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“You know that wonderful feeling you get when you’ve finally struck pay-dirt and figured out the perfect brewing parameters for a given tea? And then you try it again and follow the same steps and...” Read full tasting note
“A break from sipdowns this morning.. It’s cold, so I wanted something cozy. What I really wanted was a stove top chai with milk, but we are out of milk so I will wait til later for that. I’m...” Read full tasting note
“I just had to try some of this. The words “spice cake” were being bandied about, and I love spice cake. Very clove-y, and I’m getting some phantom ginger taste. I can see why so many people think...” Read full tasting note
“Over the last couple of days, I started drinking my flavored black teas without added sweetener, and I think I started to get used to not having it. I mean, there’s a sweetness to these teas...” Read full tasting note
Everything nice
Some teas are great conversation starters. All you have to do is steep a cup and before you know it, people are asking “what is that wonderful smell?”, “did someone just bake a cake?” and of course, “can I have some?” This comforting black tea blend is no exception. With the warm aromas of cinnamon, cloves and vanilla, it smells and tastes like a spice cake fresh out of the oven. But consider yourself warned: you might want a little bit extra to share around…
Ingredients: Black tea, apples, cinnamon cassia, cloves, carrots, marigold petals, natural vanilla flavouring.
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.
in am writing this most favourable review in honour of two friends: Ysaurella (who is the one ultimately receiving the sample) and keychange who wrote such a lovely impassioned review of this blend!
first thing’s first: keychange.
david’s teas was my first loose leafing source. i have mostly moved beyond them…. honestly i find them a tad too cutesy with names and sprinkles, etc. i could have taken that in stride to a certain extent… but, i began encountering discrepancies in the ingredients lists. a serious thing to be sure, especially for someone with allergies!
however, if no one gives us a second chance then it doesn’t matter if we get better. and if our efforts don’t matter, then why should we make them at all? bit by bit i have cautiously been trying david’s teas again.
they have a few blends that are superlative! bar none their blueberry jam is the best ever! true they have not been doing tea for 300 years like many of the apothecaries in france, but we all start somewhere.
never let us say that we are impervious to peer pressure— we all are under the right circumstances. my friends can absolutely influence me! so when shopping for some north american extras to tack into my return swap to the brilliant Ysaurella, keychange’s review of this tea came to mind!
what amused me most at david’s today was the gravity with which the diligent young manager absorbed what i was saying.
‘i have a tea buddy in france that sent me some beautiful damman freres and mariages freres samples…’
the young woman spluttered and coughed and managed to look both jealous and aghast at the same time, lol.
‘she what? wow. oh wow.’
as per keychange’s review…. indeed this is a very nice tea….. especially if you mix it with sweetened condensed milk! definitely a spice cake tea. although i can’t put my finger on it absolutely, i think it may be the carrot that persuades me that i am drinking cake! very nicely done.
why am i sampling Ysaurella’s samples? because i am not sending her anything that i haven’t tried, plain and simple =0)
a beautiful cold weather blend. don’t be afraid to let it steep for 7. thanks in part to keychange i am changing my david’s teas tune.
Umm so I might have just ordered the 250 gram bag of this that’s on sale. I was feeling major sadness that I’m down to my last few servings of Stormy Night and I needed another tea to fill the void. This works. Also it’s pretty darn tasty.
It’s snowing this evening and I needed something warm and cozy.
3 tsp + sweetener in my 16oz steeping mug and something I discovered yesterday, this resteeps well, which is surprising given the long first steep.
This is the tea of the day from our new teas bag. I was looking forward to this one, but I’m a little disappointed. It’s not a bad tea and all of the promised flavors are there, but it’s very weak. It’s lacking the bready cake note that I was hoping for. I can taste cinnamon, cloves and a creamy vanilla flavor, but it’s like they’re all muted. Maybe next time I will try really overleafing, since I usually tend to overleaf a little anyways. As it is, this would be a good, calming tea for the afternoon. I don’t think I would reach for this on a morning when I need to wake up and go. It’s kind of nice for today, though. I’m spending the day getting organized for Christmas stuff and planning our trip to the mountains next week. Today is our anniversary so we’re going out for a nice dinner tonight. Even though it’s weak, this is a nice tea to ease into the day.
-Dry blend has large black tea leaves and twigs with large pieces of dried apples and carrots, pieces of cinnamon and large yellow petals.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of cinnamon and carrot cake. Tea liquor aroma is of spicy cinnamon with a hint of vanilla.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium yellow brown color.
-Dull vanilla flavor with a clove finish. Light musty cinnamon aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Good tea. A very soft cup. Weakly flavored of cinnamon, cloves and creamy vanilla.
