Dessert by Deb

A cup from the start of the week. It was a pleasantly peppery and warming ginger flavour on a brisk black tea base, but as I believe I’ve noted before I find this tea really lacking in maple flavour and not really pastry-like in any way. It’s more just a bold ginger blend than a dessert one. But I knew that when I made the mug, so it wasn’t disappointing in the moment.

This is from Cameron B!  Thank you so much.  My impression on the first sip is there is a LOT of smoke in this lapsang souchong for something that should be caramel butterscotch blondies.  Like…. a LOT of smoke.  If I ignore the inspiration and name for this tea, it isn’t a bad cup of tea.  Especially if you are craving lapsang.  But it is mostly smoke.  I feel I should resteep and give the pouch a good mix….
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // 1-2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 18 minutes after boiling // 4-5 min

SECOND steep session:  I really stirred up the bag, and then used two teaspoons for a mug.  The flavor was definitely different this time.  I think the last time, I must have had way more of the lapsang.  This time both steeps tasted like more coconut and rooibos, but still nothing like the name suggests!  More like a smoky coconut rooibos. Hey, that seems a unique enough blend to me anyway.  :D Not even so much hojicha flavored, not at all. With the few blends I have tried from Dessert by Deb, I think they are WAY overhyped on the flavors you will find just by looking at the names of the blends. They just sound too promising! But a tea can never be an actual sugary dessert anyway…

I think I have like two teaspoons left of ANY sort of milk oolong, so this was a welcome addition to my collection at just the right time! Thanks so much, Cameron B! If this is just a super flavored milk oolong, then I am happy with that! Sometimes I crave that custardy type of flavor. BUTTER. YES. Over the top butter, but sometimes that is what I want. I can’t really tell there is maple flavoring/sweetener here, so that means it’s the perfect amount in the blend. As it cools, I notice a bit more sweetness. I probably didn’t stir up the bag enough this time around. I will be sure to do that next time. By the fourth steep, it has slightly moved towards a more traditional milk oolong. But I love this!

Cold Brew!

This is definitely one of Deb’s more aggressively lavender flavoured blends, to the point where I struggled to taste much else other than lavender after I had strained this brew. It was a smooth enough lavender, without any off notes. It was just too much overall and it swallowed all the other flavours up. I ended up added a few ounces of peach juice and it balanced things out quite nicely. More like what I expected it to taste like based on the name. It’s sort of a shame I had to doctor it in the first place, though…

TTB tea! The lemongrass is really tasty in here. It’s not tart at all, just light and smooth. The second time I had this, it tasted surprisingly biscuity? There’s nothing that makes me think mimosa, but somehow something more like baked goods!

Just a note to say this is another bergamot I can’t do. Sorry, Dessert By Deb.

Edited to add: A big thanks to Tiffany for sharing this, as I can still appreciate checking off a tea on my list and saying “I don’t need to drink this — it’s not the tea for me.” Sometimes it is a relief to NOT find something a favorite. :D

Sipdown! (3 | 3)

This one was quite enjoyable. It actually reminded me of her popular Hojicha Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding blend that’s been around for a while now. I have a tin of that one, but it’s been a long time since I’ve made a cup, so I’m only comparing this to my memory. I’ll have to steep some up one of these days…

Anyway, it’s a smooth, toasty hojicha blend with warming cinnamon and a touch of sweetness from the brown sugar. I think the cinnamon raisin one was sweeter, now that I think about it, so this is an improvement IMO. There’s a touch of fruitiness, mostly apple. I found the hibiscus to be quite inconsistent for whatever reason, some cups had no tartness and then there was one that was almost like a fruit tisane lol. When the balance was right, it did sort of emulate cranberry. This last cup is pretty spot-on actually.

