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I think this tea has a great name. Not because it reminds me of a snow day, but I just love everything about snow days. I love waking up thinking I’m going to have to go to work. Noting that the weather is a swirling billowing white mess outside, and then getting that miraculous, too-good-to-be-true news that work is closed for the day. My god. And even better if it’s a Friday!

Anyway, this tea. I had it in-store as a latte with soy milk, which was not a good way to have it. This afternoon I made it with a bit of cream and sugar, and it was alright. Creamy, powdery peppermint with a hint of chocolate. Honestly, I far prefered white chocolate frost from two years ago. Will not be restocking, I don’t think. Or at least not much. I do want to find one that was like white chocolate frost. Maybe I’ll try 52 tea’s white grasshopper whatever tea. Hmmm.

In other news, I met up with kitenna today for a brief tea exchange/to get my part of the 52 teas order! It was so good to see her!

Nearly finished this now, and while it’s been fine, it’s not nearly strong or flavourful enough to warrant a reorder. I can definitely taste hints of all the suggested notes, but would be so much happier if they’d been amplified to about twice their strength, as I typically expect that from my unflavoured blacks. That said, it was certainly worth it, and I’m saving the last little bit for indigobloom for when I next see her, which will hopefully be sooner than later!

Also, I have a most unsightly cold sore and kind of hate being out in public (at work) with it right now. What a dumb problem.

Taken to work today in my curve mug. I used two tsp of leaf for about 12 oz of water, and people aren’t kidding when they say this is a heavy tea. I will absolutely be getting more, but it’s just something to keep in mind.

I let it steep for ten minutes, and am terrified to learn of the state of my gravity steeper when i get home. I knew I was in for it when I tipped the steeper over the garbage can to find that the banana sludge just wouldn’t budge. Not having time to sort it out, I tossed it in the sink, filled it with hot water, and left for work.

But this tea is spot on. There is lots of sweet, baked banana up front with the slight dryness of walnuts, and it miraculously does not need additions. That said, i bet it would be a killer latte, or just taste even more baked goody with some milk. I’ll be getting more of this next time i’m at Dt! I’ve been having a hard time with tea in general lately, so it’s really exciting to find a blend I really like.

Based on the intense marzipan smell of this, it instantly became the tea in the winter collection I was most excited about. Along with the deep, very sweet marzipan smell of the dry leaf, you do get a hint of that smell you first notice upon entering a place like an outdoor sporting goods store or Canadian Tire. I swear, just sniff it and think of those things-I can’t see how you wouldn’t smell it! haha. But it wasn’t evena little off-putting.

I brewed it for three minutes, and the scent wafting up from the cup was still quite marzipan-esque, although there was an underlying “grassiness” that put my nose on alert. I don’t actually dislike green tea, but if it’s too vegital, I find it kind of distracting. Anyway, I didn’t get enough of the marzipan flavouring, and I kind of wanted to be knocked about by it. I did get an underlying vegital kick from the green tea, which seemed a bit odd, and so I added in a bit of rock sugar hoping that would help. But that just ended up overwhelming everything and I dumped the cup because ain’t nobody got time for bad tea. Maybe a shorter steeping time? i don’t know. It’s just that the taste does not reflect the smell, and that’s just so disappointing.

My husband is feeling sick today, and asked me to make him a cup of tea. He wanted something with a lot of cinnamon, so I brewed him up some h and s hot cinnamon spice, and he loved it.

For myself, I chose this one. The dry leaf in-store kind of smells the way I imagine a rich person’s living room at Christmas to smell. Spicy, sweet, and of high class. When I opened up the bag I brought home though, there was more of a candied, bubble-gum type of sweetness that made me do a bit of a double-take. I brewed it up for about six minutes, and found the taste to be heavily spice-dominat, still with the sweet orange taste. The orange in this tea kind of reminds me of the orange smell/flavour in a mid summer night’s dream, so that was kind of distracting, because it felt a bit at odds with the rest of the taste. Also, it felt as though there was a bit too much ginger and cloves, and I think a bit of sugar might have calmed that down some, although by the time I realized that, I was mostly done the cup. Maybe next time. The oolong base, which I was actually curious about and looking forward to, was virtually undetectable, which is too bad. This might as well have been an herbal. All in all, it was alright, although I’m not thinking i’ll need to get more at this point.

