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The other new one from the Valentine’s Collection!

I tried this one iced for my first tasting because I wasn’t really in the mood for taking the risk of chocolate goop/oily mouthfeel from the white chocolate in the blend. I fully expected creamy white chocolate black with rose undertones from this, and I got the opposite: aromatic, fragrant rose black with creamy chocolate undertones. I enjoyed it, though I don’t know if I’d say strongly. It’s probably a little more intended for hot consumption, honestly. The rose notes are GREAT though, if you like floral. Most of you know I’ve been on a BIG floral kick right now, so right up my current alley.

If you don’t like floral? I’d probably recommend skipping over this one; it’s not light on the rose notes. Also, kudos to DT for another relatively simple blend without a ton of weird ingredients: this one is simple but effective.

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.

#ProjectTeaWall

Yes, I’m still working towards project tea wall even though it’s been a while since I wrote a review for a Project Tea Wall blend. I just don’t have many teas left, and most of them are things I’m not super excited for so this last stretch has been slow going…

I had this one as a latte last night during the merch flip for the Valentine’s Collection. It wasn’t anything surprising: I’ve got lots of experience with Assam teas and this was pretty characteristic of the region. Even as a latte is was very bold/full bodied, and it had beautiful malt notes to it and a nice natural sweetness.

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… The Valentine’s Collection is out today!

I did the merch set up last night, and let me tell you I really like the look of all the new teaware! My favourite is the metallic, gradient perfect mugs though! I’ve been severely torn between buying the teal or the pink since I first saw them, though I’m leaning towards the teal because believe it or not I actually don’t own a teal mug yet!

Also, of course, a new collection means new teas! The Earl’s Valentine is back, and there are two new blends as well: this tea and White Chocolate Rose which is a black tea. I’ve been super excited to try them out, so of course I had to as soon as possible!

I had this one hot, and it was really lovely but honestly a little surprising? It’s supposed to be like a strawberry and cream oolong and I didn’t totally get that profile but I did thoroughly enjoy what I did taste.

The really noticeable cane sugar in the leaf had me a little cautious, but all in all I found this actually pretty mellow and light to medium bodied without a sense of over the top sweetness. In fact, it tasted very naturally sweet to me despite the fact I knew otherwise. The strawberry tasted a little more generic berry to me than distinctly strawberry, perhaps because the apple in the blend comes through more than I’d expected it to. Still, it is berry like and really pleasant overall. I thought it had a nice, delicate floral taste in the finish as well. More jasmine than rose, in my opinion – can’t speak towards how strong the gomphrena is/was because it’s not an ingredient I have much or really any familiarity with. The cream element was very absent for me.

So yeah, I actually REALLY enjoyed this profile although it doesn’t at all seem like what was intended here. I’m going to say that warrants a bit of further exploration with this blend before I make any overall decisions about it. First impression was good though.

Today’s cold brew, which was made possible because the lovely VariaTEA topped me up with more of this tea! It’s a big favourite of mine for several reasons: it was the first herbal tea I ever fell in love with and one of the first teas I ever tried in general so it’s nostalgic for me but also I just really like the flavour profile and the pineapple in general.

This cold brew was a wave of sweet, summery nostalgia that took me all the way back to when I first discovered DAVIDsTEA and was a silly, ignorant thing who still blindly purchased 100g amounts. At least this blind purchase worked out back then. Anyway; this brew is mellow but still sweet with tropical notes of pineapple and cool, crisp apple hints to it. The coconut is also pretty soft; more of a background/finish note. Still, it ties everything together and makes this just Pina Colada-like enough. Yes!

Really hoping this comes back in the summer like it did last year…

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.

Last tea of the night!

Really enjoying this; it’s sweet and smooth with creamy, silky orange notes that make me think of a Creamsicle melting in summer time. There are floral undertones which add a nice layer of flavour to this, and the finish is just a bit currant-y. I’m still choked up that this tea was retired, and I will continue to hold out hope for a return of it!

In the mean time, I’m just going to enjoy what I have left of it as I want to drink this before all of the flavour is lost…

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.

Broke into this one tonight when I got home from work; I’m trying really hard to stay on top of my Gong Fu goal/New Year’s resolution and so far I haven’t slipped up yet. Admittedly this week was hard though what with my being sick for the bulk of it.

I kept this session really casual; I didn’t take notes and I more went by the feel of things for the infusions times rather than actually specifically timing them out. I also didn’t track the number of infusions I drank either but my guess would be around six to eight? It was a somewhat shorter session.

This was lovely though, as I knew it would be. It took an infusion for the leaves to really wake up and the floral notes/magnolia to become strong and defined but when it did it was beautiful. It was very full bodied for a greener, scented oolong with a lot of natural sweetness. Of course it tasted like Magnolia, but I’d say there were other floral notes too. To be specific, I tasted peony a fair bit in addition to the fragrant magnolia. Other nice notes were apple skin and peach, which emerged more in late infusions as a background flavour once the magnolia was waning.

