10238 Tasting Notes
I missed Matcha Monday on instagram last week, for the first time in months, so I doubled down on it this week by making an extra spooky Halloween themed matcha for myself to sip on while working from home! Black Matcha and a tentacle mug!? Hello spooky Eldritch terror Halloween vibes! I added a splash (literally) of vanilla creamer, and the result was a very thick mug of creamy vanilla and chocolate flavours!
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CF97kFrAUD5/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIGilAUVeq0&ab_channel=DominicFikeVEVO
Cold Brew with fresh lemon!
It’s always a good day when you have new tea mail to dig into!! Thanks Vahdam for sending me three new teas to try this month, including this green tea! I’m not a big green tea drink, but free tea is free tea – so trying everything as open minded as possible.
It’s super crisp, light and refreshing & compliments the brightness of the lemon perfectly, which makes it an awesome choice for sipping on while working from home. I’ve been drinking tea from Vahdam for about three years now & I admit I’ve never paid close attention to the packaging, so I was surprised and pleased to see that it’s both climate and plastic neutral and that a portion of their revenue goes back to the education of their farmer’s children through the TEAchme initiative! Maybe I’ll make myself a Golden Milk latté next…
Gongfu!
Steeped this guy so strong earlier this week that in the photo below it looks like I was brewing I shou! I definitely didn’t mean to brew it so intensely – I just misjudged my leaf amount, and then was bad at keeping track of the steep times of most of the infusions. That’s a gnarly combination for a session. I paired it with some very ripe pears – pun semi intentional. It ended up being a good pairing because the creaminess of the pears helped combat some of that drying tannin from my poor brewing. My gaiwan also kind of matched the pears, which was fun but not intentional.
I don’t know – you definitely don’t always get the brewing right and that’s okay.
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGH_LN6AK6v/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPcWS3MdmoI&ab_channel=TheFiveBlobs-Topic
An assortment of various wellness/functional teas launched today that cover wide range of tea types and purposes – five in total, six if you count Ginger Honey as new. I don’t, because it’s just a renamed Ginger Crystals; so that one is a returning blend.
I’ll do reviews on all of them eventually (probably this weekend) but I’m starting with this one just because I had it today on my commute home from work to refresh myself on the taste. I haven’t had it a lot compared to the other new ones – it’s probably my personal least favourite of this new drop, and it’s the only one of the five new ones that I didn’t take a bag of home for myself.
I definitely don’t view it as an unpleasant tea – it’s just not really a profile that speaks to me. The flavour is, as you would likely guess from the name, more lemon forward – but it’s a pretty soft/milder tasting lemon that leans more heavily into the herbal flavours of the vervain leaf and lemongrass, and the slight herbal taste of the green rooibos. I just find the taste a bit too muted for me personally, and I don’t particularly love the flavour of lemongrass either.
One of the things that I do think is really cool about this blend, though, is that it’s got valerian but no chamomile. I’ve definitely heard from people, back when I worked in store, that valerian was a really helpful sleep aid for them but, because they either had ragweed allergies or just didn’t like the taste, neither Mother’s Little Helper or Valerian Nights were options for them because of the use of chamomile. I’m always on board for diversifying tea blends! Some other things I think make this a strong blend are the use of green rooibos (red rooibos can be SUPER polarizing but a lot of people who dislike red rooibos often don’t mind green rooibos) and that it’s organic. Plus, as someone who doesn’t like the taste of licorice root, I appreciate that I don’t really taste it in the blend.
Also, as I’ve said before, not every tea needs to have the flavour dialed up to a level ten to be a good tea – this isn’t my cup of tea but I appreciate that it’s probably going to fill a need for people who want a more sleep oriented tea without the flavour blast before bed.
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!
The maybe 30-40g of this that I have left isn’t fresh anymore and I can tell mostly because this has lost the sweet red fruit note that so vividly conveys the flavour of red licorice to me. That doesn’t mean it’s not good, and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste like red licorice at all but it’s a more subdued type of fruity where the orange peeks through more and the finish is a little duller and just a hint bitter.
I miss this 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.
Made of mug of this one last weekend with a splash of vanilla creamer, back in that little stretch where I was hard core hitting the dessert teas as a form of stress management. Still sort of doing that this week, but not as much – my tea selection this week was largely quite fruity. I haven’t had this in a while, but it was like saying hi to an old friend. The chocolate has mellow considerably with age, and that really leaves a nice mix of toasty almond notes and roasted mate flavours to emerge and I enjoy that profile a lot – especially with cream.
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.
Sipdown (1133)!
