Tag: DavidsTea

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DavidsTea’s Perfect Spoon

Perfect Spoon by DavidsTea
Stainless Steel
$7.00

First Impressions

So this was not the first time I used the Perfect Spoon from DavidsTea. I may have several (and a few that didn’t make it into the photo). The spoons themselves are stainless steel – they frequently release coloured ones that are either sold by themselves or as part of a set. I got the red and green ones from the past winter collections as part of sets. I typically only use the silver one because it was my first Perfect Spoon.

The coating on the coloured spoons are not durable or dishwasher-friendly. I’ve seen many complaints online of the coloured spoons getting damaged and the coating flaking off. I think this is part of the reason why I don’t use the coloured spoons. For reference, the price of the silver/plain Perfect Spoon is the same as the coloured Perfect Spoons (at the time of writing). There’s been limited edition spoons that have been more expensive in the past and some of them come in boxed packaging (e.g. rose gold).

A Perfect Spoon is 2½ teaspoons.

Preparation

I hand wash all of my Perfect Spoons after use, and I store them in a cup. Since I only use them for tea, I generally just rinse in warm water and use dish soap when I use it to scoop an ‘oily’ tea (e.g. Earl Grey, some herbal/fruit infusions).

First Use

The Perfect Spoon performs its job well. It’s a spoon, it scoops! That said, not all teas should be measured out by how many spoonfuls. As you can see in the photo, an airy tea like Sau-Mei will have a lot of ’empty’ space between the leaves – which is why I do a heaping spoonful. For teas that are denser or have larger pieces (e.g. teas with dried fruit pieces, a rolled tea like Jasmine Pearls) will need more or less tea. Fancier tea connoisseurs than I am will use digital food/kitchen scales to measure out their tea instead of spoons. Since I’m not that fancy yet, I typically use my Perfect Spoon and just eye-ball it.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Perfect Spoon. I’ve used it pretty much consistently since I’ve gotten it – with zero issues from the silver Perfect Spoon. I’m too leery about having the coloured coating come off in my tea, which is why I opt to not use them. I mostly just have the coloured ones because they came in gift sets that I had bought (for myself). That said, it isn’t the cheapest of spoons. If you already have a teaspoon-sized measuring spoon in your kitchen, you might not want to get it because who needs another spoon that isn’t a standard unit of measurement? I’ve gotten all of my Perfect Spoons as part of promotional sales or as part of a boxed gift set, so I haven’t purchased a Perfect Spoon by itself just yet (pro-tip if you’re wanting one but don’t want to spend $7 on a spoon…).

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DavidsTea’s Perfect Pitcher

Perfect Pitcher by DavidsTea
BPA-Free Plastic / 2L (68oz)
$28.00

First Impressions

One of the reasons why I bought the Perfect Pitcher was because I needed another pitcher and the other reason is because it qualified me for DavidsTea’s annual Summer Tea Club. Basically how the club works is that you purchase a qualifying piece of teaware and then you get a percentage off of qualifying loose leaf tea purchases (20% off when you buy 100g or more of one particular tea). Since I buy a lot of fruity tisanes anyways for iced teas during the summer, it seemed like a good deal.

In order to make this purchase worth it, I’d have to spend $140 on qualifying loose leaf tea purchases to ‘save’ what I already spent on the pitcher but I had a lot of gift cards that had been given to me (from birthdays and Christmases) that I kept on forgetting to bring into the store, so it was a combination of cash and gift cards that made the pitcher worth it (and luckily mostly gift cards). So if you don’t spend a lot of money on tea, it might not be worth it to you if you’re not already in the market for a new pitcher (because, frankly, there are cheaper pitchers out there!).

I picked the Soft Blue colour because it best fit with what I had already in terms of teaware and I just liked this colour the best. The tag boasts that the Perfect Pitcher is designed to lay flat, fit inside of a fridge door, and is made of shatter-resistant Tritan plastic (which is BPA-free). The Perfect Pitcher holds 2L (2000mL), or 68oz of liquid. The Perfect Pitcher also has a removeable infuser, and an airtight lid (which is probably good, considering they say you can lay it flat…).

Preparation

Prior to using my Perfect Pitcher for the first time, I unassembled it and washed all the pieces in warm soapy water. The pitcher comes apart into six pieces, with the infuser portion being three pieces. Because it isn’t one continuous piece for the infuser, it makes for easier cleaning if you don’t have a bottle brush, which is nice. The mesh is white, which makes it seem like it might pick up colour easily if you have highly pigmented teas (more on that later). The lid and spout/handle pieces both have an o-ring-like seal layer inside for the air-tight/leak-proof seal.

