DAVIDsTEA

This is one of two brand new additions to DAVIDsTEA’s Superfood Powder line up – both of which are actually superfood iced tea powders instead of the latte ones we’ve been releasing the last couple years!

The other has mushrooms in it (and I’m allergic) and I’ve yet to do my usual “sip and spit” taste test like I have in the past for other teas I’m allergic to – so deep dive on that one will have to wait. This one, however, I’m excited to finally talk about!

It whisks up such an absolutely gorgeous and rich deep purple colour and, although there’s some butterfly pea flower in the blend to support that enchanting hue, most of that colour is driven by the inclusion of different berries and hibiscus. Obviously maqui is the big one and, if you’re unfamiliar, it’s a very anti-oxidant rich purple berry with a darker, juicy flavour a bit like blueberry or currant with a bit of tartness. There is also blueberry powder in the blend, which of course compliments the similar tasting maqui but adds a touch more nuance and deepens this sort of rich mixed berry flavour of the blend.

The mojito part of the name comes primarily from the inclusion of peppermint! It’s probably a bit of a stronger mint flavour than an actual mojito, but those really crisp and cooling elements are so instantly refreshing. It’s a huge part of why I love this tea as a very easy to whisk up iced bevvie for the summer – you take a few sips during a heat wave or when it’s really humid out and you just immediately feel cooled down, refreshed, and more comfortable. Very hydrating, too!

Other things that are cool about this blend is that it’s totally sugar and sweetener free, so great if you want iced tea but less of that sweet feeling. On the flip side, starting with something sugar free means it’s super adaptable – we’ve been having a lot of fun in the office making different cocktail/mocktails with this blend and adding our own simple syrups or liqeuers. You can also add a bit like a shot to a lemonade and make a fun purple or layered berry-inspired refresher that way. Also so good as a tea pop with the powder whisked into a concentrate and then topped with sparkling water or club soda! Highly flexible!

I guess the one way I wouldn’t recommend drinking this one is with milk or dairy. The acidity from some of the ingredients like the hibiscus powder definitely cause some curdling, even if I wouldn’t describe this as a particularly tart tasting drink. You can make it hot, and that does bring out a little more tartness – though this was absolutely formulated specifically with the intent it would be consumed cold so I personally think that’s how it tastes best.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I enjoyed the tartness here – it’s just like sour lemon candy. I tried some before adding extra sweetener, and it was pretty good already! I still preferred it afterward. This is super true to its name, and I’m really enjoying it cold, made entirely of milk.

I wasn’t sure if I would actually like this because I love ginger, but really hated the apple ginger matcha I tried a while back.

I found my cold latte (250 mL cold soy milk and 50 mL hot water with 2 tsp of matcha…don’t judge me) to be a bit grey-blue. I think non-dairy milks might not be the correct pH for this to turn beep blue. It looked a bit chalky, but I also used a lot of matcha because I’m soooo tired this morning. I could fall asleep right now. I’m not sure how much caffeine is in this one because matcha is further down the ingredient list, but I should have gotten at least an espresso shot worth.

This is very fruity (acai and berries) with some acidicty. The ginger comes in the aftertaste for me.

TTB! The chocolate here tastes quite alcoholic despite all the actual chocolate that was in there. Combined with the flavor of the orange, it was just too tangy for my preferences. It was okay with milk and sugar, but not something I’d want to drink again.

Iced Latte!

It gets very hot in my apartment during the middle of the afternoon because I have a large window directly facing the sun. So, since I was doing a movie marathon with a bunch of teas incorporated into it, I decided to make myself a silly l’il iced matcha latte to cool down with. I had, after all, been drinking a lot of hot drinks leading up to the peak of the midday heatwave…

Right now the milk I have in the fridge is coconut milk, so that’s what I used. I actually loved the combination of the cinnamon and coconut, but the coconut milk certainly isn’t neutral tasting. Weirdly, I almost got more of a horchata vibe versus cinnamon bun. Smooth and delicious, regardless! I even tossed in a cinnamon stick for a bit of extra fun and a hiiiinnntttt more cinnamon flavour. Mostly the fun part, though!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJPtIq1SXBk/?img_index=1 (Fourth Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUvDJrDlmWo&ab_channel=Kasador-Topic

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This is the other new matcha flavour that came out while I was away in Europe!

Like Key Lime, this one took a lot of adjustment to get just right. It was important to me to have both a distinct frosting note but also that warm, cozy sort of cinnamon flavour. We tried a bunch of versions, some of which used cinnamon flavouring. They were nice, but I just felt they lacked a sort of authenticity? Eventually we switched to powdered cinnamon, which was the game changer I was looking for. Perfectly warm and cozy, and really tasty with the creamy vanilla notes.

Getting the level of cinnamon powder right was its own challenge – enough to impart the taste but not make the mouthfeel drying. And we didn’t want to colour of the matcha to be too brown, either. I really love this type of trial though, and it’s so satisfying when you finally find the right balance!

