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I went to the other David’s Tea in Manhattan on 66th and 3rd to pick up a few more samples of stuff. I must say, I like the staff at Bleecker better. They seem so much more energetic. Then again, they had opened so recently at the time so maybe it’s just new guy energy. By now, the employees should be a little more jaded. haha I gotta go back to Bleecker and see how energetic they still are. :)

I also sampled Love Tea #7 while I was there, but I’m not going to write a review since it was obviously over brewed, bitter and astringent. I mentioned this to the person helping me, but she still gave a sample of it to someone who walked in later. hm…

Anyways! Late to the party, but I got some of Santa’s Secret since so many of you out there profess so much love for it. This is pretty tasty! I’m finding that I like what David’s tea does with mint. There’s also a sweetness dessert-y thing going on. Maybe like a vanilla mint pudding. And while I don’t much like black tea, I can appreciate the flavors here. They should make a decaf version!

I think I got this from Tamm. Not sure. I’ve been doing so many swaps lately and just tossed all my samples together. I suck.
The looks really pretty. Dark green against bright red. Lovely. I wasn’t expecting much from the taste since that was just too many dried berries in there. I added extra leaf so that I’d taste the tea. This tastes mostly like tart freeze dried raspberry… I think this is one of those teas that Teavana formulated so that it only tastes good sweetened. When it cools, you can detect the floral and slightly vegetal oolong base. It’s a shame about the berries because I think the oolong would be a lot tastier without them. And the berries would be a lot tastier in my cereal.
I may try this cold brewed for my husband. :) I think it would work better that way.

I love genmaicha! It’s really hard to go wrong with this type of tea. It reminds me of the toasted rice at the bottom of the pot back before my parents got a rice cooker. They would pour boiling water over the toasted rice to get it to unstick from the pot, which created a kind of toasted rice porridge, which was amazing! And my grandma would sometimes scrap up the toasted rice and squeeze it into balls like a toasty onigiri.

Obviously, I have very fond memories of toasted rice. :) The rice also hides whatever flaws exist in the tea. This particular tea is easily astringent, but the rice makes up for it. I could probably drink this for breakfast. It seems so filling even though it’s just liquid. :D

Thanks Tamm! I can always use more japanese teas in my life.

This is, indeed, a confusion of tastes. I love the idea of combining teas from all over the world, but my taste buds are so confuzzled. This gets astringent easily. It was sipping as the bag was steeping. One sip it was ok, next it was astringent. Ack! And I’m not at home so there’s no milk to smooth this over.

Then as I drink this, my brain wants to know if it’s black or green. It smells like both but I feel like it tastes mostly like black. I see no evidence of the matcha in the final brew. If I hadn’t seen the green dust all over the inside of the tea wrapper, I probably would have thought I was conned. I think I’d like this with a pinch of mint, but as it is, meh.

I got some of this from MadelineAlyce and I’m actually liking it. I mean, as much as I can like a fruit tea. Normally I avoid teas that have hibiscus and rose hips, but this one is not tart at all. Like, not at all. It’s smooth and apply. It reminds me of cinnamon apple sauce. It’s a very juicy kind of tea. I believe it was a tea similar to this that I used to get my friend into tea back in college. cinnamon apple with loads of honey is a good beginner tea cause it tastes like hot cider. And who doesn’t like hot cider?

Amaretto indeed! This tastes like almond extract! I should use the liquid to make pancakes or something. I feel it would be better in baked goods than on its own. It’s a bit thin, yet intense at the same time. This may be better with some added chocolate. But who am I kidding? Everything is better with chocolate. I like this ok, but I can also do without it. Perhaps blending it with some other tea would be good. :)

Thanks to fellow Steepsterite, Tamm, I have a hefty pouch of this tea in my drawer at work. It’s great for work since I can just sprinkle some leaves in a mug and fill it with hot water over and over through out the day. It is now 2PM and I’ve been drinking from this same sprinkle of leaves since 9AM. I’d say there’s at least 2 infusions left in these babies. Awesome!

The tea starts out very floral and roasty. This is definitely a more roasted version of Ti Guan Yin than I’m used to. While the 3rd infusion of oolongs are considered the best, I find that I enjoyed the first two more. By the 3rd infusion, the flavor is very vegetal. It tastes like thoroughly cooked bok choy with an undercurrent of floral flavors. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve filled my mug, but now I’m seeing the dried apricot flavors mentioned in the description, though it’s really more vegetal than fruity. This is a very enjoyable tea that I’m happy to keep by my side.

Of course, the downside to having such a giving tea is that you get kind of tired of the same tea all day. It takes longer to tire of an oolong since the flavors change and develop with each infusion, but I think these leaves are running out of ideas. :) Maybe it’s time for some peppermint!

I think I have to stay away from David’s fruit flavored teas. It’s an orange candy flavor. And there’s a funny artificial flavor that I couldn’t pinpoint until I read Uniquity’s review. It’s bubblegum. It’s orange candy and pink bubblegum. It is creamy and vanilla-y though. Overall, meh.
I do have to give them points for creativity, but it’s also important to make sure your flavors blend well.

I’m pretty happy with this! Though a lot of people say that you can steep rooibos indefinitely with no ill effects, I think that over steeping can definitely create a sour wood flavor. I think this was perfect at 5 and a half minutes. It’s earthy and just minty enough with some smooth desserty wanna be chocolate flavor. It’s the same fake chocolate taste in Super Chocolate that I didn’t like, but it works better in this tea. Perhaps the mint compensates for the lack at the same time that the rooibos keeps the mint in check. This tea is pretty well balanced.
I think that over time, I’ll probably get tired of this tea. I mean, I always get tired of flavored teas and run back to unflavored at some point. But for now, this is definitely tasty and soothing for the tummy.

This probably would have been awesome blended with the choco*late tea! Too bad I just finished that. Argh!

This is like a savory vegetable broth. It’s got a rich creamy mouthfeel. I would agree with others that it’s buttery, but it doesnt taste like dairy. It’s all In the texture. It’s also a bit kelpy and oceanic. It’s got a bit of sweetness but not to the level of the gyokuro I got from Den’s. It also lacks that freshness of spring and sunshine. This one taste more robust. Like autumn. Maybe I should have asked when this was plucked. Hmm.

This is pretty good but I wouldn’t buy it again. If I’m going to get a tea this pricy it had better be magnificent. This one is only pretty good. I’m glad I got this to go from the store.

Anyways, I got a bunch of new samples to try. Yaaaay!