Root Beer Float (Organic)

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Tea, Cinnamon, Natural Flavours, Safflower Petals, Sarsaparilla, White Chocolate
Flavors
Astringent, Caramel, Cream, Malt, Root Beer, Vanilla, Chocolate, Soap, Spices, Sarsaparilla, Wood, Hops, Cinnamon, Licorice, Anise, Medicinal, Fennel, White Chocolate
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 45 sec 13 oz / 379 ml

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143 Tasting Notes View all

  • “This was actually pretty good. For some reason, I had some idea that I wasn’t going to like this one. As others have mentioned, it is not great warm, but I wasn’t really expecting it to because...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “Kind of sad sipdown. I was just drinking what was supposed to be my second last cup of this and noticed how stale and dusty it was. Other than cinnamon and a vague root beer flavour, I didn’t get...” Read full tasting note
    83
  • “(Apologies in advance because it is 2 am and I know I will ramble.) This one just came out yesterday with Cherry Cola; and while I’m generally too lazy to bother getting anything done before my...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “Thanks to Azzrian for sending me a bit of this tea – it’s yummy! I’ve had a few different root beer float teas/tisanes, and some were better than others … this is good, but not the best that I’ve...” Read full tasting note

From DAVIDsTEA

Floating on air
As far as we’re concerned, the root beer float is king of the soda shop. The crackle and fizz of root beer, the cool richness of vanilla ice cream – what could be better? Well, what if we brought the malt shop right to your tea shelf? With black tea, vanilla, cinnamon and white chocolate, this sweet, lightly creamy black tea blend tastes just like the classic treat. For the full experience, try it as an iced latte with lots of foam.

Ingredients: Organic: black tea from Sri Lanka, vanilla, cinnamon, white chocolate, safflower.

About DAVIDsTEA View company

DavidsTea is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country, with its first store having opened in 2008.

143 Tasting Notes

90
1184 tasting notes

This was actually pretty good. For some reason, I had some idea that I wasn’t going to like this one.
As others have mentioned, it is not great warm, but I wasn’t really expecting it to because who drinks warm root beer anyway?
I thought it was smooth, the black base came through. And I thought it was sweet enough to be good

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Chelle

I might have to sample this sometime too. Root beer and tea is just not what I think would go together. Iced just might be alright.

Formathe

I received some of this a couple of christmases ago and fell in love with it. Now it’s discontinued and that just peeves me off. Reality is I’m willing to pay for what I like. Sell it online if it doesn’t do well in the stores.

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83
1792 tasting notes

Kind of sad sipdown. I was just drinking what was supposed to be my second last cup of this and noticed how stale and dusty it was. Other than cinnamon and a vague root beer flavour, I didn’t get much else other than an overwhelmingly stale taste. The cup I had the other day was alright, but I noticed that the last 13g in my bag was mostly dusty stuff and hardly any tea leaves or chunks of other stuff, which probably explains it. So this cup had to unfortunately go down the sink a few sips in, while the remaining dry leaf got banished to the garbage can.

OMGsrsly

Oh, that is sad. :(

Fjellrev

Haha oh well. It’s for the best, really. Just wish I could have enjoyed it while it was fresher rather than having it sit in a packed-up box since spring.

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80
107 tasting notes

(Apologies in advance because it is 2 am and I know I will ramble.)

This one just came out yesterday with Cherry Cola; and while I’m generally too lazy to bother getting anything done before my work day starts, I hauled ass out of my house early yesterday just to get to DAVIDs for this one so I didn’t have to wait even a day to try it.

Getting the impression I like root beer? Oh yes. I’m such a kid. Depending on the day, I can never decide between orange, cream soda or root beer as my favourite pop. I’ve mentioned before that I essentially gave up pop for tea, yes? So I imagined this being the best of both worlds.

