The Devotea

strong and bold and really nice..with a hint of astringency but not overly so. This was a cup from hours ago ‘cause holy crap it’s been busy…but the rest is off to a new home haha with, you guessed it, Cavo!

tea from this morning! Sadly i was in back to back meetings all day and so 14 hours ago seems like a really long time from now. I opted for this one because i’m trying to get into all the devotea teas that terri sent me before she gets another box out my way haha. Add to that the incoming orders and i’m a little crazy! On the upside, my butiki order gets here tomorrow, we’re going to see the Lion King on friday (it’ll be my 5th? time) and saturday i’m going out with my friend and her little one for wedding dress shopping.

right..back to the tea. lol this was a bold tasty cup of KERPOW to wake me up this morning but that’s about all that i remember. better tasting notes to come i’m sure, since i have a bit more of this one to play with :)

SSTTB

I think my sister is coming around to the tea side since she has been offering to spend time with me going through the teabox (which means she will take a couple sips of my cup when I make it) when in the past she has made fun of me for my tea love. So with that in mind, I am trying the teas I know she won’t like earlier in the day and I will try the others I have left to try tonight with her.

So now I am having my second taste of Lord Petersham. This is very smooth, so smooth in fact, it is almost buttery. And it is malty and sweet though a little more astringent this time around. I am not liking it as much this time around so back into the box it goes but it is pleasant enough and I am grateful for the chance to have tried it.

In other news, Veronica Mars is now on Netflix so I am rewatching the series from the beginning. YAY!

SSTTB

So this box is a great opportunity to explore some straight blacks and this morning I decided to make the acquaintance of Lord Petersham. He is quite nice. Strong and a touch astringent but in a good way. Unfortunately this tea cooled quite a bit before I tried it given I was searching for classes my sister and I can take this summer (a little while back, we did cake decorating so we are looking for something fun to take now). Perhaps I will have to try another cup before I pass along the box because even cooled, this was very pleasant.

Y’know what? Just because it’s highly unlikely I’ll hit 150 this month doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. So I will. I am. (174)

Thanks to Sil for passing this one on to me. It’s a nice orangy-chai that’s quite good! I like orange, and it matches well with all these spices. It makes me think of holidays!

bwahahaha best part about having another cup of this today? One more for Cavocorax! mwahahahahahahahahahahaha yep. the rest of this overly insanely generous sample from terri is off to a new home! because i’ve got boxes to fill. haha

oh and the tea? i’d order it again…enjoyed it :)

Mmmmmm this one is quite good! Terri suggested this one last night, so I picked it as one of he the morning teas today. For some reasoning I’m getting smokey notes, which no one else seems to have. That being said, it IS a bold, delicious cup and I’m happy that I’ve got more. Hahaha

this is a tasty breakfast blend! Sadly i had this ages ago and remember nothing except the fact that i slurped through it super fast. Thankfully though, terri provided lots for me to try so i’ll play with this more and review it again with a better note in future haha

Thanks to the Devotea for providing me with this sample tea to try. It’s raining here and I had been wanting something warm and delicious to sip on — caffeine be damned!

This steeps up to be a lighter reddish-brown color. Definitely medium in body and a bit on the mild side. At first sip I was thinking this is a ceylon due to the fruity notes that are present, then I was thinking there was an orange pekeo or perhaps a second flush darjeeling in the mix. Either way, this is a really nice blend for the afternoon. No sign of bitterness or astringency, so this is an easy one to sip on plain but is also good with additions. Lord Petersham is nice but 1910 is still my favorite from the Devotea so far. :)

this was a lovely assam from the devotea! There is no bitterness to this..just a smooth cup of really nice black tea. It makes me want to try even more of the black teas from the devotea, so i’m lucky that terri sent me a few others to try! ):

Sipdown! (234)
And another one from Sil via Terri! Thanks guys!

This one reminds me of the Absinthe White from Herbal Infusions, minus the mint.
I can taste the white tea, which is the sign of a good blend, and the licorice is really nice with it. It’s not overwhelmingly strong and it has a bit of sweetness to it that I quite enjoy! I wish I’d seen that recommendation to steep it for 5+ minutes, but I am happy with this as it is. Steeped like this, it’s a nice tea for 10:30 at night.

Oh and this is a soft and fuzzy kind of white tea!

Thank you!

More sipdowns! (238)

I’m happy Sil sent me this because I was curious how I would like the lavender with bergamot, but I really truly do. It’s a nice fruity black with the lavender adding that special pop to it. It’s quite relaxing.

Thanks!

Another one from Sil! Thanks!

