New Tasting Notes

This wasn’t as good as the Shibi teas of yesteryear. It had those familiar mouthwatering aromas of wildflowers and syrup, and it starts off just as I remembered it: bright, fresh, and floral. But it goes south quickly. It develops a savory flavor with this odd oats/toasted grain edge to it. Tried different brewing methods but alas, could not rescue this tea. Ah well, better luck next season.

**I had mistakenly added this tasting note for the wrong tea, so I’m correcting now.

Backlog.

This is one of the teas from the great Steepster freeze of 2020 that I’m getting around to logging now. My memory is a little hazy because I only had a couple of sessions with it, but I remember it being a solid SLX with the usual alpine florals and tropical notes. A little lighter and lacking the full mouthfeel of previous harvests. Good for 6-7 steeps.

While this pouch I have received is another same as derk had who have it from White Antlers I have to say again a thank you :)

The aroma of dry pouch is rather nutty. Suprisingly it is quite aromatic for the age (who knows, as there is nothing saying anything about the age). But it is handwritten label. Yep, same pouch as derk had. The pouch is quite full!

When brewed, with 75°C water; it was fine. Pretty much simple grassy, bit more on sweet side. Enjoayble, but unfortunately I think it seen better times. But won’t throw it away :)

We got this in an Imperfect food delivery box. We didn’t order it, but sometimes we get extra stuff for some reason.

This is very peach-forward. After the strong peach flavor, I can pick out the sugar. The can says “lightly sweetened,” but it tastes almost like a sweet tea to me. It’s an 18 oz can and has 20 grams of sugar.

I can’t make out the green tea flavor at all. It doesn’t taste bad… but it’s disappointing. I’m glad we didn’t pay for it.

My caffeine-free selection for the evening. This is from my giant backlog of Bird & Blend subscription packets that I never drank… ^^’

I’m not a huge fruit tisane person, I find they tend to taste the same and there’s usually too much hibiscus involved for my liking. This one smells luscious and strawberry & creamy in the bag.

This is a decent fruit tisane, but nothing special. There’s a generic tart fruity flavor to it, I think I can pick out pomegranate and strawberry but I might not have been able to if I hadn’t already known they were there. It’s a little bit too tart in my opinion, which just furthers the generic quality. I’m not getting any cream, though it would be hard-pressed to stand up to hibiscus. There’s a hint of bitterness in some sips.

I suppose a touch of sugar would probably help this one, but I’m not in the habit of sweetening teas so I’m drinking it plain. I’ll probably try a cold brew for the rest of the bag, though I haven’t been drinking much iced tea lately.

Not going to rate this, as fruit tisanes really aren’t my thing…

As a disclosure/forewarning/etc etc, I feel that it’s necessary to say that purchasing this tea was very out of character for me. For as long as I’ve been living, I’ve never enjoyed the taste of chocolate, and still don’t, but there is something about this tea that drew me to it. And I think that thing was the Lapsang Souchong.

After trying Fireside S’mores both as a latte and as a plain hot cuppa, I can now see why Deb insisted on only having this tea with milk. Milk really elevates the overall creaminess and helps support the lack of actual marshmallows. But I think that the combination of vanilla, toasted coconut, and the aforementioned Lapsang Souchong did a well enough job of mimicking a toasted marshmallow flavour. There is a nice amount of savoury smokiness without being overwhelming and outshining the components. Most surprising to me was the fact that the chocolate was palatable and not nearly as strong as I feared.

Overall, I really enjoyed this use of Lapsang Souchong tea. Even though I don’t think this tea necessarily screamed s’mores, it was still pretty good and I think that it’s worth trying at least once, if you’re able to get your hands on some.

So after browsing the Lupicia site earlier (for no good reason, I might add), I figured I would steep up a cup of this, one of my favorites of theirs. It’s a seasonal tea and it’s available right now, so I thought it would be a good idea to see how it’s aged so I can restock it if needed.

Luckily, this is still perfectly scrumptious. I love this tea, it has such a bright and crisp apple flavor, which is a nice contrast to the usual sweet apple & cinnamon combination that is much more common. There’s such a lovely zing to the apple here, yet it doesn’t quite reach Jolly Rancher candy status. It’s more like a tart hard apple cider. The apricot is very subtle, although this could be because the tea is older. I do taste little hints of stonefruit, and there’s a bit of a floral note, especially in the aftertaste.

The base tea is their usual somewhat brisk offering, but I like its slight sharpness next to the apple, I think they complement each other well. There’s also a dry autumn leaf flavor that gives a nice earthy base to the bright flavors.

I couldn’t ask for a more autumnal tea. Now, please excuse me while I sigh contentedly…

Prevalent notes of ginger, to the point where I have to remind myself that I’m drinking a black tea, because the tea base is otherwise nonexistent. There are hints of creaminess from the coconut and vanilla, but not enough to confirm a “creme brulee” flavour in my mind. Especially without milk; milk is what helps to redeem this blend for me. It makes the ginger less harsh tasting, introduces a much needed creaminess, and even a bit of natural sweetness.