Would consider ordering more, if I were to order from Deb again. Not planning on it at the moment, as I don’t tend to love a lot of her teas, especially the newer flavored ones. Plus it took a long time for my last order to come, and by the time it did, I had lost the sense of excitement and was more annoyed that it was exploding my cupboard at the end of the year LOL! :P

TTB tea! The coconut adds a desserty, almost roasted rice sort of flavor. The slightly savory green tea goes well with the additions, sort of like in a genmaicha. I didn’t taste much fruit or anything cakey. The person I shared the cup with agreed it was really all coconut.

Sipdown! (4 | 417)

I’m not sure why I ordered this one. Intrigued by the combination of hojicha and matcha maybe? It has a very strong coconut smell in the bag, luckily I’m not finding much coconut in the flavor. But I’m not finding much else either. Mostly it tastes like a very generic hojicha, and I don’t even notice a lot of matcha (even though it’s a very unappealing murky brown-green color ha ha). It’s just sort of bland and boring?

Not awful or anything, just very meh.

TeaTiff TTB #5

My husband and I polished this off with breakfast this morning. Though the inspiration sounded delicious, we found the actual blend to be more of a black genmaicha than anything else. Definitely got some maple flavor and some sweetness (maybe caramel?) but the popped rice flavor dominated the sip. Not a bad tea at all, but not quite what we expected based on the name.

Sipdown! (2 | 415)

The other free sample from my recent order.

Sadly, this is mostly just peppermint and sugar to me. There is a hint of a blueberry note, but I’m not convinced that I would notice it if I wasn’t expecting it to be there. The dominant flavor is quite herbaceous peppermint along with the sweetness from the maple/brown sugar. It’s not quite wet rag, though there is maybe a twinge of that in the finish, but it’s not the freshest mint either.

Anyway, it’s fine but certainly not something I would order.

Had this one last night and even though my expectations were low I found myself pleasantly surprised. The combination of lavender, jasmine, and different mild red berries were pretty soothing and tranquil. I even didn’t mind the gentle grassiness of the base. Deb has a tendency to go balls to the walls with lavender, but though this was a lavender-forward blend I didn’t feel like I was drinking liquid perfume. Dare I say this may be an underrated gem in her assortment?

Sipdown! (1 | 414)

Finally got around to entering my Dessert by Deb order into my spreadsheet. I had placed it around the end of September, excited for all the new hojicha teas for fall, and then I didn’t end up actually receiving it until the end of November, by which time I was no longer in fall mode, and was getting in gear for advents. So by then I just wasn’t excited for it anymore. Anyway, all that to say, because of that I neglected to catalog the teas or even open the box until recently.

This was one of the free samples Deb included, and one of the few hojicha blends I didn’t order because it just didn’t sound good to me, and because of the rooibos. And that was a good decision, because it’s just not very interesting. The rooibos mostly overpowers the hojicha, and the pineapple flavor is quite muted, so mostly it ends up tasting like woody rooibos with a hint of roast and a touch of candy pineapple. Oh, and a bit of cinnamon.

I think it could’ve maybe been nice if it was just a hojicha? Not sure why this one needed three different bases tbh. Oh well, always nice to get free samples!

TTB tea! This is actually one of the better teas I’ve tried from Deb! I overleafed, which definitely helped. I taste a lot of lavender and a lot of blueberry. The black tea is a nice hearty base to go with it. There’s nothing cakey, but it’s tasty! I enjoyed this both warm and cold and almost wish I’d grabbed more than one serving!

At first smell, the fragrance instantly reminded me of strawberries and rose. I felt more feminine by just the smell, like got transported to a afternoon tea time at a cute tea shop with the girls. The taste after steeping it in 200 F for 3 min was light and almost etherical with a touch of strawberry, the green tea flavor was more forward when i had it plain. As a latte the taste of rose came more subtly forward, with the green tea flavor mellowing out more and a slight after taste of strawberry. It was great, im a fan.

Not my favourite Deb blend, but not the worst either. It’s very thin tasting with a really shallow, plain cocoa powder flavour and just a bit of toastiness from the genmai blended in. Like a chocolate Genmaicha or a very watered down hot cocoa. I think maybe more leaf and longer steep time next time?

