Plum Deluxe

Sipdown (2590)!

Liked this better the second time around. I still didn’t taste cardamom, but the vanilla seemed rich and creamier to me and it satisfied that sort of mid-afternoon sweet craving without actually being too sweet. Really solid body, too!

Adventageddon Day 3 – Tea 2/4

As promised yesterday I didn’t end up cold brewing this one. Instead I steeped up one of the two servings with a small splash of milk and enjoyed the tea with some gingerbread sugar cookies to dunk into them. I didn’t really taste the cardamom at all or even really see it in the dry leaf. Instead this was very, very smooth and just a little bit vanilla-like. Honestly, though, a little bit bland? It was good dunking tea, but sort of sad for a vanilla tea and just not my favourite thing I’ve tried from Plum Deluxe.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0aC3COOTwI/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olxdCY7hHEw

Day 2 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent calendar. The instructions suggested cold brewing this one, so I set it up this morning in order to be able to enjoy it as an evening cuppa. The dry leaf has a creamy, almost vanilla frosting smell that, combined with the visible carrot pieces, made me think that this was a carrot cake blend at first (the packets aren’t labeled with the names of the teas). Actually drinking it, though, it definitely has a candy apple flavor – sweet apple up front, a hint of caramel mid-sip, and a candied orange peel note running parallel. It’s a bit of an odd flavor profile for an iced tea; it works, it’s just a combo I’d more readily associate with a hot beverage.
I really like that there’s enough tea every day to try it out a few different ways, but not SO much that it’s overwhelming and hard to get through. It allowed me to brew up a big mug of this blend hot for comparison. It was still good, with the same candy apple and candied orange peel flavors, but there’s also an earthy note – maybe from the calendula? It’s not bad, it doesn’t really add or detract from the flavor profile, it’s just… there. I can see why they recommend the cold brew, it really is better that way!

Day 1 of the Plum Deluxe herbal advent calendar. I enjoyed this advent so much last year that I’m doing it again. They’ve upped their game aesthetically this year, using higher quality individual envelopes for each day and a very pretty tin for the whole thing. Unfortunately they’re still using the plastic bags that drove me nuts last year because leaf would get stuck in them so frequently; maybe I’ll get lucky and they will be less staticky this year.
This year’s advent is off to a somewhat unremarkable start. The blend has a lot of butterfly pea flower, which I’m not generally fond of as a gimmick unless it’s making a lemonade blend/actual lemonade turn purple. Hot, this blend mostly tastes like hibiscus, backed by a sort of generic tart berry note. It’s more interesting when it cools, when the hibiscus tones down a bit and strawberry and apple notes become clearer and more prominent. I finished this off easily enough but I wouldn’t necessarily seek it out. And I still have high hopes for the rest of the month!

Adventageddon Day 2 – Tea 3/4

Cold Brew!

It looks like this tea is very similar to another Plum Deluxe blend, but there are a few extra ingredients in this one. I wonder if that means this is a holiday version of that tea? Or an updated recipe? I’m very intrigued.

I’ll try not to do a cold brew with my Plum Deluxe tea tomorrow to switch things up a bit, but I saw this one today and it really was too perfect a flavour to not make that way. Definitely my favourite of the day – and by quite a bit. It was just so rich and flavourful. Like a sweet melted cherry popsicle but with just enough of a hint of plum to make it feel more festive! For sure makes me want to do a deep dive to see if Plum Deluxe has another other cherry blends using the same/similar flavouring.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0Xf_rYOG6Y/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xes_rKezIB4

Adventageddon Day 1 – Tea 4/4

Cold Brew!

One of the somewhat more personally challenging parts of advents for me is that I usually have a daily 24 oz cold brew. Just with the nature of opening the teas up in the morning and many of them being sizes too small to make that large of a quantity of cold brew I never know if I’ll have a good cold brew during the day.

