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“Backlog Between this and the Wild Black Yunnan, this sealed it for me that I wasn’t a fan of David’s actual teas (as in, pure teas, whether bought to be enjoyed as such or as the base for flavored...” Read full tasting note
“This was the last tea, in my black tea a day experiment last week. I did take this to work on Friday, and Saturday, and today. I still don’t know what to say about it. It’s really finicky with...” Read full tasting note
“I finally decided to try this after receiving it as a sample with one of my DT orders and reading not so great reviews about it. I steeped it according to directions, 1 teaspoon in 8 ounces of...” Read full tasting note
“I used 1.25 tablespoons of dry leaf for 375ml of water. Far too bitter. This tea likely has to infuse for a shorter amount of time and could maybe use less leaf. Withholding my rating for now.” Read full tasting note
A perfect assam
From the little Banaspaty estate in the Karbi Anglong district of India, this impressive Assam has a naturally sweet and malty body, a full red colour and a complexity that can handle a nice splash of milk. Perfect for breakfast or afternoon tea. (MK Kosher)
Ingredients: Fine black tea from the Banaspaty Estate in Assam, India.
Price: $8.50 per 50g
DavidsTea is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country, with its first store having opened in 2008.
Backlog
Between this and the Wild Black Yunnan, this sealed it for me that I wasn’t a fan of David’s actual teas (as in, pure teas, whether bought to be enjoyed as such or as the base for flavored blends). I already knew I liked a good assam; that was a type I’d been drinking since adolescence. So this was the clue maybe David’s wasn’t the best spot for me to do my “try to get more into good specimens of pure tea flavor”.
This was the last tea, in my black tea a day experiment last week. I did take this to work on Friday, and Saturday, and today.
I still don’t know what to say about it. It’s really finicky with steep times, but no matter what I did, it just reminds me of coffee – coffee that had been sitting around for 5 hours that’s been watered down til it barely tastes like coffee. Weak, bitter, stale coffee.
No I don’t like it, I tried but nope can’t do it.
I didn’t find anything special about any of these teas, but the Yunnan won the challenge. Sorry Davids, I’m going back to the good stuff.
I finally decided to try this after receiving it as a sample with one of my DT orders and reading not so great reviews about it.
I steeped it according to directions, 1 teaspoon in 8 ounces of boiling water over 4 minutes.
I don’t really know what to say because this is first time I’m drinking straight Assam, knowing that it’s Assam. I don’t really know what Assam should taste like. This one tastes ok I guess, but doesn’t blow my socks off. There is a little sweetness to it, as well as some malt and floral notes that I like. There is also astringency typical to tea and I like that as well. What I’m not crazy about is the strong aftertaste and the dry mouth feel it leaves me with every sip.
I’m going to defer my rating for now because I think I’m not qualified to talk about quality of this Assam. Not until I have more experience. I can say though that a good Assam is probably something I would really enjoy so I can’t wait to finish this sample and branch out… see what else is out there. :)
Sipping on this one as I organize my notes for school.
Smells great dry, just like the other blacks today. Let’s see what’s hiding in the taste. This one is pretty good. I think between this and Nepal Black is most reminding me of English Breakfast. I’ll have to do some more experimenting. For now I’ll just sit back and enjoy this cuppa.
1.25 tsp for 250mL water @ 98C. Steeped 5 minutes. Drunk bare.
Sipdown.
A very acceptable Assam. Tippy leaves. A leathery note if steeped too long. Some distant rose and bread notes. Not as malty as some. A sweet finish, something cheaper Assams lack. (I avoid Twinings Assam for that reason.) Liquor is reddish brown and a bit murky. No real depth or complexity, though. I won’t be buying this one again, not when I can have Kopili or Gingia instead.
The tea brews to the colour of a lighter cherry wood and smells of malt, cocoa, and a citrusy fruity note.
A lightly bitter malt dominates the taste, along with notes of cocoa, something vegetal and a powdery floral. The tea is smooth with no astringeny. This batch had very little natural sweetness and tasted a little thin compared to some assams I have had. The leaves were pretty broken, perhaps this batch is slightly old.
This is my first Assam tea. I was expecting my first sip to be very strong and flavourful, but I find that it’s mostly strong in the aftertaste and very astringent. It’s good, but I think I prefer other kinds of strong black teas.
Tough to get it to brew strongly enough. That’s my short review of this one. I expected robust, malty, and typically Assam, but this tea fell a bit short on the robust side of things. The leaves are not as large as some other “full leaf” assams I have tried, so it surprised me a bit that this one did not brew up as richly as I expected from an assam variety. That said, it has a smooth maltiness to it and is better than David’s Tea’s English Breakfast, which I found to be quite weak. Maybe this is indicative of many of the mega-chain tea stores that have popped up — I thought the same thing with the Teavana brand English Breakfast. For me, I would have liked a darker, richer brew… and I guess for the money I spent on this loose leaf tea, I would rather buy a couple of boxes of bagged Punjana or Barry’s Irish Tea.
I made this mistake too. Was trying to learn the differences between the different type of blacks, bought a few from Davids. Then I found real black tea. You might get some Yunnan in the next swap package.
I totally remember that (I think that might’ve even been when I started following you, ‘cause it was so neat to read about)! I remember thinking, that is a really great idea, what you were doing, trying to find an affordable middle point type vendor and sampling all the basic black teas from them to get a frame of reference, but was a little worried it’d be misleading because by then I’d tried these and didn’t like them at all even though some of the tea types I knew I liked in general (the assam, lapsang). It was a cool project.
(and that sounds exciting! you are the most thoughtful swapmate imaginable :)
sooooo many other companies that do tea better than David’s ESP in the straight tea category!
yeah, agreed.