18054 Tasting Notes
Iced Tea!
A coworker made a huge pitcher of this tea for everyone working in the lab to enjoy. He definitely added a lot more sweetener than I usually drink this tea with, and to be honest it’s already quite sweet on its own. At first I did appreciate the punchy, candied mango and citrus notes. However, it got saccharine really quickly and I found myself wanting to dilute what he’d steeped up. A good reminder that different people definitely have different tastes.
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.
An evening cuppa a few nights ago during a moment I wanted both a sweet treat and a cozy little hug. This delivers on both, with a flavour that essentially combines sweet banana taffy, less sweet baked banana, and a kiss of warming cinnamon. The undertones are a bit more earthy and mineral, with some of the oolong itself poking through. Still ultimately a sweeter chai, and with a banana flavour that I know is a bit more polarizing. However, I really liked it.
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.
Sipping on the last third of this mug as I tackle some tasting notes tonight.
By now this has mostly cooled down and I’m finding that with the lower temperature is coming a much more noticeably smoky undertone and finish. One that I don’t recall from past times drinking this tea, but that I really don’t mind at all. When it was hotter I was getting a lot more of the sweet, mouthcoating star anise and a stronger sandalwood note in the mid sip. Both are still present, they’ve just shifted a bit in intensity.
One thing that’s stayed consistent is that as I go in for a sip and my nose gets closer to the cup I get a strong aroma of incense. As if I’ve walked into a one of those tourist-y crystal shops that also have books on divination, tarot cards, and an inexplicable amount of buddha statues. You know the ones. It’s weirdly kind of nostalgic!?
Gongfu!
I’m still feeling florals after yesterday’s tea session, so today I pulled out Gardenia Red. It’s sweet and aromatic, with syrupy florals accented by punchy notes of ripe red berries and a bit of a brandied or stewed fruit undertone that’s a bit darker. At times, this session was almost saccharine in its fruitiness, though it never fully crossed that line. Despite that, the aromatics of the gardenia still really shine throughout the time spent with this tea. I’ve had it a few times now, but this is the first time gongfu. If you want to taste the full potential of this unique scented tea, then I would say this is the way to brew it.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DR2vcF-EuQF/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmBDd2aDGZc
Gongfu!
I have such an incredibly soft spot for Jingmai sheng productions. This one is so sweet and fragrant, with strong notes of elderflower, peony, and those bright pink jellybeans you get around Easter. Almost syrupy in mouthfeel. It brews for a very long time before tapering off. In general, I tend to really like teas out of Jingmai, but there’s just something about the ones that Bitterleaf source that feel so tailored specifically to the exact qualities that I enjoy. Like they were sourced just for me…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DR0Td_FkqiJ/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMa4Ze04urc
Grandpa Style!
This is the ninth year of W2T’s annual Snoozefest release, and soon, I’ll have one more cake to add to this growing stack. I’ve been lucky and fast enough to grab a cake every year, including those first few where they sold out within the first few hours of going live. Every year I love going through the pile and seeing now the wrapper artwork has evolved over the years – so many shades of pink!!
…and it’s been a long moment since I’ve retasted that first year’s pressing, so I figured it was time I do that. Honestly, it smells great. Fragrant with an almost pungent fruity note. Tastes really great too, with a near equal fruity intensity. A mix of syrupy citrus peels, sweet stonefruits, and just a bit of apple cider-like vinegary twang. I really love how this tea has come into itself over the years!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRxmyg6EnJA/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHKXy9riC10
Iced Latte!
Unlike most of the iced matcha lattes I’ve had lately, this one wasn’t the water bottle method. Instead, I made a GIANT iced latte whisked directly in this huge 30+ ounce soup mug I have at my desk. It was enough to carry me through the entire work morning today once I’d gotten into the office…
For a while, I feel like I was very off coconut as a flavour and I’m not sure why. This was so good. Really, really fresh and creamy tasting with a more buttery coconut note that blended really seamlessly with the more umami profile of the matcha itself. I added a tiny, tiny bit of agave and that really accentuated the flavour of both the coconut and the matcha itself. Yeah, no complaints. Just a tasty matcha latte that kind of has me wanting to brew up a bunch of other coconut teas right now…
Pulled this one out because I’ve been craving more sweet and chocolatey teas as it’s gotten colder, and I just think I should probably work on getting through some of my older Deb blends as well. It’s not a bad tea, though the mouthfeel is really oily in a way that’s almost surprising even with this blend having ingredients like coconut and chocolate that have fat in them that melts/steeps out into the cup…
I wish the almond and chocolate were both a little stronger, though I do taste them. It’s really just that the coffee flavour is a bit off putting to me. It makes me think of gas station coffee, with that weird funky roast. A little more almond sweetness or richness from the chocolate milk offset or mask that a bit? But I finished the mug and it was overall more good than it was bad.
Iced Latte!
Shaken up in vanilla protein milk using the water bottle method. This is basically ancient matcha, and I would honestly be embarrassed to serve it to anyone other than myself. Like, it’s super oxidized. However, it still has a surprisingly good amount of Irish Cream flavour to it and in combination with something like a pre-flavoured milk it’s honestly not awful. Like, I got to start my day today with what essentially tasted like Bailey’s and I’m not mad about that even if the matcha has seen much, much better days.
It’s Advent Season, baby!
I’m actually not personally doing any advents this year. I just really, really struggled to find anything new that made me feel excited and I wasn’t super crazy about doing one from a company I’ve explored a lot from before either since I usually more or less know all of the teas included. Plus, if I’m being really honest, by the time advent season finishes I always feel so brutally burnt out. And I’m already quite tired right now y’all. So more tired on top of that? No thanks…
That said, I did make a tea advent for a coworker/friend this year using teas in my collection from other tea companies aside from DAVIDsTEA. It’s the fourth or fifth year I’ve done this for her, and I always really enjoy seeing her perspective on these teas and companies that I’m typically quite familiar with but she isn’t. So, I’ll live vicariously through her advent this year.
This was day one! I never repeat tea companies in her advent, but I always try to include a 52Teas blend each year. It’s TOUGH picking which one, and this has nearly made the cut a few times. Finally chose it this year. I probably won’t drink the same tea as she does on every day, but how could I turn away the excuse to indulge in this personal favourite!? It’s so smooth with a really clean, well balanced cola flavour and just enough ginger heat to keep it fun and interesting. Almost a bit molasses-s or brown sugar in the undertones, but not in a way that feels heavy or cloying.
I described it to her as cola meets ginger beer, and she really liked that idea. I had mine hot, but she opted for an iced tea instead. I think she really enjoyed it, which on one hand wasn’t surprising because I know she does like crystallized ginger a lot. But, also, soda flavoured things aren’t always her thing so that was a well received curve ball, I think!