My local DAVIDs is busier and busier these days, to the point that I walked in last week and did a double-take in shock when the store was empty. That never used to surprise me! And when I got there yesterday, there was a line-up of about four people while all the SAs were serving people (including one little old lady who looked to be buying probably about two hundred dollars worth of gift sets and then being picky about how they were packed). The woman behind me – holding her $1 iced tea mug – was clearly agitated by this, saying, “There’s a line-up for the damn tea?!” I kind of wanted to ask her if she didn’t want the tea store she frequents to be financially successful.

(Unexpectedly though, she turned out to be quite sweet. As I didn’t want her making dagger eyes at my back, I offered to let her go first when an SA freed up. “Oh no, dear, you were first! You go ahead!” Some people, I can’t figure them out.)

ANYWAY. The tea.

I got 160g of this packed into a shiny silver tin and the tea in my $1 mug as well because they were, unexpectedly, serving this one at my store as the TOTD instead of Cherry Cola as scheduled. Not sure why. But I kinda squeed to myself when I tasted the dollar TOTD, because it really, seriously tasted like root beer! I know I’ve groused on here before (in my DT’s Tropicalia review) about people saying that teas taste “just like” something else, but this is as uncannily close to “just like” as I think a tea can get.

So I rushed home to make my own pitcher of this one. In order to do this, I was planning to throw out the last fifth or so of my pitcher of DT’s Lime Gelato.

Now, I would not normally do that. I’m not really the child my taste buds think I am. I would normally wait and drink the last of the last pitcher. Unfortunately, that particular pitcher really, really didn’t turn out so great. I cold-brewed the Lime Gelato for about 4 and a quarter hours, and then yanked the leaves out because I was concerned about it eventually getting bitter the way Kiwi’s Big Adventure did. And it was unbelievably tasteless. Faintly lime, faintly green tea, and…that’s it. I talked to an SA in the store, and she told me that she doesn’t think Lime Gelato cold-brews well. Oops. So I’d just been using it up in boozy mixed drinks. And I planned to throw the rest of that failed pitcher out, because it just wasn’t that pleasant to drink even then.

As it turns out though, my loose-leaf hating sister actually drank it! Although she apparently told my mother, “Weird, it smells much stronger than it tastes.” (gigglesnort) And then she and my mom puzzledly went through all my teas in the cupboard trying to figure out which one it was! …Of course, they didn’t because they don’t know that half my stash (including that one) is actually in my room so that no one in my family but me knows how many teas I actually have. Shhh…

So. This isn’t a review of Lime Gelato, but I had to mention that because it’s made me nervous now about cold-brewing. This was the first time ever that the cold-brewing method has failed me, and I couldn’t help but think, “What if it doesn’t work for Root Beer Float?!” But I figured, nah, none of the listed ingredients are things I haven’t cold-brewed before – I think? – and it should work, no problemo.

But. Twelve-plus hours of cold-brewing later (yes, I lost track), guess what?

Root Beer Float cannot be cold-brewed either!

Now, I might not have realized that if I hadn’t had a to-go cup from the store, because it does still have a root beer taste to it and is drinkable. But nothing like what I had from the store! Sheesh! So just a heads-up for anyone thinking of slow-brewing this one cold…nope. Don’t waste your leaves.

So I just made some hot. This review is for that instead. If I can cool this enough before I go to bed, I will maybe try half the cup cold.

First, the smell is amazing. It does smell like root beer, both dry and wet – even hot. It’s another one of those “huff over the cup” teas.

Hot: The first sip was disturbingly tasteless, but it seems to be one of those that gets more flavour as it cools rather than less, so I gave it a few minutes and…yeah, there we go. Root beer and vanilla! I taste the base more hot, and I think it is rather middle-ing…there’s a faint bitterness to it. But I’m okay with it as the flavour is pretty well done. I can’t really separately taste white chocolate in this, and for that I’m grateful as I despise white chocolate.

I really just wish it was sweeter. I know that people have been bitching endlessly about stevia in DT teas lately – although I’m not sure why, it’s even considered safe for diabetes according to what I’ve read – and this tea does not have it. I wish it did. I have not had much of an opinion on the stevia thing until now, but now – I think they should have added it to this one in particular, and I do not understand how so many recent teas have that ingredient which probably don’t need it and this one doesn’t! I do not want to be adding too much of my own sugar to the tea because I don’t want to change the flavour, but this is supposed to be root beer. It should not be about subtle flavours. I don’t want to swirl this one on my tongue trying to pick out notes. I expect tea, but I also expect it to taste a little more like it will rot my teeth.

