Tag: Black Tea

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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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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.

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Liquid Proust Teas’ Nostalgia

Nostalgia by Liquid Proust Teas
Black + Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9USD for 1 ounce

Liquid Proust Teas has provided me with Nostalgia for the purposes of providing an honest review.
I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” – Marcel Proust

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First Impressions

Like with the first Liquid Proust Tea I reviewed (Smoked Breakfast), the bag is very sturdy and a bit tough to open (at least it’s air tight?). It has a very subtle aroma, no perfumed smells to overwhelm the senses here! The tea itself smells sweet, it reminds me quite a bit like the smell of lychee and it comes off as ‘fruity’ to me, despite not being an herbal infusion at all.

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Nostalgia contains the following: 2012 Da Hong Pao oolong, Fujian black tea, and red sandalwood. This is my first time trying a tea with Da Hong Pao oolong and red sandalwood. It is a pretty tea, the red sandalwood gives nice bright pops of colour in the otherwise very dark tea leaves. I’m not too familiar with red sandalwood so I’m not sure if what kind of smell it should have on its own, but I don’t smell anything that reminds me of wood in this tea – it does make the tea look prettier though.

Preparation

Liquid Proust Teas recommends steeping Nostalgia in 205°F (96°C) water for 2-3 minutes. I steeped it for about 3 minutes.

First Taste

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Nostalgia had a very light scent when steeping – I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it reminded me of. It almost had a light earthiness quality, as well as smelling like black teas that I’ve tried in the past. The tea steeps to a warm brown colour that is very inviting. Nostalgia has a very smooth taste, there’s no bitterness that I noted. There was a slight astringency at the end of each sip that was primarily quelled by drinking more of the tea. While it had smelled a bit fruity to me prior to steeping it, I didn’t note any lychee qualities to the tea when drinking it – I didn’t really expect any as it wasn’t listed as an ingredient, but it did have the fruity floral scent to it when dry.

After I finished my first cup, I wanted to see how it would resteep so I had another steep of Nostalgia.

A Second Cup?

Nostalgia does really well with resteeping! I tack on another 30 seconds of so of steeping time for each subsequent cup, I resteeped this tea two more times and it tasted exactly the same, which is a nice quality to have in a tea.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Liquid Proust Teas’ Nostalgia was just okay. It’s a beautiful tea and it resteeps really well if you’re looking for a tea that will last you throughout your day. While I did find the flavour of the tea quite enjoyable, I was not a fan of the astringency sensation that I get from this tea.

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