DAVIDsTEA

I like this one prepared hot with just enough water, then add ice. I got a sample, so will certainly drink all of it. But WNRP since I feel like other herbals are better

Advent Calendar from Kaylee: Day 1

I am back from 10 days in Europe! I haven’t traveled internationally since before covid/cancer, and it was SO wonderful to visit Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, and Brussels (plus day trips to various other cities). My partner and I planned the trip almost entirely around Christmas markets, so I’m feeling very festive! But I’m also three days behind on all my advent calendars. Yikes. Gonna be a lot of tea drinking in the next few days.

Anyway, I was paired with Kaylee in the homemade advent swap, and I’m so excited to get started! Her packaging is very cute and wintery, and she included lots of little vegan sweets for me. Yay!

So, Day 1 is a maple chai. I am a sucker for all things maple, so of course I was pleased to see it! I started drinking my cup with breakfast, which was a savory porridge (oatmeal sprinkled with furikake; sometimes I add chili crisp), and the combination was… not great. Happily, the tea stands much better on its own. It’s got a definite maple-y scent, with a pleasant backbone of chai spices. I’m mostly getting cinnamon, and the maple gets a little lost in the sip, though what’s there reminds me of pancake syrup. It’s interesting that they’ve added both maple crystals and sugar crystals; I can definitely taste the sweetness! It gives the cup a bit of viscosity, I think, and adds a bit of body to a slightly thin black tea base. Nice and warming on a chilly morning!

If you want nuanced flavor profiles for this tea, there are more than 150 tasting notes to check out; most of them are much more descriptive than I can be.

At 3.5 minutes steeped, this is a smooth black tea that is only a little bitter on the edges. I drank about half the cup with nothing added, mostly reflecting on how it would make a fabulous iced tea. Something in the scent was giving me the slightest of citrus vibes, but I am not sure whether to trust my nose most of the time.

I finally conceded that I was not going to be able to describe it much past this, and added just a little bit of pumpkin honey. It took those bitter edges off and just made it more pleasant for me as I finished the cup.

DAVIDsTEA Around the World Advent, Day 3

I am not a matcha person, something about the powderedness is un-tea like to me. Skysamurai sent me this one and I thought I’d try it out. At first sip this is too sweet for me. And at second sip. But there is some nice cinnamon and warming clove going on here too. I’d drink this for a morning caffeine boost, but its not going to find its way into my shopping cart.

Before I talk about the tea, can I just say how much I love an advent calendar? I wish I could just buy them year-round in different lengths and count down to whatever I wanted. Tiny surprises in the morning are so much fun!

Generally speaking, I am a “let the flavor smack me in the face” tea drinking type. I want an intense scent and a matching flavor, and I don’t want to add anything to my cup to get it. But I’m trying to branch out a bit, and I was very curious to find the Around the World advent from DAVIDsTEA – this seemed like as good a chance as any to try some things I wouldn’t just buy on my own. (I told myself no more from them unless they did something different; point goes to them on this one).

I am not being hit in the face with cinnamon. The scent in the canister was noticeable, the scent after steeping is subtle, and I barely get it at all in the sip (though it increased as I was getting down to the end of the cup). It does come out a bit in the aftertaste, along with a pleasant sweetness, especially as the cup cools.

But I’m also not being overwhelmed by bitterness in the cup. The tea is smooth with some substance and body to it. I had to get out the door this morning pretty quickly, but I can see this as a lovely accompaniment to a slow, cold morning and a slice of toast.

This is a general “I’d be pleased to try it again” score for me.

DAVIDsTEA Around the World Advent Day 1

So this tea actually came out, like, well over a month ago. I’ve been putting off writing the tasting note because I wanted to drink it again one more time first – mostly because I’ve not had it since a week or so after we first decided to launch it and that was like eight months ago from my end as an employee in the tea department. The other reason was, honestly, that when I did have it I just didn’t like it.

