This review is going to make me sound like such a shill for David’s Tea, but oh well. Also, it’s a sample sipdown.
So, this is a sample that I got in my recent order from David’s Tea. Not only is the tea from David’s, but I brewed it in a David’s Tea teapot, measured out the leaf using a David’s Tea’s perfect spoon, and sweetened it with some of David’s cinammon-flavoured creamed honey.
On top of that, I’m drinking it at the same time as I’m tasting a bar of David’s Coco Chai Rooibos-infused milk chocolate.
I don’t work for them, I swear! Anyways..
Dry leaf: Bits of rooibos, cardamom, and peppercorns were visible. I was surprised by how fruity this smelled when dry – I thought I detected something lemony. Looking at the ingredients, I was probably responding to a mixture of the ginger, cardamom, and coconut. Quite refreshing, actually.
Steeping parameters: I know that I underleafed this. I only had enough in the sample to make 2 8-oz cups of tea, but my teapot is 24 oz instead. I let the kettle come off the boil for about 5 minutes, then steeped the whole lot for 6 minutes.
Liquor: Orangish red, like a dark terra cotta. The ginger and the rooibos combine here to make a smell that’s surprisingly lemony/fruity. Definitely unexpected. The liquor and the dry leaf smell very similar, and the strongest taste is of ginger and cardamom. I was hoping to get more coconut out of this than I expected (though the coconut flavour is much more present in the tea-infused chocolate). However, because I underleafed this significantly, it’s entirely possible that there are several layers of flavour I’m missing.
Verdict: I think I like the chocolate version better? I’ll definitely finish off this pot, and see how drinking a properly-leafed cup from the store would taste.
