Currant Affair

I’m not gonna lie.. I haven’t been feeling david’s lately… with all the mango teas for spring and summer that i couldn’t have, and some less than stellar blends that I could have, and the major disappearances of some of my favorites! … I have liked some of the new teas, but haven’t really LOVED them (not enough that i’ll really, really, miss them when they disappear)…. but THIS! on first smell, i thought it was going to be really fake currant tasting, and gross.. but on first sip.. i fell in love! .. the currant flavour is really strong, and true to currant taste.. and it changes into a creamy vanillaish taste… so simple, so beautiful :) i had it hot.. i’m gonna try it iced tommorow.

Wow! I mean WOW. 2 reasons. I cant believe im the first person to review this tea, didnt think that would ever happen. Second, this tea is amazing. Very natural, delicious black currant flavour. I have been looking forward to trying this tea since the fall tea menu came out and it did not disappoint. When I smelled this tea I was reminded why I have a problem with david’s rooibos teas: it smells slightly minty or maybe a little bit like menthol, and usually tastes like it too. I can sort of taste it in this one, but only very faintly and not enough to ruin the great flavour of this tea.

This was such a disappointment! I was a bit off-put by the initial smell of the dry leaves but decided to try it anyway. As it steeped, I begun to get more of a blackcurrant and even blackberry aroma. However, when I drank it, the taste was very similar to what I would have expected from the initial smell. I was able to drink a little more than half the cup (barely) but couldn’t bring myself to drink the rest. I probably will not be trying this one again!

When I went to David’s tea yesterday with the intention of trying new samples, I had to add this one to my choices. It doesn’t LOOK so good. But wait until you steep it. It has a strong taste of blackcurrant and that’s about it. It tastes what it announces. My boyfriend said it tastes like antibiotics or cough syrup. Ahah! Well, maybe I gave him too much tea in his teaball, because he liked my cup better. So just be careful of not adding too much of it, the recipe should do. If I would buy again? Sure!

Sooooo… all my friends are saying that they hate this tea because it tastes like cough syrup. However, I’ve been fairly addicted to it since it came out, and I personally didn’t understand the cough syrup thing until…
I realized I had a childhood addiction to grape flavoured dimetapp (like my parents would have to take it away from me because I’d drink the whole thing). THAT’S why I love this tea. Tastes just like it!

I tried this a long while ago, and it tasted and smelled like cough medicine. End of story. BLECH.

I really like this tea. WOW. A definite keeper!

I am SO sad this has been discontinued. This was one of my favorite teas from Davids. Blackcurrent is such a wonderful flavor for a tea, but everywhere else it appears it is overpowed by combining it with blueberry or strawberry or some other more potent fruit flavor. Current affair however was a pure current flavor which was fragrant but not overly fruity. Having spent time in England, this tea always reminds me of there, where current flavored candies/juices etc are much more common so its a popular choice for nights of British TV viewing. I hope they bring it back, or something similar!

Sipdown!

Not usually one for rooibos, but this is pretty good. Black currant is predominant, with a slight woody undertone. Not sure I’d buy again as it seems closer to juice than tea and I rarely have cravings for currants, but it does the job nicely.

It’s storytime!

Picture it, DAVIDsTEA, October 2014. My darling wife, De, and I go shopping in store for the first time in a while. She looks up at the tea wall in shock.

“There are so many I haven’t tried!”
“So get some and try it.”
“Okay. 10 g of this, 10 g of that, 10 g of Currant Affair…”
“Seriously? You won’t like it. You don’t like black currants. You hate rooibos. In what world is the combination going to be tasty for you?”
“I think I’m going to like it!”

Cut to a few days when she finally made a cup.

“This is not good. It’s awful. It tastes like cough syrup.”
“intense side-eye”

Anyway, I am loving the smell of this brewed up. There’s a little Asian grocery store we like to go to and pick up these huge bags of assorted gummy candies. The purple ones are black currant and I love them! My dad can be blamed for my enjoyment of black currant, it’s one of his favorites. I hope it lives up to the smell.

Meh. It’s okay. Nothing worth stocking up on, but I wouldn’t turn down a cup.