16603 Tasting Notes
Final cup of the night? Probably…
Enjoying ANTM and catching up on the last few episodes. I don’t know why, but I’m rooting for the guys this cycle so much more than the girls. Only guy I dislike at this point is Marvin (though, I still like him more than most of the girls) – but I’m seriously supporting Chris, Phil, and Nina.
I keep coming back to this tea though! It really is perfect for all moods.
Preparation
Trying out the last of my DT purchases from today! Of the three I bought, this one was my Dad’s favourite. He really has a thing for white teas, where as I usually lean towards a good black tea.
I really like Earl Grey teas in general, so this was my sort of “experiment” on the Earl Grey front; I’ve never tried an Earl Grey with an non-black base. My expectations of this one were for it to be much lighter.
I didn’t really make any notes while I was drinking this one – I was too preoccupied with cooking my supper and flipping out at Tre for filling the whole apartment with smoke and the really nasty smell of burnt charcoal. He decided to make himself one of MY mini pizzas – without asking, I might add, when he had no idea how to cook them; basically he cooked a miniature one person sized pizza at 600 degree temperatures for somewhere between five and 10 minutes. Of course the entire thing was completely burnt and a solid black colour. He was going to make himself another one, but I guilted him into not wasting one of my pizza shells and instead eating the disgusting burnt mess he made himself.
If I’m recalling correctly, the dry leaf for this one smells pretty strongly of bergamot, with a really nice light lemon smell. The only reason I found this one was because I was searching the DT website for teas with lemon in them – my cupboard is pretty lacking of lemony teas (other than the God awful Lipton tea I have for when family comes over). And I swear, my little yogurt bits were sparkling. Like – a full on “Twilight Vampire” shimmery white.
I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure how long this cup was steeped – like I said, I had a little bit going on that distracted me. I’m sure, at the very least, that it was less than five minutes. Steeped, the liquor is sort of a peachy yellow. The smell was pretty much just bergamot – the lemon scent I think had been pretty much lost.
The bergamot in this is pretty strong (which is fine – I like bergamot), but the lightness of the lemon and the creaminess of the yogurt bits manage to keep that from making this a heavier tea. It still remains light and fresh. I remember there being an almost grassy aftertaste, so that was probably the green tea added in to this. I didn’t realize until I’d gotten home there was green tea in this mix (not really a green tea fan) – but I think I’d have still made the purchase even if I’d known there was green tea in it.
Overall, I like my Cream of Earl Grey from DT better – but this is still really good. I can see how there’ll be days when I’ll crave this over my other Earl Greys (or just crave it in general).
I’ve been eyeing this one up for a while, mostly because I want to find a really good pear flavoured tea for my cupboard. The first time I smelled it was in store in my old city – and it smelled alright, but not great so I passed on it. Today, in my new city, I took the opportunity to smell it again and see if my thought had changed, and they certainly had.
For whatever reason, it just smelled totally irresistible to me today. I wasn’t sure what it was that had sold me today until the salesman pointed it out; not only does it smell like pears and cranberry, but it smells CREAMY. It’s a very rich creamy smell too, but I can’t really figure out WHY it smells so creamy; none of the listed ingredients are things that really make me think of creamy teas.
Dry and steeping, this one smells like pears, but the cranberry factors into there a great deal too. The tartness of the cranberry really plays of the sweet juiciness of the pears. There are apples listed in the ingredients, and even though I can SEE them I can’t smell them at all. I’m ok with this – I’m not really interested in this tea because of the apple.
Steeped, the liquor is a very pale reddy brown sort of colour. I don’t know – it’s a weird colour, but it’s light. First few sips and it sort of tastes weak, and pretty watery. I don’t think it’s a matter of understeeping since I steeped this one of the high end of the recommended steep times. What it might be is a case of too much fruit in comparison to the actual tea leaf? The sample I got was almost ENTIRELY large chunks of fruit (Holy Cranberry! The cranberry chunks in this are MASSIVE!) with black tea leaves pretty sparse among the fruit.
