Today's Tea: Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla Orchid Oolong from DAVIDsTEA

Description:  We’re still searching for the secret to eternal bliss, but we’re pretty sure one cup of this blend will get you at least five minutes’ worth. It all starts with the very best leaves: a premium oolong from China’s Fujian Province called Huang Jin Gui. A popular wedding gift in China, Huang Jin Gui is prized for its pretty yellow colour and romantic floral scent. Here we bring out this special leaf’s orchid aroma with a touch of vanilla. The result? A perfectly balanced, subtle cup that’s equal parts rich, creamy and floral. Feeling blissful yet?

Ingredients: Huang Jin Gui Oolong from Anxi in Fujian Province, natural vanilla flavouring

How to Brew: 1 tsp 92°C /198°F 3-5 min

(From DAVIDsTEA: Vanilla Orchid)

Steph's Thoughts:
This tea was recommended to me by Laura at DT: Grant Park. I've had it once as brewed by DT, and I've also reused the bag in order to bring you this review.
I was immediately drawn in by the vanilla scent. It's a natural vanilla, almost vanilla bean-ish. The leaves aren't much to look at, but looks CAN be deceiving. The leaves almost remind me of dragon pearls, rounder than most tea leaves.

Vanilla Orchid is a nice light tea with floral notes. I find that it's considerably more floral after eating fruit. For example, I had a piece of candied mango and then took a sip of tea, and all I could taste was floral. With general sipping (pre-fruit, or after a meal), the vanilla comes through nicely. The floral notes are still there, but not as overwhelming.

I do find, however, that the longer you leave the teabag in the cup, the stronger the floral taste becomes. Toward the bottom of the cup, it did start getting a little strong for my liking. Not undrinkable, but a bit too much. I have a tendency to leave my teabag in too long. I think 15 minutes is about the maximum brewing time for this one. (It takes me between 1 and 4 hours to drink a cup of tea, depending on how hot it is to begin with. Longer if it's in my Timolino, which keeps tea hot enough for me to drink for 8+ hours. It's too hot for the first.... six or so.)

With sweetener in, it tastes almost like a thin syrup. Not in a cloying, overwhelming way, but in a .... comforting way. Sweet and rich-tasting, while still being quite light. I might add a little less sugar next time.

Overall, this is a good tea for those people who enjoy a nice light tea with hints of vanilla and flowers.

Verdict: Pretty good!

Layered Lattes and Comparing Service

So, today when I was waiting for Hubby to get his hair cut, I went into DAVIDsTEA - naturally!

Several things about this foray into this tea shop:

Walking into DAVIDsTEA is like coming home. The staff are FANTASTIC - they chat with you, they ask you how your week has been in order to get you JUST the right tea for you, they take a GENUINE interest in what you like, and they ASK YOU what you like. And if you become a regular (ish) like me, they REMEMBER from time to time what you like. They let you take your time, and if you're indecisive, they're okay with that (at least, the staff at Grant Park are...). If you want to look at a particular tea, they get it down for you, and let you smell it as long as you'd like. If you want to look at what's in the tea, they let you look at the tin (lid on, of course).

When I was at a different mall last week, I stepped into Teavana because I was craving tea (and Timmies tea just doesn't quite cut it when there's a loose-leaf tea store nearby...). Even though I'd gotten bad service there when it was Teaopia, I thought I'd give it another chance since they changed the name. Don't. Just.... don't. It is not worth your time and energy. The staff at Teavana are rude and during my time there, they were more concerned about talking with each other than interacting with their customers. They didn't once ask me what kind of tea I liked, just let me know "if you want to look at anything, let us know" and then acted like it was an inconvenience when I asked about something. When I asked what was in the tea, the girl behind the counter totally didn't know ("I don't know, like, fruit maybe??"), and read it off the tin like it was "below her" to have to do that. I felt stupid for even asking. It feels like they have a "know what you want or get out" policy. I should have looked on the website first to find what kind of tea I wanted before going in. It may have saved me a lot of hassle. I'm not doing that again.

This proves to me that not all loose tea stores are created equal.

Maybe DAVIDs has spoiled me. I don't know. They DO know great customer service, though. They also know how to build customer loyalty. (ahahaha, loyal-Tea.)

AND today, I got to learn how to make a layered latte. Laura, one of the Tea Guides at DT was showing me a photo of her exciting new creation on her camera - a layered tea latte. It looks like this:

Hers was green and red, and white. It was super cool.
Basically the premise is that you steam and froth milk. Then you add your tea VERY SLOWLY, and then you add your foam.

DAVIDsTEA posted the "recipe" for a layered latte on SnapGuides. You can read all about it here: DT's Layered Latte.  (they also have a link for frothing milk without a frother).

Laura used matcha in the milk (to make it green), then steeped Forever Nuts tea to make it red, and then foam and cinnamon on top. It was, in fact, very pretty. She was so excited about it, too!

She also got me to try a tea that I wouldn't normally. She's very good at that, somehow. Look for a review of Vanilla Orchid, coming soon!

Apologies

Oh my dear readers,
I have not forgotten you. I have been very busy; not so busy that I cannot drink tea, but too busy to review it. I jot notes during meetings and choir practices, throughout the day, and throughout the evening, but often forget to blog or am too tired to blog.

I do have three new entries in the works, though.

Keep your eyes peeled for reviews of:
DAVIDsTEA Cocomint Cream
DAVIDsTEA Aloha Pu'erh
DAVIDsTEA Berry Good Pu'erh

Hopefully these will be coming soon!