Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Oolong/Mate

This company always comes up with the most interesting sounding tea. Not quite sure of this one. The first flavor that hits you is definitely mate and it stays with you till the after taste but the pecan and the caramel come out in hints just enough to make its name. I’m not a huge fan of mate but this isn’t too bad.

Holiday TTB #3: I really liked this one! I don’t know if I would say cheesecake specifically, but I definitely got a toasty nut flavor, and a sweetness that I could say is caramel. I’m enjoying mate more, and that’s always exciting!

This one tastes of roasted mate and a hint of pecan. No caramel or cheesecake to be found. Sad but this is what I’ve come to expect of 52teas’ cheesecake blends. They used to be so good a few years ago but alas, they are no longer. That said, it’s not a bad tea. It’s naturally sweet on its own and doesn’t need any additional sweetener. I like the roasted mate flavor. Not sure if there’s a lot else going on in the cup though.

I brewed and drank half an ounce of this tea at work yesterday with some coworkers. The smell is nice and so is the taste, but it has a taste of roasted/almostburnt mate in it that isn’t so pleasant. My coworkers can’t identify that particular taste, but it did add the dryness to the tea. Easily a tea to sip on but also one that could use a small tweak.

Picked this one up in the recent 52teas clearance sale. I had high hopes, but unfortunately have noticed a trend of flavourings in these teas to be weaker than I’d expect, which definitely impacted the tea here.

First infusion – the mate didn’t have a huge presence due to the 2-minute infusion (probably good because it can be overwhelming), but I could taste distinct pecan nuttiness combined with caramel, and ended up reminiscing about Cashew Turtle. Such a delicious tea…. Sadly, the flavourings weren’t overly strong, and the base felt weak, so it wasn’t nearly as rich-tasting as I was hoping for.

Second infusion – Sadly, this mostly tasted like roasted mate.

Overall, I enjoyed the flavouring, but the base didn’t work here for me, and despite overleafing a bit, the flavouring strength wasn’t there. A good flavour combo idea, though.

Lots of caramel. Lots of pecan. Lots of crust, thanks to the earthy qualities of mate and cheap ice cream cone notes of the oolong. The cheesecake is largely up to your own imagination to find. I swear I’m picking up on some delicious tangy dessert..

My package checked into customs last night. This morning I woke up and decided I’d give it a quick check before heading to class. Still in customs. Well, can’t complain, seeing as so far this has been probably the fastest ship I’ve seen. So I went upstairs… to find the package sitting on the diningroom table.

Decided mate was the way to go for the morning. Brewed this up at four minutes. You can smell the mate, and I think that adds to the sweet and nutty factor, because it does seem like I’m smelling pecans (well, I don’t remember them having much of a smell) and sweet caramel.

Starting sipping slightly too hot, but once it cooled enough, I get caramel followed immediately by the pecan. Not as much cheesecake, though there’s a tang in the aftertaste along with the mate which I think gives it a cheesecake feel.

Playing Guns of Icarus while sipping this. The oolong seems completely overtaken by the mate, though I think it might be coming through slightly oversteeped, seeing as I picked boiling water.

As it cools, definitely getting more pecan. Caramel is more in the back of the throat.

This one is pretty good – reminds me a little of Butiki’s waffle oolong. Some roasted mate and oolong, plenty of flavor here… if it has to be reminiscent of something, it’s probably caramel pecan cheesecake. The brown of the oolong is almost the same as the brown of the roasted mate, so it is tough to see how much there is of each. There is sweetness and nuttiness, maybe a little tang from cheesecake. The cheesecake blends are never cheesecakey enough for me though. This is a nice combination all around. After a two minute steep the color of the brew is very light. The second steep has almost exactly the same flavor.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 20 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2-2 min steep
Steep #2 // 15 min a.b. // 2-3min

When I finally got the bag opened (the crimping was REALLY close to the seal, and I’m not quite awake yet :P), the smell of the dry leaf was amazing…smelled just like caramel pecan.

Prepared, I’m not tasting cheesecase. I taste the caramel, which is nice and sweet. I taste the oolong, which is, admittedly, not my favorite base. I’m not sure what I’m tasting, actually. I’ve never had roasted mate before.

So, everything must be blending together. This was a short steep time for me at 2:30, so next time, I’ll try longer.

I think this is getting better as it cools. Also, I REALLY need to figure out how many oz this mug holds. I have no idea.