Banoffee Rum-ba

My day started with a debacle. Classic ‘lock yourself out of the house you’re housesitting and climb in through a window with 2 neighbors eyeing you suspiciously.’ Thus began Day 2 of a 12-day house-sitting spree. I’m no too thrilled but there’s a dog that needs me. While I’m here, I’m aiming to sample all of the teas that Martin sent in a swap which is a lot!

I generally despise banana. Like, I gag at the smell, taste and texture. And I suck at getting a good feel for flavored teas. This smelled so good in the bag, though, that no trepidation arose within me and I got to steeping this nighttime caffeine-free cup.

The aroma is moderate strength and smells deep and sweet with rummy vanilla banana chips. The sip has the same flavor with less intensity and opens up into the red rooibos taste with a woody, rum cask profile. The finish is drying but the aftertaste is intriguing, like smokey, rum-soaked and flamed sweet plantains that have lightly caramelized. I’m soooo into this flavor profile right now. I even want to add sugar. What is this tea doing to me.

WTF.

Sipdown (805)!

Thank you Kittenna for the share – this was actually one of the first samples I tried from your package but I’ve been putting off writing the tasting note because I’m not been totally sure how to capture my thoughts. So, I’m gonna try and do it in bullet point form…

- Initially just tasted like sweetened rooibos
- Flavour shifted as the tea cooled though
- Took on more of a sweet banana taste; like banana medicine/runts
- However very delicate
- As well as a creme brulee/lightly caramelized sugar note
- Plus a hint of cream

I… liked it!? I mean, it was really gentle and it the flavours were also a bit generic and hard to nail down. However, they built up over the course of the cup and grew into something surprisingly solid.

Mixed feelings overall.

Thanks for sharing a bit of this, AJRimmer!  How have I never heard of this specific dessert when I actually had the most bestest banana cream pie this week?  Banoffee seems to be the same banana pie but with toffee instead of vanilla pudding.  An interesting concept I would love to try… it seems incredibly sweet in theory.  Brewing this one up, it doesn’t seem overly toffee with only occasional hints of banana.  I was being reminded of some other tea, and realized it was somehow Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon?!?!  Or since that one reminds me of B&B’s Key Lime Pie… it definitely seemed like that tea.   How the heck does that happen… maybe the lemon cream flavoring is mimicking whatever toffee flavor should be here?  It’s odd, and since it’s reminding me of a lemon tea, it doesn’t seem much like a banana toffee tea.  I know there wasn’t any flavor contamination — it was stored in the original pouch from B&B.    I think B&B’s banana teas need more banana in general.   This one just fails the execution. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/4 teaspoons for a full mug // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled  // 8+ minute steep

I guess I ordered a fair number of caffeine-free Bird & Blend teas. Luckily, they seem to do such teas pretty well. This is one that sounded just delicious despite the base, and yet again, the flavourings do seem to counteract the base sufficiently to make drinking it enjoyable for me (although like with Moondrop Dreams, it would be better with say, a nice Chinese black base.)

Anyhow, this tea is quite potent upon opening the package. Strong banana and alcohol flavours, along with some sweetness. As is not typical of teas, the tea also actually tasted nearly as strong as the aroma, with delicious banana-rum-toffee sweetness. A hint of rooibos, that I could do without, but the strongest flavours are by far the banana and rum. I’m fairly impressed. Not my favourite tea, but it’s yummy and accurate to its description; I will enjoy what I have of it and that’s probably sufficient for me!

This weird weekend is finally over.
Just picked fairly random again, okay, not so random. And as I remember this quite alcoholic, despite not alcohol is in, it as matter of 2 minutes of decision. 4min30seconds steep. And Kittenna tasting note was another reason to try it again.

Dark red-brown colour, maybe bit like bricks. Smell is amazing, banana chips combined with cinnamon. Caramel or toffee (what is actually the difference?) notes are there today too!

In taste it is much less woody than last time. Alcohol and banana combined with cinnamon flavours is great hit. Or it tastes like wood kegged alcohol.

I really like the smoothness of this tea. In taste it looks it will be harsh, but instead it is smooth. Little of vanilla flavours now, with few last sips.
From kettle on to last sip – 50 minutes.