Thankfully the Plum Deluxe advent has two servings in each day that equal the perfect amount of tea for a cold brew when combined. I think that may mean many of the teas they include this year are gonna get cold brewed first thing each morning for me to drink during the afternoon. At least if the flavours make sense each day, like this one.

I enjoyed this a lot though! More than I expected to given that it’s a majority green tea blend with just a straight up orange flavour to it. It was very smooth though, and I thought the orange was really nice and fresh and bright tasting. Despite being called Candied orange I didn’t personally think it was a terribly sweet tea and definitely, at least to me, not a very artificial or candy-type of orange flavour. It was a bit more marmalade like, as I see Cameron said in a review from a previous year. But also sort of a fresher and more zesty orange note that kind of mirrored the smell of essential oils that mist the air when you break the skin of a ripe orange while peeling it.

Wow.

I was skeptical about this one for a few reasons but the big one was mostly just that it’s a decaf blend, which tend to be very flat/lifeless tasting. However I enjoyed this quite a bit. The toasted marshmallow flavour is pretty spot on though it’s definitely heavily intangled with a pretty distinct vanilla note too. Though there’s a bit of a boozier/alcohol sort of undertone, I mostly found this reminded me a lot of the Toasted Marshmallow flavour of Jelly Belly brand jelly beans.

Pretty solid!

I love this blend, it’s naturally sweet, it taste great with or without milk/creamer. It a perfectly balanced blend, with warm notes and none of the ingredients is overpowering.

The cinnamon is too strong in this blend, I can’t taste the apple at all. I won’t be ordering this again

I love this tea. All the ingredients blend so well together, I fell transported to Northern Europe with this blend. I can taste the ginger, and cardamom with the pineapple and cinnamon. Everyone in my house loves it, I will be getting more since I’m down to my last couple of teaspoons!

I am not much of chocolate flavored tea drinker. My husband is, and we both agreed this was a good tea. He recommended 3 tsp per cup, but I think that was an exaggeration. I will say though that the 1 tsp per cup wasnt strong enough. The forward flavor in this blend was the hazelnut, and a chocolate undertone flavor. I like it, I order this again for the colder times of the year.

This was so good.

I’ve basically had my nose stuck in the ounce back since unpacking it. The aroma of blackberries with fresh sliced lime and crisp peppermint is intense in all the best ways. I was worried that the steeped tea wouldn’t translate, but it delivers. Medium bodied with a very thick and syrupy sweet blackberry flavour that anchors the sip. The sweet, zesty fresh lime note is almost effervescent and brightens up the top notes considerably, while the menthol heavy cooling, crisp peppermint closes out the sip. It’s very dynamic, and I just love how well represented and balanced all of the flavours are. Very impressed!

Adventageddon Day 24 – Tea 4/4

This is my only advent this year that actually has a 25th day, so this is the penultimate tea in the countdown and not the last. I do actually own this tea, but I’ve only tried it once before now and, if I’m being honest, this cup tasted a lot better. Still maybe just a few too many flavours going on, but they were much less muddled together tasting to me. today. Sweet and nutty with a brown sugar pecan flavour that pops out, especially as the tea cools. A bit of cocoa. Actually a bit of pineapple fruitiness too in the finish. The pineapple feels a little out of place, but also not? Pineapple and pecan is a no. Pineapple and brown sugar is yummy because it’s like Upside Down Cake.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1QHuq0OvkR/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp0od728eg0

Y’know, I’m not sure if I’ve ever had actual Hummingbird Cake before. I’m fascinated by the idea of it though, so I knew I had to pick up an ounce of this when I ordered my advent…

It was interesting and ultimately pretty good but there are a lot of flavours happening here and none of them were the most distinct. Like a hodge podge of fruits, nuts, and “sweet browns”. If there were any notes that stuck out, it was probably the chestnut and the chocolate. I could also really smell the pineapple, but not taste it so significantly. The whole thing worked as one of those nice “background” teas to drink and enjoy pretty mindlessly. No off flavours, just mild and muddled ones.

