Plum Deluxe
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Sipdown (311)
I made this with all intents of drinking it and then ended up in a TikTok black hole. Specifically I was distracted by this one particular audio about girls having frizzy hair their whole lives, not realizing their hair was curly and then changing their routine to get really nice curls. I think that may be me so hours and one Amazon order later, it’s 3 am and I should be going to bed as I wait for my new curly hair products to arrive so I can test the theory. This tea is cold but from the few sips I took, it tastes like Harney’s Vanilla Comoro. A great vanilla flavor with no weirdness from the decaffeinating process. Well…now I want more and regret wasting this cup by neglecting it.
Iced Tea Sipdown (313)
This is the iced tea I made last night but never got around to drinking it. So it sat in the fridge over night in my iced tea press. I pulled it out this morning and had a couple of mouthfuls during my gong fu session.
This is a pretty nice fruit tea. It’s light but packs a lot of flavor. I recall seeing a note that said it reminded them of Hard Candy by DAVIDsTEA and that is spot on. Plus I really liked that tea so I can assure you this is one I am enjoying as well.
It is definitely like a sweet hard candy. One that is a red flavor. Like a red jolly rancher or the strawberry hard candies that look like strawberries. I am a fan. Yum!
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 24
My very last advent tea for 2020! And my tea of choice while watching The Polar Express tonight.
Meh, this one is pretty lame compared to other candy cane teas. I taste a lot of the base and the peppermint leaf, which makes it taste closer to a plain mint herbal tisane than a candy cane-flavored one. I do get a little bit of the slightly sharper and cooler peppermint flavoring as well. For some reason I’m also getting a subtle fruity note at the end of the sip, and I thought I saw a dried cranberry in my sample, which is odd given it’s not listed as an ingredient…
So it’s not great, mostly tastes like a decent mint tisane with some green rooibos mixed in.
As for the advent calendar, it was an interesting one. I agree with Mastress Alita that the amount per sample seemed to vary widely, and I think that’s because it was portioned to be the same weight per packet. Obviously that’s a mistake, especially for heavy fruit tisanes. There was a decent variety of bases, though I would have liked to see more green and white teas, and perhaps an oolong. It felt like a lot of herbals to me. Most of the teas were fine but nothing special, and I’m struggling to remember any that stood out to me. I liked the packaging with the little purple envelopes, and it was nice to see an unorthodox color. This calendar was $35, which seems quite affordable to me. It was nice to have an introduction to so many of Plum Deluxe’s teas without paying their usual (high) prices. I’m not sure if I would recommend it, though…
(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJMA9FugSnn/)
Flavors: Dry Grass, Herbaceous, Herbs, Mint, Peppermint, Smooth
Preparation
The dry tea has a very fresh, sweet peppermint aroma. As the tea steeps, in addition to those notes I’m also smelling a somewhat dry herbaceous aroma.
I am getting a cooling peppermint, and there is a sweetness there that isn’t present in a straight peppermint tea (of which I drink a lot, for health reasons!) But I feel like it needs a bit more… oomph. It isn’t sweet/creamy enough to really mimic peppermint candy, and while I normally love green rooibos, here it feels a bit out of place, since I am tasting a dry, hay-like flavor beneath the peppermint. I’d be okay with this as a mint rooibos blend (it’s something different than the abundance of choco-mint red rooibos blends), but candy cane? I am just not really getting candy cane from it.
