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Phooey, this is the last of this tea.

Warm, it doesn’t taste like much. There’s a faint hint of something, but I found it challenging to get it to come out. With stevia, it shines ever so slightly.

But with cream? OMG. Yes. YES. YES!!

It’s divine.

I like the darker color of this tea, and when I steeped it overnight, and then gave some to my partner to drink, he said, “I thought I was drinking alcohol for a second”.

He doesn’t drink alcohol.

I’d definitely buy more of this tea, and especially so if it comes in one of the little test tube / glass vials again. Okay, so that’s not a ton of tea, but… I love the presentation.

Damn, this tea is OOOOOLLLLLLLD. Like, I’ve had it for five years old? Jeepers.

Went back home to visit the family, and they’d stashed this somewhere. I’ve sent them tea from my travels and swaps for years… and I thought they drank it. Ah well. More for me.

Hilariously, I drank two pots of this before I realized there was strawberry flavoring in it…. (I’m allergic to strawberries, and yes, there’s still some in the flavor).

I had wondered if I’d ‘gotten over’ my allergy, as I’ve worked hard to deal with it naturally. But then, the age of this tea and … well who knows.

All I know is that I like this tea this time around. Like, a LOT a lot.

It needs sweetener, and it’s divine with some cream. Like a chai-y goodness of weirdness. It really is weird, I’m assuming from the age and the additives and whatnot, but I like it. Red hot cinnamon hearts? Cold, not so much. It neeeeeds cream.

So, I guess this is a sipdown of a long-forgotten tea I’d removed years ago from my cupboard.

A rating of 69 seems fitting.

Tricky review, this one.

First off, it’s a white chai. I’m a new convert to white chai’s, where my partner decided all he drinks is white tea. So, I had to figure out a way to combine my love of chai with something he’d drink.

This fits the bill…. sort of.

I mean, there’s ALSO black tea in here, and then…. big crescendo… there’s also COFFEE.

GASP.

C’mon tea lovers. It’s a macchiato.

Still, I’m all… what?! Tea AND coffee. Sacriledge!

Next up in the melange of weirdness? It has an odd assortment of ingredients. Apple was the strangest for me (I’m not sure how it fits, other than perhaps as a natural sweetener), although the rosehips also made me go… hmmm.

Now I really want to try it.

Yep, yep, yep.

First cup was straight tea, nothing added, no sweetener.

All I can say is… this tea surprised me.

It DOES taste like a macchiato. It’s definitely cardamom-heavy (bring it, I love cardamom), and I can also taste the coffee. The black tea gives it a bit of depth, and then the apple sweetens things up so I really don’t need sweetener. Although, I’m definitely adding some the next steep. Just to be sure. ;)

First cup, second steep was surprisingly similar, with some added Krisda (stevia + erythritol mix). I still craved the creaminess of a macchiato.

Darn that’s hard to spell correctly. Macchiato.

Second cup, I added heavy cream + Krisda.

OMG. This is goooooood. Like I could drink this all day and still gulp it down in one sip, gooooood.

I think, perhaps, for me…. this reminds me of a coffee my former inlaws used to make every morning. They’d grab their locally-roasted beans, grind them up with some cardamom, and then brew their coffee.

This tea, drink, whatever you want to call it at this point (it’s a bit of everything, isn’t it?) reminds me of that feeling, that moment, that….. ah….

It’s a hit for me, and a surprising one. I didn’t think I’d like this so much that I’d want to buy more.

I mean, I drink TEA people, not coffee…

1 DAVIDs Perfect Spoon in 12 oz of water and 8 oz of heavy cream, brewed three minutes, at boiling water temperature. I

f I could, I would do this at a much lower temperature, but all I have access to at this coworking space is instant boiling water. Ah, first world problems.

Tried this as a tea latte today, to see if I could coax out something more yummy. I also opened the cardamom pods to give it more flavor.

Good call on the pods, but it’s still just cardamom tea, and a very weak one at that. I oversteeped my second steep, too, and still, just blah.

I obviously need stronger, more full bodied teas to do my tea lattes with (I use the highest fat content cream I can find, as my body loves ketosis). Ah well. I tried.

I much preferred this tea the last time around that I had it. This time? Just a meh.

I wouldn’t say no to it… but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy more, either.

I’m suspecting there’s something weird in the hot water/cups at my coworking space, because everything I’ve made here hasn’t thrilled me, when it did other reviewers / my own self with previous iterations.

