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DavidsTea’s Mom’s Apple Pie

Mom’s Apple Pie by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I bought a little bag of Mom’s Apple Pie from the store purely because it smelled amazing. The dry leaf has this amazing apple cinnamon aroma that I love from apple pie, so I was pretty much sold on it as soon as I smelled it. Mom’s Apple Pie is a green tea and the ingredients are: green tea, apple, cinnamon, natural and artificial flavouring. Mom’s Apple Pie is (yet another…) limited release tea, so if you’re interested in giving it a try now would be a good time.

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The tea itself has plentiful pieces of apple and cinnamon in with the green tea, which is nice to see. It has a great smell to it, definitely reminds me of apple pie. The problem with teas that come with flavouring is that it can often be lost when steeping, or when resteeping.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping in 85°C (185°F) water for 3-4 minutes. I steeped in my Tea For One pot for about 4 minutes.

First Taste

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This tea has a beautiful smell when it’s steeping and after I pour a cup of it. It has a very rich apple cinnamon smell. The unfortunate thing is that the taste of apples is weak in the tea, and the cinnamon is fairly lost in the tea itself, which is disappointing because it is very much present in the smell of the steeped tea. I added a bit of sugar to my cup of tea and found that it brought out the taste of apples and cinnamon quite a bit, but it wasn’t enough to overcome my disappointment in the tea. I like trying green teas, and I’ve had good teas with apple in it before (Honeycrisp Apple is one that I wound up getting a whole tin of). Mom’s Apple Pie raised my expectations of itself because of the great smell it had, but the taste is just lacking.

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A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Mom’s Apple Pie but found that the weak apple taste was even more lost. I would not recommend doing one more steep with Mom’s Apple Pie.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Mom’s Apple Pie. I found the smell of the dry leaf and steeped tea to be much better than the taste of the tea itself. The cinnamon was missing in the tea and the apple flavour was weak, I had high hopes for this tea because of how good it smelled, but I found it sorely lacking in flavour. I would definitely recommend adding a little sugar/sweetener if you’re going to give Mom’s Apple Pie a try because it does help bring out more of the flavours in the tea. Because of the disconnect between dry and steeped tea, I just had to give this tea one cup. I wanted to love it, because of how good it smelled, but there are much better flavoured green teas out there.

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What tea do you think I should try?

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I love getting tea suggestions! I’m very open to trying out what is your favourite tea, and I welcome suggestions either through the comments below or via the suggestions form. I generally like black, green, white, and oolong teas. I’m open to trying pu’erh, herbal infusions, and rooibos if you think I might like them!

If you’re going to leave a suggestion, it really does help if I’m able to purchase the tea in Canada or have it shipped to Canada.

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Pluck’s Ctrl+Alt+Delete Blend

Ctrl+Alt+Delete by Pluck
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$8.00 for 30g

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First Impressions

I received Ctrl+Alt+Delete as part of a swap package, and was rather tickled by the name of the tea, since I’m familiar with using that keyboard combination. The front of the bag is see-through on the sides of the label and I could see how fine the herbal blend is. Pluck includes all the usual information necessary for a tea drinker: how much to use, steeping time, water temperature, information on the ingredients, as well as a best before date. The slogan for Pluck is “Local. Natural. Bespoke.”. On the back of the bag, Pluck mentions that their source ingredients from ethical sources, local growers, artisan producers, and they produce their blends in small batches (hence, bespoke).

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Ctrl+Alt+Delete was opened up one night when my sister needed some kind of herbal infusion as she was coming down with a cold. Ctrl+Alt+Delete has a very strong ginger and lemongrass smell to it, the strong ginger smell kind of tickles the nose a bit. The ingredients are: ginger, rose hip, dried organic lemon peel, lemongrass, and dried Muskoka cranberries. I could not smell the rose hips or cranberries.

Preparation

Pluck recommends steeping Ctrl+Alt+Delete in 100°C (212°F) water for 3-7 minutes. I steeped for approximately 4 minutes.

First Taste

This herbal blend steeps to a nice yellow colour. The blend of ingredients is very fine, I would recommend using a tea filter over a stainless steel infuser because you’ll end up with bits of the herbs in your tea and in your mouth. The herbal infusion has a very nice warmed ginger smell, the lemongrass isn’t as strong in the steeped infusion fragrance as it was in the dry blend.

It has a mildly sweet lemon flavor with a very nice ginger taste to it, which I appreciate. The ginger isn’t overwhelming or spicy, as ginger can be, but it does make my entire mouth feel warm when drinking it. It’s quite pleasant and it’s a very relaxing cup of tea.

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A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Ctrl+Alt+Delete. It does okay for one resteep, the lemon and ginger is still very much present in the taste, but a second resteep leads to a watery cup of lemon and ginger that I would not recommend.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Pluck’s Ctrl+Alt+Delete was just okay. I was a bit disappointed that the cranberries and rosehips weren’t more prominent in the dry or steeped herbal blend. If I was feeling under the weather, I think this concoction of ginger and lemongrass would do the trick. Ctrl+Alt+Delete is a decent herbal infusion, I do think a lot of people would like the ginger and lemongrass combination – but also that it’s a nice blend to have if you’re not feeling well. I would definitely make this again, especially if I have a sore throat, but I don’t think it’s something that I would buy or want to keep a stock of in my stash.

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