15575 Tasting Notes

Geek Steep S1E15 – V for Vendetta

This is an example of one of those pairings that just doesn’t work.

Going in to this week’s Geek I knew very, very little about the actual content of the graphic novel we were reading aside from the fact it was a bit darker/heavier in nature and would in some way revolve around anarchy. I really had no clue how to approach the pairing, and so what ended up happening was that I made a mug of tea and then realized I had time to start reading the graphic novel… so that became my pairing.

I knew within the first five pages that this was the wrong tea. I mean, I like this tea but it’s very bright and sunny with vibrant, juicy and sharp notes of tangerine and a crisp mint undertone with actually minimal amounts of spice. It was too full of life and cheeriness to possibly work with this graphic novel.

Sometimes your pairing just doesn’t work though – and thankfully I was able to recover from it and find something more suitable for the rest of my read through!

Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/

My Geek Steep Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJo61bZAER1/

Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website

DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

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.

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86

#2021sipdownchallenge

Thanks Mastress Alita for the prompt/inspiration for this cuppa! I guess it’s National Apricot Day, so it was a fun exercise going through the different apricot teas in my stash to find one to drink. I was split, in the end, between this and Chai Apricot from Tea Desire. Both blends I like a lot. Apricot is such a specific flavour, but when it’s done well it’s done really well and Camellia Sinensis nails it here!

Usually when I buy tea from Camellia Sinensis I’m more interested in their single origin teas, but this is one of the best apricot teas I’ve come across! Jammy and well rounded w/ apricot, nectarine, and apple notes paired with a very complimentary floral and nutty oolong on the greener side! It paired very well with the Inhumans comic I was reading; it reminded me of the character Medusa’s vibrant red/orange hair. Yum yum!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ11-K_ABk1/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoxuYDvHbqs&ab_channel=KaileeMorgueVEVO

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87
drank Purple Jade by QNTM Leaf Tea
15575 tasting notes

Gongfu!

Recently got a new QNTM Leaf order so I dug into it this morning with a tasty little session! Love how smooth and toasty this purple tea is! The tea liquor has a great body and thickness to it, and the taste is heavily grilled/roasted nuts and corn with a pleasant minerality and slight woodier undertone! Resteeps considerably well, and was a nice cozier session to begin the morning with!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ1TuJ9Ajc7/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8f3puF-hU8&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart

Inkling

Were you the one who added this to the TTB? I really enjoyed sampling it!

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80
drank Morning Munchies by TeaTaxi
15575 tasting notes

Cold Brew!

I was thinking about this when I was prepping this cold brew, but is TeaTaxi even still in business anymore? I feel like I haven’t heard anything about them in ages…

Anyway, this cold brew is pretty good but I do think the tea is showing some signs of aging. The flavour is a bit less potent than I recall, and that slight fade is allowing more of a sharp sour berry top note to come through in the flavour. The rest is like a berry pastry or even an oatmeal with fress berries, just maybe a smidge too acidic in the top note to big as perfect as it has the potential to be.

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It’s been a while but I spontaneously found myself craving this tea so I dipped back into my small tin of it – it was a nice cup and honestly I’d all but forgotten the flavour profile so I was a little surprised that it had such a hot cinnamon flavour but I welcomed it – it worked nicely with the sweet almond and creamy vanilla notes. Body was a bit thin for me, but the flavour good! I’ve always thought that this was a really weirdly named tea, but if you don’t think of the name at all it’s nice!

In other news…

I got a hamster over my holiday break! It’s been probably about two and a half years since I last had a pet because, since moving to Montreal, I’ve not been allowed to have pets in my apartments. However, over the break I had a conversation with my landlord to see if she would change her mind about me having a small caged pet based on my rental history and she agreed, so I was finally able to get a small furry friend!

I don’t have photos yet because I’m still in the taming process, and he seems freaked out by my phone – but his name is Gorilla and he’s a mostly black Dalmation Hamster. Once he’s comfortable enough being held out of the cage and around phones I’ll sneak some photos. He’s super fluffy and adorable!

Mastress Alita

Yay for a pet! I actually bought a house (well, it’s a condo, so an apartment you own but I’m still paying mortgage harhar) in 2019 after I lost a companion animal after 21 years (a bird, only birds and fish were allowed at my previous rental apartment) and they refused to honor a medical note saying I needed another companion animal (and I wanted a cat). And I’d lived there 17 years, never once late on rent. I find it rather abhorrant how awful rentals are about pets. I’m glad yours came around for you! (And you don’t now have a $110k hamster… I tell my cat that’s how much she cost me but truthfully she’s priceless :-)

AJRimmer

Yeah, when I was looking for a place to live, I picked the only place I could find that didn’t charge monthly pet rent in addition to regular rent. I totally get why they charge it though because my cats have absolutely destroyed some stuff, so I’m sort of dreading those fees when I move out.