Though I do enjoy this matcha plain, I think it really sings when you make it as a latte. Hot or iced it’s delicious, though this time of year I’m definitely leaning more towards iced. I especially think fans of some of our more autumnally coded matcha flavours (Pumpkin Pie, Chai, Gingerbread, etc) will really resonate with this one, and I think it’s especially nice to have this flavour around this time of year given how much we typically tend to stack the Spring/Summer matcha releases with fruitier flavours and the Fall/Holiday releases with more decadent and cozy. More variety, in my opinion, is never a bad thing!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

While I was away in Europe, we launched two brand new matcha flavours for the Summer! This is my personal favourite of the two, although I have to admit I am an EXTREMELY big fan of both and it has been very, very hard waiting for them to launch…

I’ve wanted to do a key lime pie inspired matcha for a really long time, and it took quite a while to get this one right. In fact, originally I’d been working on it with the hope it would launch with all the citrus teas last year, like Lemon Meringue. The tricker was that I wanted that bright, sweet taste of lime curd like in the pie filling but I also wasn’t willing to budge on this being a matcha that would be safe to make as a latte. So, no added acidity for that extra brightness!

I’m really happy with the final blend though! It’s fresh and fruity with that sweet lime note but also really rich and creamy tasting too, and I’m especially happy to report that it makes the most AMAZING matcha latte. Hot or iced, though I mostly drink it iced. For the last few weeks I’ve had a 500g bag of it by my desk that I’ve just been dipping into as my go-to 3PM matcha latte to push through the last little bit of the day. It’s the perfect little indulgent and energizing treat!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

TTB 2025. When I opened the pouch, I was hit with a smell that smelled convincingly like rootbeer. The brewed tea tasted like a mixture of rootbeer and buttered popcorn jelly beans, and something sweet but offputting I couldn’t put my finger on. I could have seen possibly liking this tea, if it wasn’t for that offputting sweet note.

TTB 2025. Now this is a solid rooibos chai for me. The earthy turmeric and kicky ginger are well balanced. The clove isn’t hiding but also isn’t overly aggressive.

This is the last of this past week’s new Spring releases and, honestly, the name sums it up quite well. It’s a coconut tea on a white tea base. Well, actually a blended base of white and green tea. A very simple, pure take on coconut – something we get requests for a lot.

I think what I like most about this tea is its flexibility. It’s not really sweet, nor is is particularly a coconut cream flavour. Instead it’s refreshing, lightly buttery and sort of more light to medium bodied. It makes for a really smooth and still flavourful brew when you have it hot and plain, but with room to add sweetener or milk/alt milk to amp up the richness if that’s what you’re looking for. As a latte, it can be quite indulgent but if you make it iced (or as a tea pop) it’s more on the refreshing side and almost more comparable to a coconut water. So, something you can for sure play around with the suit your mood.

Plus, I just HAVE to call out the coconut shreds in the blend. In my opinion, they are visually the most beautiful coconut pieces we’ve ever used in a tea. Thick shreds with a bit of the husk on the end. They just look amazing, and as they steep that coconut fat adds a subtle sort of silkiness to the mouthfeel of the blend that I like a lot.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Probably my personal least favourite of the new teas, but really just because I’m not as into chai/spiced teas typically. I think this is a well balanced blend though, and surprisingly not actually all that sweet even though it has both real maple and brown sugar in it. Actually, of all the maple teas we have currently (Manoomin Maple, Simply Maple Breakfast, Maple Matcha) this is the least sweet tasting. Instead it’s more aromatic with a bit of heat primarily from the cinnamon and ginger with undertones of clove and then the maple coming through in the finish.

I would say the spice composition is pretty similar to DT’s older Maple Chai which was a black tea, however there’s a little more ginger in this one and no cardamom. I think the maple is slightly stronger too – and it’s naturally flavoured instead of artificially. In my opinion, this tea definitely shines best with an addition of milk or as a latte, which just rounds out that melange of spices really nicely and brings out a little more sweetness to the cup. It’s so cozy regardless, though!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Another new tea!

Moroccan Mint is one of the most common in store tea requests we get and, though we have North African Mint in our assortment (which is our more twisted take on Moroccan Mint), it doesn’t seem to always meet the ask for a more simple, “pure tasting” mint…

We’ve actually carried a traditional Moroccan Mint before too with the gunpowder green tea base, but having North African Mint and Moroccan Mint both in the green tea category feels a little too close for comfort in some ways. So, this tea was developed to meet the spirit of the request for a simpler, more straight forward caffeinated mint blend which being juuuuussst different enough. Walking a fine line, for sure.

The oolong tea that was used is a ball-rolled style, and we actually tried to find one that was not only a visual nod to gunpowder green but that had a few overlapping tasting notes too. So, it’s on the lighter oxidation side but still with some more grassy, mineral and ever so slightly smoky tasting notes. I think it pairs really well with the nana-mint (aka “Turkish Mint”) which is quite naturally sweet and refreshing, with a similar taste to spearmint. If you were blind tasting this tea you might even mistake it for a traditional Moroccan Mint and not an oolong. Definitely a nice way to keep it classic, but also maybe introduce some people to oolong who aren’t familiar with it!?

