162 Tasting Notes
I had this tea first in the advent calendar I got 3 or 4 years ago (whenever the first year was that they had it) and thought “…crap. It has coconut in it. Why must you ruin every tea with coconut, David’s?!” But then I tried it. And oooooh, boy. Did I ever like it. And, like everything I do, I forgot to buy some of it before they discontinued it. And then I forgot about it.
BUT THEN!!!! They reintroduced it last year and I bought 100g of it. Now my life is complete! I have Elf Help! It’s fruity, a bit sweet but not overly sweet, and the coconut just adds a bit of…“something” to the tea. Not flavouring, but maybe a creaminess? I’m not sure. And I like that everything is in big chunks, but not so big that they take over a scoop (unlike Daydreamer, with the GIGANTIC pieces of mango). I’ve tried it iced and it wasn’t AS good as I hoped it would be. It seems like it would be really refreshing iced, but I was disappointed. But since it’s really good hot, I’ll stick to drinking it hot :)
Verdict: will re-buy next time they offer it for sure.
Yep, still one of my favourites. This was my third free sample in my most recent order.
This cup I noticed the peppercorns much more, which isn’t a bad thing. I like a bit of spicy pep in my tea. I love the texture of the tea, and that I don’t need to put on lip gloss when I’m done the cup. Yum yum yum.
Hopefully I can still buy this because I finally finished a tin of something else. Woot!
Lowered the rating a bit from the second cup.
I tried this again this morning and a lot of the flavours I thought there was in my first cup were not there in this one. Makes me think I just hadn’t washed the cup (entirely likely) and was tasting aftertastes from the cup previous. Sure, the tea is still good (at least, as far as straight black teas since I don’t usually like them) but not as good as I originally thought. If I was going to buy a straight black this would still be it, but I don’t usually intend on buying straight black teas.
Still glad I had it as a sample, though.
Another chance I took in my latest tea purchase bonanza. I read the reviews for this tea on Steepster (because it was on sale online) and thought “…this could be good. And if it’s bad…I have friends that like teas I don’t like. I’ll try it.” My expectations: what I wanted the Gingerbread tea to taste like, except caffeinated. And Gingerbread did not meet my expectations. So…take that with a grain of salt.
What I wanted from this tea was basically spice-cake. Or gingerbread cookies without the ginger part (since I hate ginger). I wanted warm spices, a bit of a sweetness in the background, some vanilla, and “something else”. The ingredients seemed to fit. And when I opened the bag…oh, boy. My nose was assaulted with all the right smells. “THIS IS PERFECT” I thought. “YOU’LL LOVE IT!!” I thought.
And…uuhh…I guess the smile with the eyes closed gives it away. This tea is exactly what I wanted, exactly what I expected, and tastes like a slightly milder version of how it smells (longer steep would have fixed that. Next time). It’s spice cake without the ginger, gingerbread without the ginger; spicy love in a cup. I can really taste the cinnamon, I can taste the cloves, I can taste the orange peel, and the sweetness of the vanilla. I can’t taste the carrots (oh, darn.) or the apples (I don’t think?) but neither of these I think add much of their own distinct taste. It’s more of a…blending flavour. Either way, what I can or cannot taste leads to a good cup of tea. One of my new favourites which is just stellar since it’s part of the fall collection and the reason why it was on sale is probably because they’re clearing their stock because it has been discontinued. The universe hates me.
Verdict: if the tea sticks around, I would buy it again.
After reading reviews on Steepster, I bought a 250g bag of this without ever trying it. First cup was this morning. “Here we go….” I thought.
I must admit, I’m kinda disappointed. Not enough not to finish the bag. But I saw one of the ingredients were mint leaves…and I LOVE MINT. I might be mildly obsessed, but it makes my tummy and my brain happy so leave me alone, dammit :) This tea didn’t taste much like mint, at least not in the first cup (maybe the leaves all settled to the bottom…I’ll try shaking the bag before the next cup). Sure, a bit of an after-taste of mint and a bit of the cooling feeling of mint, but not much mint FLAVOUR. The lemongrass flavour was very prominent but not over-powering. It was a nice balance. The actual tea had a really nice flavour.
