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Iced.

A VariaTEA share, and one that I actually requested to try since it’s been so long since I last had this one and I wanted to see if my opinion on it had changed at all over time. Unfortunately, I really don’t think it had because this tasted dreadfully of soapy pineapple and strawberries and was pretty artificial. It’s a shame because I’ve always REALLY wanted to love this one – however I never seem to like it, let alone love 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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Sipdown (621)!

Finished this one off at work today as an iced latte. I was initially unexcited about this one because I imaged it would likely just be a boring black tea with chocolate, however I was delightfully surprised by it. Of course, it WAS a really strong chocolate flavour however there were quite a few additional ingredients in the blend that broke up that chocolate flavour a bit but still paired well – and for me, at least, that’s what made the blend so good. The main one was the vanilla, but also the marshmallow (of which there was an abundance). It just made the chocolate so creamy and smooth tasting that I almost forgot that there was so much chocolate in the blend/that I don’t usually get into chocolate. The barley and apple were nice too; just added a touch of a toasty quality and some sweetness that differed from the chocolate (respectively speaking),

This is definitely not the kind of tea that I would ever stock up on – but I came into this one with very low expectations and they were just completely smashed. I’m not sure why VariaTEA and I had such drastic differences – but I’m sort of glad we did.

Sipdown (622)!

Finishing off this VariaTEA share as a cold brew, which I sipped on primarily outside underneath our big crap apple tree, until I started to feel sleepy and the sunlight began to hurt my big, dumb troll eyes. It’s my last day of my vacation, and I’ve basically spent all of it in my basement – which is fine because it’s been SUPER relaxing, but I am starting to miss the outdoors a little bit…

This is pretty good – better than the last two tisanes I’ve had from Bird & Blend (Strawberry Lemonade and the plain Lemonade). Like the other two I’ve recently had, I do feel like it’s a bit heavy handed on the lemongrass in the blend. However, this doesn’t taste solely of lemongrass so I suppose I can forgive it: instead it’s a primarily mellow and sweet generic fruit flavour with stand out orange and apple notes and a bit of hibiscus familiarity. I thought, originally, this was meant to replicate actual fruit salad but reading the company description just now I see it’s more based on an Fruit Salad candy? I’ve never had the candy though (not sure if it’s just a UK thing) so I can’t directly compare the two – but if the candy is just sort of generally sweet without a super specific fruit note to it then I can see this probably being a good likeness. I wish I could, personally, taste more of the raspberry and pineapple though.

Sipdown (623)!

Acquired this one from Starfevre a little while back; finishing it off now as a larger Western pot of tea. I’m about halfway through the pot now, and it’s been nice but not really much of a wow factor here either. Top of the sip is pretty malty, but it moves into a sweeter and more fruity body flavour – definitely muscatel/raisin notes but also some stonefruit/more plum like elements too. Finish is a little bit tannic, but only slightly so. Reminds me a little bit, on the whole, of Easter Bread – you know, sweet pastry with mixed in candied fruits and raisins. Also a little bit of cinnamon, but I’m not really getting a whole lot of spice with the tea…

Biggest thing is just that it feels very thin, in terms of mouthfeel, and also a little watery. There’s just no body to the tea, even though the taste is pretty nice. I’m enjoying it more as it cools, though.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMUbmiXlHww&index=6&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

Morning cuppa.

Very, very thick and creamy mouthfeel with a rich but not sweet pistachio flavour. I think it’s really important to make that distinction that even though the pistachio was a strong flavour it wasn’t a sweet one; if anything it was more salty and the entire cup leaned very much towards the umami side of the taste spectrum. Also a bit of a “meatiness” to the earthy pu’erh base tea. Very full bodied though and a good tea to sort of start the day with – very ‘bold’/present.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41CchibIF74&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=2&t=0s

Early evening cuppa.

