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Gongfu!

I felt really off yesterday, so I only ended up having one tea over the course of the morning and afternoon. That’s really atypical of me – especially on the weekends – but eventually I started feeling a bit better in the evening, so I scooped up some easily accessible teaware and a blanket/comic and decided to have a second tea; a mid evening tea session outside with some fresh air…

I used a quarter of a single “Biscuit” for this session, which is approximately 3g of sheng. That’s a little bit light for how I usually leaf my Gongfu sessions but 6g was also definitely too much for the 70ml gaiwan that I was using so it was the best compromise. I got five infusions, and they were all nice. Definitely more sweet and fruity than I had expected, with a red fruit (pomegranate?) note throughout and lingering throat sweetness. Also a bit of astringency, and a slight greener note too. I enjoyed it, and am excited to play more with these biscuits!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEiIoNIAUmi/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Sw7ir92mM

Been a while…

The dry leaf smelled way more sweet and artificial “deep purple” grape than I remembered and I got a little worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this tea anymore. Steeped it’s fairly different though – still sweet but also astringent and malty/tannic, with more of a nuanced and slightly floral muscatel flavour and oak-y undertones, as well as a hint of cassis. Really nice earlier afternoon cuppa for the day!

Nearly out of this one now.

Happy Matcha Monday!

I know I just said that I probably wouldn’t write a tasting note for all of the returning teas, but I realized that I still had a tin of this in my stash and it timed out well for Matcha Monday so I ended up making this one today as a thick, creamy Oat Milk latte.

I go back and forth on this matcha because I don’t really love coffee and coffee flavours, but one of the few exceptions to that is the light and airy, creamy Coffee Crisp chocolate bar and this matcha has basically always reminded me of that chocolate bar. Now that this is back for the fall, I’m feeling less guilty about dipping into my stash of it and indulging in that coffee and chocolate kind of wafer-y flavour. Plus, the oat milk really makes the comparison a lot stronger, in my opinion.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEj6FjqggRX/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTI3xESkZIk

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.

Hitting that midafternoon slump, unfortunately, so I decided to brew myself up a mug of something vibrant, sweet and juicy to help perk myself back up again – unfortunately I underleafed the mug so the tea is just too thin tasting for what I wanted. However, the sweet candied pineapple note is still good!

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’m not sure if I’ve cold brewed this in past – if so then I don’t remember doing it. This morning’s brew was fucking delicious though, so that’s definitely how I should have been drinking this one…

The quality that I loved the most was that there was a bready/baked goods kind of note that combined with the cinnamon and other warming spices reminded me a lot of bannock, and that was quite nostalgic for me. I miss having much easier access to good bannock back home in Saskatchewan! Most people here in Quebec don’t seem to even know what bannock is. What I like most about bannock is that it’s not overly sweet, but still deliciously buttery/doughy and that’s the vibe I got from this tea when I had it this morning. The subtle, soft fruity notes and mix of really lovely nutty flavours, namely almond and pistachio, add to the more festive vibe of the tea but compliment the pastry elements as well.

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!

Had this one yesterday while finishing the second season of The Politician. Ben Platt is amazing, and it was a very good second season. A little dialed back from the craziness of the first, but I actually thought it was perfect. I kind of hope there isn’t a third season – I felt like it ended in a really good place.

I liked this one a lot as a cold brew! Chocolate and mint very rarely make for a bad cold brew; it’s the perfect harmony of sweet profiles and cooling, crisp mint that feels ultra refreshing in this style. The mint really comes out in this cold brew though. Like, way more than the chocolate does. It has a nice punch of menthol, but that underlying sweetness of the chocolate to keep it from going into an unpleasant zone.

Yum!

Cold Brew!

Just finishing this brew now; I somehow managed to stretch it throughout the entire afternoon. It wasn’t a high tea consumption day for me – I felt off all morning/afternoon and just didn’t get to brewing anything until late in the day.

This isn’t satisfying tonight, and I’m not sure if that’s the tea or my general moon for the day. It’s too much hibiscus, without enough strawberry or juiciness. The coffee leaf note is also strong though, and that’s probably the best part. I should have tried adding some agave, earlier this afternoon, to perk the flavours up a bit but that didn’t even cross my mind until literally right now and at this point there’s not enough of the brew left for that to make sense.

Oh well.

Another returning tea for the fall!

This one is a total blast from the past, and feels reallllyyyy old school DAVIDsTEA to me. In fact, I’m not even 100% sure if I have a tasting note up for it because it might be so old that it’s from the time period where I wasn’t logging the teas here on Steepster that I had only tried in store samples of…

I do remember this one from when it was originally carried though! I don’t think I liked it very much at the time, and it’s still not really a tea that I enjoy/fits my flavour interests. However, what I appreciate about it so much is that it’s quite a simple/straight forward blend. The teas that launch now from DT are usually have ingredient compositions that are a lot more complicated than this blend. Sometimes that plays to a blend’s advantage, but I also think that it can occasionally over complicate teas and muddy up the flavours…

So what does this taste like? Well, it’s a lighter to more medium bodied profile and leans slightly thin tasting to me. The green tea is very present in the infusion, and is complimented by a soft baked apple type of note and hints of cinnamon. Even ignoring the green tea, which is an automatic turn off for me, I think I just find the flavour in this tea to be a little bit too thin for me to personally enjoy and I wish it had more of a buttery quality to sell the “pie” component of the blend.

That’s my personal impression though, and honestly if I wanted an apple/cinnamon profile with more flavour and no green tea there are other teas on the wall to suit that desire. So do I love this? No. Am I happy it’s back? Yes! Not everyone wants a super sweet tea or a tea with densely packed in and rich flavours – sometimes a soft, milder flavour is a “complete” profile to people and I think it’s important to carry teas for that type of tea drinker. So I’m glad that this very different feeling DT throwback blend is making a reappearance.

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.

Lots of returning teas for Autumn last week (and one new one, note for that tea later).

I don’t typically go out of my way to write tasting notes of returning teas, because I generally have preexisting notes and sometimes already have those teas in my stash (like is the case for a few from this batch). However, there are two kind of “older” teas that haven’t been carried for considerably longer than the other returning teas so I’ll do notes for those two – which includes this one…

The list of returning teas:

Mocha Matcha
Blueberry Muffin (Yay! I was in need for a tin top up)
Mom’s Apple Pie
Espresso Yourself
Pumpkin Chai
Irish Breakfast
Apple Cider

So – Espresso Yourself…

Well, to be honest it’s not really my thing. I just don’t vibe well with coffee teas in general, so it’s nothing really against the tea itself though. I actually think the coffee flavour is quite nice – while a lot of DT coffee blends tend to lean sweeter, I appreciate that this one feels more in the vein of a nice roasted coffee, in part from the chicory in the blend which has a strong flavour presence, without a lot of sugar/cream. The cinnamon is kind of a neat addition to, and while I have mixed feelings about DT’s seemingly overuse of cinnamon in blends I think the amount here feels just right to be present without dominating the tea. It’s brisk, full bodied and a bold flavour – and I understand why it was a fan favourite and why so many people wanted it back.

It’s just simply not my thing.

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.

Grandpa style from last week!!

Dipping into an oldie but a goodie from my stash. Kind of a wonky grandpa/gongfu style right in the cup. One pearl to a small teacup, just steeped like that – for four total “infusions”. It’s a nice, light white tea that makes for easy working from home sipping!! A hint of lemon, red fruit, amber honey, and pine wood!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEU8Jb4AqNY/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c79LbFp-QNg

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.