Notoriously I’m not a fan of straight green teas – so I expected not to like it. What was surprising to me was that I didn’t like is despite the fact it actually has a pretty smoky taste to it. I think it’s because it’s a little coarse and astringent, and something about the lighter body of a green tea with astringency and smokiness doesn’t work for me the same way I usually gravitate towards smokier tasting teas and blends. It reminded me a bit of a Gunpowder green tea – also not really my thing, even though so many others seem to enjoy it.

You certainly can’t love everything and if there was going to be a Garden to Cup blend to come out this year that would be a miss for me then this would absolutely have been the one. It’s just a shame because I think the terroir is really cool and the garden it comes from is also so lovely. Maybe actual green tea drinkers would enjoy it more, though!

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.

One of my favorite white teas next to a plain silver tip white tea. This one has a beautiful white flower flavor the compliments the stone fruit notes in the tea. It’s a magic carpet ride of delicate, luxurious flavors. Perfect for a warm sunny morning wake up or a lazy evening cup to read with while your eyelids get heavy

This is a great refreshing iced tea with a bit of caffeine as it’s got the black tea base. It also has a nice tart mouthfeel. Really want to et my hands on more of this if whenever possible, I finished off the last of mine this week. This one is lovely really watered down, in my opinion. One teaspoon of sugar or agave per 16 oz is all you need. It really brings out the citrus notes and makes them sing! I cold brewed this one overnight. chef kiss!

This one tastes like an herbal version of constant comment. The orange and spices in this one are balanced. I would’ve expected a concept like this to result in the spices overwhelming the base. The orange is the star in this one and it works. My grandmother ordered a bag of this one and shared some with me. I love that this one isn’t a spicy cinnamon tea. It’s a good one for the holiday season.

Finishing off my free samples of this. This tasting note is a summary of two tasting notes I have written down from previous steeping sessions.

For some reason every chai from DT tastes pretty similar. This is no different. There are some chai spices but it tastes like gingerbread. I’m not getting maple flavour, although it smells like maple. I added milk and enjoyed the cup more but wouldn’t purchase this tea. It was fairly generic and reminds me of the woody medicinal flavours of chicory root and licorice root herbal teas.

I guess I never wrote a note for this one either.  I liked it!  It was a little sample tin in a Davids sample set.  And it was the last to go in that set!  A HUGE walnut.  I’m surprised the coconut flavor wasn’t worse.  But the overall flavor was nutty, buttery and sweet.  Starchy somehow.  And no fake sugars in sight. I’m not sure how much that huge walnut actually gave to the flavor of the tea though.  I’d stock up on this blend if it wasn’t filled with coconut, but the flavors today proved that isn’t a problem with this blend, at least not yet.
2022 sipdowns:  115

I’ve been eyeing this one since last year? Or a couple years back when a group of interesting Christmas teas dropped, but the pandemic had closed down the DAVIDsTEA shops in my area.

I’m very, very slow to buy anything online, so I finally picked up this and a few others at the downtown shop during my monthly Tea Book Crawl through my favourite used book shops. I lament that Silver Bell Oolong is online-only, because that one definitely stood out the most to me, but I’ll settle for this and Winter Earl Grey.

The smell of this is white chocolate, while the first sip is a sweet mix of ginger-cinnamon-cardamom. It’s followed by a waxy, faintly oily chocolate/coconut oilesque flavour, which is pleasant at first, but quickly gets overwhelmingly sweet in the aftertaste.

I’ve become kinda hypersensitive to sweet things, and stupidly I missed the stevia extract on the ingredients list? It’s enough that it kinda bothers me, but isn’t so high that I think it’d be a general problem for anyone else. It highlights the chocolate, in that sorta silky mouthfeel of white-chocolate ganache way. It IS a very waxy, pointedly white-chocolate flavour first (obviously the intent), and you have to search a little for what the cocoa nibs bring.

It’s a very mild, pleasant chai, enough to be warming, not zingy. I have a feeling it’d be overwhelmed by milk.

We’ll see if the sprinkles and other additives will be a mess to clean out of my filter.

