TwinCitySteeper Send Message

Day 8 of the 2016 advent calendar, and my first time actually having this tea hot. I’ve been meaning to review this tea because I actually love to have it iced for morning classes sometimes, since the ginger helps my vertigo. The tea does have a very strong pear smell to it, with a warm note of ginger in the back. I love the smell of this tea, I wish there was a candle of it.

Steeped, the tea has a light yellow-green colour and maintains its strong pear smell. Like its smell, the taste is also predominantly pear to me, with ginger on the back of my tongue. Ginger Pear is a very apt description of this tea.

Overall, this tea is delicious hot or iced, and I’m very happy that David’s seems to be keeping it around as a staple.

Another tea from the boyfriend from 2014! I remember getting an extra 50g of this because it was seasonal and I was upset because some of my favourites in the summer collection that year were gone forever. Desperation with limited edition teas really does get the better of me. Regardless, this tea does smell kind of like a snickerdoodle. There’s some other scent behind it all that’s a bit strange, I might attribute that to the monk fruit. I also seemed to have forgotten just how dusty this tea is.

Steeped, the tea is quite cloudy which I assume is from all the dusty bits. The tea… sort of still smells like a snickerdoodle. There’s that strange note in the background again, maybe that’s what they were using for the cookie base? Anyways, this tea is already very sweet and does NOT need any added sweetener. With milk, this is pretty tasty and comforting. It’s not the best kind of hot dessert tea, but I am enjoying it.

Overall, it’s not a bad tea. I might play around with it since I have so much of it lying around.

In my effort to organize by tea cupboard a little, I’ve been clearing out my old teas, and this one my boyfriend got for me on my birthday back in 2014, so it’s bittersweet finishing this off. I never remembered liking having this as tea of the day in the summer though, I always found they made it really weak and the agave managed to always concentrate itself at the bottom no matter how much I stirred.

This tea smells strongly of the rosehips and hibiscus in it, I’m not really getting the pomegranate sadly. The tea turns a nice reddish color which I will probably attribute to the hibiscus. It also tastes quite refreshing, it’s got just enough sweetness with some tart from the pomegranate/hibiscus to balance it out. The floral notes in the background are very nice too.

Overall, I’m sad I can’t get this tea anymore because I’m really enjoying this over ice. Perhaps David’s will bring back another pomegranate tea this coming summer, though.

Day 7 of the 2016 advent calendar! I actually still have some of my Bubbie’s Baklava left, so I compared the smell between these two and they are basically identical as far as I can tell. It has a nice, warm kind of spiced fruit smell to it.

Steeped, the tea definitely smells a lot more well, ‘nutty’. The taste lives up the name pretty appropriately too, it’s very nutty with holiday spices highlighting it. With milk and sugar this actually might be my favourite of the winter collection this year (not the holiday collection though). I think this would be very good to have on a cold afternoon.

Overall, I enjoy this tea a whole lot and if it goes on sale after the holidays I will be sure to pick up some of this.

This was admittedly quite the impulse buy, I tried it in-store today and the sample was… quite watery but the pre-packed tin had such a nice design that I thought “Why not?”. I’m glad that I did pick it up because apparently that put me over the $35 mark and I got a free collectible ornament, so that was a nice surprise.

This tea definitely smells just like a candy cane, the smell is so strong that I don’t get even small notes from the other ingredients in it. When steeped, it turns a surprisingly murky reddish color, which I think is from the white chocolate chips and candy cane pieces. Even straight, this tea is pretty good, it’s very smooth and minty. It gets even better with a touch of milk and sugar though, in my opinion it’s the best seasonal tea that David’s has for winter, based on the current collection.

Overall, I think this is going to be a holiday staple for me and I pray that they bring it back in the coming years as well, because I already can’t get enough of this.

Day 6 of the 2016 advent calendar! Supposedly this tea is supposed to be a remake of fall 2014’s Sweet Apple Cider? Regardless this tea smells quite good, although it’s more of a creamy candy kind of smell rather than what I might expect from an apple cider.

