17562 Tasting Notes
Short little Gong Fu session after work on Thursday night…
I didn’t want to brew too many steeps of this since I wasn’t in the mood for a caffeine buzz at eight or nine at night, but I had maybe five steeps and since I was very heavy handed on the leaf I used all of them were quite strong/flavourful. Very similar though – brisk, full bodied tea with strong chocolate notes, a bit of malt, and some raisin/smoke undertones.
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvm6u_cFt4N/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcDXpTa3g-U&index=28&t=0s&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ
Just saying, The Taxpayers are my current music obsession right now and I HIGHLY recommend checking out their music. It’s so good.
I’ve been seeing this brand all over grocery stores/natural food stores in Montreal but haven’t really been sure of the quality or been curious about any of the herbs enough to actually buy it. Thankfully someone at work bit that bullet for me, and brought in a bag of the oat straw she had purchased.
I think Oat Straw is supposed to be good for stress, but I’m more interested in just seeing what the straight herb tastes like as I’ve had it in a handful of blends but never on its own. I liked it a lot actually; much more than I thought I would. I found the flavour pretty naturally sweet, and quite creamy both in flavour and mouthfeel. I’d actually drink it again; for a straight herb it was very enjoyable!
As I mentioned in my last tasting note, I’ve been drinking a lot of this tea lately. I’m not recording every time I have it, since my experience has been quite consistent – but I wanted to record this one since it was iced and I haven’t had this one iced in a while. The orange/citrus elements seemed to be a bit stronger, but regardless it was just very fresh, tropical, and sweet.
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.
So, I discovered a new TV show and I’ve been binging that recently – it’s called Manifest. I actually found it through one of those weird FB video clips/meme things with one of those stupid captions like “What Would You Do If This Was YOU!? :O !!!” – it teased the pilot/premise of the show…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjsFg7e-ffk
I’m on episode four now and it’s basically amazing.
This was the tea that I was drinking when I watched the pilot – it’s a great tea. A little bit astringent, but in a way that seems really natural/fitting for a “wine” inspired drink, and adds more depth and balance to the cup. The raspberry is really flavourful and natural, and compliments the black base quite well. A touch of a floral undertone, as well.
Love the tea, and loving this new show.
Yes, I revisited this tea at work during the week. Yes it was still absolutely amazing. Sure, it’s bagged tea – but it’s actually really good bagged tea. Super sweet and rich, but it perfectly captures exactly what a Butterscotch Blondie, in my head anyway, should taste like. Which is incredible.
I’ll have to grab this one, I know my grocery store has all the Tazo dessert teas. I actually love the Lemon Loaf one, and like that it’s an herbal so I can have it before bed.
I 2nd the Lemon Loaf one. It also does not bug me as much since it green rooibos tend to be small anyway.
These dessert teas are really intriguing me. Will have to, at some point, swap with someone who owns them so I don’t have to buy them all myself! Hahaha.
I also liked the Lemon Loaf, though I found it pretty sweet. The Vanilla Macaron was just terrible, IMO, though…
Going through this week’s queue of tasting notes, I feel like I had A LOT of teas from DT – but I suppose that’s just bound to happen when you have such easy access to them, and also work for the company…
I had this one iced during the week, with a hearty glug of coconut milk. I was sort of loosely testing my theory that this tea would be incredible as a latte, and while this isn’t the exact same thing as doing it up as a latte I have to say that it was pretty awesome. I definitely enjoyed it better iced/with coconut milk than just made hot and straight. It’s still a more ‘bright’ and fruity European type of chocolate note, but this seemed a lot more creamy, and seemed to tie some of the oddball elements, like the cinnamon, together more seamlessly.
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.
Gong Fu!
One of my coworkers gave me a bag of ripe pu’erh tuochas that she had been gifted by her mother in law (who is Chinese) – she said she’d never drink them, but knew that I really enjoyed ripe pu’erh so figured that maybe I’d have a use.
I’m into mystery tea – so now I have this bag at my desk at work, and whenever I’m in the mood for random pu’erh I can grab a tuocha from the bag and brew it up. I should probably add that all the tuochas in the bag are different. So, it’s not just a bag of a dozen or so of the same mystery tuocha. Each one is going to be a surprise!
This one definitely had something blended into it – you could visually see it compressed alongside the tea and then, after the tuocha had broken up following a couple steeps, it was more clear that the mystery thing was likely a type of flower. I’m no plant expert, but I happen to sit right next to one! Seriously, my desk mate is a horticulturist who specialized in functional herbs and flowers. So, after some taste testing of the next few infusions, and letting her poke around in the steeped leaf we determined that the mystery thing was more than likely osmanthus.
It was a pretty good pu’erh – I didn’t brew a ton of steeps because I also had work to do. However all were quite tasty; very sweet and a little floral on top of a rich, clean earthyness.
I just realized that all of the Steepster information for this tea is from the OG/old recipe. At some point I should really update it because it’s been different for years now. Not today though; I don’t have the ambition to do it today on top of plowing through this GIANT list of tasting notes…
I drank this mug with milk – a lot of milk. It was nice; sweet and creamy with warming spices like the clove. Almost had a pumpkin-y element in addition to all the “pumpkin spices” that are in the blend too. Very comforting though; the kind of tea that it just peak rainy day weather tea.
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.
Another one that I had this week (as a hot tea) because it had been so long since my last mug of it. Unlike Strawberry Colada, though, I did not have an “aha” moment where I fell in love with the blend all over again. I was just sort of reminded that this one is a little more mediocre for me – decent mango and passionfruit, but sort of generic…
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.
