Cranberry Gingerale

Day 1 Davids Tea Advent Calendar
It’s been a while since I have had any Davids blends in the house. They closed the shops near me and I’ve not ordered from them in the last year. I am so excited about this start to Advent. This is my second tasting of this (the first was on Dec 1). I absolutely would purchase this again. It is very much like the cranberry ginger ale of my childhood memories.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #8

This is another tea I heard about on Geek Steep and wanted to try, so I was pretty excited to see it in the box. To my delight, this one totally exceeded my expectations! Seeing hibiscus so high on the ingredients list had me worried, but this is the rare blend where the hibiscus totally works for me, imparting just the right crisp tartness that my tongue reads as “cranberry”. The ginger is perfectly balanced too: not too sweet or too spicy. I drank it hot and really enjoyed it, but I think it might be even better iced!

Sipdown! (10 | 46)

So this one was enjoyable, but not a reorder for me (not that it’s available anyway). I can barely taste the yaupon, it might as well be a fruit tisane as far as my tongue is concerned. And not a fan of the “sweet flavoring” (is that code for stevia?) either, I wish they would just let me choose whether to sweeten my tea.

That being said, it does remind me of ginger ale, and I thought the hibiscus was well-balanced with the red fruitiness.

Steep:
2 tsp (entire sample)
212°F
3 min
kati loose tea system 12oz

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: ginger, cranberry
Steeped Tea Smell: fruity ginger
Flavor: cranberry and ginger
Aftertaste: tart, herbal, green yerba mate
Liquor: dark maroon, opaque

Post-Steep Additives:
cinnamon honey
a more chai like cup of tea

Steepster Link – https://steepster.com/teas/davidstea/100812-cranberry-gingerale
YouTube –
https://youtu.be/aKKZxATbiY0
https://youtu.be/Lakbmql7Gjk
TikTok –
https://www.tiktok.com/circuitswan/video/7174819745223429419 https://www.tiktok.com/circuitswan/video/7174913835638197550
Blog Post – https://amazonv.blogspot.com/2022/12/davidstea-loose-leaf-herbal-tisane.html

Leaf system:
1=Bleh! not again if it were free
2=Acceptable, if it were free or there were limited other tea options
3=I might purchase this tea from time to time, or select it while out
4=A staple in our cupboard from now on, I will purchase and keep purchasing

Statement of Sponsorship or Advertisement:
I purchased this product.

Disclaimer:
All my reviews are as unbiased as possible, whether I buy or receive free product. I accept no other compensation other than free product.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me just say… I am excited!

This brand new Yaupon blend just released last week and I am so incredibly thrilled and delighted that it’s out and about in the world now! Here’s a fun behind the scenes fact for you all… way back three years ago when I first came to DAVIDsTEA’s head office as a data assistant in the R&D department this was the very first profile I suggested that the R&D team worked on. Now, it’s not my first development – at the time I wasn’t actively working on new teas so Pumpkin Earl Grey still has the honor of being my first concept that I got to work on. However, it still kind of feels like my first tea in that sort of “I knew this could work/be a thing” sort of way!

So lets stop a think about that for a moment. That means that for almost three years now I’ve been very patiently waiting for this tea to launch. I’ve gone through probably close to a kilo of it just on my own in that time frame because not only is it special to me in terms of my own tea story/R&D journey but it’s also just really good! I know I totally have a bit of a bias for cranberry teas, but I also generally don’t like ginger so I feel those two biases must cancel each other out leaving the stone cold truth that this tea is just damn good. Or, at least, that’s what I’ll be continuing to tell myself.

What I really love most about it is how well balanced all the flavours are. The top notes are really tart and bring that lovely crisp cranberry quality to the blend while the body has a lovely and almost effervescent sweetness that really makes this taste like a cranberry gingerale and not just a cranberry ginger tea – and speaking of that ginger, it’s aromatic it’s just a little spicy and it brings such depth to the blend while also making the sweetness more sweet and the tartness more tart.

I drink this tea hot, iced, cold brewed – it’s one of my regular cupboard staples now after the last few years and I’m actually so relieved that it’s out because I was getting close to running out and I’ve REALLY needed a top up.

Plus! It’s DT’s first yaupon tea in years – and it’s no secret that I wasn’t really a fan of our last one so I think this is a dramatic improvement. Yaupon is a very cool ingredient native to North America (Texas specifically), and with the cranberry in the blend – which is also from North America – it’s unintentionally become this nice sort of homage to North America as well, which is maybe appropriate because I think actual Cranberry Gingerale is most popular around Autumn/Winter in the USA and Canada’s prairies.

So yes… Cranberry Gingerale. I love it. A lot.

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.