Steeped, the smell is definitely more in-line with apple cider with vanilla, although the apple flavor is a bit… artificial? Like an apple flavored candy. Without sweetener, it’s actually kind of tart which is a pleasant surprise, because I was expecting something more sweet and sugary. With sugar though it tastes a lot like an apple candy, which isn’t something I’m opposed to, just not something I expected.

Overall, I think this tea is alright. Not really feeling the artificial kind of apple vibe I get from it, but I’m sure it would make a good iced tea. Perhaps if it goes on sale I’ll pick up a small bag to play around with.

Day 5 of the 2016 advent calendar, plus a coupon that I’ll have to use! I actually ordered a skinny tin of this a few weeks ago but I just haven’t gotten around to trying it. I have to wonder how many people figured that this meant to be a coffee flavored tea based on the name, but I digress. This tea smells suspiciously similar to birthday cake, in fact I have some of it on-hand and comparing the smells, they are very similar. It’s a good smell though, it reminds me of well, a cake.

The color of this tea steeped is surprisingly light for what I expected, and the smell is more heavy on the black tea base. The taste is similar to David’s Birthday Cake tea, honestly. It tastes a bit fruitier, but of the ‘cake’ teas that I’ve tried from David’s, this is probably my least favourite as it just doesn’t have enough body for me.

This tea is good in it’s own right though, I don’t think it’s quite as bad as some make it out to be, although I won’t deny that there are better alternatives out there. I’ll be sure to finish my skinny tin of this at least.

Day 3 of the 2016 advent calendar! The first time I ever had this tea was on bad terms. I had it from the 2014 advent calendar and it was after I totally bombed a final so… I was not the most happy tea drinker that day. Today I’m doing a lot better though so I should enjoy this cup.

The smell is very grassy, I’m not really getting too much of the toastiness from the rice, but I’m hoping that will change when its steeped. Even when it’s steeping though, the toasty smell is way stronger, so I’m excited to sit down and relax and sit this while I study some.

Tastewise this tea is quite interesting. The green tea base is more mellow than I imagined, not that I’m complaining. I think it pairs well with the toasted rice flavor. Reading up on the history of this tea it’s quite interesting, how the Japanese working class beefed up their tea like this. Pretty clever, in my opinion.

Overall, I think this tea is a pretty nice take on the standard green tea. The next time I need to stock up on some plainer green teas I’ll keep an eye out for this one.

Day 2 of the 2016 advent calendar! I’ve been busy all day so I’m being smart about things by having this coffee mate, at… 8 PM. Oh well, I’ve still got loads of things I need to get done so I’ll still get to sleep fine (I hope). The tea itself smells very interesting… it’s very woody with some coffee in there. I recall having this once before in 2014 I think but I don’t actually remember anything about this tea.

Admittedly it is better than I was expecting. It’s actually pretty smooth and the chicory coffee taste is nice. It’s one of the most unique coffee teas that I’ve ever tasted, really. I like this as its own thing, so I think it’s unfair for me to compare it to other teas in its category. I’m not sure if I’ll get any of this in-store, but I’m enjoying this cup.

The last remaining tin of my 2014 advent calendar. I didn’t try this initially because my boyfriend complained about the licorice root, and it was exam season so I decided to pass on it really. But, now that the 2016 calendar has started I figured I may as well bite the bullet and finish this one off.

I don’t mind the concept of a vanilla chai, I think that vanilla is a flavor that can work really well in a chai. The dry leaf of this tea smells a lot like ginger with notes of vanilla and cinnamon, not a bad start at least. But, it seems like things have quickly gone a bit downhill because as I’m typing this I can smell the licorice root already. Not a good sign.

When steeped, the tea does turn a nice amber-brown color, typical of my favorite chais. However, the smell of licorice root is still very prominent. At least I won’t need to add any sweetener, clearly. My first sip of this without any sweetener or milk, is… as you might expect, licorice root. My boyfriend tried to warn me but here I am two years later falling to my hubris. Not even adding milk and sugar helps bring out the chai or vanilla flavor enough for me to even get through this cup.

Overall, I’m not surprised that this tea didn’t come back, but I do hope to try other vanilla chais because I really like the idea behind it.