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DavidsTea’s Glitter & Gold

Glitter & Gold by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

Glitter & Gold is a very pretty tea. From the gold star sprinkles to the large sugar granules, it’s just a very pretty tea. When I first took a whiff of Glitter & Gold, I was intrigued. I can smell the cloves, it smells sweet, there’s an underlying scent of citrus that is almost like oranges, and the overall base of the scent is tea. All in all, it reminds me a bit when I’m baking a cake and adding in zest from some kind of citrus fruit. There are some vanilla tones to the fragrance, which makes the tea intriguing as a whole.

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The ingredients for this tea are: Chinese black tea, lemon peel, sugar sprinkles, sugar, cloves, natural & artificial flavouring. The tea definitely smells like its ingredients, aside from the vanilla (although that may be part of the natural & artificial flavouring, but vanilla is not mentioned on the website).

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Glitter & Gold in 96°C (204°F) water for 4-7 minutes.

First Taste

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The tea smells like cloves, lemons, and just an overall sweet aroma to the steeped tea. It’s a beautiful golden orange colour, like many black teas. The golden sprinkles didn’t fully dissolve in the 5-6 minutes that I steeped it for, I can still see remnants of golden star sprinkles in the tea filter I made up.

The taste is quite pleasant. It has a bit of an oily mouthfeel to it, which I would attribute to the sprinkles (there’s oils in the sprinkles!) but it isn’t bad. The tea is smooth, it has a great light lemon flavour to it and the cloves just add a nice punch of flavour to the tea itself. Because of the sugar and the sprinkles, Glitter & Gold is a sweet tea but it isn’t overly sweet – I would not put it in the same category as dessert teas. Glitter & Gold actually reminds me a lot of Pumpkin Chai, it has a similar flavour profile just less the pumpkin and add in the lemon. Delicious!

A Second Cup?

Glitter & Gold did alright with the second steeping, which I did for about 7 minutes. It’s still got a sweetness to it with the light lemon flavour coupled with the cloves. I quite enjoyed it, but it isn’t as fragrant as the first cup.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Glitter & Gold. It’s a very pleasant tea with a great aroma. The lemon isn’t overpowering, but still present, and the cloves just add a great flavour to the tea itself. I think with the ingredients, this tea makes a great autumn/winter tea because it’s just reminiscent of the traditional smells of the season. Plus it’s just very pretty and it makes a delicious cup of tea!

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DavidsTea’s Butterfly Jasmine

Butterfly Jasmine by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$19.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

This is an expensive tea. Especially when you consider the fact that it is a jasmine green tea (and I have reviewed a few other ones since beginning One More Steep that are considerably less expensive). That said, Butterfly Jasmine has a lovely name. I originally got my 50g of Butterfly Jasmine as part of DavidsTea’s Frequent Steeper program. For every 100 points you earn per quarter, you get 1 Frequent Steeper reward – which is 50g of any one loose leaf tea. As each dollar you spend earns you one point, the more you spend, the more rewards you get. I tend to choose the more expensive teas when I’m choosing my rewards, mostly because I usually can’t justify it otherwise. And now back to the tea…

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Butterfly Jasmine is a green tea, the ingredients are: Chinese green tea from Fujian Province scented with jasmine petals. The description for the tea states that the “leaves are hand-shaped in the form of small butterflies”. I don’t really see it, mostly because the imagery I think of when thinking butterflies is an insect with wings. However, the tea leaves are manipulated by hand, they’re uniform in size and shape. The aroma from my bag is very floral – the jasmine scent isn’t too over whelming but its presence can definitely be noted. It has a sweet undertone to the floral scent, and it’s very pleasant.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Butterfly Jasmine in water that is 85°C (185°F) for 3-4 minutes. Because I expect the butterflies to unfurl and to expand when steeping, I opted to not use my Perfect Spoon to measure out a full spoonful – instead I filled the spoon about half way, which worked out to seven butterflies for my cup of tea.

First Taste

Butterfly Jasmine steeps to a beautiful golden yellow colour. The aroma of the tea is very enticing – there’s the floral scent of the jasmine, as one would expect, but it does have a sweet undertone to it that isn’t over whelming the overall fragrance of the tea itself. The taste? It’s floral and sweet, the taste definitely matched my expectations that were raised by the aroma of the dry leaf and while it was steeping. The tea itself is very smooth, there are no bitter notes to the tea at all, I find it really enjoyable. As a non-herbal tea, I just really wanted to see how it would hold up for one more steep…

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A Second Cup?

The second steep went great! (And so did the third…) The taste of the tea remains quite close to the original steeped cup of tea, Butterfly Jasmine holds up well. By the third cup, the taste was starting to wane from the first two cups, but it was still drinkable. I found all three cups made from the same seven butterflies to be very enjoyable.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Jasmine Butterfly. It’s a beautiful tea that has an amazing fragrance and flavour. The only thing that really holds me back from going “Yes, go buy it!” is the fact that it is quite expensive. I almost wish it wasn’t such a great tea because then I wouldn’t want to buy more for my stash when I run out. If you can get it for free (either through the Frequent Steeper rewards program, or another promotion), I would definitely recommend redeeming for it. A little goes a long way with this tea, and it has the added bonus of resteeping well for a green tea. I think it’s worth having a little bag of Butterfly Jasmine around, it has fantastic flavour and it’s an excellent jasmine green tea. It is a luxurious tea, as far as price goes, but it really is wonderful. If you can afford the splurge, or if you just want to pick up a small bag while you’re in store, I’d recommend giving this one a try.

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Tetley’s Black Currant

Black Currant by Tetley
Black Tea / Flavoured
$4.99 for 48g

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First Impressions

Black Currant is one of Tetley’s specialty blends – this also makes it hard to find in stores. I got mine from my sister, who had some in her tea cupboard. Tetley’s containers are quite nice, the round plastic lid has a snug fit. Black Currant comes prepackaged into tea bags, much like the rest of Tetley’s products. The smell is unmistakably fruity and a bit floral. It doesn’t smell like it would be an overly sweet tea, but it does smell like black currants so that’s a good sign!

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The ingredients for Black Currant are: pure black tea and black currant flavour. I typically like my tea bags to come with strings (it just makes for easier retreival), but it’s no problem that the simple use of a spoon can’t fix!

Preparation

The recommendations by Tetley are to use boiling water and to steep for 2-4 minutes. I opted for around 3 minutes of steeping time.

First Taste

While steeping, Black Currant smells very fruity and very much like black currants. The tea is a lovely dark reddish brown colour, that almost reminds me of apple cider in its colouring. On first taste, I’m a bit disappointed. While the tea smells really good, the flavouring isn’t quite meeting my expectations. The tea itself smells great, but the scent of black currant doesn’t match up with the weak black currant taste. I put the tea bag in to step it for a bit longer (to meet the higher end of the 2-4 minutes of recommended steep time), but that did little to improve the flavour.

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A Second Cup?

I did not opt the steep Black Currant for a second time.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like Tetley’s Black Currant. The amazing scent of the tea that reminds me a lot of black currants fell sort of expectations with the taste. Black Currant was a very weak tasting tea, despite steeping it according to recommended specifications. At best, Black Currant reminds me a lot of flavoured water. I think it might be nice as an iced tea, when you’re looking more for something to parch your thirst, but it doesn’t do well when you want something comforting like a hot cup of tea.

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