Tag: DavidsTea

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DavidsTea’s Cardamom French Toast

Cardamom French Toast by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.75 for 50g

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First Impressions

I first smelled Cardamom French Toast in store and I was intrigued by it. I like French toast, but I’ve never had French toast with cardamom before (although a quick Google search buries me with recipes). The tea itself has a very strong aroma. It smells heavily of cinnamon, coriander, and cardamom. I can’t actually make out the tea base at all, just all the added ingredients. The smell of the dry tea doesn’t make me think of breakfast, but hopefully the tea will!

Cardamom French Toast is made up of: black tea, cinnamon, lemon peel, coriander, cardamom, coconut sugar, cane sugar, natural & artificial flavouring.

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Preparation

DavidsTea’s recommendation for Cardamom French Toast is to steep in 96°C (204°F) water for 4-7 minutes. I steeped my first cup for nearly the full 7 minutes, mostly because I forgot about it (whoops!).

First Taste

I need to start off by saying that Cardamom French Toast smells amazing when it’s steeping. It has a heavily spiced aroma that reminds me a lot of cinnamon buns in a bakery. Just that rich, spicy, buttery aroma. It smells like a bakery in a cup, which is really impressive. It steeps to a lovely deep amber colour.

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This tea is sweet. As someone who loves sweets and thinks that cake is an appropriate meal at times, I am being truthful when I tell you that Cardamom French Toast is sweet and doesn’t need the addition of a sweetener because it has plenty of sugar. It has a very heavy cinnamon and cardamom taste to it, but it doesn’t remind me of French toast in any way. It reminds me a lot more of cinnamon buns than French toast, if I were to pick a food item that it reminds me of. The tea is very warming, it likely has to do with all the warm spice ingredients, but it makes me feel warm and cozy.

A Second Cup?

I attempted a second steep of Cardamom French Toast and had a cup of tea that reminded me nothing of steep #1. I would say that Cardamom French Toast is good for one steeping.

My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Cardamom French Toast. While the tea didn’t remind me of French toast, it did remind me of cinnamon buns. It’s a very comforting and warming tea, which I really enjoy. I think it has a great flavour profile, although it isn’t appropriately named, and it is a great winter time tea. It would make for a good choice for sipping while being cozy under a blanket, or to have as a treat after shovelling snow.

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DavidsTea’s Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate by DavidsTea
Pu-erh Tea / Flavoured
$8.75 for 50g

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First Impressions

I bought Hot Chocolate, along with Cardamom French Toast and Mulled Wine, from DavidsTea’s winter collection because of the amazing fragrance that the dry leaf had. I opted not to get Sweet Almond Green because it smelled like marzipan (just not my thing) and I wasn’t sure about Snow Day – I might go back and get some of Snow Day to try though, mint and chocolate are delightful flavours to have together.

This is the first pu-erh tea that I’ve bought from DavidsTea, and it’s also the first one that I’m reviewing for One More Steep. Despite growing up drinking pu-erh and other Chinese teas, I don’t actually buy a lot of it for myself mostly because my parents do that for me in keeping the familial tea cupboard stocked. I was really intrigued by this tea when I noted the name and smelled it in store because I really like hot chocolate, especially in the winter season. The tea itself has a great earthy base from the pu-erh and it has an amazing chocolate fragrance to it. It’s quite inviting, and I knew that I wanted to try it as soon as I smelled it. The tea itself is quite exciting, it has remarkably large chocolate chips and the beautiful fragrance, and you can see the majority of the ingredients quite easily.

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The ingredients for Hot Chocolate are: pu-erh tea, black tea, cocoa nibs, chocolate, stevia extract, natural and artificial flavouring. There’s also an allergen warning that the tea contains milk and soy. I know some people dislike products that contain stevia and other artificial sweeteners, so do note that the tea contains stevia. I have a sweet tooth, but I generally sweeten my teas with sugar or honey if it’s needed, so I’m curious to see if I can taste it because I know some people say that they can taste stevia when it is added to things because it has a distinct flavour.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Hot Chocolate in 96°C (204°F) water for 4 to 7 minutes. I steeped my cup of Hot Chocolate for about 6 minutes.

