Hot Lips

Okay, if you like cinnamon hearts, you will like Hot Lips from DavidsTea (I can't find it on the site, but I don't think it's been discontinued). To be fair, its description did basically say those very words.

I hate cinnamon hearts. They don't taste like cinnamon, they just taste a mixture of sweet and hot sauce to me. Which, is basically what this tea tasted like to me. Because I hate cinnamon hearts and it tastes like cinnamon heart flavored green tea.

This is hate-speech pure and simple. I can't even say ignorant hate speech because it warned me, for once the DavidsTea description was 100% bang on target.

I soothed my tea hankering with a special concoction I made, which is going to be next weeks review!

-L

Sleigh Ride

Ingredients:Apple, hibiscus blossoms, pineapple, papaya, beetroot, cinnamon, raisins, coconut, roasted almonds, popped rice, artificial flavouring


In the Christmas season, time to break out the festive teas!

Sleigh ride is a tea that has made a come-back for at least the last three years. So, it's reasurring that you don't have to worry about falling in love with this one -if you like it- and never being able to get your hot little hands on it ever again - as seems to be the way of DavidsTea.

I was expecting a sort of watered-down cider flavour, but with a six minute steep, I was pleasantly surprised.
While cider-like, it is incredibly full of flavour.

Apple is the most outstanding flavour of them all, the next being cinnamon. I would liken it very strongly to a hot apple cider - more so than DavidsTea's actually "apple cider" named tea!

Definitely the best (besides White Chocolate Frost) Christmas tea that I have tried from DavidsTea.


I recommend everyone have some of this tea in their home for the holidays.


Happy Steeping,

~K

Cinnamon Heart

Cinnamon Heart, oh how amazing you smell...
Until you get steeped.

I love Autumn. I love the spices that get the most attention in Autumn. Spices like cinnamon.
But oh how did this Pu'erh let me down. It let me down so hard it hurt.

Let me state, I steeped this to HOW YOU'RE ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO STEEP PU'ERH, not how DT says to. Sorry bro, but you give shitty directions.




It smelled weird and tasted bitter and bland and NOTHING like those addictive and disgusting (yet great!) candy cinnamon hearts. Seriously though, I really would rather just put those in boiling water and strain it.

Like I have nothing else to say except that I really wanted to have a nice heartwarming tea, but NOPE it had to turn out like shit. I even added milk at one point, just to give them the benefit of the doubt. It still tasted like crap.

What a bummer

-L

Lavender Faery Tea

This 'wine' is normally supposed to be for the first of February, but screw that I wanted to match it up with the Spring Equinox (which is on March 20th). Also, it's a fucking tea not a wine because fucking hell this isn't even close to a wine. Any people upset by the change can come yell at me I guess.

Let's usher in Spring, shall we!







Lavender Faery Wine Tea for Imbolc
(better late than never, Sort of)

You can use the recipe I used as inspiration, which I found here. You can totally use the one here, that this one was based on. Or mine, which is below.

• 1 cup of milk per serving. (Soy/almond/coconut optional)
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract (Optional. I used about the same amount of vanilla agave)
• 2 scoops of lavender tea
• Lavender buds or cinnamon (I used cinnamon)

Warm a cup milk on the stove (Or microwave, who am I to judge); be careful not to burn it. It will taste like shit if you do. 
Once warmed, steep the tea, honey, and vanilla extract (or whatever you used).
Serve in a teacup and sprinkle lavender buds or cinnamon on top. 

No dogs. We cannot share.

Okay, so if you like warm milk and honey you will like this. Because that's exactly what it tastes like.  You can sorta taste the lavender, and sorta taste the cinnamon, but it's fairly yummy. It left me relaxed, warm and happy. Like Spring does.