So, my disappointment with the tea isn’t real disappointment, I guess. The tea is DARN GOOD. And I’m really happy I bought it. But…mint :( I’ll still gladly finish the bag, and if it’s ever on sale again I would definitely buy more.
Note from yesterday…
This was one of my three free samples of tea that I got in my most recent order. I am not, repeat AM NOT, a fan of straight black tea (which I guess is weird because I love straight greens, whites and oolongs). I used to be a big orange pekoe drinker, but I think by the end there was just as much sugar in the tea as actual tea. I was the queen of “sugar-water that’s lukewarm with some caramel food colouring”. So getting a straight black tea as a free sample was sad for me. But…I’m not one to throw out tea until I’ve tried it and determined I don’t like it. So…here we go.
Only used about half of the leaves in the sample for a cup, since I figured if I’m not a fan of straight black tea there’s no way I want to make a strong cup. Right? Right. Steeped and smelled while steeping…not so bad so far! Smells…strangely sweet. Like how I used to make “tea”! I might like this after all.
The taste: the same sweetness! So weird. Like there was a wee bit of sugar, or some kind of sugary additive, that was in the tea leaves themselves. And you know what? The amount of time I steeped the tea and the amount of leaves I used was the PERFECT amount. Too bad I didn’t write down how long I steeped it for (that would have required paying attention). I actually really liked it. I don’t know how likely I will be to buy some of this, only because I loooooove flavoured teas, but the idea has been planted in my mind that maybe some straight black teas aren’t so bad. I’ll have to try another sometime.
Verdict: if I wanted some straight black tea, I would buy this again.
I just got my order from David’s in the mail, and this was one of my three samples. Out of the three I was most excited to try this one; I’ve seen it in-store but wanted to try it before buying. The thought of putting toasty rice (and popped rice) in tea is fun…how could it not taste fun?!
The taste I wouldn’t exactly describe as “fun.” It wasn’t like a party in my mouth…but it was darn good. Toasty, green tea-y, rice-y. The colour of the steeped tea is very light, so at first I thought maybe I hadn’t steeped long enough. But any longer and it would have been really bitter. It was just right!
I would definitely buy this one. I might not ever have much of it stocked in the drawer at once, but it’s a nice go-to tea when I want something light and toasty while working at my desk.
OMG GUYZ. I JUST FOUND A CHERRY.
When I steeped the first 2 cups of this in my 3-cup sample I was thinking that the cherries in the tea would be slices of cherries or at least large-ish chunks. Kind of like Cranberry Pear, except instead of cranberry slices they were…cherry slices. Boy was I way off. The “chunks” of cherries were about 1 mm square dried, and maybe 5 mm square rehydrated. I ate one just to be sure.
So now I know I just plain old don’t like this tea. There were three chunks of pineapple, enough for one for each cup. Plenty of flakes of cherry, so that’s not an issue. To me, it’s just…yucky. Too bad, too…I really like coffee cake.
I had the bright idea that maybe the reason why I didn’t like this tea the first time I tried it was because it was far too “candied ginger” and not enough “spices added to gingerbread to make yummy”. So I added a scoop of this to my steeper, and then added 4 cloves (tops removed and crushed with my fingers, bottoms whole) and a few pieces of crushed cinnamon quills (take a quill, crush about 1/2" of it and add coarse chunks to steeper). Maybe THAT will make this more palatable.
And you know what? It kind of worked. It was definitely better to me, but still far too ginger-y for my liking. I’ll try adding more of each next time, and perhaps some grated nutmeg. I’m leaving the rating the same since it doesn’t change the tea for me…the last thing I want is to buy a tea then have to buy a bunch of other ingredients to make it yummy. Too much effort.
I…don’t know what to think of this one. I kind of liked it, but I kind of didn’t at the same time. The ginger in this tea really takes over and I don’t get much of anything else. And since I’m not a ginger fan, that’s definitely a strike against it. I wish I could taste more of…something other than ginger. Boo.
