Thailand Black

(DavidsTea 97)

This is ok, but not quite my favourite black tea profile. It’s not astringent or too bold, but it’s also not overly flavourful, and the profile isn’t particularly distinctive. I mean, it’s far better than a grocery store/teabag black, but that’s about the best I can say.

I don’t actually own this blend but it is nostalgic because as Roswell Strange said, it was the tea that we had together in a gong fu session with one of her coworkers the first (and only) time we met in person.

It was a very exciting gong fu session for me because (1) I got to see Roswell Strange in person, (2) I was getting a sneak peek of a not-yet-released DAVIDsTEA tea (3) in the DAVIDsTEA tea lab and (4) I would finally get to do gong fu brewing with someone who knew what they were doing!

The session was back in December but I remember we got through a number of steeps and all were really nice and smooth. I recall this having a medium-full body, with plum-like/stonefruit flavors. No astringency from what I can remember. It actually was really nice, whether that was the tea or company I can’t be sure but it left me happy.

This is the last of the new teas – and also my favourite. Best for last, right!?

This was the only straight tea to launch today, it’s part of a sort of “Thailand Capsule” that started off with Golden Lily and few weeks ago. It’s, sadly, only in select stores and online but I still HIGHLY recommend trying it out if you’re a straight black tea fan at all, but especially if you like Nepal Black or Honey Black!!

I’ve had this Thailand origin black tea probably a dozen times now and it’s so easy to brew, forgiving, and flavourful. I think it would be a really interesting and unique regardless of what company was carrying it, but it’s especially cool to see such an interesting straight tea in the DT line up. I’ve had it Western, Grandpa, Iced, and Gongfu now and it’s really lovely each way – still need to have it as a latte, though! My favourite was definitely having it Gongfu though.

Something, actually, that I’ll always associate fondly with this tea is that I got to share a Gongfu session of it with VariaTEA and another friend/coworker over the holidays when she came to tour the lab/visit. It was so nice to be able to share that sneak peak with her, and have that moment! Plus, the tea was really good too – perfect for sharing.

Looking through my compiled tasting notes from the last dozen times I’ve had this, these are the things that I see very consistently described/as flavour trends in all the ways I’ve experienced this tea:

- Sweet and smooth
- Medium to full bodied
- Mixed notes of honey, plums, sweet potato, grains, and malt
- Cane sugar notes more present in Gongfu brewing

It’s late and it’s been a very stressful day so I’ll leave it at that – but there will be many more tasting notes for this tea to come! It’s great, and it makes me proud to have it in our collection now.

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.