The more I drink it, however, the better it tastes. The pear is very predominant with a subtle cranberry flavour. The description on the little baggy describes this tea and juicy and tart, but I don’t taste any tartness. Instead this tea is really smooth and creamy with a lovely light cranberry and pear taste. Like I said, the black tea base is very light and almost not present at all. I read the reviews commenting on how this tastes like bubblegum, and I understand the comparison.
Once I get my Della Terra order in I’m going to have to do a comparison between this tea and the other pear flavoured one I got (The Perfect Pear) to see which I prefer. Both use a black tea base. Hmmm…
My cup is all gone now, and I find myself seriously craving another cup. Both this tea AND Blueberry Jam (the other black tea I bought today) are teas I’m going to have to buy a tin of. I’m sure I’ll eat through my sample of this one quite quickly.
If it was only a little less weak, this tea would be perfect! And as soon as it was done steeping I went and ate all of the fruit bits! They looked too good to resist. Next time I’ll have to try over leafing it for a stronger flavour.
Preparation
Today my Dad and brother came into town for a visit, and to bring me up a new bed. I swear, my bed is FINE and perfectly comfortable, but my Dad insists on buying me new, well, everything. Sometimes I really appreciate it – and other times it’s frustrating because he tries to replace things that don’t need replacing at all.
We went out for lunch at Fuddruckers with my roommate Tre, and then as a sort of ‘house warming’ present we stopped in at DAVIDsTEA so he could buy me a couple new teaballs (I always seem to be short on tea balls). Initially he had expressly forbidden me from buying anymore new teas, but at the last minute as we were leaving he caved! Yes!
I ended up walking away with three new teas that had been on my “to try” list: The Earl of Lemon (which I served to my Dad later in the day – he has a thing for white teas), Cranberry Apple, and Blueberry Jam which is what I’m having now.
Normally, I hate blueberries! When it comes to the fresh fruit there’s something that I just find totally repulsive about the texture (it’s the same idea for me when it comes to tomatoes – NASTY texture), and artificial blueberry just tastes funny to me. So hopefully this will work out for me – real blueberry taste without that nasty blueberry texture.
The dry leaf smells very much like blueberries. Nothing artificial – just sweet blueberries.
For my first cup, I steeped for between four and five minutes and let me just say that this tea changes colour really quickly. I think my tea ball had been in the cup maybe 10 seconds and already the liquor was black. Not just like darkly coloured, but a solid black where I couldn’t see the bottom of the cup.
Steeped, it smells like blueberry pancake syrup! Mmm! My brother made the same observation, and this enabled me to convince him to actually try some. For whatever reason, he claims he can’t taste tea – every tea he’s ever tried tastes like water to him. He loves the smell of tea, but he can’t taste it. I’ve given him herbal teas in the past in the hope that he’d taste the fruit but the only luck I’ve had is him tasting hibiscus and hating it.
But after trying this one I think I’ve opened him up to giving tea more of a chance – he could taste the blueberries!
That made me really excited to try it – if he could taste blueberries when he usually tastes nothing then I bet I sure could! Sure enough, this tea tastes like real blueberries without any artificial aspect to it at all. It really does taste like blueberry pancake syrup, and that’s a very pleasant taste to (and kind of nostalgic, which maybe makes this tea better).
The black tea base is good too, and still present even though blueberry is by far the most dominating taste. Overall, I really enjoyed this tea but I did find that by the bottom of the cup it was starting to taste kind of… soapy? I think that’s the best word for it.
Preparation
Hmmm, how do you like DT’s teaballs? Do you use them at home a lot? or for work/school/travel? I’m trying to decide between tea bags (the filters that dt sells) and a teaball to take to work to use inside my timolino.
