I love almost everything from DAVIDsTEA, including the recipes on their blog. I had a lot of free time during social distancing this summer, so I tried out a bunch of tea infused recipes that I think are perfect for fall.

Alpine Punch Tea Infused Crepes

I thought it would be really difficult to make crepes. The actual crepe making was easy, but making the batter was the most difficult part. At first, I thought the tea would be added to otherwise finished batter, so I offered to make half the crepes without the tea for my family. Turns out that the tea gets steeped into the milk which makes it nearly impossible to make half the crepes without, so I had to start over and make them all tea infused.

Once I started over, it wasn’t too difficult to make the batter. It did surprise me that I needed to use a blender, and there was a lot of waiting while the batter cooled in the fridge multiple times. As I said earlier, I thought it would be difficult to get the crepes so thin, but it was surprisingly easy.

The crepes were delicious both plain and with a variety of toppings. My favorite toppings were fresh whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, and coconutmilk vanilla ice cream. I also tried fruit and honey, which was pretty good. The more toppings you add, however, the less you taste the tea in the crepes.

With all that being said, I do think I would make crepes in the future, but I think I would skip the tea-infusion. Alternatively, I think this recipe would taste good infused with a variety of tea flavors.

Alpine Punch Turmeric Tea Latte

The only time I remember having turmeric in the past was in a matcha latte from Peet’s Coffee, which I did not enjoy. However, Alpine Punch is one of my favorite teas from DAVIDsTEA, plus I thought it would be okay if I added enough sweetener. This recipe was fairly simple to make, though there was some sitting around while the spices steeped in the milk and tea mixture before serving.

Overall, I did not enjoy this latte because I don’t really like turmeric (or iced lattes). However, the flavors do blend together smoothly, with turmeric and cinnamon being the strongest. I did use regular supermarket honey instead of “good quality, local honey,” but I’m not sure that effected the flavor. The flavor of the tea was mostly overpowered, but I think you will like this latte if you like all the ingredients in it.

Hot Chocolate Pumpkin Bars

These pumpkin bars were difficult to make mostly because the recipe is very unclear. The ingredients list white sugar, but the recipe never says where to include it. Based on the order of ingredients, I’m guessing it was in the crust. I decided not to include the sugar at all, and while it tasted fine, I wonder if the crust would have stuck together better with it. I’m also not positive that’s where it was supposed to go, because not all of the ingredients are listed in order—a common theme in DAVIDsTEA recipes. The list also includes 1/2 cup brown sugar (divided), and Step 2 includes 1/4 cup brown sugar, but it never says where to put the other 1/4 cup. My guess is that it was supposed to go in the pumpkin mixture, which could have used a little more flavor.

I also had some problems with the availability of ingredients. One ingredient is 1/2 cup roasted nuts, finely ground. I had raw cashews, so I roasted them in the oven for a few minutes and then ground them in a food processor. I did not know how many nuts would end up being 1/2 cup when ground, so I ended up with a lot of excess. I saved the rest though, and I think they will taste very good over ice cream. I also only had whole cloves, so I decided to grind them rather than buy ground cloves. Neither of these steps were difficult, but they did add to the time of the recipe. Thankfully I was able to find graham cracker crumbs (though they weren’t honey grahams), so I didn’t have to crush those myself, too.

I was pretty surprised that the tea was infused into the milk, which was then strained and added to the pumpkin and spices, rather than infused with the chocolate itself. However, the melting of the chocolate was probably the easiest step, so I’m glad it wasn’t complicated by infusing tea. I also think the actual chocolate would have completely masked the flavor of the tea. You can only taste the tea in the pumpkin layer if you are looking for it, but it is stronger than it probably would have been the other way. I also liked that it had a subtle flavor because my family is not really a fan of Hot Chocolate tea and I was actually trying to get rid of it with this recipe.

Overall, these bars tasted pretty good. As I said earlier, I wonder if they would have been better if the recipe was a bit clearer. While I probably won’t make this recipe again just because of how much work it was and the lack of clarity, I did enjoy eating the pumpkin bars while I had them.

Which recipes will you be making this fall? I will certainly be making crepes again and possibly pumpkin bars, though I’ll be skipping the tea infusions.

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