Y’know, when this tea released as a sneak peak in the 24 Days of Tea this past winter I fully said I wanted to write a more detailed tasting note when it properly launched, and then I forgot to do that. So, I’m doing it now…
There’s really just so much packed into this blend that it’s hard to even know where to start. I guess flavour is as good a place as any, and wow this is one heck of an intense tasting tea! At its most boiled down, it’s basically sour cherry. Think the Maynard’s Sou Cherry Blasters but less sugary/artificial. It’s sour, it’s tart, it’s in your face. That’s for a few reasons, as well. There’s the predictable inclusion of hibiscus, but also we’ve specifically used a variety of cherry called “tart cherry” that is, well, tart. And then lastly there’s also apple cider vinegar powder in the blend which adds to the zingyness of it all. That’s where the “cider” part of cherry cider comes from. Obviously that bold and punchy of a fruit flavour makes for a great iced tea and tea pop.
So I guess the next part is maybe the “why” of it all? The short answer is that tart cherry specifically is a functional ingredient that I’d been tracking/curious about for a while because it’s associated with all kinds of wellness benefits like gut health, immunity (very high vitamin c), muscle recovery and anti-inflammation, and also sleep as well. And it’s always great to work with wellness ingredients that actually taste good, because a lot very much don’t. Then the whole Sleepy Girl Mocktail trend/fad happened on TikTok and tart cherry very suddenly went from an ingredient that people were sort of loosely familiar with (sort of a “if you know you know” vibe) to selling out overnight in grocery stores and becoming VERY well known for as this sort of relaxing, sleep-friendly ingredient found in trendy brands like Poppi that all the girlies couldn’t get enough of…
And so I started playing around with it a little bit more actively, and we ended up with this blend that sort of folds together a bunch of different but complimentary wellness elements to capture the essence of that mocktail-trend while still being a delicious, refreshing stand-alone tea. We kept is caffeine free because of the relaxing element of the tart cherry that became such a recognizable benefit of the ingredient, and coupled it with the more gut-health oriented inclusion of ACV powder. And of course, when it comes to immunity, maintaining both good gut health and sleep hygiene can better boost your immune system too – so they all sort of comfortable click together.
Our final little “cherry on top” (pun intended) was the inclusion of willowbark, also called “nature’s aspirin”. Even though it wasn’t our primary focus with this blend, since muscle recovery/inflammation is an association with tart cherry, we wanted to take the opportunity to support that with this extra ingredient. Plus, there is something fun about the idea of an iced cup of as a sort of no-alcohol ‘night cap’ that can be enjoyed in the evenings on a long day with the duo of willowbark eases headaches/stress and the tart cherry providing some sense of relaxation.
So, yeah, a lot going on. But I think there’s sort of something for everyone to latch on to? You can 100% just enjoy the tea for it’s really punchy, boldly sour cherry flavour (and without added sweeteners!) or you can lean a little into the different wellness angle. It’s a flexible blend in that way!
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.
