DavidsTea Advent Calendar Day 1

I was delightfully surprised to receive a DavidsTea advent calendar this year from my friend Ryan (a fellow tea lover), so that means 24 days of blog posts! Starting with the calendar itself, this year's is quite fancy (two thumbs up from me). The two flaps on the front open to reveal the boxes of tea inside, as well as a box which contains a shiny black tea scoop.

 

The boxes have ribbons on the top so that you can hang them on your Christmas tree, and inside each box is a resealable bag of loose leaf tea. For me, this is a HUGE improvement over the tins with screw-top lids that previous calendars have had, as I had problems with more than a few of the tins being so tightly sealed I had to crack the plastic on the lids in order to get them open (another two thumbs up, DavidsTea!).

Now, on to the tea...

Day 1 tea is Candy Cane Crush which is a low-caffeine black tea described as:

"This rich and decadent peppermint black tea is like a minty wonderland in a cup. Think creamy white chocolate drops. Crushed candy cane pieces. And tons of cute little snowflake sprinkles. One sip of this sweet, icy-cool blend is all it takes to get you smiling from ear to ear – especially if you add it to your next mug of holiday eggnog. Could this tea be any more festive? We think not."

Ingredients: Black tea, white chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, butter oil, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), peppermint candy (corn syrup, sugar, peppermint oil, colour (red 40)), snowflake candies (sugar, rice flour, cottonseed and soy bean oil, corn starch, gum arabic, cellulose gum, titanium dioxide (colour), confectioners glaze, carrageenan, soy lecithin, artificial flavour), cane sugar, peppermint, natural peppermint and vanilla flavouring.

 I love the look of this...the white chocolate chips, the snowflake candies, and the crushed bits of candy cane really add to the festiveness of it.

Once steeped, it smells very minty, and it brews up as a light amber colour. The flavour is light and mild, and the mint left a nice tingle on my lips. No need to add milk or sugar to this one, just drink it straight up. This would be great to sip on a cold dark night when you're cuddled up under a blanket on the couch with a good book, especially with a bit of snow on the ground outside.

We're off to a good start, DavidsTea!