Dessert by Deb

The lavender in this blend is way too strong and overwhelming. I wish I could taste more of the vanilla… It’s unfortunate, because Lavender London Fog had so much potential.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 11
From Emilie!

This smells like actual dried banana, not banana candy! Not only is the flavoring spot-on, but the base tea is delicious. It’s proving to be perfect for breakfast. I have to say, I’m so impressed with the Dessert by Deb blends so far. I’d been on the fence about placing an order, but I think it’s inevitable at this point.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 9
From Emilie!

I love love love peach and ginger black teas, and this one hits the mark. I was excited to see another Dessert by Deb tea in the lineup today after really loving yesterday’s blend. This is one I would definitely buy if I were to put in an order. I’m trying to restrain myself for now after lots of decaf purchases in April and May. Speaking of, it took me some time to mentally prepare but today starts my attempt at cutting my caffeine consumption by half. In a couple of weeks, I’ll cut it out altogether for a bit. Not long, maybe just a couple of weeks to see how it goes. I’ve been monitoring my heart rate and blood pressure up until this point, so I’m curious to see how those fluctuate with this change. Hopefully not at all. I have too many teas to give it up entirely, at least for a while!

I loved this the first time around, but this cup tastes like chamomile. How strange. The spices are barely there too. I must not have gotten a good mix of everything in this scoop. It’s the last of the bag. I’d thought about ordering more when it becomes available. I might still do that, but hopefully a full bag will have more flavor.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 8
From Emilie!

My first tea from Dessert by Deb! The dry blend didn’t just smell like chai spices, it was spicy. It took me by surprise actually. After steeping, it was much more subdued. I was so excited to find that I could taste the frosting in the blend alongside the chai spices. It doesn’t taste like buttercream to me, more like the frosting on top of cinnamon rolls. So what is that, just powdered sugar and milk? Not the cream cheese kind. James was more specific in his assessment, saying that it tastes like french toast with powdered sugar and mint. Not sure where that came from, but he was adamant. So there you go! This one is definitely a favorite of the swap so far. Thank you, Emilie!

The first proper restaurant we went to over the trip was a spot called Birdie G’s which was pretty incredible! Between the four of us on the trip we ordered quite an extensive amount of food and drinks to be shared. There was just a lot of taste testing for the entirety of the trip. Though everything at this restaurant was incredible, my two favourite things were the honey cornbread with green chili butter and the raw ice plant that was served as part of a relish tray.

No one in our group had ever been served ice plant before, and it was breath takingly beautiful looking but also super refreshing with a similar kind of saline “pop” to it that sea asparagus has. Here’s a photo for anyone who, like us, wasn’t familiar:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59ff59bfa803bbdcd265ef82/1577469475396-Q4FBEJC6D3I03P9247NP/DSCN9608.JPG?format=2500w

Anyway, I of course couldn’t resist bringing my own tea with me to drink at the restaurant in addition to a couple cocktails. I thought the relative unsweet nature of this blend along with strong notes of cinnamon and orange were pleasant. I have an sneaking suspicion that if my first tasting of this tea had been at home instead of the restaurant atmosphere that I would have probably been underwhelmed, but it complimented my meal really nicely and even more surprisingly complimented the Persimmon and nutmeg cocktail that I was also sipping on.

Steeped this one up earlier in the week and thought it was pleasant. There are other hojicha blends that Deb creates that I prefer over this one, but it’s got a gentle spice note and a nice hint of maple that are enjoyable. I wish it had more pumpkin or, even, just pumpkin spice. The spices that are present, like cardamom, aren’t actually traditional inclusions in pumpkin spice blends.

Back from my LA work trip!

Y’know, when I left for the trip I had every intention of keeping up with tasting notes in the evenings when we got back to the hotel. However, we ended up cramming so much into each day (in a good way) that it became too challenging to do so after the first night. So, prepare for an onslaught of LA Trip tasting notes today!

