Category: Review

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DavidsTea’s Lemon Pound Cake

Lemon Pound Cake by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

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I wasn’t sure what to expect with Lemon Pound Cake because there’s been some, in my opinion, hits and misses when it comes to cake-inspired teas. When I smelled Lemon Pound Cake in store, I was intrigued and curious enough to overlook the fact that the last cake-inspired tea I tried from DavidsTea wasn’t that great (Red Velvet Cake, I’m talking about you!). Lemon Pound Cake smells incredible and has a very strong, very fresh smelling lemon fragrance to it. It has that fresh citrus smell that reminds me a lot of zesting a lemon. Just that fresh, bright, lemon scent. I definitely get more of a lemon vibe from this tea than I do a cake vibe, but time will tell!

Lemon Pound Cake is made up of: oolong, lemongrass, lemon peel, sunflower blossoms, white hibiscus, natural and artificial flavour.

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Preparation

The printed label for this tea just simply says to steep it in hot water for 4-7 minutes. Hot water can mean such a wide range of things, I’m rather disappointed that they’ve done away with including an actual temperature. If you mosey over to the DavidsTea website, and click on the word ‘hot’ when looking up the Lemon Pound Cake tea itself, you do get a temperature range – 75-80°C (167-176°F). I steeped mine for about 4 minutes for the first steeping.

First Taste

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Lemon Pound Cake steeps to a very lovely, pale yellow colour. It smells just like the dry leaf – a bright, fresh lemon fragrance that is very inviting and reminds me of a fresh lemon zest, yum! The taste itself is more subtle than the fragrance, but it still has a great lemon flavour to it, with just a hint of the oolong base. I find that oolongs tend to develop more in flavour with subsequent steepings, so I’m not too concerned that I can’t pick out more of the oolong flavour with the first steep. The lemon flavour though is top notch and is quite nice. There is a slight sweetness to this tea that is quite enjoyable and doesn’t require additional sweetener to brighten up the flavour.

A Second Cup?

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Lemon Pound Cake resteeps beautifully. The colour gets a bit darker, the lemon flavour remains bright and strong. The oolong does, however, make itself known just a little bit more. I think it’s just very difficult for the oolong to come out and be more present in the tea because the lemongrass/lemon peel are such strong ingredients in this tea. That said, this makes for a very lovely tea and I think it would taste very well as an iced tea due to the strong lemon flavours.

My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Lemon Pound Cake. I think it makes for a very lovely cup of tea, especially with the strong lemon flavours. I definitely think that DavidsTea made a mistake when going from giving an actual temperature in their steeping instructions to just ‘hot water’. “Hot” means a lot of different things, especially when using water that is too hot for certain types of tea will result in a very bitter, very sad cup of tea. Yes, they do include the temperature ranges on their website but that information should remain on their product label. That said, Lemon Pound Cake makes for a tasty cup of lemon tea, I do wish that the oolong wasn’t quite as over powered by the lemon ingredients. But I do think that this tea would make a fantastic iced tea due to it’s strong flavours.

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Steeped Tea’s Earl Grey de la Crème

Earl Grey de la Crème by Steeped Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.00 for 50g

I received a bag full of Steeped Tea samples via a craft swap that I participated in, this is one of those samples.

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First Impressions

I’m a sucker for Earl Grey tea, it’s one of my favourites and I love it. Steeped Tea’s version has very few ingredients – black tea, cornflower petals, and natural flavours. I get the slightest hint of citrus when I first smelled the tea. This may be due to the fact that it is allergy season and I’ve been having the sniffles lately. But overall, it smells like Earl Grey – a hint of citrus, a hint of vanilla, the black tea base does come through, which is promising!

Preparation

The instruction that came with my sample state “steep 2-3 minutes in boiling water” – I couldn’t find steeping directions via the Steeped Tea website.

First Taste

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I steeped my sample tea bag for about 3 minutes. The result is a deep mahogany that is clear. This Earl Grey de la Crème smells decent, I don’t really get a lot of citrus from it at all though, which I feel like I should. The taste has a bit of astringency to it, definitely has a pucker feel to it. It has a touch of creaminess to the tea even without added milk or cream, but the vanilla isn’t as strong as I like. It’s a pleasant cup of Earl Grey, but the lack of strength behind the bergamot is a bit disappointing.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep my Earl Grey de la Crème teabag and wound up with a weak cup of black tea with little to no bergamot taste to it at all. I would say that Earl Grey de la Crème is good for only one steep.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Steeped Tea’s Earl Grey de la Crème was just okay. I’ve had really good cups of Earl Grey before, and really good cups of Cream of Earl Grey. This is not one of them. If you hadn’t tried an Earl Grey with a stronger amount of bergamot flavouring, you might like this one. I think it could be improved upon with some sweetener, maybe some cream, but I think the lack of citrus is disappointing. It’s not a terrible tea, but it isn’t the best I’ve had and it’s certainly not something that I would want to keep a stash of at home.

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DavidsTea’s Dragonwell

Dragonwell by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$9.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

DavidsTea’s Dragonwell smells like roasted seaweed. If you’re not sure what roasted seaweed smells like, you really ought to get yourself to your nearest Asian grocer and track some down (it makes for a fantastic snack). I was actually a little surprised at how salty it smells because I’ve had other Dragonwell teas before (before the inception of One More Steep) and I don’t remember them being as salty smelling (although I could be wrong). The leaves are long and flat, having been pressed while heated. They’re a very pretty green colour, and it’s overall a very nice to look at tea. Not as fun as, say, blooming teas, but still lovely to look at nonetheless.

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Dragonwell consists of: green tea from the West Lake Region, Hangzhou area, Zhejiang province, China. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to Longjing tea (Dragonwell tea). The tea leaves are fairly uniform, most of them are about an inch in length, to give you an idea of the size when the tea is dry.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Dragonwell in 85°C (185°F) water for 3-4 minutes (since I bought the tea initially in February of this year, DavidsTea updated their steeping temperatures to 75-80°C/167-176°F). I tend to steep my green tea for less, I opted for 3 minutes for the first steep.

First Taste

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Dragonwell steeps to a very nice light yellow. The tea itself smells like roasted seaweed (still!), and it isn’t off-putting – but I also like roasted seaweed so there is that. Dragonwell has a saltiness to it that is quite appealing to my palate. There’s a bit of vegetal taste to it that isn’t quite like seaweed, but I do get a seaweed-esque taste from the tea itself. Overall, it’s a very nice cup of tea that isn’t bitter at all. I would definitely caution you not to oversteep or burn the leaves – a bitter cup of green tea is gross and should not be sipped.

A Second Cup?

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Dragonwell does very well with being resteeped! I did my usual resteeping method (adding an extra 30 seconds for every subsequent resteep) and I resteeped these leaves an additional three times. Each time the tea had that salty vegetal goodness and remained pleasant and enjoyable. The colour of the tea itself didn’t get too much darker.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Dragonwell. I found it to be a very enjoyable cup of tea. Some people might find the saltiness a bit off-putting, but I think it’s worth a try. It isn’t terribly expensive, as far as Dragonwell teas can be, and it isn’t a terribly low quality version of Dragonwell either. I think it’s well worth the price, considering its ability to hold up to resteeping and the overall tastiness.

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