162 Tasting Notes
While it was “on sale” in the web specials section of David’s I decided to buy 250g of it. Sure, it’s not my FAVOURITE tea, but it’s pretty darn good. Going through my tea stash I was trying to figure out how many of the teas I currently own would be good iced, so I’ve been trying them one by one. This one I thought would be a terrible idea, so I kept putting it off “for another time”. Well…that time has now come. Deep breath. I can taste the grossness already.
AND STEEPED.
AND ICED.
AND WOW.
I must say, I was totally wrong on this one. I thought some others that I liked hot would be really good iced, and was wrong. I thought this one that I like hot would be really terrible iced and was wrong. I think I’m about 0-for-5 in my iced tea experiments. lol. Apparently I’m not good at this.
Icing this tea really brings out the flavour of the lemon. I thought the creaminess would be gross iced, but was wrong. It actually adds to the flavour, almost like I’m drinking tea-flavoured yogurt. It’s a strange sensation, and one I would definitely impose on my mouth again. The white tea doesn’t at all taste bitter or astringent (unlike Daydreamer in my iced tea experimentation; yuck), and it doesn’t have the same cheek-pinching astringency as what a black tea would. I really like it.
Verdict: will do this experiment again until it’s “too cold” for iced tea, then back to having this hot! Yum! An all-season tea (rating increased).
I think I was most excited about this tea from the David’s summer collection, since I’m a sangria-aholic. The downside with “real” sangria is that…well, it’s an alcoholic beverage. That, and I don’t like red wine (I usually make it with white wine, peaches, pinapple, mango, apple, pear, and orange). A tea company offering up a non-alcoholic calorie-free tea that tastes like sangria that I can drink all day, every day? I’m in.
Got a cup of this iced in-store and…holy crap. This is SO GOOD. By far my favourite of their summer collection (last to try: shooting starfruit). The hot sample was…weird again. It had all the flavours of a red-wine sangria, but was hot. Sangria isn’t supposed to be hot. My mom got a cup of it hot and she said it grows on you after a while. I don’t want a tea to grow on me. I want to like it right away. And iced…oh, boy. Iced. Yum yum yum yum. I might go bankrupt on sangria (unfortunate part: it’s another heavy tea).
I can taste all of the fruity flavours all at once. Strawberry, raspberry, orange….yum. This whole tea is just yum. It even gives you that “cheek-pinch” feeling that red wine has. It’s like magic. And how good would sangria tea be in white wine?!? Yep, going bankrupt.
Verdict: will buy. A lot.
For Mother’s Day I decided I would get my mom an iced tea pitcher from David’s (one of their new ones they released as part of their “summer collection of stuff”), and 5 of the pitcher packs. I had decided on 4 of the 5, and was flip-flopping between two others for the fifth. I decided the only way to decide on #5 would be to order a cup of this iced to try, and then decide if it’s good enough for a jug.
And holy sweet jeebus. This tea steeps up to be DARK RED. Almost blood red. This made me nervous…I was expecting a giant cup of hibiscus. I actually almost would have thought they made me the wrong tea if I didn’t see the scoops go into the steeper myself. Guava is a light pink or even white! Not dark red! Oh, boy…what did I get myself into?!
The taste? Heaven. Not quite guava. I’m obsessed with guava. I probably eat 4 or 5 guavas a day when I’m in tropical countries where they actually grow. I also drink guava juice (as in, take a guava and put it in a blender with water and drink what comes out) on a regular basis. I. Love. Guava. This had the hints of the fruit, and at the point? That makes me happy. I’ve tried dried guava before and it was an abomination of fruit (yuck). This tea is…tasty. I really like it. I would definitely drink it again. We’ll have to wait and see what my mom’s opinion is. Sometimes we have the same taste in tea, other times…not so much. lol.
Verdict: would definitely buy some of this for myself!
I don’t know how I feel about this one being reintroduced as a summer tea again this year. I liked it last year, don’t get me wrong. It was good as a hot tea, and it was good as an iced tea. But…holy geez. It’s a heavy tea. I asked for 100g of it, and got a tin about 1/3 full. It could have all fit in a bag! At least I got a free tin out of the deal…
Unlike many other reintroductions, this one tastes the same as last year (same cannot be said about Mom’s Apple Pie…boo.). Fruity, a bit of a tart after-taste, and sweet. Has that same awesome radioactive-orange colour, too. I don’t know how much “mango” I actually taste in the tea, and I think I said that last time, too. I do taste both the orange and pineapple quite clearly. I guess maybe I didn’t get gigantic chunks of mango in my scoop out of the big tin.
Like someone else mentioned in their note, I’m convinced this wouldn’t be difficult to make. Most of this is available at the bulk store (except maybe orange? I’d have to think about that one…), and so I’m really, really tempted to try to make my own of this. I’ve said that about Forever Nuts, too (and I buy that one because it’s so, so good…but it’s just apples, almonds and beet root! How hard can that be to make?!). I just don’t want to be double-disappointed if I go that route. lol
Verdict: wouldn’t likely buy because it’s SO heavy, but I do like it. So down-rated because of expense.
