Crème Brulée

My very first order ever from DAVIDsTEA arrived on my porch this evening! Hooray!

This is a creamy, burnt sugar-esqe rooibos dessert tea. There is definitely something artificial about it – almost like one of those flavored creamers (which is actually a flavor I kinda like every now and again).

I wanted to try this as-is first, but in the back of my mind I planned to use this as a mixer with my rooibos chai to make a vanilla/caramel chai. I think it will be better suited to that purpose than straight drinking. Don’t get me wrong — it’s satisfying by itself — but I think it will be fantabulous with chai spices. I used to do this with a slightly fakey creme roobois from Teavana and it was one of my favorite caffeine-free things in the world. I’ll post another review when I make a mix with this to tell you if it lives up to my dreams :)

I must have been in super magpie mode (shiiiiiiiny!) the day I placed my order because I got some crazy stuff. Look for gold balls, tiny sugar lips, and all kinds of nonsense in my upcoming reviews!

This just really isn’t spectacular. At least, not for me. I actually have even more of it now because the DT near me was celebrating it’s first birthday over the weekend and giving out goody bags with a sample of this and Green Seduction. We ended up with three of them (I wanted the tins!) but that also means three more cups of Creme Brulee to drink.

I find the smell really unappetizing, though luckily the flavour is a little better than the aroma. At first I get a slight hint of caramel but mostly end up with a sugary icing-esque flavour. It’s definitely not memorable and for me, sadly, not all that enjoyable either. I think I might mix a bit of it with something more interesting so I can power through however many grams I have left. I believe MaddHatter recommended a mix with Oh Canada, which I might try, except I like Oh Canada! : )

EDIT: I think part of my problem with this one is that it somehow gives me a coconut sort of a vibe. Oy.

For some reason I had it in my head that green rooibos would not be as rooibosy as red. This cup is proving that not to be the case. Though it is not immediately recognizable as rooibos it is definitely there. And there is a tint of caramel but it is not sweet like I anticipated it would have been. Honestly, I am not sure what I am tasting. It is like really weirdly artificial. Mostly it just tastes like something is missing. This won’t be a restock and I think I will send the last 1-2 tsps to Roswell Strange so she can try it out.

Rummaging through the cupboard this evening I decided to have some of this one. I have a litre of whipping cream in the fridge, and I’m trying to drink a lot of teas I can put it in… I can’t make 1 litre of whipped cream and eat it all, omg.

It’s really good in this. Hides the flavour of the rooibos a bit more, and is generally delicious. I was going to have Birthday Cake, but was concerned the whipping cream would be too much. :)

I’ll probably finish this tea up tomorrow. Tasty, but not something I need to keep around. Rooibos isn’t my favourite, although I’ll drink it!

Uggg, today was crazy. I did an 8 hours brazilian jiujitsu seminar. It was very painful, hot and tiring. I was pacing myself with lots of breaks and water, but it ended with feeling really busted up and overloaded with information.
Finally got home, painfully foam rollered myself and had tea.

I love this tea mixed with a little peppermint – really adds extra oomph and relaxing. The sweetness in DT’s Creme Brulee is great! Great conclusion to a day!

Hoping I don’t wake up in total DOMS agony tomorrow.

I’m hoping that because it’s been awhile since I had this before, I’ll like it better with the rest of this sample. Just hopefully it won’t be “OMG NEED TO BUY NOW” levels of liking it.

I still don’t really get creme brulee from this, at least this time it doesn’t taste like peanut butter. I honestly have no idea what it really tastes like. Like a very sweet green rooibos, I guess. Maybe a bit of vanilla, but just nothing creamy, or caramel.

Oh well at least it’s gone now. Though I could go for some real creme brulee…

(anyone else’s notices tab not loading?)

Oh, how much of this I used to drink last year…. It was my favourite evening tea. I either outgrown it or got tired of it or maybe both. Either way, I think I have an ounce of it I have to finish.

Overall it’s tasty, I’m just not in love with it anymore. I think I fell out of love with rooibos in general, I tend to steer away from it these days.

OMGsrsly mentioned adding a whip cream made with maple syrup to it in one of the reviews… That’s an idea! I didn’t have whip cream but I had whole milk and maple syrup.

Mmm.. ok… I could totally drink the rest of the package this way. I usually don’t add any sweeteners to my tea and only occasionally some milk but some teas need help and this is one of them. Besides, maple syrup is superfood, it’s so good for the body.

Taste bud orgasm.

Once again, I ponder how this has such a low rating here in Steepster. It is simply the best rooibos blend I have ever tried (and I keep some pretty good rooibos/honeybush blends stocked); and I’ve yet to have anything but a flawless cup (which is why I’m bumping this up to a 100 rating).

I added milk tonight, and shit this is good. Like, you KNOW it’s a good tea because I don’t even give a fuck about all the swears in this tasting note – I’m THAT excited. Usually I try to sensor myself at least a little bit…

There were three other teas steeping/sitting in the kitchen when I made this and yet, it still managed to drown out the individual aromas of all three hour teas with its mouth watering caramel deliciousness!

I got this from Davids as an “instead of paying shipping I can get one more tea” tea.

Upon opening the bag, wow, there’s a lot of color in there. It smells a lot like caramel.

Knowing it was a dessert tea, I steeped it with a bit of German rock sugar and immediately added a splash of milk.

WOW.

This tastes like I’m drinking creme brulee. It tastes like I’m drinking dessert. I don’t understand it, I really don’t. It was almost off-putting how accurate the flavor was. I found it difficult to finish the cup, not because it was bad, but because it was the wrong time of day for it (if that makes any sense).

Mmmmm, sweet and only lightly tasting of rooibos, which works well. Perhaps not quite creme brulee though, to be honest – it just tastes kind of caramelly. Which is ok with me. I definitely seem to lean more towards artificially sweetened creamy/sweet/caramelly rooibos blends (e.g. Birthday Cake, Alpine Punch) than fruit-flavoured ones.

Anyhow, dropping the rating a few points on this one simply because it was one of my first-rated teas, and compared to other rooibos, it’s not at the top, and I had it rated rather high. Big plus for it, however, is a lack of little candies floating around in it that make the tea scummy.