So I have to agree with her on this; it’s not your typical oolong. It’s light and sweet and very refreshing. It’s also just a little bit grassy and I imagined a bit of peach in there too. Neat!

(I always think of Cecil from Night Vale whenever I heard ‘neat’ and I guess I’ve been using it more too. He has the effect on me I guess.)

Anyway, I would recommend this oolong to people who have not had much experience with them and want to dive in!

(243)

Thank you Sil and Terri for letting me try a cup of this!

I’m not usually into rose teas but this one is nice. The floral notes aren’t too strong and they are nicely balanced against the sweet caress of vanilla.

Sipdown (248)

This was another tea from this evening. I wanted to try and hit 150 by the end of this coming weekend and i have a sneaking suspicion that the mail man is going to be mean and have all my stuff show up on friday. This is a pretty muted chai, though the addition of the star anise meant that it had a little bit of that licorice flavour to it. My other half commented while it was brewing that he smelled licorice heh. I wouldn’t go out of my wany to get this one again, but it was nice to have a chai that was slightly different from what i was used to. AND the clove flavour wasn’t over powering in this one so it gets bonus points for that. :) thanks terri!

Another one from terri! I think i’ve figured out how to get at least 1 of the three sipdowns i’m trying to do done every day and that’s by trying a new black tea every day as part of my rotation. Since keychange sent my her old timolino that means i still have 2 teas i’m guaranteed to enjoy in my travel mugs lol.

This one is one that i would be willing to pick up again if i needed to get to a certain price threshold for an order of something. it’s malty and bold but not bitter. I quite enjoyed having it in my mug this morning!

mmmmmm i love this one! This is a great rooibos chai from terri! I followed her instructions and steeped this for what was likely 12 mins. The result is a really tasty spicy chai that makes me ever so happy. Especially since it’s a rooibos! I like the cardamon and the way that the flavours blend together. this also isn’t one of those woodsy sort of rooibos teas so it’s on my happy list! thanks for sharing terri!

mmmmm this one smells so nice. like christmas. I actually think this one would be tasty steeped in hot apple juice for a taste similar to apple cider… or something..i dunno, that’s what the combination of the smells is making me think of. Again, there’s a subtleness to this taste when brewed. I’m not sure what it is about devotea teas…but the smell of their teas seems to be much less intense than the taste that comes through when brewing. Maybe i jsut need to brew for longer than 3 mins…but i’m wary of having the tea turn bitter. I do have to say that more and more, i’m quite enjoying whatever the black base is that they use in their blends. it’s nice, smooth and doesn’t have any atringency to it :) thanks for sharing these terri!

well, might as well continue with the trend of teas i don’t think i’ll like before i have a final couple of cups tonight that i do like. Let me tell you…drinking things alongside the cocktail i made for myself tonight (gingerale; rye; pama) is the way to do it! lol

Soooo the lady has lavender! OH GOODIE blarg AND Blergamot…two awesome flavours in one beautiful tea! not.
….or….maybe? Hmmm… i’m thinking that just maybe the devotea doesn’t understand flowers the way that other companies do. I’m not really getting a whole lot of lavender (maybe it’s all in the cup i saved for cavocorax bwahahahaha) so this is coming across as more of a subtle blergy, orangey tea…with a splash of what might be floral on the side.

final verdict? yeah i still don’t wanna drink this…but it’s MUCH less offensive to me than i thought it would be. I have to say that the devotea has quite a nice black base….this is what i’ve learned so far haha

when is an oolong not oolongy? when it’s oowrong! lol yeah sorry…feeling a little giddy and dorky tonight. This one came courtesy of terri and had i remembered at the time of brewing that i have a smiliar one from butiki in my cupboard, i would have compared the two. This is a pretty pleasant cup of tea that doesn’t hold any of the usual oolong tastes that i tend not to enjoy so much. Instead this is a light brew with a surprisingly sweet taste. It also resteeps nicely :) thanks terri!

I’m going to have to side with terri on this one. While this scarily is name rose blush, and there are pretty little roses in this blend, once brewed it’s pretty much a cup of vanilla black. Not that i mind that because i DO like vanilla blacks, but the name is misleading. :) I didn’t think i’d like this one but given the lack of “rose” flavour, i’m ok with it…but minus points for not living up to the name!

terri’s mean. She knows i’ll drink anything she sends me. So i drank this one…and let me tell you the blergamot smell of this one is INSANE! but i brewed it up, and thankfully the actually brewed cup isn’t nearly as knock your socks off blergamot. If i close my eyes and pretend it’s not blergamot, i think that ppl who like eg’s might enjoy this one as it is a fairly smooth cup of tea. It’s just not the EG to win me over to the dark side.. nope. no siree…