David, My True Love

Hey ya’ll! I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Mine is filled with studying and paper writing. Today I’m going to talk about my true love: David.

My family and friends will probably laugh because there is a special someone named David in my life, but today I’m talking about my other David, Davids Tea. I first found out about this company through Meg, she was always raving about the wonderful teas they had to offer. So when I was in Canada, I decided to pick up a few samples of tea. I instantly fell in love, so when I was in NYC I had to grab a lot more.

Online, Davids Tea, describes blueberry jam as the perfect companion to your morning toast. I have to agree with them on that one. This mixture of black tea, blueberries, elderberries, cornflower, and stevia is one of the most delicious treats I’ve had alongside my breakfast. This tea is also organic, which I like because some of the other ones have artificial flavoring. The blueberry flavor of the tea is not overwhelming, but instead it provides a sweet flavor of fresh fruit in a glass. The smell of the tea leaves and the tea brewed is absolutely amazing. It smells exactly like blueberry jam. You definitely have to get this tea, and I recommend that you get it served hot.

When brewed, it provides a dark color. This can be attributed to the fact that this is a black tea, so the color seeps out of the loose leaves. This is definitely my favorite tea I’ve had from this place (Oh wait, that may be a lie because I forgot I used to have pineapple oolong, which is crazy good).

What? Birthday Cake tea? Yes, minds are blown now. This tea smells exactly like a delicious slice of birthday cake with buttercream icing. It also taste sweet and scrumptious like when you bite into that birthday cake. I am in love with this tea. When I brew it, I like to add a packet of sugar to bring out the full flavor. It is a red and green roiboos tea with honeybush, sprinkles, ice cream bits, and natural flavoring. I’ve only had this tea hot, but I wonder what it would taste like when its cold. If anyone knows, let me know!

Another delicious tea is the Pumpkin Chai. I have a weakness for chai teas ever since I was little because my mom has an obsession with chai tea. This is another black tea that has cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, squash, caramel, pumpkin candies, and natural flavor. The cinnamon and cloves give the chai tea little spice where as the pumpkin gives it a nice savory flavor. I would definitely only consume this tea as a hot tea and not a cold, but I have never had the cold version before. It just doesn’t seem like something that would be super tasty.

Mother’s little helper. Oh how you help me go to sleep at night. The cool thing about David’s is that you go in to the store and there is just a wall full of containers with loose tea leaves. The staff is super friendly and great at helping you find the right tea for you, so when I was in NYC I wanted a tea that would help make me tired at night. The staff then suggested that I try out mother’s little helper. Oh how I love them for this suggestion. This tea seriously knocks me out. The peppermint in the tea makes you feel really soothed as you sip it and you slowly start to drift into a sleep. This also probably occurs because it is an herbal tea, so herbs have tons of functional properties.

This tea is light when you brew it due to the light ingredients in the leaves. It is a really refreshing treat to enjoy right before you go to sleep for the night. I am definitely a fan of this tea. You can’t go wrong with anything mint flavored.

The cool thing about David’s Tea is that since all the tea comes in loose leaves, you have to have a way of steeping it. The shop offers mesh balls that you can reuse over and over again, but they also have these tea bags. The cool thing about the tea bags is that you can still steep one bag over and over again with the same leaves in it. The tea always taste just as good every single time you brew it.

I love Davids Tea so much that I asked my mom to try to get me some of the new flavors, such as coconut oolong, when she passes through Boston. I hope she has time, but if not I’m lucky enough to have two friends that live in NYC and Boston. That is the one sad thing about Davids Tea, there are only shops in Canada, NYC, Boston, California, and a few other places. Please get one in Texas. The good news is that you can order it online, but I like to order 1 oz instead of 2, so it is a must to go in the store for me. I think that David’s should send me some delicious samples to review on my blog, that would be pretty awesome. A girl can dream!

WIAW in NYC

Hey ya’ll! I’m so glad it is Wednesday because that means it is only two more days until I’m going to be experiencing the greatest time of my life: Ultra Music Festival in Miami. Yeah, hopefully I don’t die. On a happier note, it is What I Ate Wednesday! Seriously I love Jenn for creating this magical day. For my WIAW, I’m going to be posting about my trip to NYC. This was a little bit ago, but I’m finally getting to post about it since I’m not as busy as I normally am.

Before I left for the airport, I made a quick breakfast of an egg in the middle to hold me over. Don’t worry, I had two. They were fried eggs in whole wheat toast. Can you believe that some people have never had the pleasure of having one of these? It seriously amazes me and scares me at the same time. I always worry about people that haven’t experienced all that there is in the food world – even simple things like an egg in the middle.

Once I got into the city (I was so proud of myself because I rode the subway with my suitcase by myself all the way to the flatiron district from my airport), I was reunited with my long lost love. Only recently were we introduced, but it was love at first gulp. David’s tea is the greatest place in the world. Unfortunately it only exists in Canada and NYC. That is not cool. However I grabbed myself a warm cup of Blueberry Jam tea, so I could stroll around the shops and be warm while my friend was finishing up work at Buzzfeed (YES, my best friend is bad ass).

Her office is literally surrounded by all my favorite places: David’s Tea, Urban Outfitters, tons of shopping, and CRUMBS! My love for Crumbs Cupcakes stems all the way back to when I got back to America from Israel and I had my first bite of these delicious cupcakes. Of course I was totally going to be unhealthy and eat some cupcakes for lunch.

Look at that gooey goodness inside the cake. This was the toasted coconut cupcake. Get it. Seriously you will not regret it. The icing is sweet and creamy while the cake is extremely moist. Inside is coconut cream. Biting into this was like entering into a sweet cupcake wonderland. It just melted in my mouth. I cry at night because there are no crumbs near me. I think it is a sign that I need to come up to the north (I wish).

For dinner, we met up with my friend’s dad at a place called Dos Caminos. If you are living in NYC, but you need some quality Mexican/Spanish food then definitely hit this place up. At least go for the margaritas because those are crazy good and definitely a little strong (or I’m just a light weight). This was a sangria swirl margarita and it was delicious. It had the hint of sangria, but with the good taste of a strong tequila margarita. Yum. I’m not gonna lie, but I was getting a little tipsy just after this one drink. That is sad, but good times.

For one of the appetizers, we had albondigas con chile. Pretty much they are red chile meatballs that are covered and sitting in roasted tomato-habanero sauce. This was heaven in a pan. I wish they were never ending because I definitely could have destroyed a couple more of these. We had two other appetizers. One was guacamole, which we ordered spicy and it came out too spicy. I couldn’t handle it. The other appetizer was red snapper ceviche. I have a deep passion for ceviche, which will actually be fulfilled when I go to Spain this summer. I will consume crazy amounts of ceviche. Anyways this ceviche was good, but it was a small portion so I was sad.

For my main dish, I got fish tacos. I thought the presentation was super cute. The tacos were really good too. The fish was a mahi mahi and the tacos were topped with pico de gallo, some cabbage salad, and a aoili sauce. Perfection. I ended up having leftovers, which I ate at my friends later on in the weekend before going out one night.

Most of the main dishes came with your choice of beans and some spanish rice. Of course we got some refried black beans. You can’t go wrong with anything that is refried. They are definitely a weakness of mine. I love to mix the rice and beans together then put it on my taco. Best way to eat tacos or any Mexican dish in my opinion!

Have a great WIAW! I have to go back to studying about fiber and fatty acids.