SBT: Orange Creamsicle

I hate it when a picture is missing from a tea, so I always try to do a screen capture and add one. This time, it seems a bit messy. (Boo). Hopefully when Frank gets a chance he can change it.

Anyway. This is my second attempt at steeping one of Frank’s SBT blends. I really, really wish they came loose so that I could parse out the amount I wanted, as there are few 2-quart containers in my neck of the woods. I will definitely message him to share this, as I think I’d buy more if I could measure it, instead of getting one huge tea bag.

Anyway. Steeped it exactly as shared on the bag: 3 minutes, then added cold water to fill my Teavana glass pitcher. I found it a bit weak, and am going to let it sit in my fridge overnight to really cool. I did notice that as the small amount that I poured for myself cooled, the black base was less apparent, and the orange took over. Initially, all I got was cream and black base.

Also, a question for all you experienced SBT-ers, or at least those experienced to cold steeping: should I leave the tea bag in the water overnight, or use it again for another steep?

This is actually my first SBT, but I love the flavors that I keep seeing pop up, and I’m always looking for new things to try in the pitcher of iced tea in the fridge that Fiance and I share, so I thought this would be fun to try!

Creamy, orangey, tea-y and tasty. I don’t really know what else I can ask for, though I think maybe next time I’ll add a little sugar when it’s steeping. I think it would amp up the melted popsicle-ness here.

But after we ended up dumping out just under half of the last pitcher because neither of us cared for it, this was a nice change

This was one of the Kickstarter created teas for SBT, so I added at least the tea and when Frank gets caught up on everything I’m sure he’ll be adding all of them with proper pictures and the like, and adding them to the site, which is when you will need to buy this flavor. It officially comes in behind Rainbow Sherbet for me. Really.

And that is why I had to post about it now, not whenever. I mean, I was drinking this iced even though it is so cold out.

I added some sugar as it steeped because I tend to like to with orange just in case it gets bitter, so I think that helped also boost creaminess too. My favorite thing about SBTs is that you get the flavor but it doesn’t overwhelm the tea itself, so it’s the best of both worlds. I think I drank this one in like 3 days whereas whatever had last been in the pitcher had been sitting too long to still be good.

Once I go through a lot more of these I definitely want to stock up on this one! Since I got the 12 Teas of Christmas I don’t want to order more just yet at all.

Sipdown! (23/288)

I will make it to 100 notes before my 1st Steepster-versary if it kills me.

I had this a while back, and hadn’t realised it was still in my cupboard unreviewed, so please forgive the patchy note. Luckily, these teabags make a beastly amount of tea, so I’ve drank it enough times to remember what it tasted like!

Being a poor little English girl, I had no idea what a creamsicle was, and therefore no frame of reference towards the accuracy of the flavours. However, my dad’s favourite ice lolly is one which is plain orange on the outside, and with ice cream in the middle. I take it that this is a similar deal? So that’s what I’m going with. If that it what it’s supposed to taste like, then it’s not too bad a job. The tea base is definitely dominant, and the Orange and vanilla flavours kind of play around in the background. I added four spoons of brown sugar to this while it was still hot, but the tea still ended up tasting bitter to me. Maybe I put too much hot water in, or left the teabag too long? I think I will cold steep the next time I make a batch of iced tea.

I have a bit of a confession to make – I drank most of this hot. My flat is a basement flat, so it’s pretty cold most of the time, and especially in winter in the north of England, it’s not the best time to drink iced tea. Apart from that, though, each time I poured myself a glass, the bitterness made me want to add milk. I tried doing that iced at first, but to me, iced tea with milk in it is just weird! So I almost always ended up warming it up in the microwave… So I know I didn’t drink it properly, but honestly, the milk brought out the vanilla more and somehow the flavours shone through a lot more when hot than when cold.

Currently, there’s a large batch of Lime Cola SBT in my fridge, which I’m much happier to drink cold. I was also fine with the butterbeer SBT iced. I don’t know what it is, but something about this tea just screams to me “I should be hot!!”

Backlog:

YUM!

Very refreshing and an enjoyable balance between Orange, Vanilla and Black tea notes has been achieved. I hot brewed this, but I might get another pouch sometime soon so that I can try cold-brew.

I like this.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Saturday, August 14th: National Creamsicle Day Tea #1

Hopefully the dashboard is actually working now… these notes will be brief anyway.  I love a creamsicle!  Wish I had a creamsicle today.  I have three actual Creamsicle teas in my stash, so I will drink two of them today.  A caffeine and a non.  This one is always very accurate, just as long as I go with a 45 second steep.    Yum

Made this one as per package directions, added approx. 1 TBSP white sugar.

It was ok. I was hoping for sweet, candy orange with a creamy flavour, just like a creamsicle. But the orange was much more of a spicey or peppery type orange flavour. Not a whole lot of sweetness. There is a light milky type flavour to the tea. To me this type of orange flavour is just not mixing well with the cream flavour.

I was a bit worried about this one last night, as I couldn’t smell any orange, or taste any in the tiny sip I took. I also thought I might have overdone the steep a little as I got distracted. I brought it to work anyway, and I actually needn’t have worried because I was REALLY WRONG.

I took a tentative sip and discovered that this is actually insanely creamy. It tastes just like vanilla ice cream! The orange is pretty subtle, which is probably why I couldn’t taste much of it, but it does remind me of a thin orange ice lolly shell around a thick, creamy, vanilla ice cream interior. It’s a creamsicle through and through! The black base is a tiny bit intrusive, but that’s pretty much my fault because I went over the three minutes a little. It doesn’t ruin the overall tea, though, so it’s all good. This one had the standard treatment — 3 minutes in boiling water, topped up to 2 litres with cold, and into the fridge overnight.

A delicious summery SBT — this one makes me want to go on the zoomdweebies website and place an order for MOAR right away. I am trying to resist, though — there are a good few still sitting in my cupboard waiting to be tried, and I don’t want to neglect them unduly. SBTs make going to work in the summer bearable. I don’t know what I did before I discovered them.

This tastes just like the name! At first I thought that the orange taste was too sharp but it has grown on me or it mellowed itself out. I didn’t even add sugar and I love it. I don’t know how Frank does it but it’s such a good orange creamsicle taste.