15695 Tasting Notes
Thoughtful as ever, my mom stocked her house with different flavours of Hard Iced Tea in case I would want to drink something a little ‘stronger’ than my typical teas. I’ve never heard of this brand of hard iced tea before so I was actually pretty excited to give them a whirl! This looks to be the standard/basic flavour – just a normal iced tea. It was ok; it really didn’t taste boozy at all which could definitely be dangerous if you’re drinking multiple in a day. What it did taste like was your typical Brisk or Nestea style of iced tea; which isn’t unpleasant but definitely a little sugary/sweet and not my favourite thing. However, I think I prefer it more in alcohol form…
Gongfu!
Drank this one in the morning the day after #adventageddon – I was really happy to have the freedom to select whatever teas I wanted throughout the day. It’s not that it wasn’t fun doing so many advent teas, but there were a lot of other things I was craving throughout the month that I just didn’t have time for on top of my advent teas…
That also means, for the astute, that I had this one on Christmas Day! So, Merry belated Christmas to my Steepster friends – what teas did you have on Christmas Day? Any significance to the choice?
I started my session of this in our backyard – which is kind of a “Garden” of sorts!? There is a massive crabapple tree there, and it was quite beautiful with the the frost on the dying apple hanging from the branches. Eventually I had to move back inside though to finish my session; in part because my water was cooling too quickly and in part because I was cooling too quickly.
Admittedly, I don’t really know what the tea tasted like. Is it weird to say I was too excited about picking out my own tea that morning to actually pay attention to the flavour it was producing!? I do know I liked it, and I remember it being a bit astringent as well. I guess I’ll just have to brew it again sooner rather than later to nail down exactly how I feel about it…
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B6gZ_mcg5XC/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjkXbnDN0HY&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=14
My life with tea is usually spent multitasking and overlooking the flavor profile. I mostly know that the tea is there, I like it, and drink it until there is no more flavor. I’m working on that though. :)
I gave myself that McCoy teas. Other family members don’t gift me teas. And on other way, I got some strong perfume, book, beer and clothes. Happy holidays!
never heard of adventageddon before. nice idea. and i love the song pairing. the Joni Mitchell original is quite lovely too. good choice!
A belated merry Christmas and a happy new year! I didn’t have my gongfu setup with me on Christmas Day, so I drank some Laoshan Black from Yunnan Sourcing Western style. My family aren’t big tea people, but my mom enjoyed this.
Stopped by the DT in Regina multiple times while I was there on vacation; what can I say, I’m an addict! Though to be honest, as much as I liked heading there to grab cups of tea that I hadn’t brought with me on vacation I was mostly visiting to see as many of my old coworkers as possible. I miss them a lot!
I was excited this was still in stock though! Well, kinda. I was excited for personal reasons because I love this blend and it meant I got to enjoy a cup of it even when I was away from my massive stash – but I was also sad because the fact that they still had a ton of it in inventory (despite it being on sale) further cements the fact that it just didn’t do well…
Boo!
This was a nice cup though – sweet and tropical with really nice crisp grapefruit notes and a lingering banana and mango medley in the finish.
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 Sipdown (795)!
My dad really impressed me this year by doing a lot of research into straight teas/compressed teas and tried very hard to find something that I wouldn’t have tried that would still interest me; this resulted in him buying a 500g compressed ball of Dian Hong from a Chinese tea vendor on Aliexpress. I haven’t broken into that massive orb yet so the quality is still to be determined but is does smell really good!
This little tuocha was slipped in with the package as a free sample – it’s definitely shou but even after a deep dive of the vendor’s website I couldn’t identify exactly what it is. So, it’s a bit of a mystery shou! Still, I steeped it up one of the afternoons I was there and the resulting session was actually pretty damn lovely.
The tea leaf was very broken up and mulchy – really the quality of it in terms of appearance was quite shoddy even for a tuocha. To be fair, it was a free sample so I’m not expecting insane levels of quality – but still, after the rinse it all but instantly became pu’erh mush in my gaiwan.
