New Tasting Notes

One doesn’t expect much from a box of teabags on one-dollar clearance at Wal-Mart. This performed right on point. The astringency that I associate with Red Rose has been de-caffed out and what’s left is mild and maybe a little soapy, but not undrinkable. It will be a good carrying mechanism for additives.

Sweet, fragrant taste similar to raisins or figs. Does not grow bitter easily.

First time with Work Fu, or fuzhuan steeped western style at work. Lots of vanilla overtone here on top of a fairly smooth autumn leaf base. Slightly drowsing but complements today’s cold rain.

This kind of tea doesn’t have the deep, grounding character thatother heicha can have. It’s lighter and more gentle for my constitution.

It seems nice and smooth, no harshness that I am detecting either hot or cold and it is standing up well to full boiling water for steeping purposes.

However, I honestly can’t really identify what I am tasing. Its not quite a roasted flavor, but it has some similar vibes.
There’s a little sweetness as it cools, though less noticeable when hot.

Overall, not really my thing, but there’s nothing objectionable about it.

A sipdown! (M: 9 Y: 25)
I have decided to spend remaining 7 grams in a single gongfu session.

It tastes very differently, it is not so mineral and salty; but heavy notes of wet forest floor, mushrooms and different woody notes are still present.

Flavour-wise it is not too complex, but it is suprisingly mild for stomach, despite dark and strong notes that I wrote about in previous paragraph.

Longer steeps weren’t bitter or astringent, it was just like you have doubled the mushroomy (shu) notes. In a certain way this tea reminds me Bancha Goishicha from Japan; which is also in my stash… so I should compare it in a short time, in a time I still have a memory of this one.

Marshall! Thank you! This was also very educational. If you dry the kernel inside an apricot, you can apparently eat it. When I looked up pictures all I thought about was almonds. Being that I am allergic to almonds I feel like I have to try to make these on my own.

Dry Appearance: Long leaves. Dark chocolate brown with some golden hints. Slightly dusty. Tightly twisted.
Dry Aroma: Dry and sweet. A bit of Vinsanto. A sweet wine by Gaia in Greece. (Btw, if you ever go to Santorini, visit the Gaia shop. It’s amazing) Also some mineral notes.
Flavor: Lots of minerality. Very fruity. Dried apricot. When infused longer the minerality really kicks in. Wet rocks.
Wet Aroma: Mix of fruit notes and raisins.
There is a slight astringency when you let it steep longer but it plays very nicely with the minerality.

Today I want to revel in quiet gratitude. I wasn’t in the mood to look for a sipdown or fulfill a prompt. I just want to drink a tea that makes my heart feel happy.

This was a gift from Superanna. I usually have black tea at breakfast but I was organizing tea yesterday and putting some things in tins and noticed this one and just wanted a sniff and the aroma has been on my mind ever since. I decided it would be my breakfast tea today.

There is bergamot in this but it does not resemble an Earl Grey or an Earl Green in any way. This is floral and fruity for dry leaf aroma, and mostly fruity in the steeped cup. The first time I had it, I was not yet a fan of violet or lavender tea or violet candies. Now I adore those things. If you are put off by floral flavors in tea, you may still like this because the taste is mostly fruity. It has a lot of flavor but none of them are aggressive. It is simply delightful and perfect for watching winter rain fall with a warm shawl around your shoulders and your prettiest tea cup.

Leftover teabag from a TTB. This was much better than I would have guessed! The black base was hearty enough, and the spices were pretty well balanced, though I can’t tell for sure what I taste most strongly. I enjoyed it with sugar and milk and would drink it again if I came across it, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase it.

I really wish I would have had honey with me in office to add to this, but even still it was such a fantastic cup. Lemon and ginger at its most simplified, but there’s so much else interesting happening with this tea starting from how fresh and zesty both the lemon and ginger notes are but also from the deeply aromatic and camphor-rich complimenting notes of cardamom and such complexity and playful savory notes from the thyme.

The combination of everything almost leaves a light tingly or “buzzing” sensation on the bed of the mouth. If I can get ethereal for a moment, it taste/feels the way I might imagine it would if a bunch of fireflies were dancing across your tongue.

I find it a little too nuanced/sophisticated to be the “right” lemon ginger tea to drink when I feel sick, but for a pure flavour experience it’s very tough to top.

It’s blood orange. It’s spice. It’s really good iced.

