95
drank Vanilla Orchid by DAVIDsTEA
6107 tasting notes

Preliminary thoughts on the new Steepster design – awesome! I haven’t had much time to explore it yet, but it looks like a lot of suggestions have been implemented, and it looks pretty slick too. I’m sure there will be bugs/issues, but I like what I see so far!

Anyhow, onto the tea. Sipdown! Finished this off at the boy’s house while watching the Lord of the Rings for the first time. We only made it through one 4-hr extended version movie, so it looks like the next couple weekends may be similar – which is good for my tea consumption :) Getting back to the actual tea, this is one that always smelled better than it tasted, to me. The aroma is divine, all vanilla-oolong sweetness, but the flavour is just lacking. I’ve had better-flavoured straight oolongs. That said, it’s still a tasty enough cup, especially the first infusion. Won’t be picking it up again (if it’s still available), but glad to have tried it.

Flavors: Vanilla

Preparation
1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
TeaLady441

Yay – Lord of the Rings! Those extended versions are so long and epic, but I love them…

Kittenna

It was long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s kind of nice having seen The Hobbit (well, 2 parts of it anyways) beforehand, because I can relate a few things back to it. I really, really need to actually read the books I bought like, 15-20 years ago…

TeaLady441

Hahah. The books are quite excellent and the Hobbit is a nice easy read (which is why the whole WE NEED THREE MOVIES!!! thing doesn’t make sense to me. :P) but I remember skimming a lot of the Lord of the Rings. Ha. Tolkien didn’t skimp out on descriptions. At all.

I still recommend reading them though! The books are great!

OMGsrsly

Goodness yes. The descriptions. I don’t regret reading the books, but they were soooo long! :)

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Comments

TeaLady441

Yay – Lord of the Rings! Those extended versions are so long and epic, but I love them…

Kittenna

It was long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s kind of nice having seen The Hobbit (well, 2 parts of it anyways) beforehand, because I can relate a few things back to it. I really, really need to actually read the books I bought like, 15-20 years ago…

TeaLady441

Hahah. The books are quite excellent and the Hobbit is a nice easy read (which is why the whole WE NEED THREE MOVIES!!! thing doesn’t make sense to me. :P) but I remember skimming a lot of the Lord of the Rings. Ha. Tolkien didn’t skimp out on descriptions. At all.

I still recommend reading them though! The books are great!

OMGsrsly

Goodness yes. The descriptions. I don’t regret reading the books, but they were soooo long! :)

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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