Cold: Okay, I should probably save this as I’m falling on my face. But this is definitely better cold (as I’m sure you’d already assumed); I keep seeing people on the FB page saying it needs fizz, but floats go flat! It has that nummy flat float taste.

I’ve also been experimenting with adding milk or cream and a swirl of DT’s vanilla agave to bring out the float-y aspects more, and that’s AWESOME. This is another get-me-through-the-work-day tea.

And with that, I’m up too late and talking too long and I’m out!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec
ashmanra

Have you tried Golden Moon’s Vanilla Jasmine? Some people say it smells like root beer, most say it tastes like cream soda. I didn’t cold brew it, but I did ice it this week and it was yummy!

momo

I found that if I made Lime Gelato hot first, then put then cold steeped the leaves, it works better. But its’s definitely just easier to make it hot then cool it off.

Kittenna

Oh holy something, I think this is the longest review I’ve ever encountered! Just had to say this before I read the whole thing :) Also, I had forgotten that it was you who had been inquiring about the soft drink-flavoured teas; glad they finally came out!

Kittenna

Ahahaha, loved the review, and love how you stash tea in your room so nobody knows how big the stash really is!

I cold-brewed Lime Gelato at least once and did enjoy it, but I may have way overleafed the cup in order to get that flavour. Good to know that this one’s not good for cold-brewing, as I certainly would have tried that myself after picking it up (I just haven’t made it to DT yet). Flat float, also, sound delicious to me :)

I also don’t know why everyone’s moaning about stevia; it certainly hasn’t bothered me yet, so I’m pretty indifferent to it.

Ninavampi

Great review!!! I loved your gigglesnort! :)

Daniel Scott

@ashmanra – Never have, no, I will check it out.

@Amanda – that’s actually a cool idea, I will try that too.

@Krystaleyn – The longest?! Oh dear. I can talk so much more than this, but I try to keep it short on Steepster because there is no “read more” that I know of on here.

Yes, it was me! I was starting to wonder if they would come out in the fall after all, no joke, because there were all the fruity and berry summer teas and surely that’s enough, right? DT is just rolling them out these days…don’t know how I feel about that.

I just don’t get the stevia thing. People keep saying, “I don’t want sweetened tea.” Um, then why are you buying tea flavoured like pop?

@Ninavampi – Thank you! Yeah, it was pretty funny. I still haven’t gotten a chance to tell her that the tea was so flavourless because I screwed it up. She’s probably chalked it up to me being crazy to think loose leaf tastes good. :P

Hope this posts, guys; I haven’t been able to open my own tealog lately.

Kittenna

Haha, actually you might be tied with Ian for longest tasting note, as I remember he wrote quite a long one a while back! I don’t mind though, because long tasting notes are often filled with interesting stories! Take Bonnie’s notes, for example!

I’m a little… annoyed(?) that DT keeps putting out new teas. Probably because I can’t keep up, to be honest. It seems a bit overkill though, but I suppose they have to keep things new and fresh! I felt like 52teas put out quite a number of teas, but DT has Frank beat by a long shot!

Babble

I tried this today cold-brewed and thought it was pretty good. How long did you let it sit for? Mine sat for about 12+ hours. I may try it hot, though, and cool it down just to see.

Daniel Scott

It’s not that I didn’t think that it was good – like I said, if I hadn’t had it flash-chilled in the store, I probably would have decided it was great, and a decent imitation of root beer. Thing is, the flash-chilled version was even more true to a root beer taste, so I couldn’t be satisfied with a cold-brewed version after that.

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4843 tasting notes

Thanks to Azzrian for sending me a bit of this tea – it’s yummy! I’ve had a few different root beer float teas/tisanes, and some were better than others … this is good, but not the best that I’ve had.