I’m still holding true to my sentiment that this is not really a unique profile, but it was very good iced – probably better than it was hot. That deeper and almost berry-like but still juicy and citrusy blood orange note is really well done and so refreshing, and it felt a lot more “correct” with the notes of clove, cardamom, and cinnamon which I struggled with ever so slightly when I had this hot since I felt those cozier spice notes were a bit strangely juxtaposed with a brighter orange note. No problems here!

…It’s definitely growing on me.

Oat Milk Iced Latte!

I feel like it’s really being a “chocolate raspberry” kind of Spring this year. Particularly with Valenetine’s Day I was seeing this flavour combination what felt like everywhere. Maybe that’s what influenced me to whisk this one up. It makes a mean iced latte though with such a rich, decadent and truffle-like profile. Chocolate leading with that jammy, thick raspberry note in the finish. Kind of does make me think of valentine’s chocolate in a really unironic sort of way. My only kind of complaint is that the matcha itself does get lost, but the other flavours are so good I feel like it makes it up.

Sipdown (2789)!

It’s so interesting that I ended up drinking so many more “Christmas themed” or wintery feeling teas this week coinciding with the blizzards we were having. I didn’t really clock that until just now writing tasting notes, but just goes to show how much the weather really does influence cravings…

Anyway, this was a sipdown a long time coming. It’s a fine tea, and in particular I think the chocolate note is really nice. European chocolate flavours tend to lean a little more fruity than the chocolate we get in North America, but it works well in this context with the citrus notes. It really is the orange I have slightly more mixed feelings about. It’s bright in a way that’s both a little juicy but also a little sharp and pithy. Somewhat at odds to have that abrasive quality in a decadent profile. Almost a little too realistic for the taste of orange peel in an uncanny way.

Ultimately I’m fine with this sipdown though because I know I have similar enough teas in my stash from other companies. No reason to be holding onto this one in particular.

So I drank this one yesterday at work. We had some pretty freaking intense snow storms over the weekend, even by Canadian standards, and so a lot of the city was “snowed in” and working from home. I, however, left my laptop at the office over the weekend so I was kind of forced to come in. I was so cold when I got in that the first thing I wanted to do was just drink a gallon of chai. I settled for the mug, though…

I have to say that I think I agree a lot with Kaylee. I really enjoyed this tea, but I didn’t really get distinct notes of chestnut and the overall sweet brown and molasses-y sort of flavour with the spices (the cinnamon/ginger in particular) really made me think of gingerbread. Gingerbread with a bit of a peppery kick to the finish, perhaps. It was exactly the warming, aromatic flavour I was looking for though!

I’m curious to taste it again in the future to see if slightly different context brings out more of those nuttier flavours for me. But even if it doesn’t, I still think this is a really rich and well balanced chai profile regardless.

Iced Tea Sipdown (2790)!

I’m going a little bit crazy right now because I finished off a bag to make this iced tea and I think it’s my last bag which makes this a “proper” sipdown, but I’m actually not 100% sure it’s my last one and I don’t have time to carefully go through my GIANT BIN of black tea samples to make sure…

Regardless, I think it was time to finish this one off. It is a blend that has very much grown on me with time, but it was an older sample and I am also trying to be better this year about not just holding onto the last serving or so of teas. It was a refreshing tea to start my work day with today with not just a solid cola flavour but a pleasantly bright and sweet cherry note, too! Cherry cola, essentially. But flat and in tea form. It’s better than it sounds, I swear.

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.

Banana pancakes. That’s it. That’s the tasting note.

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.

Iced!

I know we’re in the heart of winter here in Montreal following two very, very heavy snowfalls from some recent blizzards but I just really wanted a mojito this week and this tea really has that fresh, cooling, and lightly sweet profile of a mojito that I was looking for but with the added bonus of a splash of bright lemonade-like citrus too. It was soooo deeply refreshing.

It’s going to kill me when I finish this one off, sand I’m getting close to that point now.

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.

Cold Brew!

This is the last of the Santa’s Secret from this past year’s advent calendar, and I really thought this was a sipdown too until I remembered I have a bunch of sachets shoved in a drawer somewhere…

Anyway, it was still a good tea even though if it wasn’t the cupboard reduction I was looking for. Quite smooth and refreshing with a lightly cooling feeling from the mint inclusion and a hint of soft vanilla. I find when I drink this tea cool I get less of the “fondant note” I dislike so much, so now I need to decide whether it’s worth using the sachets for iced tea. That always feels so awkward/clunky to brew, but I think is a better flavour option for me personally…

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.