It was really nice to have a casual session like this. As important as precision and note taking are as both learning tools and for brewing great tea, the experience and to a degree spirituality of drinking tea is equally valuable and beautiful. After all, that’s why I like to curate tea and music pairings or practice pairing tea and food: to elevate the experience!

Iced Soy Latte!

My ASM and I have started doing a thing where we’ll pick out a tea for one another without any advice/suggestions from the other – it’s a great way for him to try new teas because he’s only had a small selection of what we carry (maybe 25 teas) since he’s only been working there for a month or so, and it’s also a solid way for me to make sure I’m not following into the same rut of drinking the same things over and over.

So, this is what he chose for me! I was actually pretty excited about his choice honestly because this is my favourite tea from the Feel Good collection and I’ve been debating getting some for at home so trying it several ways is a good way to help me choose. Plus, milk/mint usually isn’t a bad combo. Honestly though? Wasn’t in love with this when I tried it. It was certainly really refreshing, and the spearmint came through brilliantly in a way that was both sweet and crisp. However, I would have expected it to taste creamier/more silky because it was a latte and it didn’t. Instead it still retained a bit of a herby taste overall. I think what it needed was something like white chocolate or vanilla to really pull it all together.

It was still a good choice overall though!

He liked his pick too; an iced Oh Canada with a bit of added soy milk to make it silkier!

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.

Sipdown (213)!

Made this one iced at DT today; I actually had brought it with the plan to drink it hot on shift but the store was so hot today that all I could bring myself to make was iced teas. It was actually really tasty though! At first I found it almost unpleasantly brisk, but after a couple sips I settled into the flavour and really appreciated the nuances of each element.

I expected a richer blackberry, but instead this is fairly mellow and creeps in the background a bit; it’s sweet but not overly and is very natural. I’d describe it primarily as the taste of a blackberry that’s just not quite ripe yet, but right on the cusp. What was surprisingly strong to me was the maple which was present in the top of the sip alongside the brisker, bold malty black base. The finish was vanilla and dry cinnamon. Overall the drink was just a hint astringent.

A pump of agave probably wouldn’t have hurt to brighten it up/draw out the blackberry but I generally try to avoid sweetener where I can and this wasn’t bad. Just throwing the idea out there for anyone who might find this not quite sweet enough.

Overall though I think this does do a really nice, solid job of recreating the taste of waffles with maple syrup and blackberries – just in a way where the tea itself isn’t lost in the flavours. It took a while, but I ended up finishing it off quite enamored with it.

Thanks VariaTEA!

Cold Brew Sipdown (214)!

Thanks for the sample VariaTEA!

This is a really interesting blend; I fully expected strong coconut notes and hints of lime but it’s more like the other way around? Very strong, bold lime notes especially in the top and mid sip. It’s bright, sweet, juicy and all kinds of tangy! I’m enjoying it a lot. The coconut kicks in during the finish, and is quite buttery actually. Lime and coconut is a pretty solid pairing overall; and it works here mostly. The thing that is kind of disconnected is the butteryness of the coconut – it’s strange next to the tangyness of the lime. Still, it’s nice overall! Probably not something I’d revisit though.

GCTTB Round 6

God bless you, Tea Sommelier education!

Tonight I’m drinking/eating the best meal I’ve had literally all of 2017 – and I mean to be fair it’s only been twenty eight days but still…

So, I planned this whole thing out as I was going through the tea box for this first time; I saw a traditional black Darjeeling and I remembered the tea/cheese pairing exercise we did as part of the course. I’ve casually practiced this since doing it, but I haven’t really made a big thing out of it yet nor have I revisited cheese pairings with Darjeeling so I figured why not do both! After all, I did receive a Brie baker for Christmas that I hadn’t gotten to try out yet.

So to break it down, my tea was obviously this one but the meal I had was a baked brie topped with red pepper jelly (which was cooked along with the brie) spread over the most heavenly cranberry hazlenut crackers. I know that sounds like a lot of flavours going on but it was thought out, and all came together really wonderfully. The high fat content and butteryness of the brie eliminate the astringency in the mouthfeel of the Darjeeling which can sometimes be unpleasant, and at the same time the butter acts as a flavour carrier. This leaves the beautiful muscatel notes which Darjeeling is so prized for which are drawn out and exaggerated by the sweetness of the cranberry in the crackers.

So like I said, well thought out/planned out – and just orgasmic as well. I was literally moaning with nearly every bite. My only regret is that I didn’t have someone to share it with that would have properly appreciated it.

https://scontent.fyzd1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16406516_10209458626836529_1517805753311558582_n.jpg?oh=9f2c8ee233b7d1d05860ab274a72a453&oe=5902631B

There’s a crappy quality picture of it in its full glory for you all to be jealous of – and of course it wouldn’t be complete without a song pairing for auditory stimulation as well so here was my selection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDxhugRKZ8g&index=3&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

And oh what a night it was!