I got this in the mystery tea set that DT was selling a while ago. I don’t know that I would have picked it up on my own, but I actually quite like it! This is definitely a blend meant to be enjoyed cold, but I enjoy it so much that way that I just picked up another ounce at DT’s Black Friday sale. It’s like a delightful fruity (mostly apple and hibiscus) lemonade. Not earth-shatteringly great, but definitely a solid blend and a good alternative to sugary lemonade.

The Look of the tea actually drew me in, and I’m a sucker for a nice twist on an Earl Grey.

I think I got the bottom of the tin (I wasn’t scrutinizing them while they weighed), because the leaf is a little extra crumbly, but that didn’t impact the flavour negatively for me.

I didn’t actually pinpoint the orange flavour at first, I was actually too preoccupied with how ‘familiarly different’ the vanilla in this felt. And then it hit me—

this tastes like an orange creamsicle with bergamot. That’s exactly what it tastes like to me, and it’s honestly pretty delicious. Orange soda float with vanilla icecream, because I was a picky kid who didn’t like pop (so rootbeer was a no-go) but could stomach orange crush, and loved vanilla icecream.

Damn, now that it’s hit me I can’t un-think it, but I do really quite like this tea. The yin zhen really does nothing to the flavour, but the black tea has a nice, strong body that compliments the vanilla. I feel like this’d make an interesting latte.

The Canadian website doesn’t have this listed anymore, which makes me think that my shop just had some left over from last year. Extra disappointing, because I’d probably buy this again.

Having this late in the day. I’ve felt sleepy all day and I’m going out dancing tonight so it’s fine if this tea keeps me up a little later than I’d normally like. I added a little oat milk in this because I love a good creamy jasmine, but the jasmine flavor is a little light and the milk seems to wash it out a bit. I love the idea of jasmine on a black base since I so often find it on green or white AND I love the extra large pearls, but the flavor of the tea isn’t as strong as I’d hoped. I’m glad I used my frequent steeper points to try this because it was one of David’s pricier teas and I’d be extra bummed if I paid top dollar for this.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – November Tea #5-A ginger tea
It’s always helpful when the prompt is right in the name of the tea.  It was time for this ancient tea to go.  It seems more pear flavored than gingery, which is interesting since it’s so old.  It’s hard to believe such strong long lasting flavoring can be labeled “organic”. I would think the flavoring would fade faster than the natural ingredients. It look like I never wrote a note for this. The pear and spices are mixed with tiny chopped leaves of white tea. Plenty of candy pear and NO sweeteners. I enjoyed it over these loonngg years that this pouch lasted.
2022 sipdowns: 107

Sipdown 73

My sip downs are very sad compared to where I would like to be at. But, I haven’t been buying too much new tea, so at least the collection isn’t substantially growing (until I go to Paris next month).

Sipdown 71

A perfectly fine straight peppermint, but nothing special.

The strongest flavor is a murky cinnamon. There’s some low quality chocolate behind that, but it’s harder to identify. This just didn’t end up being very clear or delicious. I don’t order chocolate teas from Davidstea anymore, but this one came as part of a pack.

Adventageddon Day 24

Well, we’re practically at the end of Advent Season. Though, I will have ONE last advent tea to drink tomorrow since one of my advents this year has 25 days. I was a bit surprised to see this at day 24 for DT and not one of the more classic winter blends, but I thought about it while drinking this tea and I guess there is the poem/song about the night before Christmas where “sugar plums dance in your dreams” (or whatever the line is), and so maaaayyybeeee that was the thought process since this tea’s name sort of ties in there!?

Regardless, it’s a nice blend though I think unfortunate for it that it comes so soon after having had Pear Blossom in the advent since both are fruit infusions and it’s only natural to want to compare them. Pear Blossom is definitely juicier and more floral compared to the more dark baked/poached pear notes of this blend complimented subtly by warming spices, sweet brown fig, and just a bit of lingering fennel after the sip. I do prefer Pear Blossom, but this was a nice mug and quite different from anything else I got today so the contrast between the rest of the advent mix was nice.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD-iurcyqIK/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGgDZS8S7Dg&ab_channel=LAVALANDVEVO

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.