Tag: Black Tea

Cardamom French Toast by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Day 20 of the 24 Days of Tea is Cardamom French Toast! This black tea blend has been reviewed before on One More Steep, back in November 2015 (how is that for a throwback Tuesday?). It smells familiar because it is familiar – still heavy with the cinnamon, coriander, and cardamom. The blend is nicely balanced, you can see a little bit of everything, which is nice. I still haven’t tried actual French toast with cardamom yet, I should get on that!

Cardamom French Toast is made up of: black tea, cinnamon, lemon peel, coriander seeds, cardamom, coconut sugar, cane sugar, natural and artificial flavouring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Cardamom French Toast in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped my cup for about 4 minutes.

First Taste

Cardamom French Toast steeps to a nice deep red, and has the heavy spice aroma to it. The cinnamon, coriander, and cardamom all play nicely together. This is a sweet black tea blend – the coconut sugar and cane sugar do their job well!

I played with the tea a bit more this time around, and added some evaporated milk. It’s delicious! The milk helps temper some of the heavier spice notes, while added some creaminess to the flavour profile. I think Cardamom French Toast would make a wonderful tea latte. If you don’t have a milk frother, check out my tutorial on how to make lattes at home.

A Second Cup?

Cardamom French Toast does very poorly when resteeped.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Cardamom French Toast. I definitely think this is a tea that I enjoy better doctored up than I do straight. A little squirt of honey, a couple spoonfuls of evaporated milk – it makes for a very pleasant and enjoyable cup of tea!

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Chocolate Covered Almond by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

The name of day 17 of the 24 Days of Tea calendar shares its name with a tasty snack – Chocolate Covered Almond! The tea smells like you’d expect – I can smell chocolate and I can smell almonds, so already the dry tea is a win in matching the fragrance to what I expect from the tea. I was half expecting this one to be a fruit/herbal infusion, but it’s actually a black tea and yerba mate blend. Definitely not a tea that you’d want to have late in the day or before bedtime.

Chocolate Covered Almond is made up of: cocoa nibs, roasted carob, black tea, almonds, yerba mate, sugar, natural and artificial chocolate and cream-almond flavouring.

Preparation

Like most of their black teas, DavidsTea recommends steeping Chocolate Covered Almond in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped mine for close to 4 minutes.

First Taste

On first glance, Chocolate Covered Almond has a beautiful golden orange liquor. The smell that first comes to me is the malty tones from the black tea base – yum! There is a thin oil film on top of the tea, from the chocolatey ingredients in this tea blend. There is a pleasant mouthfeel with the oil though, it’s thin enough that it isn’t overwhelming or completely coating the mouth. I can taste the almonds, and some of the malty flavour of the black tea. I can smell more chocolate than I can taste. The chocolate flavour is watered down.

There this almost alcoholic taste to the tea as an aftertaste, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it just yet.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Chocolate Covered Almond – this is something that I would not recommend

My Overall Impression

I thought that DavidsTea’s Chocolate Covered Almond was just okay. It didn’t quite remind me of chocolate covered almonds, but I wish that it did. There’s the watery chocolate flavour and the almonds are there, there’s just that odd alcoholic aftertaste to each sip that I don’t quite enjoy too much. I think this tea would benefit from having a little bit of sweetener and perhaps some milk. Milk would add some creaminess that you’d expect from a chocolatey tea, and probably help with bringing that chocolate almond taste to the forefront in the flavour profile of each sip.

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Irish Breakfast by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Straight
$5.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Day 14 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar and it’s a straight tea! Irish Breakfast is the tea of the day, and I’m pleased as I’m having it in the morning. I quite like breakfast teas in general because they tend to be bold in flavour, and easy to mess around with when it comes to tempering the strong flavours to something that takes you well into into the afternoon.

I haven’t had DavidsTea’s version of Irish Breakfast before, the dry leaf smells quite strong with a malty fragrance to it that is new yet familiar to me. Irish Breakfast simply consists of: black tea from Assam, India, and Dimbulla, Ceylon.

Preparation

The steeping recommendations for Irish Breakfast are to steep in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped Irish Breakfast in my Tea For One teapot for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Irish Breakfast steeps to a deep red, and has a strong malty smell to it as it steeps. On first sip, I’m almost overwhelmed by the malty flavour of the tea. It’s quite strong, and there’s just a subtle hint of bitterness at the end of every sip. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had steeped it for a full 7 minutes (would it have been undrinkable? Maybe!). I wouldn’t steep it for more than 4 minutes, perhaps even closer to 3 or 3½ minutes. There’s just a touch of astringency that makes my mouth want to pucker, but it’s enjoyable and similar to my other experiences with breakfast teas.

I tried out Irish Breakfast with some cream and sugar, and found that it takes to it very well. I wouldn’t have expected anything different from a strong black tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Irish Breakfast a few times, just to see how it would do. It resteeped well for a second time, giving me a similar cup of tea. I found by the third steep the flavours just weren’t there. I would say that Irish Breakfast is good for one more steep only.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Irish Breakfast. It’s quite nice to have a nice, straight tea after a whole slew of flavoured tea blends. Irish Breakfast makes for a nice strong cup of black tea, and has a good about of malty flavour to it. I would not recommend steeping it for more than 4 minutes, at least not for the first steep. There are cheaper breakfast teas out there, but I would say that this one has a good amount of flavour and the ability to be resteeped puts itself above the bagged breakfast teas out there.

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