This was my only advent this year (I did purchase the Bird & Blend and DAVIDsTEA matcha ones, but did not “do them” as advents, I just ripped them open, yanked the samplers, and stuck them into my cupboard for smoothie purposes, heh), and also my first time doing the Plum Deluxe advent. Since I don’t care at all about advent packaging (which is probably obvious considering what I did to the B&B and DAVIDsTEA ones), I only got the teas in the closed envelopes, and I’d say it’s a good price for samplers considering most Plum Deluxe teas sell for $7 an ounce, so $35 for 24 different tea samplers is a pretty good deal as far as money. I found the flavors to be pretty varied as well (though it did seem a bit nut-heavy early in the advent… that tapered a bit later on). The majority were herbals, which would be either a pro or a con depending on your preferences (though maybe that changes from year to year?) I’d say the biggest con for me was inconsistent amounts of tea in the packages — some herbals made very weak cups, and some blacks came out incredibly astringent, because the leaf portions/ingredient distribution was so iffy from day to day. My personal favorites of the advent this year were: Decaf House Blend, Fogcutter, Porch Sippin’ Pecan, Coconut A La Creme, Kiwi Coco-Cherry, Holiday Embrace, Blood Orange Reflection Tea, Winter Wonderland White Chai, Raspberry Linzer Cookie. My most disliked? Not counting the inclusion of a banana tea (which I can’t drink due to severe food aversion issues), I’d say Buttery Shortbread! Banana tea aside, none of my cups were undrinkable, though!
Flavors: Herbaceous, Hot Hay, Menthol, Mint, Peppermint, Sweet
Preparation
I found the inconsistent amounts weird too. I wonder if they did them by weight, and that’s why there was so much less of the heavier fruit teas?
The few times I did try weighing them, they always seemed to be between 4-4.5g, so that is likely the case. I am actually the kind of anal person that does weigh my tea leaf on a tea scale to get my cuppas the way I like, with certain leaf-to-water ratios that work for me for different tea types. When it comes to herbals, especially heavy fruit teas, I don’t bother weighing and just use a heaping spoon or two depending on the cup size.
Advent Day 24
Candy cane? Hmmm…. I’m getting a more savory mint than a sweet mint. And it’s dull instead of a sharper flavor mint. It smells very herb like and almost has a broth flavor to it. This can’t be right! I’m not into it, but it’s a source of heat and I’m in my cold studio at the moment trying to get my printer set up to run a new design with chilled fingers and I need that heat!
Preparation
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 24
This is the second of my two Candy Cane teas for the day. The first was the Candy Cane Matcha by DAVIDsTEA, which was awesome. This is a completely different take as it is a caffeine-free version on a green rooibos.
This one is more on the minty side. You get the base coming through a touch but not overly so since its green rooibos. I just wish there was more vanilla sweetness since its not quite reading Candy Cane to me.
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 23
I made this tea to sip on while doing some holiday baking with the family. We have made Hello Dollies and are in the midst of making sugar cookies. Given this is a cookie tea, it seemed appropriate for this activity.
This is interesting because it has a lot of the buttery flavour that the Buttery Shortbread tea had. However, thankfully here it is complimented by jammy raspberry notes. Still an odd flavor but better when paired with another flavor to focus on. In addition to butter and jam, this also has flavor from the base tea – though not all of them. A woody/peppery note from the honeybush cuts right through the raspberry (which is the best component here). Fine but not one I need again.
Advent Day 23
This smells very raspberry jelly like! I get a pastry cinnamon like base under the fruit. There is a slight tartness that seems disconnected from the fruit somehow. I keep going back and forth about this. Some sips I get a really nice jammy cookie flavor, in some the flavors are light and hard to taste and in others in seems to fall flat. When it was hot it was really hard to taste the flavors, but they came out a little more when cooled a bit. It does leave my mouth a bit dry after each sip (thanks rooibos). I have mixed feelings about this tea!
Preparation
Sipdown! (45 | 261)
This one sounded familiar, and it’s because it was in the Plum Deluxe advent that I did two years ago.
Love the concept, but it just doesn’t have nearly enough raspberry for me. I do get the cookie part, and there’s a nice buttery note to it, but I can barely taste the raspberry jam at all. There’s a hint of cinnamon, but mostly I taste cookie and honeybush. And it looks like I felt about the same way about it last time, so at least I’m consistent! :P
Thanks Gabby for the share!
Flavors: Artificial, Butter, Cinnamon, Cookie, Jam, Pepper, Raspberry, Sweet, Woody
Preparation
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 23
Ooh, another linzer tea! I have the one from Dessert by Deb, so it’ll be interesting to compare. I’m not sure I understand the mix of bases here, but I steeped it like a black tea.
