Monk's Blend

I enjoyed this tea when it first came out with the Spring Collection. However, it tastes similar to Guangzhou Milk Oolong, and I can’t taste the jasmine pearls at all. I don’t think it was necessary to add the white tea with the oolong, since the oolong is the most predominant. I get the point of it, because it’s a “mix”. Overall, satisfactory tea, but I wouldn’t recommend if you’ve had any other oolong tea.

Sipdown (1415)!

I was packaging up samples for someone yesterday when I found this tea buried in the bottom of my white tea sample drawer. I’d completely forgotten that I still had it, and tbh I was actually surprised to see it since I have such a distaste towards the name of this tea. I just find it soooo incredibly inaccurate/misleading to what actual Monk’s Blend is; black tea with grenadine. I must have really been craving the buttery flavour when I took home this lab sample at some point…

Anyway, I’m finishing off the mug now and it’s fine. I’ve never hated the taste of this tea, though it’s not exception to me either. Very, very buttery tasting though – those milk oolong flavours come through so dominantly in the cup that you can almost entirely forget there’s also jasmine pearls in the blend. Were it not for the lingering floral note in the finish, they probably wouldn’t register to me at all.

Won’t miss this one, but it’s been nice this morning.

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.

Got this as a sample with an order online from David’s tea. This is a tea I probably wouldn’t buy usually, but I have really enjoyed it and will consider buying in the future. Nice and smooth flavour.

I got this as a sample with my recent order. I am not sure what happened but the sample is a little crushed even though the package seemed to be packaged fairly well. In any case, I find this to be kind of an odd combination and it seemed to be more astringent than I was expecting. Maybe I will pick up a little to see if I can brew it again. I used the whole sample pack up already

Dry leaf: Sweet cream aromas dominate over a very light floral note.

Liqueur: Green with yellow tinge. Has the aroma of buttercream with a very light floral note.

Flavour: Delicate floral aromas balance the tea and freshen the aftertaste.

This tea is pretty good. I’m getting some floral notes. I’m getting a fruity note. I’m getting a milk note from the milk oolong. Don’t know if they used a milk oolong with actual milk flavoring. And I think I detect the jasmine in the mix. This is a nice harmonious blend.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 4 min.

DAVIDs soft-launched their spring collection and this is the only one that interested me. I’m not a big oolong drinker (sensitive stomach + I’m sensitive to caffeine) but I figured since this was a blend with white and green tea (which doesn’t bother me) I’d pick up 10grams.

I’ve tried it a few times with minor variations in steeping temp + time. For me, I find I like 3min @ 185F the best so as not to release bitterness from the green tea but still extract the milky/creamy taste from the oolong. I actually really enjoyed that taste as I have never tried milk oolong before. I don’t know if it’s me though, but I find the milky taste is only really there in the first steeping of the leaves + only when it’s still fairly hot, which is a bit disappointing. After that I get a mineral/grassy taste (which I do like). Overall pretty enjoyable, and it makes me want to try milk oolong. I can’t have much of it though due to my sensitivities, but this was quite nice.