I love salted caramel so a tea that (supposedly) tastes like it? Oh ya I’m all over that! So then the question became which caramel should I get, the black tea version or the rooibos? Well time to do a bit of a taste test and see. Now I’m not doing this side by side so I’ll eventually get to the rooibos blend but I had this one at work with me today so it’s first up.
I get a lot of caramel in the dry scent, mixed in with the slightly darker notes from the toffee which is great. The coconut confuses me a little and there’s some mild malty notes from the black tea. But more importantly there’s an odd tone in there that I can’t quite place, it’s really artificial and almost off putting. I’ve actually smelled it in other DT teas (usually ones that have coconut in them) so I’m wondering if it’s a particular additive that DT uses? Not sure but I’m a little hesitant about trying it now…
The murky brew is appropriately caramel colored and has a film on top from the various caramel/toffee additions so I’ll need to give my mug a good wash afterwards. The aroma is darker now, the malt notes are more in the forefront and it really starts to smell a bit more like toffee than caramel but I like both so I’m not complaining. I can’t find the coconut at the moment but that artificial scent is still there, though it is milder.
Taste wise it’s a bit of a disappointment; it’s salted caramel (sorta, really I get toffee more than caramel but that’s probably the influence of the malt from the black tea) but it doesn’t have any rich, creamy (or even buttery) notes to complement it which this tea really needs. And that odd scent is still sticking around and is now leaving an odd aftertaste in my mouth. It’s also not very sweet for a desert tea.
In the end I added 1.5 packets of sugar and 2 of creamer (for 10oz of tea) and that helped. It’s still got that odd artificial note that I don’t really like but then again the last caramel I had we made at home and homemade flavors are always better than the store bought stuff. As of this moment I can’t see stocking this in my cupboard but I’m willing to give it one more shot before the remaining 15g go in my “to swap” pile.