This was the other sample I tried at dT today, and compared with hot chocolate (the other sample), it was amazing. I was surprised that there wasn’t any added sugar, although the sweetness from the dates was really noticeable. I got more banana than nut, but there was definitely a bit of a nutty taste or feeling that prevented the tea from being too sweet or one-dimensional. It was actually really, really good, in my opinion. Got some more to bring home and am especially glad that you can steep this for pretty much as long as you’d like.

Ok, so this was one of the samples I was offered as soon as I entered dT today. And I have to say: very underwhelming. I could taste the chocolate, and a bit of the earthiness of the puer, and that’s about it. I couldn’t really detect the black base, although I did get the impression that the whole thing would be next-level awesome with a bit of milk and sugar (because you seriously cannot have watery hot chocolate, you just can’t. I think it’s illegal, even). So I did pick up some to try out at home, but I wasn’t overly sold. I also just think that when it comes to hot chocolate, I’d always just prefer the real thing anyway. it’s like all the milk substitutes that, for me at least, don’t measure up taste-wise.

That said, dT was just such a happy place today. I’ll always like going there.

Wow, DT was positively hopping with people today. I hadn’t even cleared the door before I was offered samples of two teas, which of course I accepted. I’ll talk about those two in a bit, though.

Some people might remember that I loved white chocolate frost so much, although they probably don’t remember that at all because to my chagrin, everyone’s world doesn’t revolve around me LOL. But I loved it a lot, and was kind of excited when dT said they were bringing in a similar blend htis year. I’m happy to report that there’s nothing glaringly abnormal about it, i.e. they didn’t decide to add in a hint of carrot or something equally disruptive. I was disappointed, however, to learn that they used milk chocolate instead of white chocolate, because I think the mint-chocolate pearing, while delicious, is a bit overdone. But it still smelled divine and so I got it as a latte to go.

even as a latte, the first thing you will notice upfront is the creamy peppermint. The chocolate isn’t all that apparent, which is actually fine by me. There were hints of it to finish off the sip, but the dominant flavour was that of peppermint cream. And, this may have been due to the fact that I had it as a latte, but the very tail-end of the sip had a tiny, tiny hint of “oversteeped peppermint tea” which like I said, I mostly attributed to it potentially being oversteeped. But it serves as a warning for future steeps: don’t let this sit endlessly. Also, I had it with soy milk, which is kind of nutty and probably wasn’t the best choice of milk, but I have a lactose issue and they don’t have lactose-free milk in-store. I got about 15 more g of this (along with a bunch of the other ones) to play with some more. I think I’ll really end up liking it, but we’ll see.

And holy mother of god, they have a white curve travel mug. I went weak in the knees. It’s so perfect, and I think I’ll be fantasizing about it for a long, long time. Or until I get it. But for the life of me I do not need another travel mug.

I attended the wedding of a very dear friend last night, and she served about 30 tyeps of Davids tea there, which was such an awesome touch.

Given that I’d never tried this, I thought I’d give it a go. Aside from how long I let it steep, and even that was an approximation at best, I didn’t have much control over the brewing parameters, so there’s that. I added a bit of milk to it, as I thought that any tea of this kind would do well with some milk. And the taste was true to that of a peanut butter cup, but there was a hint of “freshness” that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, which didn’t make it bad so much as it made it interesting (I imagine that’s the apple). Anyway, I think it’s incredibly clever of dt to make this blend without any peanuts, and it tasted fine, although I’m not sad I didn’t get any for myself. The only way I enjoy the taste of peanut butter is on toast or in an o-Henry bar.

Oh hungry? Oh Henry!!

Just here to confirm that I think this tea is quite delicious, and distinct enough from other blacks that it deserves recognition. Had it with my croissant this morning and it was a lovely pairing. I kind of like not having too too many teas in my cupboard at once—it really forces me to drink down what I do have, and to enjoy it while it’s still fresh. I have some more tea on the way through a friend who’s visiting her boyfriend in the states, and I think I’ll be done at least some of my stash by then.

That said, I am fantasizing so, so deeply about when next I’ll be able to enjoy WP’s TGY. This afternoon, maybe? and also all day Sunday?

Yaaah it’s Friday!