New Tasting Notes
Today I drank the last 9g of my cake. It was a very nice way as well. First I had some of it with breakfast, during which I also filled up my thermos. I then drank from it during the day, as I went skiing. It was an awesome powder day with blue skies, something we have had very little of this winter so far. After returning, I did another batch brew, which was super satisfying. I especially appreciated the amazing texture and strong flavour you can get from a tea like this without any danger of making it unpalatable as there is basically no astringency and only very little bitterness. To conclude, I boiled the tea for 15 minutes, which I do quite rarely these days, but I thought it was a fitting end to my very positive relationship with the Rooster King.
The king is dead, long live the king!
Preparation
Dry Aroma: Herbal. A bit of black pepper without the sneezing.
Dry Appearance: Dark brown with a few hints of tan and an interesting leather brown look on 1/3 of them. Twisting, curling, and some a bit open. Mostly broken in medium-sized pieces.
Infusing leaves: ARTICHOKE! Cream.
Flavor: More artichoke. Kinda herbal. It has a bit of minerality but is different from other oolongs in that it takes a backseat.
Mouth feel: Silky and very filling, like a Chinese silk comforter. Btw… as amazing as they feel they don’t don’t make good bed comforter. They’re slippery. And any time you try to look cool by sliding across it will end up with you faceplanting into the wall or floor.
Liquor color: O_O that’s dark! Not as dark as some pu er or dark teas can be but darker than some black (red) teas.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Kinda… sour? Not quite as high as a goishicha but something in the aroma is slightly sour. But in a good way. There is also a bit of raisin.
Sipdown
This was a decent tea, but probably my least favorite of the S&V teas so far. Ashman had a bit of it, but I could tell that the chocolate aroma was the one he dislikes, in spite of his usually liking S&V chocolate flavored teas. He drank it several times and finally mentioned that it had an odd smell and he thought it smelled like chocolate milk or hot chocolate. At least he didn’t say it smelled like mildew! That’s what he says about all Harney chocolate flavored teas.
Based on the name, I would expect more nutty flavor and no mint. The mint is not offensive but it seems an odd fit for the name of this tea. Overall, it was okay, but not one I would repurchase. I would call it drinkable, decent, innocuous, but not a stand out by any means.
Cold Brew!
If you’re reading all the tasting notes I’m cranking out tonight then you may have noticed a theme in the fact I am drinking a lot of honey flavoured teas today. I really don’t know why this was specifically the thing I was craving, but it is what it is.
Honestly of the handful of honey teas I’ve had I think this is the least honey. It’s still really good with a layered mix of bright, sweet orange notes contrasted with cooling mint and that’s little bit of floral honey undertones and soft, earthy ginger. More mint and citrus than anything else. And it’s still doing the trick settling some of my nerves despite not being soooo strongly honey, which is what I was seeking when I picked it out.
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 hello there, new Superfood Latte Powder!
As I think many people here on Steepster know, I am pretty allergic to mushrooms. However, the rest of the world sems to love functional mushrooms right now and really could care less about my allergies which is, of course, very inconvenient for me as a person who is responsible for doing the Research & Development of teas that include those functional mushrooms. But it must be done.
Thankfully I have a great bunch of coworkers who are able to help me with the tasting portion of the development – but, as I have done for all DT’s teas that include mushrooms, once we FINALLY reach the point where a tea is complete and being sold I do taste the blend. Once. Without swallowing. On a day when I am home and not working and can have a minor allergic reaction in peace. Y’know, for education’s sake.
So, if you haven’t clued in yet this superfood latte powder does contain a mushroom. Reishi, to be precise. The idea with this powder was to create essentially a “boosted hot chocolate” that would help with stress management/relaxation. That’s kind of the thing that reishi (and most other adaptogens like it) is known for. It’s not the first time DT has used reishi in a tea, and in fact we’re carrying two other blends right now that use it: Reishi Relax and Super Shroom Mushroom. As far as functional mushrooms go, we like this one a lot.
The tea itself is, of course, very chocolate-y in the same way that our previous superfood powder Ruby Cocoa was. However, the differentiator is the addition of caramel and a little bit of sea salt. You can think of it like a caramel infused brownie batter or a salted caramel hot chocolate. That sort of vein. Very rich, decadent and smooth. When I did do my little sip and spit situation I have to admit I was kind of crushed. I really, really liked the caramel flavour a lot and it makes me really sad I won’t get to experience it again. Not worth the reaction even though it was so tasty.
Like all the Superfood Latte Powders that DT has put out, this was very much developed SPECIFICALLY the be made with milk or alt milks. In fact, the packaging instructions don’t include water at all. Of course, experimentation is fun and you can totally do your own thing to fit your own tastes. Anyway, if you like caramel and chocolate things or need to destress a little this might be worth a try! You can appreciate the salted caramel flavour on my behalf.