Feeling optimistic about the warmth, and bitter about the cold,

Laura

Forever Nuts ~ Happy Valentine's

Ingredients: Apple, almonds, cinnamon, beetroot and artificial flavouring


So, this is the only Valentine's dubbed tea from DavidsTea that I own, and I wasn't going to go out and buy any of the other ones (as lovely as they sound) because I'm on a budget.
Also, I will admit that I laughed - a lot- when DT chose FOREVER NUTS as a Valentine's tea. Get why? The twelve-year-old inside of my head sure did, and wouldn't shut up about it. heh heh... nuts.

This tea smells as amazing as it is pink. And holy crap, is it ever pink! That's probably why they actually chose it as a V-Day tea (I got tired out typing out the whole word, already), but I like my idea more because it's funny.

It looks like pink lemonade. What?!

Let me just say, my mum LOOVES this tea. I took over my first ever (and brand new) bag of 50grams a few years ago when I went to visit and I forgot it when I went home. I went back three days later, AND SHE USED ALL OF IT! My mum is amazing, but she's a tea theif!

It tastes EXACTLY the way it smells, which is exactly like the ingredients. ...exactly...... (sorry, looks like someone needs to brush up the the thesaurus) 
 I kind of forgot how amazing and comforting it is. I don't want to say cider because, though it has a very strong taste of apples, it is really something all on it's own. DT really hit this tea on the nose, which must be why they have it in their starter kit; everyone who tries it, loves it! It's great for people of all ages. And birds.


Happy Moronic-Corporate-BS-Holiday

Tell the people you love that you love them ALL the time! Because they deserve it. Doing something "special" on V-Day isn't special. SURPRISES are special!
Unless you normally don't do anything, then that would be a surprise, too! YAY!

Just a little love advice from Dr. K  ;)
Not a real doctor


Happy Steeping


PS  Sorry the cup picture sucks.

Sleigh Ride

Okay so, let me preface by saying I wasn't feeling the best today, so this review is probably going to read as more short and sweet than anything else.








This tea tends to lean itself to the weaker side, so I had to double strength it at 2 tbsp for one pot of tea.
It smells fruity and a little creamy, and very pretty to look at.

I steeped it for like...10 minutes or something.

It looks how kanpe tea tastes.
Honestly, I thought that's what it would taste like.

In the end, it's more bland than anything, and kanpe tastes better and frankly tastes more Christmas-y.

Sleigh Ride LOOKS more festive, that's for sure though.

Good tea, won't buy again because bland.

Now excuse me while I go nap because I am not feeling up to snuff.

-Laura

Gingerbread

My backyard

Moghrey mie! ('Good morning' in Gaelg, which is Manx Gaelic. It's pronounced "more-a-my")

It's time to review DavidsTea gingerbread tea!

I steeped one tablespoon for five minutes, in my handly beige, four cup teapot.  It smells amazing, but it doesn't smell like gingerbread. More like a mix of molasses and vanilla, which is kinda weird for a tea which is called fucking GINGERBREAD.
Seriously, the site claims you can smell a whole bunch of spices, INCLUDING GINGER. But, maybe my nose is broken because I literally can ONLY smell the rooibos, vanilla, and the molasses. Nothing else.



I am honestly not the biggest fan on this tea (if that wasn't already fairly obvious). I mean, I like it, but I'm not getting GINGERBREAD from this tea. I'm getting molasses. I even tried adding vanilla agave, and then maple agave to different glasses (which are amazingly delicious by the way) to see if it would boost the ginger flavor in any way, it didn't.

It tastes like a rooibos with molasses. Not something that is supposed to make me think of gingerbread or fill that craving. I honestly can't even place this as a flavor that makes me think of the winter season. Sugar and Spice does a better job of making me think of Christmas, which is sad because it's a fall tea!

In summary, if you're expecting a gingerbread party with this tea, you will probably be disappointed. But, if you are wanting something more molasses-y than ginger-y, then you will love it. I for one, wanted the gingerbread experience. It tasted good, but not great. Kind of one noted and bland.

I think it may have a bit too much honeybush, and not enough ginger, cinnamon, or cardamom. But, not every tea can be a hit I guess.

Stay warm!

