Orange Glow

I started my week by booking all my remaining vacation days on Monday. Then I decided to end the black and white photography challenge (thanks Sil for challenging me) by starting a 365 days of tea challenge (again) on Tuesday. So of course today I would wake up sick with the weird pressure in my head, the sore throat, and the runny nose. That means I can’t actually really taste my teas so I’m drinking those I have in large quantities or don’t nuch care for. This is a bit of both and as an added bonus it’s got orange and ginger and other ingredients recommended for colds and sore throats. Unfortunately it seems some of my taste receptors are working while others aren’t so I am picking up a lot of sweet and nothing to balance it out. I’m drinking it because it’s warm and soothing but taste wise, I am not pleased right now.

Last of the new Harvest teas, since tea #5 in the collection is a core tea.

Personally, this is the tea I was least excited about of the new ones. It kind of sounded boring to me? Plus, I don’t love ginger so that didn’t do anything to make me more hyped about it. However, it is the only tea of the new ones that DOESN’T have apple in it, so I wanted to really like it because then I could share it with my boyfriend – who is very allergic to apples…

Something about the dry leaf of this one is REALLY unappealing to me. I can’t put my finger on what it is, other than I know it smells strongly of carrots. That’s not it though; while the carrot aroma doesn’t make me all that into it, it’s also NOT the thing turning me off. Side note; this tea DOES have more carrot than I think I’ve ever seen in a DT blend, including the carrot flavoured ones like Carrot Cupcake…

We did this one as a staff tasting, and we tried it iced. I will say, for a tea with dry leaf that smelled so unappealing to me the steeped up tea was actually surprisingly good. However, for me that’s only by comparison to the smell. Just based on taste alone, I still don’t like it much.

I was shocked that the flavour was so light though! It’s also sweeter than I thought it would be. Now, that’s not to say that it’s a sweet tea – because it’s not. Just, sweeter than expected. The orange note is very similar to the orange flavour in Orange Passionfruit, bit less tart. It’s the best part, imo. The ginger? Not a fan of it at all, and I think it tastes weird with the orange. I’m guessing that tiny bit of sweetness I get is from the ginger though because it IS candied ginger in this one – so I guess I have to thank that ingredient for contributing some sweetness even if I don’t like the rest of what it’s doing. The finish? Pretty carroty, with an earthiness to it. I think the pumpkin gets lost with the carrot…

A few people have told me this is just so much better hot, but honestly I just don’t feel compelled to try it again at all. Maybe I will – for science sake? Morbid curiosity? Sadism?

I do appreciate that this is meant to taste like some sort of tonic, or one of those fancy schmancy cold pressed and healthy ‘juices’ though because, you know what, as much as I don’t like it I think it kind of hits that nail right on the head. That means there’s DEFINITELY going to be an audience that appreciate this one a lot.

I’m just not that audience.

Also – for the record, I did make a cup of this for the boyfriend just to see if he liked it. He has so few herbal tea options that he can actually drink because of his allergies. He didn’t like it either though – which is a shame…

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.

This was yummy iced. It reminded me of a healthy orange crush soda kind of without the fizz. Very refreshing.

The semi-annual sale sure sucked me in, but no regrets since I’m now quite stocked on fruity tisanes for a while. The new Harvest Collection also seemed intriguing so I picked up a little of most of the new ones.

This one smells extremely orangey, like pulpy orange juice. It’s like a cousin to the Orange Passionfruit. Flavour-wise, it’s also very similar, focusing on the bitter orange rind more than anything else. Instead of that tart passionfruit flavouring in the background, I’m greeted with a touch of ginger. It’s extremely light; I would have expected more. I was also concerned that the beetroot might have given this too much of an earthy undertone but I’m not getting any, thankfully. If you allow the orange rind to fade away on your palate after the sip, there’s an ultra faint squashy and carrot undertone, but it’s barely noticeable.

Not bad, makes a refreshing iced tea, but I prefer the Orange Passionfruit for that orange juice hit.