Dessert by Deb

mmmmm ginger goodness. Glad i have a bit more to try when kiddo isn’t all over me lol. But this was tasty to drink! Super stoked for all the teas Variatea shared with me/picked up in joint orders. Honestly don’t know which is which anymore but she knows (or better) that i appreciate all the samples and joint orders even if i complain about her enabling my spending :)

i think i figured this one out a little in the last bit of it. Brewed at a much lower temperature it takes a bit of the edge off the tea and it’s less bitter. Still nothing i want in my cupboard long term, but it was nice to have a bit of a better experience with the tea.

i had this earlier and thought i liked it…then had it again yesterday and realised i don’t lol. It reminds me of boring old red rose tea with lemon added to it. there’s a weird tang to it but it’s not rhubarb.

Tea Pop Sipdown (333)

I don’t like jasmine so I would never pick this for myself. With that said, Deb was kind enough to send this as a sample so I decided to give it a try anyways. I wanted a teapop and this seemed like it could work. It did not work though. It’s like fruity potpourri. And specifically hibiscus tartness and drying jasmine. Sometimes I get orange but that doesn’t help much. It’s a no for me, but that’s probably just my personal tastes.

Purchased a sample of this green tea in a recent DBD order, and boy oh boy, is this one FLORAL! As strong as the lavender is (both in scent & taste), it still manages to make room for its counterpart: the coconut. Although, I will say that my mouth is somewhat confused. The potency of the lavender is one hand soothing/relaxing, but also feels like I just took a bite out of a spa aromatherapy candle. As for its namesake, I think it’s done a pretty good job of capturing the flavour of a lavender coconut macaron, but much less sweet. It’s subtly sweet with a nice creaminess and unmistakable floral presence.

It feels like the kind of blend that will be enjoyable any way you prepare it. Despite not always being the biggest fan of lavender (especially when it’s heavy handed), I could still see myself reaching for this tea every now and then.

This smells lovely! It reminds me of a vanilla oatmeal cookie, almost? In terms of taste, I get creamy, vanilla, and coconut notes from this tea. Although this contains natural cream flavouring, it does not taste artificial in any way! :)

I had this tea without milk or sugar and I loved whatever natural cream flavouring Deb used in this! One reason I never liked DT was because their teas often tasted like chemicals to me (not all of them, but more of their fun flavours). So I appreciated Deb could still make teas fun without using additional flavourings.

However, this tea just tastes straight up creamy; even without milk or sugar added to it. I still think this closely resembles DT’s Buttered Rum; however, it is so much better because it does not have that artificial taste.

It tastes like a black tea with strong vanilla and cream notes. I adore this one!

This is such a pretty tea! It looks like rainbow sprinkles. I love the tiny specks of coconut and pink cornflowers that coat the tea! :) It looks just like the photo Deb took.

I believe this is also the first tea Deb has made that incorporates some sort of natural flavouring! Usually Deb recreates the flavours for her teas using dried fruit, coconut, spices, and so forth.
I love the creativity she puts into her blends! And although sometimes the flavour might not come across as strong, I always appreciate that the teas do not end up tasting like a bunch of chemicals.

So, when I tried this tea, I felt nervous. However, it does not disappointment! :) Of course, Deb tastes all her blends, and most likely used a flavouring that did not come across as artificial.

This tastes like DT’s Buttered Rum, but better because it tastes less artificial. But it has that same vanilla, cream, coconut quality to it.

I think this could taste like cereal milk? Depending on the type of cereal you use! But to me, it tastes more like a creamy vanilla tea.

Overall, an excellent and simple tea by Deb! :)

I like this tea a lot! It turns into a bright orange colour because of the turmeric and gives it a beautiful golden sunshine colour!

In terms of flavour, I am not the biggest fan of this one. I am mostly drinking this because turmeric is good for you, and it soothes my tummy. :) It tastes warm and refreshing. It makes me feel cozy!

However, I think for me I just prefer more dessert-like tea blends, lol!

I love turmeric, so if you also like turmeric, then you will like this tea. It has pears, turmeric, lemongrass, cardamon, ginger, cinnamon, and apple in it; those are all ingredients that I like. I can tell that there was a lot of love put into making this blend. Deb cut up all the ingredients so nicely!

This smells very fresh, but mostly like turmeric. It also tastes mostly like turmeric with a hint of cardamon, citrus, and slightly sweet from the pear and apple. However, I can only find these flavours if I really look for them.

I will repurchase this again since this is a good way of getting some turmeric into my diet. However, I would suggest steeping this for much longer to extract the flavour of this tea, and since it is an herbal blend, you could honestly brew this forever.

I feel so sad because I really wanted to like this tea. It smells AMAZING. Like refreshing oranges or sweet tangerines and spice. It reminds me of the holidays! However, the taste itself does not translate over from the smell. It tastes like black tea and cinnamon.

I do not get any orange flavour from this. It is more so there to give it a fragrance than an orange taste, which is so odd since Deb does her other citrus teas so well!

Plus, there is not much about this tea that invokes a cinnamon roll feeling. When I think of cinnamon roll, I would imagine something sweet like vanilla or icing sugar being used on top of the ingredients already in this tea.

I believe an excellent bakery-style teas that Deb has knocked out of the park are her apple caramel cinnamon bun and raisin bread pudding teas. Those tea blends actually taste like bread or pastries. I will purchase them again next time I order! :)

This smells SO good, but the taste does not translate.

SIGH

I really wanted to like this tea, but it tastes nothing like an orange cinnamon roll. Where is the icing? Vanilla? Or sweet notes? This tastes like a spiced orange tea with a black tea base! Usually, Deb really excels at making the orange notes in her tea blends pop, but this one barely has any orange flavour.

