Dessert by Deb

I don’t generally like rooibos, cocao or chocolate in teas, except when they are all together and paired with mint and vanilla, apparently. This is not the first chocolate mint rooibos I’ve enjoyed and it won’t be the last. I may like Silk Road’s more herbal Chocolate Panda slightly more because of the chamomile and anise; the maple syrup here makes this a real dessert and I don’t always have that much of a sweet tooth!

As always, this rooibos tastes best when it cools a bit (or completely).

This was one I was looking at in my second order but ultimately decided not to buy. So, when I opened the box and this was one of the samples, I was pretty happy to get a chance to try it.

Now having tried it, I’m happy I didn’t buy it. It’s not bad but I don’t think it’s a cream puff either. I get a lot of maple and some coconut cream mixed with green tea. So it’s like maple matcha coconut cream. I am dozing off so I’m hoping the matcha will be a pick me up but other than that, this isn’t doing much for me.

It’s so hot and dry along the Pacific Northwest lately (no rain here in +45 days, ugh). Hot tea is mostly out and anything that pairs well with ice cubes is receiving a lot of love at my place. Cue this tea being unearthed from the neglected tea pile exactly one year later to fill a dire need.

I honestly prefer green teas and herbals for iced and cold steep. This one isn’t bad for the purpose though, albeit sweeter (from maple and coconut) than I generally prefer. While it’s past its peak, the coconut hasn’t gone completely off yet either – so bonus! The black tea base is almost nonexistent and flat except for a touch of sweet amber malt, but that may just be the maple syrup and palm sugar talking. The aftertaste is sweet, slightly sour and a little… soapy? Yeah, this one needs to be finished off and put out of its misery asap.

Cold Steep over night in a giant glass mug.

Based on VariaTEA’s note, I skipped over trying this hot and went right for the cold tea. I didn’t even add milk or anything, just had it straight up, and it’s good. It reminds me a tad of 52Tea’s Coconut Pie Tea a while back but this is smoother and more decadent, with maple syrup and custard flavours, the latter of which can come across as kind of tangy (but not tangy? Good job describing stuff, Crowkettle)

I would like to say more but my Mom promptly stole my mug and refuses to give it back. I’ll just have to make more.

This was kindly included as a free sample from Dessert by Deb. By the way, the packaging was absolutely adorable, with owl and tea stickers all over the parcel, pink paper, a hand written postcard, note paper, and coordinated gold, silver, and pink coloured tea packets.

To me, this tastes exactly like a Matcha Cream Puff so I can’t really complain. Coconut, rice, and the more buttery qualities of the matcha create a convincing cream filled pastry profile. Maple Crystals sells the dessert.

I like this a lot more than the Marshmallow Crispy Square, which while relatively tasty is also (maybe overly) coconut heavy. The coconut in the Cream Puff is a lot more balanced and complimentary. Also, Matcha Genmaicha is generally more fun than regular Genmaicha so there’s that going for it too!

This tea is a coconut monster. If it was a chimera it would have a coconut head, a coconut body, and a coconut tail (three coconuts joined together, gasp!). I kid you not, coconut is listed three times in the ingredients section (coconut, toasted coconut, palm sugar).

The pairing of toasted coconut and roasted rice in a genmaicha is a nice one. I’m just a little unnerved because I thought 52Teas Marshmallow Treat was a candy tea. The palm sugar and the 500 coconuts present in this blend are zealously excited to show me all the ways in which I was mistaken.

For the most part I enjoyed this tea, but there is something present that is making my mouth dry and my throat sore; I may possibly be sensitive to something in the blend (I can’t see it being coconut, but who knows). I’ll try this again both hot and cold and see if I get the same results.

Steep Count: 2

I’ve never actually had coconut cream pie but it’s always been intriguing to me. However, I have had coconut milk and other coconut cream things and this chai is a nice take on that flavor. I had it as a latte today and while it doesn’t scream chai because of the spices, it makes for one good latte. I’m rethinking the “not getting more of this” part of my last note.

This is a nice take on a chai but it is on the sweet side. Interestingly it is pretty good when cold. I don’t think it’s one I would buy again but I’ll enjoy the rest of this.

Sipdown (300)

Finished off this sample. It was enjoyable enough but not something I need to keep stocked. Today is the first time I get the slightest touch of ginger but more than anything this was an orange rooibos to me. Nice enough but not really to my tastes.