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drank Pink Lemonade by T Kettle
15575 tasting notes

I figured I’d end today’s T Kettle tasting notes on a positive one because I’m not all criticism…

I really enjoyed this blend a lot! The smell of the dry leaf is really captivating and delicious too; I’m having an awfully hard time placing specifically what it reminded me of but it was definitely some kind of sweet nostalgic summer treat from my childhood. I thought, since this looks to be the T Kettle version of Rainbow Lemonade, that maybe it was just that it was reminding me of Rainbow Sherbet" since that’s what DT’s blend is based on. And, while it is true that this has a mix of fresh and sweet raspberry, lime, orange, and lemon notes like that nostalgic rainbow sherbet, it’s definitely not just reminding me of sherbet. Skittles!? Maybe!? Starburst!? It’s gonna come to me eventually!

The crazy thing is that the smell of the dry leaf actually translated into the flavour of the steeped tea almost perfectly and that rarely happens. Sometimes a tea gets pretty close to tasting EXACTLY like how it smells but this was almost perfectly spot on. It was so well balanced, juicy, and flavourful with just the right amount of tang and sweetness.

I… actually liked it a lot more than Rainbow Sherbet/Rainbow Lemonade from DT and I think that, were my cupboard more in control, I would probably buy this for myself. It might just dethrone “Strawberry Fondue” as my favourite T Kettle blend that I’ve tried yet!

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drank Razzle Dazzle by T Kettle
15575 tasting notes

I can’t decide if I think this is supposed to be the T Kettle version of DT’s Frozen Raspberry or not, and I also can’t decide if I enjoyed the taste of this tisane…

It’s pretty earthy for what appears to be intended as a fruity raspberry profile. Like, I can really clearly taste the earthy tones of both of the beetroot and carrot in the blend about as much as I’m getting raspberry and hibiscus. It’s sort of like one of those cold pressed juices that’s actually equal parts fruit and veg, and intended to be healthy. Tasting the earthy veg notes here doesn’t make it unpleasant tasting, but it does sort of distract from the pop of fruit and tangyness of the blend.

The one thing in the blend that I do flat out dislike is the finish – it’s almost chalky, but in that way that sometimes weird cream flavours come off as chalky? Because T Kettle doesn’t label their flavourings I can’t say for sure, but I feel pretty confident that there’s some sort of cream or vanilla flavouring here that isn’t vibing well with me.

If it weren’t for that I think I could almost get on board with this tea, earthiness and all.

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drank Apple Crisp Chai by T Kettle
15575 tasting notes

The smell of this blend intimidated me a little bit because it was so pickle-y and acidic smelling. It reminded me a lot, actually, of Monster Mash from DT – even though the tea I believe it’s trying to be is Baked Apple Chai. Thankfully, like Monster Mash, it doesn’t actually taste pickle-y once it’s been steeped.

For such a pungent dry leaf aroma and so many spices and other strong ingredients, like hibiscus, in the ingredients list… I was a little surprised by how thin the mouthfeel was and how light the flavour. I even left my fill your own teabag in the mug to give it a chance to get more potent and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. The taste was pleasantly apple forward, with a crispness that seemed fitting the name and notes of anise, cinnamon, and ginger – but just not a lot of any of them.

I could see this working for people who find Baked Apple Chai, from DT, a little too strong because that is a very strongly flavoured blend – but for me this just felt a bit flat and lackluster. But again, at least it wasn’t pickle-y.

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drank Pom Punch by T Kettle
15575 tasting notes

So, when I see the name “Pom Punch” I expect the flavour here to have some intensity. Maybe a pucker/tartness, maybe a lot of sweetness similar to a “punch” like the drink – but just some kind of “bang” to it – and of course that makes sense to me because I’m pretty sure the intention with this blend was to mirror DT’s Pomegrateful white tea blend which is a pretty juicy, sweet and strongly flavoured tea…

With that in mind – I don’t really feel like the name matches the profile!? I mean, the pomegranate is spot on – this does, to me at least, taste pretty clearly like pomegranate. However, it’s more of a gentler and light to medium bodied take on that profile with a lot more of the white tea flavour coming through than what does in Pomegrateful. Even if you don’t view this as a recreation of that tea, I feel like I would have been at least a tiny bit disappointed by the name. It’s so soft and soothing, albeit the finish is a little more tart and crisp.