I really want a peach tea. REALLY BADLY WANT A PEACH TEA. I love peaches. I want to drink them. But I want it to taste like peaches. Not like fuzzy peach candy.
I got SO EXCITED for this tea when it came out. Went trotting into the store when it was a sample, and ordered a big cup of it iced. And…letdown. It was OK. Definitely peach candy. But also very, very weak. And I saw the obscene amount of tea that was put in the steeper to make my cup. There was definitely a lot of tea in there! It reminds me a bit of Spiced Fig from the winter collection in that way; the difference being that even watery I thought Spiced Fig was gross enough that it didn’t warrant an attempt at a stronger cup, where this one I’d almost give it another chance.
Unfortunately, I’m not about to buy any. The amount that you’d have to buy to get ONE strong, flavourful cup is a bit ridiculous. I would rather spend my money on other teas that I know I love.
Verdict: will not buy.
Had a sample of this warm. The “melon” part was weird warm, since melons are supposed to be cold. The “mint” part was very yummy (and I’m a sucker for any kind of mint tea). So I ordered a big cup of it iced to see how it would turn out cold. Would it just simply reverse for me?
Well…it did. The “melon” part (I still don’t get watermelon, but definitely honeydew melon. I get the COLOUR of watermelon but…that can be achieved with beets. So doesn’t count) was very good cold. Very fruity and refreshing. The “mint” part cold was…weird. It made my mouth taste like I should be chewing gum but I wasn’t. It was just strange. Not necessarily bad, but weird. I don’t know if I would try this again…I might if it was the tea of the day again.
Verdict: probably won’t buy since it’s “weird”, but definitely not bad. If you like melon and mint you’ll more than likely like this tea. But make sure you like cold mint flavour, because this is much better iced than it is hot.
I’ve been begging for a “fresh peach off the tree” tea for months now. NOT peach candy. Peaches. The real thing. I’ve e-mailed David’s about it. I’ve tweeted them. I’ve received the same response both times (“great idea! We’ll give it a shot!”). I got excited about Peaches n Cream. I thought it might be like peach pie with ice cream. It wasn’t :(
So I crossed my fingers when I tried this tea. First a hot sample. Meh. I knew it wouldn’t be all that great hot, that’s OK. I ordered a big ol’ cup of this iced. I drank it. It was good! It wasn’t peaches off the tree, but it was good. Yes, it was sweet. But I was expecting it to be sweet…it is peach-flavoured after all. And when do you bite into a peach and say “MAN. THIS IS THE BEST SALTY/BITTER/SOUR/UMAMI PEACH EVER.” Yuck. Peaches are sweet. If you don’t like sweet, don’t drink peaches.
Verdict: I’m not sure if I’d buy this tea. I’m thinking about it, and I might end up with a summer tea collection (would be the first time ever that I bought an entire collection). We’ll see. If you like sweet peaches, you might like this tea. But more…sweet peach candy. Not actual peaches.
I’m having this one iced RIGHTTHISSECOND for the first time. And oh, boy. I don’t know how I like it better, now. Warm it was…weird. Not an unpleasant weird, at least not for me. I like all of the subtleness of all of the “other” stuff in it, with the KA-POW of peach and pineapple. Iced, it’s different. Still has the KA-POW of peach and pineapple, but some of the subtleties were lost. I don’t get weird after-tastes anymore, and a lot of the near-sourness that some cups have (the ones with the entire flower buds in them, maybe? I’m not sure…) this one doesn’t as an iced tea.
I’m glad I just bought more of this; it’s going to end up being one of my favourite iced summer teas. I can tell already.
Verdict: they’re discontinuing this tea, so I’m going to have to go buy a couple more tins of it soon. I’ll go through it quickly and likely be wallowing in the sorrow of empty tins before the end of the summer.
Finishing the last teabag in the box right now. I must admit…I’m a tad upset this one is gone. This coming from someone that isn’t a huge fan of straight teas, so that’s got to say something. I’m almost tempted to purchase this one; that might be my first “grown up purchase” to celebrate being offered a job on salary. One day. Maybe. Ugh…
I like the almost-sweetness that this one has. I would really like to try it iced with some lemon, so I’ll put that on my “list of things to try if I ever get more of it”. I think it would probably be really good.
Goodbye, tea. It was nice drinking you…
OK, now I’ve officially had a cup of this so I have more to base my review off of. I still stand by the “it smells so good!” statement. Smells exactly like grape candy. Not my favourite flavour of candy (Hello, “blue raspberry”!!), but I’m not one to turn down candy period. So not unpleasant.
The smell of the brewed tea is ah-maze-ing. Smells exactly like grape candy. And then…something gets lost in translation. The flavour of the tea, as far as I can determine, is “burnt green tea” flavour. I didn’t get any grape flavour at all (or raisin, for that matter, which tastes completely different than grapes do to me), and had this hideous after-taste. It was sweet, metallic, and plastic all at the same time. It wasn’t enough to make me throw out the cup, but it was getting close to that point.
I’m going to try it again iced at home sometime to see if that changes my opinion. But so far? I’m glad this one is only a seasonal tea and I won’t ever be tempted to buy it again having forgotten that I don’t like it.
Verdict: will not buy again.
