16603 Tasting Notes
Sipdown (2673)!
Finished this off a few days ago and it was perfectly fine. I let the teabag keep steeping in the mug the whole time and interestingly it just got more and more like a straight peppermint blend with time. Less fruity notes and less ginger. But it was a very nice, crisp and sweet peppermint that was nice to relax with.
Gongfu!
Usually I blind cake Skinny Dip as, even though the source of the material changes frequently, it’s my favorite white tea that Bitterleaf releases. The crisp, cooling vegetal notes are a sweet spot for me when it comes to white tea. But, I have so much white tea I need to sipdown right now that I opted for just a sample this year. I will say, the compressed leaf is beautiful and bud heavy which did make me question my decision just a bit even before my first steep. Once steeped, this tea is sweet and smooth and fully equipped to handle a bit of beating in terms of steeping. I fully let some of the infusions in this session go for close to a minute because I kept getting distracted, and this tea didn’t even bat an eye. There are some vegetal abd grassy notes but mostly I found this session channeling a brown sugar sort of sweetness that is very different from previous years of Skinny Dip. Less pulpy and cooling. It was a very good session, but so much more different that the tasting notes I personally have resonated with in previous years of this tea – so I think, ultimately, I’m happy in my choice to just sample. This will still be very easy to drink through, though!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCcUWDkSwxF/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3B_7xUJUzw&ab_channel=almostmondayVEVO
A huge thank you to my IG tea friend teainfusiast for having me as a speaker for her Story Of A Teacup charity livestream this past Sunday, and to my fellow storytellers @at.the.teatable, @herbthetravelingteaturtle, & @brewteafullybrewed (all also from IG) for sharing the heartwarming tales behind their teaware as well. It was incredibly moving to hear each of you speak! Though it was very hard to pick just one piece of teaware, I ended up selecting this mug, which was commissioned by @droseos shortly after the passing of my grandmother and inspired by all my favourite memories of the summers spent at my grandparent’s house with my brothers and cousin.
Across the mug, you can see many images inspired by the time spent in my grandma’s garden, such as fresh flowers, vegetables, berries, and even lawn gnomes, as well as homages to my late grandpa like the bowl of black licorice and jellybeans he kept on the side table next to his recliner and my cousin’s buttery yellow house. As I shared today, whether it’s through tasting notes observed through gongfu or all the memories that this piece of teaware triggers, I spend a lot of time revisiting those childhood memories through my tea practice. The garden, in particular. Something I didn’t share, however, is that we lost one of the family members at the center of so many of those memories to suicide. So, I want to ESPECIALLY thank everyone who attended or otherwise supported this event, which held a deep personal significance you couldn’t have known about.
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It was a very, very good way to spend a Sunday afternoon! I kind of alluded to it during the event, but I chose this tea specifically to drink in my mug because of the lavender flavour, which was a favourite of my Grandmother’s. I don’t know if she ever had a matcha or would have appreciated it, but I do know she loved lavender tea so it seemed like a nice nod to her during the story telling.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCfNM6lSNwc/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW-WZjpm8x4&ab_channel=EwanJPhillips
Gongfu!
A rushed morning session from earlier in the week. Though I would have liked to spend a little more time with this sheng earlier today, I did appreciate how smooth the early steeps of this tea were. The standout notes to me were anise and honeycomb. Very, bright sweet and thick with a bit of a brighter top note and more body and a bit of a vegetal and ever so slightly medicinal backbone that all that slick, syrupy goodness was layered on top of. Hoping to spend some time later tonight with the last couple of steeps that were skipped in my rush to get out the door and to the metro on time. It’s tough when you sleep in but don’t want to compromise on that essential morning tea practice…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCh5668StDy/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v88Bk3H0Guo&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart
Gongfu!
This roasted green tea also contains flakes of ichimi togashi peppers, which give it a really great fiery kick of heat on the backend of the sip. Especially in the first couple steeps. While I acknowledge this probably wasn’t a blend intended to be brewed gongfu, I actually really loved the balance of flavours and thought it brought out an interesting brassy tasting abd autumnal feeling brightness and minerality of the hojicha alongside toastier notes of grains and roasted nuts.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCkS-RHh3iy/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REV2-PuHnrY&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart
Gongfu!
I don’t know about y’all, but the last couple days I have been slammed with emails, ads, and other exhausting types of nouse surrounding Black Friday deals, so it only felt right to pull out W2T’s 2020 Amalgamation of Capital bamboo roasted and aged shou pu’erh. As exhausting as all the sales noise can be; this tea was beautifully smooth and silky with cozy, soft notes of gently toasted bamboo, coconut, or even pandan on a thick and comforting starchy and earthy bed of ripe pu’erh. Very heavy, but in the same soothing way a sticky rice scented shou pu’erh might be. The perfect answer to what has been an overwhelming feeling week.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCnBjkkyL9h/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvA_FQ5u2f4&ab_channel=JacoJaco
Last of the new teas is Clementine Cheer!
