Davidson's

In my desperation for finding a replacement for the Starbucks blossoming rose rooibos latte, I bought a gigantic 16 oz bag (that’s 455 g!) of this on amazon.

Pros
-cheap because it is in bulk
-ground rooibos is difficult to find

Cons
-more gritty than Starbucks or Red Leaf/Matcha Outlet rooibos matcha
-doesn’t really dissolve very well
-larger bits tend to accumulate at the bottom of the cup

So for the price, this can’t be beat. However it is definitely not as fine or powdery as any other rooibos matcha I have come across. Even mixed into milk you can feel all of the gritty texture.

I use this tea as another daily grandpa style drinker. It’s cheap enough that if you use too much you don’t have to worry about resupplying. It’s convenient that it’s on Amazon for 2 day shipping. It’s not the best gunpowder you can fine but it’s a good daily drinker to have around.

I really liked this tea. It’s not overpowering but has just the right amount of apple and cinnamon flavors. Not too sweet or too bitter, just right.

Work Tea Swap

So, apparently there are ‘hardcore’ tea drinkers besides myself in the office. I was drinking some Taiwanese Pear (?) Oolong from a farmer on IG, when my co-worker brought it to my attention that she’s “pretty much into tea, too,” so we exchanged samples.

Now, I oftentimes rate a bit easier with tea swapped teas. But with this one, I can’t mildly fake it. I don’t like it. Too much jasmine or perhaps something else. It starts out okay, but it quickly turns into a bitter ball of jasmine as it cools. Maybe this would be and/or is okay as a near-boiling tea, but overall, I don’t like it.

Out of the freebie teas that Davidsons sent me, this was my favorite.

Creamy coconut with the mystery ingredient made it oh-so-delicious! I couldn’t believe it when I read the ingredient list, I’ll be honest. YUM.

Note: MUST be steeped at less than boiling to get out the proper flavors.

Not as “tropical” as I’d like, but still delicious. I’ll definitely seek this one out again.

Another really old teabag I needed to use up. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of teabags left in the box. I’m trying to get though them soon, though, because they are older.

It is pretty generic. Black tea, apple cinnamon (apple cider) flavour. Nothing really pops out at me. It is a solid cup, especially with milk to compliment a mild malty black, but it isn’t something I would buy again or drink again after these teabags are gone. I got bored with apple cinnamon after the first few teabags.

This is the best Earl Grey tea I have ever tried. It is very flavored, so you need very little for a strong cup.

In an effort to find a cheaper way to make decaf genmaicha, I bought toasted rice (yet to arrive in the mail) and a 16oz bag of Davidson’s decaf green.

It isn’t amazing, but I’m not a big green tea fan. It is very vegetal, very green, will over steep. I found 4 minutes at 85 deg C was too much (slightly astringent and bitter). I’m thinking the best genmaicha would use either a white tea or a toasty green like houjicha or kukicha. I wanted something decaf, and that’s why I’m making my own using this. Why is decaf loose leaf so hard to find. D:

Tea Swap Tea

This was a pretty solid tea to have at work. Considering I have a job where I can freely drink as much tea as I’d like; this, among other teas, was a nice little gift to get in the mail today as I was walking out of the house. I had noted that the sweetness of the pear mixes well with the spices. It’s rich in flavor, smooth, sweet, and refreshing. I think it’d be a nice tea to have either hot or cold—however, considering the weather today, it was a nice hot tea.

Again, Davidson’s tea seems to be one of those grocery store brands that doesn’t disappoint. This tea begins by hitting the tip of the tongue with the VERY slight bitter tang of a Chinese oolong.

Now, this is a jasmine tea, and I hate jasmine blends. But the jasmine was so very light and delicate that it was actually a mild flavor, like a spice, to accompany the tea instead of drowning my senses. The oolong carried the jasmine scent to the middle of the palate, where it spread like a warming cloud.

As I swallow, it gets a little strange. There’s a bit of salty greenness, which reminds me of a Chinese green tea.

I can imagine drinking this tea at a really good Chinese restaurant.

This one is a little odd. I have the looseleaf version. When I sent this to a friend, she said it was “oily.” How can a straight tea be oily? I kind of know what she means now.

The mouthfeel is like nothing I have ever experienced. It’s extremely juicy and slick. It’s not oily in an unpleasant way, but I can completely see how she would say that.

The flavor is like most whites I have had, extremely mild. Most of what I get is mild sweet grass, and maybe a little bit of hay. There’s a bit of honey sweetness in there as well.

Despite what people tend to think about grocery store tea, Davidson’s has been consistently good.

This is now my morning and sometimes afternoon tea when I need a boost.

Has low bitterness, and an almost creamy quality. The only tea I’ve had that I think tastes better is Teavana’s English Breakfast. Compared to Teavana’s English Breakfast, this tea is weaker in overall flavor (negative for me), less bitter (positive for me), has a creamy taste/feeling (positive), and is about half the price (biggest positive for me).

This is the only Irish Breakfast I’ve had, so I don’t have anything to compare it to; but from what I gather, Irish Breakfast should be stronger than an English Breakfast. Either way, this is going to be my daily tea until I can find one better at a similar price.

It’s definitely not the highest quality tea, but when I need caffeine and don’t care about the taste (ex. when I’m at work for just need a mid-dance class pick-me-up), it delivers just enough energy and is a low enough price that it doesn’t matter that I’m not actually bothering to taste it. That said, it does taste pretty minty. I have found, however, that I need to steep it for more time than I would normally steep a green tea or else the mint won’t really come through.

The black tea used for this blend is not as strong as I thought it would be. It barely comes through the other flavors. I feel as though the pear is an afterthought in this blend as well. You have to really concentrate to find it.

I have Davidson’s Mulling Spices for making spiced cider in autumn, and you can definitely tell that the same blend was used in this tea. It’s very heavy on cinnamon and clove—so much so that it should probably be called spiced tea with a hint of pear.

Overall though, I like the taste. It would be incredible on a crisp, fall day with a touch of maple sugar.

This is a very bitter, astringent tea. It tastes more like a black tea than the oolongs I’ve tried so far. The leaf doesn’t even look like an oolong. I’ve heard a couple of complaints about it being weak, so I brewed it for 2 mins. It sure wan’t weak, and the color came out a dark reddish brown.

If I were doing a blind taste test, I would say it was overcooked Lipton. I’ll try it again with a lighter steep time and temp to use up my leaves, but I’m not really looking forward to it.

One of my favorite teas. I savor each cuppa.

This is the second straight green rooibos I’ve tried. This tastes less sweet than the one from Mountain Rose Herbs, but it’s also less astringent. It tastes mostly like hay and green growing things, with a mild sweetness and not even a hint of bitterness. It’s a very light, summery flavor. I bought this on Amazon, and it’s super cheap, but you have to buy a pound at a time. I think I like green rooibos well enough that I’ll drink it before it goes bad, but I guess now I’ll know for sure!

This was my first taste of rooibos, and I must say I fell in love. It’s rooty and mellow. I think this brand is just fine. And the tea is just fine to re-steep. Sometimes I mix it with some fruit tea that I have and it works just fine.

I had high hopes for this tea, which is marketed as a “dessert” tea having the chocolate notes of carob alongside the mint. The problem that is nearly a deal breaker is the smell. I suspect its the fault of the barley (why barley in tea??) but there is yeasty unpleasant head to the smell. The taste is nice enough, sweet and smooth from the rooibos and mint/carob combo – but smell is very big for me and the smell at the front of each sip grows very unappetizing by the end.