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DavidsTea’s Vanilla Chai Matcha

Vanilla Chai Matcha by DavidsTea
Matcha (Green Tea) / Flavoured
$10.98 for 50g

First Impressions

As someone who was a fan of DavidsTea’s Chai Matcha, I was curious about the Vanilla Chai Matcha when I saw it online – so naturally a bag fell into my online shopping cart. Vanilla Chai Matcha comes in the familiar silver pouch with the coloured label across the front. As a ‘matcha drink mix’, Vanilla Chai Matcha is a flavour profile that makes me want to try it… let’s ignore what the first ingredient in the list is.

Vanilla Chai Matcha consists of: cane sugar, matcha green tea, natural flavourings (creamy vanilla and chai spice). The powder itself is a spring green, with a slight glint of sparkle from the cane sugar. While I don’t smell the matcha, I smell the vanilla and spice flavouring – it is really quite fragrant.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends preparing Vanilla Chai Matcha with 85°C (185°F) water. I opted to prepare it with a battery powdered milk frother. Because it is a drink mix, I find this type of blend tends to suspend itself easily with a quick stir with a spoon.

First Taste

Vanilla Chai Matcha becomes a medium green. The aroma from the drink is more vanilla and chai spices than the matcha itself. The flavour itself is sweet, and I found that I could taste the vanilla and the chai spices, but the matcha itself is very mildly vegetal. The spices themselves have that warming quality that I like in a chai blend, with a nice creamy undertone from the vanilla flavouring. I do find myself hunting for more of the vegetal notes from the matcha base, but I don’t find it.

A Second Cup?

As a suspension, Vanilla Chai Matcha is a one-time drink only – like all other matchas out there. So just the one cup (and that’s okay!).

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Vanilla Chai Matcha. While I greatly enjoyed the vanilla and chai flavouring, I found that it was quite sweet – if I had been aware of how sweet it was, I might have prepared it as a matcha latte instead to help cut down the sweetness. With water, it does end up quite sweet without anything to mute the sweetness. It does have some great flavours though, I do love the warming spices (much like their Chai Matcha).

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

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Dessert by Deb’s Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam by Dessert by Deb
Green Tea / Straight
$6.00 for 25g

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam came as part of the bimonthly subscription box from Dessert by Deb.

First Impressions

Coming to me in a matte gold sealed, resealable pouch, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam is part of Dessert by Deb’s Garden Tea Party Collection. It came in my bimonthly subscription box from Dessert by Deb and comes in a familiar matte metallic pouch with the colourful polka dot label on the front. The name makes me think of strawberry rhubarb… pie. Jam makes me think of sticky sweetness. All good things to have in a dessert tea!

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam has an aroma to it that is berries and fruity sweetness. It definitely smells like it would be delicious as an iced tea (which is a recommendation made by Dessert by Deb). Strawberry Rhubarb Jam consists of organic: green tea, strawberry and papaya pieces, natural strawberry flavour, apple, rosehips, freeze-dried raspberries, and beetroot powder. I can definitely see where the beetroot powder has dusted some of the other ingredients with that berry red colour.

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Strawberry Rhubarb Jam in 200°F (93°C) water for 5 to 7 minutes. I opted to follow the steeping instructions and did an initial steep of Strawberry Rhubarb Jam for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam steeps to a lovely pink colour, likely thanks to the beetroot powder that’s in the blend. It has a lovely strawberry aroma, and some other type of fruity aroma that I can’t quite place (but I’m thinking it’s likely the papaya). Flavour wise, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam has a sweet fruity flavour that reminds me of mixed berries, with just a hint of tartness that reminds me of the rhubarb. The green tea base is really in the background, with just a light grassy flavour. It’s quite good hot, and I suspect it’ll do well cold or iced with that fruity flavour profile. I do think it could use a bit more sweetener to make me think of jam, so I’d add some sweetener to it if I were to make a pitcher of iced tea.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Strawberry Rhubarb Jam once, but found that the flavour just wasn’t there compared to the initial steep with the berry flavours or tartness that reminds me of the rhubarb.

My Overall Impression

I liked Dessert by Deb’s Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. This green tea blend has a lovely flavour profile of berries and tartness, with some sweetness that creeps on through. I think it does need a touch of sweetener if you want it to really remind you of jam, but the flavour itself is quite enjoyable. I think it’d be great to have paired with desserts, and to also have iced during warmer months.

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

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Learn to Steep: Grandpa Style

Grandpa style of tea steeping is one of the easiest methods, and also the least immersed in a sense of ceremony – a fantastic point that makes it truly accessible for basically everyone… provided your tea can hold up to the method. One could consider the grandpa style of steeping tea to be one of the purest methods of tea steeping, because it really doesn’t require you to do a lot. And if you’ve been drinking tea for a while, you may have already done this method of tea steeping and didn’t even realize it had any sort of name. I’ve definitely steeped my tea this way before and experienced tea steeped this way for literally decades, thanks to going out for weekend dimsum growing up.

Arguably the easiest way to make tea, grandpa style is also the simplest. In a large cup, add some tea leaves (preferably whole leaf tea), add water, and drink. No infusers, not strainers, no methods of pouring the tea out into another vessel within 15-30 seconds. When your cup is running low, you top up the water and then continue to drink. This method of tea steeping works the best for whole leaf tea because you have the best chance of not swallowing the leaves if they’re full and intact versus the dusty tea bits that come out of a tea bag. You could also use a tea pot, add some leaves, and pour in water and keep refilling the pot whenever it gets low in volume.

While you could use this steeping method with any tea, grandpa style of tea steeping really lends itself well with whole leaf teas, particularly those without flavourings or blended ingredients, and also ideally works the best for teas such as pu’erh, oolongs, green and white teas (basically, most Chinese teas will work great with this method, as has been my experience when in restaurants). My preference when doing the grandpa style is to drink oolongs or white tea (silver needle never lets me down), and I actually utilized this steeping method a lot when I was most recently in school again (2019-2021), because it’s really the laziest steeping method that ever did exist and just fit well with my study method. I could study, drink tea, and not have to fuss about it too much.

“Grandpa style” tea steeping is a phrase coined by Lawrence Zhang (marshaln), which very closely mimics the style of tea steeping that I’ve seen my parents do at home basically all of my life. The tea leaves get left in the strainer in the tea pot at home. The tea leaves get left in the tea pot at the dimsum restaurant. It’s very much the Chinese way of steeping tea, and something that I find myself gravitating towards when not steeping a blended tea or a tea for a review (because I like to follow the steeping instructions).