Sneaky little tea that quietly launched at the end of the week; not really part of a collection of anything but just a late summer addition to the herbal selection…
I enjoy this tea a lot but I disagree with several of the different marketing points for it. To start, I guess this could technically be a “berries and cream” but, really, it’s more of a “blueberry vanilla” and, yes, I think there’s a difference between the two. There’s just a subtle difference in the connotation of the word choice – berries and cream to me say something either light and airy with a creaminess or either more fresh fruits and decadent, creamy/custard-y ice cream. However, this isn’t a “light” tea – and while it’s creamy it’s very vanilla and authentic vanilla. It also isn’t a “fresh” blueberry flavours – it’s more like a deep, sweet and cooked/reduced down blueberry compote with caramelized sugars and real vanilla bean. It sticks to your mouth and feels thick on the palate. It’s delightful and, while everyone knows I have a soft spot for blueberry teas in general, it feels like the name “Berries & Cream” almost kind of dumbs down this borderline sophisticated approach to a blueberry and vanilla tea.
Of course – I’m often stubbornly opinionated, so maybe I’m wrong here and I just don’t want to admit it, but I really do feel like that subtle connotation exists…
The other thing that bothers me is that on the DT website, the description for the blend says it’s “tropical” and, well, it’s not. It’s very true that there’s a lot of candied pineapple in the blend but that doesn’t mean it tastes anything at all like pineapple. Those candied pineapple cubes more act as a general sweetness and carrier of flavour, in this case vanilla. I think, if you served this blindly to someone, you would be hard pressed to get “tropical” as a descriptor…
Some other cool things about this tea in my own opinion? The ingredients list is very simple: candied pineapple, blueberry, elderberry, natural vanilla flavourings, vanilla pieces. No apple or other typical fillers – we’re just getting right down to business. It keeps the flavour profile direct, and makes the visual of the tea really stand out even though it’s so simple.
Cool blend – great hot or iced (have yet to try it as a latte), would recommend.
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCi3NGBApQJ/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrH8mZ7u36k
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 love the sound of this one!