Tag: Green Tea

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DavidsTea’s Monk’s Blend

Monk’s Blend by DavidsTea
White Tea, Oolong Tea, & Green Tea / Flavoured
$11.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

Monk’s Blend got me curious before I even smelled the tea because of the description on the DavidsTea website. Monk’s Blend is a blend of white, green, and milk oolong teas – which is interesting in itself as I’ve tried other teas called Monk’s Blend before, but those have always been flavoured black teas.

Monk’s Blend has this nice mixture of smells – there’s the light floral notes of jasmine, mixed with the smell that reminds me of heavy cream of butter. DavidsTea’s version of Monk’s Blend consists of white tea, milk oolong tea, jasmine green tea pearls, and natural milk flavouring.

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Preparation

DavidsTea’s recommendation for steeping Monk’s Blend is to steep in hot water for 4 to 7 minutes. According to the website (not the label), “hot” is 75-80°C (167-176°F). That steeping time is much too long (in my opinion). White teas should be steeped for 2-5 minutes, oolong for 2-3 minutes, and green teas for 1-3 minutes. I opted to do the first steep of Monk’s Blend for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Monk’s Blend steeps to a pale greeny-yellow colour in two minutes. There’s a really nice buttery quality to the smell that mingles well with the floral. I can definitely taste a grassy flavour, as well as sweet jasmine and the buttery cream from the oolong. The buttery quality to the flavour isn’t as rich as from Guangzhou Milk Oolong, but it is still quite rich and pleasant. It’s a mix of flavours that play well together and is a pleasant cup of tea. Steeping for two minutes resulted in a smooth cup of tea with no bitterness.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped this tea for an additional four steeps. The buttery cream flavour in the tea starts to wane with the more steeps done, but the floral and grassy components of the flavour are more prominent with subsequent steepings. I added an additional 30 seconds per steep. Monk’s Blend becomes a deeper yellow when you steep it for a longer period of time.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Monk’s Blend. I found this tea to be very interesting – in part because it’s such an interesting mix of teas and because it isn’t a flavoured black tea like I was expecting from the name of the tea. I love the complexity in the flavours of this tea, you can definitely pick out the flavours that each tea base brings to the cup which is very enjoyable. I think that DavidsTea does need to correct the recommended steeping time for this tea, 4 minutes is far too long for most of these teas (but especially for the green tea). While allowing the jasmine green tea pearls to unfurl is important, allowing them to do so for far too long is a detriment to the tea itself. Nobody likes bitter tea, especially when it can be prevented! If you do try Monk’s Blend, I would recommend steeping for short periods of time, and do many steeps. It resteeps very well and can make many cups of tea from the same tea leaves.

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DavidsTea’s Dragonwell

Dragonwell by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$9.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

DavidsTea’s Dragonwell smells like roasted seaweed. If you’re not sure what roasted seaweed smells like, you really ought to get yourself to your nearest Asian grocer and track some down (it makes for a fantastic snack). I was actually a little surprised at how salty it smells because I’ve had other Dragonwell teas before (before the inception of One More Steep) and I don’t remember them being as salty smelling (although I could be wrong). The leaves are long and flat, having been pressed while heated. They’re a very pretty green colour, and it’s overall a very nice to look at tea. Not as fun as, say, blooming teas, but still lovely to look at nonetheless.

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Dragonwell consists of: green tea from the West Lake Region, Hangzhou area, Zhejiang province, China. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to Longjing tea (Dragonwell tea). The tea leaves are fairly uniform, most of them are about an inch in length, to give you an idea of the size when the tea is dry.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Dragonwell in 85°C (185°F) water for 3-4 minutes (since I bought the tea initially in February of this year, DavidsTea updated their steeping temperatures to 75-80°C/167-176°F). I tend to steep my green tea for less, I opted for 3 minutes for the first steep.

