DAVIDsTEA

had this one again. the first time i tried it, i was not impressed….this time it was ok. So i’ll try it a third time and see what happens. lol

wasn’t impressed with this one…weird taste or something. going to try again another day and if i still don’t like it, variaTEA wins it!

tsp=DT PerfectSpoon

The tea is good. I enjoy it, although like most Rooibos the main thing I taste is rooibos. Does it taste like a carrot cupcake? Maybe a little in the after taste. I might have oversteeped it so maybe 4 to 5 minutes tastes great.

1.5 tsp dry leaf in ~600mL cold water + ice. I just left the teabag in while I drank a large glass of it so it coldbrewed while I drank.

This is a nice floral tea that is mostly herbal. I didn’t find the hibiscus overpowering at all (quite surprising!), the rose is strong. It reminds me of a rose flavoured Turkish Delight. A bit perfumy but also natural. The tulsi is nice in the base, it gives a lightly herbal flavour and something almost minty. I wouldn’t have expected any mint in this because it is so faint. Overall, well rounded and makes for a good iced blend.

Got this on a whim since Davids had a sale and I wanted something different. Definitely cherry, definitely berry. Almost syrupy in flavor and texture. Great as an iced tea when I’m in the mood for those flavors, but I don’t have any interest in trying it hot.

Thanks to tea-sipper for this one! I’m not often into DT chai, and unfortunately, this one is pretty similar to many others. It’s pretty thin and a bit artificial. The spices aren’t very well-rounded. I didn’t add milk because I was afraid it would drown out the flavors. There was also some bitterness. Next time maybe I should use some milk after all in order to bring out the white chocolate aspect.

TTB. I think I tried this one quite awhile ago, but I don’t have any tasting notes on it and honestly can’t remember anything about it. I don’t like it. It just tastes like butter with a hint of some nuttiness. The butteriness is just so assaulting I can’t really enjoy it.

The scent of this one reminds me exactly of a Teavana blend I used to love. Thanks for the share, tea-sipper! The flavor is the same as I remember too. It’s a distinct whole that I’m not sure how to describe. Warm, fruity spices, not the sort of thing you’d put milk in. My tastes in tea have changed, so I’m not as in love with this flavor combination as I used to be, but I’m a fan for nostalgia’s sake.

love it. as all things sage.

Finally got into the tea record for this one… These 404 errors are getting more than a little annnoying…

This is a sample I got in a tea exchange a while ago from AJRimmer, thank you! My sister had to work this weekend in my town and was staying at my place, so I made us this tea to go with some pumpkin cake for dessert after dinner.

I really like the scent of the dry leaf in the bag… there is a strong pumpkin spice aroma (especially cinnamon), but also a cookie-like quality. I’m getting the same scent off the steep cup, except it isn’t as pleasant to me as the dry leaf… it feels somewhat artificial, like an autumn-scented Yankee candle. The flavor is definitely not as nice as the aroma. The rooibos is coming off quite overbearing here, and I’m getting that brassy/medicinal note that I very rarely taste from red rooibos, as well as a strong woody note. Of the pumpkin spices, I’m mostly just tasting a strong cinnamon presence, with perhaps a bit of allspice… and there is a subtle caramel note that I’m not sure if its from the rooibos or a flavoring. There may be a flavoring in here not meshing with me, as well… I think I’ll try it a few other ways to see if I can’t improve it over the straight cup (perhaps a latte with a little maple syrup added?)

I plan to finish off the sample, but this isn’t one I’m going to miss. I am always grateful for the opportunity to try a pumpkin tea I haven’t had before, so thanks again, AJ!

This is the other new Halloween tea and another gummy candy feature!

I know some people have found this flavour to be a little weird for Halloween but it just feeds perfectly into this idea of nostalgic childhood Halloween’s for me – I elaborated more in my initial note of Strawbearry Gummy, if anyone reading this in the future is curious what I mean by that.

Of the two new teas this year, I prefer this one over the Strawbearry Gummy. There are a million strawberry teas out there, and I just personally am more intrigued (almost always) by teas that are a little more weird/out there and less commonly found. I mean, this is by far not a unique tea in the sense that it’s the first cola tea I’ve had. I currently own other cola blends from other companies and, heck, DT has even had another cola blend before – Cherry Cola.

This tea is actually also loosely based around a cherry cola flavour, but more emphasis on the cola and less on the cherry. To be honest, the “OG” Cherry Cola may actually be the worst tea I’ve ever tried from DT so for me this blend tastes like sweet, sweet redemption more than anything else. Also a lot like cola though, obviously. When you brew it hot, more acidity comes out of the hibiscus during infusion and they slight cherry cola flavour becomes more evident. Steeped iced, it’s more of a pure cola flavour.

The cola comes from the combination of citrus and spices, something I’ve talked about in other cola tea blends before. You can even recreate a messy/loose cola flavoured tea at home by mixing a more cinnamon heavy Chai blend with a more acidic lime one, if you have both flavour profiles in your stash. It’s obviously supported, though, through the cola flavouring and gummy candies in the blend. Honestly though you can pick out the gummies and it’s still going to taste like coke. I also appreciate the subtle inclusion of vanilla, which is a nice “tethering” flavour!

Compared to the Strawbearry blend, there are a lot less gummies in this blend – maybe two or three for your average 50g pouch? You can pick them out if you want, though they’re pretty tough so eating them might not be the most advisable. I’ve certainly tried – I kind of eat everything in my tea, at least once. Since they’re much larger than the gummy bears, they definitely don’t dissolve as easily so you kind of have to commit to a longer steep time or I would recommend using a fill your own tea bag to prevent steeper clogging or just washing your steeper immediately after brewing before they have a chance to re-solidify.

