DAVIDsTEA

Honestly, this one was pretty good but it had too much cream base for my taste. I’ve never had DT’s Cream Earl Grey blend so I can’t compare them but I was hoping for more rose.

underwhelming. This smells absolutely divine in the bag. I definitely get a bit of sweet potato or squash, but it isn’t over whelming, as well as caramel and cinnamon. The scent is less pronounced when it is steeped, but still there.
Flavor wise, this was underwhelming. Despite steeping for 4 minutes. I found the tea to be rather weak. That said, it didn’t need sugar, or cream, though I did try it with both and it was nice. While I didn’t mind it, I wouldn’t buy it again

oh no, I made the mistake of steeping up two of David’s heavy stevia teas at the same time.  So. Much. Stevia.  Anyway, I haven’t made a note for this one yet, so here goes, the blend is a bunch of tiny chopped things — very colorful.  It even looks like rooibos, but I don’t think there is any here — probably one of the many flowers.  I think the selling point for me here was the GABA (always can use more focus), not sure if there is much even contained in the blend.  The flavor is strong fruit!  There might be a cloying element to this, but I don’t hate it. Would probably enjoy it more in summer. And it also has the coconut that likes to go bad the fastest.  The coconut isn’t bad yet though.
Steep #1 // 1 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 2-3 min

Iced!

The other day at the office someone made a giant carafe of this iced to share among people. Definitely not the first tea I would have thought of to make iced, and certainly not something I would have ever made for myself either. However, who turns down free tea!?

It was pretty lavender forward, and I found myself slightly turned off by how heavy handed the florals were in the first couple of sips. However, I acclimated pretty quickly and eventually I found myself enjoying the mix of floral and citrusy bergamot, and even appreciating the natural sweetness to the finish. I ended up drinking and decently enjoying a full 24oz iced cup of this!

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This is not the tea I would normally brew for myself at the office, but I wanted something more relaxing but still caffeinated and I feel like this fits that specific need quite well. I wish I had honey at my desk because that would have gone with this tea so well, but it’s was smooth and soothing with strong notes of both lavender and bergamot. Actually hit the spot way more than I expected it to, to be honest.

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Followed up my cup of Vahdam’s Earl Grey Spiced with this new EG from DAVIDsTEA that quietly launched alongside Lemon Ginger Reset earlier in the week, as part of a wellness/adaptogen focused collection.

Honestly, it’s kind of crazy to me that DT hasn’t carried a Lavender Earl Grey before this because it’s not a super uncommon twist on the classic EG profile. I think, because it’s not unexplored within the industry, that’s why I wanted to do something with this profile that I hadn’t seen before – so we added ashwagandha to the blend! Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic root that been using in traditional medicine for ages but it recently becoming very trendy for its purported ability to help the body relax and adapt to stress.

For those reasons, it just seemed like such an incredibly natural combination with lavender, which is also used a lot in aromatherapy and traditional medicines for its relaxing properties. So, I guess you could think of this as a sort of “super relaxing” Earl Grey but without sacrificing the caffeine. Perfect for starting the morning or as a midafternoon cuppa when you don’t want to carry tension with you for the rest of the day, but might not exactly want to feel “sleepy”…

What does it taste like, though? Well, lavender. Also bergamot. It’s honestly pretty straight forward but that doesn’t mean it isn’t plenty flavourful. I find the bergamot pretty bold in this blend, and the lavender is also really distinct in both aroma and taste. It’s probably not a blend for someone intimidated or turned off by florals. Though, if you find it strong a bit of milk or cream really helps soften things up and make for a beautiful but still full bodied cup. Very “British tea time” vibes – you could for serve this at an afternoon tea time with your grandparents. Personally, I like to add a bit of honey because the combo of lavender and honey is just superb.

I’ll also say that it’s definitely not a sweet Earl Grey and it’s also not creamy either. Closer to DT’s classic Earl Grey than Cream of Earl Grey, and by quite a bit. Plenty of room to add whatever sweetener you prefer in whatever quantity works best for you, or to just not sweeten it at all. I don’t know that I’ll be adding this one to my own stash, as I do prefer a sweeter or more highly flavoured twist on an EG, but I’m happy this exists! It’s something we’ve been asked for so much, and it was really cool to challenge myself to find a way to take the classic Lavender Earl Grey and honor that style of EG while still kind of giving it something distinct.