I’ve never tried DT’s teabags, so I guess I can’t give a fair comparison of the two tea products. I really like the tea balls though! I use them at home daily since I prefer to brew a mug at a time and drink many different types of tea all day instead of one or two types resteeped throughout the day. I have another tea ball that was a gift from someone (I can’t remember where they bought it, but it wasn’t a DT product) and it’s nowhere near as nice – the clasp comes undone quite easily and there are small gaps in the edge that let finer bits of tea out. I guess my recommendation would be to just pick up one from your local DT or add one into your next online order to try out (they’re pretty cheap), and then buy more if you like them. I have five.
Yeah, I should probably get a few of those. I have a few of dt’s perfect infusers, and they’re absolutely wonderful, but I always feel as htough I need more immediate tea-brewing options, because I don’t want to spend forever at the sink washing my teaware.
I swear I was tricked into liking this one! When I bought it, I was looking for something that Tre would really enjoy. He loves hot and spicy foods, and insists that he likes tea with cinnamon in it. So I went to David’s and asked the lovely sales lady what the hottest and spiciest teas they had were. She played along and had me do a blind “smell” test between two different teas.
I don’t really remember what the other one was, but I’m pretty sure it was a black tea. Regardless, I took a smell of this one as was INSTANTLY hit with the smell of those little cinnamon candy hearts you get around Valentine’s. I swear, I have no clue how they do it – but that’s EXACTLY what it smells like. The other one, whatever it was, didn’t smell nearly as good or as spicy so I went with this one! Imagine my shock when I found out it was a green tea! I HATE green tea.
Regardless, since I mainly had Tre in mind, I bought some anyway. Let me just say, I think I ended up liking it more than him. I found out a couple weeks later that while he claims to love spicy things and cinnamon teas, he apparently hates Chai tea – and this one is very chai like (it’s even included in the collection of Chai teas listed on the David’s website).
It really doesn’t take much steeping for the flavour to really come through in this one – and while it’s steeping it just smells like sweet cinnamon sugar. Again, it reminds me of cinnamon candy hearts or of those mini donuts you get at the fair that are doused in cinnamon sugar! Yummy! Steeped, the liquor is a pretty vibrant yellow green colour, though more yellow than green.
Drinking it, you do taste the green tea base more than you’d expect based on the smell. The cinnamon really stands out, as well as the peppercorns. There’s a lovely kick of spice that’s not nearly as sweet as the smell of the dry leaf, but still sweet enough! It’s a great “warm you up” sort of tea, and I bet it’d be perfect in a thermos during cold winters (especially waiting outside for the bus).
Yeah, when it’s really cold out I can see this being much more of a ‘go to’ tea for me than it is now. Can’t imagine how it’d work iced – I think this tea is just one that’s meant to be consumed hot!
Morning cup! Just as lovely as last night’s cup! Mmm!
Tre’s dad is here today for a visit (and mine is coming tomorrow) – so before I woke up (Tre is definitely an early riser, while I’m WAY more of the type to go to bed at 5 AM and wake up at 3 PM) Tre made him a cup of DAVIDsTEA’s Birthday Cake.
His Dad said it was really good, but I remain sceptical as to whether or not Tre made it properly… And just how much sugar he added.
Steep #2: Yes! This tea is definitely not a one shot wonder – at the very least you can get a second steep out of this one that is JUST as juicy and flavourful. Seriously, I’m tasting everything I did in the first cup! I love love love this tea!
Final tea left to try from Tea Desire! Somehow, I managed to save this one for last even though it’s been taunting me since I bought it! This tea is $8 for 50g, which is the high end of Tea Desire’s pricing. The sales lady shared with me that this one is pricier because all of the tea leaves are soaked in Champagne; personally I just find that really interesting.
I ended up buying 50g of this one, which is the smallest amount you can get at their store, and man did I get a lot of it! The amount of dry leaf that equals 50g is about enough to fully fill one of the tins from DAVIDsTEA. It’s a lot!
