Fantasy Island

I had such great luck with this tea today! Sometimes, I find that, if I don’t watch this tea, it tends to get a little astringent on me. Today, I got my water to the right temp, tossed in a little sugar, steeped it for just a few minutes, and voila! All the raspberry, coconutty goodness smell of these leaves promises. It was sweet, and had the bright, tart notes of the raspberry balanced by the the smooth earthiness of the coconut. I think the flavour this tea delivers when I make it right it truly worth how fiddly it can be to brew.

I’ve kinda chosen to make this my spring black this year because 1) Pom Power isn’t really better with milk, and I love my morning latte 2) Most of Davids spring collection seems to be geared towards icing. But I really like this one! It goes with the coconut heavy-ness of the collection. SO I am enjoying a cup of it this morning and will probably get a tin soon :)

TEAGASM..
Speechless..

sexy,sweet,dark,fruity,sensual and even a little dusky it tastes so expensive like good cashmere or gold flaked vodka.

I remember to only put in a shallow tea spoon and steeped the shortest recommended time..it is perfect!This tea can get really bitter if even the slightest change happens in your preparation routine.

rule of thumb (I’M SOOOO TIRED OF REPEATING THIS)with DT’s Black teas with the exception of Buttered Rum and a Glitter and Gold…ALWAYS put in half the recommended amount and steep for the shortest time recommended.THEN experiment but don’t base the rating on this tea for your first bitter taste GET IN YOUR CUPBOARD AND DO IT RIGHT…and I promise you it will be the fantasy and escape it was meant to be.

Verdict (very biased)

Reminds me of : silk and lace,a perfectly velvety starless night,slow kisses after eating coconut cake and abandoned beaches where we go skinny-dipping.

Perfect for : Sophisticated gatherings,porcelain tea cups,Icing,when you are in lingerie after a tryst, comfy beds with canopies and pretty much in any castle.It is THAT fancy! Ideal for people who are aristocratic and people who like to get spoiled,gold-diggers and women of means..(you know it’s a good tea when you get full of crazy notions)Also perfect for writers looking for inspiration…a muse if you will.

Last thoughts: It is perfect when you make it perfectly and I so do love it but it is a bit of a pain in the ass.You never know when the bitterness will appear and so it’s a bit of a crap shoot..when made right and the stars are aligned this is one of DT’s BEST teas but when it’s not it tastes like expensive mud.I would love to give this a 100 but I can’t justify it since making it is so finnicky that it is more usual for me to pick something else then my 100 grams of it.I’ll go as high as ethically possible.

I used up the rest of this sample today — yay for making room in the (overflowing) tea cabinet (that I keep adding to, despite my best attempts at whittling it down some). This isn’t a bad tea … just forgettable. Reading the reviews, I was expecting something sweeter and fruiter and I taste something bland. Not bad, but not restocking.

I have had this tea on my shopping list for quite some time now. Coconut and raspberry are two of my favorite flavors, but I was skeptical for how they would do combined. Nevertheless, MissB generously contributed some of this tea in our tea swap so I finally received the chance to give it a go.

Oh my goodness, this tea is amazing!!! Seriously, I am totally in love. Creamy, lush coconut combined with tangy, sweet raspberries, and a smooth black base makes for an absolutely sensational sipping experience. I can’t believe I waited this long to try this!! Yum!

This tea smells good enough to eat and for once the flavour isn’t a letdown in comparison. It really is decadent and dessert-like making me think of raspberry truffles or something similar – despite there being none in the ingredient list I’m getting a distinctly chocolatey flavour from the tea. The raspberry is sweet and fruity almost more like a raspberry syrup than just the straight berries and the coconut gives the tea a great exotic vibe. Raspberry and coconut aren’t flavours I’d automatically see as going together, but man do they work well in this case.

Well today I made a quick trip to DavidsTea (even though I told myself I had to study and couldn’t go until I was finished writing exams). They didn’t have a lot of what I was looking for today but they had me smell Fantasy Island, which I could’ve swore I already had in my cupboard. Regardless I picked up a small package of it. Of course I just went to brew some up – low and behold, there is another package in my cupboard!

It’s just steeping away now. Hmm, halfway through this mug I’m not completely sold. It smells so great dry and pretty good steeped but…the taste doesn’t match the smell. Every time I take a sip the smell hits my nose first and I feel like I’m on a tropical island, but once it hits my mouth – not so much. It seems a little lacking in flavour. I will have to try some cold before I give this one a rating.

Update: Yesterday I tried Fantasy Island and wasn’t over the moon about it. I’m just boiling the kettle now, and I’ll steep it a little longer (I tried 4 minutes yesterday) to try it as an iced tea. I’ll put an update once it’s nice and cold!

Update: Well I much prefer it as a cold/iced tea. Still more to the smell than the taste but a definite improvement over yesterday’s hot version!

Made a big jug of this iced and am very much enjoying it! Well, I should say I’m drinking it lukewarm because I keep getting out cups of it and forgetting about it >.<

It is still delicious, but it’s not the end-all, be-all tea I used to think it was. It was a fantastic add to our collection, but when our supply is gone, I can’t say that I’ll be completely heartbroken like I thought I would be. I might just put this one away until winter….I seem to appreciate it more then.

On smell, I would easily give it a 90, but on taste I can’t. It could be because I don’t really care for black tea or I did something wrong, but I found the overwhelming taste to be bitter. I didn’t really taste the coconut or the raspberry. Will have to try again to give a fair assessment, but after first try, I really do not care for this tea…

I’m so glad I bought this one, It’s definitely a new favourite. This makes me feel like I’m on a beach, right smack dab in the middle of winter. It’s a warm black tea laced with coconut and accented with raspberries (though it’s not at all tart, but more floral). I can see this being really good in the summer chilled. Fabulous tea to try if you’ve never had a davids before.