If you’ve follow me on instagram you’ll know that I’ve become something of a tea addict. Well I still have lot to learn (tea is so diverse!) but I thought some of you might appreciate me sharing the teas I’ve recently bought & loved.
This edition is all about the Canada based, loose leaf tea chain-stores called DAVIDsTEA.
I first saw a DAVIDsTEA box on one of my blogger friend Diana’s instagram. Everyone was saying really nice things about their tea, & I was intrigued. They have stores around Canada, & a handful of location in USA too. Also an online store that ships free to Canada/USA on purchases of $50 or more. They even ship internationally on request, but ordering tea from halfway across the globe is not the most economical thing to do. But then I realized that a family friend was actually coming down to Mumbai & so I ordered some stuff online & got it delivered to her house, & she brought it with her. Thanks, Dorothy!
Onto the haul. Dorothy brought the box as it reached her so I got the pleasure of opening it. Everything was well packed, & luckily nothing was broken.


They send a tea menu & three samples with every online order.

Now for the good stuff- DT has a very, very extensive tea range. I knew I wanted to try something different & fun, something that isn’t easily available locally. That still left a lot of teas to choose from! After a little browsing I came across their collectable tea tins & picked the two (out of three available) that got better reviews. Also I’d been searching for my dream tea set for quite a while, to no avail. And then I found the bubble tea pot. It was too pretty to be true. There were eleven love colors / prints available & I chose the forest teapot because it was basically white (easier to get white cups + saucers so I can build a proper tea set). The lid is wood, & since all DTs are loose leaf it even has a nifty metal infuser.
I love that the brewing & nutritional info is printed in such an easy-to-read fashion.

Handling the tea, putting it in the infuser & actually makes the tea drinking process seem more intimate. The tea in the infuser above was called Green & Fruity (a rooibos tea) was one of the samples I got. I am sort of obsessed with taking photos of the tea before before steeping it. 

I didn’t really enjoy green & fruity much, but I suspect Rooibos is a bit of an acquired taste. Banana nut bread (with brown sugar added) sort of blew my mind. Pineapple Oolong has a lovely strong pineapple flavor, but the tea was sort of bitter, like green tea? Any oolong drinkers reading this? Is it always bitter?
Red Velvet cake tea actually steeps a deep red, just like it’s cake cousin. The Pumpkin chai is so pumpkin-y & delicious, I’ve heard a lot of people say that it’s better than the Starbucks version, but I haven’t tried that so can’t compare.
Another thing I feel compelled to say about DT is that I love how involved & helpful their social media team & customer service is. I ‘chatted’ with them on twitter, & they answered all my questions so quickly. And when I emailed customer service, the reply was speedy & friendly. Every other business needs to take a page out of their book!
I’m really glad I decided to order from DAVIDsTEA, & I’m going to be very sad when my little stock is over (I’m not drinking everyday so that I can prolong the joy…)

I know this is unrelated to the rest of the post, but the second Brown Paper Bag dessert box arrived last week. I had blogged about the first one, & the second one surpassed all expectations. The tarts pictured are from the famous Le15 Patisserie. There were also cake cups, cookies & brownies & they were all delicious!

love,