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I adopted this from my mother (I tend to adopt a lot of teas from my mother), and being presently in a position where some detoxification is needed, I thought I’d give this a try myself!

My first critique is that this is really more of a rooibos than a green tea; I understand why it would be marketed as a green, since green tea is still a marketing buzzword for detox, health, weight loss, etc, and I’m sure the general public that buys into that mindset would be very confused if they heard rooibos instead of green, so I don’t begrudge David’s for their decision, but it can be rather misleading for anyone expecting something green tea-tasting.

Smelling and tasting the tea, you definitely get more rooibos than sencha. The liquor is golden red, a bit lighter than rooibos steeps by itself. It’s lightly sweet smelling with a whiff of lemongrass. Taste-wise it’s completely rooibos and herbal, hence why I really think this shouldn’t be marketed as a green. That’s why my mother gave it to me (she’s not a fan of rooibos), and even though I do find it tasty, I don’t think it’ll be my favourite detox tea.

Sampled some in the store with my mom; very light, a nice sencha with great quality goji berries and acai berries. My mom bought some to take home and the cup I made for her was a lot stronger than the sample we had in the store; probably due to ratios of tea versus each berry.

Had a mini girls’ day out today that involved going to one of the organic/local shopping centres that’s usually a bit too far out of our range to make it a regular stop and picked up a box of this because I don’t usually see it at my local bulk store.

The instructions say to brew with boiling water and steep for at least 5 minutes, but with Pukka herbal teas I steep them for as long as I want. So far that has yet to failed me, and Vanilla Chai continues that streak! I just popped one of the bags in one of my larger mugs and let it sit until it was cool enough for me. The liquor doesn’t colour much at first, but it becomes a nice light gold after the recommended five minutes.

The scent is very light and predominantly cinnamon, which is more cinnamon than you get while drinking it. It has a very spicey aftertaste, while the sweetness from the vanilla and licorice is what hits your palete and tastebuds first. I found myself getting the spice at the back of my throat and it was a bit unpleasant. The vanilla does tend to get lost under the licorice, though.

As a straight up masalla spice blend with some vanilla, it’s not something I’ve seen before. But it is definitely very spicey and probably not for passive tea drinkers.

I got a cup of this to go today while out with a friend and it was really good! He got it iced and I got it regular, and we both let each other sample them to compare if we liked the tea more hot or iced. I found that once this cooled down a bit (probably about ten minutes after I bought it) it was a lot better. Very sweet and smooth, with a perfect hint of creaminess.

So I maaaay have spoken too soon with my first note: I brewed up another cup of this and got drastically different results, not on an improvement. So this will likely end up being a very hit and miss tea for me.

So I bought one of the specialty tins of this today, thinking that I really love pu’erh and have a newly discovered appreciation of ooglong teas, but so far I’m not too impressed.

The tea smells really good in the tin (I was able to smell it even through the plastic bag), very orange-y and citrus-y. I don’t see too many of the orange peels that the ingredients promise, though, just the tea leaves, ginger, and what I’m assuming is eleuthero root, so I’m a bit skeptical at how much of the orange is from the flavouring and how much if it is from actual orange peels. I might just be the batch I got, though.

Brewed it has a nice earthy smell from the pu’erh with a hint of citrus, and the liquor is a deep red. I found it rather lacking in taste, though; to me it’s like a less strong version of Blood Orange Pu’erh. I couldn’t taste any ginger in it at all, either. It may be how much tea I used, though, so next time I’ll try using some more and see if I get better results. Until then, I might take this for the supposed health/weight loss benefits when I’m having a bad body-image day, but I much prefer Blood Orange Pu’erh for a orange and citrus pu’erh, and I always have lots of nice oolong teas.

So I tried this for the first time today, and I have mixed feelings about it. I think mostly they’re due to the service I got from David’s, so I don’t want to give the tea itself a bad rating due to bad service because it IS a really nice snack tea, but hopefully the next time I try some it’ll be better because I’m always a rooibos fan.

I went to the DT by my campus after class and picked up a specialty tin of The Skinny and a cup of Birthday Cake to go. I had a bit of a wait before I got my tea (and the employees kept leaving while I was getting everything and paying), but after I got my cup to go and had waited a bit for it to cool down I tried a sip and there was loose rooibos everywhere. So I opened the lid and sure enough, the tea bag had either ripped or not been sealed properly and it was everywhere. I decided to wait to try it until I got home and pour it into one of my mugs with a filter, since it was only a short subway ride, but I was really disappointed with the service.

The tea itself, as I said, makes for an excellent snack tea. It’s very sugary sweet (I had mine with a little bit of agave as well) and the flavouring in the tea comes out more than the rooibos/honeybush. I’m tending to side eye the prevelance of artificial flavours that David’s is relying on for their newer blenders these days, so I don’t think this’ll be something I’ll have too often, but it tastes like it sounds and is definitely a cake tea.

I have an interesting relationship with Stash. My mother bought me a package of their Acai Berry tea at the beginning of my second year of undergrad and I enjoyed it on and off; so when, five months later, I really started getting into tea, I naturally chose Stash as my start point. I hadn’t realised, however, when I bought a pack of this, that oolong was a kind of camellia sinensis tea and thus had caffeine! When I found out I was somewhat turned off, since I was vehemently against caffeine at the time (and still try to limit my consumption), so the box was left to lament in my tea cupboard.

Fast forward to now when I’m searching for a quick tea to help stay up during crunch time and I tend to turn down bagged camellia sinensis tea, and I think, what the hell, let’s try it.

The bag smells just like girl guide cookies. It really, really does. The chocolate is a bit light, but it’s the exact same kind of minty chocolate smell as girl guide cookies. Once brewed the smell isn’t quite as strong, but still quite nice. I have to say that I was really dubious about this because I just don’t go for bagged tea unless it’s by Pukka or a herbal tea these days, but I found myself enjoying this. The taste isn’t quite qirl guide cookies, but it has a rounded mouthfeel and I found myself drinking it quickly. I might even make another cup before the night’s over.

I bought this on a recommendation, because normally I use Echinacea Elder or Echinacea Plus and I wan’t something specifically for sore throats, not colds/respiratory issues, but ugh. Just ugh. I don’t mind a little bit of licorice in herbal teas (Pukka’s a good example), but this just tastes disgustingly of licorice. Luckily I do know people who like licorice, so I can offer it to them if ever they need it, but right now it’s just sitting in my cupboard collecting dust.

This tea is like drinking liquid cinnamon hearts. Need a cinnamon fix? Cinnamon Rooibos Chai. Hands down the best cinnamon tea I’ve ever had. The chai spices are sometimes a bit masked under the cinnamon, but what I wanted from this tea was cinnamon and that is definitely, definitely what I got.