Della Terra Teas

This tea has both coconut AND walnut in it, and consequently should have tasted awful given how old it is. By contrast, it was delicious. I steeped it perfectly (165F did well for it), and it was light, sweet, nutty, and perfect. Probably haven’t ever had a better cup of it.

Another old tea; no off flavours but a pretty ho-hum peachy black. Definitely more on the floral-peach side than mango; tasted somewhat like fuzzy peaches. One good thing – the base is a little more forgiving than some, and doesn’t get astringent so easily.

Sipdown! 156/365!

My first sipdown of June… yikes (it was a few days ago)! I’ve been drinking a lot of favourites recently, especially as my friend was visiting and I wanted to share good teas with her (and also, ones that I have more than a single up of!) Hoping to double up on my sipdowns for the next few days.

Anyhow, this tea was more or less flavourless, which I think I had noted last time. Not bad to drink, but no citrus. No rating because age is obviously the culprit here; this would be an uncharacteristically bland tea from Della Terra (and citrus usually isn’t terribly subtle).

So much backlog. Ugh, sorry.

Should have had this sooner. It was mediocre; not astringent but also not terribly flavourful. Maybe a little citrussy?

Thanks to… whoever this sample is from? (Likely Sil, it seems!)

Since I just logged a tea I didn’t drink I thought I should actually write a review. I looked back and to my horror it’s been three years since I’ve done one. How the heck did that happen? I check here almost every week and I drink more tea than ever.

So this is a really old tea and soon to be a sipdown. I have enough for one more cup and after this one and I think I’m going to make it right after I finish writing this. It was that good.

I’m picky about my rooibos/honeybush teas. Drinking them straight is icky and they have to have just the right flavoring. Honeybush is better than rooibos but I’m always slightly dubious of either. I wasn’t expecting much from this sipdown because of the age of the tea but it’s just as good as I remember if not better. I can taste each part individually. You know how somethings are generic lemonlime flavored like Gatorade and some things are lemon & lime flavored? This is lemon & lime flavored. I can taste both clearly along with a sweet creamy-ness with a hint of vanilla and they blend to create something truely amazing.

I should be happy to complete a sipdown from the dark depths of my cupboard but this leaves me slightly sad. I’m going to have to go digging around to see what other Della Terra teas might be hiding in there.

Rating wise I’d give this a 95 but Steepster doesn’t want to let me use the little slider bar for rating on my iPad and the closest I can get is 99. That’s probably fair though.

Sipdown! 52/365

This is pretty yummy, which I recalled from having it previously (buuut apparently I did not log it). Candy cane-type of minty, as opposed to peppermint, with a nice creaminess. The rooibos is woody and noticeable, but not unpleasant. Wouldn’t have minded having more of this!

Random tea pick for the day, as I poked through a bin of teas from various companies. This tea presumably has lost some flavour, and I unfortunately can’t really taste any strawberry at all – but there’s a hint of ginger, and a light spearmint. I can see why I was interested in picking it up when I did, and it has all the makings of a tasty blend, if only it actually tasted like strawberry! I don’t usually like mint in teas, but I think it’s done well here, making it all the more disappointing that there’s no strawberry.

Have I made my point yet? Ahaha.

Sipdown! 3/365

Not bad; very reminiscent of fuzzy peach. Not really getting any ginger, but it’s pretty old. It looks like it was a shared sample between Sil and I, so I likely had a cup of it previously. Too bad I didn’t write anything down!

Sipdown! 1/365

In an effort to visualize progress I’m making with sipdowns, I’m going to aim to get in (an average of) one sipdown per day this year! Should be very, very achievable, so with any luck I’ll actually exceed this number! I’ll be drinking plenty of other teas as well, but this will record things removed from my cupboard (and give me something to show my husband, haha).

Anyhow, I swear I’ve had this tea before although there is no note, but it’s hard to say, as DavidsTea has had a number of pom teas that I could be confusing it with. This tea is pretty much as expected – standard black base (not astringent, not particularly interesting either), and a decent amount of pomegranate flavour. A pleasant surprise that the inclusion of hibiscus was done properly, only adding some depth to the fruitiness instead of mouth-puckering sourness. Not a huge fan of pomegranate, so not a tea I’d have again, but not a bad version of it!

