15877 Tasting Notes
Cold Brew!
This was the first thing I cold brewed after advent season – I just wanted something nice and classic tasting, without a lot of the rich holiday inspired flavours (cinnamon, orange, chocolate – among others) that I’d been drinking so much of lately. It fully delivered, and was a super brisk and refreshing with malty, full bodied black tea and crisp and refreshing lemon. Classic, simple but well executed!
Gongfu Sipdown (1289)!
Sipped this free Stone Milk sample, from my last order, yesterday afternoon with a new cup from Teaware House and the cutest colour changing lychee tea pet that was a Christmas gift from Marika (my Geek Steep partner). This yancha steeps quite thick, with a pronounced roast and mineral notes. Initial steeps reminded me of charred dill weed, though gradually that char note relaxed and the flavour got creamier with toasted buckwheat and slight herbaceous flavours coming more into focus! I was relieved that it was more herbaceous/charred/mineral because when I opened the sample bag it smelled a bit skunky/like cannabis. It tasted great though, and was a really relaxing session.
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJRpHosgkdk/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWYunLKE_nY&ab_channel=BoleroRecordings
Gongfu!
You best bet that, after almost a month of very little Gongfu during advents, that I’m making up for lost time during my vacation.
Last year I picked up some minis and a cake of the Tiltshift pressing and I was pretty impressed – this year I just went with minis, because I still have the majority of last year’s cake to drink through still. While I enjoyed the Tilshift pressing last year, it’s not my favourite white tea from W2T – but it is, in my humble opinion, the most gorgeous.
It was actually a surprisingly long session until those beautiful leaves steeped out. Smooth and creamy, with notes of honeysuckle, cucumber pulp, and white peach – when really pushed a bit more of a nectarine and very slight hawthorn. Near the end of the session, some steeps even tasted a touch like mellow honeydew! The honeydew really freaked me out (in a good way) because that’s not really a taste I typically experience from Moonlight White and I don’t remember if from last year’s pressing either. I’m going to have to dive back in at some point and see if I can recreate that flavour experience.
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJQ2T-aAMAk/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hAZntgBLdo&ab_channel=RolfHarris-Topic
Since I drank this on Christmas Day, I was listening to carols – this is my favourite. Highly underrated IMO…
This tea has one of my favourite kind of tea names – something conceptual/creative that conveys more of a feeling than a specific flavour or recreation of a food. Is that the most commercial approach to naming your tea? Arguably not – but I find those blends are typically less disappointing on average because you’re not comparing the flavour mentally against an actual thing…
I’ll give you an example…
This tea is very bright, tart and flavourful with really punchy notes of cranberry that remind me of a mix of tart cranberry juice and sweet and tangy cranberry jelly. It’s very autumnal, good hot but clearly would also ice super well. Leans into the natural sweetness of the apple, and the hibiscus boosts those puckering notes and adds body while blending pretty natural to the red fruit vibes. It definitely conveys that feeling of a crisp autumnal day thanks to my mental association with cranberry and Thanksgiving but also the crisp and tart/clean flavour of the cranberry.
Now… What if you called this tea Cranberry Cider?
Well, I wouldn’t be upset at that because cranberry and apple are the main flavours and prominent ingredients – so it makes sense on that level. However, there’s more freedom in how you would interpret that. Is a Cranberry Cider sweet or tart? Both? What is the balance there. Should I get more apple or should I get more cranberry? Is it boozy? Spiced? I’m definitely not saying it wouldn’t work under that name and I think, arguably, it’s a more commercial name – but there’s also just a higher potential for it to not match my mental idea of what that tea should taste like.
Anyway – all that to say that I did really enjoy this one and the name is cool. It’s possibly my favourite so far other than maybe Strawberry Fondue. The flavour is simple but well executed and it reminds me a lot of Cranberry Purifier – which is another cranberry tea I adore a lot from Tea Squared. In general, I think, I just have a strong preference for cranberry teas.
You’re so right! The name of this tea really caught my attention. And I agree, sometimes when I order tea and it has a name comparing it to a food, I always expect it to taste like a blended up version of that food, instead of like a tea, lol!
And this actually sounds like something I would like! I will look into getting it!
Something I snuck in earlier in the week on a day I got through my advents pretty quickly…
I feel like this might be a Metropolitan Tea Company catalog blend or, possibly, a slight variation on one? I’m not 100% sure though – I just have this nagging feeling I’ve seen it under their label years ago, but I could totally be wrong. Also there’s nothing wrong with it being a catalog blend (if I’m right) – just pointing it out because I find it interesting/it’s always nice having the option to shop for the same tea from multiple locations because then you can shop more competitively/conveniently/economically if you enjoy the tea.
