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I hate rating a tea so low as many people will know its not a bad tea; however it is certainly not one I found palatable either. I got a bunch of the straight green tea’s for my Grandma this Christmas as she is a huge fan of green tea and has never had any of DT’s blends it was a must. I grabbed Dragonwell, Korean Sejak and Sencha Ashikubo. Anyone who has bought Sencha Ashikubo knows its freaking expensive! So I had to sneak a small cup to try out to see if it was worth it. I even brewed it the gung fu method as recommended, but no matter what I did to me it tasted like seaweed or something. Not for me, but I can only imagine for straight Green Tea’s it must be pretty high up on the list.

Liked this one Iced, didn’t like it hot.

I only grabbed a small sample of this one after trying as an iced tea in the past, decided I had to give it a go as a warm cup this time around, and I just didn’t like it at all warm. I don’t know which ingredient it was that didn’t agree with my tongue when it was brewed warm so it’s hard for me to give a review that justifies this tea. Certainly one you have to try before making a choice, I would certainly drink it again iced but don’t think I would keep much on hand.

Fruitacular!

So this was one of the tea’s I treated myself to for Christmas this year, and is also another one scratched off my list of online only tea’s for me. I made a pot of this first thing Christmas morning and practically everyone who tried it liked it with the exception of my sister who has never been big on anything related to fruit!

I don’t know if people brewing this one by the cup are having issues with the hibiscus or they just plain hate it but I haven’t noticed it to be overpowering in this blend at all. Dry it smells like candied mango to me and a bunch of other fruits but the mango stands out the most. The final brew is a dark red color and has a fruity and floral aroma to it that does in fact smell like paradise, but you wont be getting lost in it!

These literally are the best little mug you can buy, though not really the most price friendly ones; however occasionally DAVIDsTEA will have a 2 for 1 sale on these mugs and of course at the end of the year for boxing week they are on sale. So far I have purchased three of them, two noble fire red ones and one blue flock of birds, the flock of birds one is my work mug and the birds remind me of the inlays on a PRS guitar (one of my other horrible addictions/hobbies) I have one of the noble ones at home and gave another to my Mom who is just getting into DAVIDsTEA. Now it wouldn’t be fair to say it is the best mug without explaining myself, so here it goes.

- It’s got a lid! Not only a must have for infusing but great if you have a mug at work like me and you want to keep more heat in and other crap out. I know you could use a travel mug but its not as relaxing as sitting at your desk with a favorite mug!

- LARGE fine mesh infuser that slides into the cup perfectly. Up until getting a mug for work I was using my noble travel mug to brew my tea at work and the infuser is small and frequently tea leaves would come out of the larger holes at the top.

- Stylish looks, ok this one is not that important but hey its worth a mention. Up until getting my perfect mugs I had been favoring a mug from Starbucks, their Sumatra Tiger mug to be exact (Tiger is my Chinese Zodiac symbol), which is nice but the excessive thickness of the mug (to retain heat) makes it like holding a brick which if you have big mitten like hands similar to mine the small tight handle on this mug will actually cause a pressure point on your fingers and hurt, not really their fault as it’s mostly due to my mitten like hands!

I have grabbed all of my perfect mugs on sale, so its been win win hands down as on sale they were cheaper then my Starbucks mug and well have more “goodies” that go along with the cup…Now if I could just get another blue flock of birds one!

Is that a Chocolate Rocket in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?!

This was one of the first tea’s my sister came home from DT with, and she brought it out upon my next visit. Which had me thinking two things, first was why did I stop getting Mate’s from DT and secondly why in the heck have I kept skipping over Chocolate Rocket!

Dry this Mate has an amazing smell of chocolate and chicory that would make Martha Stewart envious! I literally enjoy opening this one and just huffing back the smell it is so great. Steeping will fill the room with the same chocolate and chicory smell that will have you salivating. The final brew is a nice dark brown color and retains it’s amazing aroma, it taste’s pretty much how it smells and makes a deadly late.

This is a must have on hand for sure!

The Schnozberries taste like Schnozberries!

