Tea for Two, Tea for You!

Curling up on the couch with a steaming cup of fragrant tea might sound more like an activity that should take place when the windows are frosted, or at least when the leaves outside are crunching underfoot. But personally, I think tea is a great year-round beverage — and not only when it’s iced!
I mean, probably I won’t be busting out any pumpkin spice tea for a couple of months, but there are plenty of hot tea flavors that I crave regardless of the outside temperature. I’ve been sampling a few options from both DAVIDsTEA and Tisano, and wanted to share some of my thoughts.

Best for … Imagining a Summer Getaway

The Summer Collection from DAVIDsTEA has a whole host of summery flavors, and at first, I thought a few of them sounded … well, questionable. Grape Freeze? Cotton Candy? Those aren’t tea flavors!
Or are they?
Lesson learned — don’t judge your loose leaf tea by its funky name. The Cotton Candy flavor, which combines nut brittle, candied mango and cotton candy sprinkles with a base of green rooibos, was fairly sweet (although not harshly so, like actual cotton candy tends to be) and smooth. And the Coco Colada was incredibly fragrant and tropical and a total delight.

Best for … Getting Your Chocolate Fix

Got a sweet tooth and love yourself some chocolate, you’ll want to check out Tisano’s Cacao Loose-Leaf Teas. There’s Original Cacao Tea, which is, you know, chocolate-y, as well as Vanilla Cacao, but the two that really blew my mind were Chai Cacao and Mint Cacao.
It’s important to savor the experience with these — indulge in the rich fragrance before sipping. It makes the flavor stand out even more. I found these teas to be an excellent dessert option, although, let’s be honest — I had no problem enjoying them other times of the day, too. Bonus: this made my kitchen smell amazing.

Best for … Thinking Outside the Mug

In addition to those delish loose-leaf teas I mentioned above, DAVIDsTEA also has some seriously tasty fruity matchas — peach, blueberry and strawberry. They’re pre-sweetened with some natural fruit flavoring and cane sugar (so there’s a bit more sugar and calories than the other teas mentioned — 40 calories and 8g sugar), but because it’s a ground-up powder, you can use it in a variety of ways outside of tea, like baking it into cookies or blending it into smoothies (YAASSS). And, you still get the awesome health benefits of matcha!
Of course, if you do just want to sip on it, I can’t blame you — that’s my go-to method, too. I hadn’t realized that DAVIDsTEA not only offers a bunch of different types of tea, but also tea accessories (and y’all know I love me some awesome tea goodies). Their Matcha Maker makes making matcha (say that five times fast) as easy as mixing up a protein shake, and their adorable Shark Infuser means you can brew your tea on the go in the mug of your choice (and in style, no less). But the item I’ve probably gotten the most use out of is the Nordic Mug, which has an infuser that sits right on top as well as a lid (which doubles as a coaster). It’s just so cute and it feels good in my hands and also, it holds quite a lot of tea, which is important for me because if I’m making tea, I’d like to make enough to sip on for a while, you know?
What’s the funkiest tea flavor you’ve ever gotten down with? —Kristen