Tag: Oolong Tea

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DavidsTea’s Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla Orchid by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$11.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Vanilla Orchid has an incredibly strong vanilla scent to the dry tea. When I first smelled it, I thought of vanilla pudding. The oolong base isn’t as noticeable as the vanilla that was added to it, but the tea is lovely. The vanilla reminds me of baking, which is always a pleasant memory/thought/activity. I love vanilla. There’s a very light floral aroma with the oolong base, but it doesn’t overpower the vanilla.

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Vanilla Orchid is made up of: Huang Jin Gui Oolong from Anxi in Fujian Province, natural vanilla flavouring. Only two ingredients!

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Vanilla Orchid in 75-80°C (167-176°F) water for 4-7 minutes on their website, the label that printed with my tea in February of this year was 85°C. I steeped it for about 4 minutes for the first steeping.

First Taste

Vanilla Orchid steeps to a pale yellow. The tea is smooth, no bitterness, and has a very light floral taste to it. Overall, the vanilla flavouring is very strong and overpowers the oolong base. The first steeping is delicious, I wish the oolong base was more pronounced, but the tea is delicious. The tea leaves unfurl and they’re about two to two and an half inches long.

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A Second Cup?

Vanilla Orchid resteeps well. I steeped it an additional three times. The vanilla flavouring lessened with each subsequent steeping, but the floral oolong taste becomes more pronounced with each additional steeping. Vanilla Orchid has this creamy taste to it that isn’t noticeable until the second steeping. The tea leaves opened up mostly with the first steeping, but they finish unfurling and opening up by the second steeping.

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My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked DavidsTea’s Vanilla Orchid. The vanilla flavouring is delicious, but I thought the tea improved with the second and third steepings because the natural floral taste of the oolong was stronger. I think the first steeping was the most like vanilla pudding (which I liked), but the oolong base has a lovely, creamy floral taste to it that is second to none. I’d be interested in trying this tea without the added vanilla base, but it does make a decent cup of 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

3cups-2

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 Lemon Pound Cake

Lemon Pound Cake by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

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I wasn’t sure what to expect with Lemon Pound Cake because there’s been some, in my opinion, hits and misses when it comes to cake-inspired teas. When I smelled Lemon Pound Cake in store, I was intrigued and curious enough to overlook the fact that the last cake-inspired tea I tried from DavidsTea wasn’t that great (Red Velvet Cake, I’m talking about you!). Lemon Pound Cake smells incredible and has a very strong, very fresh smelling lemon fragrance to it. It has that fresh citrus smell that reminds me a lot of zesting a lemon. Just that fresh, bright, lemon scent. I definitely get more of a lemon vibe from this tea than I do a cake vibe, but time will tell!

Lemon Pound Cake is made up of: oolong, lemongrass, lemon peel, sunflower blossoms, white hibiscus, natural and artificial flavour.

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Preparation

The printed label for this tea just simply says to steep it in hot water for 4-7 minutes. Hot water can mean such a wide range of things, I’m rather disappointed that they’ve done away with including an actual temperature. If you mosey over to the DavidsTea website, and click on the word ‘hot’ when looking up the Lemon Pound Cake tea itself, you do get a temperature range – 75-80°C (167-176°F). I steeped mine for about 4 minutes for the first steeping.

First Taste

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Lemon Pound Cake steeps to a very lovely, pale yellow colour. It smells just like the dry leaf – a bright, fresh lemon fragrance that is very inviting and reminds me of a fresh lemon zest, yum! The taste itself is more subtle than the fragrance, but it still has a great lemon flavour to it, with just a hint of the oolong base. I find that oolongs tend to develop more in flavour with subsequent steepings, so I’m not too concerned that I can’t pick out more of the oolong flavour with the first steep. The lemon flavour though is top notch and is quite nice. There is a slight sweetness to this tea that is quite enjoyable and doesn’t require additional sweetener to brighten up the flavour.

A Second Cup?

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Lemon Pound Cake resteeps beautifully. The colour gets a bit darker, the lemon flavour remains bright and strong. The oolong does, however, make itself known just a little bit more. I think it’s just very difficult for the oolong to come out and be more present in the tea because the lemongrass/lemon peel are such strong ingredients in this tea. That said, this makes for a very lovely tea and I think it would taste very well as an iced tea due to the strong lemon flavours.

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked DavidsTea’s Lemon Pound Cake. I think it makes for a very lovely cup of tea, especially with the strong lemon flavours. I definitely think that DavidsTea made a mistake when going from giving an actual temperature in their steeping instructions to just ‘hot water’. “Hot” means a lot of different things, especially when using water that is too hot for certain types of tea will result in a very bitter, very sad cup of tea. Yes, they do include the temperature ranges on their website but that information should remain on their product label. That said, Lemon Pound Cake makes for a tasty cup of lemon tea, I do wish that the oolong wasn’t quite as over powered by the lemon ingredients. But I do think that this tea would make a fantastic iced tea due to it’s strong flavours.

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