Tag: DavidsTea

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DavidsTea’s Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I picked up Blue Lagoon on a whim during the Semi-Annual Sale on the DavidsTea website. It was on sale as the blend was being retired – and at the time of writing no longer available on the website, but I know there are a lot of Facebook groups where people resell bags of sealed tea… Blue Lagoon comes in the familiar sealed, resealable silver foil bag with a yellow label that gives me all the information about this tea.

On first sniff of this fruity blend, the first thing I think is that there is a lot of fruit in the mix. The aroma is very fruity, and the majority of what I can make out is the berries – blueberries specifically. Blue Lagoon consist of: candied pineapple, blueberries, lemongrass, elderberries, cornflower petals, natural and artificial flavourings. This fruit blend also consists of sulphites, which is used to help maintain shelf longevity in food.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping at 200°F (95°C) for 4 to 7 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep for 7 minutes.

First Taste

Blue Lagoon steeps to an interesting colour that I wasn’t quite expecting from a fruity infusion – a reddish brown. Honestly, it was a bit off-putting when I first came back to it after the long steep time. The aroma is very sweet and and fruity, which does match the taste of the blend. I can taste berries and pineapple, and a large amount of sweetness – it’s almost too sweet for me.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Blue Lagoon but found the second steep of the same leaves to be very watery and tasteless in comparison the initial steep. I would recommend Blue Lagoon for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I thought that DavidsTea’s Blue Lagoon was just okay. Blue Lagoon stays consistent throughout for me – smelling and tasting fruity and sweet. I think it was just too sweet for me, even though I am a self-proclaimed sweet tooth. The colour was a bit off-putting, but it’s the sweetness that really killed it for me. I think this would be a great candidate to cold steep or mix with minimally sweetened lemonade, because the acidity would help balance against the sweetness from the candied pineapple and berries.

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DavidsTea’s Silken Pu’erh

Silken Pu’erh by DavidsTea
Pu’erh Tea / Straight
$7.98 for 50g

First Impressions

DavidsTea’s Silken Pu’erh is an organic pu’erh tea from Yunnan Province, China. The tea comes in a familiar sealed, resealable foil pouch with a coloured label on the front. I bought this tea on a whim, mostly because I realized that I haven’t had a lot of experiences with pu’erh teas so I wanted to give it a whirl.

The leaves are a range from deep reddish brown to chocolate brown shades. There’s a definite earthy aroma to the tea, and just a light little bit of sweetness when sniffing the dry leaf. It definitely intrigues me enough to steep it.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Silken Pu’erh at 95°C (200°F) water for 4 to 5 minutes (as per their product page) or 4 to 7 minutes (as per the product label). Confusing? Just a bit! I opted to do an initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Silken Pu’erh steeps to a nice golden orange colour after the initial 5 minute steep. I found that there was an earthy aroma to the steeped tea as well. On taste though, I noticed that the tea is smooth – there’s a pleasant sweetness that lingers that reminds me of the flavour of young jackfruit. It balances well against the earthy notes that do remind me a bit of cocoa nibs, but without the obvious chocolate flavour. With the 5 minute steep, I noticed zero astringency or bitterness.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Silken Pu’erh six times (seven steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the tea got much darker very quickly as I resteeped the tea. The flavour profile stayed consistent with each subsequent steep and it was very pleasant to drink as it was very smooth and went down easy.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Silken Pu’erh. I really enjoyed the flavour profile of this tea – the earthy qualities balanced very well against the flavours of young jackfruit. I liked that I was able to resteep the same leaves multiple times and get some deeper flavours out of the leaves and that it was an easy tea to drink. It reminded me a lot of going out for dimsum with my family because pu’erh is a very common tea to be offered at dimsum, so it made for a nice experience and I think it would pair very well with savoury food.

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DavidsTea’s Zomba Pearls

Zomba Pearls by DavidsTea
White Tea / Straight
$19.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I’m a sucker for rolled teas because I always find them that much more impressive than other teas – I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there’s a lot more care and consideration put into the teas during the processing of the leaves. Zomba Pearls is one of those teas that didn’t hesitate to impress me. I ordered Zomba Pearls online from the DavidsTea website (the tea, at the time of writing, is part of their current sale!). Zomba Pearls comes in a sealed, resealable foil pouch that has a seafoam green label that has the information regarding the tea on one side.

Zomba Pearls comes in large, almost oval-shaped pearls – no round pearls here! The dry leaf has a light vegetal and grassy notes to it. The leaf detail is lovely, and the pearls are tightly wound together. I noticed that there was a beautiful variation in the colour of the leaves that I could see, raging from green to brown to almost black.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Zomba Pearls in hot water for 4 to 7 minutes, according to the product label. As per the product page, that would be 90°C (195°F) for 3 to 5 minutes – a bit inconsistent. I opted to use the white tea temperature setting on my Breville IQ Kettle (85°C/185°F) for 4 minutes, and I used 4 pearls in a 600ml teapot.

First Taste

Zomba Pearls steeps to a light golden yellow colour. There’s a warm vegetal aroma from the cup. I found that Zomba Pearls has a light sweetness to it, there’s a buttery/creamy quality to both the texture and flavour of the tea. I didn’t find the flavour to be too grassy, despite smelling that it the dry leaf. Zomba Pearls has a pleasant, smooth mouthfeel to it and the lack of bitterness or astringency makes for a pleasant cup of tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Zomba Pearls a total of seven times (eight steeps total with the same leaves). I opted to keep using the white tea temperature setting on my variable temperature kettle, and I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavours deepened for the first three resteeps from the initial steep and got a bit more floral with each steep, and then the tea began to slowly lose flavour after that. There was still a considerable amount of creamy flavour by the last steep, so I do think that I could have just continued.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Zomba Pearls. I was just really impressed with this tea from my first impression of the dry leaf, to the flavour of the first cup, and all those many cups after that. While this tea may be on the pricier side (and you can get it on sale right now!), I found that there’s that much more value in the leaves that you can find with the additional steepings of the same leaves to just get all of that flavour out of there. I only used 4 pearls and got eight steeps out of those pearls, so it steeps pretty darn well and tastes good too!

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