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From a #SeptemberSipdown prompt last week…

The prompt was a tea you bought on vacation, and while I have many teas that could have fit that prompt (because I am a total addict who has to buy tea EVERY time I travel) I chose this one because it’s from what is essentially my most “recent” vacation and it meant getting to highlight a small/local tea shop!!

I bought this one during my Winnipeg trip last summer, and bought it at The Forks during a day spent there w/ family after doing store visits/tours. I don’t normally gravitate towards chocolate teas, but something about this one called to me and I’m glad that it did because it’s actually one of the better chocolate black blends I’ve had. It’s simple in ingredients, but quite rich and decadent and something about it reminds me of very good chocolate cake. I like it hot and plain, but it’s also bomb AF with milk!

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

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2JZ6r3gyRU&ab_channel=EasyLifeVEVO

I don’t remember the context, but last weekend a friend mentioned Hojicha Powder and then I just started really craving it, so I ended up making a large chawan of this powder on Monday for #MatchaMonday with some chocolate agave syrup whisked into it as well, and it was delicious and deeply hit the spot! Toasty and cozy, but also rich and sweet from that subtle chocolate addition. It all meshed very well.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFH7yp_A0KZ/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqv0JBF67LA&ab_channel=Havelock

With the weather starting to really change and cool down, and the sun setting earlier each day I’m realizing that I’m going to have a very limited amount of time left where I can have tea outside until summer next year – so I’ve been making more of an effort to get outside for a session on the weekends or right after finishing work for the day on days I’m working from home…

This is something that I haven’t really had in a long time now, but it was that type of afternoon where I was like, “Fuck – we gonna have some outdoor tea time” and I just scrambled to grab teaware, water, and the first black tea sample that I saw.

It was a nice tea – it’s robust and malty, with a sweetness to it that I like from steep to steep. I didn’t find as much nuance in this little mini session as I have in the past, but I did really enjoy myself and that is ultimately what matters!

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

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnaxmFw9Pjo&ab_channel=glassbeach

Gongfu!

Had an early evening tea session with this chenpi shou blend last week!! I steeped this bad boy out entirely while sitting outside – it was very Grey and drizzly outside, so this was the perfect tea for my mood!! It’s a SUPER thick and heavy liquor with robustly earthy and bitter flavours and a hint of a more medicinal and pithy tasting orange rind note; I’m loving it right now but I definitely think I’d need to be in the right mindset to appreciate it. That played into the #teatogethertuesday and #SeptemberSipdown prompt from the day, which asked if we gravitated towards specific teas/tisanes depending on our mood. I don’t think I really do this with flavoured teas, but I definitely find myself doing it with more traditional teas, like this one, though the weather & time of year also plays a BIG part in my tea selection as well…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLOzc2A3lW/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2WDdccgaDY&ab_channel=RainbowKittenSurprise

I started steeping this one late last night, and the dry leaf smelled AMAZING!! Very sweet and distinctly like maple – almost a pancake syrup type of maple, with a nuttiness to the undertone like almonds. Then after it was steeped, I got distracted by reorganizing my desk and by the time I remembered I had made a cup of tea it was pretty cooled down. The taste was unoffensive, with really strong almond and cinnamon notes are an overarching sweetness, but I didn’t get the maple so much and I think in general it was just less as enjoyable as it would have been hot…

Cold Brew!

So I had this earlier in the week last week and it was really good, with those sweet and tart lemon and pomelo notes that I expected from it, and a crispness to the finish. Not so much a “lemon black” as a very good citrus black, with a vibrancy to it that I enjoy and that makes the flavour really pop. However, I noticed that the finish kept reminding me of honey – and I can’t figure out what ingredient to attribute that to, but that sweet honey-ish lingering flavour on my tongue actually ended up being my favourite thing about this brew.

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.

Cold Brew Sipdown (1102)!

I’d be sadder about this sipdown if I didn’t still have the Coconut Grove Pouchong from Adagio in my stash – the two are so flippin’ similar.

This was nice though; more focus on the greener and floral notes of the oolong base with a soft and delicate creamy coconut that reminded me a bit of coconut water. Super light bodied, but nuanced and fascinating flavours. Made for an excellent midday refreshing tea to sip on slowly while winding down after a very long afternoon of podcast recording last weekend!

Another “Hard Kombucha”/Kombucha Beer type of thing…

I know I was worried w/ the Ginger flavoured one (since it didn’t taste like Ginger) that these flavours would be challenging to differentiate from one another. That, however, was NOT the case. This is very different from the last one I tried but sadly not in a good way. It was so insanely tart and sour; and a very shrill and “high” tartness that didn’t have the deepness/thickness that sour/tart hibiscus still has. It was really unpleasant, and I actually couldn’t finish the can…

Another new one!

