Category: Review

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24 Days of Tea: Cardamom French Toast

Cardamom French Toast by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Day 20 of the 24 Days of Tea is Cardamom French Toast! This black tea blend has been reviewed before on One More Steep, back in November 2015 (how is that for a throwback Tuesday?). It smells familiar because it is familiar – still heavy with the cinnamon, coriander, and cardamom. The blend is nicely balanced, you can see a little bit of everything, which is nice. I still haven’t tried actual French toast with cardamom yet, I should get on that!

Cardamom French Toast is made up of: black tea, cinnamon, lemon peel, coriander seeds, cardamom, coconut sugar, cane sugar, natural and artificial flavouring.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Cardamom French Toast in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped my cup for about 4 minutes.

First Taste

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Cardamom French Toast steeps to a nice deep red, and has the heavy spice aroma to it. The cinnamon, coriander, and cardamom all play nicely together. This is a sweet black tea blend – the coconut sugar and cane sugar do their job well!

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I played with the tea a bit more this time around, and added some evaporated milk. It’s delicious! The milk helps temper some of the heavier spice notes, while added some creaminess to the flavour profile. I think Cardamom French Toast would make a wonderful tea latte. If you don’t have a milk frother, check out my tutorial on how to make lattes at home.

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A Second Cup?

Cardamom French Toast does very poorly when resteeped.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Cardamom French Toast. I definitely think this is a tea that I enjoy better doctored up than I do straight. A little squirt of honey, a couple spoonfuls of evaporated milk – it makes for a very pleasant and enjoyable cup of tea!

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24 Days of Tea: Organic Sweet Almond Green

Organic Sweet Almond Green by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

The first thing that came to mind when I smelled the tea for day 19 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar is that it smells like marzipan. Sweet Almond Green smells like almonds, almonds, and more almonds – which shouldn’t come to anyone as a surprise given the name.

Sweet Almond Green is made up of green tea, almonds, marigold flowers, cornflower petals, and natural almond flavouring.

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Preparation

Steeping recommendations for Sweet Almond Green are to steep with hot water (75-80°C/167-176°F) for 3 to 5 minutes. I steeped my cup of Sweet Almond Green for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Sweet Almond Green steeps to an almost murky yellow-green. There’s a salty smell to it, that comes from the green tea, and then there’s the almonds (from the almonds). It still smells like marzipan, and I’m not sure how I feel about drinking my candy when marzipan isn’t a favourite.

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The salty seaweed-quality of the green tea is heavily present, as is the almond from the almonds and the almond flavouring. They do not balance well together to form a cohesive flavour profile.

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A Second Cup?

I did not resteep Sweet Almond Green.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Organic Sweet Almond Green. There’s just something about the almond and the salty flavour of the green tea base that do not mingle well together for me. It probably doesn’t help that I’m not the biggest fan of marzipan either! If you’re a big fan of almonds and/or marzipan, this might be a better tea for you than it is for me.

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24 Days of Tea: Sleigh Ride

Sleigh Ride by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I wasn’t sure what to think when I pulled out day 18 of the 24 Days of Tea and saw that it was Sleigh Ride. I’m 90% sure that I’ve tried it in store before, but it’s hard for me to remember since I’ve sampled so many teas in the past. The first thing that I thought when smelling the dry tea is that it smells like the red heart cinnamon candy that is very commonly found around Valentine’s Day. Sleigh Ride has that spicy cinnamon smell to it, and I can’t really make out the rest of the ingredients.

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Sleigh Ride is a mix of: apple, hibiscus blossoms, pineapple, papaya, beetroot, cinnamon, raisins, coconut, roasted almonds, popped rice, natural and artificial flavouring.

Preparation

The recommendations for Sleigh Ride are to steep in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped for about 5 minutes. Sleigh Ride is a fairly bulky tea with its ingredients, I used the entire tin to steep my cup of tea.

First Taste

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Sleigh Ride steeps to a beautiful deep pink that reminds me a lot of Bear Trap or Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait. There’s a very strong cinnamon smell to this tea, and it tastes like cinnamon as well. There’s a mix of sweet fruity flavours and some sourness to it as well. The sour notes aren’t very pleasant. Sleigh Ride is weird to me, because some sips tastes like apple cinnamon and that’s just delicious, the others are just sour and tart and makes me unhappy. This isn’t something that really evokes the feelings of winter or snowy days to me, which is what I think they were trying to aim for with a name like Sleigh Ride.

I did add some sweetener to this one (honey) and it does help to temper that sourness that I’ve tasted in the tea.

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A Second Cup?

I don’t resteep fruit infusions, Sleigh Ride wasn’t an exception to that rule.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Sleigh Ride. The sourness to this tea isn’t pleasant. Perhaps it’d be better as an iced tea? I find that the sour notes don’t help to endure me to this tea, and I think there have been better fruit infusions in the 24 Days of Tea calendar so far.

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