I haven’t had this tea in a while and it’s so, soooo deeply cold and snowy right now in Montreal following our two back-to-back blizzards that an even cup of chai was calling my name. I remembered this being fairly cinnamon forward with a slightly more earthy and herbal undertone from the ashwagandha and ginseng in the blend, but I had TOTALLY forgotten that this tea does actually pack a little heat as well with a pretty strong peppery kick to it alongside more aromatic notes of cardamom. It was strong, but also soothing in a satisfying way. Plus, the intensity of the spice totally cleared out my sinuses which was a bit of an added bonus.

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.

We have a bunch of cans of these RTDs in the fridges in our office kitchen for people to enjoy and though I usually have a bunch of teas from my personal stash brought in to steep throughout the day (how else can I possibly drink it all) I was a little busy on this particular day so I defaulted to the convenience of the RTDs…

Now, that said, I did think I had grabbed one of the Magic Potion ones from the fridge so my first sip a little jarring to say the least. Expecting sweet blue raspberry and getting bergamot and a strong cream flavour is a bit of a mindfuck. I figured out my unexpected riddle quickly though, and from there I just enjoyed the smoothness of the brew.

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.

Another Valentine’s Day backlogged tasting note!

I was really leaning into the VDay themed black teas, so it seems. This was the third one that I made during the day. It was rosy in a sort of romantic, ethereal way that felt appropriately on theme – but more than anything else it was just super silky and smooth with really custard or creme anglais-like vanilla notes. I have so many favourite teas I’ve gotten to work on for DT for different reasons, but I’m personally that more black tea-leaning type of customer/consumer so this has always just been particularly up my alley.

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.

What a throwback!

This is a belated tasting note from Valentine’s Day and, of course, I had to dig deep, deeeeeppp into my stash to pull out this very nostalgic throwback. The tea is OLD which makes this already somewhat gently flavoured tea feel ever lighter but the overall profile of milk chocolate, strawberry, and juuuuusst a touch of rose is still intact. The chocolate holds up the best, and it’s just a nice and smooth cup overall. Wow does it ever make me nostalgic for my very early days first discovering DAVIDsTEA and loose leaf tea in general.

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.

Grandpa Style!

Even though there’s probably more snow outside right now than there has been all winter, I’m still taking time today to get some fresh air and enjoy a few teacup’s worth of thermos-brewed black tea in the park today. Like the name kind of implies, the tea is pretty sweet and syrupy. It’s definitely leaning a little more to the darkly sweet side with dense, sticky notes of brown sugar, bourbon vanilla, and a whole lot of raisin. Because there’s this almost cakey sort of malt or bread undertone, the overall profile makes me think of British-style puddings such as sticky toffee pudding or even something like the hilariously named “spotted dick” which is often made with raisins. There’s definitely a steamed brown sugar cake sort of vibe happening here, and I am aaaaaaall for it!!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGGyjLpSehH/?img_index=1

Also, shout out to this STUNNING teacup! I had such a fun time photographing it today, and the liquor of this tea just looks soooo freaking good in it!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuUnvMpaaOM&ab_channel=MarmaladeMountain

Gongfu!

This is a very, very thick and slick shou pu’erh with a virtually jet black liquor. We’re it not for the faintest tinged of red at the waterline, it would essential be like staring in an opaque black hole of steeped tea. Full-bodied, of course, but also really starchy and smooth with a sticky rice like body balanced out on either side by slightly bright and jammy red fruit top notes and more darkly sweet and nutty undertones. Maple sugar, pecans, raspberry jam like what would fill a jelly donut, but also a blanket of silken, grounding earthiness and pandan. Very comforting on this cold, stormy afternoon when I want nothing more than to be swaddled up inside with a cup of something warm and predictable.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGJNL5iyolb/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD611geCXGo&ab_channel=Rubblebucket

Amani has been one of my favourite vendors to stop by and say hello to at TO Tea Festival. Each year they seem to have something new and delicious to sample, and this year I was thrilled to see a Kenyan Silver Needle had been added to their line up. It’s very smooth with the most wonderful fresh and herby aroma to the dry leaf. Steeped up it’s light to medium-bodied with distinct notes of rosemary and sage alongside a gentle woodiness and undertones of creamed honey. Quite approachable, and I love the more savory sort of lean to the flavour compared to Silver Needle from more common terroirs like China. Definitely a very solid addition to my ever growing tea stash. Can’t wait to see what new teas await me from Amani next year!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGMMRdQShlK/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNx5icMOIDM&ab_channel=MiloKorbenski-Topic