But with all of that said, it still produced a thick and syrupy liquor that had a very lovely mouthfeel – minus the occasional tea leaf that wasn’t strained out – I hadn’t brought a strainer with me to catch those little fly away leaves. It was very tasty too; with notes of heavily roasted black coffee and oak wood. Dense, earthy and robust – it was a peaceful session as well as a surprising one!
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B6ozp4kAUH3/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_sADbvPmzE
Gongfu Sipdown (796)!
Sipping down this tea in “coin” form – it was a free sample w/ my last W2T order.
While I Saskatchewan, I basically was using the same teapot and gaiwan and rotation of three tea cups for over a week of Gongfu brewing and the lack of teaware selection was driving me mad. I honestly don’t know how people who only have two or three pieces of teaware do it; the lack of variety really makes me go crazy. So, I’m stoked to have my full teaware selection back at my disposal.
Today’s session broke in a new unglazed pot from Bitterleaf Teas – I have a pot dedicated to Yiwu Sheng but not a more generalized pot for Sheng, so I think this will become more of an “anything goes” younger(ish) sheng pot…
The tea itself was nice; I’ve had this before and it resonated with me about as much as it did today – so it’s nice to see some consistency both in the tea itself and also just in my own taste buds. I did pair it today with some perfectly ripe persimmons, and that was a stroke of brilliance. I’ve only had persimmon a couple times, but I really enjoy it and the supple sweetness helped to offset some of the bitterness that came out in some of today’s infusions. I found it green tasting – like a slightly under piece of fruit, but also in the sense of being just a tad grassy. Also, some infusions had a more sweet and coating licorice root note that I thought was actually welcome to the cup!
It was a very nice late morning/early afternoon session overall!
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B6tLxnEA2lW/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWc9hvNV3ko
I was listening to the original version of this song today, but there’s also a really nice remix of it that I’d recommend checking out too…
Sipdown (797)!
I’m back home in Montreal now; I had a pretty mellow afternoon that basically just consisted of unpacking, laundry and grocery shopping but now I’m closing out the night with a nice tea infused beer!
I wasn’t sure I’d like a chai beer; I hardly like those two things separately let alone combined into one drink. However, I think this is an example of when two mediocre things (just in my personal taste preferences; not bashing Chai or beer on the whole) come together into something quite splendid! This is super, super smooth and weirdly it’s also very creamy!? Jelly Belly does a beer flavoured jelly bean that I quite like because it’s boozy but also almost fruity and sweet and frankly I think this beer kind of taste like that beer flavoured jelly bean!? Is that a weird comment to make!?
As for the “chai” – it does taste a little bit spiced? But not overly – more like the sweetness of something like fennel or star anise, but not actually anything spicy. I probably would never know it was a chai beer if I hadn’t read the can – but setting that aside I just think it’s a really nice, bordering on chuggable, beer.
I would totally buy this again!
Thanks VariaTEA for the share!
I made a mug of this last nigh to drink while packing up all of my stuff; it was pretty nice though very apple heavy. I don’t think I find anything unique or exceptional about it, but as a mildly sweet apple-y tea with some gentle tropical hints it’s pretty nice and smooth. Simple can be good.
Latte!
I met up with a bunch of my old coworkers from DT while I was here in Saskatchewan visiting over the winter, we went out for pizza and drinks and I had a really weird but really good pizza with brussel sprouts, gorgonzola, dates, walnuts, and honey. Afterwards we grabbed a tea, as one does when you work for a tea company/are a bit tea obsessed.
I wanted a latte and I decided to go for one that I don’t own and likely wouldn’t ever purchase for myself but still find nice as an occasional treat – this one! It’s so sweet, but also has such a delicate flavour profile that in latte form it basically just tastes like sweet milk and marshmallows – which is, admittedly, pretty authentic to cereal milk. It was good, especially following some more savory pizza, but definitely not something I’d have all the time.
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.