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 one of my favourite cherry teas, not just from DAVIDsTEA but in general. However, I’ve now developed a couple different cherry teas specifically for DT so I thought it might be interesting to revisit this tea now that I’ve done my own developments and see what I think of it now…
To be honest, I still adore this tea. I think there’s just something so rich, sweet and plump tasting about the cherry in this blend. It’s very melted popsicle tasting in vibes without being cloying, and with a very subtle woodier undertone from the oolong base. I think all three of the cherry teas that I’ve worked on (Very Cherry, Cherry Limeade, and Cherry Cider) are all quite a bit more tart/sour and bright than this one is. To be honest, though, I kind of love all of them. I mean, DT has released A LOT of cherry teas over the years and if I’m being honest I don’t know if there’s been any that I’ve disliked? I guess maybe the Cherry Cola tea from like a decade ago?
It was fun revisiting this one now though having worked on my own concepts. Sadly I think this is a cherry blend forgotten by most in favour of some of the others I mentioned or even teas like Hibiscus Splash or Sweet Tart that are cherry flavoured without cherry being in the name. I still love it, though. I won’t forget you Cherry Lucuma.
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.
Had a mug of this over the weekend and it mostly tasted like sweet pecan and chocolate to me and not a ton else. Maybe a hint of fruitiness in the undertones in a bit of a generic way. I enjoyed the cup a lot – I think pecan is one of the flavours that Plum Deluxe does particularly well. However, I would have loved to get some of the other flavours a little more. Otherwise I’d have just brewed a mug of Porch Sippin’ Pecan from Plum Deluxe instead…
Sipdown. I’m so glad I got this from the TTB. That fluffy, marshmallow-esque vanilla is just wonderful. The base tea isn’t incredible, but it’s a solid grassy, vegetal green tea that complements the sweet vanilla flavor well.
Another blend that I pulled out because I was craving something relaxing and honey flavoured to sort of decompress with, and this did the trick! The honey flavouring isn’t quite as strong and delicious as the 52Teas blend I had earlier but I love it combined with the cooling peppermint, vanilla, and apple notes. It’s a very smooth cup and it definitely helped with the tension I was feeling.
I should probably increase the rating from the 78 it’s at currently as this has really become a reliable favourite of mine.
Sipdown (2751)!
This is a sipdown that I probably should have gotten to ages ago but, hey, I’m getting to it now. So that has to count for something. I’ve never really felt like this blend does a great job at tasting like it’s namesake. It’s much, much too tart and hibiscus forward and really lacks any sort of “pudding” qualities – British or American. However, as a punchy and sour tasting strawberry? Oh, yes. That’s how I viewed this last mug and leaning into those really bright, tart strawberry and hibiscus flavours made it a much more enjoyable send off.
Cold Brew!
Very alcoholic tasting as a cold brew and without a lot of inherent sweetness either. Not a complaint, but just something that feels worth noting because a lot of rum flavoured teas do tend to either be more spiced or more sweet and this is kind of neither. It reminded me of the cheap rum I used to drink as an underage highschool student which was sort of nostalgic in a weird way. Fine overall, but I definitely prefer this one hot.
Iced Tea!
Steeped this one up yesterday and it was exactly the sweet, bright and refreshing burst of sunny lemonade that I didn’t know I needed to make it through an afternoon that felt like it was dragging forever. And refreshing as always, too. Still a Tealyra fave, for sure!
It’s rose. It’s cardamom. It’s green tea. It’s also kinda flat tasting and boring. It’s not that I think it necessarily tastes bad, but to me this is maybe the weakest offering of Silk Tea Co’s blends. I know I can find similar blends elsewhere and I just feel like there’s not a lot of life to the cup. I know that’s largely because of the decaffeination process but understanding the why still doesn’t improve the end experience.
I made so many notes during adventageddon that I think it burned me out a bit. Hoping to get back into the swing of things but ::insert shrug emoji here::. Marking a sipdown of Te Company’s Green Sanctuary GABA oolong. I went to add it to the database but it’s no longer on Te’s website so I didn’t have all the info (and since it’s no longer for sale, it seemed less pressing/necessary). This one was so good. Creamy with notes of sauteed greens and maybe asparagus? It’s one of those good-for-all-seasons teas that isn’t too heavy or too light for certain weather. And of course was good for many steeps.
I had a very, very stressful afternoon today and for some reason I got it into my head that the thing that was going to help me unwind and decompress a little bit was honey. Literal honey, yes, but also honey flavoured tea. I think this is easily my favourite honey flavoured blend so I made a mug and almost instantly after taking my first sips I felt layers and layers of tension just melt away.
My mom used to make hand dipped beeswax candles that were honey scented, and I used to love watching her dip them in the giant pot of melted wax over and over until the layers built up. This tastes so much like our kitchen smelled when she would do that, and as I got more relaxed drinking this I felt a bit like I was a hand-dipped wax candle – but in reverse? Like layers of stress being melted off the wick and back into the pot. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. I guess the TLDR here is that I really needed this tea today.
Not too long ago, I tried the Jingmai Raw Pu’erh Cha Gao (aka “tea resin”) from YS, and today I’m giving the ripe pu’erh version a try! Though the raw was good, I immediately liked this one much more. The liquor is very, very smooth with a surprisingly sweet flavour. It’s very honey-like but dark, dense, and golden with a sort of graham cracker adjacent undertone and some expected earthiness. Not like a buckwheat honey, but sort of in that direction. I’ve had a handful of different types of Cha Gao outside of these Yunnan Sourcing offerings, but to be honest, this is probably the best that I’ve tried based on first impression alone.
