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November Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea with caramel or maple flavor

We opened this tin today and one-fourth of the sachets are gone already due to experimentation.

The aroma is light apple with a little dark caramel. The taste is the same and Ashman and I both felt it was very mild. It was milder than I wanted it to be. Toward the end of the first big pot we made it started getting a bit brisk and Ashman said that perhaps it was meant to have milk and sugar added. I think I saw something on the site or on the tin that said it is best taken without milk, but I could be wrong. We drank the whole large pot and it was okay with our cinnamon crunch bagel for breakfast.

After breakfast I decided to see if perhaps it would be better made with less water so I made a small mug. I tore open the sachet and measured and almost exactly a teaspoon of leaf was in it. That’s enough for a cup but not a big mug so perhaps using less water now was going to make it stronger and better.

Well, it wasn’t bad but I can’t say it seemed much stronger. So time to try again.

This time I made a small mug of tea and added a teaspoon of maple syrup to sweeten it. It already has light caramel notes. The maple syrup just didn’t mesh and meld well with the tea, so I actually preferred it unsweetened. That is how we will finish this off and it won’t take long since there are only twenty sachets in the tin and the sachets only contain 2.5 grams of tea. I might play around with steeping parameters a bit, and while I don’t hate this blend, it just isn’t worth the price to me and there are better teas out there I would rather drink.

It was okay and the name had me excited for a real treat, but not a repurchase unless it just happens to be already included in a hamper I want next year.