I’m wondering if making this one in the evening was a mistake; I’m having some troubles falling asleep again. I mean, I know this has caffeine in it but it’s not supposed to be a large amount and I’m usually pretty immune to caffeine so I don’t know…

Taste wise I greatly enjoyed this one though; it was different than having it Gong Fu because the flavour seemed a lot less nuanced/layered but that doesn’t mean that it was less good. Mostly a sweet earthy profile; most comparable to a very lightly roasted green yerba mate. I think. By which I mean it has the underlying sweetness of mate and that green/grassy quality but with the earthiness/nuttyness that sets mate apart from green tea. I think I made this comparison with the Gong Fu session, but it still stands. The sweetness reminds me of sugar cane juice. The very fresh stuff.

Yummy.

Cup from much, much earlier in the day today. I needed something a little sweeter to balance out the lunch I was having, which was very garlic heavy and savory.

Maybe it’s because what I was eating was so savory but in addition to the strong maple flavours in this blend I also seemed to hone in on the sweetness of the apple. So, overall the profile was very creamy, sweet and rich maple/toffee with a bit of roastiness from the oolong/chicory but then a sweet red apple finishing note. I added in some milk, and that muted the fruit elements a bit and made this more like the maple syrup pancakes it’s supposed to be a recreation of. Really tasty either way, but I think I actually liked it a little bit better when it was more maple/toffee apple flavoured!?

Gonna have to revisit again without milk, and without super garlic-y food to see if that’s a taste that this just normally has or if it was actually heightened by the food pairing.

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Today’s cold brew.

Definitely, definitely a lot more houjicha taste than anything else. It’s a little bit weird drinking a cold brew of something that just tastes so distinctly roasty; it’s not bad but that’s a taste that I personally find a lot more suited for hot drinks. I wasn’t really thinking about that when I picked this out to cold brew, though. Instead I was just thinking about how nice a cold brewed caramel tea would be – and the caramel notes were really nice, but far outweighed by the base(s). Tasted a little bit like those square caramels that you can buy from convenience stores or get in bulk, but less creamy. Finish was also a little bit metallic seeming. Not bad on the whole, but I enjoy it a lot more hot.

Side question – when you say “caramel” do you say it with two or three syllables? I know this is like a regional dialect thing, but it’s one I’ve always felt weird about because I physically say it with two syllables, but 100% I read it with three.

I felt like I’d had a lot of more dessert type teas and foods today and frankly I was feeling a little sick of that type of profile, so I opted to make something fruitier and more tart/sour for an evening tea…

I steeped this one up at room temperature for a little bit shy of an hour and half. It felt weird/wrong, but that’s essentially just making ‘sun tea’ indoors and it’s just so drilled into my brain that sun tea isn’t safe to make because of the fluctuating temperatures that create the perfect breeding conditions for bacteria . It’s different than cold brewing in your fridge; cold brewing stays at a consistent temperature that’s below the “danger zone” in temperature, so it’s not a concern in regard to bacteria growth the same way that sun tea is. I know these teas go through a special treating process which makes them safe to make as sun tea, but even still it felt wrong doing it.

Even with my qualms/that squicky feeling this one still produces a really pleasant cup of tea though; it’s orange flavour through and through but has this tart tangyness that, while partly from the orange, is also from the combo of lemongrass and hibiscus in the blend. It was very similar to what I remembered it tasting like last time I had it, but with more of a natural sweetness in the body and a balance of tang verses plain sourness. In my head, I was remembering it as a lot more sour in terms of flavour.

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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Sipdown (624)!

First pot of tea from the day; a bigger Western style one. This one was passed to me by VariaTEA – and it smells really lovely. Very strong and malty/sweet. I was excited at the idea of having it as a strong morning cup of tea/‘breakfast tea’ sort of replacement.

It’s a fair bit astringent, but underneath all of that initial distracting dryness is a really nice typical Assam profile – sweet and malty, with honey and freshly baked bread notes. I also think it’s a little bit raisin-y in its undertones. After my first teacup worth I decided to stir in a couple lumps of rock sugar to help with the strong astringency and hints of bitterness. They did, a bit. Also seemed to really accentuate the raisin notes.

As this one cooled down it got considerably more bitter. Milk probably would have been a good addition to this one, also. Especially as a ‘breakfast tea’ like I was sorta thinking.