Huh, another situation where I came to just mark a sipdown and somehow there is no prior note for it. I actually enjoyed this one. It reminded me of strawberry milk, though admittedly I always had it as an oat milk latte so I can’t promise that the blend on its own would have the same effect. Hibiscus is clearly part of how that effect is created so hibiscus haters will probably want to steer clear.

I came to mark a sipdown thinking I had previously written a note for this blend, but either I haven’t or it disappeared. Either way, I definitely want to say that I enjoyed this blend! It’s a really nice citrus/cream herbal, especially as a latte since the oat milk brings out the creaminess well. The orange also doesn’t tip over into being overly acidic, alcoholic, or concentrated, while also not fading into the background.

Another from the Strange VariaTea TTB. This is both finicky and just not Deb’s best blend. I accidentally overbrewed it the first time and it ended up tasting mostly of hibiscus (which I like, but is notably not anywhere in the name of the blend). Brewed up properly and latte’d, I do like this but am not wowed. It’s reminiscent of the Hojicha Berry Shortcake, which is maybe intentional given the names of the blends? They have pretty similar ingredients too. I didn’t love that one, either. It’s just sort of a generic berry flavor that is fine, but only fine.

So I’d been eyeing this one since it came out, and in my last Deb order I finally broke down and ordered a 75g bag. I usually only order her 25g size, but she doesn’t offer that size in oolongs for some reason.

Welp, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had a flavored milk oolong, because I was not prepared. The cream flavoring here is so strong and over the top, it almost turns my stomach a bit. Very heavy and rich whipping cream sort of notes, or as Kelly (Roswell Strange) said, churned butter. Yeah, that’s pretty much spot on. I barely taste the hojicha to be honest, but I do pick up on some of those toasty notes in the finish.

So yeah, this one is going into the rehoming box. Maybe in the future I’ll try to recreate a similar tea with unflavored milk oolong though… ;)

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #33

I was in a mood for green tea, but also I didn’t wanted to fuss about the temperature, so houjicha is perfect for that.

I think that the base is working so well with those spices in, and although I am missing a few spices that are in gingebread (at least here); for instance (star) anise, it is actually pretty good example of gingebread tea. The ginger was definitely prominent, though a bit more than expected. But at least it was warming and sugar in? Absolutely no problem for me!

Finally got around to trying this tea out.

Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about it. It’s certainly lavender forward, but that’s a given when it comes to Deb’s lavender blends. They’re always quite a lot. The deeper jammy berry notes compliment the lavender really well though! It’s interesting that Deb’s calling this a blackberry tea when the flavouring is cassis (basically black currant) and there are no blackberries in the ingredient list otherwise. It definitely doesn’t taste like blackberry, either. Maybe blueberry.

I think I’d need to try it again to form a better opinion.

Side note – it steeps up such a peculiar colour. Kind of a swampy green. I guess that’s because the rooibos would have a more orange hue when steeped, but the berries and mallow blossoms would steep a dull blue…

A sipdown! (M: 3 Y: 57)
This tea, accidentally stayed with me after last TTB. I am sure I wanted to add it in, but it was forgotten on my desk; and then the box was already packed. Sorry anyone who wanted to try it!

Also, not in my Steepster cupboard anymore… but a sipdown is a sipdown, removing from my stash system successfully and real cupboard is also a bit emptier.

To the tea… well I haven’t changed my opinion too much. It was like rooibos genmaicha to me, not much of black tea; and actually tasty and roasty. However, nothing of toffee / salty though.

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #31

I thought I have commented about this tea, asking what are blondies but I couldn’t find it. Anyway, I was craving cake related tea this afternoon, and salted caramel (or toffee, what’s the diference?) sounds good to me, so I have picked this one.

The roasted rice (there was a typo — ice) means it will be towards genmaicha flavour and indeed it is. Genmai and coconut makes nice batter and it was also quite salty and sweet, but the rest of ingredients are muted and I couldn’t recognize them at all; not even the black tea base. If it is more rooibos than black tea, that could that.

Fine, but nothing I need to re-try again; shame!