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DavidsTea’s Pumpkin Chai

Pumpkin Chai by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

I’m a big fan of nice quality tea bags (for storage) – especially like the ones from DavidsTea that keep the air and light out of the bags. One of the nice things about DavidsTea is that they’re usually quite willing to make up little bags of teas if you just want to try something – I think the smallest bag I’ve ever had weighed out was 10g. Pumpkin Chai is one of their seasonal teas and it’s been brought back for several years in a row, according to the internet. It’s quite a sweet smelling black tea. I can definitely smell the cinnamon and it reminds me a lot of pumpkin pie in a way.

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The ingredients include: black tea, cinnamon, cloves, caramel, carrot, lemon peel, pumpkin candies, pumpkin flakes, natural and artificial flavouring. It also includes an allergen warning for milk and soy products. At first glance, I can see cute pumpkins sprinkles as well as pretty big pieces of cinnamon and the pumpkin flakes.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping in 96°C water for 4-7 minutes. As I love chai spicy, I opted to steep the tea until around the 6-7 minute mark.

First Taste

Pumpkin Chai smells really good when it’s done steeping. It smells like a mix of pumpkin spices and tea – which is a good thing given the name of the tea. It’s a beautiful red golden brown colour. When I take my first sip, I definitely get the feel of mouthcoating. The richness in the tea and the oily sensation may be due to the oils in the pumpkin candies. It’s not an off-putting sensation though, and I didn’t get a visible oil slick across the surface of the tea like I did with DavidsTea’s Birthday Cake. The cinnamon flavour is even more pronounced in the steeped tea than it was in dry format. I quite like it and I can see why Pumpkin Chai is popular enough to be brought back year after year. I am curious about how well this tea will do with one more steep because it does contain some ingredients that usually do not do well when steeped again (primarily candies and flavouring).

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A Second Cup?

Surprisingly, Pumpkin Chai did okay on the second steep! It still has a pumpkin aroma and still tastes alright. It’s not as good as it was in the first steep, but it’s hard to expect the added flavouring to hold up for a second steep. I would not expect this tea to hold up very well for a third steep though.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Pumpkin Chai. The adorable pumpkin candies and the great smell and flavour make it a must-have for me. I can definitely see myself stocking up on a bit more of this tea in the near future to continue to have some great tasting pumpkin tea throughout the autumn. If you are interested in getting some Pumpkin Chai for yourself, do keep in mind that it is a limited/seasonal tea. I don’t think this tea is for everyone – if you’re not into sprinkles/candies in your teas, or you’re not a fan of artificial colours (because there is nothing naturally colouring those sprinkles to be a bright orange), I’d steer away from this one. I personally really enjoyed Pumpkin Chai though! And I’ve heard that it can be really good as part of a tea latte – as a fan of chai lattes I can see that being true, especially when you consider that chai is traditionally made with milk (or some milk and water) instead of straight water.

As an aside, the tea menu for DavidsTea’s fall 2015 collection has a recipe for “The Ultimate Pumpkin Chai” latte on the back that I will be giving a whirl soon – and writing about it!

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

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DavidsTea’s Organic Mother’s Little Helper

Organic Mother’s Little Helper by DavidsTea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$7.75 for 50g

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First Impressions

I received my Mother’s Little Helper as part of a DavidsTea gift set (it came with three teas and a travel mug) – the gift set that started my interest in tea. The container is nice and small. It’s a metal tin with a screw-on lid that has a clear window so I can see the tea without opening it. Of course, this exposes tea to light if you don’t put these tins in a box or cabinet. It is a very nice looking tea – there’s clearly flowers and lemongrass in there.

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Opening the tin, I can smell peppermint, it is very strong. Underneath the refreshing mint scent is lemongrass. This tea has an interesting blend of ingredients: peppermint, lemongrass hibiscus, rosehips, chamomile, valerian root, and cornflowers. It also has added peppermint flavouring. It’s a very nice calming mix, I quite like mint for that. Mother’s Little Helper is marketed as a calming tea to help people with unwinding. It definitely has the fragrance to sell that. As a calming, herbal infusion, it is naturally caffeine free.

Preparation

Steeping recommendations by DavidsTea is to steep in 96°C (205°F) water for 4-7 minutes.

First Taste

Steeped for 7 minutes, the tea is a beautiful deep pinkish red colour. The scent of peppermint and lemongrass is very obvious. With a sip, Mother’s Little Helper is minty – that peppermint flavouring is more than enough of a punch the senses. It’s a very relaxing tea, definitely caffeine free because I don’t get that energy I get from drinking other teas. It does have a certain flavour that I find makes my mouth pucker a bit – it’s likely the combination of the valerian root, the lemongrass, and the peppermint. I do find that it makes me feel relaxed (likely due to the valerian root). Valerian root is used in alternative medicine to treat insomnia, it’s no wonder it makes me feel relaxed!

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A Second Cup?

I hardly ever resteep herbal infusions. I did try with this one, the colour was not as deep and the flavouring just was not there. Mother’s Little Helper is really just good for one steep.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Organic Mother’s Little Helper was just okay. Perhaps it’s because I don’t spend my days running after small children or have kids of my own, but it isn’t a tea that I will keep going back to in my tea stash. I think it does have great flavour and does live up to expectations of being a relaxing tea, but it isn’t something that I would necessarily want to have on a regular basis. I still have the rest of my little tin, but I won’t be dipping into it too often. For anyone looking for a really good night time tea, or just searching for a caffeine free herbal infusion, this is a nice one! It’s just not for me.

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

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Camellia sinensis: the True Teas

True teas are made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, which is native to Asia. As one might expect, tea drinking originated in Asia (primarily China), where it later spread to Europe due to trade. The different types of tea are produced with a variety of processing methods.

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Tea leaves are primarily either wilted or unwilted, and oxidized or unoxidized. If you were the pick the leaves off of the C. sinensis plant, it begins to wilt and oxidize unless you do something about it. Basically, wilt vs. unwilted depends on how much time passes between when the tea is picked and when it is processed. Oxidization is stopped when heat has been applied to the tea leaves. White, yellow, green, oolong, pu’erh, and black teas – despite tasting different, they all start off the same.

Rooibos teas, despite being delicious, are not true teas at all. They had made from the rooibos plant, Aspalathus linearis, a plant from South Africa. Rooibos is often referred to as bush tea or redbush tea (based on the colour). Rooibos comes in both red and green varieties. If the leaves have been allowed to oxidize, they are a red rooibos, while if the leaves are not allowed to oxidize, they are a green rooibos. Rooibos teas are naturally caffeine free.

Herbal teas, or herbal infusions/tisanes, contain no leaves from the C. sinensis plant at all – but they are still delicious. You can find a lot of herbal teas/infusions that have a variety of flowers, fruit, herbs, and spices in them – a lot of them make fantastic iced teas. A lot of different ingredients can be present in herbal infusions, it would be quite impossible to list them all because I’m sure I’d miss something!

I primarily drink teas that are produced from leaves of the C. sinensis plant – black, green, white, oolong, and pu’erh teas are all from that the ‘tea plant’. Given the fact that many other drinks are also called ‘teas’ these days, I will be giving them a try as well as I enjoy trying new teas.