Christmas Caramel Bakery

Yesterday at Calendar Club we received so much stock that I spent my entire shift unloading it, and had absolutely no time for internet. Seriously, they just about tripled our stock! So time to catch up on tasting notes…

Tuesday, where I’m picking off from, I had a large gap between shifts so I went down to the mall and deposited my paycheck and, because I was in a “spending mood” bought myself a beautiful, over sized sweater with a giant duck on the front. It’s cuter than it sounds, believe me. I also got some antibiotics for my infected gums (damn you, Wisdom Teeth!) which have healed up nicely now, and I went to Tea Desire.

This was the sample tea of the day, and it’s one I’ve never had before so I gave it a try. I have to say I’m a little saddened – not by the tea, but by the sample tea set up. Tea Desire used to have this really, really ornate clear glass teapot filled with the tea of the day, and you’d get the sales associate to pour you a little plastic shot glass worth of tea. They’d keep it on a stand and directly underneath would be a lit tea light candle keeping it hot. But now they’re using a metal thermos type thing with a “pump” dispenser. It’s probably more effective at keeping the tea hot and I guess it’s more accessible for customers to pour the tea themselves – but it feels less special.

As for the tea, I’m honestly slightly frustrated because there’s no record of it on the Tea Desire website at all. Which pisses me off a little bit, because now I can’t accurately add it to the database. And, I swear 90% of the dozen or two Christmas blends have been added as little ingredient blurbs at the very least, but not this one. Boo!

So, all I can remember from the ingredients list is black tea base and caramel bits. But I know there was other stuff in this too. Otherwise, in regard to the flavour, it was very, very faintly bitter – possibly from sitting in that thermos thing for most of the day. The black base was pretty apparent and brisk, but then softened a little bit by a darker, richer caramel flavour. Kind of like the “dark caramel” they use in Reisens candies. It was also a little malty. I’m not sure how the “bakery” aspect fit in – nothing I tasted indicated that for me.

Not bad overall, but I wish TD would do a better job getting the seasonal teas up on the website – if only as ingredient blurbs. Not only because I want to accurately add this to Steepster, but because the website is how I choose what I want to try as To Go teas (I look them up at work) and helps guide what I want to look at when I’m actually purchasing tea…