Caramel

Bumping up a few points because I can’t stop thinking of my next cup. I will have to buy this next time I am at my local shop.

Today’s battle is between this tea and Butter Brew by Bird and Blend. Essentially a battle of the caramel teas and if I am being honest, these two are both delicious and super similar so its a hard call. They both have a dark caramel sweetness. This one has a little less base coming through than Butter Brew which gives it a slight edge, thus winning the battle. Check out the review for Butter Brew here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/416012

Thank you for sharing this with me Sil! I know you love it so I am grateful you were willing to part with some.

Sipdown (600)!

I’m still on the hunt for the perfect rich, creamy and decadent caramel tea. This one isn’t it, but it was fairly close to what I wanted. I mean, it tasted a lot like caramel and was pretty sweet/rich – but it also had a ton of briskness and maltiness from the black base, and was quite astringent. My perfect caramel tea shouldn’t be brisk and astringent – it should be silky smooth and creamy. So, a decent attempt but not the one.

I got this last year when I visited the store in Chicago-other than visiting DavidsTea this was my favorite tea store I got to go to! Workers were so kind and helpful-they actually have me some tea for free!
I love the caramel flavor in this tea-what I don’t like so much is just the black tea base. I’m just not a big black tea fan-I’d rather stick with rooibos caramel teas than black caramel teas. If you know me you know I’m really picky with black teas-I just would rather have a caramel tea that overpowers the base tea. I guess that’s why I’m not such a fan. I really need to compare it to the salted caramel black Tea I got there as well. But yeah,over all this is one of the better caramel teas I’ve tried! If you aren’t super picky with black teas like me you’d probably love this tea!
Also I want to rate this tea as an 80 but since I’m on my iPhone it won’t let me be specific xD but to be clear-it’s better than a 79 xD and yes that one number makes all the difference to me rating it haha

So, I was salivating over the notes for this tea, and Stephanie, awesome as she is, sent it as a bonus sample in our swap! Thanks, Stephanie!

I love caramel, and I love black tea, and I haven’t really found a caramel black tea that I love. I thought this one would be it, but unfortunately I don’t think I’m fond of the black base. I only steeped it for 3 minutes, and it’s a bit bitter. There is a touch of caramel coming through, but it’s overpowered by the base. Maybe I should have steeped it for a shorter time, but really, if it’s gonna be that finicky, I don’t want it. Alas, this one’s not for me, but I’m very grateful that I was able to try it first before buying a bunch (which I almost did!) That could have been a major bummer, from which my tea friend saved me! Yay for tea friends!

Thanks for the sample Marzipan!

This is a very true to caramel favor. It is very good! I think it would be my fave caramel black tea if not for Butiki’s caramel vanilla Assam being superior.

Wow, this is really doing it for me. We have been back from Chicago for what, two weeks? My husband keeps asking if I have tried the caramel tea that smelled so good. Today I dug it out and it is SO good!

The dry leaf smells a little like coffee, and I don’t like coffee, but brewed it’s just yummy creamy caramel. I even added a little cream and all I can think about is the next cup.

In other news, it bothers me a lot when someone says they are an English teacher and then has a mass of multiple punctuation all over their post. Sigh.

I decided to brew up all four of my black caramel tea samples at once to do a comparison.

Caramel by TeaG
Caramel by Kusmi
Caramel Toffee by Dammann Freres
And Creme Caramel by Upton.

I did a terrible job comparing them, though.

I have a really hard time pinpointing specific notes in tea beyond a very basic level of distinction.

So, beyond noting that they all tasted like caramel in their own specific way, here’s all I got:

Kusmi’s brewed up the blackest and it seemed to have a slight cardboardy note to me.

Tea G’s was a medium amber color, had a thick mouthfeel and was either my favorite or second favorite.

Upton’s was very light when brewed. It was somewhat similar to the DF tea but not as flavorful.

DF’s was pretty light also, and had sort of a fruity note in the background.

I think I may have liked that one best, with that floral note!

But Tea G’s was a close second, if not a tie.
So, this achieved….something. I guess.

For the sake of simplicity and safety, I used 96 degrees and 4 min for all.

sooo much to do today. Just catching up on a few backlogs from yesterday. this was another one that i had – i blended this with the cream from tea G to have a caramel cream. i have to say, i am really digging the teas from tea G. i don’t know that i ever want 100g so i may need to only shop there when i’m in chicago…or do split orders with people but their flavours are tasty and i enjoy the base that they use.

Wow… that is good.