Hilariously, the tea I love at DAVIDs is the one every else is meh about – and the tea I disliked (Lemon Pound Cake) is the one everyone raves about.

Go figure. More for me!

I asked the staff member serving me, after grabbing a ridiculous amount of small samples, “Okay, what else do I NEED to try?”

He immediately said this tea. I’m in. Turmeric, pepper, cardamom and pineapple? YEESS…. (and why have I not thought of this myself?)

I imagined this to be like a lassi, minus the yogurt, and I was spot on. This is DELICIOUS.

That is, if you like chai-like spices and sweet, sweet pineapple.

I do. So there ya go.

I could drink this all day. Oh wait, I did yesterday. I let it steep 7 minutes the first time around, and about half an hour the second time around. Even my 10-year-old, the pickiest of all tea drinkers, loved it.

I don’t get it. This tea has crazy high ratings. I steeped it exactly per the instructions, and yet, it’s just blah.

I don’t get “just like lemon pound cake” at all. I don’t get “buttery, citrusy oolong” either.

I thought it had additional sweetener added to it, so I didn’t add any the first time around. Ick. Big mistake. It just tasted a bit tangy with hints of citrus, and lemongrass. No butter, no nuthin’.

Second steep was about the same as the first, but I added one cube of sugar to the 16 oz cup. Okay, this makes it more… well, sweet. That’s about it. Oh, and once it cooled I tasted flat cardboard. Not butter. Sigh.

No idea what I did wrong here, but this sucks. Expensive tea these days, DAVIDs, and I can’t say I’m thrilled with the results. I’ve got enough for another big cup, so, we’ll see.

This is what happens when you go ‘home’ (where my stuff is kept in storage), and find tea that you’d completely forgotten about. I swear, this is five-year-old tea. Jeepers. Butiki! This stuff is pure gold, considering Stacey doesn’t (to my knowledge?) run Butiki anymore, and hasn’t for a while.

So, I grabbed the tea, and brought it with me on my travels.

I remember this being my first guayusa tea, and I can’t rememeber why. Perhaps it’s not that common (it’s not), and I’m not the biggest mate fan (which this reminds me of).

Drinking the tea, is fun, and surprisingly good considering how old it is. It still looks stunning – the leaves are flat and multicolored, almost like green, grey and brown confetti. The calendula leaves are still long, orangey-yellow and twisted like a good yoga pose. The smell is still strongly of apricot/peaches, and a hint of metallic earth.

The flavor is exactly how I remember it: a first hit of sweetness from a stone fruit, a middle layer of green… I can’t describe it any better than that… and final notes of a sort of cardboard sweetness. The last bit is likely from the age of the tea.

Do I love it? Nope. Do I like it? Definitely. I think I’ll finish this more because it’s bittersweet to drink this than because I really want the hit of energy, or the flavor.

Although, I could be convinced to send this along to someone else, if they really loved it and want some more. There’s maybe a mug-sized amount left.

I’m loving this brand of tea, and how they execute their teas. It’s really fun to try them all, plus, the presentation makes me smile (small vials of tea, like when I was on the Isle of Man and the tea house there offered up their teas in the same fashion for ‘breathing’).

Anyway. About this tea!

I wanted more chocolate and more mint from this. It’s fun, it’s a bit frivolous, and it requires quite a bit of sweetening to get it to where I want it, flavored-tea wise. Still, I like it.

The puer adds depth, richness and earthiness – all things that I love in tea. There’s a hint of mint, the cacao nibs are great.. but I’m also aware I’ve yet to have just nibs in my tea and it actually taste like chocolate. Call me picky. Or maybe I just drink too much tea.

For someone not accustomed to drinking tea as much as I do? This tea is amazeballs. For me, it’s just good. I won’t go out of my way to order more of this flavor, but I won’t say no if more ends up in my cup. I might even have seconds. ;)

Note: I receive this, and many other teas, from Brooke & Bradford in exchange for honest reviews on Instagram and other social media outlets. These are my opinions only.

No idea where this came from, but I’m not a fan. I likely grabbed it because it’s a white tea blend – rare to find in a teabag.

First few sips are like licking a spoonful of cinnamon. I love cinnamon, but this isn’t great. It’s powdery and tart, not at all appealing.

After it sits a bit and cools it’s a bit more palatable. It’s still tart as all get out, and needs quite a bit of mixing with some form of sweetener to get it drinkable. Only then can I taste the orange, and a few other spices.

Great idea, poor execution. No thanks.