First Taste

Hot Chocolate steeps to a beautiful deep brown colour, there’s a notable sheen of oil on the top from the chocolate that had melted during the steeping process. The aroma of the tea is not surprising, given the fragrance of the dry leaf: it smells of mostly of chocolate with the faint earthiness of the tea base.

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When I took my first sip, I wasn’t sure if I was pleasantly surprised or let down. While I knew there was no way that the tea would match up to real hot chocolate, I still had the hope that it would. Hot Chocolate tastes like a very sweet, but watery, hot chocolate. When drinking the tea, I can taste the pu-erh earthiness and it matches well with the chocolate and doesn’t allow the chocolate to overwhelm the flavour profile. There is an oily mouthfeel to this tea, as I would expect from a tea that has chocolate, but it isn’t off-putting when the oils from the chocolate lingers a little bit in my mouth.

Hot Chocolate does really well with the addition of milk. It does still taste like watered down hot chocolate, but the milk helps to cut the sweetness from the stevia and chocolate ingredients. I think that the tea might do even better steeped in hot milk rather than water.

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A Second Cup?

Hot Chocolate did not fair well for a second steeping, which is unfortunate. It still has the lovely chocolate fragrance, but it tastes like further watered-down hot chocolate and that just makes for a very unhappy cup of tea.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Hot Chocolate was just okay. I think I had higher expectations for this tea because of the name and the great chocolate fragrance that the dry leaf had. I wish that the pu-erh tea had a greater presence, or that it was a richer chocolate experience. It definitely improved with the addition of milk, which adds to legitimize the claim that it like hot chocolate – I almost always make hot chocolate with milk. I really do think that Hot Chocolate might do better steeped in hot milk rather than water, if I get some time to try that out, I will share how it goes!

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DavidsTea’s Pure Vanilla

Pure Vanilla by DavidsTea
Rooibos Tea / Flavoured
$7.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

The primary reason why I bought this tea while I was in the DavidsTea shop (for browsing purposes, honest) was because of the way it smells. I don’t drink roobios teas often (I make an exception for Birthday Cake though), but it just smelled so good. It has a very rich vanilla fragrance that mingles well with the aroma of the rooibos base and it just smells really, really good. I’m a big fan of vanilla (I love using vanilla extract when baking!), so having a vanilla tea is kind of perfect.

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Pure Vanilla is made up of: red rooibos, vanilla beans, marigold flowers, and flavouring. For those curious, the DavidsTea website states that it is natural flavouring (my guess would be vanilla flavouring, given the rich and heavy vanilla scent to the tea). It is an organic tea, if that matters to you.

Preparation

The recommendation is to steep in 96°C (204°F) water for 4-7 minutes. I went right for the middle and steeped for about ~5-6 minutes. For rooibos teas, I like to use tea filters over metal infusers. I find that the rooibos itself is very fine and can get out of infusers, they stay in place better with the tea filters as long as you cinch it up tight.

First Taste

After steeping for about 5 minutes, the aroma is really inviting. It has a nice warm vanilla fragrance to the tea, Pure Vanilla steeps to a rich reddish brown that reminds me of the colour of chestnuts. It smells more heavily of vanilla than of the rooibos. The taste is pleasant. It has a nice light vanilla flavour that mingles well with the rooibos. There is a bit of an oily mouthfeel to this tea, which is I found to be off-putting near the end of the first cup, and there is a bit of an astringent taste to the end of each sip. Just a slight pucker, but it’s there.

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A Second Cup?

Pure Vanilla does well for a second steeping – the flavour is very close to the first cup! On the third try, it was more of a vaguely vanilla-tasting water.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Pure Vanilla was just okay. While the smell and the taste of the tea itself is lovely and quite enjoyable, but the end of the first cup the oily mouthfeel was just not welcome. If you have one cup, and perhaps don’t finish the entire cup, you may not get put of by the texture. It’s an alright tea and I can see why DavidsTea wound up using Pure Vanilla as one of the teas to make tea-infused body products with because it smells amazing. I just wouldn’t want to finish a cup of it, which doesn’t really make it worth it to me to stock in my tea stash. It’s good enough for a cup perhaps here and there, but I wouldn’t continually go back to it.

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