First Taste

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Dragonwell steeps to a very nice light yellow. The tea itself smells like roasted seaweed (still!), and it isn’t off-putting – but I also like roasted seaweed so there is that. Dragonwell has a saltiness to it that is quite appealing to my palate. There’s a bit of vegetal taste to it that isn’t quite like seaweed, but I do get a seaweed-esque taste from the tea itself. Overall, it’s a very nice cup of tea that isn’t bitter at all. I would definitely caution you not to oversteep or burn the leaves – a bitter cup of green tea is gross and should not be sipped.

A Second Cup?

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Dragonwell does very well with being resteeped! I did my usual resteeping method (adding an extra 30 seconds for every subsequent resteep) and I resteeped these leaves an additional three times. Each time the tea had that salty vegetal goodness and remained pleasant and enjoyable. The colour of the tea itself didn’t get too much darker.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Dragonwell. I found it to be a very enjoyable cup of tea. Some people might find the saltiness a bit off-putting, but I think it’s worth a try. It isn’t terribly expensive, as far as Dragonwell teas can be, and it isn’t a terribly low quality version of Dragonwell either. I think it’s well worth the price, considering its ability to hold up to resteeping and the overall tastiness.

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DavidsTea’s Three Wishes

Three Wishes by DavidsTea
Black Tea & Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.40 for 50g

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First Impressions

I actually got this bag of tea a while ago (2015…), and I never got around to reviewing it! Sadly, DavidsTea has decided to retire Three Wishes so I decided to go ahead and review it now in case any of you wanted to snag some while you still can (I do not know if retail stores will still be carrying it, but as of today it is still on the DavidsTea website with a 25% off discount if you buy in 250g quantities – full retail price if you purchase in 50g increments). I bought this tea at the suggestion of a woman who worked at the retail store when I mentioned that I wanted to try something new, and then I rattled off a few of the teas that I enjoyed that DavidsTea put out. This was one of the teas that she recommended

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The dry leaf of Three Wishes smells heavily of green tea and peaches. I can’t smell roses or the black tea base at all, but that’s not too terrible because I like the smell of peaches. The dry leaf looks interesting, there’s sunflower petals in there as well so it’s a pretty tea to look at. Three Wishes is categorized by DavidsTea as being a black tea, I think this is because black tea is listed first in the ingredients. The ingredients are: Chinese black tea, Chinese green tea, sunflower petals, jasmine blossoms, rose petals, and artificial flavouring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping this tea in 96°C (204°F) water for 4-7 minutes. This might be accurate if the tea only contained a black tea base, but it doesn’t. Green teas need to be steeped in cooler water for a shorter period of time or else it’ll oversteep and be a very bitter cup of tea. I steeped mine in water that was about 85°C (185°F) for about 3 minutes.

First Taste

Three Wishes steeps to a deep golden yellow, which is quite pretty and very aromatic. The tea smells purely of peaches and green tea – I can’t smell the black tea at all. The taste of Three Wishes is a bit surprising. It tastes of melon (perhaps honeydew?) and peaches, along with the green tea base. There is no trace of the black tea, roses, or jasmine taste in the tea at all. Which is a bit disappointing, given the ingredients, but it is a very pleasant cup of tea. The peaches taste is delightful, but the tea by itself is not very sweet. I added a bit of sweetener to brighten up the peach flavour and it worked out quite nicely. I think this tea would do very well as an iced tea or cold steeped, and would probably taste quite good in the summer time.

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A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Three Wishes. Unfortunately, the taste of the melon and peaches does not hold up well. The taste of the green tea still overwhelms the black tea base, and I’m still missing the floral component. The second cup was definitely not as enjoyable as the first steep, I would not recommend Three Wishes for one more steep.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Three Wishes was just okay. Three Wishes makes for an interesting tea, because only a portion the ingredients are detectable in the steeped tea. I would have ranked it a bit higher if DavidsTea had given more appropriate steeping instructions. I suspect that if you follow the steeping instructions as-is that you’d end up with a very bitter cup of tea and would wind up throwing it away. As it stands, Three Wishes is a tasty tea with a great fruity taste to it. It doesn’t do well with resteeping, but would likely do well iced. I do recommend steeping it at a lower temperature for a shorter period of time – life is too short to be drinking bitter tea.

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