Hmm, well I do get cookie from this, and it has a nice buttery sweetness to it. A hint of raspberry in the background maybe? And there’s a teeny bit of sweet cinnamon as well.
It’s a bit thin overall, though. I don’t really get the black tea here, as I can’t taste it at all. Why not just make it a honeybush/rooibos blend? That being said, I’m not really getting much flavor from those two either here. I expect the honeybush is contributing to the cookie-ness, though.
It’s very drinkable and went down quickly, but the flavor and the base are both too light overall, and it comes out tasting a bit bland. Also, needs more raspberry!
(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJJTedoAugd/)
Flavors: Butter, Cinnamon, Cookie, Raspberry, Smooth, Sweet, Wood
Preparation
Happy Festivus!
Brewed in my “take to work” thermos. I am getting a buttery aroma that I didn’t even get from the Buttery Shortbread Cookies tea, and a sweet raspberry smell, but once again, that peppery scent from the honeybush. This has black tea, green rooibos, and honeybush… are all of those really necessary?
I am getting a bit of a buttery note and a raspberry jam vibe from the flavor, so I definitely see what they are going for. Maybe a very subtle nuttiness, too. And I am tasting the pepper, though a bit lighter this time than in some of their other blends (probably from the honeybush being cut so much). But the base feels a bit thin. Even drinking it, I’m confused what the black tea, green rooibos, and honeybush together are really contributing. I can’t even taste the black tea, and the fact it was labeled as a black tea is why I chose to brew it as my “work” cuppa (caffeine!) It just… feels like an herbal tisane to me, if that makes sense?
I like the flavor on this one, I just think the base likely needs some further tweaking.
Flavors: Butter, Cookie, Fruity, Jam, Nutty, Pepper, Raspberry, Sweet
Preparation
It seemed to me that Plum Deluxe does a lot of base mixing, which I don’t really love either. At least these bases are typically steeped at the same temperature, but like you said, it seems unnecessary.
Ah ya, I dislike black/green base blends because of the water temperature issue. Mainly here it’s just that I can’t see what all the different teas are doing for the flavor/texture of the blend. But maybe that’s just me, I by no means have eastkyteaguy’s God Tongue! ;-)
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 22
Hmm, another one that seems suspiciously close to an Adagio advent tea that I already had. Not that I’m complaining, it’s nice to see something other than a black tea or herbal from this calendar. My sample was huge, so I had to get out a bigger mug… XD
It’s not bad. It does taste like it has flavoring to me, which isn’t listed in the ingredients. Mostly I get soft ginger, cardamom, and clove with a little bit of coconut added in. The lemongrass comes out toward the end of the sip as well. I can taste the white tea just a tiny bit in the background, and it does add a nice body.
It’s inoffensive, not something I would ever order but pleasant enough to have one cup of.
(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJG5NvpANyn/)
Flavors: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove, Coconut, Ginger, Hay, Lemongrass, Smooth, Sweet
Preparation
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 22
This is an interesting take on chai since it is definitely lighter in flavor. More than that, it is fruity and sweet thanks to the lemongrass and coconut. I also taste the cardamom up front, with ginger and pepper trailing behind. It’s odd having coconut and lemongrass in a winter chai, since those are not typical winter flavors but its not bad.
Today is a bad migraine today, and it is seriously hitting my GI with some nasty nausea and IBS. A bad winter storm blew in last night (high winds and frozen rain, no snow… at least not yet) but I’m fairly positive the barometric pressure is the cause… I’ve always been a walking barometric therometer, heh. I’ve mostly been nursing Lipton Soothe Your Tummy tea (my local store stopped carrying that one, noooooooooo!) but thought I’d try the advent tea now that I’ve slept with a warm cat against my belly most of the morning. I’m hoping it will be nice and gingery as ginger is one of the main things that helps calm my GI when it’s being a butt.
