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This tea is very light in flavour; I mostly pick up raspberry, black currants, and light notes of green tea. The green tea taste is extraordinarily smooth with no astringency whatsoever. I can definitely understand why people have said it tastes vaguely medicinal. The stevia taste is definitely present but it doesn’t bug me too much. I find that the first few sips I enjoy, but after that it becomes a bit of a chore to drink a full mug of this one. We’ll see how sipping down my sizeable stash of this blend goes.

Sweet, smooth, and earthy. Very true to the classic red rooibos flavour of other rooibos teas I have tried. Leaves very little astringency in the mouth and steeps quickly. I would likely steep this one a little less next time, or use less tea. Very cost-effective! This is not anything innovative or special from DAVIDsTEA, but it definitely surpasses my expectations for a straight rooibos leaf. There were none of the dusty notes I’ve tastes in rooibos teas from other brands. A very good to excellent option for those who appreciate a full-bodied, smooth, and slightly sweet red rooibos tea.

A nice, full-bodied fruity tea. I find that the tea can take on a strange aftertaste when steeped too long, likely due to the peppercorns. I don’t taste too much hibiscus, but the figs throw me off. It tastes like watered-down cherry cough syrup.

A nice mint chocolate tea. The tea itself contains mostly peppermint leaves, with a hint of milk chocolate. I found the peppermint made up most of the flavour, with the chocolate flavour as almost a top note. The chocolate tasted quite fake, like the cheap chocolates one would buy at the dollar store. This isn’t terrible by any stretch, but it’s not something I’d reach for. 15g lasted me a very long time.

The most prominent fruit notes in this tea are pineapple and orange. There’s an underlying flavour of red fruit, likely raspberry, and a nice sweetness. The hibiscus adds body without the intensely tart taste I typically don’t appreciate in hibiscus teas. Honestly, I can barely taste the hibiscus. While this isn’t mind blowing by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a very nice fruity herbal tea that works well both iced and hot.

A somewhat perfume-y coconut and pineapple tea. The hibiscus makes the tea brew up a lovely shade of light pink, which was a smart addition on DAVIDsTEA’s part, because otherwise the tea would’ve been an rather unappealing light yellow/cream colour. However, I find the hibiscus competes with the other flavours of the blend. I found the blend to be too sweet and not as creamy as I would’ve preferred from a piña colada-flavoured tea. Overall, it was underwhelming. While there was nothing terribly wrong with the tea, I couldn’t find anything I liked about it either.

Out of the chocolate black tea blends I have tried, this one is easily my favourite. The tea naturally has a pleasant sweetness to it from the almonds, with the milk chocolate as a lovely base note. The black tea is very smooth, and when combined with the yerba maté, it gives the tea a wonderful toasty body. I’ve often found that chocolate teas taste best with a splash of milk, but this tea is wonderful on its own as well.

This tea is a bit of an enigma to me. I’ve finally drank down my stash of it, but it has definitely been a journey. I find the orange, liquorice root, and hibiscus to be quite nauseating together. Something about the tea tastes like it’s trying to be alcohol. I don’t appreciate alcoholic notes in my teas, and Sangria is no exception. Some things can’t, and shouldn’t, be emulated in a tea.

As I was drinking this, I found myself physically grimacing. I couldn’t finish my mug; luckily this was also my last bit of the loose leaf. I think I specifically hate the liquorice root in this tea. After swallowing, the liquorice root leaves a sickly sweetness in the mouth, along the lines of very sweet liqueurs I have tried. If I drank an entire cup of this I would likely end up with a headache.

Update: I am feeling quite sick to my stomach after drinking about half a mug of this. It’s likely a mental reaction, and maybe I’m being ridiculous, but this has got to be the worst tea I have ever drank from DAVIDsTEA.

Bear Trap is DAVIDsTEA’s most “berry” blend, containing everything from strawberries to black currants. It brews a very satisfying deep red colour and tastes like tart juice. The juiciness of this blend is what makes it a go-to iced tea for me; I find it refreshing without the astringency I find some hibiscus blends can acquire. The major notes in this tea are raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, black currants, and rosehips. The hibiscus definitely took a backseat to the other fruits, which is fine by me!

When looking at the tea, the majority of the volume of the loose leaf is made up of jasmine flowers. This initially confused and I’m not going to lie, worried me, due to the distinctly lemon smell of the tea. I wasn’t sure if lemon and jasmine would play nice together. Luckily, they seem to complement each other nicely. The oolong notes are minimal, with lemon myrtle being the predominant flavour. The jasmine adds a nice floral element to the tea without overpowering it whatsoever. I thoroughly enjoyed my cup of this, but I likely won’t be drinking it on a regular basis due to the largely one-dimensional nature of this tea.