Red Velvet Cake

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Artificial Flavouring, Beet Root Pieces, Black Tea, Chocolate Bits, Natural Flavours, Sprinkles, White Chocolate
Flavors
Cake, Chocolate, Vanilla, Butter, Caramel, White Chocolate, Dark Bittersweet, Bitter, Creamy, Tea, Dark Chocolate, Cream, Maple, Marshmallow, Molasses, Sweet, Artificial, Tannic, Brown Sugar, Milk, Toffee, Alcohol, Malt, Powdered Sugar, Maple Syrup, Red Fruits, Frosting, Sugar
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 45 sec 2 g 20 oz / 595 ml

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271 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Whoops! Looks like someone caved and got the special edition tin. I don’t even care for chocolate/Red Velvet cake, but there’s something about Red Velvet-flavoured or -scented stuff that draws me...” Read full tasting note
    65
  • “Sipdown! Ok, I confess… this tea has grown on me and now I really like it, hahahahaha. I thought it would be a great candidate for a sipdown while thesis-writing… yum, I was right. The sickly sweet...” Read full tasting note
    81
  • “I thought I was going to love you forever. What happened, Red Velvet Cake? Maybe I have less of a sweet tooth now so I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. Or maybe I’m just having an off day. I...” Read full tasting note
    78
  • “Well. Keep this in your cupboard for too long and it turns quite disappointing. Too thin and watery (even when following parameters. Even when you add milk) and there’s a really cloying note in...” Read full tasting note
    21

From DAVIDsTEA

Just dessert

What’s not to love about a red velvet cake? It’s chocolaty, it’s rich, and it’s bright red. We’re the first to admit it’s a pretty flashy dessert. If other cakes are birds of a feather, the red velvet is the peacock – which is exactly why we love it so much. And this sweet, lightly creamy black tea blend perfectly captures our favourite dessert. With semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, beetroot powder and little red sprinkles, it’Read more

About DAVIDsTEA View company

DavidsTea is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country, with its first store having opened in 2008.

271 Tasting Notes

65
1792 tasting notes

Whoops! Looks like someone caved and got the special edition tin. I don’t even care for chocolate/Red Velvet cake, but there’s something about Red Velvet-flavoured or -scented stuff that draws me into its trap.

The dry leaf smells a lot like Birthday Cake, which right there is a mega win because I really like Birthday Cake, but wished the tea base was different. Voilà!

The liquor isn’t as red as I had expected, but at least there’s no trace of beets. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of beets, but the thought of a chocolate Borscht tea doesn’t seem right.

The flavour is very similar to Birthday Cake, except of course, we’re dealing with a black tea base instead, which is luckily not astringent at all, and that maple-y flavour that is palpable in Birthday Cake is toned down here. This smells and tastes a little more like cake. When adding milk, it even smells a bit like cake batter.

It’s quite sweet. Not as sweet as Ice Cream Cake (whew, good), but it’s sweeter than Birthday Cake. I would advise against adding additional sweeteners. I wish the black tea base came out a little more, and that it weren’t as sweet, but I’ll happily finish my tin.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Show 7 previous comments...
PatchworkSheep 13 years ago

Oh no, I thought I had convinced myself against this one because of the beets. But the promise of a Birthday Cake-like tea without the awful red rooibos base? Mmmm.

I can’t get past the idea of drinking steeped beets though.

PatchworkSheep 13 years ago

Yes I can. Onto the shopping list this goes.

Fjellrev 13 years ago

Yeah, I was a little skeptical of it too, but I’ve had this tea thrice already and never detected any beet nuances from it. Also, I’ve seen a couple recipes online for chocolate cake that calls for beets, which apparently adds sweetness, as well as moisture (kind of like zucchini in cake, I guess) to the cake. So perhaps some of the extra sweetness I’m getting from this tea may be from the beets, as well.

TeaBrat 13 years ago

I wonder how this compares to the Republic of Tea version – have you ever had it?

