Creme Brulee Black Tea

The quest to get these S&V teas gone continues.
I’ve given up on this ever tasting like Creme Brulee. This does not have the crisp sugary quality, or the smooth custard taste of a proper creme brulee.
Instead, I still get the mysterious coconut, and today is just a bit bitter. Meh.
Well, thats what I’ve got. I’ll get it drunk, and free up my tin for new and better brews.

mmmm I can’t recall if this was one of the teas I purchased or just one that kittenna let me sample. I know…that’s bad lol In either case, thanks go to her for getting this into my life :) One thing i’ve learned about S&V teas is that they are SMELLY! haha I’ve had to lock all the ones i received into tupperware containers so that they don’t dominate the entire house. However, they also, appear to taste exactly like they smell.

This one, is quite yummy, though I’m not sure i’d call it creme brulee exactly. It’s sweet…and caramelly and there’s a vanilla/custardy sip at the end of this. But it doesn’t scream creme brule to me. it IS however a delicious tasty dessert tea. :)

This smells SOO GOOD! Definitely getting strong notes of caramelized brown sugar both in smell and taste. Alas, I am finding the base to be a little overwhelming and that is drowning out any possibility of cream or custard. Rather, it is adding almost a touch of “burnt” flavor to what smells like a perfectly caramelized treat. I had such high hopes for this but it is falling short of what I was expecting. Perhaps brewing for less time at a slightly dropped temperature might fix that? However, using Simpson & Vails parameters, this was a bit of a miss. Nonetheless, thank you Dexter3657 for the sample. If nothing else, you helped me realize this was just not the tea for me which is good as I would most definitely have bought this and then been disappointed and sad that I had so much.

Sipdown! 974.

Gee, this one sure stuck around a while for me. 2 years old, by my spreadsheet. I wasn’t overly fond of it though, and am pretty happy to see it gone. I let my roommate and her boyfriend make a pot of it the other night (A whole pot!! It used up so much tea! Joy!) and they seemed to like it; when I brought it out tonight, I decided to have a farewell travel mug’s worth, and let her have the rest (probably enough for another pot). It’s along the lines of Bayswater’s Creme Brûlée, but had a funky something going on for me that put me off it (and tasted nothing like creme brûlée, perhaps a touch like burnt (not caramelized) sugar).

ETA Hey! 100 Tasting notes! :)

Kittenna sent me a sample of this, much appreciated!!

I made some tonight after work and I thought it was pretty good. I’m not quite getting creme brûlée out of it but to me the flavours mesh together to make a totally inoffensive caramel tea.

Not my holy grail caramel tea or anything, it’s not SUPER flavourful, but I’m not getting the cardboard taste others have mentioned and it’s not the burnt type of caramel (despite being creme brûlée flavoured), so all in all I’d call this a perfectly ok cuppa!

Oh this is odd. So very odd. It’s buttery in a strange no good way. Plus, I taste chicory or carob. I can’t really say much more about it because I couldn’t take more than a few sips. The remainder is still sitting downstairs waiting for me to dump the cup.

I WANT to love this, and yet.. it leaves me wondering what it really is. I get some coconut, a strong black base, and something sweet.. but the base is overpowering. I want more flavor like a crème brulée, and less black tea punch-in-the-face.

Caramel! Buttery! Sweet! Sugary! All of these characteristics are brought to the table here. The aroma is awesome – just what you would think it would smell like. The taste is medium-strength over top of the black tea. It’s a nicely flavored black. Again, there aren’t very many Creme Brulee Flavored teas, here, and I’m glad S&V came out with one! Another goodie from Simpson & Vail!

Another TTB sample. This was possibly the one I was most interested in because I’ve had reasonably good experiences with Simpson & Vail teas.

Mm, this smells buttery, creamy, vanilla-y, and caramelly in a burnt-sugar way, all what I would expect from creme brulee. And those are all present in the flavor as well; I particularly like the burnt sugar flavor, which is subtle but definitely present. The black tea base isn’t the star of this show but it has body and makes a decent background. There is a touch of astringency to this that is somewhat at odds with the creme brulee feeling of it; I would expect smoothness and richness, but this is a touch brighter. Definitely a pretty tasty tea and I’m glad I got to try it!

YUM! I absolutely love Crème Brulee, it is my favorite dessert. And Simpson & Vail has managed to capture the flavor of it very well in this blend. This is smooth and creamy … and very dreamy! Vanilla, rich custard flavor, and even that caramelized sugar top … all those flavors are here.

The black tea is a moderately strong black tea, not so strong so as to overwhelm the delicate flavors of the vanilla and custard, but, there’s no mistaking that this is a tea and not a liquified dessert, either. It has a fair amount of astringency, and a touch of bitterness that hits about mid-sip. It is just enough bitterness to cut through some of the sweetness of the Crème Brulee without destroying it.

Very yummy, indeed.