Category: Review

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24 Days of Tea: Irish Breakfast

Irish Breakfast by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Straight
$5.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Day 14 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar and it’s a straight tea! Irish Breakfast is the tea of the day, and I’m pleased as I’m having it in the morning. I quite like breakfast teas in general because they tend to be bold in flavour, and easy to mess around with when it comes to tempering the strong flavours to something that takes you well into into the afternoon.

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I haven’t had DavidsTea’s version of Irish Breakfast before, the dry leaf smells quite strong with a malty fragrance to it that is new yet familiar to me. Irish Breakfast simply consists of: black tea from Assam, India, and Dimbulla, Ceylon.

Preparation

The steeping recommendations for Irish Breakfast are to steep in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped Irish Breakfast in my Tea For One teapot for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Irish Breakfast steeps to a deep red, and has a strong malty smell to it as it steeps. On first sip, I’m almost overwhelmed by the malty flavour of the tea. It’s quite strong, and there’s just a subtle hint of bitterness at the end of every sip. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had steeped it for a full 7 minutes (would it have been undrinkable? Maybe!). I wouldn’t steep it for more than 4 minutes, perhaps even closer to 3 or 3½ minutes. There’s just a touch of astringency that makes my mouth want to pucker, but it’s enjoyable and similar to my other experiences with breakfast teas.

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I tried out Irish Breakfast with some cream and sugar, and found that it takes to it very well. I wouldn’t have expected anything different from a strong black tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Irish Breakfast a few times, just to see how it would do. It resteeped well for a second time, giving me a similar cup of tea. I found by the third steep the flavours just weren’t there. I would say that Irish Breakfast is good for one more steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Irish Breakfast. It’s quite nice to have a nice, straight tea after a whole slew of flavoured tea blends. Irish Breakfast makes for a nice strong cup of black tea, and has a good about of malty flavour to it. I would not recommend steeping it for more than 4 minutes, at least not for the first steep. There are cheaper breakfast teas out there, but I would say that this one has a good amount of flavour and the ability to be resteeped puts itself above the bagged breakfast teas out there.

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24 Days of Tea: Crème Caramel Rooibos

Crème Caramel Rooibos by DavidsTea
Rooibos Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Officially into the second half of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar, and day 13 is Crème Caramel Rooibos. My initial reaction in seeing that it was a rooibos tea was “poop”. I don’t like a lot of rooibos teas, I’m quite particular (although I love Birthday Cake by DavidsTea). Rooibos to me often has an almost medicinal quality to the smell and flavour, and that is generally something that I don’t want to have in my cup because it’s not pleasant to me.

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Crème Caramel Rooibos has a slight caramel smell to it, but more heavy on the rooibos side. Crème Caramel Rooibos consists of: rooibos, caramel pieces, natural and artificial flavouring. For those who are lactose intolerant, it does contain milk. As you can tell from my photo above, my tin didn’t have a lot of caramel pieces in it (this may have played a role in my overall experience).

Preparation

The recommendation for preparing Crème Caramel Rooibos is to use near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) and to steep for 4 to 7 minutes. When I use my Breville IQ Kettle, I opt to use the French Press option (200°F) to get the water to the right temperature. I steeped my cup of Crème Caramel Rooibos for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Crème Caramel Rooibos steeps to have a very strong rooibos smell, very medicinal and not enough caramel in the steam that wafts up from the cup as it steeps. It does have a beautiful red colour that it steeps to, which I always like. There is a slight sweetness to this rooibos blend that I like, but it does get overpowered by the rooibos base. The medicinal quality in the smell is followed by a medicinal quality in the flavour. It lacks a creaminess that I was anticipating with a name like Crème Caramel Rooibos, and found that it benefits from a splash of evaporated milk. The cream content of the evaporated milk helps boost the caramel flavours, but doesn’t cut through the medicinal rooibos flavour as much as I would like.

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A Second Cup?

I did not resteep Crème Caramel Rooibos.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Crème Caramel Rooibos. I really wanted to like this one, especially with a name like Crème Caramel Rooibos because I am all about the sweets (especially in the holiday season!). I found the amount of caramel in the steeped tea to be lacking, although it did improve a bit with the addition of evaporated milk. I’m just not overly fond of rooibos as a tea base, as I’m not a fan of medicinal flavours in my tea mugs.

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24 Days of Tea: Bear Trap

Bear Trap by DavidsTea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

It’s Day 12 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar and today’s tea is Bear Trap. Kind of an odd-sounding name for a tea, but I don’t come up with these names! It is a very sweet and fruity smelling mix, with some strong berry flavours. Aside from some dried leafy looking ingredients, this blend looks like it could be easily incorporated into some granola to be turned into a trail mix.

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Bear Trap consists of: hibiscus, elder berries, rose hip shells, apple, papaya, lemon verbena, black currants, blueberries, strawberry leaves, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, morello cherries, and natural red fruit flavouring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Bear Trap in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped mine for close to 5 minutes.

First Taste

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Bear Trap is a very pink tea, more so than Forever Nuts is. It gets to be a very deep, almost red, pink, and it steeps to have a very strong fruity/berry smell to it. It smells heavily of cherries, I think that the cherries overpower the other fruits in terms of who wins in the fragrance war. On first taste, Bear Trap is quite tart. There is a sweetness to the blend, but I think overall it leans towards being to the side of tartness. The taste of Bear Trap isn’t overly strong of cherries though, it tastes quite like a strawberry fruit punch might. I feel that Bear Trap would benefit a lot from some sweetener mixed in to calm the natural tartness that the hibiscus adds to this fruity infusion.

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A Second Cup?

I did not resteep Bear Trap (I normally don’t with herbal/fruit infusions).

My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Bear Trap. I think that Bear Trap is quite tart, although the fruity flavours are definitely present. This is a blend that would highly benefit from having some added sweetener (perhaps some honey to further trap some bears?). I feel that Bear Trap would make an excellent iced tea or tea pop (concentrated tea mixed with some carbonated water), and it would be a great summer time/warm weather drink. It’s tasty, but I don’t think it does well as a ‘winter’ drink.

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