Would recommend if you’re a fan of ginger, but as a whole, Ginger Creme Brulee falls short in delivering a balanced flavour that properly represents its namesake.

Based on White Antlers’ timeline of Swedish Death Purge teas and some label handwriting sleuthing, I’m pretty dang sure this is the one.

Had a gongfu session a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Guessing age has really smoothed out the roast and intense nuttiness I’ve experienced in other dong ding.

I’m feeling crummy. The hip had me limping today. I’ve been resting in bed since I got off work. I was craving sweet liquid nourishment, so I steeped up the last 2.5g western. It’s a really smooth, nutty-milky-honey-mineral cup with floral-woody and cinnamon tones, a mild cooling finish and lingering sweetness, both of which are reminiscent of green cardamom. Perfectly mellow tea for a balmy evening.

Dong ding still isn’t a preferred oolong but this is so smooth, I do recommend.

Thanks for providing this much needed warm cup, White Antlers.

Another night, another smoothie matcha! And the name for this one seemed so seasonly appropriate, heh.

I whisked this one in water instead of milk, and this is the first B&B matcha-matcha that I had texture problems with (now I wish I had used milk… maybe the separation/texture problems wouldn’t have been so bad? Usually I do make them as lattes, but I only have vanilla oat milk at the moment and just didn’t think that would suit a spearmint drink…). No matter how much I whisked, it just kept coming up with that grittiness I find most unpleasant. But the flavor was great! Very spearmint forward, with a vegetal note that edges a little more herbaceous than the “typical” matcha vegetal flavor. It’s very subtle though, because the mint is strong! I sampled the drink at least ten minutes ago and am still feeling that cooling menthol minty aftertaste on the back of my throat.

As per usual, after initial taste-testing the cup o’ matcha went into the blender for caffeinated morning smoothie goodness tomorrow morning. I decided to go with a “mojito” vibe so I added mango and lime juice. Initial sample before going in the fridge? Pleasantly tart citrus and the mint is still holding strong! Nailed it. I’ll definitely be looking forward to that one in the morning!

Good evening, friends. Yay, it’s the weekend! ❤

I’m digging into my (extensive) Lupicia stash after browsing their website earlier in the day. This tea I have in sachets in an adorable little Halloween-themed box, and I figured it was the perfect season to steep up a cup!

I’m wondering if this has suffered from age, as my previous rating was surprisingly high for a tea that’s just pretty good. The base is quite brisk with a hint of bitterness, which takes away from the dessert-y intentions of the flavoring.

It does have a nice rich chestnut flavor to it, though, and alongside it is a very dark caramel note. It’s a lovely combination, but I do wish it were on a different base. Perhaps I’ll try this one with a dash of milk next time, to take the edge off the briskness.

This is the last of last Friday’s new teas!

Honestly, I think it’s about time that DT had a Lemon Ginger blend on the tea wall. Like, when was the last time we did!? That’s such a commercial profile though, and I know people have been asking for one for a long time. Hell, I don’t even like ginger very much but even I always keep a Lemon Ginger on hand for when I’m feeling under the weather!

On the spectrum of lemon ginger tea blends, this is one that I enjoy a lot. It’s not something that I love outside of that spectrum, but I’m also not really the type of person who drinks this flavour combination “for funsies”. It’s something I turn to when I feel under the weather and want comfort, and so I think this blend checks all of those boxes for me…

I personally feel like the lemon is stronger than the ginger, although both are present and pretty well balanced. I think the lemon comes off as very fresh and aromatic – and a bit zingy. I don’t know if this is a pro/con and under or overselling the blend but the lemon note kind of reminds me of really good, sweet and puckery home squeezed lemonade!? With the warmth and tickle of ginger root to offset the sweetness/tartness if the lemon, though! There’s also fennel/licorice root in the blend but to be honest I don’t really taste either – I think they do a good job of adding sweetness/body to the tea without imposing on the flavour of the blend, and there’s something to be said about the inclusion of licorice root from a functional angle, because if you are drinking this as a “sick tea” then licorice root is very soft and soothing on the throat.

I mentioned this briefly in my most recent tasting note for Ginger Honey/Ginger Crystals, but I prefer this blend to that one – which is another Lemon/Ginger type of flavour profile. I think, for me, the main differences are that there’s no lemongrass in this blend, which is an ingredient that I don’t prefer, and the lemon is more dominant here while in Ginger Honey the focus is more on the Ginger. Just a personal preference.

So overall, this is a thumbs up for me. Nice iced, good hot, best hot with honey.

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.

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

finished this one off today. a good cup but i’ll stick with the yuchi wild from now on i think.