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Thank you to Angel at teavivre for the samples, of which this was one of many! The day that box arrived I was as happy as Christmas morning! Since then though I have been crazy busy with my internship and weekending with my university friends and have not had a chance to really enjoy tea (or to review it properly). So I finally had a spare minute today and decided to brew a cup of this!
My first thought was that the leaves of this tea are huge. I only used half of my sample package for a mini-tea pot worth (about a cup and a half) and it was probably not the best brewing implement as the basket it a little small to allow tea leaves this large to steep properly. The dry smell was very vegetal, like hay or dry grass. I was intrigued because this is the first non-flavoured white tea that I have tried, so it was the first time that I have actually smelled the leaves themselves.
I brewed it according to package instructions, 90 degree water for only 2 minutes, and overall was very pleased with the results. The flavour is very smooth and pleasant, lightly grassy with a hint of floral notes. I am not sure that straight white tea is my favourite cuppa, I think I am more of a flavoured tea girl along the lines of Strawberry Fields or Gold Rush, but the quality of this white is better than any I have tried and a perfect smooth blend for those days where I have had enough of strong flavours and just want a nice cup of white tea, with all of the benefits that go along with it!
Just a note on brewing, my teapot holds about a cup and a half, and the remaining half of a cup typically keeps brewing after I pour the first cup. Therefore the second cup was steeped for over 5 minutes. The result was a slightly bitter, strongly grassy tea that overwhelmed all of the pleasant floral notes. Therefore I strongly advise paying attention to brewing time- for this tea it makes a big difference!

What is this madness? It tastes exactly like the pina coladas that I had in the Caribbean!

I cold brewed this one, the first tea that I have had a spare second to review since I started work (my internship is killing me a little bit, mornings come much too early).
Anywho, this tea is fantastic! At first its a little bitter (i’m guessing the hibiscus?), but then its amazingly sweet and coconutty. The colour threw me off a little bit, it is bright deep red, but the taste is unmistakably pina colada.
Just got a shipment from teavivre hoping to have a spare second to review some of them soon, but its not looking promising (of course i’d have more time if I stopped going away to visit my university friends on the weekend…)

I have been waiting all month to cold brew this one, and I finally got the opportunity… I am however a little disappointed. The flavour is rather weak, despite the fact that I cold brewed for almost 24 hours… Maybe I did not put enough in (about 6 heaping teaspoons for my takeya pitcher) so it could be user error…
Anyways I get a very different taste coldbrewed then when I drink it hot. Hot, i"d say without question that the overwhelming taste I get is sweet-tart. Cold, I get much less of the goji and much more of the melon… it almost tastes like watermelon. It is still wonderfully fruity and super refreshing, but it was definitely not what I was expecting. I’m going to leave my rating where it is however, because its a true rating of this tea when I brew it hot!

Procrasti-rating! I just moved home for the summer, which is sad because I am no longer a ten minute walk from DAVIDs! (although this is probably a good thing for my wallet…) and need to unpack all of my stuff (…sigh…). Anyways I now have a fridge big enough to accommodate my iced tea pitcher so I decided to give this one a try.
I cold steeped this for probably about 18 hours (kind of forgot about it). It is excellent iced! For me it was just ok hot the last time I had it but iced it is rather fabulous. Looking forward to many midsummer night’s with this one iced!
The mint becomes more pronounced when cold, and the fruit becomes more of a refreshing afterthought. The overall taste is citrusy and minty!

So I bought this tea for my dad because he asked for “chamomile elixir” and I only later found out he meant some sort of chamomile concoction… Anyway it appears that I chose well, he quite enjoyed it and found it very relaxing!
Personally, I found it to be nothing special and didn’t really feel the effects but it was only 7pm and I typically don’t go to bed until midnight or so…
I definitely tasted the peppermint which was pleasant, and the chamomile, which I am not a huge fan of. I’ll boost this ranking based on my dad’s professed love though! I am slowly converting the family… got my sis to like North African Mint!

I would easily have 100 tasting notes on this tea if I logged it every time I drank it. This tea amounts to my “old faithful”, that tea that I just keep going back to, in between my infatuations with the latest blends. It was the first loose leaf tea I ever tried, and it is still one of my favourites, even as my collection has grown exponentially.
This green has the biggest leaves of any that I’ve tried (mind you, I am not extremely well versed in green teas by any means). I re-steep it a solid 4-5 times every time I have it, and the last steep is usually just as good as the first.
The green tea is very mild, and the lemon complements it extremely well. Overall, its a very pleasant green tea blend. It is also very forgiving, I regularly brew it too hot because I don’t have the patience for the water to cool off and regularly forget about it when I am brewing it and it always turns out fine!
I have upgraded this ranking because my first tea is still my go to tea, and that saying something because I’ve now tried lots of yummy teas!

Bought some of this because I needed some more black teas to wake me up my early morning exams. I bought it because I love DAVIDs Chocolate teas on a whole (especially chocolate rocket and love tea #7) so thought why not?
In terms of black tea, I didn’t really taste the black tea (which I prefer). The chocolate flavour was good, tasted like cake actually does! It didn’t really have the richness I was hoping for though, and that made the flavour overall lacking for me.
Still yummy, no magic though!

I stopped by my local DAVIDs and got this one to go iced. It was very refreshing and the kiwi was yummy but it wasn’t my favorite blend. It was a little bitter almost…
I can’t really compare to other green teas that I’ve tried iced because it was the first one that I’ve tried. Probably won’t get it again but it was a nice refreshing drink on a nice sunny afternoon.

Bought 50grams of this to stock up for the summer. I plan on making it iced quite a bit, but don’t have a DAVIDs near me at home. Decided to try it hot tonight and yummmmmm, I like it way better hot! I can’t really describe the flavour, definitely cinnamon, apple and hibiscus (although there isn’t apple in it, so I don’t know where that coming from…). It tastes like a warm and sweet fruit pie. It’ll be a toss up on whether to cold brew or have it hot…

Made a big pot of this to wake my up and get me in the right mindset for my first exam. I think it’ll definitely be a re-buy! I am not really a black tea person but this one the fruity and tart overwhelms the black tea. The colour makes me happy on its own, its as close to magenta as I have ever seen.
I love the tartness of the hibiscus combined with the tropical fruit flavours like mangos. It makes a very pleasing combo…