You mostly taste black tea, then cinnamon, and a hint of orange near the end. Which is odd because I can smell the orange in my cup, but I taste none of it? I will finish my small bag, but I do not think I will order more.

Smell: Ou! This one smells so good, but then again, so do most of Deb’s orange teas. This smells like bright citrus with a hint of cinnamon. This one caught my eye because it had the word orange cinnamon rolls, and that sounds delightful. I really like all the tea ideas Deb has come up with for this latest release! :)

Taste: I wish the orange taste in this was stronger! I have had Deb’s other orange teas and the citrus really pops in those. However, in this one, it was subdued – I think because of the black tea base, but I could be wrong.

I think when I think about orange cinnamon rolls; I think about a cinnamon tea with like an icing sugar like quality. So I am not getting orange cinnamon roll feeling for this tea. It tastes like a spiced orange tea.

I think I need to remake this to get an accurate picture!

This one was always a bit flat for me. I can smell lemon but it’s hard to get much beyond the maple sugar.

This tea still amazes me. I cannot believe how much this smells like a yeasty, bread-like, expensive cinnamon bun you would get at the mall. How the heck did Deb re-create that smell using like 6 ingredients, lol?!

I love this tea with milk and brown sugar! It makes me feel like I am being hugged from the inside out.

I think I knew I would like this tea. I first saw this tea on Steepster, and then on a blog I love called, steep. sip. repeat, who said this tea was one that really stood out to her last year! So I obviously became super curious about it.

Smell: The fragrance of this tea blew me away. This tea only has like 6 simple ingredients, yet it smells like a yeasty apple cinnamon bun. Or even like an aromatic apple pie perfume; however, this tea has zero artificial or natural flavouring in it. So I do not know how Deb nailed the cinnamon bun smell; crazy, exceptional stuff! :)
Prep: I brewed this tea nice and long and then added milk and sugar to it
Taste: This smells strongly of cinnamon now, which I like, and as far as taste goes, it tastes strongly of cinnamon and apples. The cinnamon surprised me since, of course, I expected a caramel apple cinnamon bun tea to have a lot of cinnamon, which I love since I am a cinnamon fiend, but it caught me off guard since a lot of teas with warming spices sometimes are not bold enough, but I found the cinnamon in this to be perfect and warming.

I also think this tastes a lot like refreshing apples. Through the tea community, I have learned that just adding dry fruits to tea blends might not add enough flavour; however, Deb really nailed the apple portion of this tea using no artificial or natural flavouring so kudos to her! This tastes like I am biting into a fresh apple or something; unlike other apple teas, where it tastes like I am drinking a bunch of chemicals.

The only tiny criticism I have of this tea is that I wish it was stronger in the caramel aspect. Again, the caramel might come through more if I just had it black; however, I think it needs a stronger caramel note for me, personally. I wish I had some dark brown sugar I could sprinkle into this! Ou, that would be perfect.

Otherwise, this tea impressed me. I will purchase more of this!

Now that I have had this tea a few more times, I do like it, but I am not sure if it is my favourite Dessert by Deb blend. I like the addition of the toasted rice in here – it gives it a crunchy sort of feeling. The bag also smells like the most delicious toasted caramel!

However, I think this tea is missing something. I think it needs a much stronger brown sugar and caramel presence. I also believe adding just the tiniest bit of sea salt to this would have really elevated it to the next level.

I also think a better name for this tea would have been, sweet and salty popcorn

Ah! I still cannot get over how much I love the one this blend smells. It reminds me of a roasted caramel rice crispy square! :)

Whenever I have black teas, I always have them as lattes. But I also love having this one just straight with no milk or sugar.

The roasted rice really works in this tea to give it a slight savoury and salty note. It also adds a pancake-like quality to the tea. There are also pleaseant caramel notes in here! :)

This smells amazing! Like toasty rice and caramel! I love making this one as a latte! :) It definitely has a savoury, sweet quality to it. And I also believe the toasted rice gives it a pancake or baked good feeling!

Yet another tea from Deb’s latest collection that I was super excited about. I love salted caramel anything, but the only salted caramel teas I have tried are DT’s Salted Caramel Oolong and Salted Caramel Matcha, the latter which I prefer since it tastes like a literal milkshake when mixed into almond coconut milk – yum! :)

Smell: It really smells like salted caramel something. Like it has a strong caramel note with a savoury element to it from the popped rice.

Prep: Black tea! Nothing added

Taste: I do not know what magic is happening here, but Deb did a superb job capturing the essence of salted caramel. It is especially surprising since Salted Caramel Pancake has no salt!!! Which I actually appreciate because I found the DT’s Salted Caramel Oolong, which has salt mixed into it, to be almost too salty. However, the popped rice really gives it that savory, slightly salty note without making this sickeningly salty that I adore in salted caramel desserts.

The caramel portion of this tea falls flat for me; however, I think this was because Deb uses sweet ingredients (such as brown sugar) in her teas pretty sparingly. I just need more caramel notes in this. If it had that, I would honestly love this tea much more.

Loved being able to try this one! What a cool concept. :)

I had this without milk for the first time today, and honestly, even without milk – it is absolutely delicious and also strangely enough has a milky quality to it? Almost like there is a dab of coconut milk in here. It works extremely well with all the other flavours present! :) I taste the ginger and caradamon. An excellent chai!

I love this one as a stove-top latte! :) The toasted coconut in this is so yummy. I some times pick out the toasted coconut bits and eat them plain while waiting for my tea to boil, lol.

With this tea, I mostly taste delicious coconut, cardamon (which Deb uses generously!), and a slight bit of ginger. I taste little cinnamon in here, but that is okay, because this tea is lovely as is.