I know this is definitely going to be a polarizing tea blend but if you like cola flavours at all then I think it’s one worth checking out!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFr_zndg3sA/

I drank this one as part of #SeptemberSipdown on the dessert tea themed day. Is cola a dessert tea!? I don’t know – but it gave me an excuse to take this pretty picture and highlight one of my all time favourite Halloween mug designs!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, and I really wanted to because I’ve seen a lot of people assume this, the gummy candies in this blend don’t come from Squish! I think it’s completely fair people are assuming so, since the Strawbearry Gummy bears do but this one does not!

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.

New Halloween teas!

My turnaround time for tasting notes from new tea launches is usually a little bit better than this, but I guess sometimes life is just busy and things take time! The two new teas for this Halloween are joined by a few returning favourites, like Stormy Night, but as always my focus is on the NEW blends because I already have tasting notes for the other teas.

I don’t really know how much there is to say for this year’s collection, honestly. Both teas are themed around different types of gummy candies – in this case gummy bears – and I feel like it’s a really fun return to the childhood roots of Halloween. Y’know, trick or treating as a small child and getting massive pillow cases full little snack sizes of your favourite candies and chocolate bars and, if you were really lucky, occasionally scoring full size candy bars and cans of soda! Normally I don’t love candy in tea, but for a Halloween collection I’m actually really into the idea! I think it’s perfectly on theme and, to be honest, sort of a direct response to a lot of the feedback from last year’s collection which was that it was “too serious” or “too wellness focused” and just not fun enough…

As long time Steepster friends know, I fucking love Halloween! The first year after I moved out of my parent’s house I went FULL BLOWN crazy for Halloween and decked out my front yard with TONS of decorations and was the house on my block that gave away full size candy bars, cans of pop, and handfuls of candy. You came to my house and you left with a bag a few pounds heavier than when you arrived. In the years since, I haven’t been able to go as all out because I’ve lived in condo or apartment buildings & there’s no one trick or treating in them. So this is nostalgic for me, big time.

As far as the taste of the tea goes – it’s really straight forward, honestly. Very sweet and flavourful juicy strawberry with a hint of tartness from the apple and hibiscus that support the flavour profile. Think Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait, minus the rhubarb and the parfait. The flavour will have some VERY SLIGHT variation depending on the gummy bears you get in the cup because they all have their own unique flavour – my favourite ones are the blue ones and the yellow. The yellow has a sort of banana flavour and I’ve dreamed of DT having a strawberry banana tea for ages now so I’ve definitely loaded up yellow bears into a steeped to try and achieve that flavour profile. It kind of works.

I guess the only things left to say are sort of the two main questions I’ve seen since this collection launched: the first is how many gummies are in the tea and the second is whether they clog the steeped/don’t dissolve well.

To answer the first, I think there’s a fairy substantial amount in this blend. Easily enough, if you get a 50g bag, for there to be one in each spoon of tea. I don’t know if this is just luck of the draw with the bag that I have, but I’ve noticed more red gummy bears than any other colour. They should be evenly dispersed throughout the bag though!? I guess that does sometimes happen with bags of candy though where you randomly get more of one colour than the others.

To answer the second, the gummy bears dissolve pretty well – especially if you tack on a couple extra minutes of steep time. However, if you want to be extra cautious I would just advise steeping in a fill your own sachet or washing your steeper of choice immediately after brewing. If they don’t melt entirely and then re-solidify it’s a pretty big pain cleaning them out after.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this blend uses gummies from Squish!

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.

Found this hiding at the bottom of my green tea bin. Not sure how long it’s been there. I added creamer to this and shook it up in my David’s matcha maker thermos. It went down easy, but it was hard to tell what was vanilla flavor and what was creamer. Either way, it wasn’t enough to kick me into gear this morning or do anything for the mounting apathy I’ve been plagued with as of late. I fear the situation calls for more tea.

Brewed this one hot with milk as a sort of “redemption cuppa”! Three weeks ago, when I had Cinnamon Bun Chai last, my taste buds were greatly impaired, so I figured I would attempt to give it another shot…

This time around, I am able to pick up on a better defined flavour that I can actually liken to cinnamon buns/rolls, BUT it’s really faint and appears more so in the finish. The overall flavour is still predominantly spicy; a combination of the cinnamon, ginger & even the clove. I appreciate that there is some sweetness to this tea, and not just 100% spice.

Sadly, it’s still a big fat nope from me. I wound up pouring the remainder of my cup over ice for a much more palatable and less intense tasting sip.

Last week, I placed two back-to-back DAVIDsTea orders: one to stock up on Sweet Potato Pie and the latter was inspired by this blend which popped up on the site early Tuesday morning. I really gravitated towards the idea of a chai blend with an oolong base. But more than that, I was really excited for a blend inspired by cinnamon buns! Which is why I impulse bought 100g without thinking about it too much…

Now, it could be my sick brain, but I found this tea to be a bit of a letdown. I decided to make it as a hot latte with soy milk. As far as cinnamon goes, it is the most prominent of this tea from beginning to end. But with that being said, that’s all I could taste or smell, and the flavour overall was a little too “spicy” for my liking. I think this is a better cinnamon tea/spiced chai than it is a tea that tastes like cinnamon buns, at least in my opinion.

If you like spicy chai, I’d recommend Cinnamon Bun Chai, but if you’re expecting a cinnamon bun flavour like I did, you might be disappointed just the same.

Really nice, creamy, and sweet jasmine tea. Surprisingly good as both a hot tea and iced.

Just a typical, tasty chai. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Apple juice with honey added. Hot or cold. Hot if you want apple cider vibes, cold if you want apple juice!