16841 Tasting Notes
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…
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 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.
