Britley

Drinking at work again but this time on a quiet lock-up shift. Much better! I drank it black, and there’s little astringency so I don’t need milk which drowns out the caramel flavour. The tea is actually a present malty note, not just a bland backbone for the caramel. The caramel is sweet and buttery. Yep, this is much better.

Edit: 400th tasting note! Woot!

I had the idea to take a ziploc bag of individually-wrapped teabags to work with me since I have quite a lot of them and never really reach for them at home. It seemed like a brilliant idea, if it weren’t for the fact that I NEVER get enough time to make a cup of tea at work. This was the first I attempted to make yesterday on my 12-hour super busy matchday shift, and I ended up leaving the teabag in around 20-30 minutes before I had a chance to take it out and add milk. It was only very slightly warm when I drank it and it was the first thing I’d drank all day so I gulped the whole cup without paying much attention to it. I do remember thinking the caramel was weak, though. Unsurprising now I’ve read my old note back and realised I usually use 2 teabags for a cup of this. Plus, it’s embarrassingly 6 (!!!!) years old now, so that could account for a loss in flavour. It’s about time I finished these.

I had this tea as a lunchtime treat as I fancied something sweet, and found this at the back of my tea drawer after a bit of rummaging. I bought these teabags for ease of brewing when I was in the south of France for a holiday last Easter, had a couple of cups and (as I remember) wasn’t impressed by the weak flavour, so I left them to be forgotten about until now. As I remembered them to be fairly weak, I used two bags for a mug this time round (I like my tea pretty strong) and left it for about 10 minutes.

When you first open the little sachet, the caramel smell hits you right away, and it smells so good, but definitely delicate. When steeping, this smell doesn’t diminish, but the black tea scent behind it comes up a bit more.

Plain – I am definitely glad I used two bags, because I hit on the perfect strength for me, and it would have definitely been too weak otherwise. That being said, it was a tiny bit bitter from my oversteeping, so I felt the need to add milk, although I think it would have been just fine without if I didn’t leave if for too long. And I usually feel the need to add milk to all black teas.

With sugar – I had a feeling adding sugar might enhance the caramel and play down the bitterness a little, and I can confidently say that this is the first tea I have EVER experienced where sugar actually made it more bitter, which I was not expecting at all.

With milk and sugar – after the bitter surprise from the sugar, there was no way I could drink this without milk. I added a splash of skimmed milk (I think 2% in US, maybe?) and oh. My. God. Did it make a difference. The caramel flavour was back with a vengeance, even creamier from the milk so that it was almost like drinking liquid fudge. The taste from the black tea works as an excellent base to keep it from being too sweet, and I swear I could drink this all day.

A definite rainy day treat, and I am actually upset that it only came with 25 sachets, as that means I only have 6 or 7 more of these before it’s a sipdown, and I can’t get to France to buy more! ): I will definitely be looking for the perfect caramel loose-leaf substitute when this is gone, although I think it will be hard to beat!