Before I start this review, I have to ask a question. Am I the only person that is a little turned off by the number of flavored teas DAVIDsTEA produces? I really prefer my tea unflavored and I would probably order from DAVIDsTEA more frequently if I didn’t have to wade through page after page of gimmicky flavored blends. Maybe it’s just me. At least they offer some solid unflavored teas.
The folks at DAVIDsTEA recommend brewing 1-1.5 teaspoons of this tea in 6-8 ounces of 185 F water for anywhere from 4-7 minutes. I, on the other hand, opted to brew this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of this tea in 4 ounces of 190 F water for 20 seconds. I then performed 7 additional infusions with an addition of 2 seconds per infusion (22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 seconds). I found the results very interesting.
The first infusion did not really do much for me. The aroma was very mild, with subtle grass, hay, sesame, and butter aromas underscored by faint floral scents. In the mouth, I detected the expected notes of butter, cream, grass, toasted sesame, and hay underscored by slight woody and floral characteristics. Steeps 2-4 were much more robust, offering stronger aromas and flavors of hay, grass, butter, cream, sesame, and flowers (I couldn’t really determine what they reminded me of, and though orchid and magnolia kept coming to mind, neither the aroma nor the taste exactly fit that description). I also detected a subtle woodiness reminiscent of pine and a slight minerality. On steeps 5-8, the floral, cream, sesame, and butter aromas and flavors gave way to more intense grass, hay, and wood aromas and flavors. Even more vegetal notes emerged. They kind of reminded me of a combination of leaf lettuce and cooked kale. The minerality was also much more pronounced, particularly on the last two infusions.
This is an interesting, yet approachable oolong. In my opinion, it does not quite match the intensity or complexity of some traditional Taiwanese Tung Ting oolongs, but it is still very nice. I could see this being an excellent oolong for beginners because the combination of aromas and flavors is not off-putting or overly complicated, and though the flavor does indeed change over the course of multiple infusions, it does not change radically or in an unpredictable manner.
Flavors: Butter, Cream, Floral, Grass, Hay, Honey, Kale, Lettuce, Mineral, Pine, Vegetal
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Hehehe, from my perspective, DTs flavoured teas used to be really good, most of them anyway. Lately, they’ve tended towards overly imitation flavours and over the top artificial sweetness. Yuck. Many of their plain teas have been winners though.
I feel the exact same way. I’m hoping they start to emphasize their unflavored teas at some point.
Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen. It seems to me that they tend to trot their 3 or 4 quality plain teas out when they’ve had a run of innovation on their flavoured teas and have gone so far that they completely risk losing people who are not interested in soda pop versions of tea.
But one can hope.
There are a ton of flavoured teas at David’s tea. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, if it helps them pay the rent. You could still probably walk in and walk out with 10 good quality teas that have no flavouring. Let’s see: Ceremonial Matcha, Oolong Supreme, Ceylon Supreme, Dragonwell, Bai Mu Dan, Genmaicha, Sencha, A Gyokuro, Assam, Lapsang, and several more greens and blacks. I think the persons tea budget might be stretched thin though :)
While those are good teas, I am guessing that people who are truly into tea do not only do their straight tea shopping at DT. However, DTs has done a super job of introducing newbies to the world of tea via flavoured teas.
I think here is the point though: if you were going to buy various different types of tea. You could buy at Davids and get good quality tea in each category. Does anyone soley do their shopping at one place? Hmm.
My second point is this. Even 10 years ago tea shops were selling a mix of flavoured tea along with regional teas. So what I am saying is that this is nothing new. I have been in high quality independently owned shops with extremely experiernced owners and they have sold a variety of teas as well.
Hehehe, from my perspective, DTs flavoured teas used to be really good, most of them anyway. Lately, they’ve tended towards overly imitation flavours and over the top artificial sweetness. Yuck. Many of their plain teas have been winners though.
I feel the exact same way. I’m hoping they start to emphasize their unflavored teas at some point.
Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen. It seems to me that they tend to trot their 3 or 4 quality plain teas out when they’ve had a run of innovation on their flavoured teas and have gone so far that they completely risk losing people who are not interested in soda pop versions of tea.
But one can hope.
There are a ton of flavoured teas at David’s tea. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, if it helps them pay the rent. You could still probably walk in and walk out with 10 good quality teas that have no flavouring. Let’s see: Ceremonial Matcha, Oolong Supreme, Ceylon Supreme, Dragonwell, Bai Mu Dan, Genmaicha, Sencha, A Gyokuro, Assam, Lapsang, and several more greens and blacks. I think the persons tea budget might be stretched thin though :)
While those are good teas, I am guessing that people who are truly into tea do not only do their straight tea shopping at DT. However, DTs has done a super job of introducing newbies to the world of tea via flavoured teas.
I think here is the point though: if you were going to buy various different types of tea. You could buy at Davids and get good quality tea in each category. Does anyone soley do their shopping at one place? Hmm.
My second point is this. Even 10 years ago tea shops were selling a mix of flavoured tea along with regional teas. So what I am saying is that this is nothing new. I have been in high quality independently owned shops with extremely experiernced owners and they have sold a variety of teas as well.