Psychocandy

I like this for something different when the mood strikes. It’s certainly strong, borderline cloying, so it’s not a daily tea and you need to be in the mood for it. I prefer 3-4 minute steep over 5 for this one.

I drank in my new raven tea cup with some saltines and creamy havarti cheese, which is usually my favorite tea snack other than chocolate. This one doesn’t fully go with the cheese and crackers, and due to the strength and sweetness, it wouldn’t go with chocolate either, so it’s a difficult food pair.

2021 sipdown no. 19

This one is like those wee candies wrapped in clear plastic we would get at Halloween (https://candyfunhouse.ca/products/regal-creamy-caramels-2kg). Far too sweet for either of us. We ended up dumping our cups. Nonetheless, always happy to have an opportunity to try new things. Thanks Cameron!

Yum. This tea is still so good!

I rearranged my kitchen cupboards which necessitated rearranging my teas, and I found this one.

I still really like it. Why haven’t I drank it more? No clue. I would order from them again if… oh hey, they are now offering “15-cup” bags for about $10. It looks like they’re not doing those seasonal releases in tins only! Oh, I might be able to pick up some of my favourite herbals. I’ll have to see where I’m at with drinking up all my no caffeine teas before I work teas into my budget again…

I’ve been wanting to try this tea for awhile, but it always seemed to be sold out. I placed an August Uncommon order for a Christmas present, and this was back in stock. Of course I had to grab a sample bag for myself to try. This has a rich, dark, molasses flavor, and no trace of rooibos for me. It’s has a very distinct squash flavor, but isn’t starchy. I definitely would’ve loved to sip on this mid-October.

I dislike rooibos, but I really like pumpkin so I decided to give this a try. It has a sweetness to it, not quite stevia and not sugar. Monkfruit? I’m not detecting pumpkin. More of a dark fruity mix. I’m not getting any of that dry mouth rooibos thing and I’m glad for that. This reminds me of a fruity rooibos mix with sprinkles that a couple of companies used to carry. Black Cat may have been the name of one. Either way, I think I like this one better, but I’m not 100% sure what to make of it.

Happy Halloween! This tea is the perfect autumny dessert tea for the occassion. Even from the aroma it is so sweet… caramel apple, burnt sugar/toffee, vanilla… it smells like melted down candy corn in a cup to me. Very sweet and indulgent. Not the sort of thing I could drink every night, but hits the spot when I have a strong sweet craving.

A pleasant gift from Mastress Alita.

I haven’t had rooibos since early this year in the winter. It’s Halloween eve and I’m lounging around in a drawn-on moustache (I’ll be genderbending as Gomez Addams at work tomorrow. We have the whole Family), so I made a pot of Psychocandy for the house tonight. All 14 grams in a 1000mL teapot. Steeped with boiling and forgotten about.

So the dry leaf smells rich like butterscotch with medicinal rooibos but the medicinal aspect does not come through in taste at all. Woohoo! That aroma! Rich but a little hollow buttery caramel-butterscotch, vanilla milk and something darker — that rooibos aroma. I let the tea cool a bit and the caramel-blackberry leaf sweetness really comes out on the sip followed by the dark red rooibos and a bit of apple tang that hangs out after the swallow. Pumpkin is always a difficult flavor to pin down in food and drink but I think it’s there. What else… something reminiscent of the scorched sugar topping of crème brûlée. Long butterSCOTCH flavoring aftertaste. Later, there’s some dryness in the throat.

I couldn’t see myself drinking this often because it’s so sweet but the flavor is just awesome. As far as flavored tisanes go, this is bumpin’.

Happy Halloween tomorrow!

I bought a sample in my last order but polished it off a couple weeks ago. All I recall is that this was vaguely sweet but lacked an obvious caramel note. The pumpkin was very mild? The good news is that the base wasn’t crazily woodsy. Quite well-behaved in that respect. Adding milk just made it taste like a sweetened pumpkin. Still no warm, browned caramel.

Sample Sipdown! (34)

Whoa, there must have been a lot of blackberry leaf in the bottom of this sample packet, because this is way sweet. In fact, it’s too sweet.

The buttery and creamy caramel is still enjoyable, but the overly sweet quality of it is making me rethink my plans to order a full-size pouch of this one…

Hmm, what to do…

I need to abstain from caffeine for awhile due to surgery, so all the herbals in my cupboard are on heavy rotation. I’ve said in the past that I really don’t care for rooibos, but August Uncommon has such great teas I thought I’d give this a shot. Brew smells like vanilla pudding, and the vanilla flavor was the most prominent for me. A tiny bit of burnt sugar smokiness from the rooibos. A very nice tea, but not in love, despite it being warm, sweet and comforting. Dang, I really miss my black teas!