I have two more tasting notes to do for the teas from last Friday’s launch (including this one) but that almost feels like old news at the point, since DT’s two different advent calendars launched today – the normal one and a matcha one…
Let’s focus on this tea for a moment, though! Of all the blends from last Friday, this is my favourite of the new teas – something that has surprised me over time because when it was originally developed I didn’t love it. It’s gone through some changes over time, and the initial flavour was actually really heavily inspired by bubble tea. Not the milk based bubble teas, but more of the fruity ones with things like jasmine green tea as the base with a sweet and juicy fruit note layered over top of that. It was later adapted to have more of this fruity and relaxing type of profile and to incorporate some other ingredients (like linden/silver lime tree blossoms) that are more known for uses as sleep aids. I’m also going to take a moment to pat myself on the back, because this is another blend that I named and I think it’s just really fun to say!
I have a… particular relationship with jasmine, in a few ways. To start, I don’t often enjoy jasmine teas (especially jasmine green tea) but there are exceptions to that such a jasmine white teas and DT’s Jasmine Black Pearls. Another thing about jasmine, to me, is that I almost always feel like it reminds me of grapes in terms of flavour – fresh, floral and sweet/juicy green grapes particularly. Most people disagree with me about that/think I’m crazy. It’s actually, for me, that sort of grape-y taste that makes this taste so good though – in my opinion. Lychee is another fruit that has a very sweet and syrupy/juicy taste while also being incredibly floral tasting so it meshes so incredibly well with the jasmine because not only does the floral quality of the jasmine work with the floral quality of the lychee but for me the fruity qualities of both go together so well too! All in all, I was just describe the taste of this tea as very fresh, juicy and floral. Mostly lychee, too – similar to Lychee Bellini but slightly less syrupy. I taste some apple in the undertones, as well, and a hint of carrot and lemongrass.
I’m not sure how well this tea will do because I think lychee, just in general, is a divisive flavour and then on top of that I imagine a lot of other people will be weirded out by the combination of lychee and jasmine but I do urge people to try this if they get the chance because it’s a really cool combination in my opinion – like, if you enjoyed Blackberry Jasmine Blast and the way the fruit/jasmine played off each other in that blend I do believe you’ll strongly enjoy this one too. Assuming, I guess, that you don’t hate lychee.
Also, I also just like diversity in my tea blends and there are A MILLION sleep teas that are chamomile/lavender/mint/valerian/etc but I can’t think of another one that’s lychee.
It’s also killer iced/cold brewed.
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.