2264 Tasting Notes
So far this is really pretty, and I’m enjoying sitting here watching it bloom. However, the strawberry flavour smells the same as all the other DavidsTea strawberry teas I’ve tried – the white one that’s in stores right now, Strawberry Shortcake, and Strawberry Ginger.
Brewed, this smells more like strawberries, which is a bit of a relief.
Taste-wise? Meh. It’s very weak, even though I only used about 750ml water to brew this. I want a strawberry tea to drink with milk and sugar, that is pretty much just black tea and strawberry. So while the novelty is A+, the tea itself is not the strawberry tea I’m looking for!
Well, not that I was really expecting it to be. But I remained hopeful.
Preparation
So a friend came over and I forgot this in the tea pot for, umm, 2 hours or so. I was trying to do a 30 minute steep as my second steep, and obviously that failed.
SPICY!
Still good, but yeah. So spicy. Very little base coming through, but IMO that’s a good thing. Really enjoying my lightly sweetened cup with milk.
Preparation
I finally managed to eat food today ($$$ bacon my brother got me, an egg, and sauteed greens, yum!) and to top off that delicious meal I decided to have an earl grey.
This one is, as always, fantastic. Just having it with a little soy creamer today.
Pay attention to their steeping instructions. 1/2 tsp per 7 oz (or so, this time), 4 mins. It’s actually pretty good, even though my water was WAY too cool. I do prefer making it in 16oz quantities, but I’m trying to only have 8oz cups of tea today, so I get to have more varieties before I start sloshing!
Preparation
Sip down! Sample from Heather at the Victoria tea meet.
I really like this one, and if it was available, I’d consider picking some up – either bags like what I received, or loose.
The toasty tea with the caramel is really lovely. And as a bonus, it’s lower in caffeine, so I won’t make myself vibrate with caffeine today. :)
Preparation
mmmmm
I keep almost buying this from their online shop, but never go through with it. One of these days…
I know this is an old note, but I had some of this tonight and re-read all the notes. I’m heading to LA in a few weeks and can try to get some for you if you would still like some. I’m gonna see if I can refresh my bag too. Let me know, k?
Oh, that would be lovely. Loose or bags, and I don’t need much. :) I have a lot of tea right now but low caffeine stuff for evenings is always appreciated.
Which would you prefer? I was gonna get loose, presuming I am able to get to them at all. But they have both.
Loose should be fine, and would be easier for you, I think.
Yeah, I’m thinking about getting $10 worth. I got $5 last time, so it should be enough to share. I’m trying to decide what else i might want to get. They have a lot of straight teas. If you spot something on the site, let me know, as I may get that to share too. Nothing too much I’m sure, mind you, since you have a lot of tea already. :P
Oh right! They had a couple I was interested in.
Royal Buckwheat Tea or
http://birdpick.com/teas/loose-teas/herbal-tea/double-ginger-tea.html or
http://birdpick.com/teas/loose-teas/herbal-tea/instant-natural-plum-tea.html
They don’t have the ingredients for the ginger or plum tea though. The buckwheat tea is listed as gluten free. :)
I’ll see what I can do. :)
Thanks! :D
I got the caramel houjicha and double ginger. The said the ginger is just ginger bits and ginger juice. They were out of the plum and there were a few buckwheat teas that I was not sure which one to get. I picked up the osmanthus milk oolong too.
:D Awesome! The ginger should be SUPER POWERFUL, which will be awesome out hiking or if I get a cold.
That’s what I was thinking.
Robust, from CrowKettle. Yes, I have all my highly scented samples sitting in a box on the counter, and I’m starting to randomly grab them in the morning. I must say it looks a bit suspect to have all these random tin foil packets in baggies with post-it notes!
This one is good, and yes it tastes kind of like vanilla pudding. I think I prefer the caramel matcha, though. I haven’t had a cream filled pastry in years (gluten and lactose intolerant!), and I kinda forget what they taste like.
