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Another “Tea Popsicle” that I picked up from the grocery store…

I’ve actually tried this flavour before, a few years ago. I couldn’t really remember exactly what they tasted like but I had a vague recollection that of the different flavours I tried years ago this was the one I enjoyed the most so I figured why not treat myself and pick up a box.

They actually are really good, though don’t taste particularly of the elderflower tea that they’re made with. It’s a very sweet, juicy and ripe strawberry taste though – just like a solid strawberry puree sort of profile. Quire rich and sweet! Now, are they really worth the sharp price tag associated? No – but as a very occasional treat I can kind of get behind it…

Sipdown (646)!

I’m a little bit disappointed that I didn’t seem to have as amazing of an experience with this tea as either VariaTEA or Kittenna did – it’s not that I thought it tasted bad at all, but it just didn’t have a lot of distinctness in the delivery of the flavour apart from the lemon notes – which were average, at best. Nothing that reminded me of muffins or poppyseed at all. I predict it’ll fall into the category of “teas that I don’t remember trying in the long term”…

Latte Sipdown (647)!

Decided to blow through my whole sample of this to make one glorious, spectacularly frothy latte at work today. I had a tough time deciding whether or not to do it hot or iced, but ultimately went with hot because even though it’s really hot outside today it just seemed like this was just more likely intended to be drunk hot.

It was pretty good; I definitely don’t think anyone would be able to miss that the flavour here is sweet, creamy and cooling “Candy Cane” – it just penetrates through the creamy milk in a very clear way. I’m used to drinking a lot of candy cane black teas though and unfortunately I don’t think I was able to distance this tea from my impression of those ones as much as I should have because for the bulk of my time spent drinking this I just couldn’t help but think that it really lacked a lot of body and substance apart from the general candy cane notes. I mean, it didn’t taste bad – it’s just that by the time I had finished the mug I still didn’t feel like I had really been satisfied with the tea’s overall flavour.

Definitely a bit more of a ‘so so’ flavour overall…

Sipdown (648)!

This one was a VariaTEA share – and for three weeks I’d been waiting for the page to unglitch from the mobile cached mode so I could add it to my Steepster cupboard; finally yesterday I decided to just finish the tea off so that it wouldn’t bug me anymore and just leave the tasting note in my queue for whenever the page was fixed. HOWEVER; Arby is an absoloute genious and figured out a way around the mobile caching glitch!!!

So listen up:

Click the ‘edit tea’ link; it will NOT bounce you back to the login page but will instead actually open up to the page where you edit tea entry date. From there, just hit save. Doing this resets the tea’s page and it will no longer be stuck in the mobile cache mode!

As for the tea itself…

I know it’s a very popular blend here on Steepster but I have a bit of a confession to make; up until now I had never tried it. In fact, not only had I never tried it but I had done so on purpose. ‘Cause here’s the thing; I fucking hate jello. There’s something about the taste that just causes me to constantly gag while eating it no matter the flavour, and the texture is just so slimy and weird. However, even as far as jello ‘flavours’ go the lime is probably the worst one other than lemon – it’s just not good stuff. So, I had no desire to relive that in tea form.

However, I’ll try any tea at least one and so I buckled down and braced myself for what I was sure wouldn’t be a great cup of tea. However, I was actually surprised because this doesn’t taste bad! Like, I kind of get the fascination and interest. A big part of that, for me at least, is just that I don’t think it actually tastes much like jello at all. Instead it’s a very bright/sweet lime taste that reminds me more of lime flavoured candies like Skittles. There’s also just a hint of creaminess to though, especially in the finish.

It’s a really interesting tea, and I’m glad I tried it because it’s not at all like what I expected. Now, would I order it for myself? No – but I’d drink it if served and without making any sort of stink about it.

Cold Brew Sipdown (647)!