So lately I have been on a kick of trying all of DAVIDsTEA variants on the Earl Grey blend and for the most part I have been enjoying them; however when I hit Earl Grey Oolong my winning streak was broken. I don’t know exactly what it is about this tea but my tongue hates it. Personally I think its the overwhelming taste experience of the Schizandra berries, luckily I only picked up a 25g sampler as I was unsure of the tea by the smell as well. It is a great blend that I am sure other people will easily like; however I think the Schizandra berry is just not for me.

Not quite like Mom’s but still delicious!

Growing up my mom used to make crumbles all the time, it is one of my favorite desserts to enjoy, so inherently this tea was a must. After trying it I will say it is certainly great, but it hasn’t made an overly amazing impression on me.

Dry it has a pleasing baked goods aroma, you can smell from the dry leaves that it is a slightly tart tea, and it certainly is. The final brew takes on a red hue from the strawberries and hibiscus, and as other posters have mentioned it is tart. First cup I has without any sweeteners in it to see how it tasted, and it was a little to tart for my liking, but there is a cure.

I was messing around with Mom’s Apple Pie and decided that it would be interesting to try it with brown sugar instead of raw sugar, as brown sugar is more caramelized it obviously has a sweeter taste and is more powerful, but is commonly used when baking such desserts. To my amazement it added just the right flavor to Mom’s Apple Pie to make me almost hoover up my entire tin so I tried it on my second cup of Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble and almost drank the entire cup in one gulp.

Yaaaar there be goodness in ye cup!

So I grabbed this tea last night when I went into DT to get a selection of Green tea’s for my grandparents, unfortunately they did not have the Green Collection packages in stock so I just had to select a few from the wall. Then I realized with my left over change I had enough to grab 50 grams of Buttered Rum, so I did! I have tried a lot of the whisky themed tea’s and they all left me desiring something, not so much the case with buttered rum.

Dry it has a pungent and slightly overpowering alcoholic smell to it, this hits you in the face immediately but is followed by a buttery slightly sweet smell that may catch you off guard. I purchased this tea solely on the name and what I read here on Steepster. I didn’t even smell it till I got home, and when I did I was concerned I wouldn’t like it…WRONG!

The final brew is dark and has an awesome aroma that will remind you of days gone by that you enjoyed drinking hot toddy’s or hot ciders; however one sip and you will realize this tea isn’t as innocent as the others, it will certainly unleash your inner pirate. I enjoyed it so much I brewed a second cup and tossed in a splash of rum, all I can say is it could cause some problems for me at work!

La la la LEMON!

So I have been on a mission the last week to try all of DT’s Earl Grey themed blends and at this point I have almost crossed them all off my list most recently adding The Earl of Lemon to the list, it was hard to select between this and Countess of Seville, next time Countess, next time.

Dry this tea has a lovely aroma that just makes me feel great, it almost reminds me of a lemon meringue pie just not as powerful, this was pretty much the selling feature for me on this tea. The steeped aroma is even lighter with a hint of your typical Earl Grey aroma combined with a lemon twist.

The final brew is very light in color and has a softer taste then I was expecting, that said it was absolutely great its hard to say but this may have trumped Cream of Earl Grey as my favorite Earl Grey blend from David’s it’s certainly a different twist on a classic, but man oh man it is just so good to drink. Will certainly be keeping this on hand for myself and friends that want to branch out from the traditional Earl Grey. Probably would have scored 100 points but the soft flavor ruined it for me a bit if it was 10-15% more flavorful this would be a deadly tea.

Yet another one of the tea’s I received for myself from my online order, this was the tea that gave me knowledge of DAVIDsTEA having online only blends and was what prompted me to place an order. I mean who isn’t a sucker from some apple pie?!

Dry this tea has a green apple and cinnamon aroma to it that is quite pungent but not overpowering, very simple familiar smell that almost anyone will be able to recognize immediately. Steeping the tea will accentuate the apple aroma and kill off a bit of the cinnamon aroma.

The final brew is slightly green and retains its green apple taste, there is a cinnamon touch mixed in with it. After that it starts loosing its similarities with apple pie, certainly gets the job done for a tea though. I want to try it again with brown sugar in it to see if that adds to the pie feeling a bit more.