Fjellrev 13 years ago

No I haven’t had it, but isn’t that one rooibos-based?

momo 13 years ago

I don’t get them adding beets. Beets were used because of food rationing during WW2 to add the color, and you’re not going to get much color when you’re using black tea especially. Beets aren’t even typically used in your traditional Southern red velvet!

Fjellrev 13 years ago

Yeah, beets stain like crazy, but combined with the black tea base, it’s not going to make a different in colour. Nice try, DT.

momo 13 years ago

The RoT one is rooibos and has it too, and it makes no difference there either. Maybe a slight tinge of color but hardly.

Kittenna 13 years ago

Chocolate borscht tea… bahahahaha!

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81
6124 tasting notes

Sipdown!

Ok, I confess… this tea has grown on me and now I really like it, hahahahaha. I thought it would be a great candidate for a sipdown while thesis-writing… yum, I was right. The sickly sweet mapley goodness is just working perfectly for me right now. Considering brewing up the last(?) of my Birthday Cake sample soon as well.

I can feel my willpower slipping… I may end up going into my local DT very soon and picking up 50g of this, Salted Caramel, Banana Oolong… and possibly anything else that strikes my fancy… because I deserve a treat, right? Nevermind the 10 years worth of tea I already have in my room…

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Show 9 previous comments...
ohfancythat 12 years ago

It is pretty freakin amazing :)

tattooed_tea 12 years ago

Banana Oolong has been discontinued

Kittenna 12 years ago

I know… I am hoping that my local store still has it in stock though. If not I may need to get it online. Already missed out on Caramel Spice, which I’m a touch irritated about.

tattooed_tea 12 years ago

they had it on the site last week. I’m still pretty irate about pom power.

Sweet Canadian 12 years ago

Banana Oolong hasn’t been officially put into the last chance section yet so I think you’ll be able to get some because the rest of their non-obsessive customers won’t know yet.

OMGsrsly 12 years ago

Sweet Canadian, neither has chicory dickory doc, but it hasn’t been available in stores for about 3 months. :/

Kittenna 12 years ago

I’m fairly sure that Banana Oolong is still available somewhere, at least. My list is now: Checkmate, Banana Oolong, Salted Caramel, Coco Chai Rooibos, possibly Quangzhou Milk Oolong. Perhaps I’ll try to finish off my tins prior to heading in to pick up the Spring Collection/March TOTM, and then buy it ALL.

OMGsrsly 12 years ago

All the tea!!! :)

Kittenna 12 years ago

I knowwwww…..

Lucy 12 years ago

Did you pick some more up ? :)

Kittenna 12 years ago

I didn’t, actually! Willpower ftw!

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78
1598 tasting notes

I thought I was going to love you forever. What happened, Red Velvet Cake?

Maybe I have less of a sweet tooth now so I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. Or maybe I’m just having an off day.

I still have 50g left to figure it out.

…it’s not you, it’s me.

Show 5 previous comments...
Fjellrev 12 years ago

The SAME thing happened to me! I bought the LE tin and about 1/3 of the way through, it became much too sweet for me. It tastes like sugar on steroids.

Rob Rauschenberg 12 years ago

I want to try this one, although its sweet. I’ve had the Red Velvet Cake from Simpson & Vail but it is a red tea blend.

Shmiracles 12 years ago

i see this one as a gateway tea. so many people who i invite over for tea want to try this one first. then they go home and begin starting their own tea collection!
i almost never drink it myself, but i love using it to get friends hooked!

ne14t 12 years ago

Makes a great latte, I have been finding myself doing that with a lot of my sweeter tea’s recently.

Alysha 12 years ago

Happened to me too! I had it to go and fell in love with it. Then I bought it and had it a few times and still haven’t reviewed it as I can’t decide how I feel.

Ozli 12 years ago

Yep! Maybe it’s that we’re heading into spring? Needs less sugar than going into winter.

TeaLady441 12 years ago

Hmmm. Maybe it’s a Gateway Tea. I could see that! But the Spring Theory has some merit too.

Lattes sound like a good idea.

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21
863 tasting notes

Well. Keep this in your cupboard for too long and it turns quite disappointing. Too thin and watery (even when following parameters. Even when you add milk) and there’s a really cloying note in the back of your throat similar to when you’ve had too much sugar.

