I bought a sample of this from David’s before Christmas, as (wanting to save a bit of money at Christmas) I put together some tea sampler packages from my own stash as gifts. (Share the joy, eh?) Unfortunately, blacks are heavily overrepresented in my own stash, so I picked up a couple of oolongs and greens at the time to round out my sampler packs.
The first time I drank this was actually Christmas morning at my grandmother’s, and I have fond memories of that cup. I didn’t bother to test out the dry smell at the time (it’s an odd smell, like what you’d imagine carrot potato chips would smell like), but I did like the wet smell. When I brought the steeped cup to the table, my family immediately asked about it, and actually identified the smell for themselves as carrot cake(!). Well, good job on that one, I guess DT. In the wet smell, the scents actually seem to come out in the order listed – apple and carrot first, followed by almonds and coconuts. It smells quite good, if you ask me.
Now, the taste…the first cup I had tasted very good to me, but I suppose I was associating it with Christmas, family, my grandmother’s delicious Christmas Morning Wife Saver, etc.
I’ve had it since, and I don’t know what I was tasting or thinking. It’s not awful, it’s perfectly drinkable, but… This just isn’t one I’m going to get again. It tastes like carrots…and coconut, I guess…but they taste…flat. Really. The taste is terribly flattened. It’s like a carrot version of a Fruit Roll-Up – with no real sweetness or spice. And I’m not entirely convinced oolong was a good match with the concept of carrot cake to begin with.
I’ve been having it with actual carrot cake in the mornings for breakfast lately, and suffice it to say it suffers terribly in comparison. Although I’ve been told it’s fabulous as a latte, so although I don’t tend to take tea with milk anymore…perhaps I will try to save the rest of the bag that way.
And I swear, I drink tea that I actually like sometimes! Maybe I’ll even write about them someday.
