Tag: Green Tea

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

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.

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.

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.

A Second Cup?

I did not resteep Sweet Almond Green.

My Overall Impression

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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Green Passionfruit by DavidsTea
Green Tea/ Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

It’s Day 10 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar (only 14 more days left!) and the day of the tea is Green Passionfruit, which is a flavoured green tea. It’s not a tea that I’ve ever really paid attention to before, even though I’ve probably sampled it a good handful of times in store before. Green Passionfruit has this fantastic fruity smell to it, at first I couldn’t place it until I looked down at the tin and small the pieces of pineapple staring back at me. This mix smells sweet, which I attribute to the pineapple in the mix. The green tea leaves are visible, so are the corn flower petals. The dried black currants almost blend in with everything else, with their colouring, but they are very present in the tea blend as well.

The ingredients of Green Passionfruit are: pineapple, green tea, black currants, cornflower petals, calendula petals, safflowers, natural passionfruit flavouring. I’m a bit disappointed that one of the ingredients isn’t dried passionfruit, to be perfectly honestly.

Preparation

DavidsTea’s recommendations for steeping Green Passionfruit is with hot water (75-80°C/167-176°F) for 3-5 minutes. I steeped my cup for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Green Passionfruit steeps to a fairly bright yellow – which I think has something to do with the pineapple, possibly a little bit of the green tea, and the safflower. This tea has a very sweet smell to it, the pineapple helps make it seem like a nice hot tropical drink. The green tea base isn’t completely masked by the fruit, as I can still make out the mild vegetal flavours of the tea. The pineapple and passionfruit play nicely together and don’t overwhelm each other when they balance out with the green tea. There’s a good amount of sweet to this tea, so I don’t think additional sweetener is necessary (at all!).

I think this tea would be excellent iced, due to the fruity flavours and fruit sugar content. This is part of the reason that I find it a bit odd that it’s in a winter advent calendar – the tea itself is good, it’s just not really a “winter” tea for me.

A Second Cup?

I tried one more steep of Green Passionfruit and found to the flavour to be very lacking. The fruity goodness of the first steep was nothing more than a memory with the second steep, and the sweetness had definitely waned as well. I think that Green Passionfruit is really only good for one steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Green Passionfruit. It has great fruity sweetness to it, and I think I would really enjoy this as an iced tea or cold steeped tea even more than I do hot steeping it. I find it to be an interesting choice for a winter advent calendar selection, since it would probably be better suited for an iced tea collection if it hasn’t already been in one. I enjoyed being able to taste the green tea base and there is a beautiful balance between the fruit flavours and the tea base, which I know from tasting experience can be difficult to achieve.

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Genmaicha by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$6.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Genmaicha has been on my list of “teas to eventually buy and try”, so I was pleased as punch that it was in the DavidsTea’s 24 Days of Tea advent calendar as day 3. The dry leaf has a salty and vegetal quality to it, and I can smell the roasted rice as there’s a distinct rice smell to the tea itself.

Genmaicha is filled with popped rice, I didn’t see the green tea leaves at first! The tea leaves are generally small and broken, which is a bit disappointing. Genmaicha is made up of: steamed green tea from Japan, and roasted and popped rice.

Preparation

The steeping instructions for Genmaicha are to use “hot water” and to steep for 2 to 3 minutes as per DavidsTea’s website. On the packaging, it says to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Drastically different steep times! I opted to steep for less, and my initial steep of Genmaicha was for 2 minutes. DavidsTea considers “hot” water to be 75-80°C or 167-176°F.

First Taste

Genmaicha steeps to a very pale yellow, the tea has a salty and vegetal aroma that reminds me a lot of seaweed snacks! It smells very much like how it did prior to steeping, which is always a good sign. After letting the tea cool just a smidge, Genmaicha has a tasty but salty vegetal flavour to it. There’s this slight crispness to the flavour that is difficult to describe. I found it very enjoyable and not bitter at all when steeped for 2 minutes. I feel that 5 minutes for an initial steep would be overkill.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Genmaicha twice. The second time around, it was very much like the first. I found the third steep, that there was this added sweetness to the tea that wasn’t there before. The subtle change in the flavour profile was enjoyable.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Genmaicha. There’s just something enjoyable about a flavourful cup of tea, which is what Genmaicha was for me. I found the salty and vegetal flavours to be enticing, and it’s overall a very good cup of tea. I would not recommend following the steeping instructions for this tea based on the packaging (which is highly unfortunate!) as 5 minutes is generally far too long for a green tea.

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