I had this hot and it was better than the cold cup I had. The rooibos was more toned down and the orange was more turned up. Still no ginger but something was a touch buttery which sold shortbread a bit. Bumping the rating slightly from 66.

I did it again and made this tea hours ago. Now it’s cold. It’s mostly rooibos and orange. It’s not my favourite but also it was free so oh well. I’m getting a touch of ginger also but it’s very slight.

I made this earlier while baking snickerdoodles at home. It seems my brother-in-law had no idea what a snickerdoodle was because he kept asking me if they had peanuts in them. Since I thought they were something he’d really like, we decided to bake some. Our cookies were great. This tea not so much.

For me I think the maple syrup crystals sometimes bogs down the tea. It adds a sweetness but a sweetness that sort of sits on top of everything and keeps it all one note. While it was a cinnamon/maple sweetness, there wasn’t much more to it than that and it just seemed like it needed something to break through to round this out. It definitely did not taste like my cookies.

I put the rest of my bag into my swap box because realistically I either won’t drink this or I will literally only be drinking it to get rid of it. So if there is someone who would actually like this or would like to try this, I am happy to share.

I have made 3/11 of my Dessert by Deb blends as iced lattes and while the first two were soooo good, this one was not as exciting. It was fine but it was more sweet maple and less spice than I expected. I’ll drink it but this isn’t one I need in my life. It was free though so I’m grateful I got to try it as this definitely spoke to me.

Sipdown (255)

I enjoyed this tea while it lasted but it always seemed to be missing something for me. I think I want more ginger and more crisp. Less of the sweet component.

My anxiety has been really bad lately. And with my bad anxiety, my blood pressure has been pretty bad. So, I am currently in the process of monitoring my blood pressure to let my doctor know what’s up. However, the high readings are freaking me out even more and so my anxieties are going a bit insane. That means my brain just won’t shut off.

However, living in Canada, there is something available to me to help with this situation temporarily…weed. Yay! My brother-in-law went to a dispensary to pick some stuff up for me to try. While there, they recommended a dissolvable powder that is a mix of both CBD and THC. So he picked that up and told me I could just put it in my tea. That’s where we are at.

I made this and was shocked by how odorless the powder is. Then I took a tiny sip and I could taste the weed. However, when I am actually drinking this, it smells like the tea and tastes like the tea and then there is just a weed flavor in the aftertaste. It is quite odd. So I get ginger and I get berries and then I get weed and all of that is pretty sweet thanks to the crisp element.

I have a really bad habit of letting my tea sit until it gets cold before drinking it. It’s not because I want a cold tea but rather I get distracted easily I suppose. In this case, I think it helps because this is nice as a cooled tea. It’s a bit on the sweeter side with a ginger kick at the end. It’s trending towards a ginger berry crisp but someone put a touch more sugar than they were supposed to. It’s not offensive in this case and the contrast of the ginger helps round out the flavor. I will say that having now tried 8/11 of the Dessert by Deb’s blends I bought, Deb must have quite the sweet tooth since they are sweet!

This is a lot more “berry” than chocolate or cream, which is surprising since there are a lot of dark chocolate chunks in this blend. This is mostly hibiscus and a dark berry flavor. It’s fine but not what I was hoping for so I’m a little let down.

Latte Sipdown (267)

This was a very custardy latte. With a lot of coconut flavor. Some maple in the sweetness so it all flavor notes present and accounted for. With that said, coconut and custard are the two that really stand out.

Finishing this up as a creamy coconut-y delight of an iced latte. It’s sweet and I guess that’s where the maple comes in but this is a coconut tea through and through.

So, per Sil and Roswell Strange’s suggestions, I made this as an iced latte. This is really good this way. It’s got a nice coconut flavor but is genuinely custard-y. I’m a fan. There is more vanilla and coconut than maple I’d say but personally I don’t mind.

Sipdown (261)

I want to like it but I hate it. The icing is just cloying and then apple and maple and cinnamon and sweet on sweet on sweet. Deb makes some good dessert blends but this is not one of them.

I asked both Sil and Roswell Strange if I should make this or Coconut Maple Custard as an iced latte and both said Maple Coconut Custard. So this got made as a plain tea. I want to like this but something in the smell is throwing me a bit. Plus, this has a strong sweet note but it falls flat. I get a whole lot of maple and then apple and cinnamon bun icing with a dash of cinnamon. It has all the components but I just need the flavor to be more rounded out. It’s sweet on sweet on sweet and while I want to like it, I don’t.