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Advent calendar [10/24]

I had purchased this tea long before the advent calendar, so I don’t feel the need to review it again. I find it to be a nicely flavoured plain black tea. This is something that DAVIDs seems to have issues with. Perhaps there’s no market for plain blacks when the main customer base prefers funky teas.

Advent calendar [9/24]

Time to play catch up on my tea log. I’ve been away in my own little world because we’re being reviewed sometime before the end of the year by the higher-ups. It’s a great way to end the year, really.

I’d had the worst sleep ever and woke up to finding this as my advent calendar tea. sigh so I saved it for the end of the day when I could get home and relax with a cup. I’m pretty sure I resteeped some Glitter and Gold instead of taking this in my travel mug.

I really like the scent of the leaf. It’s got great hints of spice, warmth, and Christmas. Too bad it’s 14 C outside.

I took 52Teas suggestion and steeped this around 85 C. It was perfect! I found that even at 7 minutes, the tea was not overleafed. I actually put the strainer basket back in the pot when I found that it needed some more bold spice flavour. I liked the flavour of the cinnamon and the sweetness that lingered right after it.

This tea is not something that I would pick up on my own, but it was a great end-of-night relaxing kind of tea.

Advent calendar [8/24]

I moved back into my parents’ house in 2011 and promptly began my addiction to tea. This tea was one of my first purchases during that time period. When I found that today’s tea was Cherry Blossom, I had the most fantastic flashbacks to drinking this tea while at my first job in my field. This tea was one of my favourites from that time period. I can still picture drinking this out of my Bodum travel mug with the pumping lever.

I was so excited to drink this one that I probably steeped it for 30 seconds too long. I dumped out the pot and re-steeped it. While the original infusion would have been better, the second infusion was incredible.

Taste-wise, it’s got lovely hints of grass and sweet cherries with a smooth aftertaste. I really liked holding this one in my mouth in small sips. This tea was best as it breathed and cooled down to 40-50 degrees.

I think this is a tea I’ll have to pick up. I definitely need more of this one.

Advent calendar [7/24]

I purposely saved this tea until the end of the day so I could savour it in small cups instead of my travel mug.

Love the scent that comes out of the dry leaves. It’s very sharp and strongly herbal. There are complete cardamom pods in this mix as well.

I found that the longer I steeped this tea, the stronger the cardamom taste shone. I may have overleafed it by a few seconds, because this tea was spicy when I pulled the basket out.

I would love this tea as a cold remedy despite the fact that I likely won’t be purchasing this one. I am going to savour the sample while it lasts.

Advent calendar [5/24]

I don’t seem to be able to do my teas in order, so here goes my backlog.

This tea happened on the Saturday when I had a first aid course all day. I’m not sure it was a great choice for me to start with. In fact, this day would have been better off with a mate, like a jumpy monkey type.

The first time I steeped it, I did it for 5 minutes in a t-bag with boiling water. It was weak and I had to re-steep it for a bit. When I drank it, it tasted like weak syrupy banana flavoured water.

I wasn’t ready to give up because so many people on here have raved about this tea as a latte. I unfortunately used too much milk in my infusion and wasn’t terribly impressed with myself. This was entirely my fault.

I ran out of my sample and I likely won’t try again. It’s too bad because the loose leaf smelled decadent and tasted wonderful by itself.

Advent calendar [6/24]

I’ve had a less-than-perfect weekend.

Yesterday was taken up by a first aid training course, and today had me visiting friends for several hours in the afternoon. Is it really Sunday night? What happened to my time to relax? I had time to come home this evening and do laundry, clean a little, and that’s pretty much it.

One glimmer (heh) this morning was a cup of this lovely brew. My boyfriend agreed that this would also taste like flat coke if milk and sugar were added. It must be a thing with cinnamon black teas. This tea didn’t need either of those; it’s very sweet on its own.

Advent calendar [3/24]

This tea reminded me of fresher version of Tetley’s orange pekoe, or anything you’d get at a restaurant or while traveling. It was certainly less astringent and seemed to have less tannin than most other teas of the tea-bag style variety.

All in all, it was a good brew. There’s nothing offensive or overpowering about this one. If I was just getting into loose leaf teas, I’d probably think I’d struck gold. It’s like a better version of the cheap stuff.

Would I buy this tea again? Maybe. It seems like such a middle of the road tea that I don’t know if I’d ever strongly desire it.

Also, is anyone noticing that David’s seems to suggest really long steep times and high temperatures? I used to follow their times and temperatures exactly, but now I think I have better results by steeping for less time at a lower temperature all across the board.

Advent calendar [4/24]

Alright, I was a little scared that this one was going to taste like the Amaretto tea that David’s had several years ago.

Don’t get me wrong— I like almond flavoured things. I like almond flavoured things that have a balance of flavours, and don’t taste sickeningly like strong alcohol. I think David’s got this blend pretty well right when they paired it off with walnut.

I remember standing in the kitchen this morning after I’d brewed this tea for just over a minute. I poured a little into a pyrex bowl that I reserve for “tea-checking” and making sure I don’t pour an oversteeped or understeeped batch into my travel mug for work. It was so smooth and almost creamy somehow. I was surprised that it was nothing like Amaretto.

I drank all of it before even getting halfway through my commute. Then I got to work and actually felt sad that I’d left the rest of the sample at home. I really wanted to have more than the small cup I’d made.

Now I’m drinking some gyokuro genmaicha to pass the time, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t have the smooth creaminess that this tea had.

Forgot to add: Very happy that this tea has such simple ingredients. Green tea, almonds, marigold flowers, cornflower petals. With natural almond flavouring*

Advent calendar [2/24]

When I was in college six years ago, I bought a tea called white mangosteen by Lipton. I got tired of it really quickly. When I saw that today’s tea is a mango flavoured tea, I had flashbacks of drinking that tea in college.

The first sip was lovely. I poured myself a tablespoon to test for steeped doneness. Sadly, the flavour didn’t transpire in my travel mug (does it ever?). I got to work and poured it into a mug. The tea was a little better.

On a side note: I really wish David’s would stop again with the stevia. The taste of the sweetener is quite strong in this one.

Overall an okay tea, but I wouldn’t ask for more. I’m going to finish the sample and move on.

Happy first day of twenty four days of tea, everyone!

I got a colour changing mug for our anniversary on Friday, and I had to hold off on using it until I could christen it with the joy that is the advent calendar. The best part of today is that it’s my obligatory day off due to training on Saturday. I spent the day cleaning, blogging, baking, drinking tea, and listening to acoustic versions of 80s and 90s songs on Spotify.

I was so excited about my mug that I had to take a video. Sadly, my preparation of the tea was less enthralling than the mug itself. The tea tasted weak and tart with no lingering sweetness. When I found a small amount of it on the mug’s coaster an hour or two later and took a sip, I was in heaven. It had the right balance of tartness, sweetness, and cinnamon.

I finished the last of the sample a few minutes ago, using the last two teaspoons for a cup. It was much more pleasant this way.

Would I buy it again? Possibly. The boyfriend seems to really like it. I want to see how it compares to mulled wine.