I feel like it misses the mark slightly. The root beer part is definitely there … and I’ve got to say it’s a little weird drinking hot root beer! But, I am not getting a creamy “float” part so much. There’s a hint of vanilla in there, but, it’s just not creamy enough, nor is it sweet enough for me to say that this is definitely root beer float. Had I tasted it “blindly” (without brewing it myself so I knew what I was brewing), I would have probably guessed root beer because that’s there, but, I don’t think I would have guessed root beer FLOAT.

I find myself wishing there was some sarsaparilla and some anise (and maybe a touch of wintergreen) in this, too. I think it would make this a better root beer.

By the way, the best root beer I’ve ever had (not root beer tea, but the soda), is this one: http://hungryinportland.com/2012/07/07/root-beer-from-maine-root/

Plunkybug

Did you try it iced, as a latte?

LiberTEAS

No. The float should be in the flavor, not something that I add to it by making it a latte, in my opinion.

TheTeaFairy

Frankly, I don’t know how to handle that one…there’s definitely something creamy missing to make it good, but the milk doesn’t do it either…and as you point out, if FLOAT is in he name, it shouldn’t require any addition!

LiberTEAS

Yes, this tea does have the potential to be great, but, it really needs to enhance the float part … or just call itself root beer.

Nik

I love the Maine Root brand! I’m not sure I’ve had their root beer, yet. (Virgil’s is my favourite, so far.) Their lemon-lime soda reminds me of Limca, the lemon-lime soda we have in India, which I like better than Sprite. They’re one of those companies whose products I’d buy blindly, because I trust it’ll be good. Sadly, that backfired recently. They make a Pumpkin Pie soda. When I saw it in the supermarket, I thought ooooh, maybe it’ll taste like the pumpkin fizz I had at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and bought some. Unfortunately, it’s pretty bad. =( It tastes soapy and nothing like my beloved pumpkin fizz. Oh, well.

LiberTEAS

OK well, that makes me NOT want to try that pumpkin pie soda, to get it here, I’d have to order a full pack of it (not just one bottle) so I don’t want to order a whole pack of it only to not like it.

Nik

Yep, I also got a four-pack from the supermarket. I drank the first bottle and didn’t like it. I drank another bottle thinking that maybe my taste buds were all wonky the first time, and still didn’t like it. The other two bottles are in the fridge. I’m planning on experimenting with them. :D

LiberTEAS

Yeah, hopefully you can do something with them. I did want to try the pumpkin pie soda before reading this, it just sounded so intriguing, and given how well they do the root beer, I thought that the pumpkin pie soda should be amazing, but, I don’t want to get a full pack only to find that it’s not to my liking. If I were able to get a solo bottle, then that’s another thing … but as they aren’t local, I can’t pick one up in one of the upscale type markets either. ah…well!

Nik

I dunno, LiberTEAS, it did win an award at some expo or something…maybe it’s just me. If I knew how to package the bottle so it doesn’t break in transit, I’d be happy to send you one.

Formathe

I added just a bit of raw sugar to my hot RBF and enjoyed it immensely.

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137 tasting notes

I tried a 3 minute steep this time for my iced tea, and it was much better. Less of the cinnamon comes through, making it more of a true root beer flavour. I added just a dash of agave and that really brightened it up. I like this, but I probably won’t buy more when my 50g pouch is done. The novelty has worn off a wee bit.

Fjellrev

It’s a novelty tea for me too.

tattooed_tea

I’ve only had it once, it was too bitter. I’ve swaped most of it out. But definetly can’t wait to find a time to drink it again. Or make it so the kids will drink it.

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73
6105 tasting notes

It’s weird, sometimes when I smell this one I’m hit in the face with “ROOT BEER”, and other times it just smells strange and fakey. Steeped, it smells like fakey root beer, so I suppose the above kind of makes sense!

The flavour is certainly similar to root beer, and I think the main thing that’s missing is sweetener, which would probably make it into a perfect summer treat, especially iced. But I don’t want to have to add sugar. As a result, it tastes kind of odd and a bit astringent, with a heavy root beer aroma and flavour. So I’m not sure I’d recommend this one for those who dislike adding sweetener to their teas.