That said, I like this tea. I don’t think I’d want to stock up on it because I just don’t see myself craving this kind of softer pomegranate profile often but I actually think I prefer it to the almost more generic “red fruit” that I get in Pomegrateful. They’re just so dissimilar!

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Hot cuppa!

I drank this one cold brewed over the winter break because it was so refreshing and bright & cheerful, and I definitely needed something sunny amidst all that cold, y’know!? Today I’m trying it out hot and it’s so cheery and fresh! Love the sweet and juicy notes of blood orange, tangy hibiscus, and sweet and refreshing spearmint in the finish. I also really appreciate, as someone who doesn’t love the taste, that I don’t notice the chamomile at all either. Definitely a little more tart and crisp as a hot brew, and punchier as a cold brew – would totally recommend it either way though! Thanks again to Sips of Life for gifting this one to me!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJq_mV1gzu8/

Song Pairing:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udKu42mMXm0&ab_channel=IndieSoundsGood

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Profile

Bio

Hello! My name is Kelly, though many people in the tea community call me Ros or Roswell.

I am a mid-twenties tea addict, blogger, and all around nerd. I grew up in the Prairies, but a few years ago I relocated to Quebec to pursue a career with DAVIDsTEA in the tea industry! I’m still working on getting my French language skills down…

My first introduction to tea, in any form outside of instant and bottled iced tea, was about seven years ago when I happened to stumble upon DAVIDsTEA while looking for a birthday present for a friend! I tried their Birthday Cake rooibos blend, and I’ve been hooked on tea ever since! In those seven years; I was introduced to the online tea community, expanded my interest in flavoured teas to include a deep love and appreciation for straight teas and traditional brewing methods, got a tea themed tattoo, started reviewing teas, amassed a sizable tea and teaware collection, became a TAC certified Tea Sommelier, & even came full circle by beginning a career in the tea industry with DAVIDsTEA!

I consider myself a Jack of all Teas, and strive to have a knowledge and appreciation of all tea types, formats, and styles of drinking. I don’t like to feel boxed in to just being a “flavoured tea” or “straight tea” drinker – my expectations may vary depending on the type of tea or how it’s been processed/prepared but if it’s good tea, it’s good tea no matter how it’s been made!

You name it, I probably drink it- and I’ll absolutely try anything at least once.

My default method of preparation is hot, Western style, and straight – but I’m not opposed to additions if I’m in the right mood. If I ever add something to a tea or use a different method of preparation I will ALWAYS call it out in the tasting note though.

I like to listen to music when drinking tea, especially when I’m brewing a large pot at a time or steeping Gongfu. Often I curate very intentional tea and music pairings, and sometimes I share them here in my tasting reviews. Music is something that I find can deeply affect the experience of having tea.

I’m also one half of the “tea and fandom” podcast GeekSteep where, weekly, we discuss newly explored fandoms over tea as well as try to figure out the perfect tea to pair with each fandom. You can find us on Spotify and Apple & Google podcasts.

Favourite flavour notes/ingredients: Pear, lychee, cranberry, cream, melon, pineapple, malt, roasty, petrichor, sweet potato, heady florals like rose, hazelnut or walnut, sesame, honey (in moderation), and very woody shou.

Least favourite flavour notes/ingredients:
Lemongrass, ginger, strongly spiced profiles (and most Chai in general), mushrooms, seaweed, chamomile, stevia, saltiness or anything that reminds me too much of meat that isn’t supposed to taste like meat…

Currently exploring/obsessed with: Sheng from Yiwu, Yancha (Qilan in particular), anything with a strong sweet potato note. Also, I need to try ALL the root beer teas! Searching for a really good caramel flavoured blend, ideally with a black tea base.

Please contact me at the instagram account listed below if you would like me to review your teas.

Currently I’m employed in the tea department of the DAVIDsTEA head office. While I’m still sharing my own personal thoughts on new & existing DAVIDsTEA blends, I am no longer numerically rating them due to the obvious conflict of interest. Any comments expressed are a reflection of my own thoughts and opinions, and do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the company. Any DAVIDsTEA blends you currently see with a numeric score were reviewed prior to my being hired there and have not been adjusted since becoming a DAVIDsTEA employee.

Location

Montreal, QC, CA

Website

https://www.instagram.com/ros...

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