16916 Tasting Notes
I really wish I would have had honey with me in office to add to this, but even still it was such a fantastic cup. Lemon and ginger at its most simplified, but there’s so much else interesting happening with this tea starting from how fresh and zesty both the lemon and ginger notes are but also from the deeply aromatic and camphor-rich complimenting notes of cardamom and such complexity and playful savory notes from the thyme.
The combination of everything almost leaves a light tingly or “buzzing” sensation on the bed of the mouth. If I can get ethereal for a moment, it taste/feels the way I might imagine it would if a bunch of fireflies were dancing across your tongue.
I find it a little too nuanced/sophisticated to be the “right” lemon ginger tea to drink when I feel sick, but for a pure flavour experience it’s very tough to top.
It’s blood orange. It’s spice. It’s really good iced.
I’m still holding true to my sentiment that this is not really a unique profile, but it was very good iced – probably better than it was hot. That deeper and almost berry-like but still juicy and citrusy blood orange note is really well done and so refreshing, and it felt a lot more “correct” with the notes of clove, cardamom, and cinnamon which I struggled with ever so slightly when I had this hot since I felt those cozier spice notes were a bit strangely juxtaposed with a brighter orange note. No problems here!
…It’s definitely growing on me.
Oat Milk Iced Latte!
I feel like it’s really being a “chocolate raspberry” kind of Spring this year. Particularly with Valenetine’s Day I was seeing this flavour combination what felt like everywhere. Maybe that’s what influenced me to whisk this one up. It makes a mean iced latte though with such a rich, decadent and truffle-like profile. Chocolate leading with that jammy, thick raspberry note in the finish. Kind of does make me think of valentine’s chocolate in a really unironic sort of way. My only kind of complaint is that the matcha itself does get lost, but the other flavours are so good I feel like it makes it up.
Sipdown (2789)!
It’s so interesting that I ended up drinking so many more “Christmas themed” or wintery feeling teas this week coinciding with the blizzards we were having. I didn’t really clock that until just now writing tasting notes, but just goes to show how much the weather really does influence cravings…
Anyway, this was a sipdown a long time coming. It’s a fine tea, and in particular I think the chocolate note is really nice. European chocolate flavours tend to lean a little more fruity than the chocolate we get in North America, but it works well in this context with the citrus notes. It really is the orange I have slightly more mixed feelings about. It’s bright in a way that’s both a little juicy but also a little sharp and pithy. Somewhat at odds to have that abrasive quality in a decadent profile. Almost a little too realistic for the taste of orange peel in an uncanny way.
Ultimately I’m fine with this sipdown though because I know I have similar enough teas in my stash from other companies. No reason to be holding onto this one in particular.
So I drank this one yesterday at work. We had some pretty freaking intense snow storms over the weekend, even by Canadian standards, and so a lot of the city was “snowed in” and working from home. I, however, left my laptop at the office over the weekend so I was kind of forced to come in. I was so cold when I got in that the first thing I wanted to do was just drink a gallon of chai. I settled for the mug, though…
I have to say that I think I agree a lot with Kaylee. I really enjoyed this tea, but I didn’t really get distinct notes of chestnut and the overall sweet brown and molasses-y sort of flavour with the spices (the cinnamon/ginger in particular) really made me think of gingerbread. Gingerbread with a bit of a peppery kick to the finish, perhaps. It was exactly the warming, aromatic flavour I was looking for though!
I’m curious to taste it again in the future to see if slightly different context brings out more of those nuttier flavours for me. But even if it doesn’t, I still think this is a really rich and well balanced chai profile regardless.
Iced Tea Sipdown (2790)!
I’m going a little bit crazy right now because I finished off a bag to make this iced tea and I think it’s my last bag which makes this a “proper” sipdown, but I’m actually not 100% sure it’s my last one and I don’t have time to carefully go through my GIANT BIN of black tea samples to make sure…
Regardless, I think it was time to finish this one off. It is a blend that has very much grown on me with time, but it was an older sample and I am also trying to be better this year about not just holding onto the last serving or so of teas. It was a refreshing tea to start my work day with today with not just a solid cola flavour but a pleasantly bright and sweet cherry note, too! Cherry cola, essentially. But flat and in tea form. It’s better than it sounds, I swear.
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.
Banana pancakes. That’s it. That’s the tasting note.
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.
Iced!
I know we’re in the heart of winter here in Montreal following two very, very heavy snowfalls from some recent blizzards but I just really wanted a mojito this week and this tea really has that fresh, cooling, and lightly sweet profile of a mojito that I was looking for but with the added bonus of a splash of bright lemonade-like citrus too. It was soooo deeply refreshing.
It’s going to kill me when I finish this one off, sand I’m getting close to that point now.
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.
Cold Brew!
This is the last of the Santa’s Secret from this past year’s advent calendar, and I really thought this was a sipdown too until I remembered I have a bunch of sachets shoved in a drawer somewhere…
Anyway, it was still a good tea even though if it wasn’t the cupboard reduction I was looking for. Quite smooth and refreshing with a lightly cooling feeling from the mint inclusion and a hint of soft vanilla. I find when I drink this tea cool I get less of the “fondant note” I dislike so much, so now I need to decide whether it’s worth using the sachets for iced tea. That always feels so awkward/clunky to brew, but I think is a better flavour option for me personally…
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 haven’t had this tea in a while and it’s so, soooo deeply cold and snowy right now in Montreal following our two back-to-back blizzards that an even cup of chai was calling my name. I remembered this being fairly cinnamon forward with a slightly more earthy and herbal undertone from the ashwagandha and ginseng in the blend, but I had TOTALLY forgotten that this tea does actually pack a little heat as well with a pretty strong peppery kick to it alongside more aromatic notes of cardamom. It was strong, but also soothing in a satisfying way. Plus, the intensity of the spice totally cleared out my sinuses which was a bit of an added bonus.
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.
