Butter Brandy Cake

I cannot believe I am the first one to review this … especially since I make it a rule to wait a minimum of three weeks before I try the 52Teas blends. (more of a guideline than a rule, but, I will say that the monthly subscription program does make this easier to accomplish)

Yum! This is good. Very different … but good.

The flavors of a buttery-brandied-cake meld together with the rich black tea base. The cake seems to come out more toward the finish, and the aftertaste is sweet, but there is a twinge of brandy in there too. Sweet and yummy. This is a tea that is really so different from anything I’ve tried that I need to spend a little more time with it.

I’m starting to get the hang of this one. It tastes best when it’s cooled down a bit, but still warm. Once it hits the right temperature, the cakey butter notes just seem to pop as if out of nowhere. I’m enjoying this one more than the first few times I made it. The flavors are present on the tea base, but they aren’t as obvious as some of my favorite teas. Personally. I like to have flavors totally in my face. Still, it’s a good cup.

It was my youngest brother in laws 18th birthday yesterday so we went out to celebrate by taking him for his first drinking session and clubs. We all enjoyed ourself but this morning its safe to say my house has 4 very hungover people. So I volunteered to cook breakfast and thought it would be nice to serve one of my ‘fancy’ teas.

This doesn’t have a brandy or alcohol scent or taste in my opinion but it is sweet, strong and creamy. Not quite cake like either, it reminds me very much of the pancake blend.

Still its done the job with 3 out of 4 saying its nice. The 1 that didn’t agree said it was too sweet for him.

Will have to give this another go but honestly I find most black based 52teas blends to taste very similar.

Butter? Here. Brandy? Here. Cake? Um… cake? Bueller? The cake is definitely out of the building on this one, however it’s very much buttered brandy, even with my (recent discovery) underleafing.

Thank you KittyLovesTea for the generous sample amount of this!

After discovering how much tastier the Simpson & Vail teas are if they are steeped at a lower temp, I tried that with this tea. Often the 52tea flavors get lost by the bitter taste of the tea so I did this one for 2.5 @ 180. This is ok. I’m a little disappointed though. I was hoping for some buttery cake. I’m getting only brandy. And I do like brandy. So this is ok, but I was craving some buttery cake. Not that of Pineapple upside down cake, that’s straight cake, I wanted something with a good black base. I guess I’ll keep looking.

I have nothing to say about this except … How do you brew this to make it taste good?

I had it this past weekend while camping and I didn’t like it. I thought it was the rough conditions as well as the different water. I bought spring water but there was a lot of mineral salt in it so I thought it affected the tea and made it unpleasant.

I tried this again today and it is bitter and it has a chemical taste. Not a faint chemical taste but quite a strong one. I added agave and caramel creamer to make it palatable. I read someone is steeping it at lower temps to combat the bitterness so I will try it next time. If it doesn’t get better, it’s getting swapped/gifted.

First of all, let me say that I love the smell of the dry leaves – they’re like butterscotch but the brandy has a distinct scent all of its own. The tea brews up smooth and sweet and I can taste the brandy in the flavour – the lack of which was the main beef I had with the Brandied Apricot Honeybush by the way. There’s a rich, cakey note that makes this blend very decadent and dessert-like.

This is complex. As it sits on my taste buds different flavors come out. I’m kind of tempted to add some real brandy. Hhhmm…..

I’ll have to try this one again as this is coming across as a not very inspiring boring cup of slightly sweet black tea. and that’s that.