Decided to try the Red Velvet Cake I got from DT today. First tea of the day, and I was definitely in a dessert tea sort of mood. Unrelated note, when I bought this one it ended up sitting in Kevin’s car for a couple of hours while we went shopping at Comic Reader’s, Tramps, and then out for Thai food at Tre’s restaurant – basically all of my chocolate chips melted. Hopefully that won’t affect the taste at all.
The dry leaf is really decadent and sweet smelling – perfect for what I’m craving. It reminds me of Birthday Cake, but with the obvious difference in the tea base, and the addition of chocolate. As it’s steeping it still smells really rich. Unfortunately while I was focused on brewing the perfect cup I forgot about the bagel I had in the toaster; by the time I noticed it my poor cheesy bagel had been burnt to a crisp. I slathered it with some strawberry cream cheese, but I think it’s a lost cause at this point.
First sip, and I’m trying it without anything added. The liquor isn’t really red at all, but more of a light/muddy brown. Perhaps it’s the taste of burnt bagel in my mouth, but I don’t really taste the chocolate at all. It’s not nearly as decadent as the dry leaf smells, which is kinda disappointing.
About half the cup has been consumed now, and I’m adding just a bit of milk and sugar; hopefully that’ll bring out the flavour some more. Few more sips; it’s better with the milk and sugar but still just sort of has a generic sweetness to it. Maybe that’s the artificial flavouring in the tea.
Overall, I’m pretty disappointed. Definitely not what I was expecting, and while it certainly wasn’t a bad cup of tea it was nothing phenomenal either. I’ll give it another chance though – I’ll have to remember to fiddle around with the steeping time (maybe it should have been steeped longer), and I’ll make a cup for Tre later tonight with the leaves from my cup – maybe it’ll taste better re-steeped?
