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I was immediately sold on picking up this tea, because I’ve never seen DAVIDsTea experiment with hojicha up until now. The dry aroma is sweet caramel with undertones of the roasted, somewhat smoky green tea. Once steeped, the hojicha is immediately apparent, but there’s also something about this combination of ingredients that evokes a flavour reminiscent of burnt marshmallows like Kelly (aka Roswell Strange) suggested in her tasting note. There’s no bitterness or astringency to this tea, but it definitely has a thicker, heavier mouthfeel and slight salted caramel vibe.

I think I prefer it with a splash of milk. It’s a sweet, but cozy cuppa overall. I really hope DAVIDsTea introduces a straight hojicha without add-ins to their catalog at some point…

I’m always in the market for a stevia-free oolong blend, and Tangerine Turmeric sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, I think the chunkiness of this blend hinders its ability to perform well. This particular cup was incredibly tart and tangy, tasting mostly of citrus; lemon then tangerine. The ginger appears alongside the turmeric towards the tail end of the sip. (My chronic heartburn can confirm its presence.) There’s a smidgen of mint that appears at the end as well, but it’s very slight.

I appreciate that there’s zero bitterness or astringency, but this blend feels more like a lemon ginger tisane, and less like an oolong blend. Ultimately, Tangerine Turmeric was a miss for me, but I will keep experimenting with the remainder of my 50g to see if I can yield better cups.

Every time I smell/prepare this tea, I am reminded of my months developing a recipe for London Fog Cupcakes, in which I incorporated this tea in a couple different ways! I really enjoy the rich, natural tasting vanilla and strong, full bodied tea base in this blend.

I first heard about this tea during the worst of my sickness this past September, and thanks to a special tea friend, I was able to get my hands on a box, since this tea isn’t yet available to purchase outside of the UK.

Honestly speaking, it smells 10x better than it tastes. But that’s not to say that it tastes bad either. The flavour here has an especially strong, malty tea presence that teeters on the verge of being bitter. The toast and jam elements are present, but more so in the finish. It may sound sacreligious to say that I prefer this one with milk, but milk really helps to cut the bite of the tea and bring out the natural sweetness. Right now I’m enjoying it as a latte with eggnog, which is delicious as well!

Yorkshire Tea were not exaggerating when they described their Toast & Jam Brew as “a real tea that tastes like real tea, but also toast and also jam”. The concept of this tea still blows my mind, and I think they did a great job of taking the flavours of toast & jam and incorporating it into a tea blend. Although, I will say that their Biscuit Brew still has my heart.

Starting early on my monthly goal of starting my day with a cup of green tea! I opted for a Nordic mug of this since discontinued pure tea from DAVIDsTea. Unfortunately I only have half of a tin left, but this is easily one of my go-to green teas!

It has such a clean, crisp flavour to it, with hints of pepperiness and vegetal notes in the way of leafy greens. I appreciate how easy going it is; this is a definite staple in my stash!

Just finished my full length blog review of this tea (scheduled to go live late next week), and figured I’d reiterate my thoughts here.

Pumpkin Pie Tart has a very warm, inviting scent to it. Though once steeped, the flavour doesn’t exactly translate the way I would have hoped. It has a light to medium body and tastes a lot like sweet, spiced apple, at least for a majority of the sip. It finishes with a pleasant creaminess and more of the pumpkin spice. Because it doesn’t totally scream pumpkin pie in my mind, I likely won’t be re-purchasing it, but it’s enjoyable enough that I’ll have no issues finishing off what I have left of it!

Brewed this one hot with milk as a sort of “redemption cuppa”! Three weeks ago, when I had Cinnamon Bun Chai last, my taste buds were greatly impaired, so I figured I would attempt to give it another shot…

This time around, I am able to pick up on a better defined flavour that I can actually liken to cinnamon buns/rolls, BUT it’s really faint and appears more so in the finish. The overall flavour is still predominantly spicy; a combination of the cinnamon, ginger & even the clove. I appreciate that there is some sweetness to this tea, and not just 100% spice.

Sadly, it’s still a big fat nope from me. I wound up pouring the remainder of my cup over ice for a much more palatable and less intense tasting sip.

As a disclosure/forewarning/etc etc, I feel that it’s necessary to say that purchasing this tea was very out of character for me. For as long as I’ve been living, I’ve never enjoyed the taste of chocolate, and still don’t, but there is something about this tea that drew me to it. And I think that thing was the Lapsang Souchong.

After trying Fireside S’mores both as a latte and as a plain hot cuppa, I can now see why Deb insisted on only having this tea with milk. Milk really elevates the overall creaminess and helps support the lack of actual marshmallows. But I think that the combination of vanilla, toasted coconut, and the aforementioned Lapsang Souchong did a well enough job of mimicking a toasted marshmallow flavour. There is a nice amount of savoury smokiness without being overwhelming and outshining the components. Most surprising to me was the fact that the chocolate was palatable and not nearly as strong as I feared.

Overall, I really enjoyed this use of Lapsang Souchong tea. Even though I don’t think this tea necessarily screamed s’mores, it was still pretty good and I think that it’s worth trying at least once, if you’re able to get your hands on some.

Prevalent notes of ginger, to the point where I have to remind myself that I’m drinking a black tea, because the tea base is otherwise nonexistent. There are hints of creaminess from the coconut and vanilla, but not enough to confirm a “creme brulee” flavour in my mind. Especially without milk; milk is what helps to redeem this blend for me. It makes the ginger less harsh tasting, introduces a much needed creaminess, and even a bit of natural sweetness.

Would recommend if you’re a fan of ginger, but as a whole, Ginger Creme Brulee falls short in delivering a balanced flavour that properly represents its namesake.

Last week, I placed two back-to-back DAVIDsTea orders: one to stock up on Sweet Potato Pie and the latter was inspired by this blend which popped up on the site early Tuesday morning. I really gravitated towards the idea of a chai blend with an oolong base. But more than that, I was really excited for a blend inspired by cinnamon buns! Which is why I impulse bought 100g without thinking about it too much…

Now, it could be my sick brain, but I found this tea to be a bit of a letdown. I decided to make it as a hot latte with soy milk. As far as cinnamon goes, it is the most prominent of this tea from beginning to end. But with that being said, that’s all I could taste or smell, and the flavour overall was a little too “spicy” for my liking. I think this is a better cinnamon tea/spiced chai than it is a tea that tastes like cinnamon buns, at least in my opinion.

If you like spicy chai, I’d recommend Cinnamon Bun Chai, but if you’re expecting a cinnamon bun flavour like I did, you might be disappointed just the same.