Rhubarb Cream Soda

I really liked this the last time I had it so when I placed my most recent DAVIDsTEA order, I got 100 grams. Today I made it as a teapop and it tastes like wax. I am not too happy but I am hoping that maybe it’s the teapop prep method.

I tried 4 of DAVIDsTEA’s newer (newish) iced teas all in one week, and I wasn’t really impressed with any of them. I didn’t add any sugar, steeped the tea as instructed, and then poured it over a cup of ice. After a fair number of sips, I added lemonade “to taste” – half my cup ended up as lemonade.

First let me say I know this is my fault. I decided to cold brew this, since the idea of warm cream soda sounded wrong to me. Stuck it in my pitcher, went to sleep – and left it in there for three days. Oops. It actually didn’t end up super strong, but there’s an almost metallic taste to it? The sourness of the rhubarb doesn’t blend smoothly with the cream flavor (which is more accurate than I thought it could be!). Next time I’ll do it properly…maybe steeping in lemonade??

I had this iced as a tea to go and all I can say is I’m glad I didn’t pick up any? It has all of the desired bright red berry/hibiscus/rhubarb notes but something about the second half the sip comes across as musty to me (I think this is it trying to be creamy). C’est la vie.

I was really curious about how this would compare to Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait, one of my favourite DAVIDsTEA fruit blends. Yeah, that one is by far better. I could barely taste the rhubarb in this? It was a little vague when it comes to the fruit. I’m writing based on memory, but it was like a watered down, sugared up SRP. Not really tart at all. The mango came out more and even then, it didn’t scream mango either. Been there, drank that.

This was a disappointment. I’ve only tried it once, so I won’t completely write it off just yet. The flavor was so muted and weak. I was expecting a tea that was a bit more tart, especially with rhubarb AND hibiscus. However, the ratio of ingredients in the blend is heavily skewed toward pineapple and mango. That wouldn’t be so bad if it was a more mango-forward tea, but it isn’t. This reads very much like a pineapple-flavored cream soda on my taste buds, and that just doesn’t jive for me. I purchased a lot of this because it sounded like something I’d really enjoy, but I daren’t open a second bag. I’ll give it another go this weekend before deciding what to do with the rest of it.

Finished my sample of this one off today as well. Again, it’s fine but i prefer other rhubarb teas that DT has created in the past.

This tea is weird and I don’t know what to make out of it. I’m a hibiscus hater, so I’m surprised to be saying that they didn’t overdo it with the hib in this mix! It’s just enough to give the rhubarb flavor some tartness. The tea has a sweetness to it. It is fruity in the sip and creamy in the finish. I have no verdict here, but it was a fun sample to try.

In store sample.

Now this one I like. Very much like the Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait but with a gentle fizziness slightly reminiscent of cream soda.

I tried this blend in store twice today, from two different sources. One was from the Tea of the Day batch, iced, and the other from a pitcher settled in a bucket of ice. I don’t know what the difference in preparation was, but the TOTD batch was more concentrated and more intense with a lot of flavour. The other was weak and watered down tasting.

I look forward to trying this one again.

Iced cup! Many iced cups, in fact – I think to date I’ve probably already had this iced like a dozen times…?

This is by far my favourite of the new and returning Summer teas; in fact I think the staff at the store where I work are honestly getting sick of how much I talk about it. It’s also probably a fact that the wall tin for this is almost always within a two foot radius of where I’m standing; I’m constantly picking it up to smell the sniffer. On the day of the launch, I probably bought close to 200g of this (one of the silver tins completely stuffed full) and not even counting the cups I’ve made of it at work I think I’ve already gone through about 50g? And it’s not even that heavy of a herbal tea – unlike, say, Mango Fruit Punch.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I completely understand why this one wouldn’t be for everything. Maybe you’re not into the creamy, sweet elements of the blend and maybe on the flip side you don’t like the tartness of the rhubarb and soft tropical elements on top of the creamy profile. That’s totally fine! For me, though, I love just about anything with rhubarb in it – and my favourite rhubarb pairing is absolutely rhubarb and cream or rhubarb and vanilla; so this makes me weak in the knees for sure.

I actually personally think this tastes more like cream soda than anything else though; a more natural, somewhat stripped down version though! Like, the fancy kind that comes in glass bottles from weird ‘Indie’ Soda companies you’ve never heard of, and not the bubblegum/pepto coloured pink stuff that tastes like it’s going to put you in a sugar coma. Just, very smooth and silky with rich vanilla notes. Of course, it’s fruity too but I don’t find it tart the way that most rhubarb things are, and if anything I feel like I get more of a subtle candied pineapple/mango kind of flavour going on. I also really like that despite having hibiscus in it this one doesn’t fall into the super tart hibiscus ‘trap’ a lot of herbals do where it becomes hard to differentiate the blends because there’s so much hibiscus in them.

This is unique, refreshing, sweet, fruity, and well balanced and I fucking LOVE it. Seriously. I’m putting it up at the same level of awesomeness as my beloved Blueberry Jam and Cranberry Pear; it’s that good.

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.