As a latte with unsweetened almond milk and some sugar.
(I am working on a map with notes of all the Vancouver tea places, in preparation for meetups. Whee! Things to do when procrastinating on math.)
oh man that would be awesome fun. I miss vancouver
I love it here. I’m trying very very hard to not have to go away for more school. Going to try to make it work with what I have.
That’s awesome that you are doing that! I may be in Vancouver in July? It’s hard to tell, but Vancouver must be an adventurous maze when it comes to tea.
Did you get lemon from this one?
Hmm. Maybe a bit of lemon in the aftertaste, but I did put vanilla sugar in it today (I mean, Bavarian cream = pastry = vanilla!). I have a serving left, so I’ll make that one with plain sugar.
Also, yes. Definitely a maze. I’m emailing companies, even, because their websites say they exist but I don’t remember seeing them…
Vanilla sugar + matcha sounds wonderful. :)
I can’t imagine how many tea houses Vancouver has.
A lot. I’ve been to very very few of them. :)
http://goo.gl/maps/yzAd6 This is just the ones I’ve mapped so far. I’m sure there are more.
Wow. That seems like it would be difficult to organize. Have you guys set a date yet?
Ahh, no. I need to actually visit some places so I know what kinds of seating and stuff they have. I’m thinking it’ll just be a meet, sit, drink tea and have some nibbles (not high tea because $$$), swap. It’s too difficult to have a tea crawl without cars, or lots of transit time.
(I am totally willing to organize a transit-based tea crawl at some point. Just thought that meeting everyone in a less stressful environment would be best first!)
It’s really weird to be drinking matcha instead of my usual black/flavoured black tea this morning.
I still don’t get maple and sweet potato, but it’s a nice unassuming flavour. Made it as a latte just like yesterday, only twice as much of everything and in my travel mug!
Nom. Nom nom nom. Trying to finish up what ShayneBear gave me before I break into the tin (TIN!!) from CrowKettle.
I find the flavours of this tea really comforting. There is no weird chemical smell in what I’ve received, although reports of it make me hesitant to actually order a couple bags. :/ No, it’s not carrot cake, but it is delicious spiced baked goods. I’ll do another steeping of this tonight, for sure.
(Yes, I drink this with “milk” and sugar. It brings out the baked goods flavour, and I like it.)
Preparation
Wow, I was always afraid of trying this one because the reviews seem so divided. But your review makes me sound worthwhile.
I really like it, but yeah. Really not sure about ordering more, just in case I have a good batch here. DavidsTea is good about returns, but I hate returning things that just end up being thrown out. :/
Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Maybe I’ll grab some before it’s gone just to see what it’s all about. :)
I’m about 99.99% positive that this is a blend where some batches were “off”. I had some of this as well, and while I certainly wouldn’t have called it carrot cake, I enjoyed it well enough. I could see people not liking it, but the intense reactions some people had just don’t make sense. It’s like how there was a batch of Oh Canada that apparently didn’t taste mapley at all, and tasted like cigarette ash or something. No way you could have ever gotten those flavours from my bag of it. Whoever it was ended up getting it replaced, which fixed the problem.
Good to know! I might pick up 50 or 100g then. Maybe I can convince my friend she needs more Persian Apple, so we can split the shipping/get free shipping. :)
So. My first dragonwell and my first grapefruit tea, courtesy of CrowKettle.
I was warned to be careful with this tea (and a few others) since I don’t like bitter, so I only did a 2 minute steep, and I used much cooler water than suggested.
When steeping, this doesn’t smell much like grapefruit, but now that I’m sitting at my desk with my nose in the mug, I can smell the flavour. It’s much more delicate than I was expecting, but then again, the other flavoured tea company I’ve targeted is Della Terra, and they do extremely flavoured blends!
Sipping this? Yum. I think it’ll get even better as it cools. The flavour is how grapefruit essential oil smells, but from a distance and in low quantity. The tea provides a really nice background, even though I’m not sure I would love a dragonwell tea on its own – I tend to be rather picky with plain green teas.
