Juniper Joy

Thanks again, AJRimmer! So I was thinking of pairing this tea with my current book: ‘Walden’.  And the day before I was set to drink this, while I was reading, Thoreau DOES go and mention juniper on page 201 “…the creeping juniper covers the ground with wreaths full of fruit…” So I would say the tea fits with ‘Walden’!    First, I know there is hardly a leaf of black tea in my sample, which is a shame, but is quite the bushel of other ingredients.  The first steep is this lovely fragrant flavor coming from this dusty rose brew.  A little tart, fruity, definitely a hint of a fruit that I’m not used to… the juniper, perhaps?  I was intrigued by Roswell’s notes when mentioning jammy strawberry and YES I’m noticing the strawberry jam in the second steep!   (Hibiscus is the first ingredient listed though, sigh.)  Again, in yet another tea, I wouldn’t mind that hibiscus tart to not be there, much like in ‘Walden’, I wanted great NATURE writing and could leave much of the rest. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons // 19 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 3 minutes after boiling // 4 min

AJRimmer Advent Day 12

I’ve happily sipped through half this cup and now I’m mildly annoyed after calming down from spitting mad that my computer force updated when I started it. I have a long history of hating updates for various reason. Deep breaths.

This tea is nice though! It mostly smells of some kind of fruit with juniper, which isn’t a common thing I’ve seen in teas. Every so often I get a whiff of something weird in the tea that I don’t like, but it’s fleeting and I haven’t figured out what it’s about. Papaya sometimes smells strange while tasting delicious. The level of juniper I taste fluctuates a bit. The finish is a lighter version of what the sip provided. I’m really liking how this blend is combining sweet with savory!

Update: Just read the info on the steepster entry for this tea. It has hibiscus in it?! I didn’t even taste it! :D Also; strawberry! I can totally see that now!

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one, but the result is lightly fruity. It’s a little thinner than I would like. Also it contains an almost pointless amount of black tea. I am definitely enjoying how light and refreshing it is. Not sour at all, just a mild strawberry. I was really hoping to taste some juniper, but unfortunately, I didn’t.

I love this tea iced! It a sweet hibiscus tea, but a slight chemical aftertaste.

I was happy to see DavidsTea release another juniper forward tea. I love the flavor of juniper, and find it unfortunately underutilized. I actually didn’t realize this was a black tea, and let it to steep for about 10 minutes. The flavor wasn’t impacted (I actually can’t see any tea leaves in the dry mix, or taste the base at all). I find that the cream flavoring is really heavy, and in conjunction with the hibiscus, I just can’t really taste the juniper at all. I prefer Wintergreen Wonderland over this.

Honestly another tea that I love but had sort of forgotten about in the slew of other newer DT blends that have pulled my attention away from some of the past ones. I made this one up as a morning cuppa just hot and plain – though I always, always crush the juniper berries in my measured out tea leaf before steeping. Gives you that extra pine-y kick in flavour, which i find important to offsetting the otherwise super fruit dominant cup.

The strawberry is just so jammy – like a very good compote that you’d spoon on something like waffles or French toast. You get some tartness from the hibiscus, but it’s primarly just dense and coating. I love packed in, super strong fruit notes in a black tea like this – the body of the base only adds to that feeling, as well. It can get to feel a little much by the end of a whole cup, but that’s what things like the botanical in the blend and that pine-y juniper are for – to offset that dominant strawberry and add other flavours to pull interest/attention and lighten up the cup.

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.