When Cteresa and I were planning our small swap, she suggested that I try some of this one. I had never heard about it before so I went and looked it up.
Then I made this face: O.O
And then I’m afraid I resorted to pitiful begging to pretty please with a cherry on top have a sample. Or something like that. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but I definitely wanted to try it.
I mean, caramel, vanilla and red berries? That’s like, three of my favourite things to flavour tea with! It reminds me rather of the St Petersburg blend from Kusmi, only without the bergamot. And you know what, I can totally live without bergamot. Easy. And I’m actually quite fond of St P. So what I’m expecting here is something similar but better. St P got 86 points from me on Steepster. Let’s see if we can’t beat that.
Oh my word, the aroma of this one! It smells like cherries and creamy-sweet vanilla and sugar-y sweet caramel. It’s quite heavy on the caramel too. This is liquid sweets in a cup. The berries here are cherry, strawberry and raspberry, but I can only really find the cherry in the aroma. That herry flavoured number from Fru P that I’ve got is really coming in handy here, because the cherry aroma in that one is exactly the same as in this one. Perhaps there’s a wee bit of strawberry underneath, but I can’t really be certain.
Okay, so the aroma is definitely leaving St P behind in a cloud of smoke. So far so good.
The first sip gives me juicy fruit a-plenty. It reminds me at first of a 4 Red Fruits blend, but extra sweet. Although this is only three red fruits. But who’s counting.
The vanilla and caramel are both quite subtle at this point, but the vanilla comes out more as I sip and lends a creamy note. I’m now reminded more of some kind of red berry ice cream dessert. All we need now is the caramel, but I expect it’ll show up if the cup is allowed to cool off a wee bit more. This seems to often be the nature of caramel flavoured teas. They need to be allowed to develop a little more before the flavour really comes out to play. (And no, as I’ve mentioned before, your various tricks of adding sweeteners of various sort do not work for me. It makes nothing “pop” for me. Adding stuff just breaks the tea for me.)
It’s true for this as well. A little patience before sipping further and the caramel is there in the aftertaste.
Oh yeah, this is better than St P all right! I must shop at DF som time.
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I am go glad you enjoyed it! I totally agree about the comparison with St Petersburg (and Harney´s Paris blend which is so famous here on steepster), though I do like this one better.
Dammann is very interesting and has some great teas, though IMO it sometimes it is noticeable that it is the same base for most of their black teas and it does not always work for all flavours!
That’s the same problem with Kusmi, I think. They seem to always use the same Chinese black. I mean, I like Kusmi, but now that I have tried a number of different ones, it’s less exiting to try a new one of the flavoured teas. (On the other hand, the fact that I’ve tried all the flavours I’m interested in from them is probably also a part of it.)
I had not (yet) noticed it on Kusmi but I think you are right, particularly about the flavours. It can bring a sameness.
I was talking about that the other day with Ysaurella, I really appreciate it when companies use different bases – Mariage Frères (for all their real and less serious faults) does use different bases, Théodor as well, Yumchaa with its tiny catalogue also and it really is important for me.
I am go glad you enjoyed it! I totally agree about the comparison with St Petersburg (and Harney´s Paris blend which is so famous here on steepster), though I do like this one better.
Dammann is very interesting and has some great teas, though IMO it sometimes it is noticeable that it is the same base for most of their black teas and it does not always work for all flavours!
That’s the same problem with Kusmi, I think. They seem to always use the same Chinese black. I mean, I like Kusmi, but now that I have tried a number of different ones, it’s less exiting to try a new one of the flavoured teas. (On the other hand, the fact that I’ve tried all the flavours I’m interested in from them is probably also a part of it.)
I had not (yet) noticed it on Kusmi but I think you are right, particularly about the flavours. It can bring a sameness.
I was talking about that the other day with Ysaurella, I really appreciate it when companies use different bases – Mariage Frères (for all their real and less serious faults) does use different bases, Théodor as well, Yumchaa with its tiny catalogue also and it really is important for me.