17562 Tasting Notes
I was having some rather unpleasant cramping over the weekend so I made myself a large mug of this tea at one point, and I think it helped a fair bit with the discomfort. As far as taste goes, it was mellow and herbal leaning but with a soft bit of fruitiness. Raspberry, yes, but mostly a nice fresh apple flavour. Perfectly smooth and comforting.
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.
Tea Pop!
Sometimes I find this tea a little too tart and hibiscus forward, but recently I had it as a tea pop with mango flavoured Bubly as the sparkling water component, and I thought the tropical mango flavour and gentle sweetness really did a lot to offset some of that tartness while still really complimenting the juicy, bright berry notes and subtle creamy finish.
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!
The liquor of this tea is surprisingly thick and round feeling, with a smooth and mouth-coating creaminess. The taste is a bit creamy, too, though more nutty than anything else. The first few steeps really reminded me of crepe batter mixed with lightly toasted chestnuts. Like a lighter and more airy version of the rich and decadent buckwheat crepes stuffed with whipped chestnut cream that you can get at the market here in Montreal. The rest of the session had notes of vanilla, almond milk, and golden raisins peppered in throughout, with a fairly consistent undertone of brown sugar. For sure on the sweeter and less crisp/vegetal or floral side for a white tea, but not in a bad way at all. I’m always so impressed whenever I revisit any of these Hawaiian teas from Treehouse!!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DI9pCEqSPaG/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEEPPob8lFc&ab_channel=OfficeDog
Grandpa Style!
I’ve sort of unintentionally been on a bit of a white tea streak lately. It’s probably because it’s getting greener and greener outside each day, and the more fresh and crisp notes of the different white teas I’ve been tasting through have really echoed that. This one starts especially soft and milky, even brewed up grandpa-style like I’m enjoying it today. However overtime that flavour becomes a lot more fruity and sweet. Though I tasted a wide range of fruity flavours whilst drinking this tea today, it was a ripe and almost jammy blueberry note that stood out the most to me. It was practically blanketed between delicate sweet cream top notes and a wonderfully floral finish of lilac and violets.
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJAUzdmSiZI/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2qy-10GkHM&ab_channel=JuiceWebster
Gongfu!
Such a smooth liquor, with a creamier and more full-bodied mouthfeel for white tea. As you would expect from the name, this tea delivers on the honey notes. A perfect mix of rich golden honey with a more light and airy creamed honey note, and just a bit of beeswax and honeycomb flavour in the backend of each sip. It’s also good for so many resteeps, and can be pushed really hard in steep time and temp without buckling and becoming unpleasant. Really it just gets richer and richer. This is my all-time favourite tea that Kuura has released, and though they’ve had some other white teas with similar tasting notes, I feel very lucky to have grabbed as much of this tea as I did before it sold out years ago. It’s the benchmark for which I compare all other even remotely honey-like white teas…Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJCy0utyQfW/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w27D8RHI1w4&ab_channel=AnnieDiRusso
Iced Latte!
So I saw this brand everywhere on IG leading up to the launch of their store in Vancouver. They’re sort of a matcha bar, but they also had a bunch of other powder based drinks that looked wild. Definitely a bit of a “everything but the kitchen sink” approach in terms of just blasting them full of a ton of buzzword wellness ingredients. I decided to try some of the more interesting ones since the powders were sold online too.
This one includes:
Tart Cherry
Astragalas
Ginger
Yerba Mate
Black Tea
Siberian Ginseng
Cinnamon
Vanilla Extract
Stevia Extract
…you see what I mean about the kitchen sink vibe.
Visually it’s a very unattractive brown coloured powder of a fairly fine grind – though not as fine as something like a matcha. The smell is very cinnamon forward and earthy. I whisked it up as an iced latte and it actually looked okay. A soft, creamy brown with some speckling from some of the more course powder inclusions.
The taste is better than expected, honestly. It’s very cinnamon forward but with undertones of the ginger and a bit of maltiness that I want to attribute to the black tea. With the vanilla, the mix makes me think of either cinnamon rolls or horchata. Were I not drinking this as an iced latte, I don’t know if the horchata vibes would be quite as strong as they are, but I’m certainly not mad about it. A lot of the other ingredients are very much lost in taste – like the tart cherry.
What isn’t lost, however, are both the ginseng and the stevia. Putting both of those in a blend is a choice – and probably not a good one. I understand that ginseng is probably more in here for function – a lot of these ingredient are supposed to be good for focuc/mental clarity, endurance, muscle fatigue and things of that nature. But just because it’s functional certainly does not erase the fact ginseng has a VERY STRONG sweet and licorice-like aftertaste. Add to that the distinct sweet aftertaste of stevia and you have a drink with one hell of a punch of cloying, mouth coating sweetness after each sip. Oof. Like, big oof.
So, it’s not as bad as expected and at times the creamy vanilla and cinnamon profile is pretty nice. It’s not even a terrible mouthfeel, which is so often a concern with powders like this. But damn it’s hard to ignore that aftertaste.
Cold Brew!
Absolutely adored this tea in cold brew form. Very, very smooth with a thickness both in mouthfeel (coconut fat contributed to this, I would presume) and in taste what with the creaminess of both the coconut and the vanilla. You still taste a very good amount of the brisk, full-bodied black tea which is a little malty and floral in a way that works not just with the coconut/vanilla combo but also with the fresh, aromatic bergamot. It’s citrusy but in a dense, heady sort of way that melds beautifully with the more whipped feel of the other flavours. Super delish!
Gifted to me by a coworker who purchased a box of this while travelling in Asia not too long ago. It’s a herbal blend of five different cereals/grains. I brewed it last night and really enjoyed it. Very dark and roasty with a bit of a char-like mineral note to go alongside strong, strong notes of barley and buckwheat. A bit of a corn silk finish. Not terribly nuanced, but mighty cozy and comforting.
Revisiting this Whittard instant tea, but this time brewed much more strongly to see what changing the concentration does for the flavour balance. Honestly, I liked it much less than the first cup I’d made for myself. I thought it might come off sweeter and more juicy since the lychee was so prominent when I first made this, but it actually seemed a lot more floral. However, the stronger rose flavour combined with all the sugar was both very cloying and artificial feeling to me. I definitely found this much more refreshing (but still flavourful) with less powder used to make the drink…
Had this earlier in the week! At first I was drinking it hot and enjoying the thick, smooth and smoky whisky flavour with the sweeter apple notes that came through in the finish. However, I got called into a meeting and left my tea behind. When I came back the last half of the mug was cold, so I poured it over ice and drank it that way. Just as delicious, in fact, with more smoke coming out and a little less overall sweetness. Definitely felt like it could be a great non-alcoholic drink alternative or a fun mixer for a tea based cocktail.
