Maple Butter Shortbread

Inkling Advent Day 7. This tea really did smell like shortbread! When I was drinking it hot, I could taste a pretty pleasant desserty flavor. Once it cooled, the main flavor I tasted was rooibos, which is surprising because it doesn’t make up that much of the blend. I taste a little bit of butteriness maybe, but I wish I could taste maple or baked elements. I’ll definitely drink the next serving of this when it’s still hot!

Steepster seems slow on new tasting notes today, so here is another one. (I am now 11 days behind on catching up on reading tasting notes!)

From Tiffany :) Thank you very much! This tea IS delicious and it’s the right sort of sweetener… not artificial. However, if a tea is mostly just sweet, I feel like naming a tea, it can really be any name that is sweet. I’m not sure what a Maple Butter Shortbread would taste like other than sweet. So it works! The rooibos really doesn’t seem to get through my basket infuser which is great – though the second steep seems like mostly vanilla and rooibos. (I usually use a T-Sac for rooibos but with the other ingredients, I just threw it in the basket infuser.) I guess most of the sweetness went into the first steep. It’s a tasty dessert tea, for sure, when you are looking for a SWEET TEA just not sure how much the name of the tea matters here. Very glad there isn’t any stevia anyway! Also grateful that I get to try these Dessert By Deb teas. :D
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 min

Preparation: Western (no additional additives)
Tasting note: The first time I tried this tea, I had it as a latte and it did not have very distinct flavors. This time I decided to forego the addition of oatmilk. The black and rooibos tea base goes well here, I think that both balance each other out. I can taste a maple-y sweetness that isn’t overpowering. Without milk this tea is more focused on the caramel-maple-vanilla notes which is nice. I do get the sense that it is a cookie but more of caramel-maple cookie than I would say short bread. I enjoy this tea much more straight than I did with oatmilk which is good.

I think that ever since I had Nadeshiko by Camellia-Sinensis I am not as excited by many flavored vanilla teas that I have encountered since and I don’t think that this tea has changed that. So in short, I like this tea but it doesn’t amaze me, so I don’t think I would buy it again for that reason.

Just finished up the last of this tea. It was delicious. I have not had many black tea/ rooibos blends, but I really enjoyed how those two distinct flavors mingled together. Needed sugar to get that real Maple Syrup taste, but overall this is one of my favorite teas from Deb.

Sipdown! (9 | 407)

Not a big fan of this one. It’s mostly just sweet with a bit of a buttery caramel thing going on. And I get that it’s supposed to be buttery and maple-y, but to me the sugar is overwhelming, and the base is too thin to support it. I also get the tannic notes of the black tea, but none of its redeeming qualities…

Not for me! :)

I had this one with nothing added to it! :) This is a beautiful tea! I think Deb coated the apples in maple sugar, which makes them sparkle and almost look like they have glitter on them.

As far as taste goes, this tastes like maple syrup! Which I adore! :) I also get the dry, grainy texture from the rooibos, which is not unpalatable by any means, but not my favourite. This also does not need any sugar or anything! It tastes sweet as is.

Overall, I enjoyed this tea. However, I think I rated this lower because I am not the biggest fan of red rooibos. If it is in a blend, then I prefer not to taste it.

I like this one, but I much preferred Deb’s, jolly jammy linzer tea (however, it has been discontinued sadly!)