Cold Brew!
This is another one of the new cold brew teas from this summer! Honestly, this is the kind of profile that I was surprised that DT hadn’t explored in this format before. I’m really happy with final taste we landed on though! It’s incredibly smooth for a black tea without any astringency or bitterness at all, but still with solid body from the black tea. The taste of the lemon is very classic and traditionanal “RTD style” lemon that you might get from something like a Pure Leaf or Brisk lemon tea, but I think with a little more clarity to the lemon notes. A little sweet and very simple and straight forward.
I know that won’t be for everyone, but I don’t think you can argue that when you think of the standard iced tea available on grocery store shelves that a lemon black tea is almost always what pops into your head first. Like, we called this one Classic Lemon for a reason. It’s a staple flavour that is enjoyed by a whole lot of people across North America; and when it’s good it’s really good.
To me the obvious question about this tea is how it compares to Southern Lemon, which is another newly released tea from DT is also just a lemon black tea. Aside from the fact this tea is specifically intended for cold brewing while Southern Lemon was not developed with that style of steeping in mind, I would say that Classic Lemon is definitely the sweeter of the two. There’s no sweetener at all in Southern Lemon but there is a VERY LIGHT amount of stevia in this blend. Additionally, this blend is very round and “polished” tasting while Southern Lemon does have some faint astringency/texture to the mouthfeel and more body from the black tea and the lemon notes in that blend are a bit more like a lemon oil with more aroma compounds. So, they have some distinctions, for sure!
Personally, I do like Southern Lemon more just because I don’t mind that it’s unsweet and I’m at a point where I usually prefer at least a little astringency in my teas. However, I think the mood I would be when I would pull out this tea versus Southern Lemon would probably be really different, and so I’ve actually got both in my cupboard right now so that I can have that option situationally.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeW8dVruGun/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuxdtgSd5qo&ab_channel=SUSTO-Topic
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.
