It added a different element to the blend, but was still delicious.

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Easily the most beautiful loose black tea I’ve had in ages…

The dry leaf for this one had a very nostalgic, enticing smell to me. On top of lots, and lots of rose it’s got sweet cardamom and pistachio and everything sort of comes together in a way that reminds me of a sweet, nut milk based halva that the owner of our neighborhood convenience store used to give to my brother and I as kids. It was so tasty; I’m pretty sure it was made from pistachio, cashew, cardamom, and ginger. This reminds me A LOT of that…

Taste wise? I think it’s a little bit flat. I mean, totally doesn’t taste bad but it lacks the same mouthwatering sweet and nutty profile that the dry leaf had. Mostly it just tastes very fresh and floral/rosey. Like, there’s NO mistaking those rose notes. I just wish more of the pistachio and cardamom actually came through in the flavour…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh5AKGBnFln/?taken-by=ros_strange

Iced with milk.

I still absolutely adore the flavour of this one; it’s very creamy and almost reminds me of a dense, rich vanilla cake batter. However, the colour is a growing disappointment. In general it’s just simply not blue the same way that it appears to be advertised. I mean, not to say it’s exactly the normal colour of matcha either. This cup was definitely kind of teal-ish? It looked basically the same colour that spirulina does.

Mermaid Matcha if the mermaid lived in a swamp, perhaps?

Just a small teacup of this one late at night because I was craving the fruit and herb pairing. Very sweet, bright peach made juicier and more vibrant by the contrasting savory thyme! A bit of nuttiness and a cinnamon finish. This one has so many layers/facets of flavour and they all pop so, so much! Very tasty!

Cold Brew!

This was a lovely cold brew; very refreshing/hydrating with a cooling watermelon note overall. Apart from that delicious watermelon flavour this was a little bit one note as a brew, but I pieced together an AWESOME food pairing for this one and that really elevated the experience/made it bloody brilliant.

Essentially it was my cold brew, but with a dish of Blueberry Basil gelato paired up with it and some freshly sliced honeydew. So, there were multiple layers of melon and just an extra boost of refreshing/cooling from the gelato. Plus, I find when you pair something herbaceous (basil) and fruit it always makes the fruit pop. Which was definitely the case here!

Yum yum.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhuxRjLHSjW/?taken-by=ros_strange

Iced tea.

This continues to be completely delicious and impressive; and I’m going through the tea leaf way too quickly. Like, I can’t emphasize enough how much I wish I had really stocked up on this one. I just… had no way of knowing how much I’d like it.

Mellow and refreshing overall; the fruit notes are all so juicy and natural though! Like, really ripe, perfect version of their actual fruit counterparts. Mostly lychee, but also pineapple top notes and black currant undertones. Gives me this sort of ‘tropical/exotic Ribena’ kind of vibe. It’s REALLY good!

Very bright, and sweet – you can really tell that the fruit in the blend is largely candied fruit. I got a strong ‘orchard fruit’ vibe from this overall: lots of apple and succulent, ripe pear notes. The peach was largely lost in the crowd and what did come through was a bit too sweet. I like this one a lot – but every now and then less is more, you know?

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This was the other tea I brought with to brunch/the restaurant.

I’m a touch worried about this tea; it’s still very enjoyable but it’s definitely getting old now and I’m concerned about when the coconut might turn. I think I need to power through whats left in the tin, like I do every summer, and then restock with some fresher tea.

Like I said though, this hasn’t really turned yet and it still produced a strong cup at the restaurant. I added cream to it which definitely tied together those Pina Colada elements a bit more strongly – though this definitely tasted more like pineapple than anything else. Creamy pineapple. There was a funny moment when my brother looked over after I’d added the cream to the cup and very audibly voiced how incredibly strange/unique it was that my tea had brewed up such a distinct, opaque white colour so quickly. ’I’ve never, EVER seen one of your teas do that!’ I debated not filling him in, but ultimately my Aunt spilled the beans for me.

Mouthfeel was a touch oily, but I think that’s a result of the cream and not the tea.