Obviously this is an orange blend, but it actually has the flavour of three different kints of orange/citrus in it: clementine (of course), your typical naval orange, and tangerine! The tangerines in it are these beautiful dried tangerine segments that come out of Georgia and visually they’re one of my all time favourite ingredients from DT. Plus, once you’ve steeped your mug of tea they’re really delicious to snack out out of the steeped leaf. Kind of like Midsummer Night’s Dream and the gooseberries in that blend.
The base we went with is oolong, and though you might assume a lighter oxidized oolong this is actually a more oxidized/roasted oolong. The leaves are beautiful and more wiry looking as opposed to ball rolled style. It’s not a strong flavour in the overall composition, but that hint of roast does create a really nice contrast pairing with the orange that makes it pop a little bit more while still adding some body.
Aside from being very bright, lively, and citrusy this blend also has a smooth, creamy undertone from inclusions like yogurt pieces and vanilla flavouring. Sometimes I think of it as a bit like Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait or Frozen Raspberry since those blends are also fruit and yogurt pairings, but I think this one is a bit less sweet and definitely not as tart since there’s no hibiscus in this tea. And speaking of comparisons, I’d say that compared to the two other core orange blends DT carries (Sunny C and Blood Orange Boost) that it’s also true this is less sweet and less tart comparatively. Also, obviously, creamier.
Even with that creamy component, there’s almost an effervescence to the citrus notes in this tea that I think work really well with the “cheer” part of the name. Like, yes it’s a nice cheerful tasting orange blend but it’s also kind of building in that idea of a orange mimosa or spritz that you might cheers with at a holiday or new year’s brunch, family get together, or party/celebration. It’s just lively, and celebratory and kind of happy feeling. To that point, it’s obviously good hot and predictably good iced but it’s VERY good as a tea pop. With a splash of champagne or prosecco if you want to go that cocktail kind of route.
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.
Y’all. Making a gingerbread tea was so much harder than I expected it to be.
It took probably around three years to really perfect this blend to the point where we were ready to launch it. The ginger was maybe the easiest part, but getting the balance of the rest of the spices and that really distinct, borderline molasses tasting “sweet brown” flavour was tough. A lot of previous versions of this tea came out either fruity leaning or too bright and just not quite right. I love this one though. It’s my favourite of all the new holiday teas this year.
The pu’erh tea base is so essential to getting the profile right. It’s full-bodied, very rich and also grounding and earthy which created the perfect framework to layer the spices and more decadent notes overtop. In addition to ginger this blend has all the spices that are traditionally used in gingerbread. It’s really the use of allspice that gives it that especially cozy and festive sort of spice note and feeling. I just said it in another tasting note, but it’s sort of crazy how in North America we have this Pavlovian response to allspice where we just associate that taste with the holidays. I think it REALLY captures that dense, darkly spice and sweet gingerbread flavour so well though!
And of course the toffee! Y’all know I love a good caramel or toffee blend, and I think the toffee note in this tea is pretty close to perfect. It’s thick and not too bright at all so it really emulates that deeply golden, densely rich sweetness very well. There’s a hint of cocoa in the blend and though I personally prefer my toffee/caramel teas without chocolate I do think that inclusion really helps give it some depth and extra decadence.
And so good as a latte. Hot, but also iced. I drink it as an iced latte very, very often. It was one of my go to iced latte blends this summer while I was waiting for it to launch. Haven’t done it as an eggnog latte yet, but I can only imagine the sublime level of indulgence that would be.
I think this blend will really appeal to fans of teas like Salted Caramel Oolong, Cardamom French Toast, Brown Sugar Bourbon, English Toffee (IMO it’s way better than English Toffee), Burnt Sugar Boba, S’mores Chai, Jack Frosted Mocha, and Hazelnut Chocolate. Y’know. The decadent, sweet, and brown tasting teas. Like, I don’t want to call it prematurely but I can see this becoming on of those big returning holiday teas. But maybe that’s me projecting a little bit.
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.
Last week we had another holiday tea drop and, with it, some returning blends. However, there were also three new teas for this winter/holiday season!
Snowball Fight is, in my opinion, just such fun. The key flavours of this blend are coconut and white chocolate, though heavier on the coconut. It’s very, very creamy and decadent and makes a really smooth, silky latte.
We don’t actually have a lot of teas in the collection that are coconut focused. Probably the two closest would be Chocolate Macaroon (but that’s more of a chocolate blend) and Valerian Nights – which is caramel/coconut. However, Valerian Nights isn’t really the kind of tea you’d want to drink at any time of day because of the chamomile/valerian root. So, in a lot of ways, this was meant to kind of be a coconut blend to answer that interest in something more overtly coconut forward.
However, that said, I definitely 100% started with the name idea of this tea and worked backwards finding a flavour that I felt really suited the name and visual idea I had in mind. Basically, I wanted the dry leaf of this blend to look like the embodiments of a snowstorm or blizzard. Just super playful with a flurry of white from the coconut, white chocolate, and snowflake sprinkles. I think I achieved that really well, and I’m happy that the flavour matches that aesthetic!
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.