First Use

The first time I used the Perfect Pitcher was to steep Mango Fruit Punch for a party. It was easy to use, I just scooped the tea into the infuser and then connected it to the lid. Hot water went into the pitcher and then I popped the lid on for it to steep. I found the infuser easy to clean and to remove the loose leaf tea after I was done infusing the fruity tisane. The white mesh of the strainer wasn’t as bright white as it was when I started – it had picked up a bit of a yellow tinge.

DavidsTea’s instructions are to use 4 to 8 Perfect Spoons of dry leaf, and then fill the pitcher half-full (32oz/1L) with hot water, and then allow the tea to infuse as per steeping instructions. After removing the infuser, you top it up with ice to cool down the tea for an iced tea. I actually use my Perfect Pitcher to make iced tea with all water, and then pop the pitcher into my fridge once it’s cooled down to room temperature, or I cold steep it directly in the pitcher with room temperature water (and popped into the fridge for anywhere from 8 to 10 hours).

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Perfect Pitcher. I quite like the design of the pitcher, it’s light-weight and use to use. I find that the handle is comfortable and I do enjoy the colour. I do, however, wish that the infuser’s mesh didn’t pick up colour as easily as it did because I found that it stained with the first use, which wasn’t very fun. I also would like if DavidsTea produced a glass pitcher instead – I actually own a glass pitcher that I purchased from DavidsTea several years ago (designed by another company) – as I just find glass products to be generally more durable.

Sure we’ve been told that BPA is bad for us now, but for a long time it was considered safe so who knows what’s in store for use for the future when it comes to plastic usage? For now, I’ll be using my Perfect Pitcher anyways, it’s super handy to have around and makes for some easy tea steeping. I think the price is a bit steep for what it is, so you’d have to be really wanting a new pitcher to make the price worth it (I thought it was great that I had gift cards to help cover the cost of the pitcher, and my subsequent loose leaf tea purchases!).

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DavidsTea’s Jasmine Crème Brulée

Jasmine Crème Brulée by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

My first exposure to Jasmine Crème Brulée was as an iced tea sample in-store when it was the Tea of the Month – which is also the reasoning for the packaging. I actually bought the bag after it was the Tea of the Month, which meant this pouch was on sale because there was a new TotM. It was a bit of a perk, since it can be hard sometimes to get tea on sale – especially a tasty one. The dry leaf of Jasmine Crème Brulée smells like vanilla custard with floral notes and some fruity hints somewhere in there.

The ingredients in Jasmine Crème Brulée are as follows: apple, jasmine tea, rosehip shells, pineapple, sweet blackberry leaves, marigold flowers, natural and artificial flavouring. Like a lot of tea blends, I found that the smaller ingredients tended to settle at the bottom, so I had to give the bag a good shake to redistribute the ingredients again in order to get a spoonful that had the green tea in it.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Jasmine Crème Brulée in hot water for 3 to 5 minutes. I really do wish that they would go back to listing actual temperature values. I used the green tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle and did an initial steep of Jasmine Crème Brulée at 79°C (175°F) for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Jasmine Crème Brulée steeps to a light golden yellow. There’s a nice jasmine/floral aroma that comes up from the tea, as well as something that definitely reminds me of a vanilla custard. I’m not sure how much of the green tea I actually taste, but this blend has a nice floral taste to it, some vanilla notes, and I’m not sure how much of the fruit ingredients I’m tasting. There’s a delicate creaminess to Jasmine Crème Brulée that has a nice buttery quality to it, which may be why it got its name. When steeped for 3 minutes, there was no astringency or bitterness from the green tea.

I iced some of the Jasmine Crème Brulée to try it cold and found it to be quite refreshing. I think this is one of those teas that does well both hot and iced. There was enough sweetness to it that I didn’t find myself needing any sweetener for either the hot or iced tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Jasmine Crème Brulée twice, adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found the first resteep was quite similar to the initial steep in terms of the depth of flavour, while the second resteep was lacking some of that sweetness but was still palatable.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Jasmine Crème Brulée. I really enjoyed the flavour profile of this green tea blend with the floral notes and the vanilla custard flavours. The creaminess and buttery qualities of this tea make for a great mouthfeel and there’s a nice sweetness to it. I found this tea equally enjoyable for both hot and iced. I think it’d be a great candidate for cold steeping so you don’t accidentally oversteep the green tea.

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