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This was another free sample from Adagio – I believe for having my birthday entered on my account? Regardless, I like free things so I was excited to try it…

I’m not entirely sure what about grapefruit/citrus is supposed to fit for Pisces, but oh well. It does smell pretty fresh and effervescently like grapefruit. Almost as if I just cracked open a can of Fresca! Steeped a lot of the grapefruit kind of disappears, and the flavour is much more swallowed up by a sweet, woody rooibos. I actually do like the rooibos base that Adagio uses in their blends – a lot of my favourite fandom blends seem to incorporate it. However, I was sad that I was left with more of a hint of lemongrass and grapefruit and less of the bright and more intense smell I was getting off the dry leaf.

First cuppa of the day…

I recently placed an Adagio order; my breaking point was the Brigadoon blend since I was very curious about it, but I had been debating one for a while just to get a bunch of BTVS themed teas. I want to try to more actively improve my French comprehension, and one thing that’s been suggested to me by many people has been watching a TV show I have A LOT of familiarity with (Buffy…) with French captions or in French, and so I thought it would nice to have some Buffy blends to drink during my rewatch…

This was one of many free samples included in my order & I believe it was included because I have an upcoming birthday. By some miracle I actually haven’t tried this blend yet so I am actually kind of curious about it. In terms of hit/miss ratio with Adagio, I feel like I have way more misses than hits – but the few things I’ve found and loved I have realllyyyyy loved so it’s worth it for me to periodically keep trying new things (especially the fandom blends which are so fun).

I do think, for a Birthday Cake flavoured tea, that there are so few sprinkles actually in the dry leaf that it almost would have been better to just not include them at all. I know they’re supposed to be fun and tie in the concept, but the sparsity is just sort of sad…

Flavour wise, I wouldn’t say I’m impressed but I do think it’s good. Basically a simple creamy vanilla flavour with a well balanced sweetness. The base tea tastes really straight forward; just like a maltier " breakfast tea" type canvas for the flavouring in the blend. I actually prefer it to be a little more straight forward/simple for this type of blend that is basically just executing one straight forward flavour. Initially it felt a little drying, but as it’s good down that astringency has mellow a lot and the flavour feels smoother and more consistent. It’s not a bad vanilla at all.

Would I seek this out over other vanilla/cake themed blends? No, not at all – it’s not special in any regard. However, if I wanted that type of simple cake or vanilla profile in my tea rotation I certainly wouldn’t turn my nose up at this one either. It’s got that daily drinker type quality to it where the fact it doesn’t feel special might actually be a good thing because it’s the vanilla profile you feel guilt free about when you reach for it often.

Drank this one last night – I was really pushing how late I should have been staying up because I got stuck in a reality TV binge/loop, but at least I had the foresight to switch to caffeine free teas.

I eyeballed the amount of leaf for this tea, and dumped it in a “do it yourself” style sachet to leave in while drinking – I think I over did it a little bit because this cup definitely had some heat/spice to it! Mostly an unexpected heat from the ginger, but some cinnamon too. However, the reward for my over generous LLT measurement was that I could also clearly taste the sweet, creamy banana notes too! It felt, for the first time, like a banana chai. Did I love it? No, but I didn’t hate it either.

Next on the list is to brew it as a latte, I think.

Cold Brew…

Capped off my lazy Sunday with a pizza and a very chuggable sweet and tart cold brew. I love this blend, and the flavour reminds me so much of Swedish Berries but tarter. It was easy for me to plow through this brew, but now I feel like it was probably too much caffeine too late at night because it’s after midnight now and I feel VERY wide awake.

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.

Had a wee little grandpa steeped moment with this tea today; it’s really not my thing but I wanted to put even a tiny little dent in working through some of my green tea samples, and I can appreciate the interesting qualities of this tea without being a fan of it personally. I find it very full bodied for a green tea, with a consistent astringency coupled with a smoky undertone throughout the sip. It’s very vegetal to me, and reminds me a lot of more bitter and mineral collard greens or kale, though something at the top of the sip is very fleetingly buttery to me.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFZwix6JGUo

I have a photo that I took too, but I haven’t posted it on instagram yet so I’ll try to remember to edit it in…

Just finished a mug of this along with a bunch of macarons while reading Little Women – I only just started the book so I’ve got a long way to go to finish it by the end of the month, but this was a very solid start. The tea was fine – it’s that sort of generic European red fruit type of flavour, but I like this a bit more than your typical red fruit blends because it’s not overly sweet/cloying, and actually has a very brisk and hearty black tea base with some tannin/astringency to it. Too many red fruit teas are overly sweet or overly tart, and this falls into neither of those traps.

Gongfu ^^

My early afternoon session today – it has been a VERY lazy sort of weekend, and while I definitely could have gone somewhere on either Saturday or Sunday I instead opted to stay home both days and lounge around lazily…

I know I’ve had this before, but I don’t really remember it. It appears I was definitely a fan though, based on my rating. I should go back and reread my tasting note. The wet leaves smell like burnt sugar after the rinse and for the next couple infusions afterwards, though the taste of the infusions are sweeter with a syrupy mouthfeel and very gentle astringent finish. This tea tastes like delicate and floral creamed honey, slightly bitter cucumber skins and crumbly butter cookies with an increasing red fruit undertone in subsequent infusions…

It’s a really nice and well balanced shou mei, and I can totally see why it was so popular.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9e2STdApCH/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWhnuujZXcw

This is one of those songs that doesn’t sound very good the first time you hear it, but then is inexplicably stuck in your head anyway. So, you listen again and again and it just becomes such a bop.

I thought the Green Tea flavour of Monster was bad, but this one is much worse…

It tastes thin and watery, but with a weird sourness to the top of the sip and a finishing note and aftertaste that reminds me too heavily of cigarette ash. Don’t think I can finish this one.

Also, is it weird to anyone else that they chose to STILL use the stereotypical Asian dragon motif even though Yerba Mate isn’t Asian? Or just me?

Sipdown (822)!

Finished this off a few minutes ago – it was cold brewed perfection. This sipdown was a LONG time coming, in fact it may have been the oldest rooibos tea in my stash? I know i picked it up years ago.

The flavour definitely changed as the tea aged, and it acquired an almost sour/acidic vinegar like undertone to the mango flavouring in the blend as it deteriorated. Uniquely, I kind of grew more fond of the tea as this note became stronger. It reminded me of the same sweet but acidic and tangy note that kombucha often has, and it was for that reason I never tossed out the tea or rushed through finishing it off.

Still, I feel accomplished having now drank it down and cleared out a tin from my stash.

The was the second bubble tea flavour that I ordered during my inaugural trip to The Alley, and it was the recommendation of a friend who knows I have a special fondness in my heart for blueberry flavoured things. It is, essentially, a subtley blueberry flavoured milk tea.

Firstly, I ordered mine with pearls (because what is a bubble tea without pearls!) and I have to say that the regular pearls were leagues below the Deerioca pearls. I wonder if you can order the Deerioca pearls in drinks not on the Deerioca menu? If you can, that would be a complete game changer for me…

The tea itself was really nice though – very creamy and smooth and not overly sweet, with a very subtle but enjoyable hint of blueberry in the finish. I think it was actually the perfect amount as well; not overly present or sugary/cloying and it let you appreciate the quality of their black milk tea base as well. I’d definitely order this one again!