Laura

Stormy Night

Stormy Night from DavidsTea

Ingredients: Organic: Black tea, chocolate (cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, ground vanilla bean, ancho chile, nutmeg, Ceylong cinnamon, salt, allspice, clove, chipotle chile), cinnamon, coconut, vanilla. With natural vanilla flavouring. Contains dairy.

Yowza. That is a big space taken up for ingredients. Granted, most of it is for what is in the chocolate, which makes me curious to taste a piece. But it's an organic tea!

Posting early for Halloween... yay!! 

I chose this tea because I'm writing and tasting it for the first time on Halloween, and Davids was actually advertising it as a Halloween special kind of deal (which ended yesterday, even though TODAY is halloween... uhhhhh okay, whatever. ) 
I am sipping away at the first tea with chocolate I have ever tried while waiting for trick-or-treaters to take away all my precious candy...

Looks kinda yucky when it's steeping. Halloween like???

Stormy Night. When the little blurb says "hotter than an inferno", well.... not really.
Many ingredients, simple flavour. I honestly was not expecting it.

It DOES say that the tea is smooth, and it certainly is!! Very smooth cinnamon, with (too much) coconut, but the chocolate you really have to focus on to even get a hint of flavour of on your tongue. And my spoonful had a lot of freakin' chocolate in it!!
But. I really do have a thing for a super smooth cinnamon flavour. I just wish there was less coconut (it works, but there is just SOOO much). Almost a weird... cider-y quality to it. Very different from anything else I've ever tried.

~Off topic a bit... Is anyone else sick of all the COCONUT in nearly every one of DavidsTea's teas?! PLEASE. STOP. We don't want it!!~

Ahem.

To conclude... This tea has it's good qualities, but it is weak, so definitely be generous when you scoop. And if you don't like coconut, RUN. RUN AWAY!
It's not anything special to me, so I'll just stick with what I have and be done with it after... Maybe adding some cinnamon would help.

It's not a very Halloween-y tea... but there you have it.


Happy Steeping!
And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

~K

Pumpkin Chai

Pumpkin Chai

So, we're at the last of my Fall Tea collection. Kayla already reviewed this tea in the first week of the Fall reviews. But, twice the review!

I love how it smells. It is absolutely drool worthy scent wise!
Om nom nom nom.

It smells almost like pumpkin pie straight out of the oven. You can smell caramel, cardamom and cloves the most.
In fact, I can still smell it lingering around my room. Yum yum.

I again used 1 tbsp to 4 cup pot. So far it's been my best fall back measurement wise. The bag said to steep it from 4-6 minutes, so I steeped it 5 minutes, just because...isn't that what everyone does?

So I had this tea without milk, with milk, then with milk and brown sugar.

Without milk I could taste the caramel the most, then the cloves as a secondary flavor. 

With just some milk I could taste the black tea most. It ended up overpowering things so that it tastes pretty much like milk and basic black tea. Sad days.

With milk and sugar it really blocked out everything but the taste of the milk and sugar.

I honestly liked the tea better when it just had a bit of sugar in it. Added sweetness that rounded out the flavor and made it much more appealing. So this combination was a thumbs up for sure!

Overall, I liked the tea, but it wasn't what I expected. I'm honestly a little underwhelmed. It smelled SO GOOD, but tasted, underwhelming.  Good, but underwhelming. I know I'm really repeating myself on that part, but it's really true. It was nice. But it was ONLY nice. It's scent is it's main redeeming factor.

I really don't think I'll get any more before the fall runs out. I'll spare what I have for a special post down the road. (IS THE SUSPENSE KILLING YOU YET?) But, I personally don't feel it's worth buying a second time.

Skål!

Now I'm going to snuggle into bed with a good book tumblr. 

-Laura

IF YOU HAVE ANY TEA YOU WOULD LIKE REVIEWED, LEAVE A COMMENT AND WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.

Sugar and Spice

Sugar and Spice

Just like with Mom's, this is a play by play review for at least the first part.

It's another gross day, it started off raining, so it's damp and chilly. The perfect day to be trying a new tea! My second tasting of the Fall collection; Sugar and Spice.

