Tag: DavidsTea

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DavidsTea’s Ceremonial Matcha

Ceremonial Matcha by DavidsTea
Green Tea (Matcha) / Straight
$34.00 for 50g

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First Impressions

Ceremonial Matcha from DavidsTea came to me in one of their standard resealable silver foil bags. The matcha itself is a bright green, and I can see some clumps of powder in the bag and after I scooped it out – who knows how long it’s been in there for?

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Ceremonial Matcha is made up of matcha green tea from Nishio, Japan. The aroma from this matcha powder is primarily that of grassy notes to me. The description suggests that this matcha is creamy, sweet, and delicate.

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Preparation

The packaging for Ceremonial Matcha is of their older label style – this one includes an actual temperature guide (74°C/165°F). On the product page online, the temperatures suggested are 167-176°F (75-80°C). Both packaging and online page suggests preparing Ceremonial Matcha with a whisk (their online page also suggests their travel-friendly matcha maker if that is more your style).

When preparing Ceremonial Matcha, I sifted the powder into my bowl and then whisked it with a small amount of water that had been heated to 165°F until the powder was mixed in, then added more water until it was thin enough.

First Taste

Ceremonial Matcha whisks to a beautiful bright green that’s on the darker side – it reminds me of emerald green. There’s a slight layer of foam on top from the whisking action. At first sniff, I can smell grassy notes, and a very familiar seaweed smell. On first taste, the first thing that hits my tastebuds in the umami notes from this matcha. It has a very strong grassy flavour, mixed with the seaweed flavours. I don’t get any sweetness from this matcha, nor do I found it creamy.

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I wound up adding a bit of agave syrup to it, to help tone down the umami notes, which helped to make to more palatable. Also, turning it into a matcha latte helped a lot as well.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Ceremonial Matcha. I really wanted to like this one, but found it was just too strong of the grass and seaweed flavours for me to be enjoyable. In order to finish the cup that I had made, I needed to add a sweetener to it to make it more palatable to my taste buds. I’ve had better matchas before, and since this one is so expensive per gram, I can’t see myself wanting to buy more of it.

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DavidsTea’s Lemon Cayenne Cleanse

Lemon Cayenne Cleanse by DavidsTea
White Tea / Flavoured
$12.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I went into my local DavidsTea because I saw photos of their new teaware products and just about fell head-over-heels in love with some of their new designs that are part of their Wellness Collection. While I was there, I got to sample some teas (Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Cayenne Cleanse), and I wound up getting Lemon Cayenne Cleanse as part of my Frequent Steeper rewards. Lemon Cayenne Cleanse smells mostly of lemons to me, and I was a bit apprehensive about trying it at first after the salesperson told me that it contained peppers but she reassured me that it wasn’t spicy at all (and she was right!).

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Lemon Cayenne Cleanse consists of: apple, white tea, lime pieces and peel, carrot, rose hip peel, lemon peel, chili peppers, sunflower blossoms, and natural lemon flavouring. The most obviously fragrance from the dry leaf is the lemon/citrus aromas, I can’t smell the chili peppers, apple, white tea base, or any floral aromas from the sunflower blossoms.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping this white tea blend in hot water for 4 to 7 minutes on the packaging. For further details, I always go onto their website to the tea’s product page for more information. Hot water in this instance is 167-176°F (75-80°C). I opted to steep mine at 175°F, which is my Breville IQ Kettle‘s green tea setting (the white tea setting is 185°F), and I steeped Lemon Cayenne Cleanse for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Lemon Cayenne Cleanse steeps to a nice happy yellow. Despite using a stainless steel basket-style infuser (as part of my Tea for One set), I found lot of tea debris in my cup of tea. If that sort of thing bothers you, this is a tea I would recommend steeping in a tea filter bag instead. Ahem, back to the tea now. Lemon Cayenne Cleanse has a very strong lemon aroma to it. It tastes the same to me as when I sampled it in store – there’s a tart lemon flavour, with a touch of sweetness. There’s the warming properties of the pepper with each sip, but I don’t really get much of a spicy kick from this tea. I’m (generally) sensitive to heavy spices, and I usually shy away from things that are spicy, but I found this white tea blend not spicy at all. That said, I also don’t taste the white tea either.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Lemon Cayenne Cleanse twice. The first resteep, done at 4 minutes, the tea was an even brighter yellow, and I found the flavour to be fairly similar. The second resteep, steeped for 5 minutes, wasn’t particularly good. I found it to be watery and didn’t have the same warming properties as the first two steeps. I would say that Lemon Cayenne Cleanse is only good for one more steep.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Lemon Cayenne Cleanse. I really enjoyed the flavour of this white tea blend, I just wish the white tea shined through a bit more. The lemon flavour is really quite delicious, and I greatly enjoyed the warming properties of this tea. That said, I think it is a bit expensive for a tea that can only be reliably resteeped once, and it is quite a bulky tea. If you look at the photo of the dry leaf, it has a lot of large pieces in it – I don’t anticipate getting a lot of pots of tea out of my 50g of Lemon Cayenne Cleanse.

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DavidsTea’s Sticky Rice Oolong

Sticky Rice Oolong by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea/ Flavoured
$14.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Having grown up eating copious amounts of rice (sticky and otherwise), the name of this tea definitely intrigued me. Plus, it’s also an oolong and I love oolongs so it was kind of a no brainer to use one of my Frequent Steeper rewards from DavidsTea on this one. This oolong smells amazingly like rice, a bit of rice pudding. There are some floral notes with the dry leaf, which are enticing. I’m quite eager to try this one out.

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Sticky Rice Oolong consists of oolong tea and sticky rice leaves (nuo mi xiang). From an aroma stand out, this oolong is really quite fragrant and aromatic. If you have a DavidsTea location near you, it’s definitely one that I would recommend sniffing because it just smells so good.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Sticky Rice Oolong in hot water (167-176°F or 75-80°C) for 4-7 minutes. I steeped mine at 175°F for an initial steep of 5 minute.

First Taste

Sticky Rice Oolong steeps to a beautiful golden yellow. The aroma of rice might be stronger in the steeped tea than in the dry leaf, if that’s even possible. The taste of this tea is an interesting blend of rice to rice pudding, and oolong. There’s just a tiny hint of astringency that I noted at the end of each sip, although I can’t tell for sure if it’s from the oolong or the sticky rice leaves. I found that there was a touch of sweetness in this tea, but overall it’s quite a savoury tea.

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I did try a cup of Sticky Rice Oolong with a touch of honey and it made it taste more like rice pudding.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Sticky Rice Oolong four times, adding an extra 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found the aroma and flavours of this tea to become stronger, the rice pudding flavour is delicious and gets just a touch sweeter in the additional steeps.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Sticky Rice Oolong. I found that the tea smells just like the name implies for both the dry leaf and steeped tea. The slight astringency might be a touch off-putting for something, but I found that the tea does wonderfully with a tiny amount of honey. The sweetness makes it taste more like rice pudding. I find the tea resteeps well, so if you find that the price is putting you off from buying it, the quality of the tea is good enough to resteep repeatedly.

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