Tag: 24 Days of Tea

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24 Days of Tea: Genmaicha

Genmaicha by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$6.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Genmaicha has been on my list of “teas to eventually buy and try”, so I was pleased as punch that it was in the DavidsTea’s 24 Days of Tea advent calendar as day 3. The dry leaf has a salty and vegetal quality to it, and I can smell the roasted rice as there’s a distinct rice smell to the tea itself.

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Genmaicha is filled with popped rice, I didn’t see the green tea leaves at first! The tea leaves are generally small and broken, which is a bit disappointing. Genmaicha is made up of: steamed green tea from Japan, and roasted and popped rice.

Preparation

The steeping instructions for Genmaicha are to use “hot water” and to steep for 2 to 3 minutes as per DavidsTea’s website. On the packaging, it says to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Drastically different steep times! I opted to steep for less, and my initial steep of Genmaicha was for 2 minutes. DavidsTea considers “hot” water to be 75-80°C or 167-176°F.

First Taste

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Genmaicha steeps to a very pale yellow, the tea has a salty and vegetal aroma that reminds me a lot of seaweed snacks! It smells very much like how it did prior to steeping, which is always a good sign. After letting the tea cool just a smidge, Genmaicha has a tasty but salty vegetal flavour to it. There’s this slight crispness to the flavour that is difficult to describe. I found it very enjoyable and not bitter at all when steeped for 2 minutes. I feel that 5 minutes for an initial steep would be overkill.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Genmaicha twice. The second time around, it was very much like the first. I found the third steep, that there was this added sweetness to the tea that wasn’t there before. The subtle change in the flavour profile was enjoyable.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Genmaicha. There’s just something enjoyable about a flavourful cup of tea, which is what Genmaicha was for me. I found the salty and vegetal flavours to be enticing, and it’s overall a very good cup of tea. I would not recommend following the steeping instructions for this tea based on the packaging (which is highly unfortunate!) as 5 minutes is generally far too long for a green tea.

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24 Days of Tea: Jumpy Monkey

Jumpy Monkey by DavidsTea
Yerba Mate / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

This is about to be the worst review ever, because I’m going to start by stating that I did not actually try this tea. I hate coffee (I know, I know…). I really cannot stand the smell of coffee on a good day. Up until maybe 4 years ago, the smell of coffee made me sick to my stomach.

Jumpy Monkey has a bitter coffee smell to it, I don’t really smell any of the chocolate that is supposed to be in there (I also don’t see it at all). With all the coffee that’s supposed to be in it, this is not an infusion of any sort that I want to try, but I am posting about it because it is part of the 24 Days of Tea.

The ingredients of Jumpy Monkey are: roasted yerba mate, green yerba mate, white chocolate, carob, baba budan coffee, green peaberry coffee, Brazil green coffee, Kenya green coffee, chicory, olive leaf, almonds, artificial vanilla flavouring.

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I did not try DavidsTea’s Jumpy Monkey, so I can’t give it a proper rating. I’m just really not a coffee fan at all, and the idea of drinking something that may make me feel sick to my stomach is not why I started One More Steep. If you’ve tried Jumpy Monkey before, let me know below in the comments how you feel about it! Is it something that a coffee hater might actually like, if given the chance?

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24 Days of Tea: Snow Day

Snow Day by DavidsTea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Day 1 of DavidsTea’s 24 Days of Tea advent calendar for 2016! I received this calendar for my birthday in November, there are some still available in stores and online (the calendar retails for $40).  Each day has a different tea in a gold tone screw-top tin. There’s probably enough in tea tin for 2-3 cups of tea, depending on how much you use per cup and also it depends on the tea. Some blends have more heavy ingredients or bulkier ingredients that just take up more space.

Snow Day was around last winter, I know this because I received a tin of it for the holidays as a present. If you haven’t tried it before, Snow Day smells like mint chocolate. It reminds me a lot of how mint chocolate ice cream or After Eights candy smells like.

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There are mini chocolate chips, and cute little snowflake sprinkles. It’s a really cute tea and really nice to look at! The ingredients of Snow Day are: peppermint leaves, cocoa beans, cocoa husk, chocolate drops, white chocolate pieces, sugar sprinkles.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Snow Day in “near-boiling” water (90-95°C / 194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped for close to 4 minutes.

First Taste

Because of all the chocolate drops/pieces and sprinkles, Snow Day does have an oily film on top that can be a little bit off putting to some people. The hazards of having chocolate in tea! I find that this tea smells very strongly of mint after it’s steeped, and the chocolate plays sort of second fiddle to the mint but it is still very noticeable.

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The mint taste is heavy compared to the chocolate, much like how it smells, but the chocolate is still present. The tea is sweet and overall has an oily mouthfeel to it. However, it isn’t off-putting to me. While Snow Day does taste good straight, I do add a little bit of evaporated milk and that just gives it a creamier feel to it. I find that it is sweet enough without added sweetener.

A Second Cup?

I generally do not resteep herbal infusions, Snow Day was not an exception to the rule.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Snow Day. I’m not generally a fan of herbal infusions as I find that they often don’t taste as good as they smell, but I do like Snow Day quite a bit. I think it’s the comforting and familiar combination of chocolate and mint that really does it for me. I like that it’s an herbal tea though, which means non-caffeinated so I can drink it at all hours of the day. Shift work tends to throw me off, so I do need to watch what I drink and when, but this is an ‘any time’ drink for me.

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