Sipdown 154/397

I’m not getting any orange or citrus notes from this tea, which I’d say is a good thing since I find orange and caramel a slightly weird flavour combination. I remembered liking this more, but I think I’m confusing it with another tea since I seem to remember chunks of some sort of fudge, but there are none here. The oolong looks roasted from its appearance and the dark colour of the tea, but there’s none of the strong nutty tones I would expect from a good roasted oolong. It’s not a particularly strong tea, even though I overleafed slightly with it being my last cup, with the caramel flavour being stronger than the base though not by much. I had to add a whole teaspoon of sugar to coax out the butteriness of the caramel, which is something I prefer not to do if I can help it. Not a tea I will miss, which I guess is for the best since it’s long since discontinued.

Sample from Janelle ’s Mystery Box.

Sipdown 145/396

This was okay. I expected worse, from the other reviews. The blueberry isn’t the strongest flavour ever, but I can tell it’s there. It’s mostly rooibos in the sip, with the blueberry coming through in the aftertaste. It pops a lot more with sugar added, too. There are other teas I’d rather drink, but I certainly wouldn’t begrudge having another cup of this. It’s nice.

Thank you Janelle for the sample.

Sipdown 135/395. Thanks Janelle for the sample.

I would suggest taking this note with a pinch of salt, as it’s at this point a very old tea in my collection and also a very small sample (I’d already drank this a couple of times when it was new and left enough for half a cup) that I underleafed something criminal, forgetting for like the 10th time this week to use less water. It’s okay, and I remember thinking that even when drinking it new and with an appropriate amount of leaf. The chocolate is present in the smell, but not the taste, and the apple is juicy but mild. If I concentrate there’s a slight chocolate note in the aftertaste. The base looks fairly green, with not much black, but it’s not astringent at all. In fact, the base tea is barely noticeable. It’s a simple tea, and I won’t miss it but I am glad to have had the opportunity to try it.

Sipdown 133/395

I like cinnamon. This is mild, but tasty. Inoffensive.

Thanks for the sample Janelle

Sipdown! Finished this one off a few days after my first cup of it – yum. Tastes best at about 30-40C, I believe.

Really enjoyed this one despite its age! Delicious creamy blackberry. I can only imagine how much better it was when it was fresh.

Disclaimer: I have a cold and although I can smell and taste, my sense of smell/taste might be affected.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any cream from this tea. I do, however, taste the lime and lemon citrusy flavours as well as the herbal lemongrass. I would have expected lots of creamy vanilla and pastry notes, maybe cake or custard. Really I only tasted a lemongrass/rooibos tea with lemon and hints of lime flavour. At the very least, the rooibos is sweet and the lemongrass/citrus thing is soothing.

Sipdown 107/395

Sample from Janelle ‘s mystery box. Not my favourite almond green tea. It’s not bad, but the green base is a little more astringent than I’d like, the almond isn’t the most authentic nor is it particularly biscotti-like, and I get no coconut at all. Perhaps the coconut pieces are just for aesthetics, but I was expecting coconut flavour and as a coconut lover I was disappointed. Oh, well. Another one down! Thanks Janelle for letting me try this.

Sipdown 103/395

I seem to be in the minority with this one – I like it! It is closing in on 4 years old at this point, so maybe that’s why, but I don’t get any bitterness from the tea whatsoever. It’s definitely more ‘key lime’ than ‘pie’, and I would like there to be some buttery pie crust notes, but it’s still a pretty nicely flavoured tea without it. The lime flavour is most present but there is a creaminess which rounds it out, too. As the cup cools the cream becomes far less noticeable and the lime note peeks through a much more dominant base. I’ve just had some bad news about a family member while I was writing this so I’m going to cut my note short, but yeah. I liked it.

ETA: Thanks go to Janelle for this one.

Not quite a sipdown but almost. I have enough for a small cup left after making a 4-cup teapot’s worth for yesterday afternoon. Pretty delicious and exactly what I wanted at that point in time. And so much better than the Sunny C from earlier. I really miss Della Terra.

Drank this first thing yesterday. It was pretty tasty although I was concerned about the marshmallow things. Still, a good cup of tea, pretty sweet and tasty.

Ok first of all, I know I’ve reviewed this before. It even shows that I’ve rated it in the box near the top of the screen, though not on the bar below my text as I type. But my review is nowhere to be found. Grrr! I was hoping to refer back and look at my notes. I mean, that was the original reason I signed up here (come for the reviews, stay for the tea frens!).
Sighs. Anyhow. This was a whole lot fruitier than I recall. I remember it being more remnicent of a garden with notes of carrot and other non green vegetal things. But today, I’m getting sweet peach mostly. It is pretty old so perhaps carrot fades faster than the other ingredients. Now it’s just a plain ol’ fruity green. Oh well.

Thanks to Starfevre for sending this! I had a pretty rough day and this is sweet and comforting.