I liked this one quite a bit for the ingredients list – smooth and cozy without too much aggression or intensity behind the flavours. It’s sort of a sweet and coating baked apple flavour first, followed by that “red hot” cinnamon note, ginger, clove, and a tiny bit of cardamom. There’s also hibiscus in the blend, but it mostly boosts the apple flavour, adds body, and contributes to the sort of “mulling spice” vibe of the whole tea.
Nothing really unique to this tea IMO – but nothing off either, and it’s a good festive flavour combination that feels really appropriate for the name/time of year. You could easily make a large teapot of this and it would be super shareable with family.
Another new tea!
I am deeply not a fan of the name of this tea, but I think the tea itself is really good! It started off as this Jamaican Hibiscus/Sorrel type of drink concept, and it still tastes quite a bit like that. Very intense/bold flavours with a really in your face tart and juicy hibiscus punch with hints of the ginger and chili spice. Not really complicated – just upfront and direct in its flavours and intentions.
If you don’t like hibiscus, you wont love this one – but I actually think it’s a super cool use of the hibiscus. It’s not masking other flavours, like hibiscus is often want to do, but is instead celebrated for its distinct characteristics – in fact, they’re really leaned in to.
Super iceable, good cold brewed and hot it’s the same sort of tart punch as teas like Queen of Tarts or Bear Trap. Is it an immediate favourite of mine? No – I think I definitely have to be in a specific mood to crave it. I just love how direct it is though, and I think it’s rare for hibiscus to be celebrated in a tea blend. It might be a pretty disliked ingredient here on Steepster (unless you’re Mastress Alita – I think she’d love this blend), but it’s actually not as widely polarizing as one might think on a grand scale. So I do really think there’s going to be an audience for this blend.
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.
Another late December release…
If I’m being honest, I barely remember the taste of this one. I drank it like two or three times about six or seven months ago – and I had intended to take a small sample of it home over our holiday break to reacquaint myself with before launch but in the chaos of that last work week and wrapping everything up for the holidays… I just forgot.
It was developed to be a flavourful and approachable herbal wellness profile, similar to the function/benefits of Echinacea Shield but less herbaceous in taste and caffeine free so people could drink it in the evening. I remember it being pretty sweet and juicy, like Pomegrateful, but I’m going to need to steep this up when I get back to the lab in the new year to refresh my memory.
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 update to DT’s long carried “Detox” blend.
This was part of the little mini “Wellness” capsule of teas that pretty silently launched on the site last week. DT always does a Wellness line around the new year, so definitely not surprising to see some late December launches.
If you like the current Detox, you’ll like this one. They really, really taste basically the same. This is arguably maybe a little bit more lemony, and a bit more herbal from some of the new ingredient additions like spirulina/nettle/etc. It’s very much intended to be the same profile that people know and like already though – but with a more souped out ingredients list that includes even more functional ingredients.
I’ll leave it at that, because I love a “short and sweet” tasting note for a new tea launch.
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!
It’s soon to be a Yancha party at the strange household – my Christmas gift to myself was a ton of samples from Old Ways Tea to drinking over the break and heading into the new year. I started with a black tea instead of an oolong yesterday, though.
Beginning my day with some Gongfu definitely through off my advent routine for the day, but it was worth it because this deeply hit the spot. Plus, it was the last “proper” advent tea day, so I didn’t mind scrambling so much later in the day. This tea liquor steeps syrupy with notes of brandied stonefruits, jammy plums, leather, honey, a tiny bit of floral orchid in the undertones. Coating, sweet and full bodied! A great prelude to the FINAL day of advent season!
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJL-s31A-QH/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbtkwavP-A0&ab_channel=Poppy
Adventaggedon Bonus Day
Merry Christmas to those on Steepster who celebrate!!
Drinking the extra day from the MF advent this morning – I was definitely wrong because this isn’t anything like yesterday’s tea. For one, it’s an oolong – and yet another oolong with butterfly pea flower in it. However, this is the first one that’s actually steeped blue! The flavour is hazelnut? It’s kind of weird drinking a blue hazelnut tea but it is pretty tasty. I do think yesterday’s cinnamon tea felt more festive in flavour though.
And with that… advents are done done until next year!
