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DavidsTea’s Hibiscus Splash

Hibiscus Splash by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Never quite done with iced teas, am I? This is a fruity infusion from DavidsTea with a bright yellow label across a sealed, resealable pouch. This was part of an online order that I made and was included as a free gift with purchase. Luckily, it wasn’t one that I had tried before I decided it would make a good option to review.

Hibiscus Splash consists of: apple pieces, candied pineapple, hibiscus blossoms, natural flavouring, fig slices, rose pepper, cranberries, cornflower blossoms, and stevia extract. The aroma of the dry leaf is primarily pineapple and figs, with hints of fruitiness throughout the background. It’s a nice fruity blend, and makes me want an iced tea.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Hibiscus Splash in 95°C (200°F) water for over 5 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep with the recommended water temperature for 7 minutes.

First Taste

Hibiscus Splash steeps to a bright red, most likely thanks to the hibiscus blossoms in the blend. The flavour reminds me a lot of a fruit punch or mixed fruit juice box. It has a distinctly cherry quality to it, and it has the tartness from the hibiscus. There’s a nice sweetness to it, which I suspect is due to the apple, candied pineapple, and stevia. It does have a touch of an aftertaste with it with the stevia, but the cherry flavour is much stronger than the other flavours.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Hibiscus Splash, but found that it didn’t resteep well. The initial steep has a lovely flavour, but the subsequent steep did not and was fairly void of strong flavours.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Hibiscus Splash. The flavour reminds me a lot of a fruit punch, with a strong cherry flavour. It has a good flavour for the initial steep, but it was definitely meant for one steep only.  The cherry flavouring is strong, and the fruit infusion does steep well. I’m not partial to cherry, unfortunately, but I think that cherry fans would enjoy it considerably more than I did – especially iced.

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

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Teakan’s Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong

Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong by Teakan
Oolong Tea / Straight
$30.00 for 60g

Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong is part of Teakan’s Volume 4 Exploration Kit, a collection of five single origin teas. Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong makes up 10g of the 60g kit.

First Impressions

Ya Shi Xiang directly translates to duck shit – and is surprisingly not smelling of poop if you know what the name translates to. Phoenix Dancong is a bit of a more forgiving name, that is for sure! This particular Ya Shi Xiang comes in a sealed, resealable kraft paper pouch with a white and black label across the front and back. To be specific, this oolong was harvested in spring of 2021 from Wudong, Guangdong, China.

The dry leaves are long, slightly wiry with a light twist. The colour of the leaves are a deep brown, with light pops of tan and lighter brown throughout. The aroma of the leaves is floral and sweet, nothing at all like the name suggests, with hints of what reminds me of the smell right after a rainfall.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Ya Shi Xiang in 95°C (203°F) for 2 minutes (western style) or 98°C (208°F) for 5 seconds (gongfu style). I opted to steep western style, due to ease on my part.

First Taste

Ya Shi Xiang steeps to a clear light golden yellow after the 2 minute steep. The aroma of the steeped tea is mostly floral with hints of fresh rain and wet moss like you get when going for a walk through the forest, and it’s pleasant to the nose to be sure. The tea itself has a smooth texture, sweet, floral with very light nuttiness at the tail end of each sip. It has a thickened mouth texture but pleasantly smooth and easy to drink.

A Second Cup?

Ya Shi Xiang resteeps nicely – I did six resteeps of the same leaves (seven steeps total) – and added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The leaves open beautifully – look at those lovely green leaves! The flavour gets a bit deeper for the first two resteeps, and then slowly begins to wane in flavour intensity, but I do enjoy each resteep thoroughly.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong. The tea resteeps beautifully, and has a lovely floral flavour with each steep. The flavour remains fairly consistent with each steep, and lends itself to a really tasty cup of tea – despite of what the name of the tea is! I even had a cup of it cold (due to leaving it too long), and really enjoyed it as well – so there’s that.

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

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Learn to Steep: Western Style

The western style of steeping is one of the better known methods of steeping tea, especially if you grew up drinking tea outside of Asia, but it’s also the steeping method that I’m starting off with in a mini series of steeping methods.

Traditionally, the western style of steeping utilizes a tea pot (or cup), and generally a small amount of tea to large amount of water. Think a tea bag with a mug of hot water, or a teapot with a teaspoon or two of tea into a strainer. In contrast, a tea pot of Chinese or Japanese origin is typically smaller in size, and the method of steeping uses more leaves and less water in comparison to steeping in a western style method.

Teapots that originate from Europe or North America tend to hold much larger volumes of water in comparison to teapots from China or Japan. For instance, some tea pots can hold 2 to 4 cups of water (or more!). There is a wide variation from western style teapots in terms of style, shapes, and designs. These teapots can come with strainers (or not), but you can also use a strainer over your cup of tea to catch errant tea leaves that might escape.

Western style teapots are typically ceramic, porcelain, metal (think silver!), or glass. The cost of a western style tea pot, depending on where you live, may be fairly inexpensive. I’ve seen teapots priced anywhere from $5 to over $50, and I have purchased teapots anywhere from specialty tea shops, thrift stores, and stores that sell home goods. This also holds true from tea cups/mugs – there’s a variety of materials that are used, styles and sizes. I personally like cups that fit well in my hands, and have a wide selection in my personal collection ranging from vintage tea cup and saucers to double walled borosilicate glass. I’m also a fan of ceramic/porcelain, as I find that they retain the heat decently well enough for me to finish the tea.

Using the tea pot is fairly easy. All you need to do is place leaves inside of the tea pot, add the appropriate temperature water, remove the leaves at the appropriate time and pour a cup of tea. some people do an extra step by pouring water into the teapot first and then pour it out, to warm the vessel prior to steeping the tea. If you are choosing the option of steeping directly in a tea cup or mug instead, the leaves are contained in a tea bag or a tea strainer. Tea strainers come in many options as well – from metal baskets or novelty plastic/silicone designs. I like the basket strainers the best because it allows space for the leaves to expand and unfurl, a fact that is particularly important when it comes to steeping compressed teas like oolong or pu’erh.

Teas steeped western style will likely be successfully resteeped a lower number of times compared to teas that are steeped gongfu style, if only because of the length of time the leaves are steeped in its entirety. Western style of tea steeping is one of my preferred styles of steeping, primarily due to the ease of steeping. The majority of steeping instructions for most teas, blends and tisanes that I have come across is for a western style of steeping (typically minutes instead of seconds).

What’s your preferred style for steeping your tea?