77
drank Carrot Cake by DAVIDsTEA
6111 tasting notes

Sheesh, reading about this tea on here has made me quite wary of it!

The dry tea has a VERY strong odour. I can’t quite place it. I don’t believe it smells like paint thinner, as others have mentioned, but it does smell kind of chemically. I can imagine it to be very strong cakey carrot cake if I try quite hard, but based on the smell alone I probably wouldn’t choose this tea.

Thankfully, steeped this one smells a whole lot better, more like a spice cake with a strong tea base.

The taste, although I’m not sure I would call it “carrot cake”, is actually quite pleasant. I think I can taste the carrot, and definitely the oolong, and if I try hard, I can envision myself eating a piece of carrot spice cake. Not really getting the cream cheese icing though. I also have to say that I’m picky about the carrot cake that I like, and this tastes like a mid-range sort to me – not good enough to be amazing without icing, but not so bad that one needs a large dose of icing for the cake to be palatable.

So this one definitely isn’t as bad for me as for other people. I actually find it somewhat enjoyable, although it’s not tasty enough to be a tea I crave. The take-home message from this tea would definitely be that carrot in tea can work! I just think the spicing isn’t quite right; I’m getting a sense of baked goods, but it’s quite bland. I think someone perhaps needs to attempt a carrot cake chai, with whatever flavouring used in 52teas cheesecake teas (which hopefully I will soon be trying!) for the icing.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 15 sec
Ninavampi

I am glad you liked it! : ) For me this is probably the worst tea I have ever had…

Kittenna

I honestly have to wonder if there was a bad batch of this or something. I’ll admit that the dry tea doesn’t smell great, but I don’t understand how people could have had such a negative reaction to what I drank last night! It just wasn’t that bad. But to each their own!

Ninavampi

Yeah… Maybe it was a bad batch, or there is a flavor that agrees with some people and not with others. I bought this after reading a review by someone who really liked it, I just didn’t agree. It’s funner when people like different things, I think it would eventually be very dull if everyone liked the exact same thing.

Kittenna

Completely agree! That would take all the fun out of trying new things :)

Bonnie

Me too Ninavampi, the worst or close to it. I hated the dry smell and the taste was just aweful…too sweet like a ton of glucose in the mouth mixed with cat fur. BLECH!

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Comments

Ninavampi

I am glad you liked it! : ) For me this is probably the worst tea I have ever had…

Kittenna

I honestly have to wonder if there was a bad batch of this or something. I’ll admit that the dry tea doesn’t smell great, but I don’t understand how people could have had such a negative reaction to what I drank last night! It just wasn’t that bad. But to each their own!

Ninavampi

Yeah… Maybe it was a bad batch, or there is a flavor that agrees with some people and not with others. I bought this after reading a review by someone who really liked it, I just didn’t agree. It’s funner when people like different things, I think it would eventually be very dull if everyone liked the exact same thing.

Kittenna

Completely agree! That would take all the fun out of trying new things :)

Bonnie

Me too Ninavampi, the worst or close to it. I hated the dry smell and the taste was just aweful…too sweet like a ton of glucose in the mouth mixed with cat fur. BLECH!

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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