Plus, the convenience factor is huge here. I know that, as a community, we often turn our nose up at pretty much any form of instant tea. Personally, I think that’s a fault within the community for several reasons, but that’s a discussion for another post. Regardless, if you’re looking for travel friendly tea options then you can’t get a whole lot better than this one. Just make sure to keep it in a labeled bag because it does, admittedly, look a little sketchy to the unfamiliar…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFQoEMjS9XS/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY292wlKitk&ab_channel=TommyNewport
Grandpa Style!
I’m still on a little bit of a sticky rice kick, so I’m brewing up one of these cute little coins from a recent order. This ripe pu’erh is infused with nuomixiang (aka sticky rice herb), which gives it such a cozy and comforting flavour of glutinous rice. While I imagine this will be amazing as a gongfu session, I’m drinking this grandpa-style and it absolutely slaps. Starchy, smooth, and almost a little bit creamy with undertones of coconut, vanilla, and even pandan alongside a very full-bodied and robust foundation of earthy pu’erh. The balance is really good, and I appreciate the way the sticky rice flavour plays off the undertones of sweet brown dates, petrichor, and molasses in the shou pu’erh. Delish!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFS6WvQpt7W/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDoKZ9WeyR0&ab_channel=MICKEYDARLING
Gongfu!
I love pretty much every smoked tea that I can get my hands on, from the most brash and aggressive tasting teas to ones with the more fleeting and subtle whisps, so when I saw that Bitterleaf was offering Lapsang Souchong from Tongmuguan (aka THE place to get traditionally smoked lapsang from), I was unquestionably on board. It is very, very good.
As far as the level of pine smoke goes, I would say this is more of a medium intensity erring ever so slightly on the softer side. It’s smooth and sultry, without a hint of bitterness or astringency to it. The black tea itself is also very fragrant with a really sweet floral aroma of sakura blossoms and sweet red stonefruits; very cherry-like. Medium to full-bodied, and so very layered. Soft blankets of smoke, rose, and sakura in the top notes, with a gentle mid sip of ripe and tangy red cherry cherry and strawberry, all with a delicate woody finish and lingering aftertaste of darkly sweet black licorice. I expected something good, but I wasn’t totally prepared for something THIS good.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFVqTLLSTVm/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cJ5LDaAHk&ab_channel=CalinRed
Gongfu!
A morning session in my favourite l’il roasted green tea dedicated yixing pot! This is a very medium-bodied and round feeling tea, with a roast that contributes a subtle smoke note on top of tasting wonderfully rich and nutty. The undertones almost read as just a bit fruity and “red” tasting to me in a similar way that I might get from a more amber maple syrup, and the top and body notes really make me think of pecan pie with just a bit of an almost brassy mineral edge. Though I don’t tend to reach for this one quite as much as some of my other hojichas, I always enjoy it when I brew it up and I reaaalllyyyy appreciate the complexity packed into each steep.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFYww4UBDvH/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-lbtDftuIo&ab_channel=Ziggy2000-Topic
The last sample from my order from EoT. This one is decent, though one of my least favorite for shengs of this age. Can tell this one spent some time in HK.
Very smooth and with no bitterness or astringency. Barely any sweetness, if at all. Lasts 12+ infusions. Nothing wrong with this tea per say, but the storage notes are fairly lacking compared to it’s same-aged counterparts. That is what I want, and this tea has likely had too “clean” of storage since it’s days in HK to be the right one for me.
Flavors: Camphor, Dark Wood
I want to like this so much.
Opening the tin is a delight and smells so wonderful.
This time I tossed the tea into my pot which still has the leaves I’ve been steeping all day. I thought maybe a bit of an extra base in there might help.
Freshly piping hot and it smells so good. Even the taste is good with that lovely warm ginger.
But as it cool the ginger steps back and the orange and especially clove take center stage. And I just can’t tolerate that combination. Actually I suspect its more the clove than anything else. I’m really developing a dislike for it.
Having this mixed with another black tea isn’t really making any difference.
I’m planning on another order next fall. I’ll have to give Gingerbread Festival a try and see if it suits me better.
Sipdown! (32)
From the January subscription. The name of this tea made me laugh because it’s so vague compared to what I’m used to. Going to assume it’s a TGY since that’s the most common, but who knows ha ha.
It’s good though! Definitely on the greener side of things, but still has some nice bake-y sort of notes to it. Silky smooth with a nice balance of fresh green and sweet grainy notes and a touch of floral in the finish. I wouldn’t seek it out again, just because I tend to prefer Taiwanese oolongs, and anyway I generally buy flavored and unflavored teas from separate sources. But enjoyed my 3-ish cups!
Flavors: Clean, Floral, Grain, Green, Mineral, Silky, Smooth, Soft, Spring Water, Sweet, Thick, Toasty, Woody
