17258 Tasting Notes
A hot cuppa from a few nights back. I can’t even remember the last time I drank this tea hot but I just really wanted something fruity but not heavy tasting and this blend really fit that bill. It’s always so nostalgic tea me since it’s one of the first DT blends (and really teas in general) that I fell in love with. I may be wrong about this, but I think it might have actually been my first ever cold brew too!
I still love the sweet candied pineapple and subtle creamy coconut notes but since first discovering this tea I’ve definitely tasted stronger pina colada blends. But it’s always gonna be special to me, and it’s still a mighty fine tea!
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’ve been drinking a lot of DT’s new Galactic Grape blend lately and the last time I steeped it up it made me think of this blend which, I’m sure, no one other than me remembers. It launched during the pandemic and I think was swiftly forgotten about by everyone – probably for good reason since it’s a weird a very “non-DT” feeling tea. Very different than our usual blending style.
I love weird teas though, and it makes no different to me that it feels so stylistically different. I mean, though deep and jammy grape notes just taste so purple! Like drinking the tea version of a Mr. Sketch grape marker but not quite so sweet, and with the complex and camphorous undertones of cardamom weaved throughout. I find it to be a very rich yet relaxing flavour combination, on top of just being a little strange.
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.
Gongfu!
Enjoyed this session paired with some super sweet and juicy blackberries!! The smoke note in this tea is very steady throughout the whole session, though not as intense as other smoked teas I’ve had from the Matsomoto Tea Garden. It also has an interesting undertone that feels like a mix of different woods, pithy citrus rinds, and a rather brassy and metallic tasting mineral note that weirdly evokes memories of crunchy Autumn leaves. The finish has a bit of sweetness to it as well, which I found was pulled forward by this pairing of berries. It’s a bit black licorice-y, which is not surprising as that’s a kind of dense, mouth-coating sweetness I’ve observed in different smoked teas many times before. Pretty solid way to spend a Friday afternoon!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6hVfB6uFUP/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmUbo2BvDxM
Happy (belated) Star Wars Day!! This year, I’m spoiled for options when it comes to Star Wars themed tea blends, so I’ve steeped up a cup of Brewbacca which is one of the tea samples I just recently got from Trader Nick’s that I haven’t had a chance to try yet. This blend of hojicha and rooibos is toasty and very comforting with sweet and cozy notes roasted almond to go alongside more mineral and woody kind of notes from the two bases. I do think I’d have preferred this blend if it were just a hojicha base because of the heavier body and deeper coffee-like notes of the roasted green tea. Plus, it would have held up a little bit better with the added milk. However, the hojicha is the stronger of these two tea bases anyway, and the flavour is still really rich and nutty. It feels like a very spot blend for everyone’s favourite wookie, and ended up being a great choice for today!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6jxG1tOq2R/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0vsNFO2pDg
Gongfu!
I believe this mini cake of compressed white tea was offered exclusively as part of the 8th Anniversary sale, and I was really excited to snag it since BLT typically knocks their white teas out of the park. As I’m slowly savoring this session while listening to the soothing ambiance of the rain outside, I’m finding this tea reminds me a lot of Skinny Dip; my favourite recurring white tea production that Bitterleaf carries. It’s very smooth and fresh with a lot of natural sweetness and both a creamy taste and mouthfeel. Initial steeps tasted a lot of ripe green melons to me, though now, as the session starts its decrescendo, I’m getting a more familiar mix of brown sugar and cooling cucumber pulp – some of my favourite tasting notes in white teas.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6l2QhhOC_3/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcxoTcgv5Nc
Gongfu!
The last couple years, I’ve slowly but quite steadily fallen more in love with sheng productions from Lincang such as this one. It’s actually a really great example of the qualities I’ve loved with the pressings I’ve explored; smooth and more medium bodied with a bit of a sweeter and more fruity lean, but still with some greener and more woody and mineral elements. There was a steep from this session (the second or third) that was especially striking to me because it had such rich and nuanced notes of fresh summer peaches, linden honey, and caramelized bananas or plantains. The banana note was so unexpected and not something I’ve experienced very much at all with raw pu’erh, but it felt right in place nestled alongside the gentle flavors of stonefruit, nectar, birch bark, and dandelion greens.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6pCFvhO0S8/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yqbi4fRVYE
I was pretty sure I’d tried this flavour before when I saw it at the grocery store but I couldn’t remember when so I grabbed a bottle just in case. I just went through my last tasting note though and it was six years ago! Holy smokes! No wonder I was struggling to remember when.
It seems like last time I drank this I was really struggling with the sourness of the kombucha vinegar, but this time around that didn’t phase me at all. That’s a fun reminder of both how palates change over time, but also acclimation to polarizing/acquired flavours. Six years ago I would have very much been a kombucha baby since I put off trying kombucha for a very, very long time since I wasn’t sure if I was allergic to it or not (long story). Now I quite often find myself disappointed when kombucha doesn’t have that strong sour funk.
Anyway – I really enjoyed this. The guava flavour is really spot on, but not sweet/cloying like so many guava drinks tend to be. I thought the balance with the kombucha vinegar was really nice!
I did say the last time I reviewed this that I would most likely be ordering it again, and true to my word I tacked on a bottle to my last grocery order. It was very, very good – just as fresh and juicy as I wrote about in my last review! Only downside is that the bottle it comes in is VERY large – closer to a 2L soda bottle than, like, a normal RTD. So, it’s a lot to go through in one shot…
Because of that I’ll probably take a break before I order again just so I don’t get sick of the flavour – but I’m sure I’ll still order it another time or two later this summer.
A gift left at my desk by a coworker who saw it in grocery and thought I’d want to try it. It was very thoughtful and technically they were spot on, except for the fact I’ve already tried it and I was not a fan. I did drink it this afternoon though because I was in a pinch between meetings and didn’t have time to brew up a cup of tea. I still didn’t like it. It’s too sweet – like a more artificial tasting peach juice. Quite syrupy.
Drinking this one currently.
Like the Arnold Palmer inspired Dead Billionaire flavour I’m definitely finding this one very thin/watered down tasting but in a way that’s sort of refreshing when so many berry flavoured iced teas in the RTD space are basically thinly veiled cocktail-syrup tasting fruit juices. In contrast, this is much more fresh and natural tasting. Though I am struggling to pinpoint exactly what the berry flavour is supposed to be past the fact that, like the can colouration kind of conveys, it tastes sort of “purple”. Blackberry, maybe?
I don’t love this one as much as Green Guillotine since I still want more body from this offering – but I do enjoy it.
