From the GCTTB. I’ve glanced at the description for this one on Della Terra’s site but probably wouldn’t have ordered a sample for myself since the “crunch” bit kinda threw me for a loop. I enjoy the occasional caramel latte though so it was interesting to me none the less.
Dry the tea definitely smelled like a rooibos, mixed with a number of really sweet notes and a few caramel undertones. I also got a number of floral scents from the marigold blossoms, which didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me. I found the scent profile to be a bit lopsided and no real trace of the “cappuccino” notes either.
The steeped liquor is a very dark red-brown and smelled of sweet subtle caramel notes. At this point I finally start to get some of the darker cappuccino scents mixed in what the slightly mellowed floral notes from the marigold. The first sip was a bit of a shock though, really really dark (and somewhat bitter) coffee notes hit me right up front. I don’t mind dark coffee but this was a bit too dark for me, and it totally covered up the caramel flavors. There was a touch of sweetness present but not much else, I also didn’t get any of the usual rooibos creaminess in the mouth feel which was disappointing.
I added a bit of vanilla sugar and cream and that did help to even out the flavor profile, it actually started to taste a bit like a thin caramel latte to me, I bet if you brewed this as a tea latte it would be pretty good, but I don’t typically keep milk products at home, so for me it’s not one that I would keep on hand. I also still don’t get the whole crunch thing but maybe that’s just me. :)
