A Very Serious Taste Test of All the Pumpkin Spice Tea at DAVIDsTea
Pumpkin Maté
If pumpkin’s to remain the official flavor of autumn, there’s simply no reason for it to taste like the inside of a Glade PlugIn. So in order to find an antidote to a certain seasonal spiced latte, we’ve sipped our way through DAVIDsTea’s brand new line of all-natural, gourd-based beverages, including Pumpkin Pie Matcha, Pumpkin Mate, Spiced Pumpkin herbal tea, and a rich and roasty Pumpkin Chai.
Spiced Pumpkin
Spiced Pumpkin (Herbal, No Caffeine, from the USA)
Ingredients: Pumpkin pieces, honeybush, cinnamon, cocoa shells, maple crystals, natural flavoring
Tasting Notes: Delicate caramel color with a rounded, silky mouthfeel and pronounced jammy scent, like organic fruit leathers or fig newtons. Thanks to its real chunks of dehydrated pumpkin, warming, toasted spices and a restrained, all-natural sweetness from the maple, this makes a graceful, nuanced alternative to Starbucks’ infamously saccharine drink.
Our Rating: 4 out of 4 Pumpkins
Pumpkin Maté
Pumpkin Maté (Guayusa, High Caffeine, from Brazil)
Ingredients: Roasted yerba maté, butternut squash, pumpkin seeds, coconut palm sugar, natural and artificial pumpkin flavorings
Tasting Notes: Copper colored with a rich, oily mouthfeel, smelling intensely of leather and cedar. Savory squash flavors are decidedly more robust than that of pumpkin, bringing to mind brisk hikes through damp, old growth forests, as opposed to apple picking and hayrides.
Our Rating: 3 out of 4 Pumpkins
Pumpkin Chai
Pumpkin Chai (Black, Medium Caffeine, from China)
Ingredients: Black tea, cinnamon, cloves, caramel, carrot, lemon peel, pumpkin candies, natural and artificial pumpkin spice flavorings
Tasting Notes: Vivid amber color, full-bodied and dense, with an aggressively spicy, malty nose. The unusual addition of crushed candies (which include artificial flavors, colors and carrageenan) give it a more synthetically amped pumpkin flavor, but it’s still a far cry from Starbucks, effectively balanced with quality black tea, concentrated cubes of carrot, and vibrant flecks of lemon peel.
Our Rating: 3 out of 4 Pumpkins
Pumpkin Pie Matcha
Pumpkin Pie Matcha (Green, Medium Caffeine, from the USA)
Ingredients: Green tea, cane sugar, natural pumpkin flavoring
Tasting Notes: This tea is moss-hued and creamy, with an intense vanilla aroma that’s almost off-puttingly sweet in powdered form. Once steeped, it reveals a much more refined flavor profile, with hints of honeydew and bamboo, although they’re somewhat at odds with baking spice undertones, such as cardamom and clove.
Our Rating: 2 out of 4 Pumpkins
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