Tag: DavidsTea

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24 Days of Tea: Organic Sweet Almond Green

Organic Sweet Almond Green by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

The first thing that came to mind when I smelled the tea for day 19 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar is that it smells like marzipan. Sweet Almond Green smells like almonds, almonds, and more almonds – which shouldn’t come to anyone as a surprise given the name.

Sweet Almond Green is made up of green tea, almonds, marigold flowers, cornflower petals, and natural almond flavouring.

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Preparation

Steeping recommendations for Sweet Almond Green are to steep with hot water (75-80°C/167-176°F) for 3 to 5 minutes. I steeped my cup of Sweet Almond Green for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Sweet Almond Green steeps to an almost murky yellow-green. There’s a salty smell to it, that comes from the green tea, and then there’s the almonds (from the almonds). It still smells like marzipan, and I’m not sure how I feel about drinking my candy when marzipan isn’t a favourite.

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The salty seaweed-quality of the green tea is heavily present, as is the almond from the almonds and the almond flavouring. They do not balance well together to form a cohesive flavour profile.

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A Second Cup?

I did not resteep Sweet Almond Green.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Organic Sweet Almond Green. There’s just something about the almond and the salty flavour of the green tea base that do not mingle well together for me. It probably doesn’t help that I’m not the biggest fan of marzipan either! If you’re a big fan of almonds and/or marzipan, this might be a better tea for you than it is for me.

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24 Days of Tea: Sleigh Ride

Sleigh Ride by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I wasn’t sure what to think when I pulled out day 18 of the 24 Days of Tea and saw that it was Sleigh Ride. I’m 90% sure that I’ve tried it in store before, but it’s hard for me to remember since I’ve sampled so many teas in the past. The first thing that I thought when smelling the dry tea is that it smells like the red heart cinnamon candy that is very commonly found around Valentine’s Day. Sleigh Ride has that spicy cinnamon smell to it, and I can’t really make out the rest of the ingredients.

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Sleigh Ride is a mix of: apple, hibiscus blossoms, pineapple, papaya, beetroot, cinnamon, raisins, coconut, roasted almonds, popped rice, natural and artificial flavouring.

Preparation

The recommendations for Sleigh Ride are to steep in near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped for about 5 minutes. Sleigh Ride is a fairly bulky tea with its ingredients, I used the entire tin to steep my cup of tea.

First Taste

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Sleigh Ride steeps to a beautiful deep pink that reminds me a lot of Bear Trap or Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait. There’s a very strong cinnamon smell to this tea, and it tastes like cinnamon as well. There’s a mix of sweet fruity flavours and some sourness to it as well. The sour notes aren’t very pleasant. Sleigh Ride is weird to me, because some sips tastes like apple cinnamon and that’s just delicious, the others are just sour and tart and makes me unhappy. This isn’t something that really evokes the feelings of winter or snowy days to me, which is what I think they were trying to aim for with a name like Sleigh Ride.

I did add some sweetener to this one (honey) and it does help to temper that sourness that I’ve tasted in the tea.

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A Second Cup?

I don’t resteep fruit infusions, Sleigh Ride wasn’t an exception to that rule.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Sleigh Ride. The sourness to this tea isn’t pleasant. Perhaps it’d be better as an iced tea? I find that the sour notes don’t help to endure me to this tea, and I think there have been better fruit infusions in the 24 Days of Tea calendar so far.

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24 Days of Tea: Chocolate Covered Almond

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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A Second Cup?

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

My Overall Impression

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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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