It’s maybe a little bit ironic that I’m sipping down a tea that just “launched” but it’s actually more that this tea returned as a seasonal tea – the blend we carried last year, named Ginger Crystals, is back as part of today’s sort of “mixed function” wellness launch but with a spiffy new name – “Ginger Honey”. There is literally nothing else about the tea that’s different other than the name – we just thought that positioning it slightly differently could help the tea reach a wider audience, similar to how changing the name if Spiced Apple to Baked Apple Chai led to a wider range of people trying it.
Names have power, for sure.
I’ve talked about this one before – it’s basically a lemon ginger blend, and while not my personal favourite tea I think it satisfies the need it’s trying to fill really well. This cup, and another that I had yesterday, were both sachets and I think that’s the perfect format for this kind of tea – if you’re feeling nauseous or want a good “sick tea” to fill that lemon/ginger multi purpose void I just know that I personally almost always want that tea in sachet format. It’s just MUCH more convenient; I don’t like to fuss around with loose leaf tea when I feel unwell and for years I’ve always tried to keep a bagged lemon ginger in my stash for those times.
I’m not replacing this one – I prefer the new Lemon Ginger in terms of flavour, and I have some other bagged lemon gingers for my “sick tea” needs but I’m happy it’s back; I know a lot of people loved this one!
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.
Geek Steep S1E4 – Studio Ghibli: Pom Poko
This is the tea that I decided to drink while watching our Geek of The Week, and I brewed it up Gongfu in my Houjicha dedicated yixing tea pot! For a more detailed explanation of why I chose this tea among the MANY other ones considered for this episode (including CS’s Thurbo Darjeeling, DT’s Forbidden Root, and W2T’s Lumber Slut) you’ll have to listen to the episode because a lot of thought actually went into the tea selection and the brewing method for the tea as well!
But podcast pairing aside, this was a really tasty Houjicha and that deserves to be talked about too! Not quite as heavy a roast as my ideal; but still plenty toasty and nutty. Has a slight bit of coppery minerality, and the faintest oceanic taste in the top notes. I was already starting to lose the natural lighting in my apartment during this late afternoon/early evening session enjoyed while watching this movie, but it almost added this iridescent look to my teacup which played into the whole ethereal Studio Ghibli vibe. Plus, I chose my most Ghibli-esque tea tray to steep with as well! I admit, I’m still far from ready for shorter days though…
Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/
My Geek Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEKyBmugeQd/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6cAqaq00dg&ab_channel=IndieSoundsGood
Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website
DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast
If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!
Are y’all going to cover Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog?! You’d have to choose a tea reminiscent of frozen yoghurt! Or maybe something with cumin.
I have a Kiki teacup (with Jiji on it!) that my friend brought me back from a trip to the Ghibli museum in Japan! It’s one of those pieces of teaware that I treasure too much to actually use, like a little old lady that has her “good china” of which a special occasion “special enough” to warrant using it never happens…
Y’know, I’ve never actually seen Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (I know, the shame!) so I’ll have to add it to our list! :)
It’s SO good! You can’t go wrong with NPH, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day with the Whedons. Sarah Michelle Gellar played an extra in one scene too!
Oh my gosh, Roswell, Dr Horrible’s the best! It’s also short!
Geek Steep S1E4 – Studio Ghibli: Pom Poko
This is the tea that I chose to drink while recording this episode, and I drank it Grandpa style. It was something that I had considered as my “main tea” while watching the Geek of The Week, but that I ultimately decided against.
I kind of don’t want to elaborate on why this is something that I considered because I really think you should listen to the episode and find out – while this is not my favourite fandom we’ve explored so far it is my favourite episode we’ve recorded and I think the discussion for this movie was really good.
I guess to over simplify, though, I had considered this for my tea pairing because I thought the deeply earthy and camphorous petrichor notes would mirror the wooded/forest environment that I assumed would play heavily into the movie based on the few stills I had seen from it before watching. Those are basically all the tasting notes in this tea that I love, and when I think of a woody shou this is definitely the one that comes to mind in my head as the best example of that.
Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/
Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website
DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast
If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!
I’m always skeptical of “pumpkin pie” teas (and in fact pumpkin teas in general) but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this tea! The thing I hate the most about “pumpkin teas” is when they just taste like pumpkin spice and not AT ALL like pumpkin; but this one is very satisfying because while it does have some spice notes, like clove, it also REALLY distinctly still tastes like sweet and creamy pumpkin pie filling! I’m definitely going to run out of this one before Spooky Season is over!
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CF8HG-hA_mr/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIy88D8wb1A&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart
Flavors: Butternut Squash, Butternut Squash, Clove, Clove, Cream, Cream, Natural Pumpkin Spice Flavor, Natural Pumpkin Spice Flavor, Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Vanilla, Vanilla
