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Hello, Me from 2 years in the past! Present day me is here to update the tasting note for this tea.

Found a couple sample bags when I was cleaning my stash out this weekend. They’d be the same samples left over from 2 years ago when I bought 3-4 on sale and drank 1-2.

So this tea is OLD.

I figured I may as well drink it anyway, so I made a cup earlier and drank it on my lunch break.

I accidentally got distracted throwing out a bunch of old crap at work and forgot about it, it probably steeped 8-10 minutes, instead of the recommended 5.

Given that this is

A) ollllld tea
B) oversteeped

It was surprisingly not even that bad. I added milk, because that’s how I roll. Even though I remember reading online a long time ago that only ignorant tea newbs put milk in Darjeeling tea. I also love A&D Damn Fine Tea’s Red Tailed Hawk with a sploosh of milk in it, so calculate your logical deductions accordingly. I’m a loner, Dottie, a REBEL.

This girl is not refined.

Anyway, it tasted alright, had the classic Darjeeling notes, but far from being the best i’ve tried. Bungalow is one I’d love to get my hands on.

Me from the Past had rated this 72 once upon a time 2 years ago…. surprisingly I’m going to leave it there, because I’m somewhat impressed at how I managed to not totally destroy the cup I made earlier. Oversteeping AND the fact that I don’t have a temperature controlled kettle at work and normally Darjeelings get all bitter if the water is too hot. PLus the fact that being old didn’t make it nasty.

So…….. that’s a hearty endorsement from me! About as hearty as you will get, for such a Davidstea.

I had a Facebook offer for a free matcha from Davidstea that expired yesterday, and I had some time to kill after work so I popped into the mall to claim this sweet sweet offer.

The release of these new flavoured matchas definitely piqued my interest because I was curious to see how they’d compare to the ones I’ve had and loved from Red Leaf. I chose the vanilla one to try, because it’s the one that most appealed to me.

The clerk made it in front of me with their new matcha shaker, which also interests me. I can’t decide if it would really be THAT much better than a mason jar. Not for the price, anyhow.

I can’t FAIRLY compare this matcha to the french vanilla from Red Leaf, because I always make my matchas at home as lattes. This may have actually been my very first matcha made with only hot water.

To be honest, it doesn’t compare. To a latte, I mean. It makes the GREENNESS of it that much more obvious. And the texture isn’t as creamy as when it’s made with hot milk. Kinda watery. In fairness, it’s looking like I’m just not a fan of matcha unless milk is involved. So I don’t want to rate this numerically.

From what I recall of the Red Leaf matchas, (it’s been awhile), they seem to pack a bit more of a flavour punch than this one. I will have to try one without milk to see how it lines up with Davidstea’s new offerings. But I doubt I will, because clearly latte style is the way to go.

Seeing as how I still have a freezer full of matcha (ooooops), I won’t be buying any more for the time being, however this might be a more convenient and less cost prohibitive option than ordering matcha from the US, since our Canadian dollar sucks so bad right now, on top of having to pay on average $10+ for shipping.

Hopefully they come up with some new flavours in the future! I might buy a vanilla or mocha latte sometime when I’m in the mall, just to try it.

Thanks for the sweet Facebook offer, Davidstea!

You know, it’s times like this when I am so SO glad that Steepster exists and that I found it. Without Steepster, and all of you tea lovers posting your awesome reviews encouraging me to try and buy more more more (and also, thanks in general to the internet, for feeding this habit by bringing everything that much closer to me)… I never would have discovered this tea.
Or TTC.

Because honestly.

Last night I decided to make a mug of this, I had purchased 5 samples from TTC and recently got them. I am practically on a tea hiatus at this point, i mean i certainly SHOULD be. But I’d had a TTC sample once upon a time and knew that down the road more would be mine, all mine.

So when I cut open my adorably patterned sample bag, I stuck my nose in and inhaled like breathing was going to go out of style and OMG. The scent. INTOXICATING. I don’t even know. So good. I can’t describe.

And then I brewed it up, took my first sip, and it was like happiness exploded all over my tongue. It’s fruity and malty and bready and fresh and bright and SO FLAVOURFUL.

I don’t ever want to live without this tea.

I really need to start drinking down everything I have to reach a point where I only stock my absolute loves. This would be one of them.

I wanted to shout it from the rooftops last night, but there was no one around who would care. There never is, I’m alone in my world of tea love. Except for you guys.

Everyone who hasn’t tried this tea must wishlist it immediately :)
You’re welcome. Trust me.

(PS – I spent like 2 hours just slowly and enjoyably organizing my tea stash yesterday. Of course my online cupboard isn’t really up to date yet, but physically arranging and mentally taking stock of all of my teas (ALL OF THE TEAS) was incredibly calming and satisfying.)

Received this from the awesome Miss B via the equally awesome Sil!

Really excited to try it.

First had a few sips straight up, it was decent, but not spectacular. A bit of milk brought out the shortbread aspect far more.

It’s not as vanilla as I would hope, I far prefer something like WP Golden Orchid or Tippy’s Tea Not So Vanilla as far as a vanilla tea goes. Real vanilla beans and whatnot.

Super happy to get to try this though, something that would otherwise likely never cross my path! Thanks you two!

Sipdown! A few days ago at work. Just before I found out that my husband had gotten ahold of some free tickets to the Bryan Adams show in Halifax, and a free night at a fancy downtown hotel! Whisked away on a Wednesday night adventure :)

Glad to see this one go. Chocolate flavouring in tea…I’m SO over it.

The tin will come in handy for something I love though! And yeah, the Bryan Adams show was the shit. Like, in a good way, how the cool kids say it ;)

Made a cup of this before bed last night, I added a sprinkling of sea salt and a splash of maple syrup. It really brought out all the flavours.

And, this may be the maple syrup talking, but I found last night’s cup to have a particularly thick and silky mouthfeel.

Smooth and unique. That’s the big thing I will miss most about Butiki – love them or not, there were so many creative and unique blends. Who else would ever dream up a tea like this one? And once it’s gone, probably no one else ever will. Sad.

Other tea blenders seem to rely too heavily on artificial flavours which scream exactly that with each sip. This has big chunks of apple and potatoes. POTATOES. IN MY TEACUP!

Mmmm. Good morning!

Baby girl is napping so I made myself a hearty mug of Tiger Assam with a sploosh of 10% cream. I think the last time I had this one I was still on mat leave. It was my regular breakfast tea go to. Still delicious. Malty, raisiny, strong.

I finally finished Gilmore Girls the other day, (so sad it’s over!) and this morning I just started watching a new to me show on Netflix, Broadchurch. My dear friend Netflix knows what I like! Surprised I hadn’t watched it sooner, because David Tennant!

Seems very good. Dark. Dramatic. Compelling. British. Successssss!

Drinking delicious tea at work makes me happy. It brings a sense of comfort and a feeling of home to a job where I deal with fairly dreary subject matter, sitting at my desk and reading depressing things all day long.

Especially my “special” teas. Like this one. So relaxing and cozy and warm and flavorful.

tea tea tea.

Had this at work again today – this time i remembered to add a bit of sugar.

Cake City – Population: Tea!

:)

Even though I try to resteep these precious Butiki blends, I don’t find there’s much flavour left by round 2. I won’t stop trying though, my preciousssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssseseses.