New Tasting Notes
From the new 90s/2000s inspired summer collection! I really love this whole collection and it’s so hard to pick favourites, but this is definitely one of my top picks.
As is probably obvious from the name, it’s inspired by the red/white/blue Rocket Popsicles that many of us grew up with as kids. I learned during the development that there are actually a bunch of regional names for them like Firecrackers and Bomb Pops. To me, though, Rocket is the most iconic.
This is definitely a flavour that is having a moment right now – especially in the RTD world. This past year I’ve seen so many Rocket Popsicle inspired energy drinks, sodas, sports drinks, and even craft beers. The blend has red sprinkles and this blue-ish cotton candy bits as a visual homage to the popsicle inspiration, and I think on the black tea base they really pop visually and add a fun element to this tea.
The original popsicle is blue raspberry, cherry, and lemon lime flavoured and I think this tea hits all of those notes pretty dang well – maybe a little less on the lime? We also added some blueberry to ours, though it’s not as distinct tasting as you might think. Sure, if you really focus in while tasting you can pick apart this very juicy layering of fruits but as a tea just casually sipped on I really think it just creates a very authentic flavour of a melted ice pop with all of those notes kind of bleeding together into one sweet, fruity, and nostalgic taste. And yes, it is a sweet tea – but popsicles are sweet! I don’t think this would taste like the inspiration otherwise. This is also one of the blends in the collection that (at least in my opinion) is pretty equally good both hot and iced.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6J_r7QuSAp/?img_index=5 (5th Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn5_ZbP1vug
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.
Of the new summer collection this is the only tea that you could maybe arguably say isn’t new since, a few summers back, we carried a non-organic banana flavoured matcha that sold out very, very quickly. I’m glad this tea is “back” though for people who loved the OG one or who didn’t get a chance to try it back then.
Honestly, it tastes very similar to the previous one. There are some key differences though, and it’s actually not because of the organic switch. Eagle eyed tea friends might notice that this matcha is more expensive than other organic flavoured matchas, and that’s because this matcha is more like a “semi sweetened” version. It actually contains 40% less sugar than our usual flavoured matchas, which is why the cost is higher but also why the taste is a little less sweet and more matcha forward.
Otherwise, it’s that same rich banana flavour that reads a little like banana taffy or runts. Very nostalgic (as is this whole collection), and so good with milk! I definitely like this one on its own, but I adore it either as a hot or iced latte – and I actually recently tried it as an iced latte with chocolate milk and that was INSANELY good tasting for a really decadent chocolate covered banana sort of profile.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6J_r7QuSAp/?img_index=3 (3rd Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg3DkQTUHS8
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.
This tea is actually the only store exclusive blend in the new drop. It’s a yerba mate based blend with a juicy, ripe peach flavour and a hint of strawberry to it. Very good iced, but actually I think this might actually be the only tea in the collection that I personally prefer hot.
The inspiration was sort of the fruit carts/stalls that are prolific in the summer in Venice Beach/LA in general or places like British Columbia (Vancouver/Kelowna/Victoria I’m looking at you!) where you can pick up baskets of perfectly juicy and ripe fruits. Definitely this is more peach than strawberry, but I do love how gorgeous the giant strawberry slices in the dry tea leaf look. As it compares to Just Peachy, I think this is slightly less sweet and also slightly less tart with a bit of a smooth and subtle grassiness from the mate used as the base. However, I definitely think if you enjoy one then you’ll likely enjoy the other – and I personally love having caffeinated fruity iced tea options and I don’t think I’m alone in that.
Of course I wish this was available for everyone to try, but so far pretty much every store exclusive blend where customers have been vocal about wanting it online has eventually launched there too – I mean, Jungle Crush and Peaches & Cream Oolong are both good examples of that. So, y’never know!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6J_r7QuSAp/?img_index=4 (4th Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc6JOIQFLmc
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.
Next up in the latest collection… Galactic Grape!
Grape is another flavour that is a little bit polarizing, but there’s something so nostalgic to be about both grape soda and the most sour grape kind of candy that was so readily available growing up in the early 2000s – so those were sort of the inspirations and starting points for this blend.
People familiar with Maui Madness or Witchy Watermelon will instantly recognize the purple sweet potato pieces that make up a lot of the base of this blend. There’s also a bit of butterfly pea flower included, and the combination of these two ingredients creates a fun purple colour that’s a bit deeper than Maui Madness/Witchy Watermelon when steeped. It’s very pretty, and I think fun and kid friendly too.
In terms of taste this is definitely bright with a little bit of a top note acidity or slight sourness to it – like I said, one of the inspirations was sour grape candies but also we gave this tea a little bit of a citrus-y fruit flare too to give it a little more dimension and juiciness. Think grape fruit punch! You still get that deeper and more iconic “purple tasting grape” note after that initial brightness that anchors the blend, though. I don’t mind it hot, but I really love this tea cold brewed or iced. I just find it super refreshing. Also really good as a tea pop for a lighter taste grape soda alternative.
Another big part of this blend that I’m really proud of is that it’s totally free of stevia or other sweeteners/candied fruits. We already know stevia can be polarizing (and actually EVERY tea in this collection is stevia free) but something we especially hear in the summer is that people wish there were fruity/flavourful iced tea options without candied fruits so I definitely had that in mind when crafting this blend.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6J_r7QuSAp/?img_index=2 (2nd Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao3osYLAf0g
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.
DT’s newest summer collection launched earlier this week and I’m honestly SO EXCITED about it because it means that after more than a year of waiting I can finally talk about these teas! It’s actually a pretty big drop with seven new teas – eight if you count the one returning matcha that is now available in organic. I don’t think we’ve had this many new blends launching all together in nearly two years!
I’m also really in love with the collection overall because it has such a cool theme to it. Basically, about four years ago, one of my favourite bands described their latest album as “drenched in nostalgia,” and I think that phrase has been living rent-free in my head ever since. It also PERFECTLY describes these teas. They’re all super refreshing and iceable with a strong late 90s and 2000s retro sort of vibe that takes me immediately back to some of my best memories of summer vacations growing up. Though it’s mighty hard to pick a favourite I think, gun to my head, it might be this one!?
DAVIDsTEA has carried a root beer tea before nearly a decade ago – I actually really enjoyed it a lot. So, when re-imagining what a “modern” root beer tea from DT might look like I knew it was important for there to be differentiating qualities. Though I don’t think there’s anything wrong with inclusions like white chocolate (which was in the old tea for the “float” element) in a blend, when beginning development I took a lot more inspiration from the ongoing prebiotic & gut-friendly soda trend (ex Poppi or OliPop) that’s been popping off lately – no pun intended. I also wanted to look at more traditional ingredients used in brewing root beer to create something with a more “old fashioned root beer” sorta vibe that was as functional as it was flavourful. Very much this idea of putting the roots back in rootbeer.
So, to that point, there’s actually four different kinds of roots in this tea: burdock, dandelion, chicory, and licorice root. Though burdock and dandelion root both have their own associated health benefits I think they also contribute quite nicely to the flavour of the blend by adding a rich and slightly roasty/earthy flavour that gives the blend a lot of depth. The chicory root does this too, but it’s actually there more-so because it has an incredibly high amount of naturally occuring inulin – a water soluble and prebiotic fiber that’s great for your gut. The licorice root, on top of being adaptogenic, is added for it’s mouth-coating sweetness that helps emulate not just the taste but the texture of soda.
I also deliberately used pu’erh as the base because it doesn’t just taste good, but pu’erh has also traditionally been consumed as a digestive aid and is purportedly also prebiotic – so much gut health goodness.
Now, those are a lot of strong flavours so I think this is a good time to point out that this is a STRONG tasting tea. It steeps very quickly and intensely, and if you leave it brewing for more than a few minutes you’ll get both a robust earthiness to the taste but also a lot of that licorce root sweetness. Sometimes, however, that’s a good thing! It means you can make a pretty strong concentrate without a ton of tea leaf – and this tea is INSANELY GOOD as both a teapop (duh) and as an iced latte for that sort of root beer float kinda vibe. Both of which are recipes that use a more concentrated brew of tea as the base of the drink.
All in all, this will probably be the most polarizing tea of the bunch. However, if you like root beer, pu’erh or other earthy tasting ingredients, or are looking for a “cleaner soda alternative” then I think it’s pretty spectacular! Also, holy hell the dry leaf smells sooooo good. I have a tin of it on my desk at work right now, and multiple times a day I pop the lid off just to smell the rich root beer aroma.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6J_r7QuSAp/?img_index=1 (1st Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g5_9fuxkak
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.
Gongfu!
Dug this tea out of storage for an early morning session. This is such an amazing tea with a really understated profile to go alongside such a warm, glowy body feel. It builds slowly, with smooth yet powerful notes of tobacco and pipe smoke, incense, and undertones of red fruits like lingonberry or currants – more jammy, though, and not tart/bright. The liquor feels thick and heavy on the palate despite having more of a delicate-leaning flavour composition. Part of me wants to just leave this tea to age indefinitely, but it’s also something I want to make sure to enjoy – and not just for fancy occasions. I think we all deserve to enjoy these special sort of teas on even the most mundane feeling sort of days.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6MuU1-u9tc/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vct334H6m-w
Liquid Terry’s Chocolate Orange! I made a mug of this as my first tea of the day, and it was rich, smooth, and just a little bit roasty and earthy from the yerba mate in the blend. I think, even after all these years, this might be my favourite chocolate orange tea and I’m gonna be devastated when I finished off the rest of this tin.
Tea Pop!
Finally got around to trying this powder I picked up at the top of the year from Toronto Tea Festival. I was hesistant to make it after being pretty disappointed by Lemon Lily’s sakura powder. Honestly it was pretty solid, though! Definitely whisks up a STUNNING purple-y blue colour that only gets more intense and over time as the finely ground butterfly pea flower continues to infuse.
The flavour is definitely lavender first, but a very smooth and approachable lavender without that sometimes “sudsy” taste or being overly perfumed. The presence of sweeteners and vanilla helps for sure, though. Definitely smooths things out and takes an edge off the florals. The blueberry is there too, but a little milder. Less tart/juicy than I’d have expected, but it does work with the whole macaron sort of inspiration.
I bet this would be a very good latte, and probably lean more into the macaron element. I liked it as a tea pop though! Refreshing and not too sweet. With the vanilla note, it was almost like a lavender cream soda? So much less sugary though. I’d 100% make it this way again though.
Made a cup of this yesterday and it was fine. The white tea still tastes really nice – I very much enjoy the standard of leaf that Adagio uses across all of their white tea blends. However, the pear flavour has faded a lot which is to be expected given how old the last of this sample is. It’s a little dull now, with less juiciness. Still has a hint of floral to it though, which is so nice with the white base.
Cold Brew Sipdown (2586)!
Currently sipping on the last of a tumbler of this, and it’s making for a delightfully refreshing and juicy late morning brew. Very much like a Capri-Sun in taste both in terms of sweetness level, tartness/brightness and the balance of strawberry and kiwi. I do really enjoy it, but I know it’s also a catalog blend that’s easily findable elsewhere, so not too disappointing as far as sipdowns go.
Drank this tea a few nights ago while doing my taxes (I got a whopping $11.00 back) and honestly doing taxes sucks but this tea doesn’t, so it actually made the experience a lot more enjoyable. Very smooth with forest-y and herbaceous notes of rosemary and pine with a smooth and just-sweet-enough note of maple syrup that wrapped it all up like a cozy little bow. I guess there are worst ways to spend an evening!
April Sipdown Prompt – a tea that has a special meaning for you
When I had my neighbors over last Tuesday to find a green tea they would enjoy, I also had them sniff some tins of other teas. Paris drew some oooh’s and aaaah’s, but Tower of London made the man’s eyes roll back in his head. His wife laughed at his reaction and took a picture of the tin so she would know what to order.
He loves cigars and said it would be the perfect tea to accompany a cigar in the evening. (Caffeine doesn’t keep him awake.)
So when they came over a couple of days later to meet another neighbor’s new puppy for whom I am serving as nanny, I made a pot for them to try. They absolutely loved and it definitely met their expectations they had based on the aroma.
This one is special to me because when I first wanted to try it, it was only available in the Historic Royal Palaces tins in sachets, it was sold out on harney.com, and Barnes and Noble did not carry this flavor yet.
Ashman knew I wanted to try it and googled little gift shops all over that sold tea and found someone who had a tin. He ordered it for our anniversary and I got to try it at last.
I love Paris, but I think I love ToL even more. It smells like a tobacconist where they sell cherry tobacco and another sort whose name I can’t recall but my neighbor mentioned it when he was drinking the tea. I will edit and add that info if I get it. Rich, blackcurrant, vanilla, honey…although it may go off shelf briefly, it always comes back before too long. Great as a sweet iced tea in summer, too.
I stayed home to work today, but yesterday’s holiday made my brain really slow. I decided to have some tea but genuinely did not know what could help. Then I remembered I had some rou gui that I got for gong fu purposes and thought… what if I used my metal infuser and a mug instead of my gaiwan? Could that make gong fu easier for slow brain days? That way I can keep the tea coming!
well, after a full mug and a half, I can tell you that it worked like a charm :)
Preparation
It is ever interesting to track the delicate but resolute progress of this white tea cake.
The dry leaf aroma is now like barn, oak tree and sweet wood, while wet leaves smell of vanilla, lemon ester and coconut.
The first infusion is a bit sour, mineral, bitter and umami. Sweetness appears soon and increases in intensity. I detect notes of bone broth, honey, flowers, coconut, which give way to a comfy aftertaste that is both smooth and soft.
Flavors: Barnyard, Broth, Coconut, Floral, Flowers, Honey, Lemon, Mineral, Oak, Smooth, Soft, Sour, Sweet, Umami, Vanilla, Wood
[Spring 2024 harvest]
A slightly smoky and woody green tea with a really nice fragrance. Its aroma is flowery, but not sweet, with notes of strawberries, sawdust, and butter. The taste is savoury, nutty, and floral, while the aftertaste has notes of green beans and meadow.
Flavors: Butter, Floral, Flowers, Green Beans, Meadow, Nutty, Sawdust, Smoke, Strawberry, Wood
I’m revisiting this tea and this session just confirms it to be one of my least favourite shengs that I have in storage. I suspect the it may be overcooked, because it reminds me of an old green tea. Overall, there is too little sweetness even for me. It might be interesting to try to blend it with something quite sweet.
The aroma is a bit like soil, milk tea, fenugreek. The taste is savoury, bitter, and vegetal. Overall, I find it to be quite an alkaline tea. One thing I like about it is the thick texture.
Flavors: Bitter, Herbs, Milk, Soil, Thick, Vegetal
[Spring 2023 harvest]
Returning to one of the best value Dan Congs I know, I am not disappointed.
It is really a super tasty tea, with a strong floral and mineral presence. There are also notes of nuts, stonefruit pits, and apples. The mouthfeel is generally quite airy and astringent.
Flavors: Apple, Astringent, Floral, Mineral, Nutty, Stonefruit
[Spring 2024 harvest]
This white tea is at times a bit like green tea, it certainly pays off to get it quite fresh.
The aroma is very nice, dry leaves reminds me of nuts, hay, grass, sage, and apple leaves. When wet, it is more like a cooling mix of flowers, morning dew on the mountain, and laundry detrergent haha.
The tast is strong, quite bitter and also a bit astringent. There is a warming sense to it, as well as a malty flavour and a spicy aftertaste.
Flavors: Apple, Astringent, Bitter, Cooling, Dry Leaves, Flowers, Grass, Hay, Malt, Meadow, Nuts, Petrichor, Sage, Soap, Spicy
Preparation
One of the earliest teas from this year is this fabulous Taiwanese green tea. It wonderfully blends the profiles of green Baozhong oolongs and Laoshan green teas.
The dry leaf aroma is crisp with hints of grass, dry soil, and apples. Later, it gets very vegetal and a little floral. In the gaiwan, I can smell peas, burdock, and fern.
The liquor has a smooth, creamy mouthfel and a pungent, green and buttery taste at first. There is also a decent umami and flavours of asparagus and peas, as well as some sweet wood, almost licorice, in the aftertaste. Later steeps get more, nutty, bitter and sour, which is a nice evolution to observe.
Flavors: Apple, Asparagus, Bitter, Burdock, Butter, Creamy, Floral, Grass, Green, Licorice Root, Nutty, Peas, Pungent, Smooth, Soil, Sour, Umami, Vegetal
Preparation
I love the pillowy marshmallow flavor. Below that, I taste both the lemon and blueberry distinctly. This is well-balanced and high quality, as always. I think it tastes best cold or at room temperature with milk and sugar. There’s a tiny bit of astringency in my final cup, so maybe I’d brew it for slightly less time if I had more.
