I have to say this whole summer series really made me a little unsure; Root Beer, Cotton Candy, Caramel Corn… I really doubted they could pull it off, but the first time I was in-store I took a quick sniff and was pleasantly surprised at how well they replicated their “real world” inspirations. So eventually I picked up a bit of them to try out.
First up is Caramel Corn… We’d just spent the day cleaning out our new main bedroom walk-in closet (we’ve recently switched rooms from the largest room with the smaller closet to the middle sized room with the walk-in; seriously who builds a house like that??) and with how hot it’s been we had the doors and windows open to get some airflow. Now it’s raining and cool out and we wanted something different.
Visually this tea is quite appealing, all the different dried fruits, caramel and bits of popcorn make for a very dynamic appearance. As for the dry scent, it’s sweet and has a few subtle popcorn notes mixed in, but what confuses me a bit are the fruit notes from the currents, apples and pineapple. Despite that it definitely smells like caramel corn.
Brewed the liquor comes out a clear, light caramel color, but the smell… Oh the smell, is that ever nice. Deep caramel notes mixed in with some definite popcorn scents; it is sweet and deep, but yet the scent has a certain lightness to it.
Like most herbals it takes a good long steep to get the full, rounded flavor but once you get there the flavor was quite lovely. Again, those deep caramel notes mixed with the popcorn flavors but there are a few lighter hints from the pineapple and apples, especially as the tea cooled. There is a certain creaminess to the flavor profile as well which really complemented the tea nicely.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this herbal tea; great scent and a nicely full flavor. It will be interesting to try it cold as well, I think I’ll put it together and let it steep overnight in the fridge. Even if that doesn’t work out though I’m definitely going to go back and get a bunch of this before it’s all gone. (Oh and even better! My partner really loves it too!)