This one was an accidental decupboarding but nonetheless it’s gone. The steeped tea is getting tossed – yuck. Bad luck for tea today I guess!

Bonnie 11 years ago

I think it’s the alcohol in the sprayed on artificial flavorings. That’s how they flavor tea like this…it can taste sour too.

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1220 tasting notes

Thank you, darby, for saving me the time on this one, hahaha.

So admittedly I am all about the red velvet craze. I wanted to buy this just because of the name, not knowing what it actually tasted like. And thankfully darby sent me some to try and now I will not have to regret buying any amount of it, because it is a real bummer.

When I first tasted it, all I could taste was 52Teas’ Pancake Breakfast, but not as good. Not much chocolate, but at least it had that cakey taste to it, although then there was also a maple taste. I know you guys have tons of maple syrup up there in Quebec, DavidsTea, but it doesn’t go in Red Velvet.

Now, the only reason I can get down with immediate Christmas is this magnificent creation from Target. http://instagr.am/p/Rg5XZ8Ja4a/ Needless to say, I figured it’d be perfect to perk this tea up. There’s still a lot of maple notes, but at least now I’ve got chocolate.

Not impressed with this one, it is definitely not a substitute for a delicious slice of southern red velvet cake. And now I want to go to the place with the best kind…

Show 10 previous comments...
Daisy Chubb 12 years ago

WHAT IS THAT HOLIDAY MILK OH MY GOD WHY ARE THERE NO TARGETS HERE AHHH flail

momo 12 years ago

Aren’t they supposed to start infiltrating Canada? They better bring you this stuff. There’s chocolate mint too but I can’t ever get it instead of this one. No way.

Nik 12 years ago

I couldn’t live in a place with no Tar-zhay. =P

Someone told me once (not that I bothered to look it up myself or anything) that red velvet is just chocolate. So now the flavour really confuses me, because to be honest when I eat red velvet cake, I don’t really taste chocolate, and now I’m wondering if that’s a psychological thing: that because I’m not seeing chocolate, I’m not tasting it either. And then, if it is chocolate, then how is red velvet chocolate holiday milk any different from year-round regular chocolate milk? Now I want to go to Target and get some to try it.

momo 12 years ago

It really isn’t that chocolatey but I still find it so good. I haven’t had any in awhile so I desperately want it. And the milk is different! It’s a bit thicker, and it doesn’t taste just like chocolate milk. I don’t know how to describe it because I try to limit myself to 6 oz a day max.

Nik 12 years ago

Thanks for trying, anyway. :D I will need to get some and try it (and make tea-ful concoctions with it).

Tommy Toadman 12 years ago

I want Holiday Milk now too lol

Daisy Chubb 12 years ago

I know Target is buying up some Zellers, but it’s a slow process sadly. When I was in the states a few years ago I almost bought up the whole place – at least that’s what it felt like. Couldn’t buy any food of course, arguably the best part ;)

Nik 12 years ago

Time for another visit? :D

Daisy Chubb 12 years ago

I have a passport! Oh man I would love to! visit every Steepster’s state haha

Babble 12 years ago

@Nik – Haha, I love when people call it “Tar-Zhay”. I wonder where that originated from..

Nik 12 years ago

Rachel, I really didn’t think I’d find anything, but check it out, an explanation from their marketing officer himself! http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1719878893

Babble 12 years ago

That’s awesome! I have to share that. Thank you so much!!

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74
1186 tasting notes

Blargh this is so sweet. I have been procrastinating drinking down my last about 10-15 g of this just because it is so overwhelmingly sweet. I liked this when I first got it, but it’s almost too much now :( I guess if I’m craving sugar, it would be good, but now I have Pumpkin Chai for that lol, with brown sugar. Ah well, I will drink down this tea at some point, along with Stormy night, just too much sweets in those two! See previous notes.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Fjellrev 12 years ago

Yeah!

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80
1271 tasting notes

When I saw pics of Red Velvet cakes coming out years ago I attempted to make it, and turned out badly. Too vinegary once, not red at all a few times (wrong food colouring) or messed up texture (wrong food colouring screwing up the liquid content). I’m more of a cookie and pie baker, not a cake baker!