Fearing the worst but hoping for the best, I picked up 10 grams of this blend. I tend not to like the cinnamon used at Davids, but I could hardly resist a black tea with apple and vanilla. I always want a good apple tea, so I will try them even when one or two of the ingredients has me leery. Dry, this smells of mulled apples, cooked in their juices with some spice. I made homemade applesauce yesterday with cinnamon and a bit of sugar, and this smells like it but with a bit more kick of apple.
Steeped, I am mostly getting the dry musty smell that I find typical of DT’s cinnamon. I don’t know what it is as I enjoy cinnamon at home in things and find it appealing, but Davids’ cinnamon always smells like old scented wood rather than what I think of as cinnamon. No tea or apple aroma, nor any sweetness or vanilla. Sipped at 3 minutes it was quite weak, so I am steeping longer to try to tease some taste out of this one.
At closer to five minutes, this smells about the same but finally yields a bit of taste beyond the musty cinnamon. I can’t taste the tea but there is a vague flavour overall. Not necessarily apple, vanilla or sugar. Those notes are all drowned out or mixed together into a mess I can’t untangle. As it cools I get more of the apple, but this is a tea I would prefer to drink hot so that doesn’t exactly help.
I have enough for another cup but at the moment this doesn’t impress me at all. I feel as though it could be greatly improved with a better cinnamon or a stronger tea base. Or maybe even more of the theoretical apple and vanilla. Heck, even putting some sugar in here would probably help (given the name). I won’t be re-buying though as at this point in my tea drinking life, a tea that needs help isn’t a tea for me.
I do enjoy spicy tea’s and this one does not disappoint. The first time I tried it a couple of days ago, I thought that it tasted like some of David’s other blends. So I tried steeping it for the full 7 minutes, and found that it made a difference.
At first I did get the full spice cake flavour. As the cup cooled, the cake taste disappeared and I was left with clove. I don’t mind the cloves…sometimes I add extra cloves to tea.
This is pretty good. I’ll have no trouble finishing what I have.
I think this is the second to last tea that scribbles sent me that I saved for the holiday season. It reminds me a bit of Glitter and Gold, which I finished up this morning, so I kind of wish I hadn’t tried them back to back. I did end up enjoying this one a little bit more because it wasn’t nearly as sweet. What surprised me was how weak tasting it was even when steeped for the full 7 minutes. With that long of a steeping time I expected a lot more body to it, I don’t think I tasted any of the black base. I do think this might make a nice tea latte, but I’ve been out of milk for the last few days and don’t want to brave the outdoors right now, I think it’s -15 outside.
I did want to mention that I think it is absolutely wonderful that DAVIDs lists what type of cinnamon they used in this blend. I happen to be very allergic to cassia cinnamon and the fact that it was labeled as such, rather than just cinnamon, let me know that I needed to take some allergy medication before trying this tea. I really wish more companies took the time to make this small distinction on their labels. It may not seem like much, but for someone with so many food allergies, it makes all the difference in the world. I wish I could purchase more teas from DAVIDs to show my support of a company that takes the time to label their products in such detail, but I happen to be allergic to a lot of their flavorings as well… stupid food allergies. I’ll just have to settle for giving them some of my business when I decide to buy more teaware, they have a few things I’m eyeing up.
Ever have one of those days where it both simultaneously drags and goes way too fast at the same time? That was my day. It doesn’t help that despite working all day I feel like I got nothing accomplished. sigh Ah well, this is why we have tea!
I actually wanted this tea yesterday but by the time I had a chance to actually make it I was an hr away from heading home and I don’t like feeling rushed when drinking tea… anytime I’ve got a time limit (real or self-imposed) it just detracts from the experience for me. So today it was… I do really enjoy this tea, the orange brightens up the whole cup but the spice is still nice and deep. Not to mention that it’s smells divine too. Today’s cup felt particularly rich to me… thick in a way that I hadn’t noticed before but was really nice to relax to.
I have gone back and forth and back and forth on whether I want to order more of this while it is on special, or whether I can finish my tin and be okay when it is gone. I do like the spices in it, but I find the cloves a little drying when I drink it. I find it a lighter version of pumpkin chai, I think the spices are similar, but I am just not sure it merits anything resembling a permanent place on my shelf. At the end of the day, I like it, but I think I like sweeter teas like Coffee Cake a lot more. So I shall enjoy the remaining half tin I have of this, then bid it a fond farewell to make room for new amazing teas I am sure to discover!
I feel so flattered that my review made you more excited to try this!
you and like similar teas and you are very eloquent with your writing… no doubt your thoughts held sway!
ah I am impatient now to taste this DT – I have to say until now I am not very impressed by the brand (except for their marketing !)
they can very hit or miss, it’s true. this one i think you may like because of the spicing! definitely a cake tea. and of course i’m sending you some blueberry jam. it is quite excellent…. there are others as well =0)