Midnight tea? I think yes! Wanted something without caffeine because I’m actually hoping to fall asleep soon… Fingers crossed. Wasn’t really digging any of the herbal teas I have right now, so Birthday Cake it is! Honestly, this is the only rooibos tea I have on hand – I should really try out some more or restock on ones I’ve tried in the past and liked (last time I was at DAVIDsTEA, the salesman was telling me about October’s tea of the month – a rooibos blend called Currant Affair; I absolutely love anything with currants, so maybe I can hold out until then).
Ah Birthday Cake, the tea that started it all! This was the very first loose leaf tea I ever tried, the tea that introduced me to DAVIDsTEA and, evidently, the tea that introduced me to my borderline addiction of loose leaf teas and the Steepster community! I hold a special place in my heart for Birthday Cake.
The dry leaf smells divine – like sickly sweet vanilla cake with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream! Now that I’m more familiar with loose leaf teas and rooibos tea specifically I can faintly smell the “woodiness” of the base tea that apparently turns some people off from rooibos teas. The sprinkles in the loose leaf are so flipping cute and I remember it totally blew my mind the first time I bought this (for my friend Skylar’s birthday – she too has a great love of tea and this seemed cute and quirky to me) seeing that tea could have things like sprinkles in it.
Steeped, there’s a very oily sheen on the top of the cup – likely from the artificial flavourings and the sprinkles. I know that bugs some people, but it doesn’t really bug me.
I don’t think I love this tea as much as I did when I first tried it and was (even more) inexperienced in the way of loose leaf. The flavour seems ‘lighter’ to me now that I’ve tried much more flavorful teas. Still, this tea is still good. There’s a very present vanilla taste which is more than satisfying the sugary sweet vanilla flavour I was craving.
I get more of an impression of vanilla cake batter or vanilla icing than baked cake itself (although the smell is very much like the smell of a cake baking in the over), however this might be more of a psychological thing since cake is a solid but cake batter or icing are liquid. I don’t know – does that make sense? There’s a pleasantly “eggy” quality to the tea, and a creaminess that I associate with the vanilla, but also with milk (even though I haven’t added any). I’m thinking that’s from the dehydrated ice cream bits which would actually contain milk.
So even though I’m not as in love with this tea as I used to be, I do still deeply enjoy it (and obviously still crave it from time to time) and it holds a very special significance for me. Tonight, this was the perfect bedtime tea!
Haha this was my “gateway” tea also, and I only wish I still had a fond place for it like you do. I’m currently looking to pawn my tin off onto some unsuspecting soul. It’s true though, it did all start with birthday cake.