It’s a little bit eerie how similar this one is to the DAVIDsTEA blend of nearly the same name; Grapefruit Granita. I mean, even though there’s not “ginger” in the name of the DT blend it’s still one of the main ingredients. The biggest difference it ultimately that they have different base teas; black and green respectively. Even though I prefer a black tea base, the similarities definitely don’t make me excited for this one at all – I really don’t like the DT blend…

And sure enough I just can’t get into this one at all either. It’s strongly ginger and grapefruit flavoured – and for starters I don’t like ginger that much, but even if I did the grapefruit has a very bitter/pithy taste to it that, while authentic to actual grapefruit, just does not taste good. I mean, it’s just not a good flavour combination even with the black tea base. I very much hope that this whole “grapefruit granita” tea thing doesn’t become an even bigger trend because it just doesn’t work, in my opinion.

Thanks for the share VariaTEA – it was nice to see another company’s interpretation of this flavour idea, just a shame is seems to be a flavour combo I just don’t like all across the board…

Iced, with agave.

This was… fine? I mean, it doesn’t taste ANYTHING like a Shirley Temple at all, but it also tasted sweeter and more fruity than a plain white tea. It’s just that I can’t at all place my finger on what it does specifically taste like. I mean, it was a WICKED hot day without any air conditioning in the mall I work in at all because of a power issue so I was mostly just grateful for ANY sort of iced tea. I just hate when a tea is clearly flavoured but in such a non distinct way that I can’t at all put my finger on it.

I’m 100% going to have to revisit, and pay more attention.

Sprinkled this on top of a bowl of lemon flavoured sorbetto for more of a strawberry/orange/lemon trio of flavour – I really enjoy the sorbetto but it can feel a little one dimensional and this seemed like such a simple, quick fix to make it feel more fresh/exciting. I feel like the strawberry notes REALLY came through quite clearly in this particular pairing, but the orange was largely swallowed by the strong lemon notes. The nice part though was that because the sorbetto is so sweet and flavourful is completely compensates for the fact that this is an unsweetened matcha! So, quite yummy!

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.

Drinking this one now, but hot. It’s more lemon than I expected or wanted tonight but at least the strawberry is still pretty sweet and tangy/not lost. It’s still an average cup; I just really want to finish it up and clear out my stash a little bit…

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY-FJvRqK0E&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=11

A sort of summery, mindless pop song. Seems fitting for the 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 regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Took my little sister out for bubble tea over the weekend to this small little place downtown. She went with a watermelon bubble tea, and somewhat inspired by her choice I decided that I was going to do cantaloupe – I’ve had watermelon and honeydew bubble tea quite a few times before but never cantaloupe.

I was a bit surprised by the visual look; the bubble tea was definitely more of a brown colour than orange like I’d expected it to be given my melon of choice. The taste was definitely cantaloupe though – a very creamy and sweet version of it, anyway. Why do all the melon flavours of bubble tea just come off as SO sugary/sweet!? I know bubble tea is kind of a sweet thing, but the melon flavours just push that even further than the rest of the typical flavour options.

I still liked it – but as always I wish it had the same melon taste with about half the sweetness…

Sipdown (648)!

Another VariaTEA share – this is one I’m thankful she shared because I had a really interesting experience with it, and it’s also the kind of thing that I probably would have always passed by just based on name alone. Ginger isn’t my thing.

The dry leaf smells amazing, and familiar. It took a hot second, but I finally figured out that it smells exactly like Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon blend to me. Man, I miss Della Terra – they had some really interesting teas, and are a bit nostalgic for me as they were the first place I ever ordered from online. But I digress; as much as this smelled like Lemon Chiffon it also tasted NOTHING like it. In fact, I did a complete 180 with my impression of it because the taste was actually very spicy.

Just, there’s a WHOLE LOT of ginger in this – and real ginger. Man can you tell that this uses a lot of real ginger; it’s just very intense and warming and actually sort of had a very mild burning sensation on my tongue. I am a wuss; I just don’t do spiced things very well. So, I didn’t love the blend overall but I didn’t hate it either and I just thought that in the grand scheme of ginger teas, of which I’ve had many, that this still maintained a lot of uniqueness. I’m sure many would love it.