New Tasting Notes

accidentally put this tea and orange cream mousse from deb’s in a single strainer….so i made it and drank it. Was a little weird but not too bad. lol I need to not make tea with the little one is “helping” i get super distracted.

Thank you very much, AJRimmer! I had this a few days ago.  I think I’ve had variations of this from other shops before, but I love it, so it’s nice to have more around!  The flavor is strong and I like it with two teaspoons to make it even stronger.  The black tea itself isn’t particularly strong but the lavender!  The bergamot!  It’s like they’re at war which might dissuade others from liking this, but not me.  I wish there were more vanilla, since it’s in the name.  But otherwise, the black tea itself is simply a carrier and additional caffeine to these flavors.  I think it’s their boring Ceylon base so I’m happy it’s flavored so much.  It’s bright, it’s fragrant, it’s strong floral overload.  It reminds me of Dorothy passing out in the poppy field?   But with lavender.  It’s like a last punch of summer.
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 minute steep

I have two more tasting notes to do for the teas from last Friday’s launch (including this one) but that almost feels like old news at the point, since DT’s two different advent calendars launched today – the normal one and a matcha one…

Let’s focus on this tea for a moment, though! Of all the blends from last Friday, this is my favourite of the new teas – something that has surprised me over time because when it was originally developed I didn’t love it. It’s gone through some changes over time, and the initial flavour was actually really heavily inspired by bubble tea. Not the milk based bubble teas, but more of the fruity ones with things like jasmine green tea as the base with a sweet and juicy fruit note layered over top of that. It was later adapted to have more of this fruity and relaxing type of profile and to incorporate some other ingredients (like linden/silver lime tree blossoms) that are more known for uses as sleep aids. I’m also going to take a moment to pat myself on the back, because this is another blend that I named and I think it’s just really fun to say!

I have a… particular relationship with jasmine, in a few ways. To start, I don’t often enjoy jasmine teas (especially jasmine green tea) but there are exceptions to that such a jasmine white teas and DT’s Jasmine Black Pearls. Another thing about jasmine, to me, is that I almost always feel like it reminds me of grapes in terms of flavour – fresh, floral and sweet/juicy green grapes particularly. Most people disagree with me about that/think I’m crazy. It’s actually, for me, that sort of grape-y taste that makes this taste so good though – in my opinion. Lychee is another fruit that has a very sweet and syrupy/juicy taste while also being incredibly floral tasting so it meshes so incredibly well with the jasmine because not only does the floral quality of the jasmine work with the floral quality of the lychee but for me the fruity qualities of both go together so well too! All in all, I was just describe the taste of this tea as very fresh, juicy and floral. Mostly lychee, too – similar to Lychee Bellini but slightly less syrupy. I taste some apple in the undertones, as well, and a hint of carrot and lemongrass.

I’m not sure how well this tea will do because I think lychee, just in general, is a divisive flavour and then on top of that I imagine a lot of other people will be weirded out by the combination of lychee and jasmine but I do urge people to try this if they get the chance because it’s a really cool combination in my opinion – like, if you enjoyed Blackberry Jasmine Blast and the way the fruit/jasmine played off each other in that blend I do believe you’ll strongly enjoy this one too. Assuming, I guess, that you don’t hate lychee.

Also, I also just like diversity in my tea blends and there are A MILLION sleep teas that are chamomile/lavender/mint/valerian/etc but I can’t think of another one that’s lychee.

It’s also killer iced/cold brewed.

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.

Cold Brew!

I had this one on Thanksgiving. I didn’t do much this year for Thanksgiving, in part because I don’t have any family here in Montreal and in part because even if I did we’re in the middle of a pandemic, so…

I liked this as a Thanksgiving brew though because it’s such an interesting and beautiful mix of cranberry, apple, and savory rosemary – and while this was obviously not intended to be a Thanksgiving blend it is hard to deny that all of the flavours I just mentioned aren’t Autumnal and sort of Thanksgiving-y. Cranberry and rosemary, in particular, sort of just says “Thanksgiving Dinner” to me. So it was my sort of very loose nod to the holiday.

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.

Been a while since I last had this tea; but I was craving it earlier this week so I steeped up a morning cuppa on Tuesday to drink while I worked at home. This was the same day as my under steeped Cherry Berry Punch, and I think I must have just been having an off day with eyeballing my leaf amounts because I felt like this cup was also underleafed. All the flavours were present (chocolate, cinnamon, marshmallow, and hazelnut) but just quite thin/weak…

It was still a nice cup, but didn’t satisfy my craving as much as I wanted.

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.

Soothing cuppa from late last week – just a nice herbal and slightly savory blend to sip on during an evening when I wanted to escape a little bit more from more heavily flavoured sweet/fruity type teas. This was basically all mint and Greek Mountain tea – as it should be, honestly. Accurate to the name.

And yes, that is a big of a humble brag – since I’m the one who named the tea.

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.

I under steeped the mug of this that I made earlier in the week, and so my Cherry Berry Punch ended up lacking the “punch”. The berry, however, was very present – with a whole lot of raspberry coming out in this cup, with soft cherry and hibiscus notes. It was a fine cup.

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.