And I like that the oolong kind of leans in to both the more communal aspect of Moroccan Mint and the functional/digestive aspects of the nana mint. Moroccan Mint is historically served to guests as a sign of hospitality, and oolong just makes such a good big teapot kind of tea that can be resteeped multiple times as the conversation continues. Oolong, of course, also has some traditional use as a digestive (as does mint), so it works on another layer of being a refreshing and feel-good tea after a heavy meal with guests too! And, don’t sleep on this blend iced/cold brewed either. That’s also really smooth, refreshing and delish.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I usually bring a handful of my own teas into the office with me for the day based on what I wake up in the mood for, but on this particular morning I was running so behind that in my scramble to get out the door I forgot to do that…

Thankfully I do work for a tea company and there is zero shortage of tea to be consumed, even when I’m not bringing it in myself. I chose this for my first cup of the day because the briskness of the bold, malty black tea is so perfectly for an early morning wake up but the fresh red apple notes are also one of those flavours I can simply just get behind no matter what mood I’m in. In the same way the Blueberry Jam or Cranberry Pear are teas for literally whatever mood, this tea is starting to feel like that for me too.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Quite a few new teas just launched for the Spring, along with several returning blends such as Blackberry Jasmine Blast, Coco Mango Chai, and English Toffee…

Of the brand new tea blends, this is my personal favourite. It’s an incredibly simple blend with a really robust, full-bodied “breakfast style” black tea base and a pop of fresh, juicy red apple. I was really inspired by the idea of “global breakfast blends” when developing this tea: particularly concepts like a New York, Tokyo, or London Breakfast that would me majority black tea with a subtle flavour inclusion that nods to the city of inspiration. I’ve had many New York Breakfast blends and it always baffles me that they’re never apple flavoured as a riff on “The Big Apple.” So, now an apple flavoured New York breakfast tea exists!

I’ve said many times before that, personally, the blends I tend to favor are ones that are incredibly flexible with their preparation – and I think that’s why I love this one so very much. It’s great hot and plain with its bold and malty black tea profile mixed with that sweet, crisp red apple note. However, a splash of milk and some sugar isn’t so bad either, like how you might take a typical breakfast. It’s also really refreshing iced or cold brewed! I actually had a cold brew of it today, and I find the apple comes off a little sweeter and more forward in taste, with the brisk black tea rounding out the end of the sip. Finally, it’s a really lively and refreshing tea pop too! Just a tea that’s super fun to play around with.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Random old sample from davidstea, chosen last night because I wanted something simple and caffeine-free. It was fine, tasted the way you’d expect from a rooibos vanilla blend. I just mixed the second steeping of this with the second steeping of the earl grey I just tried, and that was actually a pretty good move.

I love this tea and I have kept it in stock for years. It’s a very forgiving tea with oversteeping or adding creamer. It’s warm and comforting with the blend of spices. I’ve been trying to get through my bag of it recently and am coming close to a sip down. I’ll likely reorder it in the future, but for now I’m ready for a break and more room in my cupboard.

2025 TTB #17

I liked this more than I was expecting to! The matcha gave it a rather unpleasant murky look in the cup and the stevia on the ingredients list scared me. But the actual flavor was quite ice cream like without being cloyingly sweet. I think it was the nuttiness of the almonds that saved it for me.

2025 TTB #14

Stevia, ugh! I really need to learn to check the ingredients on David’s Tea blends before trying them, because so many of them are ruined for me by that nasty stevia aftertaste. This one did seem to have a pretty enjoyable chocolate orange flavor, but the artificially sweet aftertaste just messed everything up.

The best way to taste the flavors for this one is cold without milk. Then I can taste some caramel and some fruitiness, though both elements could definitely be bolder. The rooibos base is nice and smooth. This one is good, but not great.

Had this hot as my first tea of the morning and it worked to wake me up! I find the chocolate and raspberry flavour in this a little artificial? Not necessarily in a bad way. It reminds me of those boozy chocolates where there is a relatively hard chocolate shell on the outside and some sort of liqueur-flavoured syrup on the inside, you know? Like that, but the syrup inside is raspberry flavoured. It was fine, but not the sort of thing I’d crave super often.

2025 TTB #9

Butiki had a Caramel Apple Oolong that I ADORED back in the day and every candy/caramel apple tea I ever try gets measured up against that one and found wanting. But I have to say, this one was an exceptionally odd take on the concept. Who puts cinnamon on a caramel apple? The flavor doesn’t even read apple pie, because the cinnamon is so assertive…more like a cup full of melted red hot candies (maybe that’s where the candy comes in?) with an apple slice or two hanging out in the background someplace. Not for me!

I needed to add more powder than usual in order to get a strong enough flavor. Even then, in many sips this didn’t taste like much. In one or two sips, this tasted like marzipan, which was nice and desserty. The second time I had it, I tasted more nuttiness, which was fun. The marzipan flavor was definitely there too. The last time I had it, I tasted a bit of grassiness and another indistinct flavor that I didn’t love. This hasn’t turned out to be one I want more of.