Apéro Spritz

2021 Sipdown 14/365!
(DavidsTea 39)

I think this is from DT’s summer 2018 collection, one that I missed while in the fog of pregnancy. I was lucky enough to end up with a couple teas from that year through various sources, but definitely missed some. Anyhow, I had a 25g packet of this and felt it would be best as iced tea, so it’s the latest pitcher we now have in the fridge.

I’m often not a fan of teas that are trying to be alcoholic beverages, as I dislike the flavour of alcohol, but this one mostly smelled kind of floral and lightly citrussy. The flavour is much the same – the citrus is very sweet and light. It’s kind of like… clementine? I suspect the sweetness is from the sugared pineapple in the ingredients. And there’s a good amount of general floralness to the tea as well. It’s not bad, and doesn’t taste particularly alcoholic. But, I like many other iced teas more so it’s completely fine that this was my one shot at it.

(I just checked the ingredients, and passion fruit is included, which actually makes a lot of sense here, and might be the floral source that I can’t place.)

ETA: I see people are noting bitterness… maybe if I try really hard I can imagine it, but it’s not a defining flavour(?) for me at all. It’s obviously a bit old, so maybe that had an impact.

An Ode to Tea challenge – A

Brewed this one up, thought the citrus might help my immune system after getting the COVID VACCINE yesterday YEAH.  Really, most importantly, I wanted to get the vaccine for the long suffering nurses, doctors, and any other staff at the hospitals and nursing homes,  school teachers and all the other workers who keep things going every day.  I thought the citrus might  help my immune system, as I was definitely feeling it.  I usually can tell in my bones when my immune system is fighting something.   A nice orangey cup anyway!

And so FINALLY the alphabet sipdown challenge concludes!  It was a fun one.  I would definitely do this again, maybe a few months from now.  What I noticed while looking at the list of sipdowns though, most of these teas that I finished were never in something like 50gram pouches.  Most of these were 3-5 serving type teas which makes me think I keep those teas in mind knowing they will be easier sipdowns.  But then anything that is in 50-100g amount might get put on a backburner and I need to work on those larger amounts.  So this challenge actually taught me something anyway!  So with this challenge, I completed 24 actual sipdowns which is better than I thought would happen!  I’m fine not having two letters be actual sipdowns, especially when O and U are the rarer letters.  BUT THEN.  I just had to buy teas from Maya Tea.  An awesome sale where so many samples were $1. So those samples, plus two teas I wanted to try at 50grams and the number increased by 19 again, so basically undoing the work of this entire sipdown challenge.  Another lesson learned.  :/
And another note: I don’t know… it might not count as a sipdown to others, if it started out as a single teabag… but it counts to me if it’s a precious sample from Bird&Blend, or a sample from a tea bud! So SOME single teabags count.  I guess we all sipdown in our own ways. :D

An Ode to Tea

A – Apéro Spritz – Davidstea
B – Builder’s Breakfast Brew – Bird & Blend
C – Candy Cane Truffle – 52Teas
D – Dark Rose Hearts – Octavia Tea
E – Eggnog Marshmallow Treat – 52Teas
F – Frosty Osmanthus Oolong – Daoist Meditation
G – Gingerbread Blondie – Davidstea
H – Hand Picked Summer TieGuanYin – Verdant
I – Irish Breakfast – Dollar Tea Club
J – Jun Chiyabari Second Flush Nepal – Single Origin Teas
K – Korakundah Estate BOP Organic – Upton Tea + Kung Fu- Silk Road Teas
L – Lychee Jasmine Green – Tealyra + Lavenderberry – Tea Source
M – Mokalbari East Full Assam – Harney & Sons + Molly Hooper Blend- Adagio
N – Nirvana – American Tea Room + Nice Vanilla Spice – Plum Deluxe
O – Orzo Strawberry – Lupicia
P – Poundcake – white2tea
Q – Qing Pin – Yezi Tea
R – Royal Blend – Fortnum & Mason
S – Silver Needle “Yinzhen” white – Silk Road Teas + Snow Day – Davidstea
T – Taiwan Four Seasons Light-Roasted Oolong – What-Cha
U – Unbridled Love – Teavivre
V – Victorian London Fog – Harney & Sons
W – Witching Hour – 52Teas
X – Xin Yang Mao Jian – Teavivre
Y – Yeti White – Wendigo Tea Co
Z – Zealong Black – TeaGschwender
*True sipdowns in bold

A nice bittery citrus.

Home – 10:00 PM

After that last one, I purposefully picked something that I expected to be tart.

This one is pretty tasty. And it brews up such a lovely light coral color! It’s sweeter than I expected, but it is nicely balanced by tartness. Sweet orange is the primary flavor, with some more tropical fruits in the background. Perhaps pineapple and passion fruit. There’s also a bit of lemon here, and a touch of balancing bitterness.

This tisane is really reminding me of Pixie Stix right now. Probably the orange ones? Which sounds weird but is actually quite tasty if you’re in the mood for a fruity tisane. :P

I’ve had a sample of this before, and since it’s being retired (at least the website said it was, but it doesn’t explicitly say it now) I figured I’d grab 2 oz while I still can. The flavor is a light orange. It’s quite refreshing either hot or cold, but I think I might prefer it hot. It doesn’t taste like watered down juice. It’s sweet and fulfilling. I think I’ll raise the rating a bit.

I love the bitterness of this blend. It’s very fruity, but the pomegranate stands out the most for me (aside from the bitter orange note). It’s great over ice. To my surprise, this is one of the best DT blends I’ve had this year.

I thought I would dislike this, but I actually love it.

Some delicious orange, pineapple, passion fruit, and lemon. There is a sweetness and a very tasty juice flavour. There is a creamy quality here, too. This makes a great plain iced tea, but is also nice with a touch of sweetener. Unlike many of DT’s herbals, this isn’t sour and hibiscus-heavy.

Cold Brew!

I feel like I do this every fucking time where I make this cold brew, have a sip and only THEN do I remember that this is one of those DT fruit/herbal blends that I actually drastically prefer hot over iced/cold brewed. I mean, it’s definitely drinkable and I am making my way through it currently as I work on tasting notes tonight… but it’s pretty bitter and pithy, and there’s almost a waxy note to the pineapple in the blend. Your palate sort of adjusts to that as you make it through the drink, but I prefer it hot because those notes don’t come out as strongly for me when I got with a hot prep method.

But. Every. Damn. Time. I. Forgot.

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.

Got a sample to try with my online order. Brews a beautiful bright pink color. It smells like my childhood chewable Flintstones vitamins I used to eat-and it tastes like it too! That might have been a good thing back then but it turns my stomach over now as an adult. Tried this iced.