This was a cuppa that I enjoyed at the hotel on one of the morning before we had left for the day. It was, I believe, my first time trying it and I really enjoyed the overall sweetness level, roast, and combo of spices. Very clove forward, which I’m always going to be super into. It reminded me a lot of the green tea based pumpkin tea that Deb carried for a while, though I’m blanking on what it was called. I liked that blend a lot, but I think maybe I like this one just a little more…

This is sort of gingerbread but also way too sweet to clearly be gingerbread. I want more ginger. I want more banana. It’s clearly a Deb tea but when a lot of the teas are so similar, they lose their appeal slightly.

After grumbling about ginger in tea in multiple notes recently, I actually quite enjoyed this tea and its use of ginger – very warm and not spicy; the sweetening probably helped. It really did invoke thoughts of delicious ginger molasses cookies, too, so that’s a win.

Lots and lots of strawberry, but not any rhubarb to be found here. I still enjoyed the cup of tea, and it had a jammy element to it – but I sort of feel like, of Deb’s strawberry teas, this is the most “samey” tasting/has the least distinguishable traits from the others.

Cold Brew!

The rhubarb is sorely missing in this tea for my own tastes which is a small let down, but there’s certainly no doubt in my mind that this is definitely a really lovely strawberry jam kind of profile. As a cold brew I found it immensely refreshing and i greatly appreciated how it still had a lightness to it from the greener base while not missing that flavour definitely and clarity with the strawberry.

It’s not the first time I’ve found rhubarb to be almost entirely absent in one of Deb’s rhubarb teas, so I’m definitely filing that away for the future to help mitigate some of my expectations if she decides to continue releasing rhubarb teas.

I feel confident that this strawberry flavour is being used in other teas, like the Concord Grape Jelly or Strawberry Cake Roll blends – all of which are jammy and decadent green teas. I can appreciate having a limited supply of ingredients as a smaller company, so the recycling/repurposing of flavours doesn’t bother me – but I would like to see a more differentiated way of using it now that Deb’s put out a couple teas in this style.

Y’know, I would have really expected this to be something I’d enjoy a lot. However, something about the combination of a dark roasted hojicha with a little bit of a sharpness and minerality to that roast along with the coconut and tart berry really came together in a way where the only thing I could think of was the smell of stinky feet. It’s a harsh comparison and maybe not a fair one given the fact I was sort of in a foul mood due to a headache when I first tried this tea. However, it’s what kept springing to mind and it really muddied the experience.

I want to keep an open mind though, so I’m really gonna try to basically taste this again the next time I make it as if it were my very first time trying it. No feet.

Woke up early today, so I started my morning with one of my favourite things; a big mug of tea and a Monster Manuel deep dive!! Fruit and Chai can be a rather fickle combination, especially when the first is so bright and juicy (like the peach in this blend) instead of a darkly jammy or stewed fruit note. I think this one works for me because the spices, save for the cardamom, are all ultimately pretty light. So, the tea reads more like a summery peach with a hint of spice versus a chai with just a touch of peach. Subtle but important difference. Plus, peach and cardamom are such a spectacular combination!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqnqWrmODFG/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0hCzO6s86I

Much more peach than anything else – and the same bright, sweet juicy peach note that is consistent across Deb’s teas. I love this peach flavour, but I do of course wish Deb’s blends had a touch more diversity to them. The finish was a bit gingery though and I got a little bit of cardamom and coconut. So it’s not simply just a peach tea, even though it’s mostly a peach tea. I do enjoy it though.

Another tea that I steeped up for this past weekend’s D&D session.

Unfortunately this is the tea that, more than anything else I prepped, I drank the most subconsciously. I remember the peach flavour really shining in my first couple sips, though it’s very similar if not the same as the other peach teas that Deb has carried. Not a complaint though; I love Deb’s peach blends and it’s a really nice flavour even if it has been repurposed so many times.