I look forward to drinking this iced (maybe I’ll do that tonight, and bring it with me tomorrow!), and finishing what I received.
Yay! Tea!
Edit: Even more grapefruity as I sip while eating caramel corn! I have to try this with a little sugar. Mmm.
Preparation
mine! :)
Haha! Thanks to Sil, as well! (I totally need to do a Butiki order now.)
how have you NOT yet! gasp stacy’s teas are awesome sauce
Sadly I have no money. :( I’m a student with no full-time job prospects when I finish in… 2 weeks. Thankfully it’s also my birthday in 2 weeks, so I’ll be ordering with birthday money. :)
This is probably one of my favourite teas, although I can’t drink it all the time. I find that Dragonwell is usually more forgiving with oversteeping than other greens, with exception of the DT Dragonwell.
Good to know! I’ve set the leaves aside for a resteep tomorrow morning. Should be good in the travel mug with a pinch of sugar.
I NEED to order this next time I order from Stacy!
Another sample from CrowKettle! Robust.
I needed a pick-me-up due to an early morning vet visit (I got up before 7! That time of the morning just should not exist..), and subsequent nap. Since all the matcha is making my kitchen smell amazing, I figured I should probably try to drink it all up first, before all my other teas smell like it too.
This one is odd. I’ve never had Lucuma, but the matcha smelled like fruit and, well, matcha. I think I’d have to compare a plain matcha to this one, as I just can’t really pick out the flavour. It’s not bad by any means, more like I don’t know what I’m looking for, and so I’m feeling a little lost, flavour-wise!
As always, this is a nice matcha. I made it as a latte with 2 tbsp water, 8 oz almond milk, 1/2 tsp sugar. Yum! If I have enough brains in the morning, I’ll make the rest of this up in a travel mug for a pre-math caffeine boost.
interesting sounding at least!
I’ve never even heard of Lucuma. xD Looks like a cross between a melon and a peach judging by that little picture.
Yeah, it’s odd. It’s a little fruity, a little green, a little earthy… Interesting, but not a flavour I think I’d purchase. :) Still, super neat to try it. I’m loving the Red Leaf matchas. (From Wiki: “The lucuma has particularly dry flesh which possesses a unique flavor of maple and sweet potato.” I don’t know that I get that, but ok.)
I’ve also never had, or even heard of, lucuma (I don’t know what possessed me to order this one). It’s different though. :)
Soo I’m pretty sure I’m over tired and full of tea…but the only thing that keeps popping into my head when I see this is..
Lacuuunnaa matcha-cha….what a wonderful day….lacuuna matcha-cha…it means no worries, for the rest of your days….
Uh yeah…don’t mind me..
Except I canT type and that should be lacuuMMa
Hahaha :P
well i’m glad someone saw that and laughed :)
Oh, I laughed when I got the email, I just didn’t log in on my phone and respond. :D I’m drinking this again right now, and I still don’t get maple and sweet potato. Oh well!
Sil, that was an internet highlight yesterday :)
woah, let’s not get carried away there crowkettle…SURELY there is something out there on the internet :)
There are cats out there on the internet! I know that for sure.. :)
they do yoga..
I’m no expert but I think flowering teas are generally pretty weak because you leave the tea in there so long. That being said, I’ve only had Jasmine flowering teas so maybe that’s just how those ones are designed.
It was better after an hour or so, but meh. Pretty, not something I’d want to drink every day. I still have the Jasmine one from Verdant to try.
Well at least you had the amusement of it being pretty, even if the taste itself was disappointment :)
Yes! It was very pretty. And I did drink all the tea. Just not quite what I wanted! :)
The blooming teas from DT are about the only ones I have very, very little interest in purchasing and trying myself. I’m still not sure quite why.
I probably won’t buy any more. The novelty/expense/taste mean they really aren’t worth it to me. Besides. I’ve found a much less expensive strawberry tea. :)