DRY: Smells like cake! Lots of red sprinkles and, white bits and chocolate chips.

STEEPED: Light reddy brown black tea. Smells like cake batter. I thought it would come out more red. Bit of a clear film on top of my cup.

TASTE: Smooth, battery cake taste – rich cake, vanilla buttery with chocolate flavor. Quite sweet without adding any sweetener, Crap!
I sweetened what was left in the pot without tasting, and it’s pretty sweet and spot on toothy sweet cake. The black tea is subtle here, adding some depth. No bitterness or astringency. Do not sweeten this without tasting first!

COMMENTS: If you love Red Velvet Cake, give this a shot. Me? it’s really impressively tastes like cake, which is pretty cool – it be a fun tea to show people new to fun flavored teas. However, RVC is really chocolate cake with red colouring, ya know? I do think this is better than DT’s “Chocolate Cake” as it tastes closer to cake.

Oh crap. I’m scared to see my Steeper, I remember Chocolate cake made a gross mess in my Steeper from the sprinkles, this tea might be the same.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec

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76
357 tasting notes

I don’t know why, but when I took my first sip of this today, it tasted weird. You know that smell you get when you water a bunch of house plants – that dirt smell. That’s what my first sip reminded me of. It was quite strange.

After my first sip I said “ugh!”
After the second one I said “hmm?”
After the third I said “mmm…”

I’m finishing off the last of this little sample I bought. I think I mentioned this in my last tealogs for this tea, but if you let this tea get cold, it has a creepy little scum layer at the top of it. Despite this initial dirt taste and cold-scum this tea is still delicious. I can’t remember if this is part of Davids regular collection, but if possible, I intend to at least buy another sample of this in the future. It’s yummy-yum

Fjellrev 12 years ago

Yeah, I know what you mean. But luckily I haven’t gotten that with this one.

canadianadia 12 years ago

I’m happy it only happened to me with my first sip.

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516 tasting notes

Yummeh.

I was given a 5 minute break at work today, so I ran up to DT to try this tea! I had to!

It smells divine – reminds me of the other cake teas, but no stevia so it’ll have a different flavour.

As for flavour, my tea was steeped a little weak (not quite enough leaf in my to-go cup), but the flavour was nommy. Reminded me a lot of Birthday Cake, which is my favourite rooibos ever, but with more cakey, baked-good notes that I really enjoyed.

I will definitely get some to take home and steep my way (or the highway), then we’ll decide if I’ll get more. Until then – this sweet cup has made my evening :)

Show 4 previous comments...
Mac A. 13 years ago

i need this tea!!!!!!

Nik 13 years ago

I have got to start trying some of these baked-goods teas. I expect the experience to be a bit strange, but man, they sound so good…

Daisy Chubb 13 years ago

Oh it’s good – it’s REAL good ;)

Amanda 13 years ago

how lucky of you that you get to go to DT on your break. i would be broke if that was the case. i have seriously contemplated taking off of work to go on a special trip to DT…. one day i will :)

MissMylin 13 years ago

I’m dying to try this one! And I hate the fact that I don’t have a DT nearby :( Oh well, I have to get through a bit more of my stash before I can justify another order. :)

Erin 13 years ago

I can’t wait to try this one! I always run to Davids when I have a break at work too lol.

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91
62 tasting notes

Today is a great day! I got my licence yay! So i’m not spouse to have any tea on my diet but i’m treating myself to this delicious chocolaty goodness tea as a congrats to myself yay!

Show 5 previous comments...
Ysaurella 12 years ago

Congratulations !

Cedes 12 years ago

Thanks :)

Daniel Scott 12 years ago

A diet that doesn’t let you drink tea?! What kind of diet is that?

Cedes 12 years ago

Its a cleansing diet. I’m aloud plain green teas, or any herbals that don’t have any sugar.

Nik 12 years ago

Congratulations!

Cedes 12 years ago

Thanks :)

Shmiracles 12 years ago

yes super congratulations!

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