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Well, looks like the dashboard is back up – so this seems like as good a time as any to talk about DT’s newest collection, which launched a little less than a week ago…

I’ve worked on wellness teas before like Immunity SOS & Coffee Break, both of which are being refeatured in this collection. However, this is the first proper wellness “campaign” (ie. multiple teas in one release) where every single tea released is something that I developed. It’s sort of both a personal and profession milestone moment.

This tea in particular is probably one of the most interesting teas I’ve ever developed purely because the process was so significantly different than the normal development for a loose leaf tea. And why exactly was that? Without getting too deep into the nitty gritty, the tldr is that this tea was blended with added probiotics! It’s not actually the first time DT has released a probiotic boosted blend (anyone else remember Probiotea?) but it is the first time I’ve made one. It was actually a very surreal experience having the tables flip from being the one in store selling Probiotea to now re-imagining the concept. We did use the same strain of probiotics (GanedenBC30) since they’re just so well suited to tea because they’re shelf stable and heat resistant. Just really good at taking a beating and still doing their job – which is good because this blend is actually formulated with enough added probiotics that regular consumption of a 16 oz mug of it has noticeable digestive benefits.

I didn’t want to solely lean on the probiotics though, which is why I incorporated other gut-friendly ingredients like oat straw and chicory root, the latter of which is the ingredient with the highest naturally occurring inulin content – a water soluble prebiotic fiber. Part of why I liked working on this tea is because I feel like people are more ready for a blend like this now than they were when Probiotea originally released. It was still crazy cool and innovative back then, but talking about gut health and digestion was so taboo. It’s still kind of like that, but I feel like the consumer awareness and acceptance of that type of language has changed SO MUCH. We live in a world now where brands like BelliWelli go viral because of positive reception to slogans like “Hot Girls have IBS” and it’s not irregular at all to get targeted ads and product recommendations for shakes, yogurts, pills and other things promising to improve your gut health and help you poop better. More people know not just what probiotics are but also understand the differences between pre and pro and their individual importances.

In additional to all of that, I feel like I also got the added boon of knowing all the friction points people had with the original tea – probably the biggest of which was simply the flavour direction. It was a very minty profile with a lot of sarsaparilla. I liked it, but I remember people finding it almost tooth paste-like. The sarsaparilla was especially polarizing. So when I was trying to figure out the flavour profile of this tea I knew I wanted something that people would be more likely to routine around because probiotics are most effective when consumed daily and that was less polarizing overall. I took a lot of inspiration from Greek Yogurt (another probiotic) profiles, and that eventually led to the decision to just make this a simple, smooth and creamy vanilla flavour. It’s definitely not overly sweet or super rich, but I like the pureplay vanilla notes here. They come out more as the tea slightly cools or with a splash of milk. Personally, I’ve really been enjoying it as a late night cuppa – especially when I’ve wanted something just a little bit decadent but without being sugary and cloying. It’s just enough to satisfy those cravings (for me at least).

This is a long tasting note, I know. A lot of work went into this tea though, and I learnt a whole lot through the process. I know it’s a bit of an expensive blend (probiotics are not cheap y’all), but I personally think it’s worth it for the combination of function and flavour. Definitely looking forward to seeing what other people think, 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.