Since this is called ‘Root Beer Float’, I was also expecting more creaminess, which I didn’t really pick up on. Perhaps it needs milk as well?

Anyhow, this was great entertainment, but not quite right for what I wanted (which probably more like Salted Caramel with some root beer flavouring quietly mixed in… maybe I’ll try that…)

ETA: Ok, mixed a bit of agave into the room temp remnants in my cup, and we have flat root beer. I definitely think DT achieved their goal of a root beer tea, it just isn’t exactly what I had wanted!! :D

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Babble

Hmm… I’m intrigued, although I’m not a sweetener in tea fan. I’ve also seen this as a rooibos blend for another company that I wanted to try…

Kittenna

I just think that root beer flavouring without sweetness tastes kind of odd. I could see a honeybush base perhaps lending a bit more sweetness to a cup?

CHAroma

I wonder how this will compare to 52teas’ Butterbeer…

Kittenna

DId it taste kind of root beer-y??

CHAroma

Yeah, Butterbeer tastes like root beer and butter. Weird but sooooo good!!!

Kittenna

I have a feeling it’s better than the DT version, then.

Alyssa

I’m not sure I’d like this tea because I can’t imagine warm, flat root beer tasting all that great. Thanks for the great and lengthy review.

Kittenna

I don’t like carbonation, nor beverages of extreme temperature, so I like flat root beer, hahaha :) Glad this was useful!

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78
6768 tasting notes

Thanks Amanda! :)

This does taste list Rootbeer – it even makes me burp like I had a Rootbeer/Float! LOL

There are some strange floaties/textures – but nothing I can’t handle. It’s pretty good hot or cold. Perhaps a tad more flavorful while cold.

I like the sweetness that lingers…it’s also quite juicy…mouthwatering…type aftertaste.

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72
807 tasting notes

Thank you Cedes for this sample!!
Its pretty good but it won’t make it to my David’s Tea ORDER list.
Its just alright. I think Root Beer would be a better fitting name as the FLOAT aspect really is not there for me.
Its interesting but not interesting ENOUGH.
Still happy I got to try it! :)
Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 8th of November.

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1220 tasting notes

I made this sort of like a soda. I steeped a tablespoon of tea in what I guess was 6 oz of water (of course, I came up with this idea after putting my measuring cup in the dishwasher and turning it on), steeped it for 4 1/2 minutes, then poured it over ice. Added agave and seltzer water, and it’s pretty spot on for a root beer float, minus the texture of having ice cream melted in it.

The vanilla and white chocolate definitely give it that float taste, but it’s not super creamy. I guess if you really were looking for that, you could add a little ice cream. I like it the way it is though.

It could use a bit more spices to me for a root beer, because to me the only flat taste to it is that it’s just cinnamon and then some vague flavors that might be root beer. The only root beer I will drink is made by Abita. If you haven’t tried it, you MUST. It’s just so sugary I try not to drink it but hey, at least it’s made of natural sugar that isn’t from corn so that’s a plus.

It’s pretty good, but honestly I’d rather just drink that one. I’ll definitely finish this bag though. If there was less cinnamon and more of the other spices and herbs that go into root beer, it’d be soooo much better.

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90
1473 tasting notes

This is wonderful. I’m stressed beyond words today and for no real reason. I’ve got to stop using my days off to go out and be sure busy >.<. My hormones are all out of whack…when my wife showed up to see me at work today and brought me a diet dr pepper, I nearly cried. One of those days. Anyway, this got me through work today and I just have to make it through one more day before I get three glorious days off. Yay! But this was creamy and sassy-frassy and tasted a bit like a root beer hard candy with a creamy vanilla swirl. Definitely one to love.

cold steeped.

tigress_al

This one was sold out at my local DTs to pick up the latest teas 2 weeks ago :( How long did you cold steep this for?

Daddyselephant

I left it in my fridge overnight!

Daisy Chubb

<3 Today is a new day!

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