I won a contest on instagram recently from Call Me Sweetea where the prize was a custom designed fandom themed tea for a character of your choice – and I decided to do my favourite character from Campaign Two of Critical Role – Caleb Widowgast.
The overall flavour profile that I wanted to go for was a “Smoked Creamsicle” kind of vibe, based on a couple key ingredients/flavours that I felt represented aspects of the character. Dani, the shop owner, was very accommodating and easy to work with and I feel like she reallyyyyyy killed the execution of the blend and understood what I was going for!
I chose something smoked because the character (spoiler alert!) is a wizard that uses fire magic primarily and, as part of his backstory, was brain washed into burning his parents alive – it’s something that torments him throughout the campaign and ends up being on of his biggest driving motivators throughout the series. So, smoky lapsang!? Perfectly on the nose! I wanted the orange for his physical appearance; a mop of ginger hair that stands out amongst his travelling party. And then the cream/vanilla to me represented the softer and secretly warm/loving side of this grimy murder hobo.
In practice the smoke comes through at exactly the right level for me – I am a lover of all things smoked tea so I wouldn’t want it to be subtle but it’s also not so strong as to cover the other flavours and that’s just perfect! The orange is sweet and bright and exactly right for the sherbet part of a creamsicle. Because of the use of woodruff and whipped flavouring in place of vanilla, this ended a little more marshmallow-y tasting but the fluffy light sweetness still conveys the character trait that I wanted and it super delicious and complimentary with both the orange and smoke. Like a softly orange flavoured ooey gooey toasted marshmallow!
I’m super in love with this one of a kind blend – Dani killed it, and I look forward to enjoying this the next time I dive into an episode!