It smells nice in the cup, which is a plus (some tastes/aromas go wonky for me when my head is poof). I do smell spices, but it smells a bit sweet as well… I think I am picking up ginger and pepper in the aroma, and perhaps a bit of citrus and coconut. The flavor is like a more nuanced lemon ginger tea, which actually makes for a great sick tea and was exactly what I was hoping for, and I’m even getting some burpage of that painful trapped air out of my belly as I sip. It’s a lemony base, but definitely waxing into dry hay/herbaceous lemongrass rather than bright, citrusy lemon or pithy lemon zest, that is smoothed a bit with a more subtle coconut sweetness. The spices are the most dominent note, I taste the ginger and peppercorn most prominantly, though I can also pick up a bit of the cardamom as well. I’m not distinctly tasting the cinnamon or clove against the other flavors, and I’m not sure if that was packet distribution or just the place my taster is at with my current head-state. The tea is warming but not burny-spicy, which is the exact spot I like a chai, myself. While I seem to have no boundaries for tart/tangy flavors, I am very spice sensitive!
Not my favorite white chai, which goes to Art of Tea’s Winter White Chai (which I haven’t had in my cupboard for years since they only sell it in 4 oz. bags, which I hate, but I recently restocked during Black Friday this year since Todd said he’d split the bag with me… sorry Todd, after the mail system is back to normal I’ll split the bags and get that out!) But, still a perfectly respectable white chai. I got lemon-ginger, and I needed lemon-ginger, so I’m satisfied. It’s soothing. I just don’t want to think about what the workplace is going to do about me calling out on a week with holiday at the moment…
Flavors: Cardamom, Coconut, Ginger, Herbaceous, Hot Hay, Lemongrass, Pepper, Smooth, Spices, Spicy
Preparation
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear about your migraine! I hope the pressure normalizes quickly and your body chills out on you.
She’s a proper witch’s cat (black with green eyes) that I named the Nepali word for tea, Chiya. She’s a good lil’ companion animal and I’m thankful to have her. Her presense always makes me feel better, but the snuggles doubly so. :-)
Advent Day 22
I’ve been wanting to try more flavored whites lately and two of my advents have one for today! I can smell coconut when I go to take a sip. I get a cinnamon/cardamom combo in the sip which mixes with the coconut in the finish. It’s nice, but it’s really light and I have to reset my brain which is trained to want super intense rich flavors. The flavors seem easier to taste as the cup cools, but it could be that I’m getting used to the light flavors. I think if I didn’t have a ton of delicious chais in my cupboard already, I might consider adding this one.
Preparation
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 21
My sample had a lot more hibiscus than the photo! Although hibiscus is also first in the list of ingredients, so maybe the photo is just misleading.
It’s definitely very tart! But honestly, tart and orange kind of go together so I’m not mad at it. I do agree with Dustin that it kind of tastes like a more sour cranberry juice. And I happen to like cranberry juice, so that’s fine with me.
Not something I would ever order because it’s just not my thing, but the cup was quite enjoyable this evening.
(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJELciWgFOJ/)
Flavors: Citrus, Cranberry, Hibiscus, Orange, Pleasantly Sour, Rosehips, Tart
Preparation
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 21
I cold brewed this for hours and was surprised to find it tasted like nothing. It was nothing, nothing, nothing, and then an orange aftertaste. It was very weird.
You mean if I steep it long enough the hibiscus will go away?! Or maybe all the hibiscus was in my sample of it. Some of these blends have been pretty inconsistent in distribution of ingredients.
When I saw this one this morning, I pretty much went, “Welp, there will be an avalanche of hibiscus-hate reviews on this today, and I’ll be the one loner that likes this tea.” It’s like the reversal of the day there was the banana tea in the advent, heh. More and more, I’m starting to feel like my tastes are so alien compared to everyone else that maybe I don’t really belong on here…
The dry leaf has a strong tangerine aroma. The steeping tea smells like orange peels and that fruit punch aroma I typically get from hibi-hip. It has a nice, strong flavor, which surprises me, since many of their herbals have been weak-sauce with the amount of leaf provided in this advent. It has that tart, tangy flavor that hibiscus brings, which is probably enhanced a bit since this isn’t paired with sweet fruits like many hibi blends are, but a very pithy/bitey orange citrus flavor.
Yes, I like this. But this is definitely not a tea for the rest of ya’ll that don’t like hibi. It is tart and tangy. If that’s not your thing, just skip this one.
