Category: Review

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DavidsTea’s Sunny C

Sunny C by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I picked up a little pouch of Sunny C at one of my local DavidsTea retail locations (yes, I am still very much aware of how lucky I am to have several locations within driving distance to me!). I first smelled this one in store and was intrigued because the aroma of Sunny C reminds me of Tang. If you’re not familiar with Tang, it’s an orange drink mix that smells sweet and chock full of artificial orange flavouring and colour. Sunny C is marketed as an “immune booster bursting with orange, carrot & a sunny dose of Vitamin C”.

If you’re not into drinking your vitamins, vitamin C is also found in many foods – including citrus fruit, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and strawberries. Vitamin C is also important in preventing scurvy and lengthening the duration of the common cold – although there isn’t a lot of evidence to support vitamin C in preventing the common cold. Either way, vitamin C is important.

There are some huge dried fruit pieces in this fruit infusion blend that DavidsTea has put together. Sunny C consists of: apple, carrots, pineapple, orange, hibiscus, lemon peel, pink peppercorns, safflowers, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and natural flavouring. For something that smells incredibly like Tang, which is the most fake-smelling orange drink  item that I can think of, I’m surprised that orange is the fourth ingredient in the blend and not somewhere higher up.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Sunny C in 95°C (200°F) water for 5+ minutes. My initial steep of Sunny C was for 7 minutes.

First Taste

Sunny C steeps to a dark reddish pink – a colour that I primarily attribute to the presence of hibiscus flowers and possibly also the safflowers as well. It still smells like Tang, but not as sweet as the dry leaf smells like. The flavour is surprisingly not as sweet as I expected it to be – and doesn’t taste as artificial as I remember Tang to be. Sunny C has a nice citrus flavour, which a pleasant acidic mouthpucker that I am attributing to all the acidic ingredients in the blend. It is a very pleasant fruity infusion that is very pleasant hot – I think it would also make for a nice iced tea as well, given the blend of ingredients, but it’s November and I really don’t want to make iced tea right now.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Sunny C once, but honestly the flavour was just not there and I would recommend only having one steep with this fruit infusion.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Sunny C. For a fruity blend, it has a pleasant flavour and smells like a drink that I drank far too often when I was at my neighbour’s house after school when I was waiting for my parents to get home. If your main purpose in drinking it is consume some vitamin C, it isn’t that bad – as per the DavidsTea product page for Sunny C, this fruit infusion contains 15% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C per cup. That said, there are less expensive ways to get in your daily vitamin C (for instance, an average orange can contain approximately 88% of your daily recommended vitamin C intake), but it is fairly tasty.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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Adagio Teas’s Masala Chai

Masala Chai by Adagio Teas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.00USD for 3oz (85g)

First Impressions

Masala Chai came to me in a resealable pouch that had all the necessary information on the label – which is always a nice touch. I have friends and family members with food allergies, so it’s always important to me to be able to check at a quick glance what ingredients are present in a tea blend (thankfully nobody has told me so far that they have an allergy to tea yet!). The rich aroma from the dry leaf is primarily that of the spices that are present in the blend. I can mostly smell the cinnamon and the ginger, as those are the strongest fragrances that I can pick out.

Masala Chai consists of: black tea, cardamom, ginger root, cloves, natural cinnamon flavour, and cinnamon bark. What’s nice is that the ingredients are easy to identify in the blend, there seems to be a fairly even distribution of most of the spices throughout the chai blend.

Preparation

Adagio Teas recommends steeping Masala Chai in 100°C (212°F) water for 7 to 10 minutes. I followed the steeping recommendations and did an initial steep of 10 minutes.

First Taste

Masala Chai steeps to a golden brown with a rich, spicy fragrance from the chai mix. I can easily taste the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. There’s a pleasant sweetness in the tea, which balances well with the spicy notes with this black tea blend. I do find myself searching a bit for the cardamom, which is a flavour that I quite enjoy in chai blends but I also do recognize that it can be easily overpowered by strong spices such as the ginger and cinnamon.

I did pour myself a cup of Masala Chai, and added a healthy amount of locally sourced honey as well as some evaporated milk. Like many chai blends, this is a tea that takes to the addition of sweetener and milk or cream well.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Masala Chai twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the first resteep was most similiar to the initial steep – it was a bit watery compared to the initial steep. The second resteep did not fair well, and frankly I did not enjoy it at all. I would say that Masala Chai is good for one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked Adagio Teas’s Masala Chai. The flavours of the spices were pleasant, and it did hold it fairly decently to being resteeped. I found myself wishing that the cardamon was more present in the initial steep, and would have liked for it to have a heavier presence in the tea. The other spices were well represented in Adagio Teas’ version of Masala Chai, and I found it to make for a nice cup of tea.

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DavidsTea’s Chai Matcha

Chai Matcha by DavidsTea
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$16.00 for 80g

First Impressions

Chai Matcha from DavidsTea comes in a prepackaged format both online and in stores. While some of their blended matcha products are accessible via smaller increments from the wall of tea in their retail stores, they made the decision to release Chai Matcha only in a prepackaged format of 80g bags. It comes sealed and the bag is resealable, which is always a nice touch. The preprinted bags have stickers on the front and the back to showcase which tea it is inside.

The aroma of the dry green powder is mostly that of the spices, and just sweetness. It does smell sweet, which is no wonder considering the first ingredient listed for this matcha blend… Chai Matcha consists of: cane sugar, green tea, and natural chai flavourings. I’m really disappointed that sugar is the first listed ingredient in this product, but there is only 6g of sugar per serving which isn’t nearly as bad as some other products I’ve tried previously. The chai spices that I can smell include cinnamon and cardamom, ad maybe a bit of ginger? Whatever is in the “flavouring”, it does smell like a chai spice mix.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends whisking 4-5 perfect matcha spoonfuls in 120mL (4oz) of water (85°C/185°F) and then topping up with warm milk or water to make a drink that is 475mL (16oz). I don’t own a perfect matcha spoon, so I used 1 spoon from the Perfect Spoon into my matcha bowl and whisked, and then transferred to a larger cup.

First Taste

I whisked 1 perfect spoonful of the Chai Matcha, which is equal to 2½ teaspoons. I used my Thinktea Matcha Set for this step since it’s the only matcha bowl and whisk that I own. The whisking process didn’t take very long. In full disclosure, I did not sift the matcha into my bowl – this is a step that I will often do for more “fancier” matcha varieties, but I don’t usually do it for blends.

When having the Chai Matcha straight (topped up with water and not milk), I found that there was more spice flavour than matcha flavour. I’m not overly surprised since spices can be a bit overwhelming compared to the delicate nature of matcha. It is quite sweet, but I don’t really like it all too much straight because I’d rather be able to taste the matcha.

I did whisk another bowl of Chai Matcha, and then added it to heated soy milk (I use organic, unsweetened soy milk). I found that the flavour was greatly improved as a latte. The spices weren’t as strong, but the matcha flavour did seem better balanced as a latte.

A Second Cup?

No second steeps with Chai Matcha since all of the powder is suspended and mixed into the first preparation.

My Overall Impression

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I both didn’t like and loved DavidsTea’s Chai Matcha. As a straight tea (made with only water), I thought Chai Matcha was really nothing to write home about. However, when made as a latte, the flavours were really much better balanced and it honestly tasted a lot better. I like the idea of a straight Chai Matcha, but the taste wasn’t delicious (to me!). Since determining that I do love Chai Matcha as a tea latte, I finished my original bag and bought more (Chai Matcha is a limited edition product, unfortunately, and is already sold out in some stores and online).

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.