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Oh wow, I’m almost finished with the pouch and I’ve yet to actually write a review. Another that came during the frantic few months of the office move and I just completely forgot.

Amazing enough this is a white I’ve actually enjoyed. Its not 100% my thing, but there is a lot of flavor and its not heavy hitting on the flavors that I usually dislike with white teas. This feels much more robust but not harsh even at my normal steeping parameters (boiling for a couple minutes). Resteeps well.

That said, I don’t see this as a regular drinker or something I would strive to keep in my drawer, but its still nice to have once in a while. I won’t mourn it being finished, but I’ll enjoy what I have.

This tea is like … perfectly acceptable and mid. It’s sweet, not tooth-achingly sweet or melted sprinkle sweet like DAVID’s Tea sometimes can be. It is not the finest vanilla tea blend, or the most developed or most delicate of teas, but it totally works. However, if you were expecting any other vanilla flavours, don’t, it’s just vanilla. I feel like this would be really nice as a latte, but I haven’t tried it that way yet.

This is like a perfectly acceptable vanilla ice cream flavour. It is not the super cheap ‘frozen vanilla dessert’ but neither is it the fanciest vanilla ice cream to ever exist. It’s okay! Would I go out of my way to buy it again? Probably not. Do I like it and enjoy it anyway? Yes. Would I recommend it? If you think you’ll like it, sure. Other reviews are much more glowing than mine, but it’s a solid tea.

Inkling Advent Day 16. This tastes really festive and desserty, though I wouldn’t call the spices strong enough to be chai. It’s been a while since I’ve had it, so it was nice to have some again. There’s a strong fake flavor in there that’s not too bad, just noticeable.

There’s something about this tea that I really didn’t enjoy when I first had it, but I’ve come to sort of like it. I taste a candy-like banana that’s pretty nice. I think I don’t like the base tea very much, and maybe there’s something adding an unnatural/weird sweetness? I taste some sweet cinnamon, but there’s nothing bready or baked here. It’s all sort of fake and strange, but not terrible when you add milk.

Found the final sachet in the tea cupboard at work and figured, why not me? I’ve been craving flavored teas all day, and after a round of Melbourne Breakfast, this tea was my next victim. Is it a sipdown if it’s a communal tea?

Found a box of sachets in the tea cupboard at work. I tend to be picky with earl grey, if the ratios aren’t juuuust right I can’t bring myself to finish the cup. I was very pleased to find that this one hits all the right marks. The bergamot was less present than the vanilla flavoring, balancing each other well. My only issue is the flavorings have an artificial tang to them at the end, other than that it’s a fine dessert pick me up

I didn’t drink a ton of tea while I was at the height of feeling sick – largely just due to lack of energy. However, the few mugs I did steep up were ones that would feel nice on my throat or that would help with the congestion I was experiencing…

I made this one with some hot chili infused honey added to it because I wanted that stereotypical lemon ginger and honey profile, but I also felt like I needed a little caffeine to make it through the day – and it was very good. The lemon in this blend is always fairly light, but the ginger and honey combo was really what I was seeking out and it was ultimately soothing on my raw and sore throat in the way that I needed it to be.

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

We have a new adaptogen/wellness focused collection that dropped today, and this is one of two new teas included in it!

No adaptogens specifically in this very straight forward blend, but definitely still plenty feel good. Truly though, it is a veerrryyyy simple tea. Just three ingredients! Shou pu’erh, ginger, and lemon. It steeps up with a rich full body from the pu’erh and lots of zesty and earthy ginger with just a hint of lemon. I like it a lot hot, with just a bit of honey. It’s pretty great for when you have an upset stomach, but also has that classic “sick tea” kind of vibe that I gravitate towards when I have a cold.

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I disliked the flavoring in the regular peach matcha, but for some reason I’m okay with it here. The matcha whisked up a lot less smoothly than it usually does. The peach is a candylike peach, which was fine. Not a favorite, but a nice idea for those who don’t want presweetened matcha. I even sweeten the presweetened ones, so I had to add an obscene amount of fake sugar here, but I know I like things super sweet.

Day 20 of the DavidsTea herbal advent calendar. I liked this one a lot! It tastes like hot apple juice, in a good way. I did want it to have cinnamon, because I personally am a big fan of cinnamon (no really, when I order ice cream I ask them to put on an amount of cinnamon that they think is too much, and then add a little more on top of that). I added some cinnamon chips to the leaf when brewing up the last cup, and that made a difference – it gave the cup a gentle kick and some depth that it had been missing before.