I just got so wrapped up in the game though that I remember going to have a sip of my mug about half way through and it being just totally empty. Somehow I’d guzzled down the entire mug without paying any mind past that initial sip…

Another from Tiffany :) Thank you! While looking for this one on Steepster, there is so much coconut (fresh looking) in the blend that I was expecting a name with “coconut”. Such finely chopped ingredients here – it looks like mostly coconut and mostly rooibos. Do you ever do that thing where you go to set the mug down, but then take another sip, go to set the mug down, then go to take another sip…about a dozen times? That was this tea… and the other Dessert By Deb tea I had yesterday. But I guess it’s usually every tea for me! The suggested two teaspoons seems to work for these teas. Plenty of sweet, as wow, it seems like every type of sweetener is here except for stevia. Plenty of buttery coconut flavor. Though I do wish the balance was better here that some of the rooibos would be replaced with more black tea. But I have been drinking this one a lot due to the huge amount of coconut. Inspired by maple snow candy, which I would definitely have at least a couple times, as a child in NY! But with the coconut here representing snow (I would imagine), it’s a bit hard to make that connection between so much coconut and what should be maple. It’s delicious anyway, if you are looking for a sweet coconut tea.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5-6 minute steep

Cold Brew!

This is definitely refreshing and the inclusion of so many mallow blossoms (which steep slightly purple) did an absolutely spectacular job of channeling the nostalgia of the purple Smucker’s grape jelly that I used to enjoy on a good PB&J growing up! The taste leaves a bit to be desired; it still tastes great and even has a strong jammy quality to the fruit notes. However, in my opinion, this is all blueberry and no grape. Now, I do LOVE a good blueberry tea and Deb’s blueberry flavouring in particular pushes all the right buttons for me – but there’s certainly a difference between wanting that throwback grape flavour and getting something else instead…

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CpszrzQuRV9/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drDFT1vcSm0

Another new Spring tea from Deb!

Once again, I’m a little surprised how much I enjoyed this! I think I would be remiss to not point out that it’s a grape tea blend where the only “grape” in the tea is coming from a low percentage of added raisins – no flavouring. Raisins, when steeped, do have a flavour but it’s not one I would call comparable to grape jelly at all.

Despite that this tea does taste kind of like a sweet grape jelly. It’s juicy, it’s ripe, and there’s a kind of coating syrupy quality to it that works with the name. This flavour definitely does not come from the raisins though – it’s very clearly an incredibly smart and strategic combination of strawberry and blueberry flavouring. With the power of suggestion (ie. the name) and a flavour that’s similar enough to what Grape Jelly should taste like, your brain kind of just fills in the gaps! It’s pretty cool, actually!

When I stopped and really drank this tea mindfully I was able to kind of separate out the strawberry and blueberry flavouring, and the elderberry and currant as well. However, sipping more mindlessly all I could think about was grapes! Very fun, and enjoyable – and I like the cleverness behind it.

I oversteeped this mug of tea, so the fact it was aggressively floral and a bit bitter and perfume-y is ultimately on me. However, even with such an assertive and somewhat unpleasant lavender, it was actually still a drinkable cup of tea. The brightness of the lemon really went a LONG way to cut through that foggy flavour.

I recently got in a massive Dessert By Deb order so I’ve been slowly sampling my way through it! This was actually the first thing I tried since it was a sweltering hot day when I got my tea mail in, and it sounded like it would be very bright and refreshing! Truthfully I’m actually a little bit surprised I liked it as much as I did.

Gunpowder is a pretty coarse and astringent green tea so I didn’t have high hopes for it as the base here, and though I do think other green teas would have been nicer it still tasted pretty good! The lemon is natural and bright, though I am highly skeptical that this isn’t flavoured because it doesn’t taste the way lemon pieces or lime pieces do when steeped out; it’s too lively/naturally sweet.

Most impressively, however, is the balance of lavender! We all know that Deb loves her lavender teas – often times to a detriment because the lavender can come off aggressively soapy/perfume-y or sometimes a little savory and brothy. This is a strong lavender but it doesn’t eclipse the other flavours in the blend and it’s neither like drinking perfume or stock. So, a win in my books!