The dry leaf smells very rich and decadent and juicy! There are lots of large bits of currants, and lots of full currants as well! Smelling it, I’m reminded of really high end jams and jellies. It’s so sweet smelling too! Very, very sweet. Almost too sweet in fact (but not quite). The predominant smell here is definitely juicy black currents! Mmmm
Steeped, the liquor is a darker golden yellow that smells EXACTLY like the dry leaf. Same juicy black currant scent and sweetness. This might just be the best white tea I’ve ever smelled. If this scent could be captured into a perfume I have no clue how much I’d be willing to give for it! Probably a whole lot.
First few sips: Oh it’s so sweet! It tastes just like black currant jam, with the light taste of white tea and champagne kind of floating on your tongue in the aftertaste, along with a much lighter tasting currant flavour. I have no clue how someone could justify adding a sweetener to this – it’s SO sweet as is. Every sip is perfect! There’s absolutely no bitterness or astringency either.
Honestly, this might be the best white tea I’ve ever had. I’m going to have no trouble going through my 50g of this! For sure I saved the best for last! Even if this is a one hit wonder and doesn’t resteep well, the first cup more than makes up for it (I am excited to resteep though).
However, if you don’t like the taste of currants or really sweet teas this one probably isn’t for you – just a warning.
Preparation
Since I just put in a Della Terra order for six new teas to try, and since I have a package on the way from the VERY kind Dala, it’s probably a good idea for me to actually try all the teas I bought earlier this week. I only have two teas left to try from my purchases, so I think the goal for the rest of the night will be to try them both, starting with this one!
I saw this one on their website when I was looking at different things to try, and even though this is a green tea I was really curious! I checked to see what people on Steepster thought of it and, well, the tea wasn’t even listed here – let alone reviewed. I had to add it in! When I went in store to go check it out, the sales lady said it was very new – one of the newest teas they were offering, but that it seemed to be doing well with fans of green tea. I’m not really a fan of green tea, so I’m not really sure what I should be expecting.
However, upon smelling it, I was sold! I don’t smell stinky vegetal (and seaweed like) green tea – I smell fresh fruits! Like listed in the description, I honest to goodness smell sweet, juicy mangoes and lychees! I smelled every other tea they had in stores with lychees in it, and this is the ONLY one that smelled distinctly of lychees. YES! I love love love lychees! All of the bathroom products in m apartment are lychee scented (and soap, body wash, shampoo, lotions), and lots of my make up has lychee scent in it too! Mmmm! The great part is that this doesn’t even smell artificial (not that it is, but most lychee teas seem artificial to me) at all! It’s kind of interesting, actually, considering the blend doesn’t have any actual bits of fruit in it – just “natural flavour”. The dry leaf looks quite pretty too; it’s a whole range of bright cheerful colours!
For my first cup, I steeped 1 tsp for three minutes (the high end of the spectrum for their recommended steep times). The liquor is a sort of golden yellow, and smells more grassy than it did as dry leaf. It’s still quite fruity, and I get a very full aroma of mangoes, with a much subtler scent of lychee. The sickly sweet “cocktail syrup” smell the dry leaf had is gone now, but it still smells pretty delightful.
The green tea base is pretty present – definitely not covered up at all. For me, that’s a bit of a downside, but I can see it being a plus for others. Right alongside the green tea base is a very authentic mango taste. The lychee flavour is there too, but not as present and not easily detected without some searching. The after taste it leaves is really present, and it DOES remind me of a Asian fruit based cocktail. I like this tea! It’s not totally what I expected, but I like it. I guess you could say ‘come for the lychee, stay for the mango’? It’s not something I can see myself craving on a daily basis or anything, but right now it has a place in my cupboard.
I’d like to try steeping it for a shorter period of time in the future, I wonder if in doing that the green tea base would be less present and therefore wouldn’t cover up the taste of lychee as much? And, dare I say it, would sugar enhance the flavours or make it taste really artificial? Hmm…
