Tea Trader Maverick Black Tea

Maverick Black Tea is a fruity blend of blood orange, peaches, apricots, and vanilla. Another Tea Trader special this tea is almost the flavour opposite of the Calgary Welsh Breakfast. It's smooth and fruity with a delicate aroma. If you like a sweeter tea then this is for you. The fruit flavours all blend nicely together though I can't say I can really differentiate the peach and apricot flavours. The blood orange is a softer, sweeter citrus note. It's like fruit punch tea but in a good way, not in a red dye #5 way.

Maverick Black Tea is a great compliment to breakfast and added to my enjoyment of the last few episodes of Time Squad which I finally got around to watching.

Recommended.

For more info follow the link: http://www.teatrader.com/

Tea Trader Calgary Welsh Breakfast Tea

Calgary Welsh Breakfast is a tea blended specifically for Tea Trader I believe. It is a small leaf black tea with a strong smokiness in flavour and aroma.  We chose to try this tea because it didn't sound like anything we'd had before.  The smoky aroma is stronger in the dry leaves so we were a little unsure if we were going to like it but I was insistent that we at least try it. So we steeped it up and had some with homemade breakfast sandwiches.  The smoke flavour is certainly present in the final tea but it pairs well with the black tea tannins. This is a strong tea and you probably don't want to over-steep it but a good four minutes nets you a great cuppa to wake you up to face the day.

Calgary Welsh Breakfast Tea has a unique character and is quite enjoyable.

Recommended.

For more info follow the link: http://www.teatrader.com/

David's Tea Coffee Cake Black Tea

David's Tea is having a sale so Mrs. ISMOTU stocked up on some old favourites and tried a few new teas as well.

First up is the Coffee Cake Black Tea.  Coffee cake can be quite delicious but should it be a tea? Find out below:

David's Tea Assam Banaspaty Black Tea

We had a chance to visit Edmonton recently and took the opportunity to fill up our tea cupboard. In addition to some new teas we splurged on a cute set of mugs decorated like cupcakes an awesome purple nordic mug with golden elephants and a tea travel mug for me.  So yes, David's Tea got maybe too much of my money this week but whatevs.  On to the tea!

Assam is a state in India famous for tea production and this variety comes from the Banaspaty Estate within that region.  I first tried an assam tea when I was in China and I immediately enjoyed the rich, malty flavour.  Since I started drinking less black tea I haven't had too much assam since then, but as I was scanning the wall at David's Tea this caught my eye and I decided to go for it.

Assam Banaspaty is just pure black tea, nothing complicated here, but the aroma and flavour are top notch.  It is full-bodied with a strong bold malt flavour cut with a hint of sweetness.  I really enjoyed this tea and it certainly is representative of the expected characteristics of assam tea. My stash will last me a fairly long time due to how infrequently I drink black tea but I will enjoy every cup.

Highly Recommended.

For more info follow the links:
Assam Banaspaty
Elephant Mug
Cupcake Mug

David's Tea Pistachio Ice Cream Black Tea

I love pistachio flavoured desserts. It started with pistachio pudding from when I was a kid but has expanded to all things pistachio as an adult. That's why when Mrs. ISMOTU wanted to try this new black tea from David's Tea I was all about it.

So here we go into the second ever review of a black tea on this blog.

David's Tea Dark Chocolate Delight Black Tea

A rare black tea review for this blog. Mrs. ISMOTU needed a boost to catch up on some work so I decided to tempt fate and join her in a cup of black tea after noon.   This tea has "spiced" dark chocolate, blueberries, cocoa shells, and natural chocolate flavouring. The chocolate scent is nice and similar to other teas with chocolate I've tried from David's Tea. Flavour-wise this is exactly what you might expect, sweet and chocolatey. I don't really taste the blueberries that much, not like in the Rooibos de Provence, the "spiced" aspect of the dark chocolate is very slight also.  On the whole this is a nicely flavoured tea and perfect for all the chocolate fans out there.
Recommended. 

I'm going to add some milk to it now and continue catching up on season 3 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I know I'm quite behind but it took me a bit to come to terms with the somewhat jarring voice change in Leonardo from Jason Biggs to Seth Green, plus I was on more of a Japanese kick for a while there.

I've quite enjoyed this latest iteration of the heroes in a half shell particularly the running gag the turtles watching a different corny old cartoon each season that homages some of the great cartoons the preceded the original TMNT on the airwaves of the 80's. This time it's "Crognard the Barbarian" a mash-up of Thundarr the Barbarian and Masters of the Universe, with shades of the Herculoids. I might have to do a whole post on the topic sometime.

For more info follow the link: https://www.davidstea.com/ca_en/our-teas/dark-chocolate-delight