I wish I’d had the real thing to have a better benchmark/reference point.

TTB tea! This one smelled weirdly sour, but the flavor was initially fruity and okay. I thought it might taste better cold, but that seemed to bring the weird tang out. I couldn’t really tell what this one was going for. It was mostly rooibos with only a tiny bit of black tea mixed in, not enough to contribute to the flavor. Maybe the sourness comes from too much orange peel.

I finally bit the bullet and ordered it. Of course, I couldn’t resist adding a few extra tea samples into the order for me to enjoy while I wait for December 1st to roll around – the advent hype this year is VERY real. To start, I’m sipping down the sample of Hazelnut Coffee Black – a black tea that was kindly included as a freebie with my order! It’s very delicious, and what I appreciate the most is that it’s an amazing hazelnut tea WITHOUT the addition of chocolate. Controversial take, I know, but I really do think hazelnut is better as a standalone flavour.

Though this year’s updated packaging was a huge selling point, it was actually the earlier release date that was the deciding factor for me – I hate gambling with late November holiday shipping when it comes to buying advents from companies outside of Canada…

What advents will you be doing this December!? Tea or otherwise!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzpEqhXurxR/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgsJTJQZjw4

Strange VariaTEA TTB #35

There was just a cup or two left of this one, so I grabbed it out of the TTB to sample later. Honestly not sure what this has to do with Thanksgiving, but it mostly tastes of vanilla and maybe a bit of red fruit flavor. I’m finding it a bit astringent and thinking I’d try it with milk next time.

I enjoyed the cinnamon and baked elements. It reminds me of blends from S&V, like their snickerdoodle flavor. It’s tasty with sugar and milk, though occasionally a little murky. Nice cinnamon flavor with a little something extra. It has a good baked flavor, but I would always choose S&V blends, especially with how much cheaper they are.

This is my first cup of pecan creme, i steeped it for 4 minutes, made it into a latte. The pecan flavor is very stuble unfortunately, i was expecting a caramelized pecan flavor but this was just very subtle, maybe next time ill try doubling up the tsp and come back to review it if it made a difference.

This is a very interest cup, it has this violet flower essence that gives it this floral essence when I smell it and taste it. The vanilla is a very subtle secondary aroma, the violet is a little overpowering. I enjoy drinking this as a latte in the beginning of the day, for me its jot an afternoon tea, maybe because the temperatures are getting cooler these days so im more drawn to warming spiced teas and pumpkin flavored teas as well. I feel like this tea its an either you like it or hate it.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #15

How can you resist a tea with a name like this? Sadly, this tea does NOT put me in a sunny mood. :( Though it’s labeled a black tea, the base is primarily rooibos. And honestly? That’s ALL I taste. I can see from the ingredients list that there’s a lot more going on here, but whether due to the age of the sample or my brewing preparation, or just my own sensitivity to rooibos, all I’m picking up on is that woody, medicinal rooibos flavor that I despise. Hopefully someone else will enjoy this one more than I did!

Strange VariaTEA TTB #14

I learned my lesson from the last Earl Grey I sampled in this box and tried this one without milk first! Straight, I was getting quite a bit of hibiscus, which sort of reads as cranberry, I guess? With milk, the tartness faded into the background and the bergamot popped more, giving me more traditional Earl Grey vibes. But I love traditional Earl Grey, so I’m not mad about it!

I prefer Adagio’s much cheaper decaf cream flavor, so I wouldn’t buy this one again. The black tea is hearty and nice with some milk and sugar. The marshmallow adds a nice desserty creaminess. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t buy it again for the price.

This is a really nice tea. It tastes super floral, but in a way that works. The base is hearty despite being a decaf tea. The cream flavoring is strong and very complementary to the floral flavors. I enjoy this one sweetened with milk. It’s so creamy it sometimes doesn’t even need milk! The resteep tastes really good as well.