Gingerbread

A Gingerbread latte seemed like an awesome idea in theory, although in practice I made one hell of a mess in my kitchen. I don’t really have “proper” latte making equipment so I microwave my milk to hot temperatures, though this time my milk ‘exploded’ in my microwave creating one hell of a mess.

Anyway, 10 oz. mug of really fucking hot milk steeped with a little more than 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf for about 7 minutes.

In hindsight, I should have used more leaf because while this is still pretty yummy, it’s also relatively weak. Anyway, it’s sort of like drinking a weak version of a liquid gingerbread cookie (gingerbread dipped in milk, anyone?). The molasses and sweet ginger notes come through and are pleasant enough but the whole thing is pretty gentle, and I wanted a bit stronger flavour at the moment.

Second cup of the day. I was very excited to try this tea as I love ginger and really like sugar and spice, which tastes like gingerbread to me, and I’m generally a fan of rooibos, especially green rooibos. So I picked up 20g of this yesterday.

The dry smell is nice and ginger and a bit of cinnamon. Very nice. I brewed it for 5 minutes, and the steeped smell is so familiar… I figured it out. A mixture of birthday cake by davidstea and coco chai rooibos also by davidstea. Not a fan of the birthday cake smell at all, much too sugary.

Flavor… Ehhh, not my favorite. I get a watered down birthday cake with some ginger and maybe pineapple. Thankfully its not as cloying as birthday cake, not as sweet. It’s similar to Della terras pineapple upside down cake, but different. There’s a lot of flavors going on actually, tough to discern what it is. The aftertaste has brown sugar and fruitiness. It’s not bad the more I sip, but not gingerbread to me. I much prefer sugar and spice for a gingerbread flavor.

Overall, a weird tea. Not much rooibos flavor, it is very masked. But I will need to have a few more cups before I figure this one out. I had the same trouble with mint julep (spring collection) just too many things in it. I confess I’m a bit disappointed. Rating 79 for now.

ETA – Now I got a big mouthful of spice. What the heck. Tea, sort yourself out! I like some sips more than others even! And now that I read the description, yeah, there’s molasses in there. Weird though still. Don’t know what to think. I think I will add ginger to it when I’m home to make it actually gingery. Sigh.

I had a cup of this tonight while watching World War Z – overall not a bad cup of tea. I don’t get the red velvet cake that others do, instead this is just a decent ginger-ish sort of rooibos tea without being overly rooibosy. I only picked up enough for 2 or so Sil sized servings and that’s enough for me. it’s not amazing enough to warrant a larger purchase even if it is another ginger/non caffinated tea.

I had one rollercoaster of a day. Barely slept last night worrying about this morning’s presentation and gathering the courage to talk to my supervisor about one of my papers. Then ended up crying in front of her because my mom’s been ill, so after the school day was over, I thought I should get the new teas from David’s (and grab a bento box somewhere), and that’s what I did!

I passed on the Coffee Cake because it smells too similar to Red Velvet Cake, which is way too sweet. Some Steepsters are saying that this one smells like RVC too but I don’t get that. This smells like candied ginger and spices to me. It does have a cakey note too but it’s different to me. Crazy I bought a rooibos, eh? I normally don’t like them.

But this is nice! I feel like one of the odd ones out since most don’t seem to care for it. I normally despise rooibos for the usual reason: it tastes like wood. But here, the spices really mask that note, and bring a depth to the flavours without making it weird.

Would I buy more than the 10g? Not sure yet, but it won’t be that hard to finish, that’s for sure.

In hopes of getting some sipdowns to rein in my cupboard just a bit before I get my BF orders, I decided to have this tea. After this cup, I have enough leaf left for just one more and though I am not too heartbroken, I might miss it every now and then. It is sweet and bread-y but not gingerbread. I could be completely off but I imagine this might be similar to what fruit cake tastes like – sweet, fruity, bread-y and with a very, VERY slight hint of spice. A nice treat for a relaxing evening.

Oh! OMG.

The secret to this tea is to brew 10oz of this tea, then mix a combo of 6 more oz Gingerbread Kahlua and milk.

I am in love!

A sipdown I can’t even note in my Steepster cupboard, because for some reason the tea wasn’t in it!

Oh well.

Today it’s molasses cake. Not really gingery, but there are some spices in the background. I helped the molasses flavour along by adding 1/2 tsp brown sugar. Mmm.

I’d consider getting more of this, but I’d have to add a bunch of chopped up candied ginger for it to actually be *ginger*bread. :)

(Also: I “only” have 10 more rows of a cowl I started 4 or 5 years ago left to do. Yay? I want to finish now, but each row takes so long…)

Hubby and I picked up some of this one yesterday while indulging in a day of treats. Haircut, record store sale, leftover Halloween candy, new clothes – and most of it on discount or gift cards, yay! Then groceries, homemade beef stroganoff, some GTA V online and tv shows before an extra-long sleep. Today is reading, chili making and relaxing all around. Maybe a game of Doctor Who themed Monopoly? Great weekend!!

Anyway, this is one I was interested in but not holding a lot of hopes for because after 3 or 4 years of drinking tea I am finally finding myself disenchanted with rooibos and honeybush blends. Nonetheless, we gave it a go. It is actually pretty tasty, and does much better at lukewarm than hot BUT it is not gingerbread. This is molasses cookies, guys. Gingerbread is a ginger pow with a hint of molasses. Molasses cookies are the opposite and that is what we have here. I want more ginger flavour, and it is sorely lacking. Very sweet and accurate on the molasses though, so that is something. If they had named this correctly I think I would like it a bit more but as it is I don’t see myself buying more.

Hot tips: drink this lukewarm or cold for the best taste, and don’t expect much by way of ginger and you’ll be a happy chappy. For once, the beau and I both had the exact same taste results.

This smells a lot like the Red Velvet Cake blend, with a flick of spice to it. I made up a cup yesterday, steeped in almond milk. It yielded an exceptionally sweet, rich cup, even if it was a bit bland.

Today I decided to throw in some raw ginger into the steeper and take it without milk. The cakey creaminess is still present but there is a load of fruit that I didn’t notice before. The pineapple and currants are definitely apparent. Maybe there’s more zing to it today, from the extra ginger (and the pineapple?). The whole citrus cream rooibos thing makes me think of Della Terra’s Lime Chiffon.

In the finish I do get some delicious cinnamon spiced gingerbread cookies. I wish it was more pronounced and spiced.

The smell of his tea, both prior to and after steeping, is just like that other stuff I tried the other day… someone remind me… brain turn on… it smelled like pancake syrup, even though many people here mistakenly called it maple syrup. Yep, this is almost identical.

This tastes very similarly. To be frank, I swear it’s the same tea. It’s not, because this is a whole different bag that actually says, “Gingerbread.” So unless the gal at DAVID’s made a boo-boo… I can’t tell these apart.

EDIT: It was Birthday Cake. This must be the same tea, just mis-labelled. It’s just pancake syrup -turned tea. That’s all I taste.