Flavors: Citrus, Fruit Punch, Hibiscus, Orange, Orange Zest, Pleasantly Sour, Tangy, Tart
Preparation
Your tastes are not alien, and I’m sorry that you feel that way :( I love reading your reviews, and seeing ingredients and blends from your perspective. But also you are just such a lovely person, and I think Steepster would be a sadder place without your presence.
Agreed. That’s why I’ve hung out on Steepster lo, these many years—connecting with people who get tea, get tea people, and get a kick out of people with contrasting palates!
Nah, just think of your hib love as your super power and banana is your kryptonite. You will be able to do the missions that involve hibiscus where some of us can’t go. I’ll take all the banana missions. :)
I like hibby sweetened, which is probably blasphemy! Ha ha! And I have never had a banana tea. I really can’t imagine what it would be like.
That said – celebrate your uniqueness! We like reading your reviews for who you are, not for what you like and don’t like! It would be terribly boring if we all liked the same thing!
Three isn’t anything wrong with liking hibi. I understand both parties, people who hate it forbflavour, but you are on the other side and there isn’t anything wrong. I am with you :), but sometimes it’s overwhelming or not necessary in blend completely.
Don’t leave Steepster just because you love something that others hate.
I love hibiscus too. This place would be boring if everyone liked the same things and hated the same things. Also, that tea sounds yummy.
Advent Day 21
Oh. God. Well I’m not getting the metallic tang that I usually get with hibiscus and that is pretty impressive. I am getting a mouth full of cranberry juice and I’m not a fan of straight cranberry juice. I like it mixed in with things or as a jelly, but not juice. This is undrinkable for me, but I am wondering if I have the ingredients to make a Washington Apple and can salvage this. I think it has apple pucker (I have crown apple instead), cranberry juice and one other ingredient. Might have to wait until this evening to try this experiment. I’m not willing to commit to day drinking at this point. I’m still waking up!
Cold steeped for maybe 10 minutes.
Plum Deluxe Advent Day 20
Oh my. This smells awful- like black currant and cat pee. Flavor is different than I expected based on the scent, but not any better. Tastes like blackberry medicine. Truthfully, I dumped it after 2 sips. Couldn’t handle any more.
Plum Deluxe Advent Day 19
Still catching up. Why so many rooibos and honeybush blends in this advent?
Smells strongly of orange and cranberry. Nice and tart. The flavor is actually quite nice. Like a spiced cranberry sauce with orange zest. The rooibos is just quite distracting for me. This would’ve been great on a black base.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Cranberry, Orange Zest, Rooibos
Plum Deluxe Advent Day 15
Another catchup blend. This is so rosy. I usual enjoy rose, but this is coming off as very synthetic and perfumey. The chocolate flavor isn’t helping. It’s also extremely synthetic tasting. The combination is really off-putting and borderline undrinkable.
Plum Deluxe Advent Day 18
Still catching up…this is another blend I haven’t been looking forward to. Smells oddly fruity and sickeningly sweet. Tastes like butter and berries. Not sure where the berry flavor is coming from. Not getting any kind of pastry or shortbread flavor.
Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 20
It’s interesting Dustin found this tart because I had it iced and took it with me to a holiday drive thru exhibit and was surprised it tasted like bubble gum at first. Then I started to get blackberry but a candy version of that flavor. It made me think of the gummies that have the crunchy balls on the outside of them. These ones: https://www.ohnuts.com/buy.cfm/bulk-candy/gummies-gummy-candy/jelly-belly-raspberries-blackberries-gum-drops. I also get rose at times and every now and then its astringent.
I have curly/wavy hair too and have been doing the curly girl method (modified) for years now if you have questions. :)
Good to know!!
I’m jelly. Have fun with your curls! It sounds exciting!
I’ve been debating doing this as it seems to be so popular lately but my hair is wavy not curly though. It Also seems like quite the process haha. Would be interested to hear about your results.
Thanks everyone. I’ll report back. Also @Lexie Aleah, my hair is a mix of waves and a very few curls so I’m not sure it’ll work but we’ll see.