Opening the bag was heavenly. It smelled like I was baking a steamed carrot pudding. I just wanted to smell it over and over! Or eat it! Damn, now I want pudding. 

I put 1 tbsp leaf to a 4 cup pot and steeped it for about 5 minutes. To be honest, I was listening to Started with a Song By Brett Kissel, and then took out the leaves when it finished playing. He's basically a big cutie from Alberta. And, the song is perfect steeping length.

The other rooms were being
used or had horrible light.

It tastes almost exactly how it smells, just not as sweet. And, thus far, it is the ONLY tea I have enjoyed MORE with a splash of milk and some Sugar in the Raw. I swear it tastes like a cookie if you put in some milk and sugar (or whichever sweetener you like the best).

The milk tones back the flavor of the black tea, which allows the carrot, apple, cinnamon, cloves, and marigold to poke through. Happily, the sugar compliments it with it's sweetness, as opposed to overpowering it. 

Drinking this tea is a good experience, but only one I'd do with sugar and milk. It may have medium caffeine, but I'm finding it quite soothing. 

Oh look! I drank the entire pot!

I think I'll be buying this before fall has run away!

Skål and stay cozy!
-Laura

IF YOU HAVE ANY TEA YOU WOULD LIKE REVIEWED, LEAVE A COMMENT AND WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.

Mom's Apple Pie

Mom's Apple Pie by DavidsTea

Ooo the first of my Fall tea reviews!

How exciting! You're getting a review as I drink it for the first time! You lucky ducklings. Mom's Apple Pie...

When you open the bag, it literally smells exactly like an apple pie cooking in the oven. As it steeps, you get an entire room lightly smelling of baking apple pie!
Ingredients wise, it's very simple. green tea, apple pieces, cinnamon, natural and artificial flavoring.


It's a very gentle tea, I put 1 tbsp to a pot, and steeped it for the 3-4 minutes, next time I'll add more leaves, but keep the steeping time the same.

It tastes quite nice. Bright, warm. It tastes a little like apple pie...
Picture you had a bite of apple pie, swallowed, then washed it down with a gulp of green tea. That after flavor of apple pie is essentially what it tastes like.
Letting it cool a bit helped bring out some of the flavors, so I really recommend NOT drinking it piping hot. You end up losing a lot of the flavor that way.
The cooler mine got, the better it tasted. Just above warm was the best. So it was still hot, but just barely. I doubt that makes much sense but...fuck it.

It's dark out, I had to take a picture inside

It is ranked medium caffeine by DavidsTea, so probably not the best to have before bed, especially if you're sensitive to caffeine, but I don't have to wake up early tomorrow, so screw it. In fact, I think I'll make myself some more in the morning!

UPDATE:
I made a stronger pot in the morning, with 2 tbsp of Mom's Apple Pie, and it was not as good as the 1 tbsp. I steeped it for exactly 3 minutes, and it still turned a kinda bitter. It was the right strength just...bitter. Maybe 1.5 tbsp would work?

I'm not really sure if I would restock this one come end of Autumn. It being very finicky makes it less apPEELing. (Get it, a-PEEL-ing, like when peel and apple? >_> shhhh my pun isn't lame at all... ) No, but in all seriousness (tea is srs business), I decided not to restock this tea. It just doesn't do enough for me

Overall I rank it as good when it's quite mild, but when it gets stronger, it isn't so good. Even when steeped for the minimum time it says on the pouch.
If you like teas that are milder, you'll love this one. It shines when it is brewed to be mild; the balance of apple and green tea is great. But, as a person who loves a much stronger tea, it just isn't for me.
Or, if you like teas on the more tart or bitter side AND strong teas, you may like this tea. Still, no guarantees.

I gave the rest of my pouch to my green tea loving co-worker, and her and her husband absolutely love it!

Skål, and happy steeping everyone!

-L

IF YOU HAVE ANY TEA YOU WOULD LIKE REVIEWED, LEAVE A COMMENT AND WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.