To add to my previous review

At the end of the day, while I was cleaning out my infuser, I finally smelled the caraway. :)

Several years ago, I ran across something here on Steepster that brought August Uncommon to my attention. Browsing their web site, Painted Desert stood out to me. I thought it looked good. I mentioned it to my mother. She promptly spent a significant amount of effort convincing me it would be horrible and bitter and, yadda, yadda, yadda. (Seriously, how do you know if you don’t ever try.) I let her convince me and so I didn’t order it. Then I lost interest in flavored teas (or even tea blends for that matter) and the subject was dropped.

Recently something brought my attention back to August Uncommon. And I was regaining interest in flavored teas again, especially with the onset of fall and colder weather. So I went back to their web site, poked around, and made my first order. Of that order, Painted Desert is the last one for me to try. I’m one of those people who likes to save the (what I hope to be) best for last.

Opening the packet, the very first thing that jumped out at me was cacao, REAL cacao, not some chocolate flavoring kind of thing. I know that smell. As mentioned in another review, I adore brewing cacao. And right on its tail was cinnamon. And again, this smells like a cinnamon stick, not some overpowering cinnamon oil that never tastes like actual cinnamon to me. Can we say I am excited?

I can’t help but get diverted here. Have you ever actually tatsted ground cinnamon all by itself or licked/sucked on a cinnamon stick? Serious, it ain’t sweet. I don’t understand how people think cinnamon is sweet. Its actually slightly bitter. It does go excellently with sweet, but is not sweet in its own right. And neither is this tea. Yippie!

Once steeped, the cinnamon takes center stage and the cacao steps back a little. I can’t really detect the chili, which I am disappointed about. I was really looking forward to the chili.

Second steep and I feel the cacao is standing out a bit more this time. There might be a tad little bit of astringency in there, but I’m not sure if its the tea or the cinnamon. I also steeped it for longer, so that might be a factor in both cases.

Verdict, while my chili hopes were dashed, the result is still really enjoyable and perfect for a cold gray Seattle October day. And true to form, as soon as I typed that previous sentence, the sun came out from behind the clouds blazing in its brightness. grumble

I tried the decaf version of this tea in the Decaf sampler. Great blend of black tea and berry flavors.

Received in Taiwan Sourcing intro pack

Not sure about this one. It does well when brewing in a mug, but doesn’t hold up to gong fu brewing – it’s a bit too weak. By no means a bad tea, but not the quality I expect when paying such a premium ($29 for 75g) .

Very faint flavors of apple cider and cinnamon. I use two tea bags but the flavor just isn’t there. My husband thought we should use it, just pour 6 oz of water max. Going through teas I bought while I was working long hours and assessing what I should buy again.

I have tried the K-cup and tea bag. Both are frequently offered in office settings and a reliable choice. Resilient to many temperatures and steeping times. Vibrant lemon flavor.

Similar to other orange teas. It does taste pretty orangey, though not as fresh and delicious as some other versions. Maybe more peel taste than juicy insides? The shimmer is really pretty and fun. Not a favorite, but an okay replacement until I have a better orange tea on my shelf.

I tried the decaf version of this tea in the decaf sampler. Great balance of green tea and peach.

I steeped this one up for my first volunteer shift this morning and it was perfect as usual!

The loose leaf looks great, though it is 6 years old. As derk noticed, as it is from her, and actually from White Antlers (Thank you both!). The leaf looks pretty much as on photo, though bit darker.

I decided to brew 3 grams in my 300 ml glass cup. I broke my gaiwan today, so I have decided to order a new one! From Tangpin (someone suggested them and I kinda liked some stuff they had and this was the “last drip” to place an order)

Well, it wasn’t remarkable tea. It was green with mineral notes, quite dry. Overall somehow too much hay-like. This tea seems I will get rid off soon somehow. Not really impressed and having way more another greens which needs to be drank as well and they are better.

This was from the TTB earlier this year and I saved it until I was traveling and could enjoy an caffeine boost to get me through the day. I’m not really sure why one would need more tea extract in tea, but its and interesting concept. I actually switched from coffee to tea because even half calf coffee was too much caffeine for me.
I was careful to not over steep this as I thought it might be bitter, and I wasn’t tasting much of the orange pekoe base of the tea. This starts out hibiscus (maybe a good thing to hide bitterness?) and ends with a weird soapy aftertaste. Most teas benefit from a steep in a go cup, I have an oolong that I only like to do in the go cup as it turns a bit nutty that doesn’t happen in a regular steeper, but this one just had more aftertaste the longer I drank.
Not for me, glad I got to try it.

SIPDOWN

Ehm. What to write; it’s common sencha with expected peachy flavour but nope. Rather earthy — not sure if sage or osmanthus.

Only once it was tasty and how I have expected it. Once in, at least, four times. That’s pretty much disappointment!

Ahhh, another old favorite…

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of rooibos in general. At the very least, I’m extremely picky about rooibos blends. They can taste medicinal and give a weird itchy throat sensation.

Luckily, this one is one of the few exceptions. The rooibos taste is there, it’s woody with a dark caramel note. It’s pleasant enough but wouldn’t be tasty on its own. Happily, it’s accompanied by a lovely tart rhubarb flavor and sweet creamy custard. The two together take the rough edge off the base, and give the blend a nice roundness and depth of flavor. None of the flavors overwhelm the others, they give a nice balance of sweet versus tart and fruity versus decadent.

Such a wonderful caffeine-free option for any evening, but especially suited for fall.