Y’all know that I’m not a big Chai drinker, but this one has the type of super appetizing name that if I saw it from any other company I would probably want to try it out just to see if it lives up to the name…

So, does it live up to the name? Mmmm… I’m a bit undecided.

I will say, it smells quite heavenly to me – very sweet and buttery with a sort of butterscotch/caramelized sugar note but also lots of cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom aromas as well. Y’know, that really warming type of Chai spice mix. I can see the name and intention/direction based on the LLT smell, for sure.

My own experience in steeping this tea has been rather mixed. I will say that I have definitely had a few cups where I thought I was tasting that rich, sweet and buttery “butterscotch” flavour pretty clearly and others where I really didn’t taste it at all. From that, I conclude that this is probably the type of tea where either your steeping parameters or ratio of ingredients are going to come into play a lot. I rarely pay attention to what’s in my scoop of tea when I go to make one, but I have noticed that longer steep times seem to work better for me.

What is consistent about the profile is that it’s not overly spiced (in my opinion) but I’m not losing any of those trio of spice notes that I mentioned either. In fact, a reallllyyyyy good comparison is probably Monster Mash. I think if you enjoyed that this, this is quite likely really going to be a profile that speaks to you – it’s so similar in spice composition. I also think there’s a consistent sweetness (even if it’s not always Butterscotch) from cup to cup, and I personally think this quite often tastes very biscuit-y too. Like a sweet and spiced wafer type of cookie. I get a pop of slightly tart apple at the top of the sip, but it quickly fades. The finish is the most like butterscotch to me, and I like the slightly lingering and sticky sort of sweetness on the tip of my tongue after swallowing a sip.

I grabbed myself a small bag because I have a coworker who swears the butterscotch comes through when you make it as a latte (something I’ve not done yet) & I want to try and see if I agree. However, after I finish that little sample amount this isn’t the type of tea that I will personally want to get more of – unless the latte is life changing, of course, haha!

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.

If it wasn’t Autumn tea season before, it feels like it really is now – that change of season is coming and it’s coming fast. With it, of course, comes new and returning fall teas – mostly Chai, of course. In fact – I think this most recent collection is called the “Chai Collection” but not ALL the teas that launched are really Chai blends, some are just nice Autumn profiles…

Here’s the list of returning teas from this Friday’s drop:

- Chocolate Chili Chai
- Baked Apple Chai
- Chai Matcha
- Pumpkin Pie Matcha
- Guarana Chai

And of course Pumpkin Chai, but that launched earlier than everything else. There’s also this new tea as well as a new rooibos based chai called “Butterscotch Chai”.

First things first…

I adamantly refuse to call this a Chai blend in any regard; I’m not sure if it’s actually going to get marketed as one but because it launched with all of these other Chai profiles I worry some people might assume it’s a chai and I just need to (on a personal level) make sure that I’m really clear in saying that there isn’t any spice of any kind in the blend. Yes, that’s right, this is the RARE pumpkin tea without spices! Pumpkin fans, like myself, who don’t enjoy all those spices can rejoice – this year, we’ve got you covered!

I also like that it’s a herbal blend – I think that sometimes we box our herbals into only being these juicy fruit profiles and our rooibos into housing all the sweet/decadent profiles (when it comes to caffeine free options) so I’m happy to see that perception challenged a little bit. But, that said…

I don’t love this tea. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s missing something to me and I struggle to put my finger on what exactly that is!? The flavour is pretty sweet and creamy with a nice light to medium type of pumpkin-y flavour – think the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen but without the pastry or the nutmeg?? It reminds me a little bit of the pumpkin in Monster Mash with the cream flavour that was used in White Peach, with a hint of the same very light apple-y note as well. Boost that creamy note with some white chocolate, and you get more of a Pumpkin White Chocolate or even Pumpkin Milkshake type of profile, in my own opinion. It’s nice – I wish the mouthfeel was a bit thicker to add to that custard-y quality that Creme Brulee has, and exaggerate the creaminess. Milk would likely go a long way in doing that…

Maybe what I feel like is missing is the “Creme Brulee” part of the tea!? Like, I definitely think this is sweet and creamy but an essential part of a Creme Brulee, in my mind, is that just barely bitter burnt sugar/hard crack sugar note that comes from the surface of the creme brulee – and that’s missing. It’s maybe just a little bit too sweet for my own tastes, without something to give it more depth like a bitter sugar note. I don’t know though, maybe that’s not it…

Anyway, while this isn’t my perfect pumpkin tea I do think it’s an interesting one so I of course look forwarding to reading reviews and thoughts from other tea drinkers and seeing where they land on it!

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.