Steepster seems pretty stable/cooperative today and I basically caught up on the rest of my queue so… guess it’s time to catch up on the tasting notes for the Freshly Picked collection!?
It’s been out a while now and I hate that I wasn’t super on top of getting my notes up because I always try to within a week from a collection launch, but Steepster just wasn’t behaving for me! I did get a note up for 9 Berries though, while has more collection background/context if anyone is curious.
I really like this entire collection, but if I have to “rank” or place the teas in the collection then this is probably in the middle for me, but leaning more into the top half of the collection for me. It loses some points for the green tea, even though there isn’t a lot of green tea. I’ve really been having a “lemon mint” revolution and rediscovery this summer though where I’ve had a lot of lemon mint teas and fallen in love with the flavour combination all over again – and yes, this has definitely been a big part of that. I just haven’t been able to share it until now, even though I’ve gone through nearly 50g of it in cold brews in the last few months (a big step for me)…
It’s fine hot – more lemon, and a soothing bright lemon with some sweetness and a hint of mint. I don’t think you can taste the green tea much at all prepared in this manner. However, iced or cold brewed with an extended brew time!? Oh baby! That is where it’s at!
I love the lemon used in this tea; it’s so fresh and bright with a pop of acidity like good lemonade but also still sweet and not at all bitter. There’s a “powdered sugar” flavour used in this blend, and I actually think that as random as it seems it adds this completely perfect level of soft sweetness that helps facilitates the lemon smoothly meshing with what is a very cooling, crisp peppermint. I actually don’t personally taste the peppermint so much as I feel it in the ultra refreshing and bordering on menthol coolness that coats your throat (though you do taste it some). With this method of steeping, I think the green tea comes out a bit more, and it can handle a long steep time. In my experience, this tea does not get bitter at all.
I personally feel this would have been better suited to earlier in the summer for launch, because it’s probably the least “Summer to Autumn” transitional feeling of the collection to me, but I like it a lot as a blend. I hope it sticks around for a while – it’s a refreshing (literally) take on a lemon profile.
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.
