Category: Review

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24 Days of Tea: Organic Ginger Pear

Organic Ginger Pear by DavidsTea
White Tea / Flavoured
$12.98 for 50g

20161208-davidsteaorganicgingerpear

First Impressions

Day 8 of the 24 Days of Tea calendar is Organic Ginger Pear, and let me tell you that the smell of this dry tea smells exactly like it’s labelled on the tin – ginger and pear. I found with this tea, and a lot of the other teas that have big chunks, is that the tea base itself ends up settling to the bottom of the tin so when I first looked into it all I saw were the dried pieces of ginger and pear. But after digging into it a bit, there was the white tea leaves, so that wasn’t too disconcerting.

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Organic Ginger Pear is made up of: ginger, apple, cinnamon, white tea, pear, rosehip, and natural quince, pear, apple, and cinnamon flavouring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Organic Ginger Pear in hot water (75-80°C/167-176°F) for 4 to 7 minutes (both on the packaging and on the product page). If this was purely just the additives, I’d be inclined to agree, but there is a white tea base. White teas are generally steeped for 2-5 minutes. I steeped Ginger Pear for close to 3 minutes. I have a page here on One More Steep about steeping times for various types of teas.

First Taste

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While Ginger Pear is steeping, there’s this really nice warm ginger aroma to it that just wafts up. It has a lovely light orange colour, and it just smells good. On first sip, I was pleasantly surprised that I could taste the pear as I couldn’t smell it very well as it was steeping. The ginger flavour just lingers pleasantly on the tongue as I drank this tea. There’s a subtle natural sweetness, that I would attribute to all the fruit that’s in this tea blend, that partners well with the ginger. I don’t think that this tea really needs additional sweetener at all.

A Second Cup?

I tried one more steep of Organic Ginger Pear. I found with the second steep that there was a bit of a flip in the flavour profile. The ginger was stronger the second time around than the pear, although that was still present as well. There’s less sweetness to the tea as the ginger’s spiciness begins to crowd out and overpower the other flavours.

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My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked DavidsTea’s Organic Ginger Pear. I think it does fantastic for a single steeping to get the full ginger and pear flavour profile. If you’re a fan of ginger, I think you’ll also enjoy subsequent steeps with this tea. I would hesitate to recommend following the steeping directions set out by DavidsTea as 7 minutes would be far too long for a tea with a white base. It is a very tasty cup of tea though, and I really enjoyed the ginger and pear pairing.

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

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24 Days of Tea: Nutty and Spice

Nutty and Spice by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I was super excited to see that Day 7 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar was an oolong tea! And then I smelled it and I was just overwhelmed with the heavy spice aroma from this little tin of tea. I couldn’t even see the oolong until I started shaking it out into my stainless steel tea infuser because of the giant chunks of fruit. Honestly, the first thought that went through my head was “What’s all this stuff doing in an oolong?!”. There’s a heavy cinnamon smell to this tea blend.

Nutty and Spice’s ingredients are: oolong tea, roasted chicory root, pineapple, papaya, cinnamon, walnuts, ginger, apple, rose pepper, roasted almonds, cardamom, almonds, pistachios, cranberries, rose blossoms, natural and artificial flavouring.

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Preparation

The calendar packaging recommends steeping Nutty and Spice for 4 to 7 minutes in hot water, this is the same as the online product page where hot water is 75-80°C (167-176°F). I steeped my cup for close to 4 minutes.

First Taste

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Nutty and Spice steeps to a nice golden orange, the first thing I could smell while it was steeping was the cinnamon. Unfortunately, the first thing that I could taste when I was drinking it was the cinnamon. I could not make out the oolong base at all – I’m assuming it’s there because I can physically see it and pick it out from the rest of the ingredients. It has a very “warm” flavour profile, the mix of spices is almost comforting in a way with how they just warm you up from the inside out. Unfortunately, that’s not what I look for in an oolong – especially all that cinnamon.

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A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Nutty and Spice a second time and was disappointed as it was kind of this watery messy that sort of resembled a cinnamon stick.

My Overall Impression

1cup-2

I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Nutty and Spice. I really like oolongs, generally speaking, and the additives thrown in here don’t do the tea any favours. I find that the spices are very heavy in the flavour profile and effectively drown out any flavour that the oolong base would have added to this tea. On the other hand, I wish that some of these spices had made their way into day 6’s Apple Cider for more of a mulled apple cider flavour.

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

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24 Days of Tea: Apple Cider

Apple Cider by DavidsTea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

20161207-davidsteaapplecider

First Impressions

For Day 6 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar, it was Apple Cider. I really quite like apple teas, one of my favourites is Honeycrisp Apple. Apple Cider, on the other hand, smells like apples and vanilla icing – the kind you can buy in can that comes premixed so all you have to do is slather it over a cake. The tea mix in this little calendar tin is chock full of apple pieces, and despite the vanilla icing smell to it, I’m eager to give it a try.

Apple Cider is made up of: apple, apple pomace, sweet blackberry leaves, apple flavouring, artificial vanilla and cream flavouring.

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Preparation

The calendar packaging suggests steeping Apple Cider in near-boiling water for 4 to 7 minutes, which does match what it says on the product page. Near-boiling water is 90-95°C (194-203°F). I steeped Apple Cider for 6 minutes.

First Taste

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Apple Cider steeps to a nice golden yellow colour, and there is this sweet apple aroma that wafts up from my cup that is quite enjoyable to just inhale. For the apple infusion itself, I find that it has a great sweet apple taste. The one thing that I find very lacking in it is the spices. When I think of apple cider, I often think of mulled apple cider so I was really hoping for some cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in the flavour profile. This Apple Cider is sadly lacking in all of that and I do wish that I had steeped it with some cinnamon to give it more of a mulled apple cider flavour.

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A Second Cup?

I do not resteep herbal infusions.

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked DavidsTea’s Apple Cider. It has a great sweetness to it that doesn’t taste artificial, and the apple flavour itself is quite tasty. If it had more of the spices that I associate with apple cider, I would have given it a higher rating. It’s not a bad version of apple cider, but it isn’t quite what I was expecting (or hoping for).

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