Iced Latte!

I made this last night when I got home from work because I just wanted an iced latte but couldn’t be bothered to take the time to steep loose leaf tea. I also haven’t made this in ages and it was nice to revisit.

I dumped probably way too much of this powder into my electric milk frother with just enough hot water to dissolve it into more of a paste like state, and then added in a bunch of coconut milk and cranked my Breville to the cold setting to finish off the whisking/frothing for me. That’s 100% not how we recommend making this on the packaging – I mean, you don’t even need milk/milk alternatives for this style of latte mix. It’s what I did, though. When you know the steeping rules they really become more like guidelines anyway…

This was good, though! I liked the subtle creamy coconut flavour from my milk addition. Obviously coconut is such a nice compliment to chocolate and at the end of the day that’s really the key flavour of this latte mix. Yes, it’s a gorgeous rich and creamy pink colour but it does just taste like a fancy hot chocolate.

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Just realized I missed writing a tasting note for this new instant tea latte mix than came out with the Valentine’s Collection! We actually released a bunch of the quick latte powders over the winter, but they were all ones we’ve carried in the past – this is the first new one since, like, 2018??

It’s honestly pretty close to tasting like an instant hot chocolate – sweet, creamy notes of cocoa. The coolest part is ABSOLUTELY the colour. It whisks up a colour that reminds me of the beautiful deeper shade of pink that ruby chocolate has. Really cute looking!

Truthfully not my favourite product in terms of taste; I find it a bit thin in taste and texture unless you add an extra scoop or two. However, it’s hard to argue with the convenience factor and I’d still rather a cup of this to an instant hot chocolate mix.

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 and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This tea is considerably less minty than other Moroccan mint teas I’ve had in the past. The trade-off is the wider variety of spices in the blend that lend it a bit more nuance and depth of flavor. I can taste some licorice and fennel in this tea that other Moroccan mints don’t have. If you’re looking for depth of flavor, this is the Moroccan mint for you. If you’re craving a more mint-forward tea, there are other Moroccan mints out there with a stronger mint flavor.

When I first tried this, I found it to be a bit too tart with a weirdly artificial note that completely takes over the end of the sip. It has some herbs/spices mixed in that are just sort of strange together. Later I sort of liked it by keeping my steep time short and drinking it cold with plenty of sugar. The spices and tart fruit create a sort of mulled cider vibe that still has a weird artificial tartness, but it’s not awful. Unfortunately, I got tired of it before I’d quite finished my 2 oz bag, so I’ll be passing the rest along.

Day 19 of the DavidsTea herbal advent calendar. This is enjoyable, but I think perhaps 9 berries was too many? It feels a little kitchen sink, and therefore hard to make out the flavors of the individual berries. The strawberry is pretty noticeable to me, as is the hibiscus (not one of the titular berries), and what I initially thought was cranberry but since there’s no cranberry in this blend maybe it’s raspberry? This tea tastes sweet and tart, which is a flavor profile I like. I just might have liked it better if it was a little more focused.

Ha this tea is so unremarkable. I only keep a few teas open at once so they all maintain optimal freshness, but even so, I managed to completely forget this one existed. In past cups, I’ve found it to be generally red fruity and boring. As I get to the end of the tin, it’s becoming more herbaceous than I prefer and a little too sour also. Not a fan.

I’ve had this one in my cabinet for quite some time now and only remember drinking it this week. I must have had a cup before though, the package was opened and I can’t imagine anyone else going to the effort of making tea in this house!

We have a lovely spring day here in January and an alleged snow storm on the radar for tomorrow night. This may be another year where my skis go unused. It’s just too warm! I’m ignoring the house cleaning I should be doing and just made a cup of tea to further ignore the cleaning.

This packet is adorable with the little snowflake sprinkles in it. I can easily smell the mint in the packet. 5 minutes of Steeping makes me very impatient today. After steeping, I definitely get a whiff of chocolate off of my mug but not as strong a taste. The mint pushes the chocolate aside on my tongue and makes it’s presence known. I find the mint to be very strong; almost sinus clearing strong. It’s also very sweet.

This is not an every day tea for me but I would definitely drink it occasionally especially in winter. Maybe by having a cup or 2 this week, we’ll actually get some snow storms!